Soviet Invasion of Poland September 17, 1939 Hitler invades Belgium and the Netherlands France falls in six weeks German invasion of Norway and Denmark April 9, 1940 The Soviet Union invades Finland November 30, 1939

Norwegian village

Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France May 10, 1940

Rotterdam, Netherlands after German bombing 1940

The military situation on 28th May 1940

Operation DYNAMO, the evacuation of British and French forces from France begins May 26, 1940

A leaflet dropped by the Luftwaffe to persuade allied troops to surrender

British prisoners at Dunkerque (also spelled Dunkirk), France, in 1940.

Belgium Falls May 28, 1940 Paris falls to Germans June 14, 1940

Sir Winston Churchill June 4, 1940 Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender, …

Soviets invade Estonia June 15, 1940 Soviets invade Latvia June 17, 1940 Soviets invade Romania June 27, 1940 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact August 1939

From September 7, 1940, to May 16, 1941, Germany continuously and intensively bombed the United Kingdom. The Blitz

British forces invade Italian Eritrea January 19, 1941

German general Rommel arrives in North Africa February 12, 1941 The Axis forces surrendered on 13 May 1943 yielding over 275,000 prisoners of war.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union caused a high rate of fatalities: 95% of all German Army casualties that occurred from 1941 to 1944, and 65% of all Allied (mostly Russian)military casualties from the entire war. June 21, 1941 Operation Barbarossa

JUNE 22, 1941 KILLING SQUADS ACCOMPANY GERMAN INVASION OF THE SOVIET UNION DECEMBER 8, 1941 FIRST KILLING CENTER BEGINS OPERATION The Chelmno killing center begins operation. The Nazis later establish five other such camps: Belzec Sobibor Treblinka Auschwitz-Birkenau Majdanek.

The Battle of Stalingrad 23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943 The battle resulted in an estimated total of million Axis and Soviet casualties.

The Italian Campaign Lucca 1944 German army surrenders May 2, 1945

June 6,1944 Of the 16 tanks that landed upon the shores of Omaha Beach only two survived the landing. The official record stated that "within 10 minutes of the ramps being lowered, [the leading] company had become inert, leaderless and almost incapable of action. Every officer and sergeant had been killed or wounded [...] It had become a struggle for survival and rescue".

American soldiers disembark from a Coast Guard landing boat on the coast of France under heavy German machine gun fire on June 6, 1944 during the Allied invasion of Normandy, known as D-Day.

Adolf Hitler, accompanied by other German officials, inspects bomb damage in a German city in 1944.

American soldiers of the 289th Infantry Regiment march along a snow-covered road on their way to cut off the St. Vith-Houffalize road in Belgium in January The Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium was Adolf Hitler's last offensive and the largest land battle in World War II.

Bombing of Dresden, Germany Four raids between 13 and 15 February 1945 Carried out by the RAF and USAAF Over 20,000 civilians killed

Unconditional surrender of Germany May 7, 1945

German displaced persons, carrying their few belongings, crowd behind a rope and double strand of barbed wire as they wait in Berlin's Anhalter Station to leave the German capital ca