-
Hitler secretly met with his top military advisers, and declared that Germany needed its neighboring countries to prosper. He planned to annex Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.
-
Hitler sends his German troops into Austria, unopposed. A day later, his "union" with Austria was completed.
-
French premier, Edouard Daladier, British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, and Hitler met to sign the Munich Agreement. The agreement signed Sudetenland over to Germany without any violence.
-
While Poland was on the verge of getting invaded, Germany and Russia made a pact that committed never to attack one another. In a second pact, the Soviet Union and Germany also agreed to divide Poland among the two of them.
-
The German air force flew over Poland to drop bombs on their military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. It was the first attack where they used Blitzkrieg, a military strategy that took advantage of new military technology to make them stronger.
-
Britain and France declared war on Germany two days after Poland was invaded.
-
Joseph Stalin sent his Soviet Army into Finland. After three months, the Finns surrendered because they were outnumbered by a lot.
-
Hitler launched an unexpected invasion on Denmark and Norway, because he wanted to build bases along the coasts to strike against Great Britain.
-
After Italy and Germany teamed up to invade France, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. He now had control of the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government.
-
The RAF shot down over 185 German planes, while only losing 26. Six weeks later, Hitler called off the attack on Great Britain surprised by the way they fought.
