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World War 2

By C.Billings

  • Poland Invasion

    Poland Invasion
    Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland.

  • Auschwitz

    Auschwitz
    Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by Nazi Germany in annexed Polish areas during World War II.

  • Blitzkrieg

    Blitzkrieg
    Germans unleashed their Blitzkrieg against the Netherlands and Belgium. The attack sent the defending troops staggering. French and British troops rushing to the rescue were caught in the headlong retreat and pushed back. German dive-bombers - the Stukas - filled the sky, strafing the retreating mix of civilians and soldiers with machine gun and bomb.

  • Hitler Begins Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of Russia)

    Hitler Begins Operation Barbarossa (Invasion of Russia)
    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. Barbarossa was the crucial turning point in World War II, for its failure forced Nazi Germany to fight a two-front war against a coalition possessing immensely superior resources. Barbarossa had failed.

  • Pearl Harbor Bombed

    Pearl Harbor Bombed
    A swarm of 360 Japanese warplanes descended on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in a ferocious assault. The attack struck a critical blow against the U.S. Pacific fleet and drew the United States irrevocably into World War II.

  • Hitler Postpones the Invasion of Britain

    Hitler Postpones the Invasion of Britain
    Winston Churchill had been made aware via intercepted German radio messages that Hitler had ordered the dismantling of crucial air loading bays in Holland. So, whilst Churchill and his Chiefs of Staff now secretly deemed an invasion impossible, the rest of Britain remained on a high state of alert for potential invasion. Throughout the war, the British were able to de-code Germany's Enigma-encrypted communications. Information gleaned from these messages was vitally important

  • Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide

    Adolf Hitler Commits Suicide
    In January, facing a siege of Berlin by the Soviets, Hitler withdrew to his bunker to live out his final days. Holed up in a bunker under his headquarters in Berlin, Adolf Hitler commits suicide by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself in the head. Soon after, Germany unconditionally surrendered to the Allied forces, ending Hitler’s dreams of a “1,000-year” Reich.