WWII TIMELINE

INVASION OF THE RHINELAND

• March 1936
• Why: test the boundaries, revenge France, used to be German land, industry
• Hitler said it was "48 of the most nerve wracking hours of my life"
• He was bluffing and would have retreated
• However, U.K. And France did nothing

MUNICH AGREEMENT

• September 1938
• Hitler wanted Sudetenland and threatened to invade
• Conference was held with Germany, U.K., France, and Italy
• Appeasement was used to please Hitler, but "If you give a mouse a cookie"
• Hitler gets Sudetenland and later the rest of Czech

NONAGGRESSION PACT

• August 1939
• Germany and USSR (Molotov and Ribbentrop Pact)
• Agreed never to attack and secretly to slip up Poland
• Lasted for 2 years until Operation Barbarossa
• Ironic and quite the stab in the back

RESCUE AT DUNKIRK

• May and June 1940
• 300,000 Allied troops trapped on the beaches of Dunkirk
• Germany had surprised them by cutting through Belgium's dense forest
• Troops evacuated by any boat and France lived to fight another day
• Let France weak and surrendered; N. France occupied by Nazis, S.(Vichy Fance)

BATTLE OF BRITAIN (OPERATION SEALION)

• August and September 1940
• Aerial battle; RAF v. Luftwaffe
• UK advantages: radar, enigma machine, Churchill, planes
• "Never had so much been owed to so few"
• Germany got tired and turned focus to USSR; war tides turned

LEND-LEASE ACT

• March 1941
• US supplied UK, USSR, China, and France
• "Cash and carry"; US: "arsenal of democracy"
• 1/4 of UK munitions produced in US
• Repayment scheduled for 50 years; final payment in 2006

OPERATION BARBAROSSA

• June 1941; largest and deadliest attack in WWII
• German troops split into Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad
• Leningrad: lays siege; 872 days; starvation; soviets refuse to surrender
• Moscow: winter halts Germans; "scorched earth policy"
• Stalingrad: soviets surround Nazis and general surrenders without command

ATTACK ON PEARL HARBOR

• December 7, 1941; lasted 2 hours
• Japanese fighter planes attacked American naval base
• Destroyed 20 vessels, 8 battleships, 200 planes; 3,000 casualties
• Next day, FDR declared war on Japan
• America finally officially joined WWII

MANHATTAN PROJECT

• 1942-1945
• Project to test fission process for military use
• Einstein and Ferms caught German threat of splitting uranium atom
• 120,000 Americans and $2 million to complete project
• "Success" at Hiroshima and Nagasaki; led to end of war

BATTLE OF MIDWAY

• June 4-7, 1942; 6 months after Pearl Harbor
• Thanks to code breaking, US preempt Japanese attack
• US victory; one of the most decisive naval battles in WWII
• Turning point in the Pacific Campaign
• US moved from defense to offense

OPERATION TORCH

• November 1942
• Invasion of North Africa
• Stalin wants another front
• Allied v. African Corps; Erwin Rommel: desert fox
• Allies eventually make it past to the soft underbelly

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN

• 1943- end of war
• Goal is to eliminate Italy from the war
• Germany will have to move troops to help Italy and they do
• Mussolini is arrested, rescued, flees to Switzerland, captured, then executed
• Allies take Rome in 1944; Nazis surrender in April 1945

D-DAY

• June 6, 1944; invasion of Normandy
• Operation Overlord; largest sea invasion
• Open up the western front and secure hold in France
• Fake: messages, bodies, camp at different location
• Real: 5 beaches, paratroopers, amphibious landing crafts, push for liberation

BATTLE OF THE BULGE

• Winter 1944-1945; last offensive by Nazis to break Allies
• Germany was successful and could have won but ran out of fuel
• Allies eventually push Germany back
• Race to Berlin! (Soviets already on their way)

BATTLE FOR BERLIN

• April/May 1945; final major battle in Europe
• Stalin gets to Berlin first
• German troops left with youth and old men
• Hitler married Eva Braun then committed suicide
• Germany surrendered on May 7, 1945

THREE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS

• Germany running out of resources and troops to supply all fronts
• Allies ability to rescue, preserve, and rebuild troops when necessary
• Manhattan Project and "successful" nuclear warfare