1. Europe at war
1.1. 1918 - 1939
1.1.1. Germany used "blitzkrieg", "lightning war,"to attack Poland
1.2. September 28, 1939
1.2.1. Germany and Soviet Union divided Poland
2. The Battle of Briton
2.1. August 1940
2.1.1. Luftwaffethe German air force launched a major offensive
2.2. 1940
2.2.1. The British received warnings of German attacks.
2.2.2. The British air forces suffered a lot of losses.
2.3. September 1940
2.3.1. In punishment for a British attack on Berlin, Hitler ordered a shift in strategy
2.3.2. The British air force was inflicting major losses on Luftwaffe bombers andHitler postponed the invasion of Britain indefinitely.
3. Japan at War
3.1. December 7, 1941
3.1.1. Japanese aircraft attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.
3.1.1.1. The surprise attack damaged or destroyed more than 350 aircraft, damaged or sunk 18 ships, and killed or wounded more than 3,500 Americans
3.1.2. The Japanese attacked the Philippines and advanced on Malaya. Later, they invaded the Dutch East Indies and occupied several islands in the Pacific Ocean.
3.2. December 11, 1941
3.2.1. Hitler declared war on the United States four days after Pearl Harbor.
3.3. March 1942
3.3.1. Almost all of Southeast Asia and much of the western Pacific had fallen to the Japanese.
3.3.2. Japan now declared the creation of a "community" of nations: the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
3.3.3. Japan also announced its intention to liberate areas of Southeast Asia from Western colonial rule.
3.3.4. The United States joined with European nations and Nationalist China in a combined effort to defeat Japan.
4. Hitler's Early Victories
4.1. April 9, 1940
4.1.1. Hitler attack Denmark and Norway
4.2. May, 1940
4.2.1. Germany launched an attack on the Netherlands, Belgium, and France.
4.2.1.1. The main assault was through Luxembourg and the Ardennes Forest
4.2.2. French and British forces were taken by surprise. Anticipating a German attack, France had built a defense system, called the MAGINOT LINE.
4.2.2.1. The Germans split the Allied armies, trapping French troops and the entire British army on the beaches of Dunkirk
4.2.3. Winston Churchill become prime minister of Britain
4.3. June 22, 1940
4.3.1. The French signed an armistice
4.4. July 1940
4.4.1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt denounced the aggressors, but the United States followed a strict policy of isolationism
4.4.1.1. Roosevelt was convinced that the neutrality acts actually encouraged Axis aggression and were gradually relaxed as the United States supplied food, ships, planes, and weapons to Britain.
5. Attack on the Soviet Union
5.1. March 1941
5.1.1. Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union was scheduled for the spring of 1941, but the attack was delayed because of problems in the Balkans.
5.1.1.1. Hitler had already gained the political cooperation of Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania
5.2. April 1941
5.2.1. Had exposed Hitler’s southern flank to British air bases in Greece. To secure his Balkan flank, Hitler seized both Greece and Yugoslavia in April.
5.3. June 22, 1941
5.3.1. Hitler invaded the Soviet Union.
5.4. November 1941
5.4.1. one German army group had swept through the Ukraine. A second army was besieging the city of Leningrad, while a third approached within 25 miles (about 40 km) of Moscow, the Soviet capital.
5.5. December 1941
5.5.1. A counterattack by a Soviet army came as an ominous ending to the year for the Germans.
6. The Allies Advance
6.1. June 22, 1941
6.1.1. United States when it was at the war created a new coalition, the Grand Alliance.
6.1.1.1. The three major Allies were: Great Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union.
6.1.1.1.1. The Grand Alliance make impossible for Hitler to divide his foes.
6.2. 1943
6.2.1. The Allies agreed to fight until the Axis Powers.
6.2.1.1. Germany, Italy, and Japan.
7. The European Theater
7.1. June 1942
7.1.1. The defeat was far from Hitler's.
7.1.2. Japanese forces go to Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
7.1.3. Hitler and all his allies continue fighting the war in Europe against Britain and the Soviet Union.
7.1.4. In North Africa, German forces broke the British defenses in Egypt.
7.1.5. The improved of the German offensive in the Soviet Union led to the capture of the entire Crimea.
7.2. November 1942
7.2.1. The war had pass against the Germans.
8. The Tide Turns
8.1. August 1942
8.1.1. In North Africa, British forces had stopped General Erwin Rommel's troops at El Alamein
8.1.1.1. The Germans then retreated back across the desert
8.2. November 1942
8.2.1. British and American forces invaded French North Africa.
8.3. May 1943
8.3.1. They forced the German and Italian troops there to surrender
8.4. June 22, 1941 – May 9, 1945
8.4.1. On the Eastern Front, after the capture of the Crimea, Hitler's generals wanted him to concentrate on the Caucasus and its oil fields
8.4.1.1. Hitler decided that Stalingrad, a major industrial center on the Volga River, should be taken first.
8.5. February 2, 1943
8.5.1. The Soviets launched a counterattack. German troops were stopped and then encircled, and supply lines were cut off, all in frigid winter conditions.
8.5.2. The Germans were forced to surrender at Stalingrad. The entire German Sixth Army, considered the best of the German troops, was lost.
8.5.3. German forces in Russia were back to their positions of June 1942. By the spring, even Hitler knew that the Germans would not defeat the Soviet Union.
9. The Asian Theater
9.1. May 7 and 8, 1942
9.1.1. In the Battle of the Coral Sea. American naval forces stopped the Japanese advance and saved Australia from being invaded.
9.2. June 4 1942
9.2.1. At the Battle of Midway Island. U.S. planes destroyed four attacking Japanese aircraft carriers. The United States defeated the Japanese navy and established naval superiority in the Pacific.
9.3. November 1942
9.3.1. Allied forces in Asia were gathering for two operations. One, commanded by U.S. general Douglas MacArthur, would move into the Philippines through New Guinea and the South Pacific Islands.
9.3.1.1. After engagements near the Solomon Islands from August to November 1942, Japanese fortunes began to fade.