World War II Leaders
• August 1939
• Germany signs
non-aggression pact with
the Soviet Union
• Agree to split Poland
among themselves
• September 1939
• German blitzkrieg
overruns Poland
• Quick German
victory
• Britain & France
declare war on
Germany
© Students of History
• Massive
defenses
built along
France’s
border with
Germany
© Students of History
after WWI
• May 1940
• Hitler’s army
moves around
the Maginot Line
• Reach France’s
northern coast in
10 days & France
surrenders
© Students of History
• Spring 1940
• Allied forces
pushed to the
beaches at
Dunkirk
• French & British
troops rescued by Battle of Dunkirk
850 British ships
• Summer of 1940 – May 1941
• German Luftwaffe makes
nightly bomb raids over Great
Britain
• New technology (Enigma,
Radar) allow British RAF to
hold off Germany and prove
Hitler can be stopped
©
Students
of History
© Students of History
“Never in the field
of human conflict
was so much owed
by so many to so
few.”
-Prime minister
Winston Churchill
• June 1941
• Germany breaks
non-aggression pact &
invades the Soviet Union
• Soviet Union uses Scorched Earth Policy and
holds back Germany at Leningrad
• Germany moves on to Moscow and Stalingrad
• August 1942 – February 1943
• Germany wanted to seize oil fields and
capture Stalingrad
Stalingrad Clip
German troops surrender
Stalingrad
to the Soviet Union due to
starvation and cold
• 1942-1945
• Hitler had
massive
defenses built
along Europe’s
western coast
against invasion
U.S. Enters the War
• December 7,
1941
Japanese
surprise attack
on the US in
retaliation for
cutting off their
oil supply
19 American
ships sunk or
damaged • More than 2,300 Americans
killed & the US enters the war
“Yesterday,
December 7th,
1941 -a date
which will live
in infamy…”
-President Franklin
D. Roosevelt
• Massive invasion of Europe
planned by Supreme Allied
Commander Dwight D.
Eisenhower
• Normandy, France is selected
as the best location
© Students of History
• Invasion is June 6, 1944
• Troops land in France to
push into Germany
• Largest land and sea
attack in history
• Leads to the eventual
liberation of Belgium,
France, and Luxembourg
