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Munich Agreement
A September 30, 1938, agreement among Germany, Britain, Italy, and France that allowed Germany to annex the region of western Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland. The Munich Agreement was the most famous example of British prime minister Neville Chamberlain’s policy of Appeasement prior to World War II.
Battle of Britain
An extended campaign from July 1940 to the spring of 1941 in which British Air Forces fought off wave after wave of German bombers and denied Germany in its quest to attain air superiority over Britain. Although major cities in England sustained heavy damage, the British resistance forced Germany to abandon its plans to invade across the English Channel.
Pearl Harbor Bombing
Surprise attack by Japanese forces on the U.S. naval instalation in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. The U.S. formally entered the war on the side of the Allies on the next day, December 8.
Wannsee Conference
A January 1942 conference during which Nazi officials decided to implement the “Final Solution” to the “Jewish question”—a euphemism for the extermination of European Jews and other minorities at Concentration Camps in eastern Europe.
Battle of the Coral Sea
A battle from May 4–8, 1942, in which U.S. naval forces successfully protected the Allied base at Port Moresby, New Guinea, the last Allied outpost standing between the Japanese onslaught and Australia. The battle, which caused heavy losses on both sides, was the first naval battle in history fought exclusively in the air, by carrier-based planes.
Battle of Midway
A battle from June 3–6, 1942, in which U.S. naval forces severely disabled the Japanese fleet at Midway Island in the Pacific. Coming close on the heels of the Battle Of The Coral Sea, the Battle of Midway forced Japan into defensive mode and turned the tide of the war in the Pacific theater.
Battle of Stalingrad
A brutal, five-month battle (July 1942 to February 1943) between German and Soviet forces for the important industrial city of Stalingrad that resulted in the deaths of almost 2 million people. The battle involved very destructive air raids by the German Luftwaffe and bloody urban street fighting. In February 1943, despite direct orders from Hitler forbidding it, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus surrendered the German forces to the Red Army.
Battle of Guadalcanal
A campaign from August 1942 to February 1943 in which U.S. Marines fought brutal battles to expel Japanese forces from the Solomon Islands, a strategically important island chain in the South Pacific near Australia.
Battle of El-Alamein
An October and November 1942 battle that was the climax of the North African campaign. A resounding victory by the British over the Germans, the battle paved the way for the Allied takeover of North Africa and the retreat of German forces back across the Mediterranean.
Battle of Iwo Jima
A battle in February and March 1945 in which U.S. forces took Iwo Jima, a small but strategically important island off the Japanese coast. During the battle, an Associated Press photographer took a world-famous photograph of U.S. Marines raising the American flag on the summit of Mt. Suribachi.
Battle of Okinawa
The last large-scale battle in the Pacific theater, in which U.S. forces invaded the Japanese home island of Okinawa. The battle, which was fought between April 1 and June 22, 1945, was very bloody, killing at least 100,000 Japanese soldiers and 80,000 to 100,000 Japanese civilians.
Operation Barbarossa
The code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union begun in June 1941, which Hitler predicted would take only six months but ended up miring the German armies for more than two years.
Operation Overlord
The code name for the Allied invasion of France that began on June 6, 1944, which commenced on the beaches of Normandy and ultimately was successful in liberating France and pushing German forces back east to their own territory.
V-E Day
May 8, 1945, the day on which the Allied forces declared victory in Europe.
V-J Day
August 15, 1945, the day on which the Allied forces declared victory over Japan.
