HAROLD ALEXANDER (1891–1969) : After commanding the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940, he was appointed commander-in-chief in the Middle East in August 1942. As Eisenhower’s deputy, he commanded the invasion of Sicily and then Italy and became supreme commander in the Mediterranean in November 1944.
CLEMENT ATTLEE (1883–1967) : The leader of the British Labour Party, he joined the War Cabinet in May 1940 under Churchill. He took responsibility for home affairs and from 1942 was deputy prime minister. He succeeded Churchill in July 1945 following Labor’s election victory.
PIETRO BADOGLIO (1871–1956) : Italian marshal who was head of the Supreme Command in 1940 and succeeded Mussolini as premier in July 1943. He negotiated an armistice in September 1943 and then left Rome for Salerno. He was replaced as premier in June 1944.
OMAR BRADLEY (1893–1981) : He was appointed deputy to Patton in the Operation Torch campaign, but by May 1943 he was commander of the Second U.S. Army Corps, which he led into Sicily. He commanded the First U.S. Army for the Normandy invasion, then the Twelfth U.S. Army Group, which he led to the end of the war in the final battles in Germany.
NEVILLE CHAMBERLAIN (1869–1940) : British prime minister from May 1937, Chamberlain was responsible for organizing the Munich Conference in September 1938 but then took Britain into war a year later after Germany’s invasion of Poland. He resigned on May 10, 1940 and died a few months later.
CHIANG KAI-SHEK (1887–1975) : Leader of the Guomindang Party in China, Chiang tried to unite the nation in the 1930s in the face of Japanese aggression. He was defeated in the post-1945 civil war with the Communists and ended up as ruler of Taiwan, where he retreated in 1949.
WINSTON SPENCER CHURCHILL (1874–1965) : Britain’s wartime prime minister from May 1940 to July 1945 and also minister of defense, he played a central part in sustaining British belligerency in 1940 and in forging links with Stalin and Roosevelt in the wartime “Grand Alliance.” He strongly supported bombing the European Axis, and favored a Mediterranean strategy over a frontal assault on Hitler’s European fortress. Churchill’s influence began to decline as the war continued, but post-war he became a prominent Cold Warrior, hostile to Communist expansionism.
MARK CLARK (1896–1984) : Following a rapid promotion from a pre-war major to chief of staff of U.S. Army Ground Forces in 1942, Clark went on to command the U.S. Fifth Army in the invasion of Italy. In December 1944 he became commander-in-chief of Allied ground forces in Italy.
KARL DÖNITZ (1891–1980) : Grand admiral of the German Fleet from January 1943 until April 1945, when he succeeded Hitler as head of the German state. From 1939 to 1943 he headed the German submarine arm and was responsible for waging the Battle of the Atlantic. He was condemned to ten years in jail at the Nuremberg Trials.
ANTHONY EDEN (1897–1977) : British minister of war in 1940 after Churchill’s appointment as prime minister, and then, from December 1940, foreign secretary, succeeding Lord Halifax. Eden played an important part in Britain’s war effort and helped to see the United Nations Organization through to its inception in May 1945.
DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (1890–1969) : Appointed head of the Army Operations Division after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Eisenhower was chosen to lead the Operation Torch landings in North Africa in November 1942. He was appointed supreme commander in the Mediterranean and then for the Allied invasion of France in 1944, a position he retained to the end of the war.
CHARLES DE GAULLE (1890–1970) : A brigadier general in 1940, de Gaulle was a pioneer of armored warfare and commander of the French Fourth Armored Division in the Battle of France. In June 1940 he moved to London where he declared the Free French movement, which he led through the liberation of France in 1944 despite the hostility of U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt. In May 1943 he was co-chair of the Committee of National Liberation with Henri-Honoré Giraud, but by 1944 he was the dominant figure. He helped to construct a new democratic order in France after the liberation.
HENRI- HONORÉ GIRAUD (1879–1949) : A French general who commanded the French Seventh Army in the Battle of France. He escaped from German captivity in 1942 and established close contact with the Americans. He was made commander-in-chief of all French forces in North Africa and then French high commissioner in the region. He worked with de Gaulle to found the French Committee of National Liberation, but was ousted from the committee in November 1943 and in April 1944 resigned, to disappear as a political figure.
JOSEPH GOEBBELS (1897–1945) : A prominent German National Socialist politician, Goebbels headed both the Party Propaganda Office and the Ministry of Popular Enlightenment and Propaganda. In 1942 he was made a commissar for civil defense and in July 1944 was named Reich plenipotentiary for total war. He committed suicide in Hitler’s bunker on May 1, 1945.
HERMANN WILHELM GOERING (1893–1946) : Commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe and air minister, he was named Hitler’s successor in 1939 and given the supreme rank of Reich marshal after the defeat of France in 1940. His political stock declined during the war, but was revived briefly when he was considered the most important Nazi on trial at Nuremberg. He committed suicide on the night before his scheduled execution.
RODOLFO GRAZIANI (1882–1955) : Italian general who was governor of Ethiopia from 1936–1937 and then commander of Italian forces in Libya. He resigned after defeat in the desert in early 1941, but returned as Mussolini’s defense minister from 1943–1945. He was condemned in 1948 to nineteen years in jail but served only a few months.
ARTHUR HARRIS (1892–1984) : Named marshal of the British Royal Air Force in 1945, Harris masterminded the bombing assault on Germany after becoming commander-in-chief of the RAF Bomber Command in February 1942.
HEINRICH HIMMLER (1900–1945) : Head of the SS (Schutzstaffel) security force of the National Socialist Party, Himmler was appointed Reich chief of police in June 1936. In 1939 he set up the Reich Security Main Office under Reinhard Heydrich. Himmler was responsible for the genocide of the European Jews and the system of concentration camps. In August 1943 he was made interior minister and in July 1944 commander of the German Reserve Army. He committed suicide in May 1945 after he was captured by British soldiers.
ADOLF HITLER (1889–1945) : Leader of the National Socialist Party in Germany and German head of state from 1934, Hitler led his nation into war in 1939 as supreme commander of the armed forces. A dictator who made himself commander of the German Army in December 1941. Hitler led his forces to complete defeat. He committed suicide in Berlin on April 30, 1945.
CORDELL HULL (1871–1955) : Roosevelt’s secretary of state from March 1933 to October 1944, Hull played an important part in drafting the United Nations Declaration on January 1, 1942 and, later on, creating the United Nations Organization. He was tough on Japan in the negotiations in 1941 and his stance accelerated the Japanese decision for war.
ALBERT KESSELRING (1885–1960) : German field marshal and air force commander, Kesselring was appointed commander-in-chief of Axis forces in the Mediterranean theater in November 1941. At the end of the war he was commander-in-chief in Western Europe. Tried for war crimes, he was condemned to death, but his sentence was commuted.
ERNEST KING (1878–1956) : In 1941 he became admiral of the U.S. Atlantic Fleet, where his success in the anti-submarine war persuaded Roosevelt to make him commander-in-chief of the U.S. Fleet and in March 1942 also chief of naval operations.
FUMIMARO KONOYE (1891–1945) : A Japanese prince who served as prime minister on three occasions between 1937 and 1941, failing to bring the war with China to a conclusion or to negotiate agreement with the United States in 1941. He was a champion of a Japanese “New Order” but played little part in the politics of the Pacific war. He committed suicide in prison in December 1945.
WILLIAM LEAHY (1875–1959) : A chief of U.S. naval operations in the 1930s, Leahy was a close confidant of President Roosevelt. He was U.S. ambassador to Vichy France in 1941–1942, but then became Roosevelt’s personal chief of staff and chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff.
DOUGLAS MAC ARTHUR (1880–1964) : A former U.S. Army chief of staff, MacArthur was military adviser in the Philippines when war broke out and commander of U.S. forces there. He was appointed commander in chief in the Southwest Pacific in April 1942, and later became supreme commander of the Allied Powers for the occupation of Japan in August 1945.
MAO ZEDONG (1893–1976) : The Chinese Communist leader who led a long march to Shaanzi province to escape Chiang Kai-shek’s forces in 1934. Mao helped to establish a Red Army to fight the Japanese and resist Chiang, and in the post-war civil war this army formed the core of the successful Communist takeover of the country in 1949.
GEORGE C. MARSHALL (1880–1959) : Chief of the War Plans Division in Washington in the late 1930s, Marshall was chosen as army chief of staff in 1939, a post he held to the end of the war. In 1947, as secretary of state, he launched the European Recovery Program, known as the Marshall Plan.
CHARLES MERZ (1893–1977) : A journalist on a number of papers before joining The New York Times editorial board in 1931. In November 1938 he was appointed editor of the paper and held that post through 1961.
VYACHESLAV MOLOTOV (1890–1986) : One of the favored inner circle around the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, Molotov was Soviet premier in the 1930s and foreign minister from March 1939, a post he held throughout the war. He negotiated Soviet participation in the United Nations Organization.
BERNARD LAW MONTGOMERY (1887–1976) : The British field marshal who achieved Britain’s first major land victory at El Alamein in November 1942. He led the Eighth Army into Italy and was then appointed commander of the land campaign in the Normandy invasion. He ended the war in command of the Twenty-First Army Group.
BENITO MUSSOLINI (1883–1945) : Leader of the Italian Fascist Party and Italian prime minister from October 1922 to July 1943. Mussolini had ambitions to create a new Roman Empire in the Mediterranean and Africa, and launched a war against Ethiopia in October 1935. The war was won and Mussolini forged a close “Axis” partnership with Hitler. He launched war against Britain and France on June 10, 1940 and against Greece in October 1940. Popular support for Mussolini declined as Italian forces were defeated on all fronts, and he was overthrown by a coup in July 1943. Rescued by German special forces, he headed a new Italian Social Republic in German-occupied Italy. He was killed by partisans on April 28, 1945, trying to flee to Switzerland.
CHESTER NIMITZ (1885–1966) : Appointed commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet in December 1941, he became overall commander-in-chief of U.S. Pacific forces in March 1942. In 1944 he was made fleet admiral in recognition of his role in the island-hopping campaign against Japan.
GEORGE PATTON (1885–1945) : A career cavalry officer, Patton became commander of the First Armored Corps in 1942, and then, for Operation Torch, commanded the Second U.S. Army Corps. He was commander of the Third U.S. Army in France in 1944 and played a spectacular part in driving the Germans back to their frontier. He died in a car accident in 1945.
JOACHIM VON RIBBENTROP (1893–1946) : Hitler’s foreign policy adviser and, from February 1938, German foreign minister. He signed the pact with the Soviet Union in August 1939 but played a role throughout the war as Germany’s leading diplomat. He was executed after the Nuremberg Trials for crimes against peace.
ERWIN ROMMEL (1891–1944) : The German field marshal who led the Afrika Korps in the North African campaign from 1941 to 1943, and then became responsible for building up the defenses against the D-Day invasion. He committed suicide after the July plot to assassinate Hitler in 1944.
FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT (1882–1945) : U.S. president for most of the war years, Roosevelt was elected for unprecedented third and fourth terms in 1940 and 1944. He helped steer America through the economic crisis of the 1930s with his New Deal strategies and pressed for U.S. rearmament at the end of the decade. He threw the United States behind the Allied war effort in everything short of war. After the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt insisted on a Germany-first strategy and was generous in making U.S. resources available to the rest of the Allied nations through the Lend-Lease program.
CARL SPAATZ (1891–1974) : Overall commander-in-chief of U.S. Strategic and Tactical Air Forces in Europe in December 1943, Spaatz built up the Eighth Air Force in England in 1942 and then went to the Mediterranean theater as Eisenhower’s commander of Allied Air Forces. He was the architect of the strategy to defeat the Luftwaffe and to destroy German oil supplies in 1944.
JOSEPH STALIN (1878–1953) : Stalin was appointed general secretary to the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party in 1922 and in 1941 became chairman of the Council of Commissars (that is, Soviet premier). During the war he was also chair of the Soviet Defense Committee and in this role he supervised the whole Soviet war effort.
EDWARD STETTINIUS (1900–1949) : In January 1941, Stettinius was appointed director of the Office of Production Management and in August 1941 administrator of the Lend-Lease Program. He became secretary of state in November 1944 and represented the United States at the founding conference of the United Nations at San Francisco in May 1945.
ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER (1891–1968) : Publisher of The New York Times from 1935 to 1961, succeeding his father-in-law, Adolph Ochs. Hostile to U.S. isolationism in the pre-war period, he also disliked the new powers acquired by Roosevelt to push through his legislation. During the war, Sulzberger championed a post-war order in which the United States would play a major part. He was concerned that his Jewishness might give rise to charges of bias, so he failed to give Nazi persecution of the European Jews prominent news coverage in The Times before and during the war.
HIDEKI TOJO (1884–1948) : Japanese prime minister from 1941, he led Japan into war with the United States. Military reverses forced his resignation in July 1944 and he was hanged as a war criminal in 1948.
HARRY S. TRUMAN (1884–1972) : Vice president of the United States in 1944 and then U.S. president following Roosevelt’s death in April 1945. He led the Senate Special Committee that investigated war contracts, and saved millions of dollars of federal expenditure. He made the fateful decision to approve the atomic bombing of Japan and, post-war, played a leading role in containing the spread of Communism in Europe.
ALEXANDER VANDERGRIFT (1887–1973) : A senior Marine Corps officer, Vandergrift was given command of the First Marine Division for the invasion of Guadalcanal. In January 1944 he was promoted to lieutenant general and became commandant of the Marine Corps in Washington.
ISORUKU YAMAMOTO (1884–1943) : In 1939 he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet and organized the assault on Pearl Harbor. In 1943, intercepted messages allowed U.S. fighter aircraft to shoot down the plane in which he was flying.
GEORGI ZHUKOV (1896–1974) : The Soviet marshal who saved Moscow from capture in 1941, Zhukov became Stalin’s deputy supreme commander in August 1942, and masterminded the capture of Berlin in April 1945.
ARNHEM (September 17–26, 1944) : Operation Market Garden was a British paratroop operation designed to seize a crossing on the lower Rhine around the Dutch town of Arnhem to create a salient for the invasion of Germany. Heavy German resistance led to the collapse of the operation with heavy British losses.
ATLANTIC CHARTER (August 9–12, 1941) : The document agreed to by Churchill and Roosevelt at a meeting in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. The eight-point charter committed the two nations to establishing free trade and democratic government worldwide after the war.
BARBAROSSA CAMPAIGN (June 22–December 5, 1941) : The German campaign to destroy the Soviet forces in a quick strike in the summer of 1941. Despite rapid progress toward Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad the campaign bogged down into a war of attrition by the winter of 1941.
BATTLE OF BERLIN (April 16–May 2, 1945) : The last great offensive campaign by the Red Army drove deep into Germany and captured the German capital. Marshals Zhukov and Ivan Konev competed to be the first to get to the center of Berlin; Zhukov won the race. Hitler and Goebbels committed suicide rather than face capture. On May 2 the city was surrendered.
BATTLE OF BRITAIN (July–October 1940) : A series of air battles fought over southern Britain between the British RAF Fighter Command and the Second and Third German Air Fleets, stationed in northern France. The RAF lost 915 aircraft; the Luftwaffe 1,733.
BATTLE OF THE BULGE (December 16, 1944–February 7, 1945) : The German Operation Autumn Mist was a surprise assault against the advancing Allied line to try to reach the port of Antwerp and divide Allied forces. Despite early advances, Allied air power and resources were too great and in February 1945 the German Army ended up right where it had started.
BATTLE OF FRANCE (May 10–June 17, 1940) : German armies invaded the Low Countries and France on May 10, achieving a rapid breakthrough and dividing the Allied line. The Netherlands surrendered on May 15, Belgium on May 28, and France sought an armistice on June 17 after the German capture of Paris.
BATTLE OF KURSK (July 5–13, 1943) : One of the largest set-piece battles on the Eastern Front, Operation Citadel was launched by Hitler to try to eliminate a large Red Army salient around the city of Kursk. After a massive tank attack, the operation bogged down and German forces were then hit by a major Soviet counteroffensive that forced a rapid German retreat.
BATTLE OF LEYTE GULF (October 23–26, 1944) : The last fling of the Japanese Navy. The Japanese naval force was divided in three to try to reach the American invasion of the Philippines at Leyte from a number of routes. In the battles that followed, the Japanese lost 24 warships, the U.S. Navy 6.
BATTLE OF MIDWAY (June 4–5, 1942) : A decisive encounter between the Japanese main fleet and a U.S. naval force under Admiral Frank Fletcher. Four Japanese carriers were sunk and one-third of Japan’s elite naval aviators lost, at the cost of the U.S. carrier Yorktown .
BATTLE OF THE PHILIPPINE SEA (June 19–21, 1944) : The largest carrier battle of World War II (24 carriers in all) resulted in a decisive defeat for Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa’s fleet and the loss of over 400 aircraft in what American naval aviators called the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot.”
BISMARCK SINKING (May 24–27, 1941) : The largest German battleship, Bismarck, tried to escape into the Atlantic to prey on Allied shipping. Crippled by a British naval air attack on May 26, the battleship was sunk by naval fire and torpedoes.
BLITZ (September 7, 1940–May 16, 1941) : Beginning with the bombing of the London docks on September 7, the German Second and Third Air Fleets kept up continuous bombing of British ports, food stocks, oil, and the aero-engine industry. More than 43,000 Britons were killed, but the economic effects were limited.
CASABLANCA CONFERENCE (January 14–24, 1943) : A gathering of Churchill, Roosevelt and their military staffs at which it was decided to invade Sicily and Italy before opening a second front in France. The Combined Bomber Offensive was also approved at the Conference.
CRETE (May 20–June 3, 1941) : The Greek island was occupied by British Commonwealth forces as they retreated from mainland Greece. German paratroopers attacked them and captured the main airfield. Although outnumbered, the German troops forced a British evacuation by late May, leaving behind 5,000 prisoners of war.
DRESDEN BOMBING (February 13–14, 1945) : A raid by RAF Bomber Command that created a firestorm and killed an estimated 25,000 people, including German refugees.
DUMBARTON OAKS (August 21–October 7, 1944) : The conference where the groundwork was laid for the United Nations Organization; held outside Washington with representatives of 39 nations. The idea of a General Assembly and a Security Council was approved, but the issue of a veto for Council members was left unresolved.
EL ALAMEIN (October 23–November 4, 1942) : A decisive battle in North Africa in which Axis forces were driven back from the Egyptian frontier after a massive tank battle in the desert. The Axis forces retreated back to Tunisia, where they surrendered on May 13, 1943.
FALL OF ROME (June 4–5, 1944) : The Italian capital fell to an operation by General Mark Clark’s U.S. Fifth Army after long months of stalemate around Monte Cassino.
GERMAN- POLISH WAR (September 1–27, 1939) : The German Army and Air Force invasion of Poland resulted in a rapid Polish retreat and a final defense around Warsaw. On September 17 Soviet troops entered and occupied eastern Poland. Poland surrendered on September 27.
GREEK CIVIL WAR (1946–1949) : After the liberation of Greece, wartime tensions between Nationalist and Communist resistance movements flared into open civil war between the new Greek Army and ELAS, the Greek People’s Liberation Army, dominated by the Communist-backed Democratic Army of Greece. With British and U.S. military backing, the pro-Communist forces were finally defeated in 1949.
GUADALCANAL (August 7, 1942–February 8, 1943) : An island in the South Pacific Solomon Islands, occupied by the Japanese, where the first U.S. counterattack took place. After fierce and prolonged fighting, the Japanese garrison abandoned the island in February 1943.
HAMBURG BOMBING (July 24–August 1943) : Hamburg was hit by repeated raids in Operation Gomorrah, which destroyed more than twelve square miles of the urban area and killed an estimated 34,000–37,000 people, half of them in a firestorm on the night of July 27–28.
HIROSHIMA- NAGASAKI (August 6 and 9, 1945) : These two Japanese cities were the targets of the atomic bombs dropped by the USAAF 20th Bomber Command. At least 200,000 people were killed as a result of the explosions and subsequent radiation exposure.
IMPHAL- KOHIMA (March 7–July 18, 1944) : Japan’s last major offensive against the Indian border towns of Imphal and Kohima. Imphal was besieged for four months, but held out until Allied reinforcements drove back the Japanese and opened the way for the reconquest of Burma.
INDIAN INDEPENDENCE (August 15, 1947) : After years of agitation for independence for India, led by Mohandas Gandhi, the post-1945 British Labour government agreed in early 1947 to grant independence and to divide India between a Hindu India and a Muslim Pakistan. Jawaharlal Nehru became prime minister of India and Muhammad Ali Jinnah became governor-general of Pakistan. Independence brought civil war and up to one million deaths in religious clashes. On January 30, 1948 Gandhi was assassinated.
INVASION OF SICILY (July 9–August 17, 1943) : Operation Husky, the invasion of the southern coast of Sicily, was a major amphibious operation involving soldiers and ships from the United States and Britain. The German defenders retreated in good order and largely escaped across the Straits of Messina, but the Italian soldiers surrendered in large numbers.
IWO JIMA (February 19–March 26, 1945) : One of the toughest island battles against Japanese defenders dug into caves and hideouts. Massive U.S. firepower eventually overcame resistance but at a cost of one-third of the U.S. force as casualties. Almost the entire Japanese garrison was killed.
JULY PLOT (July 20, 1944) : The failed attempt by senior German officers to assassinate Hitler at his headquarters. The organizer, Claus von Stauffenberg was shot that same night in Berlin and hundreds of other conspirators were rounded up and executed or sent to camps.
KRISTALLNACHT (November 8, 1938) : Anti-Semitic riots in Germany directed against Jewish shops and synagogues, orchestrated by Joseph Goebbels with Hitler’s tacit approval in revenge for the assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a Jewish protester.
LEND- LEASE PROGRAM (March 11, 1941–August 15, 1945) : A plan to provide food, materials and weapons to the nations fighting against the Axis, without an immediate requirement for repayment. The United States aided 38 nations through this program but the bulk of aid went to Britain and the Soviet Union. Over the course of the war $42 billion in aid was granted, including $20.6 billion worth of munitions.
LIBERATION OF PARIS (August 19–24, 1944) : As Allied forces raced toward Paris, the French resistance began its own uprising. The German commander eventually abandoned suppression and a day after a French armored division entered the capital on August 24 the Germans surrendered the city.
MONTE CASSINO (January 17–May 18, 1944) : A mountain overlooking the small town of Cassino in Italy, on which stood an ancient monastery. Repeated Allied failure to break the German line around Cassino led to the bombing of the monastery on February 15. The mountaintop was eventually captured by the Polish Second Corps.
MUNICH CONFERENCE (September 30, 1938) : The conference at which the leaders of Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France agreed to the territorial division of Czechoslovakia, granting Germany the German-speaking areas of the Sudetenland, which were occupied from October 1 through the end of the war.
NORMANDY INVASION (June 6–July 24, 1944) : Operation Overlord was the planned invasion of Normandy, designed to place the main Allied ground armies in northern Europe to drive the Germans from France. The landing was successful but got bogged down against tough German resistance. Not until late July was the balance sufficiently in the Allies’ favor to permit a breakout from Normandy and a rapid defeat of German forces in the month that followed.
NUREMBERG TRIALS (November 20, 1945–October 14, 1946) : The first trials of German leaders (the major war criminals) were held in the main courtroom in Nuremberg. Twenty-two were tried (Martin Bormann in absentia) and twelve were condemned to death for crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes and conspiracy to launch aggressive war.
OKINAWA (March 23–June 30, 1945) : Operation Iceberg was designed to capture a major island close to Japan’s home islands. The invasion was on a vast scale, with half a million U.S. forces pitted against 100,000 Japanese, dug into defensive positions. The high cost of this operation (12,520 U.S. dead) boosted support for the argument that the atomic bombing of Japan would save American lives.
OPERATION TORCH (November 8–10, 1942) : This was the first major amphibious operation in Europe, a landing of U.S. and British forces in French Northwest Africa, in Morocco and Algeria. After brief resistance the French garrisons surrendered and the Allied force pressed east toward Tunisia, where Rommel led Axis resistance until May 1943.
PEARL HARBOR (December 7, 1941) : The attack by the Japanese Combined Fleet on the U.S. Pacific Fleet base at Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. Eighteen American ships were sunk or damaged and 347 aircraft lost in the surprise attack.
POTSDAM CONFERENCE (July 17–August 2, 1945) : The last of the major wartime conferences between leaders of the three principal nations. By this time, Truman had replaced Roosevelt and midway through the talks, Clement Attlee replaced Churchill after defeating him in the British election. The Allies discussed Japanese surrender, the future of Europe and the issue of Polish territory. They also approved the terms of the major war crimes trials in Europe.
SOVIET- FINNISH WINTER WAR (November 30, 1939–March 12, 1940) : The Soviet Union launched a war against Finland for refusing to cede territory and bases, demanded to improve Soviet security in the Baltic Sea. Despite heroic resistance, the Finns were worn down by the greater numbers of Soviet forces and sued for an armistice in March 1940.
STALINGRAD (August 19, 1942–February 2, 1943) : The city became a battleground during the German Operation Blue. Fierce Soviet defense prevented the capture of the city and on November 19, 1942 the Germans were encircled and cut off, eventually surrendering at the end of January 1943, although resistance continued in some places for two more days.
TEHERAN CONFERENCE (November 20–December 1, 1943) : The first major conference between the three main Allied leaders took place in the capital of Iran. The key issue for Stalin was obtaining a commitment from the West to open a major second front. It was agreed that invasion of northern France would occur in May 1944.
WARSAW UPRISING (August 1–October 2, 1944) : Polish nationalists organized in the Polish Home Army launched an uprising against the German occupiers as the Red Army approached. The timing was misjudged and no effective help came from the Allies. The uprising was defeated and the Germans took revenge on Warsaw by destroying whatever was still standing.
YALTA CONFERENCE (February 5–11, 1945) : The second of the major summits between the three wartime leaders, Yalta saw Stalin commit to fighting Japan when Germany was defeated, while Roosevelt and Churchill approved the Soviet territorial gains in Poland, which was to be compensated with former German territory.