WW II in Europe

Phase 1: Blitzkreig --- 1939 Poland; 1940 Germany, Italy and Japan join in Axis Pact; 1940 France, Scandinavia, Low Countries; Battle of Britain; 1941 Greece and Yugoslavia, operation Barbarossa into Russia; 1942 Suez and U-Boat campaigns

Phase 2: Allied Counterattack: Allies make defeating Germany #1 priority; 1942 Stalingrad defense; 1943 Allies attack Italy; 1944 Second Front D-Day at Normandy;

Phase 3: Allied Victory: Russians drive into Germany, Britain and US from the West; 1945 German surrender

Battle of Britain - 1940

Frenchman weeps as Nazis take Paris

Hitler at

Eiffel Tower

Paris

1940

Enigma machine – broke German code

London during the blitz - 1941

…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, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this Island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God's good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the old.

Winston Churchill, Speech to House of Commons, June 1940

Operation Barbarossa 1941 – Germany invades Russia

Battle of Stalingrad 1942-43

Turning point of the war against Germany

Normandy invasion 1944

D-Day Landing at Normandy - June 6 1944

Normandy invasion 1944

Jewish child in Warsaw ghetto

Germans murder Jews in Lithuania

Bodies at Burchenwald death camp

Just after its liberation April 1945

Russian and US soldiers meet in Germany 1945

Germany surrenders May 9 1945

Nuremberg War Crimes Trials - 1946