-
Opening Moves - Invasion of Poland.
By the end of September the Germans and Russians had occupied Poland. The Poles were defeated swiftly by the German Blitzkrieg. It consisted of rapid thrusts by motorized divisions and tanks supported by air power.
Polish resistance was heroic but hopeless.
When the Russians invaded eastern Poland, resistance collapsed.
On 29 September Poland was divided up between Germany and the USSR. -
Period: to
The Battle of the Atlantic.
This was the struggle against German U-boats attempting to deprive Britain of food and raw materials. In the first six months of that year the Allies lost over 4 million tons of merchant shipping and destroyed only 21 U-boats. However, by July 1943 the Allies could produce ships at a faster rate than the U-boats could sink them.
The victory was just as important as Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad. -
Period: to
Phoney War.
Having failed to prevent the defeat of Poland in September 1939, Britain and France were faced with the prospect of a long and costly war with Germany. The rapid defeat of Poland was followed by a period of inaction and stalemate in western Europe.
Although there was some action at sea, there was little activity on land and, surprisingly to many, in the air. With little in the way of actual fighting, this sense of unreality earned this period the nickname of the 'Phoney War'. -
Invasion of Denmark and Norway.
Hitler's troops occupied Denmark and landed at the main Norwegian ports in April 1940.
Control of Norway was important for the Germans because Narvik was the main outlet for Swedish iron-ore, which was vital for the German armaments industry. On 9 April, German troops landed at Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim; although British and French troops arrived a few days later, they were unable to dislodge the Germans. -
Hitler attacks Holland, Belgium and France.
The attacks on Holland, Belgium and France were launched simultaneously on 10 May, and again Blitzkrieg methods brought swift victories. The Dutch, shaken by the bombing of Rotterdam, which killed almost a thousand people, surrendered after only four days. Belgium surrender at the end of May and and France
surrendered on 22 June. -
Period: to
Dunkirk.
The surrender of Belgium left the British and French troops exposed as German motorized divisions swept across northern France. Only Dunkirk remained in Allied hands. The British navy played the vital role in evacuating over 338.000 troops from Dunkirk. This was a remarkable achievement in the face of constant Luftwaffe attacks on the beaches. -
Period: to
The Battle of Britain.
This was fought in the air, when Goering's Luftwaffe tried to destroy the Royal Air Force as a preliminary to the invasion of Britain. The Germans bombed harbours, radar stations, aerodromes and munitions factories; in September they began to bomb London, in retaliation, they claimed, for a British raid on Berlin. The RAF inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe; when it became clear that British air power was far from being destroyed, Hitler called off the invasion. -
Mussolini invades Egypt.
Mussolini sent an army from the Italian colony of Libya which penetrated about 60 miles into Egypt, while another Italian army invaded Greece from Albania (October). However, the British soon drove the Italians out of Egypt, pushed them back far into Libya and defeated them at Bedafomm. -
Period: to
Holocaust.
At the end of July 1944 Soviet forces found hundreds of unburied corpses and seven gas chambers at Majdanek concentration camp. This was only one of at least 20 camps set up by the Germans to carry out what they called the 'Final Solution' of the 'Jewish problem'. Between December 1941 and May 1945, 5.7 million Jews were murdered, along with hundreds of thousands of non-Jews - gypsies, socialists, communists, homosexuals and the mentally handicapped. -
Period: to
North Africa and Greece.
In April 1941 Hitler's forces invaded Greece, the day after 60.000 British, Australian and New Zealand troops had arrived to help the Greeks. The Germans soon captured Athens, forcing the British to withdraw, and after bombing Crete, they launched a parachute invasion of the island; again the British were forced to evacuate. -
The German invasion of Russia (Operation Barbarossa).
The German forces failed to capture Leningrad and Moscow. They were severely hampered by the heavy rains of October, which turned the Russian roads into mud, and by the severe frosts of November and December when in some places the temperature fell to minus 38°C. The Germans had inadequate winter clothing because Hitler had expected the campaigns to be over by the autumn. Even in the spring of 1942 no progress was made in the north and centre. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
The attack was brilliantly organized by Admiral Yamamoto. There was no declaration of war: 353 Japanese planes arrived undetected at Pearl Harbor, and in two hours, destroyed 350 aircraft and five battleships; 3700 men were killed or seriously injured. Roosevelt called 7 December 'a date which will live in infamy'.
It gave the Japanese control of the Pacific. They had captured Malaya, Singapore, Hong Kong and Burma, the Dutch East Indies, the Philippines, and Guam and Wake Island. -
USA enters the Second World War.
The USA was brought into the war by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Declaring war on the USA was perhaps Hitler's most serious mistake but the Germans had already assured the Japanese that they would come to Japan's aid if she was ever at war with them.
Germany was now faced with the immense potential of the USA. This meant that with the vast resources of the USSR and the British Commonwealth as well, the longer the war lasted, the less chance there was of an Axis victory. -
THE OFFENSIVES HELD IN CHECK: Midway Island.
At Midway Island in the Pacific the Americans beat off a powerful Japanese attack, which included five aircraft carriers, nearly 400 aircraft, 17 large warships and an invasion force of 5000 troops. The Americans, with only three carriers and 233 planes, destroyed four of the Japanese carriers and about 330 planes.
Midway proved to be a crucial turning point in the battle for the Pacific: the loss of their carriers and strike planes seriously weakened the Japanese. -
THE OFFENSIVES HELD IN CHECK: Stalingrad.
The Germans had reached Stalingrad at the end of August 1942, but though they more or less destroyed the city, the Russians refused to surrender. In November they counter-attacked ferociously, trapping the Germans, whose supply lines were dangerously extended, in a large pincer movement. With his retreat cut off, the German commander, von Paulus, had no reasonable alternative but to surrender with 94.000 men. The defeat was a catastrophe for the Germans. -
The Fall of Italy.
This was the first stage in the Axis collapse. British and American troops landed in Sicily from the sea and air and quickly captured the whole island. This caused the downfall of Mussolini, who was dismissed by the king. The elimination of Italy
contribute towards the final Allied victory. -
THE OFFENSIVES HELD IN CHECK: El Alamein.
The El Alamein victory was another turning point in the war because It prevented Egypt and the Suez Canal from falling into German hands; It ended the possibility of a link-up between the Axis forces in the Middle East and those in the Ukraine and more than that, it led on to the complete expulsion of Axis forces from North Africa. -
Operation Overlord.
The invasion of France (also known as the Second Front) began on 'D-Day', 6 June 1944. The landings took place from sea and air on a 60-mile stretch of Normandy beaches between Cherbourg and Le Havre. Eventualy over 3 million Allied troops were landed. Within a few weeks most of northern France was lilberated. In Belgium, Brussels and Antwerp were liberated in September. -
Nazi Germany Surrender.
On May 7, 1945, seven days after Hitler committed suicide, Nazi Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Japan fought on alone, surrendering formally on September 2, 1945. -
The defeat of Japan.
On 6 August 1945 the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, killing perhaps as many as 84.000 people and leaving thousands more slowly dying of radiation poisoning. Three days later they dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki, which killed perhaps another 40.000; after this the Japanese government surrendered.