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In Asia, Japan sought to expand its territory at expense of China. It occupied Manchuria
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InAfrica, Italy took possesion of ethiopia as part of its mission to extend its colonial empire, they also invade albania
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Germany developed a policy if territorial expansion aimed at creating a vast empire (third reich) of land inhabited by germanic people. In 1936 in violation of the treaty of versalles hitler remilitarised the Rhineland.
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Germany entered into the Rome-Berlin axis alliance with Italy, wich was renewed in 1939 under the name of pact of steel
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Italy and germany took part in the spanish civil war(1936-1939) supplying the insurgent force with soldier and weapons while France and great britain choose not getting involve
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In March 1938, it used military force to occupy austria and in september demanded Czechoslovakia hand over the Sudetenland, wich was populated by significant German minoroty.
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Hitler went ahead with his plans to unify all German-speaking people. He annexed Austria then demanded the liberation of German people in the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia. Neville Chamberlain flew to Germany to attempt a settlement before war broke out.
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Hitler, Chamberlain, Daladier of France and Mussolini of Italy met in Munich and agreed that Hitler should have the Sudetanland of Czechoslovakia. The Czechs were not represented at the meeting and realising that no country would come to their aid were forced to surrender the Sudetenland to Germany. Hitler assured those at the meeting that this was the extent of his ambitions for expansion. Chamberlain returned to England with a piece of paper signed by Hitler, proclaiming ‘peace in our time.’?
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Fra and GB until then remained univolved. However, when Hitler seized the Danzig Corridor
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Despite the assurances given by Hitler in the Treaty of Munich (Sept 1938), he marched into Czechoslovakia and occupied the country.
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Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact which included secret clauses for the division of Poland.
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The months following Britain’s declaration of war are referred to as the ‘phoney war’ because Britain saw no military action.
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Britain had begun re-arming and a highly secret radar early warning system was installed along the east coast. Conscription was introduced and assurances were given to Poland, who was being threatened by the Fuhrer.
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Hitler invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway to safeguard supply routes of Swedish ore and also to establish a Norwegian base from which to break the British naval blockade on Germany.
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Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
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Britain and France declared war on Germany. Neville Chamberlain broadcast the announcement that the country was at war.
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Italian forces in North Africa were routed by the British led by General Wavell.
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Hitler launched his blitzkrieg (lightning war) against Holland and Belgium. Rotterdam was bombed almost to extinction. Both countries were occupied.
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Neville Chamberlain resigned after pressure from Labour members for a more active prosecution of the war and Winston Churchill became the new head of the wartime coalition government. Chamberlain gave Churchill his unreserved support. Ernest Bevin was made minister of labour and recruited workers for the factories and stepped up coal production. Lord Beaverbrook, minister of Aircraft Production increased production of fighter aircraft.
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The British commander-in-chief, General Gort, had been forced to retreat to the coast at Dunkirk. The troops waited, under merciless fire, to be taken off the beaches. A call went out to all owners of sea-worthy vessels to travel to Dunkirk to take the troops off the beaches of Dunkirk. More than 338,000 men were rescued, among them some 140,000 French who would form the nucleus of the Free French army under a little known general, Charles de Gaulle.
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The Battle of Britain comprised four phases:
1. During July Hitler sent his Luftwaffe bombers to attack British ports. His aim was also to assess the speed and quality of response by the RAF.?
2. During August the attacks on shipping continued but bombing raids were concentrated on RAF airfields. -
Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis powers. Italy’s motive for entering the war was the hope of rich pickings from the spoils of war.?
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The French, Marshall Petain, signed an armistice with Germany taking France, which had been devastated, out of the war and into German occupation.?
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- The Blitz – From September 7th the city of London was heavily bombed. Hitler hoped to destroy the morale of the British people.
- Night Bombing – With the failure of daylight bombing raids Hitler began a series of nightly bombing raids on London and other important industrial cities. The RAF defended the skies and by October 31 the raids had ceased.
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This pact of mutual alliance was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
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German and Italian troops attacked Yugoslavia, Greece and the island of Crete. German field Marshall Erwin Rommel led the axis powers back to North Africa.
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Hitler sent 3 million soldiers and 3,500 tanks into Russia. The Russians were taken by surprise as they had signed a treaty with Germany in 1939. Stalin immediately signed a mutual assistance treaty with Britain and launched an Eastern front battle that would claim 20 million casualties. The USA, which had been supplying arms to Britain under a ‘Lend-Lease’ agreement, offered similar aid to USSR.
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The Japanese, who were already waging war against the Chinese, attacked the US pacific fleet at Pearl Harbour, Hawaii, as a preliminary to taking British, French and Dutch colonies in South East Asia.
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Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.
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British and American forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower landed in the NW of Africa and assumed control of French Morocco and Algeria. They gradually closed in on the Germans.
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The Japanese captured Singapore from the British, taking some 60,000 prisoners.
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The USA defeated the Japanese navy at the Battle of Midway. Following this victory, the US navy was able to push the Japanese back.
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General Alexander was given a hand-written directive from Churchill ordering that his main directive was to be the destruction of the German-Italian army commanded by Field-Marshall Rommell together with all its supplies and establishments in Egypt and Libya. As soon as sufficient material had been built up, Alexander handed the campaign over to General Montgomery.
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The Russians won their first victory against Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad.
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Montgomery attacked the German-Italian army in North Africa with a massive bombardment followed by an armoured attack. He then proceeded to chase the routed enemy some 1500 miles across the desert.
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British and US forces invaded Sicily.
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Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met to co-ordinate plans for a simultaneous squeeze on Germany. They also discussed post war settlements. Churchill mistrusted Stalin; Roosevelt anxious to show that the West would not stand against Russia, went along with Stalin’s wishes for a second front in France and no diversions further east. Churchill was over-ruled and the fate of post-war Eastern Europe was thus decided.
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Mussolini had been thrown out of office and the new government of Italy surrendered to the British and the USA. They then agreed to join the allies. The Germans took control of the Italian army, freed Mussolini from imprisonment and set him up as head of a puppet government in Northern Italy. This blocked any further allied advance through Italy.
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The British and American forces managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa
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The siege of Leningrad was lifted by the Soviet army.
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Although Italy had surrendered in September, it was only now that the allies were able to liberate Rome from the Germans.
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British forces under General Slim, with help from guerrilla-fighting Chindits led by Orde Wingate, evicted the Japanese from Burma.
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Germany launched its final defensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium. However, they were beaten back by the allies.
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The allies launched an attack on Germany’s forces in Normandy, Western France. Thousands of transports carried an invasion army under the supreme command of general Eisenhower to the Normandy beaches. The Germans who had been fed false information about a landing near Calais, rushed troops to the area but were unable to prevent the allies from forming a solid bridgehead. For the allies it was essential to first capture a port.
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The French capital of Paris was liberated from the Germans.
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The first V2 flying bombs killed three people in London.
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The Allies crossed the Rhine while Soviet forces were approaching Berlin from the East.
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President Roosevelt died. He was succeeded by President Truman.
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The Russians reached Berlin shortly before the US forces.
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Italian partisans captured Mussolini and executed him.
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The German leader, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bombproof shelter together with his mistress, Eva Braun, who he had, at the last minute, made his wife.
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German forces in north west Germany, Holland and Denmark surrendered to Montgomery on Luneburg Heath. Admiral Donitz, whom Hitler had nominated as his successor, tried to reach agreement to surrender to the Western allies but to continue to fight the Russians. His request was refused.
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Winston Churchill lost the election to Clement Atlee’s Labour Party. The Labour party promised sweeping social reforms including nationalisation of the coal and railway industries and the creation of a welfare state. The Labour party gained 393 seats to the Conservatives 213. It was generally accepted that the landslide victory for Labour was due to the men and women of the armed services who did not want to resume civilian life under the conditions that they had before they entered service.?
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Hitler’s successor, Admiral Donitz, offerred an unconditional surrender to the allies.
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Victory in Europe was celebrated.
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The Japanese generals refused to surrender. The US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Hiroshima.
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Russia declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese-ruled Manchuria.
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The US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Nagasaki as the Japanese had not surrendered following Hiroshima.
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US General, Douglas MacArthur, accepted Japan’s surrender thus formally ending the second world war.
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The Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allies ending the second world war.
