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Germany invaded Poland, setting off war in Europe. The Soviet Union also invaded Poland and the Baltic nations. (German Blitzkrieg)
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. With more than two thousand tanks and over one thousand planes, Germany broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. After heavy shelling and bombing, Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005070
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Germany invaded France and captured Paris
Germany invaded France in May 1940. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had tried for days to convince the French government to hang on, that America would enter the war and come to its aid. By the time German tanks rolled into Paris, 2 million Parisians had already fled. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-enter-paris
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Germany Bombed London and the Battle of Britain began.
The heavy and frequent bombing attacks on London and other cities was known as the 'Blitz'. Night after night, from September 1940 until May 1941, German bombers attacked British cities, ports and industrial areas. Blitz is a shorten form of the German word 'Blitzkrieg' which means lightning war. Nearly 2,000 people were killed or wounded in London's first night of the Blitz. The Germans eventually gave up and stopped the bombing. http://www.primaryhomeworkhelp.co.uk/war/blitz.htm -
The United States gave Britain war supplies and old naval warships in return for military bases in Bermuda and the Caribbean.
Started in late 1940 and passed in March 1941, the Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to foreign nations during World War II. The act permitted the United States to support its war interests without being involved in battle. Britain, the Soviet Union, China, Brazil, and many other countries received weapons under this law. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/lend-lease-act
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Japan Bombed Pearl Harbor.
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The attack lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/pearl-harbor -
The United States declared war on Japan and Germany.
in 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress to declare war on Japan in perhaps the most memorable speech of his career. The speech, which he called Japan’s act a “deliberate deception,” received major applause from Congress and, soon after, the United States officially entered the Second World War. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/roosevelt-asks-congress-to-declare-war-on-japan -
After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States.
On December 11, 1941, 4 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Germany declared war on the United States. War with the United States had been on Hitler’s wish list for 2 decades. When Hitler became chancellor in 1933 he began rearming Germany for the first fights he anticipated— against Czechoslovakia, France, and Britain. The same day, the United States declared war on Germany. www.thehistoryreader.com/modern-history/december-111941-hitler-arguably-insane-pivotal-decision-history/ -
The United States was victorious over Japan in the Battle of Midway. This victory was the turning point of the Pacific.
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most important 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
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Germany invaded the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union defeated Germany at Stalingrad, marking the turning point of the war in Eastern Europe.
The Battle of Stalingrad 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 people consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning point of the war in favor of the Allies. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad -
American and other Allied troops landed in Normandy, France, on D-Day to begin the liberation of Western Europe.
During World War II, 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. The battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when 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
Soviet forces enter Auschwitz, the largest concentration camp. There they found over six thousand starving prisoners, but the majority of prisoners had already been forced westward by the Nazis, on what later would become known as "death marches". In the following months the Allied forces liberated additional camps. On April 11. 1945 American forces liberated Buchenwald, where over 20,000 prisoners were freed. https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php
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UnThe ited States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan (Hiroshima and Nagasaki) in 1945, forcing Japan to surrender and ending World War II
On August 6, 1945, during World War II, 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; tens of thousands more later died of radiation exposure. Three days later, a second B-29 dropped another atomic bomb on Nagasaki, killing an estimated 40,000 people. http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/bombing-of-hiroshima-and-nagasaki
