Question

List 5 major events that happened between 1939 and 1945 at WWII

Answer 1

1939:

August 23: Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.

September 1: Germany invades Poland, starting World War II.

September 3: Britain and France declare war on Germany.

September: Battle of the Atlantic begins.

1940:

May: Auschwitz is established.

May 10: Germany invades France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

May 26: Evacuation begins of Allied troops from Dunkirk, France.

June 10: Italy declares war on France and Great Britain.

June 22: France surrenders to Germany.

July 10: Battle of Britain begins.

September 16: The United States begins its first peacetime draft.

1945: February 4: Yalta Conference begins.

February 13: Allies begin bombing Dresden.

February 19: Battle of Iwo Jima begins.

April 1: Battle of Okinawa.

April 12: Franklin D. Roosevelt dies.

April 16: Battle of Berlin begins.

April 28: Mussolini is hanged by Italian partisans.

April 30: Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

May 7: Germany signs an unconditional surrender.

July 17: Potsdam Conference begins.

August 6: The United States drops the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.

August 9: The United States drops a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan.

Answer 2

Italy intervened in the Spanish Civil War on the side of General Francisco Franco, annexed Albania in 1939. What angered nations the most was Italy’s conquest of Ethiopia because Mussolini sent an army of 250,000 soldiers armed with tanks, poison gas, artillery, and aircraft to conquer the Ethiopians who were unprepared. 275,000 Ethiopians lost their lives as a result.

Operation Barbarossa was Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. Germany used similar tactics that were effective in Poland and Western Europe. However, the Germans underestimated the Soviet’s Red Army and these tactics were not effective in vast expanses of Russia. The Red Army also militarized 360 divisions versus Germany’s 150. Also, Germans were not prepared for Russia’s harsh winter conditions, which thousands died or underwent amputation due to frostbite. Overall, 800,000 German soldiers died in battle in Russia.

The Japanese hoped to destroy America’s navy in the Pacific with an attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. More than 350 bombers, fighters, and torpedo planes struck into two waves, which sank or disabled eighteen ships and two hundred aircrafts. Additionally, on December 11, 1941, Hitler and Mussolini declared war on the U.S.