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Germans in Rhineland
Hitler was convinceed that the Western states had no intention of using force to maintain the Treaty of Versailles. So on March 7, 1936, he sent German troops into the Rhineland. The Rhineland was part of Germany, but according to the Traty of Versailles, it was a demilitarized zone. That means Germany was not allowed weapons or forts there. -
The World Power
By 1937, Germany was once more a world power. Hitler was convinced that niether France nor Great Britain do anything to stop him in his plans. He decided to move along with his plan; to join Germany and Austria. -
Hitler's Demands
Hitler’s next objec-tive was the destruction of Czechoslovakia. On September 15, 1938, he demanded that Germany be given the Sudetenland. He expressed his willingness to risk “world war” to achieve his objective. -
Gassing in Germnay
In Germnay, the gassing of the mentally and physically disabled began, Over the two-year period, approximately 200,000 to 250,000 were murdered. This gassing program was called Action T4. -
Einstien's Warning
Three European scientists who fled the Nazi threat, persuaded Einstien to warn President Franklin Roosevelt that Germany might be making nuclear weapons. He writes a letter to Roosevelt naming these concerns. Einstien warns the president of the power that could come from nuclear fission. -
World War II Begins
Germany launched the blitzkrieg tested three years earlier during the Spanish Civil War upon Poland. Poland's two million man army was easily defeated, many of whom were on horseback against German tanks. The Soviet Union attacked from the west on September 17 according to the Nazi-Soviet non-Aggression pact signed a month earlier. The British declared war on Germany on September 3. -
Germany Invades Holland and Belgium
Hitler moved 136 divisions against Holland and Belgium on May 10, 1940. The Dutch were helpless against the blitzkrieg. On May 14, the Dutch port city of Rotterdam was bombed into submission with no provocation. The Dutch suffered 100,000 casualties before surrendering. Hitler placed the Dutch under the rule of Artur von Seyss-Inquart, an Austrian who had helped in the Nazi coup there. The same fate awaited Belgium. -
Operation Dynamo
Once Belgium fell, the British forces were trapped. The only means of escape back to England was the port of Dunkirk on the French coast.
The British called upon its civil population to donate any small ships that were available to move men and equipment from the European mainland. From May 26 to June 4, 1940, Operation Dynamo was put into action; 887 ships of all sizes, sometimes dangerously, crossed the English Channel to rescue 338,226 men by bringing them to England. -
Paris Falls
On June 3, 1940, the first air raids on Paris bgan. 2000 tanks then moved towards Paris with unbelievable speed. The government abandoned its country on June 11. After the government left, World War I hero Marshal Henri Petain took control and surrendered to the Germans. -
National Defense Research Committee
In September 1940, President Roosevelt creates the National Defense Reaserch Committee to mobilize the nation's scientists and engineers to work for the war effort. The NDRC sponsors the development of radar, medicines, electronics, computing, and a host of other technologies. -
Operation Barbarossa
The Germans positioned three army groups along the eastern frontier: north pointed towards Leningrad, the central group towards Moscow, and the South toward Stalingrad. The Germans would be troubled by the cold Russian weather and supply lines that stretched too long. -
Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, while negotiations were taking place between Japanese and American diplomats, the Japanese air force and navy attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 2,350 Americans were killed and the The US Pacific Fleet in Battleship Row was severely crippled. 29 Japanese aircraft were downed. -
Abandoning Nuclear Weapons
In 1942, Germany ends their development of nuclear weapons. The allies didn't know it was abandoned. His reason for ending it was because Hitler believed nuclear weaponing to be a 'Jewish' science. -
The Battle of Midway
Due to effective code breaking after Pearl Harbor, Admiral Chester Nimitz commanded a considerable force, including three aircraft carriers to Midway Island. Japanese fighters were met by a strong air response from the Hornet, Yorktown, and Enterprise. The Yorktown would be lost, and 5,000 Japanese fighting men were killed, but the Japanese threat to the Eastern Pacific was over. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Starting in August of 1942, severe house-to-house fighting in the Russian city of Stalingrad led to a stinging German defeat. Thousands of Russian citizens and soldiers died each day in an effort to keep the Germans from taking the city. The German Army was forced to retreat under pressure from Soviet forces. -
Taking Over Manhattan
U.S. Army General Leslie Groves is put in charge of the Manhattan Project. The Manhattan Project was a research and development project to create the first atomic bomb. They did create the first bomb but other countries quikly followed suit. -
The Philippines Falls
Japanese control of the Philippines would lead to control over all of east Asia. The attack came the day after Pearl Harbor. General Douglas MacArthur only had 90,000 troops, which he pulled back to the Bataan Peninsula, where the US forces experienced starvation conditions in the Bataan Death March. MacArthur was forced to escape, but as he left the island of Corregidor in march 1942, he promised "I shall return." -
Roosevelt and Truman
After Roosevelt died on the 12 of April, 1945, Harry S. Truman became the next president. Since the Manhattan project was a big secret, Truman didn't know about it, so he was briefed by the Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson and General Groves. Truman created an Interium Committee to advise him about the use of the weapon and it's role in the postwar world. -
Potsdam Conference
Allied leaders, Harry Truman, Clement Attlee, and Joseph Stalin met in Germany to discuss postwar Europe and the war with Japan. Stalin tells Truman that the Soviet Union will declared war on Japan in August.
