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Period: to
Opening moves
September to December -
Russia invaded Poland
The eastern Poland was invaded and the resistance collapsed. The territory was now divided up between Germany and the USSR( as agreed in their pact -
Poland Defeated
The German technical operation known as Fall Weiss Began on September first and the last Polish's military units were withdrawn in October 6. The Poles were defeated quickly, the rapid thrust of motorized divisions and tanks supported by air power was strong against the polish resistance. -
Russian Invasion of Finland
Previously the Russians took over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania and proceeded to invade Finland forcing her to hand over frontier territories which would enable the Russians to defend themselves better against attacks from the west. -
Norwegians Campain
The attempts of the allies to Defend Norway Coupled with Norwegians forces resistance to the country's invasion by Nazi Germany begining on 9 April .
They were unable to dislodge the Germans who were already well established, all Allied troops were withdrawn on June 10th because of the growing threat to France itself. -
Phoney war
Name given by the American press is the period of time were very little happened in the west , Hitler was hoping that this pause would weaken the resolve of France and Britain and encourage them to negotiate peace. -
Denmark and Norway invaded
Hitler's troops occupied Dennark and landed at the main Norwegian shattering the apparent calm of the phoney war. Control of Norway meant that the main outlet for Swedish iron-one, vital for the Germans armaments industry was in their hands. Norwegians had been taken by surprise, their troops were not mobilized. -
Hitler attacks Holland
There were Attacks launched simultaneously on May and the Blitzkrieg methods brought swift victories. The Dutch shaken by the bombing of Rotterdam (May 14), which killed a thousand people, surrendered after only four days -
Attack on Belgium
The German offensive campaign, initiated on May 10th, took part of the fighting in the Battle of France.
Belgium was captured after 18 days and it held longer than the Dutch.
Her surrender left the British and French troops in Belgium perilously exposed as German motorized divisions swept across northern France. -
Battle of France
Initiated on 10 May the German assault on north-west Europe, Luxembourg, Belgium and The Netherlands as mentioned before were captured.
After the Dutch and Belgium surrendered Germans swept southwards: Paris was captured on 14 June and later France surrendered.
The French defeat could be explained : France was unprepared and divided between left and right, , there was a serious military weakness, the generals made fatal mistakes. -
Mussolini invasions
An army from the Italian colony of Libya penetrated about 60 miles into Egypt on September, another army invaded Greece from Albania( October) this attempts were pushed back by British forces in Egypt and the Greeks forced the Italians back and invaded Albania. -
Battle of Britain
In August it started in the air after the Luftwaffe tied to destroy the Royal Air Force ( RAF) as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. Germans bombed harbours radar stations, aerodromes and munitions factories; in September they began to bomb London "for a British raid on Berlin".
The RAF inflicted heavy losses on the German Luftwaffe, this made clear that the British air force was far from being destroyed, Hitler called off the invasion by the end of the month -
Hitler sent help for Italy ( North Africa)
The first moves in 1941 were to help out his Allie in February he sent Erwin Rommel and the Afrika Korps to Tripoli and with the Italians they drove the British out of Libya. -
Hitler invades Greece
Hitler's forces were in Greece the day after 60.000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops had arrived to help the Greeks. The Germans captured Athens forcing British to withdraw. After bombing Crete they launched a parachute invasion of the island and the British were forced to evacuate (May1941) -
Period: to
Axis offensive widens
The war developed into a worldwide conflict -
German invasion of Russia
This attack called Operation Barbarossa was three pronged : in the north toward Leningrad, in the centre towards Moscow and in the south through the Ukraine.
The military campaign ( blitzkrieg) had an awesome scale, important cities were captured. The Russians had been caught off guard.
However German forces failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow and were severely hampered by the heavy rains. -
USA enters the War
After the Japanese attack in Pearl Harbour on December, it gave them control of the Pacific and it caused Hitler to declare war on USA( which later in would be considered Hitler's most serious mistake. -
Midway Island
In the Pacific the Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack.
The losses weakened the Japanese and from then on the Americans maintained their lead in carriers and aircraft, especially in dive-bombers.
Gradually the Americans under General Mac Arthur began to recover the Pacific Islands. This process called 'aisland hopping began in August 1942 and continued through 1943 and 1944 -
Period: to
The offensive Held in Check
The axis forces were defeated and began to lose ground -
Stalingrad
The German invasion of Russia which had penetrated deeply through the Crimes was finally checked. By the end of August the Germans reached Stalingrad but the Russians refused to surrender. In November Russians counter attacked trapping the Germans. Having no alternative they surrendered on February -
El Alemein
In Egypt Rommel's Afrika Korps were driven back by the British English Army . This great battle was the culmination of several engagements fought in the El Alemein: first the Axis advance was checked (July) Rommel was halted( September) and seven weeks later in the October Battle he was chased out of Egypt by the British and New Zealand.
This victory was another turning point in the war -
Period: to
Axis powers Defeated
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The fall of Italy
The first stage of the Axis collapse. British and American troops landed in Sicily from the and air (10 July 1043) and quickly captured the whole island which caused the downfall of Mussolini who was dismissed by the king. Later in Naples was captured (October 1943)
Italy then was brought into the war on the allied side.
The elimination of Italy contribute towards the final Allied victory -
Operation Overload
The invasion of France (Second Front ) the allied landing took place from sea and air , there was strong German resistance but at the end of the first week men with tanks and heavy lorries had landed safely.
Most of France was liberated and Paris on 25 August putting out of action German rocket missiles -
The assault on Germany
After the success of the second Front, the Allies began to gather themselves together for the invasion of Germany .
In early 1945 Germany was invaded on both fronts, from east and west. Hitler commits suicide and Germany surrendered -
The defeat of Japan
On 6 August 1945 the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima killing perhaps as many as 84000 and leaving thousand more slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Three days after another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, which killed another 40.000, after this the Japanese Government surrendered.