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August 9, 1945
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

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August 8, 1945
The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.

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August 6, 1945
The United States drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

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May 1945
Allied troops conquer Okinawa, the last island stop before the Japanese islands.

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May 9, 1945
Germany surrenders to the Soviets.

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May 7, 1945
Germany surrenders to the western Allies.

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April 30, 1945
Hitler commits suicide.

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December 16, 1944
The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat.

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August 23, 1944
The appearance of Soviet troops on the Prut River induces the Romanian opposition to overthrow the Antonescu regime. The new government concludes an armistice and immediately switches sides in the war. The Romanian turnaround compels Bulgaria to surrender on September 8, and the Germans to evacuate Greece, Albania, and southern Yugoslavia in October.

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August 20–25, 1944
Allied troops reach Paris. On August 25, Free French forces, supported by Allied troops, enter the French capital. By September, the Allies reach the German border; by December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands are liberated.

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August 15, 1944
Allied forces land in southern France near Nice and advance rapidly towards the Rhine River to the northeast.

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August 1, 1944–October 5, 1944
The non-communist underground Home Army rises up against the Germans in an effort to liberate Warsaw before the arrival of Soviet troops. The Soviet advance halts on the east bank of the Vistula. On October 5, the Germans accept the surrender of the remnants of the Home Army forces fighting in Warsaw.

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July 25, 1944
Anglo-American forces break out of the Normandy beachhead and race eastward towards Paris.

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June 22, 1944
The Soviets launch a massive offensive in eastern Byelorussia (Belarus), destroying the German Army Group Center and driving westward to the Vistula River across from Warsaw in central Poland by August 1.

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June 6, 1944
British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.

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June 4, 1944
Allied troops liberate Rome. Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.

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March 19, 1944
Fearing Hungary’s intention to desert the Axis partnership, the Germans occupy Hungary and compel the regent, Admiral Miklos Horthy, to appoint a pro-German minister president.

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January 22, 1944
Allied troops land successfully near Anzio, just south of Rome.

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November 6, 1943
Soviet troops liberate Kiev.

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Allied troops land on the beaches of Salerno near Naples.

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The Badoglio government surrenders unconditionally to the Allies. The Germans immediately seize control of Rome and northern Italy, establishing a puppet Fascist regime under Mussolini, who is freed from imprisonment by German commandos on September 12.

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US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.

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The Germans launch a massive tank offensive near Kursk in the Soviet Union. The Soviets blunt the attack within a week and begin an offensive initiative of their own.

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Soviet troops counterattack, breaking through the Hungarian and Romanian lines northwest and southwest of Stalingrad and trapping the German Sixth Army in the city. Forbidden by Hitler to retreat or try to break out of the Soviet ring, the survivors of the Sixth Army surrender on January 30 and February 2, 1943.

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Egypt marks 60th anniversaryr of Battle of El Alamein

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1. Wide of Italian ceremony in Alamein 2. President Carlo Ciampi arriving to the white marble tower that Italy built to honour its dead in the North African saluting 3. Pan war veterans, troops and state officials 4. President Carlo Ciampi laying Wreath 5. Italian fighter jets overhead 6.

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US and British troops land at several points on the beaches of Algeria and Morocco in French North Africa. The failure of the Vichy French troops to defend against the invasion enables the Allies to move swiftly to the western border of Tunisia, and triggers the German occupation of southern France on November 11.

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British troops defeat the Germans and Italians at El Alamein in Egypt, sending the Axis forces in chaotic retreat across Libya to the eastern border of Tunisia.

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US troops halt the Japanese island-hopping advance towards Australia at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.

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Germany and her Axis partners launch a new offensive in the Soviet Union. German troops fight their way into Stalingrad (Volgograd) on the Volga River by mid-September and penetrate deep into the Caucasus after securing the Crimean Peninsula

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British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.

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Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.
The bombing of Pearl Harbor surprised even Germany. Although Hitler had made an oral agreement with his Axis partner Japan that Germany would join a war against the United States, he was uncertain as to how the war would be engaged. Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor answered that question. Hitler believed that Japan was much stronger than it was, that once it had defeated the United States, it would turn and help Germany defeat Russia. So at 3:30 p.m. (Berlin time) on December 11, the German charge d’affaires in Washington handed American Secretary of State Cordell Hull a copy of the declaration of war.

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Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.
Just before 8 a.m. on December 7, 1941, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II.

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Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invade the Soviet Union. Finland, seeking justice for the territorial losses in the armistice concluding the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly overrun the Baltic States and, joined by the Finns, lay siege to Leningrad (St. Petersburg) by September. In the center, the Germans capture Smolensk in early August and drive on Moscow by October. In the south, German and Romanian troops capture Kiev (Kyiv) in September and capture Rostov on the Don River in November.

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Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invade and dismember Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia surrenders on April 17. Germany and Bulgaria invade Greece in support of the Italians. Resistance in Greece ceases in early June 1941.

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Axis Powers: Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria

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a map simulation showing the occuied areas of hungary, romania and bulgaria whilst part of the axis powers

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Bulgaria joins the Axis.

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Slovakia (November 23), Hungary (November 20), and Romania (November 22) join the Axis.

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World War II was mainly fought between two powers, the allies and the axis powers.
The axis powers involved:
Germany
Italy
Japan.

The allies included:
Great Britain
The United States
Soviet Union

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Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact. This pact guaranteed unconditional support if any of the allies suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. This legal assistance of the alliance was aimed directly at “neutral” America–designed to force the United States to think twice before venturing in on the side of the Allies.

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Germany continues to conquer countries with the Blitzkrieg strategy. Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and northern France were taken over by Germany.

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Germany attacks western Europe—France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10; the Netherlands surrenders on May 14; and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline. In southern France, a collaborationist regime with its capital in Vichy is established.

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September 29th - Nazis and Soviets Divide up Poland.

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September 29th - Nazis and Soviets Divide up Poland.

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After Poland ceased to exist and 22 million Poles were captured, Germany and the USSR divided up the Polish land. Germany got to have Poland's most heavily populated and industrialised regions, while the USSR claimed Poland's rich oil wells.

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History of World Civilizations - Causes of World War II For educational purposes only.

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Poland was already being invaded by Germany, yet the Soviets decided to invade from the east side as well. This is suggested to be because some parts of Poland were previously owned by the Tsarist Russian Empire, and Stalin's invasion was seen as simply reclaiming lost colonies. Interestingly, during this invasion, the Germans had driven so far into Poland that they met the Soviets on the east side and retreated. Thousands of Polish troops were captured, and many surrendered to the Soviets to escape Germany.

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September 10th - Canada Declares War on Germany

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Canada Declares War on Germany to Help Britain

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September 3rd - The Allies Declare War on Germany

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September 3rd - The Allies Declare War on Germany

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Britian and France had sworn to defend Poland if they were attacked. Unfortunately, their efforts were not much use, and by October the 6th, Poland ceased to exist a country. The Allies knew that Hitler had to be stopped.

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After WWI, the United States did not intend to participate in WWII.
The Soviet Union signed a non-aggression pact with Germany in 1939, also hoping to prevent war in it's country.
In 1941, German troops invaded the USSR, violating the non-aggression pact.
In 1941, Japanese planes bombed American ships and airfields at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

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Germany was using their blitzkrieg, or lightning war strategy, which was specifically designed to wipe out the enemy as fast and swiftly as possible. It was terrifying and brutal. In less than six weeks the German army crushed the combined forces of four nations with this strategy. This is how the Blitzkrieg strategy worked:

First, German aircraft would strategically locate a weak point in the enemy defences.

Second, dive bombers would rush in to destroy all railway lines, communication centres major rail links. The bomber would also create an opening for land vehicles to get through, weaken the enemy as much as possible and make them disorganised and frantic.

Third, tanks would rush in demolishing everything in sight, with the infantry behind them, murdering off individual enemy soldiers.

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On this day, at 4:45 am, the dark skies lit up with gunfire, as the German battleship Schleswig-Hostein opened fire on a Polish fortress on the Westerplatte Peninsula. Without declaring war, Germany had Poland stormed by 1.5 million troops on the ground, through the air and by the sea, all as an attempt to simply regain lost territory for Germany.

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Fascism is a government system, where all power is given to a dictator. Italy had signed the Pact of Steel with Germany on the 22 May 1939, which was designed for "joint war against France and Britain." This pact was the beginning of the Axis powers, which were the opposing force against the Allies. These two alliances were the forces that battled in WWII.

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Hitler served in the Great War mainly as a message runner on the battlefield. He was rewarded twice for bravery, being injured on two separate occasions. He was hit in the thigh by an exploding shell in 1916, and again when he was temporarily blinded by mustard gas towards the end of the war. Hitler was inspired by Anton Drexler's anti-communist, anti-Jewish doctrine and he began to develop his own strain of anti-Semitism. Hitler rose through party ranks, and gradually he became the chancellor of Germany, and then the Fuhrer - the supreme commander of every Nazi organisation in the country. Hitler wanted to make Germany great again, and rebuild what the  treaty of Versailles had destroyed. He also developed many other goals, such as:

To have a perfect Aryan race

Bond hair, blue eyes, and with German blood.

To have all Jews removed from society.

He believed they wanted to dominate the world.

Jews commonly didn't fit the Aryan race appearance.

He believed they were the reason Germany lost WW

To kill all Jews, Gypsies, African Americans, handicapped and the mentally ill.

To have his own empire, which he ruled over.

This was a massive contribution to WWII, as he invaded many countries to get more land.

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After World War I ended, Europe was devastated. 8.5 million were killed, and 21 million were wounded. Vast areas of north-east Europe had been reduced to rubble. On November 11th, 1918, all countries had agreed to stop fighting and organised a peace treaty, called the Treaty of Versailles. It was called this because the treaty was signed at the Versailles palace near Paris, (since the palace was large enough to fit the hundreds of people that were involved in signing the peace treaty.) In order to rebuild all that was destroyed in Europe,  all countries needed money, land, resources and military power. The Treaty of Versailles decided that Germany was to blame, as it alone had power to halt the descent to disaster at any time in July 1914, by withdrawing its "blank cheque", which offered support to Austria for its invasion of Serbia.

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There were many contributing factors which led to the start of World War II. There was the Treaty of Versailles, the reign of Hitler, and many other factors such as Fascism in Europe. However the start of World War II is more complicated than that. The war was a mess, full of mislead revenge against other countries. The various factors that caused WWII will be further explored throughout this Padlet. However the immediate cause of the second great war was the invasion of Poland on the 1st of September.