World War II

Spitfires flying over the Thames.

World War II, one the darkest periods in the history of the world, raged from 1939 to 1945 and involved almost the entire world.

Countries were destroyed, created or changed forever. Fifty million people lost their lives between 1939 and 1945 and hundreds of millions more suffered injuries and wounds.

Yet many today do not know when, where, or by whom the war was fought or that their fathers and grandfathers fought battles from the volcanic islands of the South Pacific Ocean to the icy waters of the North Atlantic; or from the jungles of Burma to the deserts of North Africa; or from the grassy steppes of Russia to the skies over Britain.

Significant Battles and Campaigns

• Friday, September 1, 1939: German Invasion of Poland
• Friday, May 10, 1940: Battle of France and the Low Countries
• Eagle Day Tuesday, August 13, 1940: Battle of Britain – RAF vs. Luftwaffe
• Friday, February 14, 1941: German Afrika Korps arrives in North Africa
• Operation Barbarossa Sunday, June 22, 1941: Third Reich Invades the USSR
• Sunday, December 7, 1941: Japanese Attack Pearl Harbor
• Thursday, June 4, 1942: Battle of Midway in the Pacific
• Operation Torch Sunday, November 8, 1942: Americans open Second Front in North Africa
• Operation Uranus Thursday, November 19, 1942: Battle of Stalingrad in Russia
• Operation Citadel Monday, July 5, 1943: Battle of Kursk – Last German Offensive on Eastern Front
• Operation Husky Saturday, July 10, 1943: Anglo-American Landings in Sicily
• Operation U-Go Wednesday, March 8, 1944: Japanese Attack British India
• Operation Overlord Tuesday, June 6, 1944: D-Day – Allied Invasion of Normandy
• Thursday, June 22, 1944: Destruction of Army Group Center in Byelorussia
• Tuesday, August 1, 1944: The Warsaw Uprising in Occupied Poland
• Friday, October 20, 1944: American Liberation of the Philippines
• Saturday, December 16, 1944: Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes
• Monday, February 19, 1945: American Landings on Iwo Jima
• Sunday, April 1, 1945: US Invasion of Okinawa
• Monday, April 16, 1945: Battle of Berlin – End of the Third Reich