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Hitler went ahead with his plans to unify all German speaking people.
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Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier of France and Mussolini of Italy met in Munich and agreed that Hitler should have the Sudetanland of Czechoslovakia.
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Despite the assurances given by Hitler in the Treaty of Munich, he marched into Czechoslovakia and occupied the country.
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Britain had begun re arming and a highly secret radar early warning system was installed along the east coast.
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Hitler and Stalin signed a non aggression pact which included secret clauses for the division of Poland.
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The months following Britain’s declaration of war are referred to as the phoney war because Britain saw no military action.
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Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
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Britain and France declared war on Germany.
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Hitler invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway to safeguard supply routes of Swedish ore and also to establish a Norwegian base from which to break the British naval blockade on Germany.
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Italian forces in North Africa were routed by the British led by General Wavell.
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Neville Chamberlain resigned after pressure from Labour members for a more active prosecution of the war and Winston Churchill became the new head of the wartime coalition government.
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The British commander in chief, General Gort, had been forced to retreat to the coast at Dunkirk.
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Hitler launched his blitzkrieg against Holland and Belgium.
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Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis powers.
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The French, Marshall Petain, signed an armistice with Germany taking France, which had been devastated, out of the war and into German occupation.
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The Battle of Britain comprised four phases During July Hitler sent his Luftwaffe bombers to attack British ports.
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This pact of mutual alliance was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
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German and Italian troops attacked Yugoslavia, Greece and the island of Crete.
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Hitler sent 3 million soldiers and 3,500 tanks into Russia.
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The Japanese, who were already waging war against the Chinese, attacked the US pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, as a preliminary to taking British, French and Dutch colonies in South East Asia.
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Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.
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The Japanese captured Singapore from the British, taking some 60,000 prisoners.
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The USA defeated the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway.
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General Alexander was given a hand written directive from Churchill ordering that his main directive was to be the destruction of the German-Italian army commanded by Field-Marshall Rommell together with all its supplies and establishments in Egypt and Libya.
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The Russians won their first victory against Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad.
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British and American forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower landed in the North West of Africa and assumed control of French Morocco and Algeria.
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Montgomery attacked the German Italian army in North Africa with a massive bombardment followed by an armoured attack.
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British and US forces invaded Sicily.
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The allied troops had won the island of Sicily.
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Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met to co ordinate plans for a simultaneous squeeze on Germany.
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The British and American forces managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa
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Mussolini had been thrown out of office and the new government of Italy surrendered to the British and the USA.
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British forces under General Slim, with help from guerrilla-fighting Chindits led by Orde Wingate, evicted the Japanese from Burma.
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Germany launched its final defensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium.
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The allies launched an attack on Germany’s forces in Normandy, Western France.
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The French capital of Paris was liberated from the Germans.
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The first V2 flying bombs killed three people in London.
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The Russians reached Berlin shortly before the US forces.
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The Allies crossed the Rhine while Soviet forces were approaching Berlin from the East.
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President Roosevelt died. He was succeeded by President Truman.
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German forces in north west Germany, Holland and Denmark surrendered to Montgomery on Luneburg Heath.
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Italian partisans captured Mussolini and executed him.
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The German leader, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bombproof shelter together with his mistress, Eva Braun, who he had, at the last minute, made his wife.
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German forces in Italy surrendered to the Allies.
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Hitler’s successor, Admiral Donitz, offerred an unconditional surrender to the allies.
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Victory in Europe was celebrated.
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Winston Churchill lost the election to Clement Atlee’s Labour Party.
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The Japanese generals refused to surrender.
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Russia declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese ruled Manchuria.
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The US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Nagasaki as the Japanese had not surrendered following Hiroshima.
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The Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allies ending the second world war.
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US General, Douglas MacArthur, accepted Japan’s surrender thus formally ending the second world war.
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The siege of Leningrad was lifted by the Soviet army.
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Although Italy had surrendered in September, it was only now that the allies were able to liberate Rome from the Germans.