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Britain and Poland had pledged to defend Poland
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French and British governments declared war on Germany
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They also took control of part of eastern Poland. This was part of the pact between hitler and Stalin. Stalin also moved his troops into the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.
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Little fighting between Britain, france and Germany, known as the 'phoney war'.
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They did this to stop the trade in iron ore, but the Germany responded by invading Norway and Denmark.
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The fall of Finland, norway and Denmark led to a political crisis in Britain and France. Both prime ministers were forced to resign, and in Briain came to power Winston Churchill
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The netherlands, Belguim and France were invaded and rapidly defeated by German forces. Germany took deirect control of much of France. At this point it seemed that Hitler hadvirtually won the war
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He wanted Italy to get some of the rewards of victory.
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German bombed military sites, factories and London. The British airforce fought back and the clash of the two airforces became known as the Battle of Britain, as a result of thi battle, Hitler as forced to put off his plans for an invasion of Britain.
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Stalin was taken completly by surprise. German force penetrated deep inside the Soviet Union capturing key cities. germans were moving in on moscow, at this point the campaign began to go wrong for Hitler. He met with fierce resistance and failed the capture of the city. german troops were not equipped for the freezing Russian winter because hitler thought that the war would be over in three months.
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German leadership decided on a 'Final Solution' to the question of how Jewish people should be treated by the Nazi authorities. Death camps were set up, others were used as slave labour until they died.
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The result of this was that USA joined the war with britain and the USSR to fight Germany, Japan and Italy.
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Japan take control of much of Eastern Asia and the islands of the Pacific.
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Their concentrated their forces in the south and tried to capture the outhern city of Stslingard.
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This was called the Battle of El Alamein
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The Soviet forces launched a counter-attack in November and the German army was eventually surrendered.
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This proved that the Red Army could beat the German army.
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This was known as 'D Day'
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Over 170,000 Japanese soldiers were killd before the capital, Manila, was taken.
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After some early success the German attack was turned back.
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Soviet forces captured berlin and Hitler committed suicide
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But war continued against Japan
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Amerian scientists had been working for some years on the development of a new kins of weapon, the atomic bomb.
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The devastation caused by these bombs forced the Japanese government to surrender, and as a consequence the war was over
