German Invasion of Poland - 1 September 1939 to 6 October 1939
What Happened: Germany invaded Poland from the west on the pretences of a falsified Polish attack. The Soviet Union also invaded from the east and Poland was divvied up in accordance to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.
Result: Caused Britain to declare war on Germany and marked the beginning of WWII.
German Invasion of France - 10 May 1940 to 22 June 1940
What Happened: Germany invades the Netherlands and Belgium on her way to France. Maginot Line fails. Blitzkrieg warfare catches the French off guard.
Result: France surrenders and is split into the German-occupied north with a Vichy puppet state in the south.
Evacuation of Dunkirk - 26 May 1940 to 4 June 1940
What Happened: After being pushed back to the beaches by German troops, Hitler halted the German advance, and the Allies made an emergency evacuation of Dunkirk using any boat that could navigate the English Channel.
Result: Over 300 000 soldiers were saved.
Battle of Britain - 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940
What Happened: The German Luftwaffe tried to wipe out the Royal Air Force to facilitate an invasion of Britain. British air bases and cities are bombed. Britain uses radar to receive early warning of German planes and launches many successful counter-offensives.
Result: Was the first loss for Germany and showed that Britain had the resolve to stay in the war. Made the Germans turn their attention to the east.
Italy Invades North Africa - August 1940
What Happened: Italy invades Egypt via Libya and is pushed back by the British, but keeps Libya thanks to German support.
Result: Showed that Italy was incapable of military victory without the help of the Germans.
Battle of the Atlantic - mid-1940 to 1943
What Happened: German U-Boats sunk merchant ships coming to Britain in an attempt to cut off their supplies. At first this hurts the British, but then they become successful in detecting and destroying U-Boats.
Result: Led to breakthroughs in anti-submarine warfare and is credited with getting the United States into the war.
Operation Barbarossa Commences - 22 June 1941
What Happened: Germans invade Eastern Europe and Western Russia in what was that largest military offensive in recorded history. The offensive is initially successful and the Germans gain much ground.
Result: The decision to invade the Soviet Union would lead to Germany's downfall.
Atlantic Conference - 14 August 1941
What Happened: Churchill and Roosevelt met in Newfoundland and hammered the Atlantic Charter which established what a post-war World would look like. The prospect of a United Nations was also discussed.
Bombing of Pearl Harbor - 7 December 1941
What Happened: The Japanese surprise attacked a Hawaiian US naval port killing over a thousand and damaging their pacific fleet.
Result: The US declared war on Japan.
The Holocaust - 1942 to 1945
What Happened: Millions of Jews and other undesirables were sent to concentration camps and were ultimately killed.
Result: The European Jew population was almost nonexistent. Inspired the humanitarian movement that was to follow the war as well as the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The Doolittle Raid - 18 April 1942
What Happened: The US, in retaliation to Pearl Harbor, conducted an air raid over the Japanese island of Honshu.
Result: Showed the Japanese that they were vulnerable to an Allied air attack.
Battle of the Coral Sea - 4 May 1942 to 8 May 1942
What Happened: The Japanese battled American and Australian navies in an attempt to land their troops at Port Moresby. This was the first time the aircraft carriers were used by both sides in battle.
Result: The US lost an aircraft carrier, but prevented the Japanese from landing at Port Moresby. Set the stage for the Battle of Midway.
Result: The Japanese lost their peace of mind that the US could not conduct an air attack on mainland Japan. This spurred them to attack the island of Midway.
Battle of Midway - 4 June 1942 to 7 June 1942
What Happened: The Japanese attacked the US base on the island of Midway, prompting retaliatory action by the Americans. The Japanese lost four of their six large aircraft carriers.
Result: The Japanese navy curtailed their expansion in the Pacific now that their navy was significantly smaller than that of the Americans'.
Battle of Stalingrad - 19 August 1942 to 2 February 1943
What Happened: Germans lay siege to Stalingrad, invade it, and then are trapped and captured by the Soviets.
Result: Over 1.5 million lives lost. Was the turning point for Germany in WWII.
Second Battle of El Alamein - 23 October 1942 to 5 November 1942
What Happened: The Allies drove Axis forces out of North Africa.
Result: The Axis could not expand in Africa nor gain access to the oil fields in the Middle East. The Allies could now focus on fighting the Axis in the Mediterranean.
