[vabhi]

Canadian soldiers from the 6th Platoon, Bulldog Company, 1st Battalion, 22nd Royal Regiment search inside a barn during a patrol in the Panjwai district, on June 13, 2011

[vabhi]

U.S. Army soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, B battery 2-8 field artillery, fire an artillery piece at Seprwan Ghar forward fire base in Panjwai district, Kandahar, on June 12, 2011

[vabhi]

Jonathan Chalifoux, 23, of Germanville, Quebec, Canada, with the Canadian Army's 1st Battalion 22nd Royal Regiment, takes cover as a controlled detonation goes off in the background during an operation on Sunday, June 26, 2011 in the Panjwaii district, Afghanistan

[vabhi]

Foreign soldiers leave the Intercontinental Hotel at the end of a military operation against Taliban militants who had stormed the hotel in Kabul, on June 29, 2011. Taliban suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul sparking a five-hour battle with Afghan commandos backed by a NATO helicopter gunship in an assault that left at least 10 people dead

[vabhi]

A Royal Air Force GR4 Tornado maneuvers into position during an air refueling mission supporting Operation Enduring Freedom over Afghanistan, on June 3, 2011

[WetDesert]

The outcome of the WW and therefore European/Asian geography could have been very different had it NOT been for this strategic error.

[vabhi]

Originally Posted by WetDesert

The outcome of the WW and therefore European/Asian geography could have been very different had it NOT been for this strategic error.

true,hitler should have listened to his generals Who advised him not to invade Russia and he should have learned from Napoleon experiences in doing the same a century earlier.

[vabhi]

World War II: The Invasion of Poland and the Winter War

[vabhi]

In August of 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed a non-aggression treaty -- one week later, Germany invaded Poland and World War II began. The first attack of the war took place on September 1, 1939, as German aircraft attacked the Polish town of Wielun, killing nearly 1,200. Five minutes later, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on a transit depot at Westerplatte in the Free City of Danzig. Within days, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany and began mobilizing their armies and preparing their civilians. On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Polish forces surrendered in early October after losing some 65,000 troops and many thousands of civilians. In November, Soviet forces invaded Finland and began a months-long battle dubbed the Winter War. By the beginning of 1940, Germany was finalizing plans for the invasions of Denmark and Norway. Collected here are images of these tumultuous first months and of Allied forces preparing for the arduous battles to come

[vabhi]

View of an undamaged Polish city from the cockpit of a German medium bomber aircraft, likely a Heinkel He 111 P, in 1939