March 23, 1919 Benito Mussolini formed the basis for the Fascist Party

Oct. 28, 1922 March on Rome; Mussolini took power in Italy

1922 Soviet Union formed under V.I. Lenin

1924 Lenin died; Trotsky and Stalin vie for power

1928 Stalin began forced industrialization (Five Year Plan)

1929 Stalin became dictator

1932-1933 Famine created in the Ukraine and other Soviet satellites

Weimar Republic Social and political

unrest Military occupation

of western regions of Germany

Economic hardships

Freikorps

Born near Linz, Austria on April 20,1889

Early life Enlisted in the

German army in 1914, and served throughout WW I. Decorated with the Iron Cross.

Remained in the army after the war.

Sent to spy on small German Worker’s Party (DAP)

1920 Changed name of the party to the National Socialist German Worker’s Party (NSDAP)

Nov. 8-9, 1923 Beer Hall Putsch

Hitler spent 5 months in prison for his role in the putsch.

Mein Kampf

1925 Restructuring of the NSDAP

SA Legal election. 1929 Great

Depression By 1930 Nazis were

the second largest party in Germany

Jan. 30, 1933 Hitler became chancellor

Feb. 27, 1933 Reichstag fire

March 23, 1933 Enabling Act

SS Heinrich Himmler

June 30, 1934 Night of the Long Knives

Aug. 2, 1934 Hindenburg died; Hitler in sole power.

1935 Versailles Treat renounced; Germany began rearmament

March 13, 1936 Rhineland reoccupied

Spanish Civil War 1936-1939

March 1938 Austria annexed

Sept. 28, 1938 Sudetenland

March 1939 Czechoslovakia annexed

Aug. 23, 1939 Nazi-Soviet Pact

Sept.1, 1939 Poland invaded

Sept. 3 Britain and France declared war

Sept. 17 Soviets invaded eastern Poland

Sept. 27 Poland surrendered

Sept. 1939- April 1940 Phony War

April 1940 Wehrmacht invaded Denmark and Norway

May 1940 Belgium and the Netherlands invaded

May 10 France invaded through the Ardennes Forest

May 26 OPN DYNAMO

June 22 France surrendered

Began July 10, 1940 after Churchill declined to negotiate peace

First battle fought entirely in the air

Luftwaffe 2800 planes Royal Air Force 700

Radar and command and control stations

Sept. 7 Beginning of the Blitz.

Oct. Luftwaffe switched to night bombing.

Oct. 28, 1940 Italy invaded Greece

April 1940 British troops arrive in Greece

April 1941 Yugoslavia and Greece overrun by Wehrmacht

May 20-June 1 Battle of Crete

116 divisions (14 motorized), 19 panzer divisions, 9 support divisions

Set for April, but postponed until June due to Greek and Yugoslav operations

June 22 Invasion 2000 Soviet planes

destroyed in 1 week Siege of Leningrad

Sept. 1941-Jan. 1944

Georgy Zhukov appointed head of the Red Army

Oct. 19 Moscow declared under siege

Russian winter Dec. 5 Russian

counteroffensive Germans driven 40

miles from Moscow

July 28, 1937 Japan invaded China

US declared an embargo on Japanese war material

Sept. 27, 1940 Japan joins the Axis powers

Yamato and Musashi

Pearl Harbor attacked by aircraft from 4 carriers

Arizona, Oklahoma, West Virginia, California sunk

18 damaged ships total, 188 aircraft, 3581 US service personnel and civilians killed

Japanese losses totaled 50 men and 30 aircraft

US declared war on Dec. 8; Dec. 11 Germany and Italy declared war on US

The Philippeans fell to the Japanese on May 6,1942

Bataan Death March April 18 Doolittle Raid May 2-7 Battle of the

Coral Sea June 4-6 Battle of

Midway Aug. 7- Feb. 7, 1943

Battle of Guadalcanal

Afrika Korps under Erwin Rommel

Aug. 13 Bernard Montgomery

Oct. 23- Nov. 5, 1942

Nov. 8, 1942 OPN TORCH

May 7, 1943 Germans defeated in Africa

Spring 1942 German Sixth Army began a drive to Stalingrad

Aug. 19 First attacks on Stalingrad

Fierce house to house fighting

Nov. 19 Russian counteroffensive encircles German Sixth Army

Hitler orders Sixth Army to hold its ground

Dec. 23 relief attempt ends in failure

Feb. 3, 1943 Von Paulus surrendered

Germans resurgent July 5-23, 1943

Battle of Kursk

July 9- Aug. 7, 1943 OPN HUSKY

Sept. 3, 1943 Italy surrendered

Winter 1943- May 11, 1944 Battles for Monte Cassino

Jan. 22, 1944 Anzio June 4, 1944 Rome

captured

June 6 D-Day July 3 OPN Cobra July 20 Bomb Plot Aug. 19-25 Battle

for Paris Sept. 17-25 OPN

MARKET-GARDEN Dec. 16-Jan. 25,

1945 Battle of the Bulge

June 15 Saipan June 19-20 Battle of

the Philippean Sea “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”

July-Sept. Guam and Peleliu fell to US

Oct. 23-26 Battle of Leyte Gulf

Jan-April Russians push into eastern Europe

Feb. 4-11 Yalta Conference

March-April US and British forces cross the Rhine into Germany

April 22 Russians reach Berlin

April 25 US and Russian troops meet at Torgau

April 30 Hitler committed suicide

May 2 Berlin surrendered as did Germans in Italy

May 7-8 VE Day

Jan. 9 US troops land in the Philippeans

Feb. 19-Mar. 26 Battle of Iwo Jima

April 1-June 23 Battle of Okinawa

Aug. 6 Hiroshima Aug. 9 Nagasaki Sept. 2 VJ Day

1935 Nuremburg Laws Nov. 9, 1938 Kristallnacht 1940-1945 Ghettos and mass

deportations to eastern Europe 1941-1943 Einsatzgruppen Jan 20, 1942 Wannsee Conference 1942-1945 Concentration Camps Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka,

Dachau, Bergen-Belsen Nov. 14, 1945-Oct. 1, 1946 Nuremburg

Trials

Allies 14,000,000 military

deaths 36,000,000 civilian

deaths 6,000,000 Jews

murdered by Nazis

Axis 8,000,000 military

deaths 4,000,000 civilian

deaths 72,000,000 total

deaths for all of World War II