Between 1936 and 1938 Hitler annexed the Saar area, Austria and the Sudetenland (Czechoslovakia). European leaders persuaded the Czeks to agree, to avoid a bigger problem.

Hitler and Stalin signed a Non-Agression Pact in They secretely agreed to divide Poland between them.

1 September Hitler sent his armies into Poland. Britain and France declared war on Germany. The II WW had begun

German victories: Denmark and Norway were conquered in 1940 France was invaded and divided into two parts: occupied (north) and Vichy (south) Hitler attacked Britain by air, but he postponed the invasion. Mussolini was Hitler’s ally.

The Germans used the Blitzkrieg or ”lightning war”. Using vast numbers of tanks, they made surprise attacks. Then, as the tanks moved ahead, bomber planes moved in behind to eliminate any remaining defenses. The planes were followed by infantry to complete the take-over.

 Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June By the end of 1941, the US joined the war after the attack on its navy at Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) by the Japanese air force.

 By 1942 Japan had taken control of all of Southeast Asia, including Burma, Singapore, the Philippines and New Guinea, from where they threatened the north coast of Australia.  By August 1942, the USA had defeated their navy at the battles of the Coral Sea, Midway Island and Guadalcanal.

The Allied invasion of Europe started on June (D-Day) and by July 2 one million troops had landed in Normandy, France, and started to advance towards Germany.

As the Russians advanced from the east and the Americans and British from the west, Hitler was trapped in his bunker in Berlin. He and his wife, Eva Braun, and close followers, including Goebbels and his family, committed suicide in April 1945.

Germany surrendered unconditionally on May 1945

 Although the war in Europe was at an end, fighting continued in Asia. An allied invasion of Japan was planned but finally, two atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 1945). Almost 200,000 people died in Hiroshima. Five days later, the Japanese government under Emperor Hirohito surrendered and on August 14 World War II ended.