World War II Major Events and Battles - Student Center | Britannica.com (2024)

Nürnberg trials

Series of trials held in Nürnberg, Germany, in 1945–46, in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal.

Recovery and the Marshall Plan

U.S.-sponsored program designed to rehabilitate the economies of 17 western and southern European countries in order to create stable conditions in which democratic institutions could survive.

the Rutherford atomic model

Description of the structure of atoms proposed (1911) by the New Zealand-born physicist Ernest Rutherford.

the Bohr atomic model

The Bohr model of the atom, a radical departure from earlier, classical descriptions, was the first that incorporated quantum theory and was the predecessor of wholly quantum-mechanical models.

the Holocaust

The systematic state-sponsored killing of six million Jewish men, women, and children and millions of others by NaziGermany and its collaborators during World War II.

BATAAN DEATH MARCH​

March in the Philippines of some 66 miles (106 km) that 76,000 prisoners of war (66,000 Filipinos, 10,000 Americans) were forced by the Japanese military to endure in April 1942, during the early stages of World War II.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Atomic Bomb)

Throughout July 1945 the Japanese mainlands, from the latitude of Tokyo on Honshu northward to the coast of Hokkaido, were bombed just as if an invasion was about to be launched. In fact, something far more sinister was in hand, as the Americans were telling Stalin at Potsdam.

the Yalta Conference

Battle of Britain

Battle fought at Tannenberg,East Prussia, that ended in aGermanvictory over theRussians. The crushing defeat occurred barely a month into the conflict, but it became emblematic of theRussian Empire’sexperience in World War I.

Battle of Berlin

Battle that sounded the victory for the Soviet Union and the Allies, costing 1,047 bombers lost lives and 1,682 returned damaged. The city ofBerlin was reduced to rubble.

Battle of the Atlantic

A contest between the Western Allies and the Axis powers (particularlyGermany) for the control of Atlantic sea routes. For British Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, the Battle of the Atlantic represented Germany’s best chance to defeat the Western powers.

Battle of Midway

World War IInavalbattle, fought almost entirely withaircraft, in which theUnited States destroyed Japan’s first-linecarrier strength and most of its best-trained naval pilots.

Battle of the Bulge

The last major Germanoffensive on the Western Front duringWorld War II—an unsuccessful attempt to push theAlliesback from German home territory. The name Battle of the Bulge was appropriated fromWinston Churchill’s optimistic description in May 1940 of the resistance that he mistakenly supposed was being offered to the Germans’ breakthrough in that area just before the Anglo-French collapse; the Germans were in fact overwhelmingly successful. The “bulge” refers to the wedge that the Germans drove into the Allied lines.

Battle of Guadalcanal

Series of World War IIland and sea clashes between Allied andJapanese forces on and around Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific. The Battle of Guadalcanal with the Battle of Midway ended the threat of further Japanese invasion in the Pacific.

Battle of Iwo Jima

World War IIconflict between theUnited Statesand theEmpire of Japan. The United States mounted anamphibious invasionof the island ofIwo Jimaas part of itsPacific campaignagainst Japan. A costly victory for the United States, the battle was one of the bloodiest in the history of theU.S. Marine Corpsand was cited as proof of the Japanese military’s willingness to fight to the last man.

the Dunkirk Evacuation

The evacuationof theBritish Expeditionary Force(BEF) and otherAlliedtroops from theFrenchseaport ofDunkirk(Dunkerque) toEngland.Naval vesselsand hundreds of civilianboatswere used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. When it ended on June 4, about 198,000 British and 140,000 French andBelgiantroops had been saved.

the Battle of Stalingrad

Successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad Russia, U.S.S.R. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped theGermanadvance into theSoviet Unionand marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of theAllies.

Pearl Harbor Attack

Surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl HarboronOahu Island,Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of theUnited StatesintoWorld War II. The strike climaxed a decade of worsening relations between the United States andJapan.