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Hitler Becomes Chancellor
Hitler became very popular among the people. He did this because he would aften criticise the Treaty of Versailles. He also heavily criticised communism through propoganda. This lead him to be very popular among the people of Germany and allowed him to be appointed as chancellor. Once opointed he asserted himself as a totalitarian dictator. -
Neutrality Acts
The Neutrality Acts were a series of acts created by the United States Congress that were geared toward keeping the United States out of another war. The acts passed between 1935 contained provisions limiting arms sales to nations that were not at war. gave the United States the power to prohibit loans to some nations and nations that were not repaying previous debts. However, once war actually broke out, the arms embargo was repealed. -
Munich Conference
At the Munich Conference Hitler met with representatives from France, the UK, and Italy. An agreement was reached that Hitler could annex the Sudetenland as long as he didn't invade anywhere else. All four contries signed it and saw it as a way of avoiding war. In March of 1939 Germany broke the aggreement by invading and annexing Czechslovakia. -
Phony War Begins
After Britain and France declared war on Germany, they mobilized their armies. They stationed their troops at Maginot Line. It was a system of fortifications along France's border with Germany. There they waited for the Germans to attack but nothing happened. Both sides did nothing and simply stared at each other across the border. -
Fall of France
German armoured units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium. France, having faced little fighting, was not prepared for the German forces. As the Germans pushed up from the south, the British were forced to retreat. France was then divided into a German occupation zone in the north and west, a small Italian occupation zone in the southeast, and an unoccupied zone, the zone libre, in the south. -
Hitler Invades Russia
On this date German troops moved into Russia from the west and south. A third group moved in from the north toward Leningrad. Germany is thought to have committed a massive force of more than three million men, supported by more than 3,000 tanks, 7,000 guns and nearly 3,000 aircraft. Stalin was taken by suprise and the Germans moved fast and took over the first posts. Stalin was probably caught off guard because his army vastly outnumbered the Germans. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Considered by most to be the greatest battle of the war. Hitler divided his troops and had half try to take the oil fields near stalingrad and the other half were to take the city itself. On January 30, Hitler promoted Paulus to field marshal. The next day, Paulus was captured when the Soviets overran his headquarters. On February 2, 1943, the final pocket of German resistance surrendered, ending over five months of fighting. -
Battle of the Buldge
German tanks broke through weak American defenses along a 75 mile front in the Ardennes. The push into alllied lines gave the campaign its name. A crucial German shortage of fuel and the great amount of American troops fighting in the frozen forests of the Ardennes proved fatal to Hitler's ambition to grasp, if not victory, at least a draw with the Allies in the west. The Germans had little choice but to retreat, since there were no reinforcements availible. -
Hiroshima
Together with the United Kingdom and the Republic of China, the United States called for a surrender of Japan in the Potsdam Declaration on July 26, 1945. President Harry S. Truman, the U.S. dropped the nuclear weapon "Little Boy" on the city of Hiroshima on Monday, August 6, 1945. Then followed by the detonation of "Fat Man" over Nagasaki on August 9. This atomic bomb was the equivalent of 20,000 tons of TNT. Truman dropped the bombs in an effort to save American lives from fighting in Japan. -
Japan Surrenders Ending the War
On September 2, 1945 the Japenese surrendered ending the brutal six year war. In the presence of 50 Allied generals and other officials, the Japanese comanders boarded the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay to sign the surrender document. Under the terms of the ceasefire, Japan agreed to end all hostilities, release all prisoners of war, and comply with the terms of the Potsdam declaration. The Japanese Prime Minister broadcast an appeal to his people to obey the terms of the surrender.
