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Munich Pact
The Munich Agreement also known as the Munich Pact was signed on September 30, 1930. The Munich Agreement allowed Germany’s annexation of Czechoslovakia’s areas that were inhabited by ethnic Germans. It was renamed Sudetenland. It is now regarded as a failure of appeasement toward Germany. The agreement was signed by Germany, France, the United Kingdom and Italy. -
Molotov Ribbentrop Pact
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed in the late hours of August 23rd 1939. -
Battle Of Britain
The Battle of Britain was an air battle waged by the German Air Force against Great Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF). It was fought during the Summer and Autumn of 1940. -
Lend Lease Act
Congress passed the Lend Lease Act in March of 1940. the Lend Lease Act would allow the president to lend or lease arms and other supplies to “any country whose defense was vital to the United States”. These two acts support Roosevelt’s assertion that the United States should be an arsenal of Democracy because with these two acts Roosevelt gave aid to countries that needed it in order to protect Democracy by becoming the weapons store or arsenal for countries that needed it. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese launched a full attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. -
Battle of Stalingrad
On August 23, 1942, the Germans began moving towards Stalingrad. The Luftwaffe prepared with nightly bombing raids over Stalingrad. Almost every wooden building in Stalingrad was turned to flames. The Germans conquered Stalingrad house by house and by the end of September they controlled nine-tenths of the city. Once winter set in, Stalingrad was able to take back control with their tanks leaving Germany in a panic and taking a landslide victory against Germany and was a turning point. -
D-Day
Banking on a forecast for clearing skies, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. -
Battle of the Bulge
On December 16, 1944, German tanks broke through the weak American defenses along an eighty mile line. Hitler hoped that this would split American and British forces and break up Allied supply lines. The tanks drove sixty miles into Allied territory creating a bulge in the lines which gave this battle its name, the Battle of the Bulge. The battle went on for a month with 120 American troops being taken prisoner and mowed down with machine guns. This battle was a turning point. -
Yalta Conference Begins
In February 1945 as the allies were nearing victory in Europe, an ailing Roosevelt met with Churchill and Stalin at the Black Sea Resort city of Yalta in the Soviet Union. The Big Three toasted the defeat of Germany that seemed certain. For eight days, the leaders discussed the the fate of Germany and the postwar world. -
V-E Day
Hitler 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. The next day, Hitler shot himself. His wife swallowed poison. The two bodies were taken outside, soaked in gasoline and burned. 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.