Timeline of World War II 1930-1945
Part I of II
1929The World Depression25% unemployment
The questioning of Democracy (tennis story)
1931 Japan Invades Manchuria China,
it violates the Versailles Treaty
1931 Italy Invades Ethiopia Mussolini’s tanks,
machine guns, poison gas, and airplanes overwhelmed the country.
The League of Nations voted to stop selling weapons to Italy.
1933Hitler comes to power
Beginning of Anti-Semitism: Hostility towards Jews
1935Hitler defies Treaty of Versailles by
building up his army. The world thought Hitler was better than
communism.
The Spanish Civil War: 1936A testing ground for Hitler's weapons.
Guernica: Why did Pablo Picasso paint this Cubist piece of art following the war?
1938Kristallnacht:
The night of the broken glass.Beginning of Anti-Semitism
Germany annexed Austria in 1938
Hitler’s next victim, Czechoslovakia Sept. 1938
1938Appeasement: giving in to avoid warGreat Britain and France give Hitler a
bone, Sudentanland.
April 1939: Germany Invades Denmark & Norway
May 1939: Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister
August 1939Nazi-Soviet Pact
No fighting if the other went to war.
Divide up Poland between them.
1939September 1st
Hitler invades Poland bringing France and Great Britain into the
war.
September 3 1939: Britain and France Declare War on Germany
Miracle of Dunkirk: The British will save 300,000 men and women
from Nazi rule in France. (May 10th, 1940)
Battle of Britain Sept. 2nd 1940Operation Sea Lion / London Blitz
190,000 tons of bombs dropped on London
September 27, 1940 Tripartite Pact signed between
Japan, Italy and Germany
March Roosevelt Signs the Lend-Lease Act
Lend-Lease was the name of the program under which the United States of America supplied Great Britain, the Soviet Union, China, France and other Allied nations with vast amounts of war material between 1941 and 1945.
June 1941Invasion of Russia by Hitler
“Operation Barbarossa”
The Russians lost 2.5 million people defending their country. As the Russians were forced backwards they burned crops and destroyed factories. However, Hitler was successful he forgot
about -20 degree temps and winter.
September, 1941Hitler Makes Jews Wear Star of David
Hitler will pull many trains and supplies back from the front in Russia to begin moving on his FINAL SOLUTION.
The Jews will first be moved into ghettos, and from there moved into death camps.
More than 6 million Jews will be decimated.
December 7, 1941Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
Japan had been trying to conquer China for years and was using 12,000 tons of fuel a day. Most of their
resources were purchased from the US. We decided to FREEZE trade with Japan. (80% of oil came from US)
Pearl HarborDec. 7, 1941
2403 Americans will die and we will lose 19 ships on this dreadful day.
United States Action US Declares war on Japan
April 1942 Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers
Begins policy of “island hopping.”
Drops 2 atomic bombs on Japanese soil. (Hiroshima & Nagasaki)
World War II1942-45
Part II
Battles of Midway and Coral Sea Occurred six months after Pearl Harbor
Allies attacked Japanese fleets
U.S. won and weakened Japanese
Allowed U.S. to take an offensive position
Midway Atoll
November 1942 Operations Supercharge and Torch
Begin in North AfricaIn Egypt the British commander Montgomery stopped the German generals (Rommel) advance.
Victories in Africa will allow the US and the British to defeat the Italians within a month.
July 1942 Battle of Stalingrad begins
Hitler will lose 300,000 men.
Soldiers were street fighting and would
fight for 2 weeks for one building.
Hitler will lose this battle.
1943July 9, 1943: U.S. and British takes
Italy and Mussolini resigns
June 6, 1944D-Day or Operation Overlord
D-Day June 6th, 1944 Allied invasion of the
Coast of France at Normandy 176,000 troops Allies suffered horrible
losses
Eventually broke through German lines
Resulted in the liberation of France from Germans
August 1944Liberation of Paris
December 1944Battle of the Bulge
The goal of these operations as planned by the Germans was to split the British and American Allied line in half, capturing Antwerp and then proceeding to encircle and destroy four Allied armies, forcing the Western Allies to negotiate a peace treaty in the Axis’ favor. The US troops had more casualties here than anywhere else, 19,000.
January 1945Soviets Liberate Auschwitz
February 1945 Dresden is Destroyed by Allied Bombing
This was a 10 day bombing period that bombed a huge industrial center killing 135,000 people.
April 30, 1945Adolf Hitler commits suicide and his body
is burned.
May 7, 1945Unconditional Surrender by Germany
May 8, 1945V-E (Victory in Europe) Day
Ending the war with the Japanese Military leaders
estimated that an attack on Japan would cost allies 1 million men
Alternative:-
Manhattan Project Production of an
atomic bomb
To use or not to use that is the question? Truman decided to
use the bomb against Japan Hiroshima August 6,
1945 70,000 died Nagasaki August 9,
1945 40,000 died Japan Surrenders
(Emperor Hirohito)
Little known facts:
The atomic bombs left shadows of people and things burned into the
concrete in Japan. The shadows would be their for 10 years after the dropping of
the bomb.
THE WAR IS OVER