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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
Hitler joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Despite its name, this party had no ties to socialism. Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the party’s leader. Calling himself Der Führer,“the Leader”, he promised to bring Germany out of chaos. -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
Benito Mussolini was establishing a totalitarian regime in
Italy, where unemployment and inflation produced bitter strikes, some communist-led. Alarmed by these threats, the middle and upper classes demanded stronger leadership. He played on the fears of economic collapse and communism. In this way, he won the support
of many discontented Italians. By 1921, Mussolini had established the Fascist Party. Fascism stressed nationalism and
placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. -
Joseph Stalin's Totalitarian government in the Soviet Union
Joseph Stalin took control of the country.He made both agricultural and industrial growth the prime economic goals of the Soviet Union. He abolished privately owned farms and replaced them with collective large government-owned farms. Stalin transform the Soviet Union from a backward rural nation into a great industrial power. Stalin established a totalitarian government: exerts complete control over its citizens.Individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition. -
Mein Kampf
Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, was “to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth,” even if this could be accomplished only by “the might of a victorious sword.” -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Ignoring the protests of more moderate Japanese officials, 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
Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (or Brown Shirts). The German people were desperate and turned to Hitler as their last hope. -
Third Reich
Once in power, 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. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
His first target was Ethiopia, Africa’s few remaining independent countries. By the fall of 1935, thousands of Italian soldiers were ready to advance to Ethiopia. The League of Nations reacted with brave talk of “collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.By May 1936, Ethiopia had fallen. In desperation, Haile Selassie, the ousted Ethiopian emperor, appealed to the League for assistance. Nothing was done. “It is us today,” he told them. “It will be you tomorrow.” -
Hitlers Military build up in Germany
The failure of the League of Nations to take action against Japan did not escape the notice of Europe’s dictators. In 1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
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. -
Francisco Franco
In 1936, a group of Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the Spanish republic. Revolts broke out all over Spain, and the Spanish Civil War began. The war aroused passions not only in Spain but throughout the world. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Hitler and Mussolini backed Franco’s forces with troops, weapons, tanks, and fighter planes. The war forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. -
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
Hitler invited French premier Édouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him in Munich. When they arrived, the führer declared that the annexation of the Sudetenland would be his “last territorial demand.” 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 -
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. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them. With the danger of a two-front war eliminated, the fate of Poland was sealed. -
Blitzkrieg
On September 1, 1939, the German Luftwaffe, or German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war. Advances such as fast tanks,powerful aircraft, take enemy out, surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force. -
Britian and France delare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the terror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. The blitzkrieg tactics worked perfectly. Major fighting was over in three weeks, long before France, Britain, and their allies could mount a defense. -
Phony War
Hitler launched surprise invasion to Denmark and Norway in order “to protect those countries freedom and independence.” In truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The phony war ended.Eight-month period at the start of WW2, during which there were no major military land operations on the Western Front. It began with the declaration of war by the western Allies against Nazi Germany. -
Hitlers invasion of Denmark and Norway
Hitler launched surprise invasion to Denmark and Norway in order “to protect those countries freedom and independence.” In truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Neatherlands
After Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. He turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
Italy entered the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south as the Germans closed in on Paris from the north. On June 22, 1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of the world watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government -
Marshal Philippe Petain
On June 22,1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of the world watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms of
surrender. 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 -
The Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast. Its naval power could not compete with that of Britain, Germany(Luftwaffe) also launched an air war at the same time.Its goal was to gain total control of the skies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF).August 15 2,000 German planes ranged over Britain. Every night for two solid months, bombers pounded London.The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. -
Lend-Lease Act
Britain had no more cash in the arsenal of democracy. Roosevelt tried to help by suggesting a new plan:lend-lease policy. Under this plan, the president would lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States.” He compared it to lending a garden hose to a neighbor whose house was on fire.This was the only thing to do to prevent it from spreading to your property. Isolationists argued against, but Americans favored,Congress passed it. -
Manhattan Project
In 1941, the committee reported that it would take from three to five years to build an atomic bomb. Hoping to shorten that time, the OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to develop a bomb as quickly as possible. Because much of the early research was performed at Columbia University in Manhattan, the Manhattan Project became the code name for research work that extended across the country. -
Internment
Early in 1942, the War Department called for the mass evacuation of all Japanese Americans from Hawaii. General Delos Emmons, the military governor of Hawaii, resisted the order because 37 percent of the people in Hawaii were Japanese Americans. To remove them would have destroyed the islands’ economy and hindered U.S. military operations there. However, he was eventually forced to order the internment,of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 percent of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population. -
Women's Auxiliary Army corps
The military’s work force needs were so great that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC).“There are innumerable duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done better by women,” Marshall said in support of a bill to establish the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps. Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions.It gave the WAACs an official status and salary but few granted to male soldiers. -
Operation Torch
While the Battle of Stalingrad raged, Stalin pressured
Britain and America to open a “second front” in Western Europe. He argued that an invasion across the English Channel would force Hitler to divert troops from the Soviet front. Churchill and Roosevelt didn’t think the Allies had enough troops to attempt an invasion on European soil. Instead, they launched Operation Torch, an invasion of Axis-controlled North Africa, commanded by American General Dwight D. Eisenhower -
Battle of the Atlantic
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-mile long 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
The Allies responded to the Battle of the Atlantic by making their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection. The convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroyers equipped with sonar for detecting submarines underwater. They were accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot Uboats.With this improved tracking, the Allies were able to find and destroy German Uboats faster than the Germans could build them -
Battle of Stalingrad
The first turning point came in the Battle of Stalingrad. In 1942 Hitler hoped to capture Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus Mountains. He also wanted to wipe out Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River. For weeks the Germans pressed in on Stalingrad, conquering it house by house in brutal hand-to-hand combat. By the end of September, they controlled nine-tenths of the city.The german commander surrendered on January 31, 1943 two days later the soldiers surrendered. -
Unconditional surrender
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. -
Office of Price Administration
The OPA fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who had never paid it before. The higher taxes reduced consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend. In addition the government encouraged Americans to use their extra cash to buy war bonds. As a result of these measures, inflation remained below 30 percent about half that of World War I for the entire period of World War II. -
War Productions Board
Besides controlling inflation, the government needed to ensure that the armed forces and war industries received the resources they needed to win the war. The War Production Board (WPB) assumed that responsibility. The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. The WPB also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods. -
D-Day
Under Eisenhower, Allies gathered a force of nearly 3 million British, American,Canadian troops,with mountains of military equipment and supplies. He planned to attack Normandy.To keep it secret, the Allies set up phantom army with headquarters and equipment. In radio messages that Germans could read, Allied commanders orders to this army to attack French port of Calais 150 miles away where English Channel is narrowest.Result Hitler ordered his generals to keep a large army at Calais. -
Korematsu V. United States
In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that the government’s policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of “military necessity.” President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, which gave military officials the power to limit the civil rights of Japanese Americans. Military authorities began by setting a curfew for Japanese Americans. Later, they forced Japanese Americans from their homes and moved them into camps. -
The Battle of the Bulge
On December 16,eight German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80 mile front. Hitler hoped that victory would split American/British forces and break up supply lines. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines, the Battle of the Bulge. As the Germans swept westward, they captured 120 American GIs near Malmédy. Elite German troops the SS herded the prisoners into a large field and mowed them down with machine guns and pistols. -
Death of Hiitler
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 and his new wife swallowed poison. In accordance with Hitler’s orders, the two bodies were carried outside, soaked with gasoline, and burned. -
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. -
V-E Day
A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over. -
Pearl Harbor attack
Japanese bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor the largest U.S. naval base. It followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers. As the first Japanese bombed,a radio operator flashed this message: “Air raid on Pearl Harbor This is not a drill.” For an hour and a half, the Japanese planes were barely disturbed by U.S. antiaircraft guns and blasted target after target. By the time the last plane soared off around 9:30 A.M. the devastation was appalling. -
Bloody Anzio
Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy rather than fight in Germany.One of the hardest battles the Allies encountered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. 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.
