1940 - 1949

1940 - 1941 Battle of Britan. In 1944 German resumed bombing with V1 and V2 rockets. But they were much less effective than traditional bombing (8,000 Britons killed by these rockets compared to 52,000 by traditional bombing).

1939 - 1943 War in the Atlantic (U-boats).

Arctic convoy to Soviet Union. Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_convoys_of_World_War_II. Convoy PQ-17 lost 24 of its 35 merchant ships.

1941 - 1944 Barbarosssa

12/07/1941 Pearl Harbor. Some 120,000 Japanese American were relocated to internment camp. This contrasted starkly with the treatment of Americans of German or Italian origin.

1942 - 1945 War in the Pacific

Raising flag on Iwo Jima. Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raising_the_Flag_on_Iwo_Jima

1940 - 1943 Desert War. Rommel was pulled out in 1943. Mussolini was overthrown after Allies took Sicily. New government immediately signed an armistice.

06/06/1944 D-Day. Omaha was the hardest beach.

1945 Controversial Dresden bombing by the Allies.

1945 War ended.

Mussolini was shot by commnunist resistence fighter. His body was hung upside down with his mistress and other Fascists. Credit: https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/28/did-the-brutal-death-of-mussolini-contribute-to-hitlers-suicide/

1945 Nuclear Bomb on Japan: The bomb was first tested in July and immediately used in August. The bomber crew was only aware of their mission after taking off.

1938 - 1945 The Holocaust.

The yellow badge of Jews. (Star of David). Credit: https://www.holocaustcenter.org/visit/library-archive/holocaust-badges/

1944 The 4th Moscow Talks. Churchill jotted down an informal agreement for the division of Europe between Soviets and the West.

Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Conference_(1944)

1945 Yalta Conference: The Iron Curtain Descends.

Palace of Science and Culture in Warsaw, Poland, at 1960. Original name Joseph Stalin's Palace of Culture and Science before De-Stalinization at 1956. Credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Culture_and_Science

1940 - 1954 War in Indochina: Ho Chi Minh, returning to Vietnam after working in Paris, formed the Viet Minh (League for the Liberation of Vietnam). They fought Japanese in guerrilla warfare and founded Democratic Republic of Vietnam after Japanese left. Then they fought French after 1945 and forced them out in 1954. At a peace deal in Geneva Vietnam was divided into communist North and pro-Western South.

1947 Pakistan (In Urdu, pak means pure, stan means country) and India gained independence from Britain. Punjab was divided in two and saw large number of casualties from religious rioting.

1948 Gandhi assassinated by Hindu extremists who believed Gandhi favored muslims' demands at the partition of India.

1948 - 1949 Berlin Blockade by Soviet Union. Western countries had to airlift supplies to West Berlin until Soviet Union gave up.

1947 - 1949 Israel declared statehood. Then won the First Arab-Israeli War.

1946 - 1949 Communist PLA won over KMT army in China.

KMT summary executions of alleged communists in Shanghai, 1948. Credit: https://collections.lib.uwm.edu/digital/collection/agsphoto/id/21756/

1948 Siege of Changchun caused 150,000 civilian casulties.

1949 Yangtze incident: British naval vessel was fired upon by Communists, killing 22 crew members. The vessel was stranded upriver for 100 days before making a successful dash for the sea.