1. War in Europe
The Start of WWII

2. Key Events Leading to WWII
September 18, 1931 Japan invades Manchuria.
October 2, 1935-May 1936 Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia.
October 25-November 1, 1936 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy sign a treaty of cooperation on October 25; on November 1, the Rome-Berlin Axis is announced.

3. Key Events Leading to WWII
November 25, 1936 Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.
July 7, 1937 Japan invades China, initiating World War II in the Pacific.

4. Key Events that led to WWII
November 5, 1937
Hitler meets with military advisers and suggests obtaining lebensraum (open space) from Austria and Czechoslovakia because they speak German.
Hitler’s advisers fearful that this plan could provoke war.
February 1938
Hitler meets with Austrian chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg and attempts to get Schuschnigg to appoint Austrian Nazis to government posts. Schuschnigg at first agrees but then later informs Hitler that he’s changed his mind.

5. Key Events Leading to WWII
March 12, 1938
German troops marched into Austria unopposed, forcing Schuschnigg to resign.
March 14, 1938
Germany announces that its Anschluss (union) with Austria is complete.

6. What was the world’s response to this?
Absolutely nothing

7. Key Events Leading to WWII
Spring 1938
Hitler launches a propaganda campaign against the region known as the Sudetenland, part of Czechoslovakia inhabited by 3 million German-speaking people
Hitler accuses the Czechs of abusing the Sudeten Germans and masses troops along the border.
France and Great Britain promise to protect Czechoslovakia, a move which some believe will lead to war.

8. Key Events Leading to WWII
September 29, 1938
Hitler meets with British prime minister Neville Chamberlain and French premier Edouard Daladier in Munich and sign the Munich Pact.
The Munich Pact gave Hitler the Sudetenland to Germany without any shots being fired. British and French leaders believed they had satisfied Hitler.
This decision plays to mixed reactions. Critics, including Winston Churchill, called the decision appeasement (giving up principles to pacify an aggressor.)

9. Key Events Leading to WWII
March 15, 1939
German troops pour into the remainder of Czechoslovakia and take it over with little resistance (violates treaty).
April 7-15, 1939 Fascist Italy invades and annexes Albania.
Spring 1939
Hitler next sets his sights on Poland, following a similar strategy to what he used to gain the Sudetenland.
Skeptics believe Hitler is bluffing, because this move would lead to war with Britain, France, and the Soviet Union.

11. Key Events Leading to WWII
August 23, 1939
Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression pact, in which they agreed not to fight each other.
They also signed a secret pact to divide Poland between them.
This move leads many to believe Hitler would invade Poland very soon.

13. Key Events Leading to WWII
September 1, 1939
Hitler invades Poland using a new military strategy known as blitzkrieg (lightning war).

14. What is Blitzkrieg? Blitzkrieg involved three main elements:
1) Heavy air and artillery bombardment, followed by paratrooper landings. This was designed to clear the area, disrupt communications, and prevent enemy reinforcements.
2) Conventional infantry attacks on both sides, with tanks gathering in between.
3) Tanks, motorized divisions, and infantry fan out and secure the area.

15. Key Events Leading to WWII
September 3, 1939
Great Britain and France declare war on Germany. (This is the official start of WWII)
September 27-29, 1939
Poland surrenders to German forces.

16. First Events of WWII Fall, 1939
After the invasion of Poland, things were eerily quiet in Europe.
The French and British troops amassed on the Magi not Line, a series of fortifications on France’s border with Germany.
The Germans remained on the Siegfried Line, engaging in stizkrieg (sitting war), or called the Phony War.

17. First Events of WWII Fall, 1939
Meanwhile, Stalin was busy annexing territory lost after WWI for the Soviet Union.
Stalin and Soviet troops retook Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania with little resistance.
When Stalin went after Finland, he was met with resistance, but eventually they would fall as well.

19. First Events of WWII April 7, 1940 April 9, 1940 End of May, 1940
German newspapers announce that Germany is ready to attack.
April 9, 1940
Hitler launches a surprise invasion of Denmark (surrenders that day) and Norway to protect their freedom and independence.
End of May, 1940
Hitler also had attacks and takes the Netherlands (May 14), Belgium (May 28), and Luxembourg ()May 10.

20. First Events of WWII May, 1940
With the invasion of Belgium, the French’s Maginot Line becomes useless.
French and British troops begin moving toward Belgium to face German forces.
Hitler sends his tanks through the Ardennes, which were thought to be impassable, cutting off Allied Forces.

21. First Events of WWII June 1940 Norway surrenders to Germany
British forces begin to flee France through Dunkirk. The evacuation uses a series of boats to get 330,000 troops to safety in Britain.
Italy enters the war on Germany’s side and invades France from the south, as the Germans continued toward Paris from the north.

22. First Events of WWII June 17, 1940 June 21, 1940
French Marshal Henri Petain urges the French to stop fighting.
June 21, 1940
Hitler hands French officers his terms for French surrender.
Germans would occupy the Northern part of France, with the Southern portion controlled by a Nazi puppet government headed by Petain and located at Vichy.
French General Charles de Gaulle flees to Britain and establishes a government in exile.

26. First Events of WWII Summer to Fall 1940 Battle of Britain
Germany begins to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast as it prepared to attack Great Britain.
The Germans also begin to make bombing runs over Great Britain using its Lutwaffe, or air force.
Britain responds by sending its air force (the RAF) to attack German planes.

27. First Events of WWII September 15, 1940 September 17, 1940
The British counteroffensive shoots down 56 German planes, while losing 26.
September 17, 1940
Hitler postpones invasion of Britain.
By this time, Hitler controls most of Europe, and his major opposition is concentrated in Britain, across the English Channel.

28. First Events of WWII September 24, 1940
Japan joins Axis Powers with Germany and Italy
September 27, 1940 Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.
November 1940 Slovakia (November 23), Hungary (November 20), and Romania (November 22) join the Axis.

29. First Events of WWII March 1, 1941 Bulgaria joins the Axis.
February 1941 The Germans send the Afrika Korps to North Africa to reinforce the faltering Italians.
March 1, 1941 Bulgaria joins the Axis.
April - june 1941
Germany invades and conquers Yugoslavia and Greece
June 22, 1941-November 1941 Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invade the Soviet Union.

30. First Events of WWII
December 7, 1941
Pearl Harbor