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Germany Invades Poland
The location of where the invasion of Poland took place was in Poland and the Free City of Danzig.It consisted of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and the Slovak Republic invading Poland. 66,000 polishmen died and 133,700 injured compared to only 59,000 casualties of Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union and Slovak Republic. The aftermath was Poland being split between Germany and the Soviet Union. Slovakia took back the territory that Poland took from them instead of having part of Poland. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Since Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany, even though the speech was given by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain in Westminster London, France was also a part of the declaration. The first casualty of that declaration was not German, but the British ocean liner Athenia, which was sunk by a German U-30 submarine that had assumed the liner was armed and aggressive. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
On this day, Churchill was appointed the role of Prime Minister of Britain. Prime Minister Churchill declared that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat” and offered an outline of his bold plans for British resistance. Britain never surrendered against Germany because of Churchill. -
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Evacuation of Dundrick (Operation Dynamo)
Operation Dynamo consisted of the evacuation of United Kingdom and French troops caused by a large amount of them being cut off and surrounded by the German army. Winston Churchill called the events in France "a colossal military disaster", saying "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured". -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
The Axis of power only consisted of Germany and Japan until Mussolini joined the powers in the name of Italy on the 10th of June. The outcome was an even more powerful pact between Italy and Germany called the Pact of Steel, in which Japan was not involved. -
France signs armistice with Germany
The armstice signed between France and Germany occured near the compiegne commune in France and was for German occupation in Northern and Western France. The outcome was of Adolf Hitler deliberately choosing Compiègne Forest as the site to sign the armistice due to its symbolic role as the site of the 1918 Armistice with Germany that signaled the end of World War I with Germany's surrender. -
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Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain consisted of countries Canada, the United Kingdom, Nazi Germany and Italy and was set in the British airspace. The main objective for the Nazi forces was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force. The Battle of Britain was the first defeat of hitlers military forces and significantly shifted the American opinion. -
Tripartite Pact signed
The Tripartite Pact was the official announcement of Italy, Germany and Japan becoming aligned forces, signed in Berlin. The outcome was to force the United States to think twice before venturing in on the side of the Allies. -
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Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sea Lion consisted of Nazi Germany wanting to obliterate the United Kingdom by invading across the Belgian coast line for any Military usage against the Axis Powers. The operation was cancelled on the 17th of September 1940 since Nazi Germany and Italy wanted to focus on the diversion of Operation Barbarossa. -
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Siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk in Libya went for 241 days and consisted of the countries Australia, United Kingdom, India, Poland and Czechoslovakia versus Nazi Germany and Italy. The main goal was for the German-Italian force to capture Tobruk which was under Australian defence since the Italian once owned the land and had lots of artillery. After eight hard months of Polish and British forces defending against Rommel's attacks, the siege was finally lifted. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the largest recorded invasion force held by Adolf Hitler in Warfare history. It consisted of over 13000 tanks and planes and around 4 million soldiers and that was only Adolf Hitlers forces (countries were Germany, Romania, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia and Finland). The main goal for Hitler in eastern and northern europe was to invade the Soviet Union once and for all. In the end Germany lost and later invaded again with an operation called Case Blue, which failed also. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The Bombing of Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by Japan against the United States and occured in Hawaii. The surprise bombing was a diversion to keep Naval forces of the US not to interfere with other invasions done by Japan in United Kingdom and Netherlands. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
On the 8th of December 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan in response to their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. Nine hours before the US did, Britain also declared war on Japan because of their attacks on Singapore, Malaya and Hong Kong. This declaration also brought the US fully into the war. -
Japan takes Singapore
When Japan took Singapore, Britain classified it as their worst defeat in WWII. The British troops in Singapore were told that the Japanese were poor fighters and were only a challenge against thr Chinese, whom the British also classified as poor fighters. This bold move that the British said resulted in Singapore being taken over. Japans attacks all around the Far East resulted in the bombing of Hiroshima. -
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Battle of Midway
Battle of Midway was an underestimated attack lead by Japan against the US. The Japanese's main goal for the attack was to destroy the US for strategic power across the Pacific. The US were smarter and found out what day and time the Japanese would attack. Military Historian John Keegan called it "the most stunning and decisive blow in history of Naval Warfare". -
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First Battle of El Alamein
The first battle of El Alamein was a battle of the Western Desert Campaign fought on the northern coast of Egypt between Axis forces (Germany and Italy) and Allied forces (United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). In the end, the battle was a stalemate, but it stopped the Axis powers from advancing on Alexandria, which also stopped two more attacks. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was another battle between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Adolf Hitlers goal was to gain control over the city Stalingrad in Russia with the help of his belligerents Romania, Italy, Hungary and Croatia. The Battle of Stalingrad was the biggest defeat in German warfare history and was the first major set back for the German army because of so many casualties being counted. -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
In Egypt, the second battle of El Alamein took place between the Axis powers (Germany and Italy) and the Allied Powers (United Kingdom, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, France and Greece). The Allied powers won the second battle and always had numerical superiority over the Axis Powers. "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat". -
D-Day Landings
The Normandy Landings was the largest to scale seaborne invasion in history, consisting of Allied forces UK, US, Canada, Australia, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, France, Greece Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Poland against the Axis Force of Germany. Allied forces wanted to take back land in northwestern Europe that was under the control of Germany. The Allied Forces succeeded in taking over the coastline but under the circumstances of over 10000 casualties. -
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Battle of the Bulge
Battle of the Bulge was a surprise attack on the US and UK led by Germany and caused the Allied forces to take some heavy hits making this fight endure the most casualties that the Allied forces has had. The bloodbath occured in Belgium, Luxembourg and resulted in exhausting German supplies on the western front, a delay of six weeks for the allied forces and a Soviet attack on Poland launched eight days earlier than expected. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Benito Mussolini, fascist ruler of Italy was presumably shot by Walter audisio and put on display in front of a gas station in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. -
Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, ait a cyanide capsule, then shot himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his “1,000-year” Reich collapses above him. This resulted in Donitz (Hitlers successor) authorizing a withdrawal from the west to save 1.8 million lives from Soviet captivation. -
German forces surrender
After the death of Adolf Hitler, General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If the demand wasn't met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender, thereby leaving them in the hands of the enveloping Soviet forces. -
V.E. day
V.E. day was the day when Germany surrendered all of their armed forces against Europe. The event is now a public holiday, celebrated every year as a sign of happiness. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
When the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima Japan by the US and UK, it caused over 130000 deaths and was one out of two of the only nuclear usages in warfare history. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not stop Japan to stay in the war -
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
After the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese did not stop fighting, since they were never given garuntees from the Allies about their future. Then the Soviets reassured their decision by surprise attacking Manchuria, killing 650 out of 850 Japanese troops standing in defence. The Japanese then started thinking about surrendering. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
When the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki Japan by the US and UK, it caused over 80000 deaths and was one of only two nuclear usages in warfare history. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not stop Japan staying in the war. -
Japanese surrender - End of WWII
After a long month of bombing, attacking and messaging between the US and Japan, Japan finally announced their surrender on the 2nd of September, thus ending WWII. -
United Nations is born
The U.N. is comprised of 26 nations and was originally started by The United States, Britain and the Soviet Union. It was started to become a formal act against Germany Italy and Japan (The Axis Powers).
