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Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia
The Italian victory in the war coincided with the zenith of the international popularity of dictator Benito Mussolini's Fascist regime, during which colonialist leaders praised Mussolini for his actions. The victory also brought Mussolini unprecedented popularity within Italy. Shortly after the war, Ethiopia was consolidated with Eritrea and Italian Somaliland into Italian East Africa. -
Hitler Invades Poland
German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident. As the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, the Germans gained an undisputed advantage -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
The Declaration of war by France and the United Kingdom was given on 3 September 1939, after German forces invaded Poland. Despite the speech being the official announcement of both France and the United Kingdom, the speech was given by the British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, in Westminster, London. -
German 'Blitzkrieg' overwhelms Belgium, Holland and France.
The Battle of France was the German invasion of France and the Low Countries in 1940 during the Second World War. In six weeks from 10 May 1940, German forces defeated Allied forces by mobile operations and conquered France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, bringing land operations on the Western Front to an end until 6 June 1944. Italy entered the war on 10 June 1940 and attempted an invasion of France. -
Britain forces Hitler to postpone invasion plans.
In September 1939 the German invasion of Poland was a success, but this infringed on both a French and a British alliance with Poland, and both countries declared war on Germany. On 9 October his "Directive No. 6 for the Conduct of the War" planned an offensive to defeat these allies and "win as much territory as possible in Holland, Belgium, and northern France to serve as a base for the successful prosecution of the air and sea war against England". -
Hitler begins Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of Russia.
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germany's World War II invasion of the Soviet Union, which was launched on Sunday, 22 June 1941. The operation was driven primarily by an ideological desire to conquer the Western Soviet Union so that it could be repopulated by Germans. -
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, and the US enters the war.
Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions they planned in Southeast Asia against overseas territories of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and the United States. -
American naval victory at Battle of Midway, marks turning point in Pacific War
The Japanese operation, like the earlier attack on Pearl Harbor, sought to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific, thereby giving Japan a free hand in establishing its Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. -
D Day: The Allied invasion of France
The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault—the landing of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian airborne troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armoured divisions began landing on the coast of France at 06:30. -
Auschwitz liberated by Soviet troops.
In mid-January 1945, as Soviet forces approached the Auschwitz camp complex, the SS began evacuating Auschwitz and its satellite camps. Nearly 60,000 prisoners were forced to march west from the Auschwitz camp system.
