World War II Victory: The Pivotal Events That won The War

In any conflict, there are moments, particularly in retrospect, that take on significance. These are the times when things might have gone otherwise and the fact that they didn’t turns out to be supremely important. In the massive, unforgettable, profoundly significant clash of freedom versus fascism known as World War II, there were many such moments. 

We present our selection of 10 such events. In every case we are left to wonder about alternative outcomes. If Hitler could have been persuaded not to invade Poland, if a negotiated settlement could have been reached between Germany and Britain and France, perhaps the entire tragedy of World War II might have been averted. But of course, Hitler being Hitler, such a settlement was impossible; his dreams of conquest were all consuming to allow for any respite. War was inevitable. 

And what if the Japanese had never bombed Pearl Harbor? How long would it have taken FDR to persuade a reluctant American public to take up arms against the forces of fascism that were sweeping the globe? And, assuming he did success in getting the U.S. into the war, just how costly might a significant delay have been? Might it have changed the course of the war? 

The other eight turning points we discuss all the same sort of speculation. What if Britain had not been successfully invaded? What if U.S. code breakers had not caught wind of the Japanese plans at Midway and the American fleet had been decisively destroyed? What if Hitler had succeeded in subjugating the Soviet Union, allowing him to concentrate his efforts solely in the west? In each of these cases, it is entirely possible that the outcome of the war might have been quite different had events not unfolded as they did. 

Join us as we describe the Invasion of Poland, Battle of Britain, Battle of Moscow, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Stalingrad, The Aerial Game Changer, Battle of the Bulge, The Dropping of the Atomic Bomb and more.