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Hitler's rise to power
Hitler appealed to a huge German audience and gained a lot of support from the people. He was a fascist dictator and promised to get rid of the Treaty of Versallies and make Germany a powerful nation -
Spanish Civil War
July 17, 1936 - April 1, 1939. Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were all involved in the Spanish Civil War. They provided tanks, aircraft, and other weapons to the Spanish. This sent fear across all of Europe because it showed the wide spread of war. They knew that war travels quickly and many countries would be involved. -
Rome-Berlin Axis
Hitler indented to invade Austria but he needed insurance from Mussolini that he wouldn't interfere or get involved in the invasion. In return to his request, he told Mussolini that he would only focus expanding his empire to north and central Europe and leave the south for Mussolini. -
Policy of Appeasement
Neville Chamberlain believed that Hitler was a reasonable leader and believed if the war reparation payments were lowered on Germany there would be more peace in the world. This Policy allowed Hitler to have a bigger military and a military presence in the Rhineland. -
Japanese Conquest of China
(July 7, 1937 – September 9, 1945). The Japanese thought that their emperor was a living god and that Japan should rule over all of Asia. This mentality lead to the conquest of China. Japan attacked Nanking and Shanghai. The invasion and conquer of these two cities were horrifying. The Japanese went on a rampage of murder and rape and there were 20 million causalities. -
Munich agreement and takeover of Czechoslovakia
(September 30, 1938 - March 1939). The leaders of Italy, France and Britain met with Hitler to discuss what would happen with Czech. Hitler wanted to "free" all the German speaking people in the land so everyone agreed to let Hitler take 1/3 of Czechoslovakia. Hitler marked into Czech and completely took over rather then just taking 1/3 of it. This showed the rest of the world that Hitler was set on world conquest and war. -
Soviet Pack
Hitler and Stalin met together and came to an agreement and promised not to go to war with each other. It was a nonaggression pact. Both leaders knew that the pack would not last very long but they still agreed on it. They secretly decided to divide up Poland between the two of them. -
Invasion of Poland
(September 1, 1939 – October 6, 1939). The invasion of Poland was the trigger cause of WW2, Germany invaded Poland with an air strike and a land invasion. This showed the power of Hitler's Nazis. Poland declared war on Germany and 2 days later Britain and France declared war on Germany. -
Fall of France
(May 10, 1940 – June 25, 1940). The Nazis marched into Paris and in only 3 days France surrendered to the Germans because they were not prepared and Paris was undefended. Hitler made France sign the surrender agreement in the same way that France made Germany sign the papers earlier. Only Britain and its common wealth nation were left to stop the Nazis. Canadians did their part and supported the Allies. -
The Battle of Dunkirk
(May 26, 1940 – June 4, 1940). The Nazis had thousands of the Allied soldiers trapped on the beach of Dunkirk. Hitler's tanks surrounded the men but then he ordered them to pull back so the Luftwaffe could have the victory. In the window of time that the Allies had, they were able to make an amazing escape. Every sea vessel and ship that was available was sent across the English Channel to pick up and ferry the soldiers back to Britain. In the end, 340,000 soldiers were saved. -
Battle of Britain
(July 10, 1940 – October 31, 1940). Hitler knew that the only way to attack Britain was to knock out their air force. He sent his planes, the Luftwaffe to attack the civilians and also sent two bombers to bomb the city. Hitler knew that he needed to break the morale and lower the spirits of the British. Thousands of planes flew over Britain. In return to this attack, Britain sent planes and bombed Berlin. -
Invasion of the Soviet Union
(June 22, 1941 – December 5, 1941). Even though the Soviet act between Germany and the Soviet Union said that the two countries wouldn't go to war with each other, Hitler changed his mind. He turned his back on the Soviet Union and sent his huge army to attack. At the beginning Germany was successful and more then 1 million Soviets died. When the harsh and extremely cold Russian winters came, the Germans suffered through it because they were not prepared at all. -
The Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Japan plotted an attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor but no one expected anything. The Americans had not seen the attack coming. At the end of the bombing almost nothing was left of the U.S. pacific fleet. The Americans were in shock and declared war on Japan. -
Battle of Hong Kong
(December 8- 25 1941). Japan sent an attack on Hong Kong but most of the Canadians there were still in training and 30 percent of them had never even shot a gun before. After the battle hundreds of soldiers died and 1,700 of the men were taken as prisoners. The Canadians fought hard and pushed through impossible odds. -
Dieppe
5,000 Canadian troops were sent to the French port of Dieppe for the first large scale landing of WW2. Canadians were knocked down on the beach and very few Allies made it to the town of Dieppe. The soldiers had no cover and had no where to run back to, so the death toll was very high. The battle of Dieppe showed what would be needed for a successful full scale landing attack and also drew enemy soldiers from the eastern front to the western front to create war on two fronts. -
Italian Campaign
(July 10, 1943 – June 4, 1945). Thousands of Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of Sicily. Most of the German troops surrendered quickly but the Allies encountered extreme heat and hard terrain. Benito Mussolini was overthrown and Italy surrendered. Germany was expecting this to happen so they had heavily armed forces ready to take the land of Italy. The Allies fought through the heat and steep landscape. In the end there were around 1300 causalities and 600 deaths of Allied soldiers. -
Liberation of the Netherlands
(September 1944 – April 1945). Canadian and American troops continued to push the German forces back all the way to the Netherlands. 175,000 Canadian troops expelled the Germans out of the land. Many of the people in the Netherlands were starved from the occupation of Germany, so the Allies sent food out of airplanes for the Dutch. Hitler made a last minute effort and gathered 750,000 men for his army. Even so, Germany was still forced to retreat, and the Allies had more of Europe to free. -
D-Day
The Allies used massive air and naval fire power to damage the Germans set up at the Normandy beaches. The beach was split into 5 different sections. Airplanes, ships, paratroopers, tanks, and cruisers were all used in this battle. Many of the German positions hadn't been knocked down so the soldiers had a hard time getting past the beaches. The Allied forces fought hard and pushed through the German lines. They moved inland and the battle was a major success for the Allies. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Because the Allied troops were able to gain more land and push the Nazis back, they became within bocks of Hitler's secret underground bunker. There, him and his partner, Eva Braun committed suicide. Grand Admiral Karl Donitz succeeded Hitler and on Mat 8, 1945 he surrendered, and this day became known as VE day.