-
Germans invasion to Poland
German troops invade Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. Simultaneously, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. Location: Poland, Eastern Germany, and the Free City of Danzig -
German invasion to Western Europe
The campaign against the Low Countries and France lasted less than six weeks. Germany attacked in the west on May 10, 1940. Initially, British and French commanders had believed that German forces would attack through central Belgium as they had in World War I, and rushed forces to the Franco-Belgian border to meet the German attack. Location: southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. Leaders:Adolf Hitler
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Marshal Hugh Dowding -
Battle of Britain
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. Location: British airspace Leaders: Adolf Hitler
Prime Minister Winston Churchill
Marshal Hugh Dowding -
Operation Barbarossa
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. By this point German combat effectiveness had reached its apogee. Location: Eastern and Northern Europe Leaders:Adolf Hitler
Genghis Khan
Slavko Kvaternik -
Pearl Harbor
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii.
The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. Location:Primarily Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, U.S. Leaders:Husband E. Kimmel
Walter Short
Chuichi Nagumo
Isoroku Yamamoto -
Battle of Coral Sea
This four-day World War II skirmish in May 1942 marked the first air-sea battle in history. When the Japanese landed in the area, they came under attack from the aircraft carrier planes of the American task force commanded by Rear Admiral Frank J. Fletcher. Although both sides suffered damages to their carriers, the battle left the Japanese without enough planes to cover the ground attack of Port Moresby, resulting in a strategic Allied victory.
Location: Coral Sea
Leaders: Frank J. Fletcher -
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. Location: Stalingrad, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Leaders: Friedrich Paulus
Erich von Manstein
W.F. von Richthofen -
D-Day
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. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. Location: northwestern France Leaders: Adolf Hitler, Erwin Rommel -
Suicide of Hitler
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him. Location: Berlin,Germany -
Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings
On August 6, 1945, during World War II (1939-45), an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another A-bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s unconditional surrender in World War II. Location: Japan
