-
Invasion of Poland
. In August 1939 Hitler sign an nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union with the agreement that both powers would invade and spilt Poland between the two counties. On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland and defeat the polish army in a matter of weeks. -
Britain & France Declare War on Germany
In response to Poland's invasion, both the Britain and France set Hilter an ultimatum threatening war if Hitler didn't remove his troops that they would declare war. When Hitler failed to respond Britain and France allied together and decrlared war on Germay. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minster of Britain
Churchills predecessor Neville Chamberlain had become unpopular by failing to stop the war in the first place. Chamberlain first appointed Churchill First Lord of the Admiralty at the started of the war but by 1940 due to delays in sercuing strategic towns in neutral Norway allowing the Nazis to invade they Prime Minster was a force to resign. Chamberlain step aside for Churchill. -
Period: to
Evacuation of Dunkirk Part 2
There were not enough ship in the navy to evacuate all the troops in Dunkirk so the navy set out a request for all British citizens with a boat to help with the evacuation. Hundreds of fishing ships, yachts and ferries battled through the German airforce, bombs and torpedoes to get to Dunkirk. Thanks to the citizen's boat and the Royal Air Force or RAF holding of the Luftwaffe by June 4th 338,000 bbritish troop were recused for the beach. -
Period: to
Evacuation of Dunkirk
By May the Nazis had taken control of Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg and were now making their way into France. The Nazis had a better air force and mobile land units and quickly surrendered the allies into the northern town of Dunkirk in France. The German land units fall back when Hermann Goering head of the Luftwaffe convinced Hitler that they could wipe out the allied force with he's aircrafts. On May 26 the British begin Operation Dynamo to evacuate Dunkirk. -
Operation Sea Lion
This was a codename given by Hilter in his plan to invade Great Britain. The plan was to send three different units to land in Kent, Sussex and Dorset and then advance to key cities like London. The key to this plan working was to first have the Nazis control the English channel and the skies so the RAF couldnt attack German ship.This lead to the Battle of Britian. -
Italy enters the War
Up until this point, Itlay had no formal allegiance with either side of the conflict. Italy was wariy of war due to it lack of resourse but could clearly see that it facists counter part was quick taking control of the europue.Italys leader Benito Mussolini entered inot the war on the axis side with nazi germany. -
Period: to
Battle of Britain
With France in Nazi control, Britain was all that stood alone against Germany. The RAF had to stop the Luftwaffe from gaining air superiority in what would be the first all air fight in history. Luckey for Great Britain when it had strong air crafts and well-trained pilots while the Luftwaffe had suffered heavy losses from the fight in western Europe and couldn't have launched a sea attack after their conquest of Norway. The German also had poor intelligence of Britain weakness. -
Period: to
Battle of Britain part 2
They soon turn to attacking RAF air bases to reduce the British air power. Both sides had heavy losses with 21% of RAF pilots of 16% dying each mouth for the 3 months of fighting. When the British bombed Berlin in September on bad intelligence the German then moved their target to London in two different air strikes. While the first what well the second failed with not only heavy losses to the German but also loss of morale. Hitler then gave up his plans for Britain. -
France to surrenders
Germany had all ready taken control of the countries captial Paris on June 12. The French Prime Minister Henri Petain agrees to sign a armistices with Hitler. As was the terms of the armistice the nazis took control of the northern half of france whilie Petain got to keep the southern half. During the rest of the war Petain and his goverment cooperate with germany. -
Tripartite Pact signed
Leaders from Italy, Germany and Japan sign an agreement making them the axis powers in Berlin.They agree that if any neutral countries attack one of them the other would attack that country together. This was signed to warning to stop the US from entering the war for the allies. -
Siege of Tobruk
Germany than begins to move into North Africa. They surprised the Brtish by capturing the city of El Agheil on March 24 and kept on moving east pushing the British and Australians force back to the coastal Libyan city of Tobruk. The Germans tried to get to the cities both with air strikes, sea and land attacks. 62,000 soldiers from both sides were killed during the siege but the allies managed to drive the axis off and win. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Even though the US was not official in the War it was a concern for the axis power especially Japan that had a trading embargo against it and had already argued the US by sinking an American gunboat in the Yangtze River, killing three sailors. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto believed that a surprise attack against America would scare them out of the war for good. From 7-9AM over 200 Japanese aircraft bombed the air base killing 2,403 civilians and military personnel killed. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
Only a day after the Perl Habour bombing US president Franklin Roosevelt revises the go head of Congress to declare on the Empire of Japan.Even before entering the war the US was aided the allies with equipment and financial help.Now they jioned them and Great Britian also declared war on Japan. -
Japan takes Singapore
This is considered one of the greatest allied and Brtish defeats during the war. The Japanese used a tactic of speed and savagery to take the island which was a major part of the Brtish empire and was considered up until then to be untakable as the islands defensives were only improved by the Brtish in 1938. The British also lost the island due to the fact that they beileved that the japanese were bad fighters. -
Period: to
First Battle of El Alamein
With the axe gaining ground in Europe the war in North Africa was significant if the allies had any chance of winning. The allies need the Suez Canal in Eqypt to supply troops. Churchill desperate for a victory as morale was very low in Britain. The battle was a tie but could have been a British defence if not thank field marshall Bernard Montgomery empolying 300 M4 sherman tanks. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after Peral Habour japan and the US had one of the most decisive naval battles of the war. The Japanese what the Midway island and set out a bulk of their Japan against the smaller US fleet and catch them off guard. The US, however, managed to break the code the Japanese were using and were ready for the attack. The battle lasted 3 day before the Japanese retreated after the US sunk 284 ships and aircraft and killed 3,000 of there men. -
Period: to
Battle of Stalingrad
The German were already in a weak palace due to the harsh terran and Russian winters. With the german spiliting up the Russians easily dreafeted the two separate forces.The fight itself was one of the bloodiest in history with 2 million people killed. Not just the spoilers but also civilians. -
Period: to
Battle of Stalingrad
Stalingrad was a large industrial city in western Russia. TThe Germans needed to capture the city to cut southern Russia form the rest of the country by control the Volga River. They also wanted the city for propaganda value based and it has the Soviet leader name. When the Soviets area of this they ordered that anyone strong enough to hold a rifle is sent to fight. The German planned to take the city by having there force spilt up. -
Period: to
Second Battle of El Alamein
With the allied have the upper hand thanks to the 300 Sherman tanks the allies and their leader General Bernard Montgomery easily outfired the German and Italian forces. The axis leader Erwin Rommel order a retreat even though in Hitler had order him to stand and die. -
D-Day Landings
Codenamed Operation Overlord it was an allied plan to liberate occupied France. The Germans were aware of the fact that if an invasion would happen it would be through the English channel but they weren't sure the exact location. The German thought that the allied would land in Pas-de-Calais witch is the narrowest point between Britain and France and had the defences ready there, but the allies had really planned to land in Normandy. Thousands of allied troops landed on Normandy on June 6th. -
Battle of the Bulge
This is known as the largest fight of the western front of the war. The war was beginning to swing the allies way with Soviet force advancing and British and US forces just crossing into Germany. The initially German army was 200,000 while the US and Brtish force only had 80,000 men. At first, it seemed like the Germans were goner win the fight due to them separating the inexperienced American soldier form the British. But the allied ultimately won reinforcements. -
Benito Mussolini executed
With allied troops advancing into Italy Mussolini and his mistress tried to escape to Austria. However, they were captured by Italian resistance fighters at the northern Italian village called Dongo.They then were moved to the village of Mezzegra. Then on April 28 Mussolini his mistress and fifteen ministers were shot and their bodies were displayed to the public. -
Hitler commits suicide
With Germany was being encircled by the Soviet Union to the east and the Britsh on the west Hitler and his ministers fled to his bunker in Berlin. From the bunker, Hitler continued to give order and even married his mistress Eva Braun on 28 of April. With the defeat, imminent Hitler appointed Karl Donitz has his successor. He and his wife then committed suicide by poisoning themselves, Hitler also shot himself with his pistol. -
German forces surrender
Afeld Jodi representing the German army signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces in Reim, France with the US General Dwight Eisenhower, Soviet General Ivan Susloparov and the French General Francois Sevez. -
V.E. day
V.E stands for Victory in Europe. With the war over in the Europe stage. Great Britain, USA and formerly occupied cities celebrated the defeat of the Nazis. -
Soviets declare war on Japan
With the war over in Europe, Russia turns to Asia and declared war on the empire of Japan. Russian troops invaded japanese occpupied Manchuria. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Since entering the war America had been developing an atomic weapon by the time they had successfully made an atomic bomb, Germany had already surrendered. The war with Japan was still raging on through. President Truman ordered the bomb to be dropped on Hiroshima for being a quick end to the war. The blast reduced four square miles of the city to ruins and immediately killed 80,000 people.More die in the following weeks from wounds and radiation poisoning. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Even with the mass destruction of Hiroshima Japan was still not willing to surrender. The US already had another bomb nicknamed 'fat boy' set up to drop on Nagasaki and the original August 11th date was push back to August 9th due to bad weather. The blast of the bomb had the same power as 22,000,000 kilos of TNT. The blast killed between 60,000 and 80,000 people. -
Japanese surrender – End of WWII
With the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan had already lost the war. Japan was devastated both economy and in term of the country itself. On August 10th Japan had accepted Americas offered of peace. On September 2nd Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and General Yoshijiro Umezu signed the unconditional surrender of Japanese forces on the US war ship Missouri. World War 2 was offical over. -
United Nations is born
In April representatives of 50 nations created and signed the U.N. Charters. The Charter was established to outline fundamental human rights, respecting the principles of equal rights of all nations and international cooperation with solving problems around the world.