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Named as leader of the Nazi Party. His plan embraced many of the German population.
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He destroyed the league of nations disarmament conference by demanding equality of arms with France and Britain. Built up his army in secret.
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Fascist Italy invades, conquers and annexes Ethiopia.
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German soldiers march into Austria. Austrian government united with the Nazi party.
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British and French prime ministers Neville Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier sign the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. The agreement averted the outbreak of war but gave Czechoslovakia away to German conquest.
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Settlement reached by Germany, Great Britain, France, and Italy.
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On this day, Hitler’s forces invade and occupy Czechoslovakia–a nation sacrificed on the altar of the Munich Pact, which was a vain attempt to prevent Germany’s imperial aims.
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Two countries agreed to take no military action against each other for the next 10 years. Adolf Hitler used pact so Germany can invade Poland unopposed. It also contained a secret agreement about how they would later divide Eastern Europe.
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Start of WWII. The German invasion of Poland was a primer on how Hitler intended to wage war–what would become the “blitzkrieg” strategy.
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Both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. British ocean liner Athenia, which was sunk by a German U-30 submarine that had assumed the liner was armed and belligerent. There were more than 1,100 passengers on board, 112 of whom lost their lives.
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Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the “fine print” of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact
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The Phony War was an eight-month period at the start of World War II, during which there were no major military land operations on the Western Front.
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In Denmark, King Christian X, convinced his army could not fight off a German invasion, surrendered almost immediately. Hitler now added a second and third conquered nation to his quarry, which began with Poland.
