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The "phoney war"
Very little happened in the west for the next five months but in the east the Russians took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and invaded Finland (November). At the same time French and Germans manned their defenses. This lack of action was described by American press as the 'phoney war'. -
Poland defeated
The Poles were defeated swiftly by the German Blitzkrieg, which they were ill-equipped to deal with. Poland was divided up between Germany and the USSR (as agreed in the pact of August 1939) -
Denmark and Norway invaded
Hitler's troops occupied Denmark and landed at the main Norwegian ports in April 1940. This event ended the apparent calm of the "phoney war" -
Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France
Attacks were made on Holland, Belgium and France almost simultaneously. The Dutch surrendered after four days and Belgium held out for longer, but they surrender at the end of May. -
The battle of Britain
This is the first turning point of the war. It was fought in the air, when Goering's Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. Hitler bombed London in retaliation, for a British raid on Berlin. The British succeed, demonstrating that Germans were not invincible. This battled took place between August 12 to September 30. -
France surrendered and Paris captured
The Germans captured Paris on 14 June, and France surrendered on 22 June. They occupied northern France and the Atlantic coast, giving them valuable submarine bases, and the French army was demobilized. -
Mussolini invades Egypt
Mussolini sent an Italian army to Libya, in September, while another Italian army invaded Greece from Albania. However, the British soon drove the Italians out of Egypt, pushed them back far into Libya and defeated them at Bedafomm. -
North Africa and Greece
Hitler´s first moves in February 1941 were to help out his faltering ally. He sent Rommel and the Afrika Korps to Tripoli, and together with the Italians, they drove the British out of Libya. Later in April, Hitler´s forces invaded Greece. -
Operation Barbarossa
The German attack on Russia was three-pronged: in the north towards Leningrad, in the centre towards Moscow and in the south through the Ukraine. Finally, It´s forces failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow. -
The USA enters the war
The USA was brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Japanese motives for the attack were tied up with economic problems -
Stalingrad
German troops reached Stalingrad at the end of August, but Russians refused to surrender. Six months later, after being counter-attacked, the Germans had no reasonable alternative but to surrender. -
Midway Island
The Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack by destroying four of the Japanese carriers and about 330 planes. This battle seriously weakened the Japanese and proved to be a crucial turning point in the battle for the Pacific. -
El Alamein
In October, Rommel´s Afrika Korps were driven back by the British Eighth Army. This was another turning point in the war because It prevented Egypt and the Suez Canal from falling into German hands and it ended the possibility of a link-up between the Axis forces in the Middle East and those in the Ukraine.This event also 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 from the sea and air and captured the whole island, causing the downfall of Mussolini. -
Operation Overload
This invasion of France began on 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 with tanks and heavy lorries had landed safely. -
The assault on Germany
Early in 1945, Germany was being invaded in both fronts, from east and west. The British 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. After that, Hitler committed suicide and Germany surrendered. -
The defeat of Japan
The Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, and three days later an atomic bomb on Nagasaki. Thousands of people were killed and thousands more slowly died of radiation poisoning. After this the Japanese government surrendered.
