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Germany invades Poland
This was the event which began the Second World War. Britain and France had pledged to defend Poland. -
Britain and France declares war on Germany
The French and British could do very little to stop a German victory in Poland and by the end of the month, Polish resistance had collapsed. -
Soviet forces crossed the polish frontier
They took control of part of eastern Poland. This was part of the deal Hitler had struck with Stalin before the war in the Nazi-Soviet Pact. Stalin also moved his troops into the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. -
Period: to
Phoney War
A little fighting between Britain, France and Germany. -
USSR invades Finland
Fighting did take place in the winter 1939-40 between USSR and the small Baltic state of Finland. The Finnish army fought with great skill and ferocity and it took from October 1939 to March 1940 for the USSR to defeat her small neighbour. -
France and Britain started mining Norwegian waters
They did this to stop trade in iron ore. Germany responded by invading Norway and Denmark. The fall of Finland, Norway and Denmark led to a political crisis in Britain and France. -
Winston Churchill came to power
This happened in Britain when the old prime minister was forced to resign -
Hitler struck west
The Netherlands, Belgium and France were invaded and rapidly defeated by German forces. A British army was forced to flee from continent back to Britain from the port of Dunkirk. Germany took direct control of much of France. At this point it seemed that Hitler had virtually won the war -
Mussolini joined forces with Germany
He wanted Italy to get some of the rewards of German's victory -
German airforce invasion plan: "Luftwaffe"
Having defeated France, Hitler prepared for a German invasion of Britain. The German airforce, the Luftwaffe, set out to win control of the air over Britain, This was the first stage of the invasion. The British airforce was called the RAF, which got the upper hand in the Battle of Britain and as a result Hitler was forced to put off his plans for an invasion of Britain. -
Germany invaded the Soviet Union
The operation was known as Barbarossa. At first the blitzkrieg approach was succesful for Germany. Stalin was taken completely by surprise. German forces penetrated deep inside the Soviet Union capturing key cities. Later, the campaign began to go brong for Hitler. -
"Final Solution"
German leadership decided on a Final Solution to the question of how Jewish people should be treated by the Nazi authorities. -
Japanese went to war against the USA
The result of this war was that the USA joined forces with Britain and the USSR to fight Germany, Japan and Italy. In the end this was to swing the balance of the war decisively against Germany. -
Japanese forces seized control of much Eastern Asia
At first Japan was all-conquering, but later on Japan seized control of much Eastern Asia and the islands of the Pacific. -
Germans renewed their attack on the USSR
They concentrated their forces in the south and tried to capture the southern city of Stalingrad -
Battle of Midway Island
The USA stopped the tide of Japanese conquest. After it, American forces began a slow process of capturing the islands of the Pacific from the Japanese. -
German's and USSR battle for the control of Stalingrad
It was fought in the autumn of 1942. The Soviet forces launched a counter-attack in November and the German army was eventually surrounded. -
Battle of El Alemain
German army in north Africa was defeated by British forces -
British and American forces landed in Italy
The Germans put up stiff resistance to the liberation of Italy. -
German army at Stalingrad surrended
It was a crucial event. It proved that the Red Army could beat the German army. After Stalingrad Germany was on the defensive and the war began to go against Hitler. -
Germans and Italians out of north Africa
The Germans and Italians had been completely driven out of north Africa -
Germans abandoned the siege of Leningrad
It had been going on for over two years and by the Summer, the Germans were in retreat across the Soviet Union. -
Rome was taken in D'Day
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France was invaded by British and Americans
It was known as the D' Day -
British and Americans forces had reached Paris
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Americans invaded the Philippines
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Germans attack the Ardennes area of Belgium
After some early success the German attack was returned back -
Whole of Italy was under British and American control
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German power in Europe finally collapsed
Soviet forces captured Berlin and Hitler suicide. -
German forces finally surrendered
Eventought the war continued against Japan -
Atomic bombs were dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki
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Japan surrender
The devastation caused by the atomic bombs forced the Japanese government to surrender -
Second World War OVER
