DEEPLY IN DETAIL
- The war in Europe began in September 1939, when Germany, under Chancellor Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland.
- Britain and France responded by declaring war on Germany but took little action over the following months.
- In 1940, Germany launched its next initiative by attacking Denmark and Norway, followed shortly thereafter by attacks on Belgium, the
Netherlands, and France. - All of these nations were conquered rapidly.
- Later in the summer of 1940, Germany launched a further attack on Britain, this time exclusively from the air.
- Later in 1941, Germany began its most ambitious action yet, by invading the Soviet Union
- In June 1944, British and American forces launched the D-Day invasion, landing in German-occupied France via the coast of Normandy
- Although the Pearl Harbor attack provoked a declaration of war by the United States on Japan the very next day, it would be several months before U.S. forces would get seriously involved militarily
- By the late spring of 1945, most of Japan’s conquests had been liberated, and Allied forces were closing in on the Japanese home islands.
- This process continued through the summer of 1945 until finally, in early August, the United States dropped two atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Stunned by the unexpected devastation, Japan surrendered a few days later.