World War 2 Timeline

By mkopp14

  • Nazi-Soviet Pact

    the agreement reached in 1939 by Germany and the soviet union in which both agreed not to attack the other in case of war and to divide any conquered territories.

  • Germany Invades Poland

    Germany invades Poland- Beginning of World War 2: Germany seizes Czechoslovakia; Hitler and Stalin sign nonaggression pact; Germany invades Poland, Britain and France declares war on Germany.
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    3 fronts of WW2

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    Japan's holdings in Europe

    Japan had ousted the Europeans from many colonial holdings in Asia, but the Allies turned the tide in 1942 by destroying some of Japan’s formidable navy battles at Midway Island and Guadalcanal.

  • France falls to German Army

    May 10 1940, battle consisted of two main operations, German armored units pushed through Ardennes to cut off and surround the Allied unites that had advanced into Belgium, British Government decided to evacuate the British Expeditionary Force, after this German launched the second part to their invasion, with air superiority.

  • Battle of France

    German launched the Battle of France. The Western Allies soon collapsed under the onslaught of the “blitzkrieg” strategy.

  • Roosevelt requests defense spending

    Roosevelt requests Defense spending: President Franklin. D Roosevelt requests new defense spending, an enlarged army and an expanded air fleet.
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    North African Campaign

    North African Campaign took place in North Africa. Included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts, and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia. Campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers.
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    Battle of Britian

    First major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces and was also the largest and most sustained aerial bombing battle to that date.

  • Germany invades USSR

    June of 1941 Germany crossed the Soviet border, breaking the Nazi- Soviet Pact. Three million German and other troops penetrated Soviet lines along a two thousand mile front
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    Holocaust

    Mass murder/ genocide of about 6 million Jews, a systematic state-sponsored murder led by Hitler and the Nazi Party.

  • Atlantic Charter

    Roosevelt and Churchill crafted the Atlantic Charter, which condemned aggression and endorsed collective security and the right of all people to choose their governments.

  • Pearl Harbor

    Japan launched an all out attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. After the bombing Japanese planes decimated a fleet of airplanes in the Philippines.
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    Japanese conquests

    By the spring of 1942 the Japanese had conquered Guam, the Philippines, Malaya, Burma, Indonesia, Singapore and much of the southwestern Pacific.

  • Grand Alliance

    The Grand Alliance: known as the allied powers consisting of Great Britain, Soviet Union, United States and the French.

  • Axis Powers

    Axis powers, consisting of Germany, Italy, and Japan, manpower and resources were greater than those of the Axis powers.
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    Siege of Stalingrad

    The allies turned the frontline war against the Axis powers. In August 1942 the German army began a siege of this city, whose capture would give Germany access to Soviet soil.

  • D-Day

    Known as D-Day, the combined Allied forces, under the command of U.S general Dwight Eisenhower, attacked the heavily fortified French beaches of Normandy, and then fought their way through the German held territory of western France.

  • Allied Forces land at Normandy

    Allied forces had a firm foothold in Normandy, and continued to create two part operations

  • Churchill & Stalin agree on the postwar distribution

    Churchill and Stalin agreed on the postwar distribution of territories. The Soviet Union would control Romania and Bulgaria; Britain would control Greece and jointly oversee Hungary and Yugoslavia. These agreements went against Roosevelt’s faith in collective security and self-determination.

  • The Big Three

    The “big three”- Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin- met in the Crimean tower of Yalta. Roosevelt advocated the institution of an organization to be called the United Nations to replace the League of Nations as a global peace mechanism.

  • Soviet Forces launch final blow

    Soviet forces launched a massive final offensive toward Berlin and the German capital was encircled on April 25. Soviet forces linked up with their American counterparts attacking from the West. In Berlin heavy fighting took place, on April 30 1945 as Soviet Forces neared his command bunker, Hitler committed suicide. Within days Berlin fell to the Soviets. German armed forces surrendered unconditionally in the west on May 7, and in the East on May 9 1945.

  • Fall of Berlin and destruction of Japan

    United States drops atomic bombs on Japan in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; World War 2 ends.

  • President Truman replaces Roosevelt in Postdam, Germany

    President Truman replaced Roosevelt at Postdam, Germany, in the summer of 1945, where they agreed to give the Soviets control of eastern Poland, to cede a large stretch of eastern Germany to Poland and adopt a temporary four-way occupation of Germany that included France as one of the supervising powers.

  • U.S bombings on Japan

    August 6 and 9 of 1945 the U.S government thus unleashed its new atomic weapons on Hiroshima, and Nagasaki, killing about 140,000 people instantly.August 14 1945 Japan surrendered.