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Poland defeated
Germans and Russians occupied Poland. The territory was divided up between Germany and the USSR. -
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Phoney War
It was a five-month pause (called 'Phoney War' by the American press). In the east, Russians took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and invaded Finland. Meanwhile, French and Germans manned their defences. -
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The Battle of the Atlantic
This was the struggle against German U-boats attempting to deprive Britain of food and raw materials.
The reasons for the Allied success were:
-More air protection was provided for convoys by long-range Liberators
-Both escorts and aircraft improved with experience
-The British introduced the new centimetric radar sets, which were small enough tobe fitted into aircraft; these enabled submarines to be detected in poor visibility andat night. -
Denmark and Norway invaded
Hitler's troops occupied Denmark and landed at the main Norwegian ports, ending the calm of the Phoney War. -
Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France
The three attacks were launched simultaneously. The Dutch surrendered after four days, and Belgium surrendered at the end of May. -
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Dunkirk's evacuation
The British navy played a vital role, as it evacuated over 338000 troops from Dunkirk, which would have been impossible if Hitler had not ordered the German advance towards Dunkirk to halt. -
France was captured
The Germans captured Paris on 14 June, and France surrendered on 22 June. They occupied the north part of the country and the Atlantic coast. -
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The Battle of Britain
Goering's Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. When Hitler noticed that British air power was far from being destroyed, he called off the invasion. The British succeed, demonstrating that Germans were not invincible. -
Mussolini invaded Egypt
The Italian leader sent an army to Egypt while another army invaded Greece. However, the British drove the Italians out of Egypt, pushed them back far into Libya and defeated them at Bedafomm. -
The campaign in North Africa
In February, Hitler sent Rommel and the Afrika Korps to Tripoli, and together with the Italians, they drove the British out of Libya. -
Greece was invaded
In April 1941, Hitler's forces invaded Greece, the day after 60 000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops had arrived to help the Greeks. The Germans soon captured Athens, forcing the British to withdraw. -
The German invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
'Hitler invaded Russia for the simple and sufficient reason that he had always meant to establish the foundations of his thousand-year Reich by the annexation of the territory lying between the Vistula and the Urals.' -
The USA enters the war
The USA was brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (their naval base in the Hawaiian Islands) on 7 December 1941. -
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The Holocaust
There were at least 20 camps set up by the Germans to carry out what they called the 'Final Solution' of the 'Jewish problem'. Between December 1941, when the first Jews were killed at Chelmno in Poland, and May 1945 when the Germans surrendered, 5.7 million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of non-Jews: gypsies, socialists, communists, homosexuals and the mentally handicapped. -
Japanese control of the Pacific
The Pearl Harbor event gave the Japanese the control of the Pacific, and by May they had captured Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Burma, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and two American possessions, Guam and Wake Island. -
Midway Island
At Midway Island in the Pacific the Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack. The US soldiers, with only three carriers and 233 planes, destroyed four of the Japanese carriers and about 330 planes.Meanwhile, Germans were in Egypt. -
Stalingrad
The Germans reached Stalingrad at the end of August, but though they destroyed the city, Russians refused to surrender. Six months later, after being counter-attacked, the Germans surrendered. -
El Alamein
The Afrika Korps were driven back by the British Eighth Army. This event led on to the complete expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa. -
The fall of Italy
This was the first stage in the Axis collapse. British and American troops landed in Sicily and captured the island, causing the downfall of Mussolini. -
Naples' capture
Allied troops crossed to Salerno, Reggio and Taranto on the mainland and captured Naples. -
Operation Overlord
That was the name given to the invasion of France, which began on "D-Day", 6 June. The landings took place from sea and air, and even though there was German resistance, at the end of the first week about 326000 men landed safely. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Germans broke through the American lines and advanced 60 miles, causing a huge bulge in the front line. -
Germany surrenders
Early in 1945, Germany was being invaded on both fronts, from east and west. The British still wanted to push ahead and take Berlin before the Russians, but supreme commander Eisenhower refused to be hurried, and Berlin fell to Stalin's forces in April. Hitler committed suicide and seven days later Germany surrendered. -
The defeat of Japan
On 6 August 1945 the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing as many as 84 000 people and leaving thousands more slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Three days later they dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which killed another 40 000. After these tragic events, the Japanese government surrendered. The dropping of these bombs was one of the most controversial actions of the entire war. -
The United Nations Organization
This emerged as the successor of the League of Nations, and its main aim was to try to maintain world peace.
