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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
He joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers' Party, better known as the Nazi Party. -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Establishing a totalitarian regime in Italy, wehre unemployment and inflation produced bitter strikes, some communist-led. Established Fascist party. -
Mein Kampf
My struggle. Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Ignoring protests of more moderate Japanese officials, the militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control of the CHinese province of Manchuria in 1931 -
Storm troopers
6 million Germans were unemplyed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler's private army, the story troopers -
Third Reich
In its place he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a 'Thousand-Year Reich"-- It would last for a thousand years. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
A year later, he sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
On October 3, 1935, Italy attacked Ethiopia from Eritrea and Italian Somaliland without a declaration of war. On October 7, the League of Nations unanimously declared Italy an aggressor but took no effective action. -
Hitler's Anschluss
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria. Hitler announced his Anschluss, and a plebiscite was finally held on April 10. -
Munich Agreement
a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich, Germany, among the major powers of Europe, without the presence of Czechoslovakia -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Stalin, had firmly established a totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizen. -
Francisco Franco
was the dictator of Spain from 1939 to his death in 1975. Coming from a military background, he became the youngest general in Europe in the 1920s. -
Nonaggression pact
a national treaty between two or more states/countries agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations. Sometimes such a pact may include a pledge of avoiding armed conflict even if participants find themselves fighting third countries, including allies of one of the participants -
Blitzkrieg
a method of warfare whereby an attacking force spearheaded by a dense concentration of armoured and motorized or mechanized infantry formations, and heavily backed up by close air support,[6] forces a breakthrough into the enemy's line of defense through a series of short, fast, powerful attacks; and once in the enemy's territory, proceeds to dislocate them using speed and surprise, and then encircle them -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
The first casualty of that declaration was not German—but the British ocean liner Athenia, which was sunk by a German U-30 submarine that had assumed the liner was armed and belligerent. -
U.S. convoy system
The convoy system, which can be defined as a group of merchant vessels sailing together, with or without naval escort, for mutual security and protection, has a much longer history than sometimes suggested. It was commonly employed during the Age of Sail, notably by British vessels under threat from French and US commerce raiders, and indeed probably has its origins in ancient times. -
Battle of the Atlantic
the longest continuous military campaign[4][5] in World War II, running from 1939 to the defeat of Germany in 1945. At its core was the Allied naval blockade of Germany, announced the day after the declaration of war, and Germany's subsequent counter-blockade. It was at its height from mid-1940 through to the end of 1943. -
Phony war
a phase early in World War II that was marked by a lack of major military operations by the Western Allies (the United Kingdom and France) against the German Reich. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
The Netherlands had originally hoped to stay neutral when war broke out in 1939, but this wish was ignored. On 15 May 1940, one day after the bombing of Rotterdam, the Dutch forces surrendered. Subsequently the Dutch government and the royal family went into exile in London. -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
A period of inaction, called the Phoney War, then followed between the Allies and Germany.[17] On 10 May 1940, this period ended as the Germans launched an offensive against France and, for reasons of military strategy, also attacked the neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
was a French general who reached the distinction of Marshal of France, and was later Chief of State of Vichy France, from 1940 to 1944. Pétain, who was 84 years old in 1940, ranks as France's oldest head of state -
The Battle of Britain
the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
German forces were able to slip through the mines Britain had laid around Norwegian ports because local garrisons were ordered to allow the Germans to land unopposed. The order came from a Norwegian commander loyal to Norway's pro-fascist former foreign minister Vidkun Quisling. -
Pearl Harbor attack
was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II -
Unconditional surrender
a surrender in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological pressure on a weaker adversary, but may also prolong hostilities. Perhaps the most notable unconditional surrender was by the Axis powers in World War II. -
Battle of Stalingrad
a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd) in the south-western Soviet Union. Marked by constant close quarters combat and disregard for military and civilian casualties, it is amongst the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare -
Operation Torch
the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War. The Soviet Union had pressed the United States and United Kingdom to start operations in Europe and open a second front to reduce the pressure of German forces on the Soviet troops. -
Bloody Anzio
troops of the Fifth Army swarmed ashore on a fifteen-mile stretch of Italian beach near the prewar resort towns of Anzio and Nettuno. The landings were carried out so flawlessly and German resistance was so light that British and American units gained their first day's objectives by noon, moving three to four miles inland by nightfall. -
D-Day
the day of the Normandy landings — initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi occupation during World War II. However, many other invasions and operations had a designated D-Day, both before and after that operation. -
The Battle of the Bulge
a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. -
Death of Hitler
committed suicide with him by ingesting cyanide.[d] That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. Records in the Soviet archives show that their burnt remains were recovered and interred in successive locations until 1970, when they were again exhumed, cremated, and the ashes scattered. -
V-E Day
It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. On 30 April, Adolf Hitler, the Nazi leader, committed suicide during the Battle of Berlin. Germany's surrender, therefore, was authorized by his successor, Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz. The administration headed by Dönitz was known as the Flensburg government. -
Harry S. Truman
The final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when Roosevelt died after months of declining health. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
is a 1949 book by British historian Elizabeth Wiskemann. It is a study of the Axis alliance of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany with particular emphasis on the relationship between Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler.
