European leaders did not confront Hitler when he seized Czechoslovakia in 1938, but Britain and France declared war when he attacked Poland in 1939.

Eisenhower went to West Point and served in World War I, although he did not see combat. He was promoted to general in 1941 and became supreme commander in 1942.

Dragoon was the attack on Southern France in 1944, Market Garden was the airborne landings in the Netherlands, and Overlord was the attack on Normandy.

The war began with the attack on Poland in 1939, but little fighting occurred on the ground for the next eight months, except in Norway and Denmark. The Germans launched their attack on France in May 1940.

More than 5,000 German and Soviet tanks participated in the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.

Allied forces landed in Italy in September 1943. The Italians capitulated but German troops fought on.

General de Gaulle refused to surrender and fled to Britain in June 1940. He led a government in exile and created a provisional government after Allied forces landed in Normandy in 1944.

Although Germany and the USSR had signed a non-aggression treaty in 1939, Hitler regarded communism as a major threat. Almost 4 million German troops invaded the USSR in June 1941.

The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and the next day FDR delivered a speech to Congress that lasted just seven minutes. He described the surprise attack as a “dastardly” act.

FDR established the OSS in 1942 and President Truman dissolved it in 1945. The CIA was formed in 1946 and the NSA in 1952. The SOE was a British agency.

The Lend-Lease Act was the principal means for providing U.S. military aid to Allied nations during World War II. The U.S. sent food, oil, ships, planes, and other weaponry. In return, the U.S. was given leases on army and naval bases in Allied territory during the war. The program cost approximately $660 billion in today’s currency.

El Alamein was a decisive Allied victory that pushed the Axis powers out of Egypt. Almost 37,000 German and Italian troops were killed, wounded, or captured.

MacArthur commanded American troops in the Philippines in 1941 and he managed to escape, although most of this soldiers were captured. He was also in command when they retook the Philippines in 1944.

Photographer Joe Rosenthal worked as a war correspondent and captured the famous flag raising on Mount Suribachi. He won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Battle of Philippine Sea was a decisive naval battle that eliminated the Imperial Japanese Navy's ability to conduct large-scale carrier actions. Seven American fleet carriers and eight light carriers faced off against five Japanese fleet carriers and four light carriers. Three Japanese fleet carriers were sunk and approximately 600 aircraft destroyed.

Two Japanese battleships, Yamashiro and Fuso, faced off against six American battleships in a nighttime engagement. The American ships had radar fire control units and were able to outrange the Japanese ships, which were both sunk.

Patton earned a reputation as an aggressive, if not impulsive, commander. This earned him the nickname of “Old Blood and Guts.”

Rommel commanded German troops in North Africa and earned the nickname the “Desert Fox” because of his aggressive tactics.

Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945. German forces surrendered to Allied forces in the following days and signed the official instrument of surrender on May 8.

The Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945. The US had used nuclear weapons to attack Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few days earlier.

Italy capitulated on September 3, 1943, after Allied forces landed at Calabria. A few weeks later, the Italian army began to fight alongside the Allies.

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between China and Japan from 1937 to 1945. This war merged into World War II as a major front of the Pacific War.

British and French forces had evacuated Dunkirk on June 22, 1940. Hitler wanted to invade Britain, but to do that he needed to destroy the Royal Air Force. The Battle of Britain began in July 1940 when Luftwaffe bombers began to attack British ports, airfields, and factories.

Japanese forces quickly overwhelmed American forces in the Philippines, who retreated to the Bataan peninsula. In April 1942, more than 75,000 American and Filipino troops surrendered. Many would die during the Bataan Death March or later in prison camps.

German troops attacked on December 16, 1944, and pushed American troops back. However, the Germans quickly ran low on fuel and American reinforcements helped stop the retreat. American counter-attacks in January 1945 drove the Germans back.

Axis troops reached Stalingrad in 1942, but a Soviet counter-attack trapped Army Group B in the city. Attempts to relieve the encircled army failed, and more than 850,000 German, Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian troops were killed, wounded, or captured.

Donitz fought in World War I and eventually became commander of the German submarine fleet. He replaced Raeder in 1943 and became Hitler’s successor in May 1945.

Goering was a fighter pilot in World War I and became head of the Luftwaffe in 1935. He held that position until April 1945.

Yamamoto was commander-in-chief during the decisive early years of the Pacific War and was responsible for major battles such as Pearl Harbor and Midway. He was killed in April 1943, when US fighters intercepted his plane and shot it down.

British, French, Polish, Canadian, and American forces landed at Dieppe on August 19, 1942. Many vehicles bogged down on the beach and most of the raiding force was killed or captured.

The Manhattan Project began in 1942 and cost more than $26 billion in today’s currency. The first bomb was tested in New Mexico in July 1945.

More than 150,000 Japanese-Americans were interned during World War II, and more than 60 percent were US citizens. About 11,000 German-Americans were interned and a small number of Italians were detained.

Rosie the Riveter was a composite based on several American women who worked in factories that built tanks, planes, and guns for the US war effort. Between 1940 and 1944, more than 8 million women joined the workforce. Some claim that this forever opened the work force for women, but others have noted that many women were discharged after the war and their jobs were given to returning servicemen.

The RAF formed three fighter squadrons from American volunteers between 1940 and 1941. They shot down more than 70 German planes but also lost about 80 pilots themselves. Most of the pilots joined the US armed forces after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

All of the sanctions were implemented after Japan attacked China in 1937 and French Indochina in 1940. The embargoes were very harmful to Japan since they imported more than 70 percent of their raw materials.

Nimitz joined the US Navy in 1906 and served in World War I. He took command of US naval forces in the Pacific 10 days after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He retired in 1947 and died in 1965.

Arnold graduated from West Point in 1907 and became an early advocate for air power. He was promoted to general in 1940 and became commander of the Army Air Corps. He retired in 1946 and died in 1950.

American submarines devastated the Japanese merchant marine fleet, which crippled the Japanese economy. American bombers also pummeled Japanese cities in order to hamper the Japanese war effort. Although many Japanese garrisons were scattered throughout the Pacific, US forces bypassed some strongpoints in an island hopping campaign.

The British broke the Enigma code in 1940 which let the Allies read German naval messages. Convoys and sonar helped counter the wolf-pack tactics used by German submarines.

Juno Beach was the Canadian landing zone and the British took Sword Beach. The Americans landed at Omaha and Utah.