The War That Changed the World

1. The War That Changed the World

2. Timeline • Sept 1 1939 - Germany invades Poland • Sept 3 1939 - Great Britain declares war on Germany • Sept 10 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany • Sept 17 1939 – USSR invades Poland • May 10 1940 – Nazi’s invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland • June 3 1940 – Miracle at Dunkirk; over 340,000 British troops evacuated • June 22 1940 – France signs armistice with Nazi Germany • Sept 22 1940 – Axis Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan • May 27 1941 – Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy

3. Timeline • Dec 7 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor • Dec 8 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan. • Dec 11 1941 - Germany declares war on the United States. • Jan 1 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations. • June 1942 - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz. • July 9 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR. • Sept 13 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins. • Nov 19 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins. • Jan 10 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad • Feb 2 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies. • May 13 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.

4. Timeline • Oct 30 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz. • Dec 16-27 1944 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes. • Jan 26 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz. • April 12 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps. • April 30 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide. • May 7 1945 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies. • May 8 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day. • Aug 6 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan. • Aug 9 1945 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan. • Sept 2 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement. • Oct 24 1945 - United Nations is officially born.

5. Causes Bruised German Nationalism as a result of the humiliating Treaty of Versailles Nazi Aggression in 1938, including the annexation of the Sudetenland Hitler’s drive to create a dominant Aryan race in Europe. Policy of Appeasement of British PM Chamberlain and American President Roosevelt Naval and Military race between Germany and Great Britain Rearmament of the Rhineland

6. Nazism Under Adolf Hitler, the Nazi party in Germany grew to dominate politics. After 1933, the Nazi’s were in power in Germany until after the end of the war. Under the Nazi regime, millions of European Jews were murdered in concentration camps in what came to be known as the Holocaust. The Swastika, shown above, was the flag used by the Nazi’s prior to and during the war.

7. Key Players • Germany • Italy • Japan • Great Britain (and Commonwealth, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada) • France • United States of America • Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

8. Normandy Invasion • On June 6, 1944 the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France in an attempt to liberate Western Europe. This offensive spelled the beginning of the end of German occupation of much of Europe, and by early 1945, much of Western Europe was free, and the Nazis had been pushed back towards Germany, where they would ultimately surrender

9. Liberation of Europe • After the Normandy invasion, the Allies worked quickly to liberate as much of Europe as possible. • In the months following Normandy, the Allies were responsible for re-occupying parts of France, Belgium and Holland • Once Western Europe was liberated, the Allies pushed into Germany, forcing the Nazis back towards Berlin, where they surrendered • Once the war ended, the Allies began a series of efforts to help rebuild cities and countries devastated by the war

10. After the War Many cities in Europe were decimated by the war, especially in France where much of the fighting took place, but also in England (pictured below) and Germany.

11. New European Relations The Cold War began soon after 1945, with the Communist countries allied against the capitalist nations This brought about alliances such as NATO and COMECO, both trade agreements between member nations