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World War 1
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The Assassination of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand
known as the catalyst and major trigger for The Great War, the assassination of the Austrian-Hungary heir Franz Ferdinand is hailed as the starting point of the catastrophic battle. -
The Austrians Declare War
After sending a list of repercussions to Serbia which had not been fulfilled- Austria-Hungary declared war officially, a month after the assassination took place. -
Germany Invades Belgium & Britain Joins the War
to be able to enact the Sheffield plan, Germany needed to invade France and so they opted to go through Belgium- However they were met with resistance and upon seeing their neutral ally Belgium being attacked the British also joined. -
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The First Battle of Marne & The Start of Trench Warfare
as part of the Sheffield Plan, Germany attacked Marne hoping to gain a quick victory and then take the rest of France- however this was not the outcome- instead the Allies had won and forced the Germans to retreat and give up some of north-eastern France, as well as to start digging trenches, which became a corner stone of the war. -
The Ottomans Attack
The Ottomans were also keen on joining world war 1 and to do so attacked Russia in "The Black Sea Raid" on the 19th of October- officially joining the central powers a few days later. -
The Second Battle of Ypres
This battle is monumental as it was the first times chemical warfare was introduced- in the form of gas attacks by the Germans. It was fought against the Canadians and though the Germans had the upper hand they were unable to exploit it. -
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Campaign of Gallipoli
The Allies believed that they would easily be able to attack and defeat the Ottoman empire out of the war- however they were mistaken when all their minor troops travelling to Istanbul were captured and defeated. -
Italy Joins in
After signing the London Treaty where Italy negotiated for land after join the Allied forces- they officially broke their alliance with the central powers and supported the British. -
Battle of Jutland
This battle was significant as it was the only time the German and British 'dreadnaught' ships went head to head in a battle. The battle only lasted for a few hours and ended in a stalemate- but still dealt a loss to the expensive fleets. -
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The Attack on Verdun
After exhausting so many resourced the Germans launched a desperate attack on Verdun, an important city for the french. Seeking to not only take a central city the Germans hoped the French would desperately and messily make a counter attack- and the ploy went exactly as planned- being a major blow for the french. -
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The Battle of Somme
The French in a desperate move joined efforts with the British to attack German troops at Somme. This is considered the worst battle in WW1 with 60,000 British casualties on day one. It extended Trench Warfare all the way to Belgium and made the living conditions even worse due to the river Somme carrying disease and turning the land to marsh. -
The Russian Revolution
The Russian Revolution played a major part in ww1. After Tsar Nicholas II was over thrown by the Bolsheviks- they had pulled out of the war officially. This was a relief and victory for the Central Powers on the Eastern Front as a major power had just surrendered. -
The Americans Arrive
After the sinking of a passenger ship by the Germans- tensions arose between the USA and Germany. However America officially joined after the British intercepted a message in which the Germans were trying to persuade Mexico to attack the United States. -
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The Third Ypress Campaign
In a desperate attempt to get out of their poor positioning in the salient- the Allies had launched an almost 5 month long campaign to take the city of Passchendaele. Mud and rain defined the battle- making it hard to fight off the enemy lines and casualties were heavy. However the Allies succeeded and were able to threaten the submarine base residing close by. -
Austria-Hungary Surrenders
After much pressure from the eastern and western fronts- with their less than spectacular military, eventually Austria-Hungary agreed with the Allies to surrender and were the last of Germany's allies to pull out the war. Leaving Germany alone to defend itself, which too would surrender after just 6 days. -
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A Period of Healing/Mourning
After WW1 the destruction was immense- causing something known as the "The Great Depression" which was a global economic crisis. After this people tried to rebuild their lives and try to regain the lifestyles they lived pre-war, hoping and praying that we would learn from our mistakes- and that history wouldn’t repeat itself. -
The Treaty of Versailles.
After almost 5 years of rigorous fighting Germany had surrendered and signed the Treaty of Versailles, in which it agreed to pay repercussions, give up its international territories and to scale down its military by a major amount. -
World War 2 (the sequel)
After World War 1 a man name Hitler was outraged by the Treaty of Versailles and rallied the Germans to create a German Empire. By spreading his Fascist-Nazi ideology's he was able to reignite the Germans and told them that they deserved to take over the world- or for now Europe, and in doing so started World War 2 -
Hitler's Invasion of Poland
As a way to avoid conflict the British Prime Minister Chamberlain allowed for a treaty of 'appeasement' in which Hitler was able to expand territory in certain countries- however when Hitler was seen preparing for an invasion of Poland he was told if he went through with it- Britain would declare war. Hitler however did not heed this warning and (because he's Hitler) invaded Poland with the help of the Soviet Union. -
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The Phoney/Sitting war
After the invasion of Poland Britain, France and all of its colony's had declared war of Germany but didn’t do much to stop it. It was more bark no bite as the French had no resources to actually attack Germany or any modern weaponry which would help fight. German troops had marched into Belgium, Luxembourg etc- but were not met with any resistance. This includes attacks on, Denmark, Finland and the dropping of peace leaflets from the British -
Germans Invade Norway
After the allies were planning an attack of Norways Iron supply- Germany had decided to invade and colonise it. This is because Noway was a major supplier of iron and good for the Germans which is why it was a necessary area. -
The Fall Of France
Through the form of Blitzkreg and strategical planning Germany was able to flank the main Allied forces troops and made Britain retreat. This left only the weaker troops which the Germans defeated with ease- allowing them to march into Paris and take the rest of France. -
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The Blitz
A period in which Hitler ordered Air Raids on Britain in order to destroy morale and weaken supplies- however the British did not falter and instead their RAF grew which new radar technology as Hitler focused his efforts on civilian raids instead of bombing military bases. -
Tripartite Pact (Germany, Japan, Italy)
To strengthen their ties and alliance due to their correlating ideologies. For this reason they signed the Tripartite/Berlin Pact where they agreed that they were each others allies and that one's enemies were all of the their enemies. -
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Operation Barbarossa/Germany's Betrayal
After getting greedy and cocky Hitler started to invade its ally USSR. Stalin however did not react instead telling his troops to retreat until the suburbs of Moscow. however by the time they reached it was already winter- a fierce winter at that. The Germans were unprepared for the cold weather while the Russians were specially trained in it. This allowed for Stalin to push all the way back to Berlin. -
The Defeat Of Italy
After the axis powers were weakened the allies had taken to Sicily in order to defeat Mussolini. This invasion was successful as without Hitler's support Italy was quite pathetic. The allies had captured
Sicily and then the rest of the Italian country- the government later over throwing Mussolini. -
Pearl Harbour is Attacked
Pearl Harbour was on the western side of America and was bombed by imperialist Japan as they thought they may be able to conflict much damage onto them- however this backfired as it just caused the USA, a major superpower to join in to the conflict and later be a major help in the defeat of the axis powers. -
D-Day
After the USA joined they along with the other axis powers planned to bring their troops to Normandy and attack German occupied France. This is know as 'doomsday' as it was the worst and bloodiest battle in both the world wars. It however did allow for France to be liberated after a few weeks. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
After a long and hard battle- Hitler after killing 6 million Jews, brainwashing millions of the German youth's, killing hundreds of thousands of soldiers- he along with his then wife went into a Soviet Union bunker and drank a vile of poison- committing suicide and marking the end of the Nazi regime. -
The USA Nukes Japan
After the European axis powers surrendered it was only japan that had yet to pull out of the war. They were adamant about continuing their efforts which caused the USA's president- Teddy Roosevelt to send a threat to japan. When Japan did not heed the warning they went ahead and dropped the "little boy" atomic bomb on Hiroshima- and then Nagasaki a few days later. -
Japan Surrenders and World War 2 Ends (officially)
After threats of nuclear warfare from America and troops being stationed at the Japan-Russia border the Japanese finally admitted to surrender and it was officially declared the end of World War 2 and its atrocities.