timeline of world war ii 1930-1945

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