17 March — World War II: The Nazis execute almost 400 prisoners, Soviet citizens and anti-fascist Romanians atRîbniţa.
19 March — World War II: Germany'sPanzerfaust occupy Hungary.
23 March — World War II: Members of theItalian Resistance attackNazis marching in Via Rasella, killing 33.
9 May — World War II: In the Ukrainian city ofSevastopol, Soviet troops completely drive out German forces, who had been ordered byHitler to “fight to the last man.”[1]
12 May — World War II: Soviet troops finalize the liberation of theCrimea.
15 May — Holocaust: Deportation ofHungarian Jews to Auschwitz begins.
June — GermanV-2rockets on test fromPeenemünde become the first man-made objects to enter space. By the end of the month, more than 380,000 Hungarian Jews have been transferred to concentration camps - around half of the country's Jewish population.
4 June — World War II: A hunter-killer group of theUnited States Navy captures theGerman submarine U-505, marking the first time a U.S. Navy vessel has captured an enemy vessel at sea since the 19th century.
5 June — World War II: More than 1,000British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on theNormandy coast in preparation forD-Day.
5 June — The German Navy'sEnigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
6 June — World War II:Battle of Normandy:Operation Overlord, commonly known asD-Day, commences with the landing of 155,000Allied troops on the beaches ofNormandy inFrance. The Allied soldiers quickly break through theAtlantic Wall and push inland, in the largest amphibiousmilitary operation in history. This operation helpsliberate France from Germany, and also weakens the Nazi hold onEurope.
22 June — World War II:Operation Bagration: A general attack bySoviet forces clears the German forces fromBelarus, resulting in the destruction of GermanArmy Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
3 July — World War II: Soviet troops liberateMinsk.
7 July — Holocaust: Hungarian Regent Horthy orders Jewish transports to Auschwitz halted; 437,000 Jews have already been deported, mostly to their deaths.
10 July — World War II: Soviet troops begin operations to occupy theBaltic countries.
2 August — World War II:Turkey ends diplomatic and economic relations with Germany.
4 August — Holocaust: A tip from aDutch informer leads theGestapo to a sealed-off area in anAmsterdam warehouse, where they findJewish diaristAnne Frank and her family.
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg)
.jpg)
.svg)
