World War II Key Facts

1939 to 1945

This marks the start of the war in Europe.

Roosevelt called it “a date which will live in infamy.”

Stalingrad (1942–43)

The June 1942 US naval victory turned the tide of the war in the Pacific.

Operation Overlord

Germany, Italy and Japan

V-E Day

The Yalta Conference (Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin)

Its charter was signed in San Francisco.

It forced Germany to accept blame for WWI, pay heavy reparations, give up territory and limit its military. The resentment and economic hardship helped Hitler rise to power.

Japan

Appeasement

Britain and France allowed Germany to annex the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. Chamberlain claimed it meant “peace for our time.”

A non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR, with a secret deal to divide Poland and Eastern Europe. It cleared the way for the invasion of Poland.

Blitzkrieg

The rescue of over 330,000 British and French troops trapped on the French coast, using navy ships and a fleet of small civilian boats.

June 1940, after a six-week campaign

An air campaign in which the Royal Air Force defeated the German Luftwaffe, forcing Hitler to call off his planned invasion of Britain.

UK: Winston Churchill US: Franklin D. Roosevelt (then Harry Truman) USSR: Joseph Stalin Germany: Adolf Hitler Italy: Benito Mussolini Japan: Emperor Hirohito, with Prime Minister Hideki Tojo

Let the still-neutral United States supply Britain, and later the USSR and China, with weapons and materials.

It broke the Nazi-Soviet Pact and opened the Eastern Front, where most German forces fought and died.

A joint statement by Roosevelt and Churchill of postwar goals such as self-determination and free trade. It later inspired the United Nations.

The Nazi genocide of about six million European Jews, along with millions of others including Roma, disabled people, Poles and Soviet prisoners of war.

Senior Nazi officials coordinated the “Final Solution,” the plan to deport and murder Europe's Jews.

The forced march of about 70,000 American and Filipino prisoners of war by Japanese troops in the Philippines, during which thousands died.

Britain's victory in Egypt stopped the German-Italian advance toward the Suez Canal and began the end of the Axis in North Africa.

The largest tank battle in history. The Soviet victory ended Germany's last major offensive in the East.

The Allies invaded Sicily in July, Mussolini was overthrown, and Italy surrendered in September. German forces kept fighting in Italy until 1945.

Alan Turing and others broke the German Enigma cipher, producing intelligence (Ultra) that helped win the Battle of the Atlantic and plan D-Day.

Island hopping

Germany's last major offensive on the Western Front, a surprise attack through the Ardennes that the Allies eventually pushed back.

Iwo Jima (February–March) and Okinawa (April–June)

The bombs were built by the Manhattan Project.

Japan announced its surrender on 15 August 1945 (V-J Day) and signed the formal surrender aboard the USS Missouri on 2 September 1945.

The Potsdam Conference (July–August 1945), with Truman, Stalin and Churchill (replaced mid-conference by Clement Attlee).

International military trials of leading Nazis for war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace.

An estimated 70–85 million people, the majority of them civilians. It was the deadliest conflict in history.