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Germany invades Poland
Britain and Poland had pledged to defend Poland -
War declared
French and British governments declared war on Germany -
Soviet forces crossed the Polish frontier
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. -
Period: to
Phoney war and the USSR invades Finland
Little fighting between Britain, france and Germany, known as the 'phoney war'. -
France and Britain started mining Norwegian waters
They did this to stop the trade in iron ore, but the Germany responded by invading Norway and Denmark. -
Winston Churchill came to power in Britain
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 -
Hitler struck west
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 -
Mussolini joined forces with Germany
He wanted Italy to get some of the rewards of victory. -
German bombed Britain
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. -
Germany invaded the Soviet Union
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. -
The Final Solution
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. -
Japanese went to war against the USA
The result of this was that USA joined the war with britain and the USSR to fight Germany, Japan and Italy. -
Japanese forces saized control
Japan take control of much of Eastern Asia and the islands of the Pacific. -
Germans renewed their attack on the USSR
Their concentrated their forces in the south and tried to capture the outhern city of Stslingard. -
British forced defeated the Germany army of Africa
This was called the Battle of El Alamein -
Stalingrad's fight
The Soviet forces launched a counter-attack in November and the German army was eventually surrendered. -
British and American forces landed in Italy
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The German army at Stalingrad was surrendered
This proved that the Red Army could beat the German army. -
Germans and italians had been completely driven out of north Africa
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Germans abandoned the siege of Leningrad
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Rome was taken
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France was invaded
This was known as 'D Day' -
Germans were in retreat across the Soviet Union
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British and American forces had reached Paris
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Americans invaded the Philippines
Over 170,000 Japanese soldiers were killd before the capital, Manila, was taken. -
Germans launched a counter-attack
After some early success the German attack was turned back. -
Whole of Italy was under British and American control
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German power in Europe finally collapsed
Soviet forces captured berlin and Hitler committed suicide -
The German forces finally surrendered
But war continued against Japan -
Two atomic bombs were dropped on the Japanede cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Amerian scientists had been working for some years on the development of a new kins of weapon, the atomic bomb. -
The Second World War was over
The devastation caused by these bombs forced the Japanese government to surrender, and as a consequence the war was over
