World War II: Key Events, Figures, and Timeline

Posted on Oct 22, 2024 in History

World War II: A Summary

Key Concepts

  • Axis Powers (Rome-Berlin Axis): Military alliance between Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.
  • Anti-Comintern Pact: Pact between Germany and Japan (later joined by Italy and Spain) against the USSR.
  • Genocide: Systematic extermination of an ethnic, religious, or political group.
  • Partisans: Organized groups of armed civilians fighting against occupying forces.
  • Ghetto: Neighborhood where marginalized groups are forced to live.
  • Anschluss: 1938 annexation of Austria into the German Reich.
  • Italian Social Republic (Salò Republic): Nazi puppet state in Northern Italy led by Mussolini after his rescue in 1943.
  • Pearl Harbor: Japanese attack that brought the US into the war.
  • Stalingrad: Decisive battle that marked a turning point against Germany.
  • Tehran Conference: 1943 meeting between Stalin, Roosevelt, and Churchill to discuss war strategy and post-war plans.

Key Figures

  • Winston Churchill: Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
  • Charles de Gaulle: Leader of the Free French Forces.
  • Harry S. Truman: US President who ordered the atomic bombings of Japan.
  • Franklin D. Roosevelt: US President until near the end of the war.
  • Joseph Stalin: Dictator of the Soviet Union.
  • Adolf Hitler: Dictator of Germany.
  • Benito Mussolini: Dictator of Italy.
  • Josip Broz Tito: Yugoslav communist partisan leader.
  • Clement Attlee: Replaced Churchill as British Prime Minister.
  • Philippe Pétain: Leader of Vichy France, a Nazi collaborator.

Timeline of Major Events

  • 1935: Hitler reinstates compulsory military service and rearmament in Germany.
  • 1936: Rome-Berlin Axis formed. Anti-Comintern Pact signed. Germany occupies the Rhineland. Spanish Civil War begins.
  • 1938: Annexation of Austria and the Sudetenland into Germany.
  • 1939: Germany occupies Czechoslovakia and invades Poland. Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed. World War II begins.
  • 1940: Germany invades Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Netherlands, and France. USSR annexes Baltic republics.
  • 1941: Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece, then the USSR. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into the war.
  • 1943: German defeat at Stalingrad. Allied invasion of Italy. Mussolini ousted and rescued by Germans.
  • 1944: Allied landings in Normandy. Paris liberated.
  • 1945: Nazi regime collapses. Hitler commits suicide. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Conferences of Yalta and Potsdam.
  • 1945-1946: Nuremberg trials.

Phases of the War

Phase 1: The German Blitzkrieg (1939-1941)

Germany invades Poland, which is then divided between Germany and the USSR. Germany invades Denmark, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, and France. British forces evacuate from Dunkirk. France is divided into German-occupied territory and Vichy France.

Phase 2: Global War (1941-1942)

Germany invades the USSR. Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into the war.

Phase 3: The Turning Point (1943-1945)

German defeat at Stalingrad. Allies invade Italy. Mussolini forms the Salò Republic. Allies advance in the Pacific. Tehran Conference. Allied invasion of Normandy. Liberation of Paris. Nazi regime collapses. Hitler commits suicide. Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. End of World War II.