- Introduction & Top Questions
- The outbreak of war
- Forces and resources of the European combatants, 1939
- Technology of war, 1918–39
- The war in Europe, 1939–41
- The campaign in Poland, 1939
- The Baltic states and the Russo-Finnish War, 1939–40
- The war in the west, September 1939–June 1940
- The invasion of Norway
- The invasion of the Low Countries and France
- The evacuation from Dunkirk
- Italy’s entry into the war and the French Armistice
- The Battle of Britain
- Central Europe and the Balkans, 1940–41
- Other fronts, 1940–41
- Egypt and Cyrenaica, 1940–summer 1941
- East Africa
- Iraq and Syria, 1940–41
- The beginning of lend-lease
- The Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1940–41
- German strategy, 1939–42
- Invasion of the Soviet Union, 1941
- The war in the Pacific, 1938–41
- The war in China, 1937–41
- Japanese policy, 1939–41
- Pearl Harbor and the Japanese expansion, to July 1942
- The fall of Singapore
- The Chinese front and Burma, 1941–42
- Developments from autumn 1941 to spring 1942
- Allied strategy and controversies, 1940–42
- Libya and Egypt, autumn 1941–summer 1942
- The Germans’ summer offensive in southern Russia, 1942
- The Solomons, Papua, Madagascar, the Aleutians, and Burma, July 1942–May 1943
- Burma, autumn 1942–summer 1943
- Montgomery’s Battle of el-Alamein and Rommel’s retreat, 1942–43
- Stalingrad and the German retreat, summer 1942–February 1943
- The invasion of northwest Africa, November–December 1942
- Tunisia, November 1942–May 1943
- The Atlantic, the Mediterranean, and the North Sea, 1942–45
- Air warfare, 1942–43
- German-occupied Europe
- Casablanca and Trident, January–May 1943
- The Eastern Front, February–September 1943
- The Southwest and South Pacific, June–October 1943
- Developments from autumn 1943 to summer 1944
- Sicily and the fall of Mussolini, July–August 1943
- The Quadrant Conference [Quebec I]
- The Allies’ invasion of Italy and the Italian volte-face, 1943
- The western Allies and Stalin: Cairo and Tehrān, 1943
- German strategy, from 1943
- The Eastern Front, October 1943–April 1944
- The war in the Pacific, October 1943–August 1944
- The encirclement of Rabaul
- Western New Guinea
- The central Pacific
- The Burmese frontier and China, November 1943–summer 1944
- The Italian front, 1944
- Developments from summer 1944 to autumn 1945
- The Allied invasions of western Europe, June–November 1944
- The Eastern Front, June–December 1944
- Air warfare, 1944
- Allied policy and strategy: Octagon [Quebec II] and Moscow, 1944
- The Philippines and Borneo, from September 1944
- Burma and China, October 1944–May 1945
- The German offensive in the west, winter 1944–45
- The Soviet advance to the Oder, January–February 1945
- Yalta
- The German collapse, spring 1945
- Potsdam
- The end of the Japanese war, February–September 1945
- Iwo Jima and the bombing of Tokyo
- Okinawa
- Hiroshima and Nagasaki
- The Japanese surrender
- Costs of the war
- Killed, wounded, prisoners, or missing
- Human and material cost
- Europe
- The Far East
- Developments from autumn 1943 to summer 1944
Fast Facts
- 2-Min Summary
- What was the cause of World War II?
- What were the turning points of World War II?
- How did World War II end?
- How many people died during World War II?
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Every WWII combatant appreciated the need for an unbreakable code that would help them communicate while protecting their operational plans. The U.S. Marines knew where to find one: the Navajo Nation. Marine Corps leadership selected 29 Navajo men, the Navajo Code Talkers, who created a code based on the complex, unwritten Navajo language. The code primarily used word association by assigning a Navajo word to key phrases and military tactics. This system enabled the Code Talkers to translate three lines of English in 20 seconds, not 30 minutes as was common with existing code-breaking machines. The Code Talkers participated in every major Marine operation in the Pacific theater, giving the Marines a critical advantage throughout the war. During the nearly month-long battle for Iwo Jima, for example, six Navajo Code Talker Marines successfully transmitted more than 800 messages without error. Marine leadership noted after the battle that the Code Talkers were critical to the victory at Iwo Jima. At the end of the war, the Navajo Code remained unbroken.