Download WORLD WAR II

Between 1936 and 1938
Hitler annexed the Saar
area, Austria and the
Sudetenland
(Czechoslovakia).
European leaders
persuaded the Czeks to
agree, to avoid a
bigger problem.
Hitler and Stalin signed
a Non-Agression
Pact in 1939. They
secretely agreed to
divide Poland
between them.
1 September 1939.
Hitler sent his armies
into Poland.
Britain and France
declared war on
Germany.
The II WW had begun
German victories: 1939-42
Denmark and Norway were
conquered in 1940
France was invaded and
divided into two parts:
occupied (north) and Vichy
(south)
Hitler attacked Britain by air,
but he postponed the
invasion.
Mussolini was Hitler’s ally.
The Germans used the Blitzkrieg or ”lightning war”. Using
vast numbers of tanks, they made surprise attacks. Then, as
the tanks moved ahead, bomber planes moved in behind to
eliminate any remaining defenses. The planes were followed
by infantry to complete the take-over.
 Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. By the end of
1941, the US joined the war after the attack on its navy at
Pearl Harbor (Hawaii) by the Japanese air force.
By 1942 Japan had
taken control of all of
Southeast Asia,
including Burma,
Singapore, the
Philippines and New
Guinea, from where
they threatened the
north coast of
Australia.
 By August 1942, the
USA had defeated their
navy at the battles of
the Coral Sea, Midway
Island and Guadalcanal.

The Allied invasion of Europe started on June 6 1944 (D-Day) and by
July 2 one million troops had landed in Normandy, France, and
started to advance towards Germany.
As the Russians advanced
from the east and the
Americans and British
from the west, Hitler was
trapped in his bunker in
Berlin. He and his wife, Eva
Braun, and close
followers, including
Goebbels and his family,
committed suicide in April
1945.
Germany
surrendered
unconditionally
on May 1945

Although the war in Europe
was at an end, fighting
continued in Asia. An allied
invasion of Japan was
planned but finally, two
atomic bombs were dropped
on Hiroshima and Nagasaki
(August 1945). Almost
200,000 people died in
Hiroshima. Five days later,
the Japanese government
under Emperor Hirohito
surrendered and on August
14 World War II ended.