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Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany
In 1919, Hitler joined a group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party. He proved to be a powerful public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the Nazi party’s leader. Natzisim was based on extreme nationalism. Hitler also wanted to enforce racial “purification”. The third element of Nazism was national expansion. Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive, it needed more living space. -
Benito Mussolini's facist government in Germany
Fascism stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. To strengthen the nation, Fascists argued, power must rest with a single strong leader and a small group of devoted party members. -
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
Militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. Months later Japanese troops controlled the entire province, that was rich in natural resources. -
Mein Kampf
A book in which Hitler wrote “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.” -
Storm Troopers
In 1932, about 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, called the storm troopers or Brown Shirts. -
Third Reich
In January of 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor. 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” -
Hitler's military build-up in Germany
In 1933 Hitler decided to pull Germany out of the League of Nations and in 1935, Hitler began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. -
Hitler invades the Rhineland
In 1936 Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demili- tarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop Hitler. -
Mussolini's invsaion of Ethiopia
He was going to build his new Roman Empire in Ethiopia. The Leauge warned him not to do it but he didn't listen and Leauge's response was an ineffective economic boycott -
Francisco Franco
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. -
Hitler's Anschluss
Austria was Hitler’s first target. The majority of Austria’s 6 million people were Germans who favored unification with Germany. On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss -
Munich Agreement
The agreement was signed by Édouard Daladier and Neville Chamberlain 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 totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
The Soviet Union sent equipment and advisers, 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. -
Nonaggression Pact
As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler.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. -
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. erman 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. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
On September 3, two days following the ter- ror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany -
Hitler's invsasion of Denmark and the Netherlands
Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May -
The Battle of Britain
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.Its goal was to gain total control of the skies by destroying Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). Every night for two solid months, bombers pounded London.The RAF fought back brilliantly. With the help of a new technological device called radar. German bombers continued to pound Britain’s cities trying to disrupt goods, -
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. Hitler launched a suprise attack on Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence. -
Germany and Italy's invsion of France
Hitler’s generals sent their tanks through the Ardennes, thereby avoiding British and French troops who thought the Ardennes were impassable. The Germans continued to march toward Paris.German offensive trapped almost 400,000 British and French soldiers. 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 Philippe Petain
Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, head- ed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France. -
Pearl Harbor Attack
Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The bomber was followed bymore than 180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers. -
Battle of the Atlantic
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast. 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 fromthe sea -
U.S. Convoy System
The Allies responded 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 destroy- ers 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 Stalingrad
Hitler wanted to wipe out Stalingrad, so the German army secretly approached Stalingrad because a major industrial center on the Volga River.. The German air force prepared the way with nightly bombing raids over the city. Nearly every wooden building in Stalingrad was set ablaze. The situation looked so desperate that Soviet officers in Stalingrad recommended blowing up the city’s factories and abandoning the city. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War. -
Unconditional surrender
President Franklin D. Roosevelt sprang it on the other Allies and the press as the objective of the war against the Axis Powers of Germany, Italy, and Japan. And, when President Roosevelt suddenly announced this surrender condition at Casablanca, he did so referencing U.S. Grant and the fact that the famous general's initials, since the Civil War, had also come to stand for "Unconditional Surrender" -
Bloody Anzio
Hitler was determined to stop the Allies in Italy rather than fight on German soil. One of the hardest battles the Allies encoun tered in Europe was fought less than 40 miles from Rome. This battle, “Bloody Anzio,” lasted four months 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. -
D-Day
Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were fol- lowed in the early morning hours by thousands upon thousands of seaborne soldiers the largest land-sea-air operation in army history. -
The Battle of the Bulge
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 last ditch offensive its name. The battle raged for a month. Germans lost 20,000 troops, 600 tanks and assault guns, and 1,600 planes, -
Harry S. Truman
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 head- quarters in Berlin, Hitler prepared for the end. On April 29, he married Eva Braun, his longtime companion. The same day, 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. Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison. In accordance with Hitler’s orders, the two bodies were carried outside, soaked with gasoline, and burned. -
V-E Day
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.
