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Invasion of Poland
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks. Britain and France, standing by of Poland's border, had declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939. -
Period: to
WWII
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Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Norway was invaded by Nazi Germany on April 9th 1940. Hittler issued the order for the invasion of Norway on March 1st under the code word “Weserübung”. The order also included the invasion of Denmark -
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. They managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes -
Bataan Death March
April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II. Approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union. The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. -
Battle of guadalcanal
Battle of Guadalcanal was the first major offensive and a decisive victory for the Allies in the Pacific. With Japanese troops stationed in this section of the Solomon Islands, U.S. marines launched a surprise attack in August 1942 and took control of an air base under construction. -
Battle of Starlingrad
It was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad by the U.S.S.R. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. -
Battle of Anzio
Battle of Anzio stemmed from the Allied attempt to draw German troops off the Gustav Line during Operation Shingle. The Allies broke out of the beachhead in late May, helping the advance that led to the eventual capture of Rome. -
D-Day
Battle of Normandy, also known as D-Day, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. The landings have been called the beginning of the end of war in Europe. -
Battle of Iwo Jima
Iwo Jima was defended by roughly 23,000 Japanese army and navy troops, who fought from an elaborate network of caves, dugouts, tunnels and underground installations. Despite the difficulty of the conditions, the marines wiped out the defending forces after a month of fighting. -
Battle of Okinawa
It involved the 287,000 troops of the U.S. Tenth Army against 130,000 soldiers of the Japanese Thirty-second Army. By the end of the 82-day campaign, Japan had lost more than 77,000 soldiers and the Allies had suffered more than 65,000 casualties.
