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-German Blitzkrieg
German forces invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. The German Blitzkrieg seemed to succeed. Soviet forces were driven back more than 600 miles to the gates of Moscow, with staggering losses. Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union, which together with Great Britain and the United States seized the initiative from Germany. Germany came to its defeat in May 1945. https://www.ushmm.org/ -
-Fall of Paris
When the Germans invaded France in May 1940, about 175,000 Jews resided or had found refuge in Paris. The persecution of Jews in Paris began in October 1940, when the Nazis bombed seven synagogues in the city. Allied forces liberated Paris on August 25, 1944. At least 50,000 Parisian Jews, most of them foreign-born, had been deported and murdered. https://www.ushmm.org/ -
-Operation Barbarossa
In accordance with Hitler's grand vision, the Soviet Union and its varied people were to be subdued if a new German Empire was to be realized. The captured land would feed to serve army advances and slave labor would provide Germany with the necessary manpower for victory. On June 22nd, 194, Operation Barbarossa was launched. It was thought that the Axis powers could reach and capture the Soviet capital of Moscow in a little more than eight weeks.
https://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/ -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the United States, bombing warships and military targets in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. After the attack, Japan officially declared war on the United States. The next day President Roosevelt declared war against the Empire of Japan. https://www.theatlantic.com -
-Wannsee Conference
On January 20, 1942, 15 high-ranking Nazi Party and German government officials gathered at a villa in the Berlin suburb of Wannsee to discuss and coordinate the implementation of what they called the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question." The SS envisioned that some 11 million Jews, some of them not living on German-controlled territory, would be eradicated as part of the Nazi program.
https://www.ushmm.org/ -
-Battle of Midway
The battle of midway was an early key naval battle in the Pacific Theater between the forces of the United States Navy and the Empire of Japan. Japan wanted to knock out the remaining American carriers by luring them into a trap. This would force the American carriers out of Pearl Harbor. The Americans then claimed 4 important Japanese aircraft carriers, which were Pearl harbor attack veterans, while also avenging the Japanese attack on Hawaii.
https://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/ -
Battle of Stalingrad
On November 19th, 1942, Zhukov ordered his canons and rocket systems to light up the sky. Thousands of artillery guns Katyusha rocket projector vehicles brought down lethal rain onto the Romanians guarding the tanks. https://www.secondworldwarhistory.com/ -
Warsaw Ghetto uprising
On April 19, 1943, the Warsaw ghetto uprising began after German troops and police entered the ghetto to deport its surviving inhabitants. By May 16, 1943, the Germans had crushed the uprising and left the ghetto area in ruins. Surviving ghetto residents were deported to concentration camps or killing centers. -
-D-Day (Normandy Invasion)
Under the overall command of General Dwight D. Eisenhower and, on the ground, of British General Bernard Montgomery, more than 130,000 Allied troops landed on five beaches. Its plan was to overthrow Nazi Germany and its leader Adolf Hitler. On D-Day itself, Allied troops suffered more than 10,000 casualties: British and Canadian forces suffered around 3,700 casualties; US forces took about 6,600 casualties. The German defenders lost between 4,000 and 9,000 men. https://www.ushmm.org/ -
Liberation of concentration camps
Soviet soldiers were the first to liberate concentration camp prisoners in the final stages of WWII. From July 1944 to Jan 1945 they entered the Majdanek camp in Poland and Auschwitz, overran many killing centers, and found hundreds of sick and exhausted prisoners. The Germans had been forced to leave these prisoners behind in their hasty retreat from the camp Also leaving behind victims' belongings: men's suits, women's coats, and thousands of pairs of shoes.
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-Battle of Iwo Jima
In February 1945 US Marines fought the Japanese in one of the fiercest battles of WW2. Thousands of lives were lost in almost five weeks of fighting for control of the Pacific island. -
VE Day
Following the surrender of Germany in World War Two, on 7 May 1945, Prime Minister Winston Churchill declared the following day a public holiday, Victory in Europe (VE) Day. The people of Europe were celebrating the victory over Germany. Huge crowds cheered from below as Churchill appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace with King George VI and the Royal Family. And, in the evening, people even lit bonfires, which had been banned during the War.
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Dropping of the atomic bombs
On August 6, 1945, an American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. The explosion wiped out 90% of the city and killed 80K people; more would later die of radiation exposure. 3 days later, a second bomb dropped on Nagasaki, killing 40K people. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito announced his country’s surrender in World War II in a radio address on August 15, citing the devastating power of “a new and most cruel bomb.”
https://www.history.com/ -
-VJ Day
On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allies, ending WWII. Since then, both August 14 and August 15 have been known as “Victory over Japan Day,” or simply “V-J Day.” The term has also been used for September 2, 1945, when Japan’s formal surrender took place aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, anchored in Tokyo Bay. Several months after the surrender of Nazi Germany, Japan’s capitulation in the Pacific brought 6 years of hostilities to a final and highly anticipated close.
https://www.history.com/ -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, 1944, the German military launched the “Battle of the Bulge.” It was a last-ditch German military counter-offensive against the Allied armies in the West. Hitler hoped that the German counter-attack would surround the British and American armies and stall the Allied offensive against Germany. By early January 1945, the German military effort had failed. It cost the Reich some 100,000 casualties and tremendous losses in military equipment. https://www.ushmm.org
