PRESENTATION OUTLINE
1931-Manchuria
The Japanese invasion of Manchuria began on September 19, 1931, when the Kwantung Army of the Empire of Japan invaded Manchuria immediately following the Mukden Incident. The Japanese established a puppet state, called Manchukuo, and their occupation lasted until the end of World War II.
1934-Hitler:Fuhrer
With the death of German President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler becomes absolute dictator of Germany to be the Leader. The German army took an oath of allegiance to its new commander-in-chief, and the last remnants of Germany's democratic government were dismantled to make way for Hitler's Third Reich. Hitler assured his people that the Third Reich would last for a thousand years, but Nazi Germany collapsed just 11 years later.
1936-Germany/Rhineland
The remilitarization of the Rhineland by the German Army took place on 7 March 1936 when German military forces entered the Rhineland. This was significant because it violated the terms of the Treaty of Versailles , marking the first time since the end of World War I that German troops had been in this region.
1939-Germany/Poland
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the beginning of World War II in Europe. The German invasion began 1 September 1939, one week after the signing of the Molotov Pact, while the Soviet invasion commenced on 17 September 1939 following the Molotov-Tōgō agreement which terminated the Russian and Japanese hostilities in the east on 16 September 1939.The campaign ended on 6 October 1939 with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland.
1940-Germany invades France
The campaign against the Low Countries and France lasted less than six weeks. Germany attacked in the west on May 10, 1940. Initially, British and French commanders had believed that German forces would attack through central Belgium as they had in World War I, and rushed forces to the Franco-Belgian border to meet the German attack. The main German attack however, went through the Ardennes Forest in southeastern Belgium and northern Luxembourg. German tanks and infantry quickly broke through the French defensive lines and advanced to the coast.
1941-Germany/Soviet Union
Under the codename Operation "Barbarossa," Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, in the largest German military operation of World War II.Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union within the following year. On December 18, 1940, he signed Directive 21 (Operation "Barbarossa"), the first operational order for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
1941-Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 . The attack led to the United States entry into World War II.
1943-Stalingrad
The Battle for Stalingrad was fought during the winter of 1942 to 1943. In September 1942, the German commander of the Sixth Army, General Paulus, assisted by the Fourth Panzer Army, advanced on the city of Stalingrad. His primary task was to secure the oil fields in the Caucasus and to do this, Paulus was ordered by Hitler to take Stalingrad. The Germans final target was to have been Baku. Stalingrad was also an important target as it was Russia’s centre of communications in the south as well as being a centre for manufacturing.
1944-Allies: Normandy
The Invasion of Normandy was the invasion and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II, the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place.
1945-Berlin, Germany
On 2 May 1945, after one of the most intense battles in human history, the guns at last stopped firing amongst the ruins of Berlin. According to Soviet veterans, the silence that followed the fighting was literally deafening. Less than four years after his attack on the Soviet Union, Hitler's self-proclaimed thousand-year Reich had ceased to exist. The German Leader himself was dead.
