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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
At the end of WW1 Hitler had been a jobless soldier drifting through Germany. In 1919 he joined a struggling group can the Nstional Socialist German Workers Party, better known as the Nazi party. Hitler proved to be such a public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the party's leader. -
Mein Kampf
Hitler set his basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi plan. Nazism is the German brand of facism, was based on extreme nationalism. -
Benito Mussolini's facist government in Italy
Facism stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. To strengthen the nation, facists argued, power must rest with a single strong leader and a small group of devoted party memeberss. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
, the militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control of
the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Within several months, Japanese
troops controlled the entire province, a large region about twice the size of Texas,
that was rich in natural resources -
Storm troopers
By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who
were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (or Brown Shirts). -
Third Reich
Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. 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
In 1935, he began a military
buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. 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. -
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. The League did nothing to stop Hitler. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
His first target was Ethiopia, one of Africa’s few
remaining independent countries. By the fall of 1935, tens
of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on
Ethiopia. The League of Nations reacted with brave talk of
“collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.”
When the invasion began, however, the League’s
response was an ineffective economic boycott—little more
than a slap on Italy’s wrist. By May 1936, Ethiopia had fallen.
In desperation, Haile Selassie, the ouste -
Francisco Franco
In 1936, a group of
Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco,
rebelled against the Spanish republic. -
Hitler's Anschluss
On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into
Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its
Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. The United
States and the rest of the world did nothing. -
Munich Agreement
In their
eagerness to avoid war, Daladier and Chamberlain chose to believe him. On
September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the
Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Stalin had firmly established a totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
The war forged a close
relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who
signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis.
After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s victory in 1939
established him as Spain’s fascist dictator. Once again a
totalitarian government ruled in Europe. -
The Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, the
Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the
French coast. Because its naval power could not compete
with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at
the same time. -
Nonaggression Pact
As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a
nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fascist
Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. -
Blitzkreig
This invasion was the first
test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war.
Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and
more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all
opposition with overwhelming force. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the terror
in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany -
Phony war
For the next several months after the fall of Poland,
French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortifications
built along France’s eastern border (see map on p. 538), sat
staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On the
Siegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. The
blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg
(“sitting war”), and what some newspapers referred to as the
phony war.
After occupying eastern Poland, Stalin began ann -
Hitler's Invasion of Denmark and Norway
Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion
of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom
and independence.” But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the
coasts to strike at Great Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands,
Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
Hitler’s generals sent their tanks
through the Ardennes, a region of wooded ravines in northeast France, thereby
avoiding British and French troops who thought the Ardennes were impassable.
The Germans continued to march toward Paris. -
Marshal Philippe Petain
Germans would occupy the northern part of
France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, headed
by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy,
in southern France. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
The bomber was followed by
more than 180 Japanese warplanes
launched from six aircraft carriers. As
the first Japanese bombs found their
targets, a radio operator flashed this
message: “Air raid on Pearl Harbor.
This is not a drill.” -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler
ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast. The German
aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from
reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Britain depended on supplies from
the sea. The 3,000-milelong
shipping lanes from
North America were her
lifeline. Hitler knew that
if he cut that lifeline,
Britain would be starved
into submission. -
U.S. Convoy system
Convoys
were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection, as they had done
in the First World War. The convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroyers
equipped with sonar for detecting submarines underwater. They were also
accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The German army confidently approached Stalingrad in August 1942. “To
reach the Volga and take Stalingrad is not so difficult for us,” one German soldier
wrote home. “Victory is not far away.” The Luftwaffe—the German air force—prepared
the way with nightly bombing raids over the city. Nearly every wooden
building in Stalingrad was set ablaze. -
Operation Torch
N Even before the battle in North Africa was won,
Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met in Casablanca. At this meeting,
the two leaders agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers.
That is, enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies
dictated. The two leaders also discussed where to strike next. The Americans argued
that the best approach to victory was to assemble a massive invasion fleet in Britain
and to launch it across the English -
Unconditional Surrender
When defending countries surrender no matter what. -
D-Day
Under Eisenhower’s direction in England, the Allies gathered a force of
nearly 3 million British, American, and Canadian troops, together with mountains
of military equipment and supplies. Eisenhower planned to attack
Normandy in northern France. To keep their plans secret, the Allies set up a huge
phantom army with its own headquarters and equipment. In radio messages they
knew the Germans could read, Allied commanders sent orders to this makebelieve
army to attack the French port of Calais—150 -
Bloody Anzio
This battle, “Bloody
Anzio,” lasted four months—until the end of May 1944—and left about 25,000
Allied and 30,000 Axis casualties. During the year after Anzio, German armies
continued to put up strong resistance. The effort to free Italy did not succeed until
1945, when Germany itself was close to collapse. -
The battle of Bulge
Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory,
creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate lastditch
offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. As the
Germans swept westward, they captured 120 American
GIs near Malmédy. Elite German troops—the SS troopers—herded
the prisoners into a large field and mowed
them down with machine guns and pistols.
The battle raged for a month. When it was over, the
Germans had been pushed back, and little seemed to have
changed. -
Death of Hitler
In his underground headquarters
in Berlin, Hitler prepared
for the end. On April
29, he married Eva Braun, his
longtime companion. The
same day, he wrote out his last
address to the German people.
In it he blamed the Jews for
starting the war and his generals
for losing it. “I die with a
happy heart aware of the
immeasurable deeds of our
soldiers at the front. I myself
and my wife choose to die in
order to escape the disgrace of
. . . capitulation,” he said. The
next day Hitler shot himself
whil -
VE-day
On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in
Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over. -
Harry S. Truman
President Roosevelt did not live to see V-E Day. On
April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president
had a stroke and died. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman
became the nation’s 33rd president.
