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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
In 1919, Hitler joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he
quickly became the party’s leader, and promised to bring Germany out of chaos. -
Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy
In 1921 Mussolini established the fascist party stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. Fascists argued, power must rest with a single strong leader and a small group of devoted party members. -
Mein Kampf
In his book Mein Kampf, Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of
Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. Nazism, was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler, who had
been born in Austria, dreamed of uniting all German-speaking people in a great German empire. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Ignoring the protests of more moderate Japanese officials, 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 that was rich in natural resources. -
Storm troopers
By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers. -
Third Reich
In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. Once in power,
Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place he established the Third Reich. -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
In 1935, Hitler began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
A year lafter militarizing, Hitler sent troops into
the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Francisco Franco
In 1936, a group of Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the Spanish republic. As a result revolts broke out all over Spain, and the Spanish Civil War began. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
The Spanish Civil War forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. Franco’s victory in 1939 established him as Spain’s fascist dictator. -
Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia
Mussolini wanted to grow his new Roman Empire, Ethiopia being his first target. By the fall of 1935 thousands of troops were ready to invade Ethiopia. By May 1936 Ethiopia was taken over by Italy. -
Hitler's Anschluss
To expand his empire Hitler targeted Austria. On March 13, 1938, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. The United States and the rest of the world did nothing. -
Munich Agreement
In an effort to avoid war Neville Chamberlain agreed to believe Hitler's demand for Sudetenland, and his claim that it was his last territorial gain. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired. -
Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet union
Stalin established a government that exerted complete control over the people. Individuals have no rights and the government suppressed all opposition. -
Phony War
For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot Line sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen. On the Siegfried Line a few miles away German troops stared back. The
blitzkrieg had given way to what the Germans called the sitzkrieg, and what some newspapers referred to as the
phony war. -
Nonagression pact
On August 23, 1939 Stalin signed the nonagression pact with Hitler promising to never attack each other. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to
divide Poland between them. -
Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the terror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
The Battle of Britain
In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast. Because its naval power could not compete with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at the same time. The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. Night after night, German planes pounded British targets. At first the Luftwaffe concentrated on airfields and aircraft. Next it targeted cities. -
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. -
Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway
On April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect their freedom and independence.” But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. -
Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands
After Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway he turned to the Netherlands. By the end of May the Netherlands Belgium and Luxembourg were overrun. -
Germany and Italy's invasion of France
The German offensive trapped almost 400,000 British and French soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk on the French side of the English Channel. A few days later, 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. -
Marshal Phillipe Petain
On June 22, 1940, 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. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers headed to Pearl Harbor. In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. -
U.S.Convoy System
The Allies responded to Hitler's attacks by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection, as they had done in the First World War. The convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroyers equipped with sonar for detecting submarines underwater. They were also accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface. -
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-milelong shipping lanes from North America were her lifeline. In the first four months of 1942, the Germans sank 87 ships
off the Atlantic shore. Seven months into the year, German wolf packs had destroyed a total of 681 Allied ships in the Atlantic. -
Battle of Stalingrad
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 fighting continued as winter turned Stalingrad into a frozen wasteland. The Germans surrendered on January 31, 1943. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War which started on 8 November 1942. -
Bloody Anzio
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. -
D-Day
The Allied invasion, code-named Operation Overlord, was originally set for June 5, but bad weather forced a delay. Banking on a forecast for clearing skies, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day—June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. By September 1944, the Allies had freed France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. -
The Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, under cover of dense fog, eight German tank divisions broke through weak American defenses along an 80-mile front. Hitler hoped that a victory would split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory, creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate lastditch offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge. -
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. -
Death of Hitler
In his underground headquarters in Berlin, Hitler prepared
for the end. On April 29, he married Eva Braun. The next day he shot himself while Eva Braun drank poison. A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. -
V-E Day
On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in
Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over.
