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German Blitzkrieg
"German forces tried out the blitzkrieg in Poland in 1939 before successfully employing the tactic with invasions of Belgium, the Netherlands and France in 1940. The blitzkrieg was also used by German commander Erwin Rommel during the North African campaign of World War II, and adopted by U.S. General George Patton for his army’s European operations."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/blitzkrieg -
Germans capture Paris
"By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled, with good reason. In short order, the German Gestapo went to work: arrests, interrogations, and spying were the order of the day, as a gigantic swastika flew beneath the Arc de Triomphe."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris -
The Blitz
"The daylight attack against London on September 7, 1940, marked the opening phase of the German bomber offensive against Britain, which came to be called the Blitz after the German word “blitzkrieg,” meaning “lightning war.” Daylight attacks soon gave way to night raids, which the British found difficult to counter."
https://www.britannica.com/event/the-Blitz -
Lend-Lease
" the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. It authorized the president to transfer arms or any other defense materials for which Congress appropriated money to 'the government of any country whose defense the President deems vital to the defense of the United States.'"
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act -
Operation Barabarossa
"On June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union: three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/operation-barbarossa -
Pearl Harbor
"Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, and was the scene of a devastating surprise attack by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes descended on the base, where they managed to destroy or damage nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and over 300 airplanes."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
Germany declares war on US
"The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germany-declares-war-on-the-united-states -
Bataan Death march
"After the April 9, 1942, U.S. surrender of the Bataan Peninsula on the main Philippine island of Luzon to the Japanese during World War II (1939-45), the approximately 75,000 Filipino and American troops on Bataan were forced to make an arduous 65-mile march to prison camps."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bataan-death-march -
Battle of Midway
"Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-midway -
Battle of Stalingrad
"The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942-Feb. 2, 1943), was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the U.S.S.R. during World War II. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
"From April 19 to May 16, 1943, during World War II (1939-45), residents of the Jewish ghetto in Nazi-occupied Warsaw, Poland, staged an armed revolt against deportations to extermination camps. The Warsaw ghetto uprising inspired other revolts in extermination camps and ghettos throughout German-occupied Eastern Europe."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/warsaw-ghetto-uprising -
Battle of the Bulge
"In December 1944, Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-the-bulge -
D-Day
"During World War II (1939-1945), the Battle of Normandy, which lasted from June 1944 to August 1944, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/d-day -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
"In January 1945, Auschwitz was overrun by Russian soldiers. It was the largest extermination and concentration camp, to which over a million people had been deported from all over Europe. Upon liberation, only a few thousand prisoners remained. Most of the surviving prisoners had been taken away on death marches. ."
https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/liberation-of-the-concentration-camps -
Battle of Iwo Jima
"The American amphibious invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II stemmed from the need for a base near the Japanese coast. Following elaborate preparatory air and naval bombardment, three U.S. marine divisions landed on the island in February 1945. 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."
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-iwo-jima -
Hiroshima
"The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War."
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/atomic-bomb-dropped-on-hiroshima
