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Nazis take the Sudetenland
On 29th September, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier and Benito Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement which transferred the Sudetenland to Germany. The German Army marched into the Sudetenland on 1st October, 1938. As this area contained nearly all Czechoslovakia's mountain fortifications, she was no longer able to defend herself against further aggression. (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/GERsudetenland.htm) -
Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union met and signed the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact. The pact was broken when Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union less than two years later, on June 22, 1941. The Nazis and Soviets kept the terms of the pact and the protocol until Germany’s surprise attack and invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. (http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/nonaggression.htm) -
Germany’s invasion of Poland
1.5 million German troops invaded Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. When Hitler invaded Poland, he was confident that Britain and France would continue their policy of appeasement and broker peace deal. Nazi Germany occupied the remainder of Poland when it invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Poland remained under German occupation until January 1945. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/germans-invade-poland -
German Blitzkrieg
Blitzkrieg means "lightning war”. Blitzkrieg was first used by the Germans in WW2 and was a tactic based on speed and surprise and needed a military force to be based around light tank units supported by planes and infantry. Germany proved unable to defeat the Soviet Union, which together with Great Britain and the United States seized the initiative from Germany. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005437 -
Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union
Germany started Operation Barbarossa—the invasion of the Soviet Union. The attack surprised the Soviets and German tanks smashed through the Russian battle lines. In the first few weeks hundreds of thousands of enemy soldiers were captured. As the Germans went forward, the Soviet population destroyed factories, dams, railroads, food supplies and other things that might help the Germans. The Germans were heading for a fast victory but then they started making mistakes. http://www.english-online. -
Pearl Harbor
More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. http://www.history.com/topics/pearl-harbor -
D-Day
Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt met together in Teheran, Iran, to discuss military strategy and post-war Europe. Ever since the Soviet Union had entered the war, Stalin had been demanding that the Allies open-up a second front in Europe. Until the Soviet's victory at Stalingrad in January, 1943, Stalin had feared that without a second front, Germany would defeat them. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/2WWdday.htm -
Liberation of Concentration Camps
As Allied troops moved across Europe in a series of offensives against Nazi Germany, they began to encounter tens of thousands of concentration camp prisoners. Many of these prisoners had survived forced marches into the interior of Germany from camps in occupied Poland. These prisoners were suffering from starvation and disease. The Soviets liberated Auschwitz, the largest killing center and concentration camp, in January 1945. http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005131 -
VE Day
The Western Allies crossed the Rhine after having smashed through the strongly fortified Siegfried Line and overran West Germany. German collapse came after the meeting (Apr. 25) of the Western and Russian armies at Torgau in Saxony, and after Hitler's death amid the ruins of Berlin, which was falling to the Russians under marshals Zhukov and Konev. The unconditional surrender of Germany was signed at Rheims on May 7 and ratified at Berlin on May 8. http://www.infoplease.com/spot/veday1.html -
Battle of the Bulge
In late 1944, in the wake of the allied forces' successful D-Day invasion of Normandy, France, it seemed as if the Second World War was all but over. But on December 16, with the onset of winter, the German army launched a counteroffensive that was intended to cut through the Allied forces in a manner that would turn the tide of the war in Hitler's favor. http://www.army.mil/botb/
