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beginning of the War
Germany's Adolf Hitler signs the order for an assault on Poland. After the Germans stage a phony raid on a Gleiwitz radio station, they blame the Polish for the "unprovoked attack."
As war broke out in Europe, American sentiment heavily favored isolationism. With the nation still skeptical of Allied propaganda after it had lured the U.S. into the first World War, the United States declares its neutrality in the European War. -
Period: to
World War ll
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The British drop the first bombs.
The British drop the first bombs on German soil as the RAF hits the seaplane base at Hornum.
Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. Because of the failure of his appeasement policies, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns. Forming a coalition government, Winston Churchill replaces him. Standing alone, Churchill soon began conferring with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for aid to the British cause.The Germans cross the French border. -
Germany invades the soviet union
On June 22 Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Other nations quickly took sides in the ensuing conflict. Italy, Hungary, Finland, and Romania declared war on the Soviet Union. Britain pledged aid to the Soviet Union, and the United States promised war goods. -
The War During 1942
At the beginning of 1942 the Allies were on the defensive in all the theaters of war. German submarine attacks continued to sink Allied ships and their cargo more quickly than the Allies could replace them. U-boat operations had spread from the area of the British Isles into the eastern Atlantic and then into the central and western Atlantic. This part of the war was called the battle of the Atlantic. -
Soviet counterattack in 1943
The Soviet counterattack against the Germans gained full power by January 1943. The Soviets forced the Axis armies from Stalingrad, Kharkiv, and Smolensk. The German defeat at Kursk (July 5–August 23) was the largest tank battle of the war. By the end of the year the Soviets had reached the Polish border of 1939. -
The War During 1944
In October General MacArthur’s forces invaded the Philippines at the island of Leyte. After savage fighting by land, sea, and air forces the conquest of Leyte was complete about Christmas Day 1944.
In China, Chiang Kai-shek’s forces continued to be on the defensive. A Japanese attack toward Changsha, begun on May 27, won control not only of a stretch of the Beijing-Hankou railroad but also of several of the airfields from which the Americans had been bombing the Japanese. -
The War During 1945
Six weeks after the German offensive in the Ardennes began, the Allies regain all the ground they'd lost. It had been the biggest battle of the war on the Western Front. More than a million men took part; 19,000 Americans died; 60,000 more had been wounded or captured or listed as "missing." Hitler's enormous gamble ends in disaster. He had lost some 100,000 men and virtually all his tanks and aircraft. -
British bombers
Nine hundred British and American bombers hit Dresden in two waves, dropping incendiary bombs in hopes of setting off a firestorm. They succeeded. At least 35,000 civilians were burned or blown apart — or asphyxiated as they huddled in basements and bomb shelters.
Nine hundred British and American bombers hit Dresden in two waves, dropping incendiary bombs in hopes of setting off a firestorm. They succeeded. At least 35,000 civilians were burned or blown apart -
Hitler commits suicide Germans surrender.
Despite the utter hopelessness of the German cause Hitler remained defiant in his underground Berlin bunker. The Soviets attacked Berlin on April 21. To escape capture by the Soviets Hitler committed suicide the night of April 30.
