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Useful Notes

Timeline

30/01/1933 Hitler appointed Chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg 
03/02/1933 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler tells his top generals of his determination to conquer land, to the east. 
27/02/1933 German Reichstag burns down. Communists are blamed and arrested. 
12/03/1933 First Concentration Camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin. 
23/03/1933 Enabling Act passed by Reichstag; Hitler assumes dictatorial power 
01/04/1933 Nazis Boycott of Jewish owned shops. 
10/05/1933 Nazis burn books in Germany. 
14/07/1933 Nazi party declared official party of Germany; all other parties banned 
14/10/1933 German Chancellor Adolf Hitler withdraws Germany from the League of Nations and withdraws from the Disarmament Conference at Geneva, Switzerland. 
 
26/01/1934 Germany and Poland sign a ten-year non-aggression pact. 
30/06/1934 Hitler orders murder of SA Chief Ernst Roehm in "Night of the Long Knives" 
25/07/1934 Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss. 
02/08/1934 With the death of President Paul von Hindenburg, Chancellor Adolf Hitler assumes the office of Reich President as well. The Wehrmacht oath of allegiance is changed to be directly to Adolf Hitler. 
19/08/1934 Hitler combines the offices of president and chancellor and assumes the title of F�hrer 
 
13/01/1935 In a plebiscite, the Saar region decides  to unite with Germany. 
16/03/1935 Adolf Hitler denounces the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, and begins open re-armament and Military conscription. 
25/05/1935 Adolf Hitler agrees to not intevene in Austria or add Austria to the German Reich. 
18/06/1935 England and Germany sign a naval treaty, limiting Germany to 35 percent of British tonnage 
15/09/1935 Nuremberg race laws promulgated, which strips German Jews of their rights. 
03/10/1935 Italian Army invades Ethiopia 
 
10/02/1936 The Gestapo is placed above German Law. 
12/02/1936 Adolf Hitler decides the time is right for Germany to re-occupy the Rhineland. 
27/02/1936 The French chamber ratifies the Franco-Soviet pact. 
02/03/1936 Hitler issues final orders for troops to re-occupy their former garrison posts in Rhineland towns. If French forces take action, the troops are instructed to withdraw. 
07/03/1936 Hitler denounces the Rhineland provisions of Treaty of Versailles and Locarno Treaty. German troops march in to re-occupy the Rhineland. German representatives inform foreign ministers and ambassadors of the German re-occupation of the Rhineland, and outline a peace plan including 25-year non-aggression pacts for all countries bordering on Germany. 
09/05/1936 Italian campaign in Ethiopia ends. 
17/07/1936 Spanish Civil War breaks out; Hitler and Mussolini send aid to Franco. 
01/08/1936 The Olympic games begin in Berlin. 
01/10/1936 Franco becomes dictator of Spain and is declared Head of State. 
25/10/1936 Rome-Berlin "Axis" alliance formed. 
23/11/1936 Germany signs an Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan, against international Communism. 
 
19/01/1937 Japan withdraws from Washington Conference Treaty limiting the size of its navy 
28/05/1937 Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of England 
11/06/1937 Josef Stalin begins purge of Red Army officer corps. 
29/06/1937 Canada's Prime Minister William King meets with German chancellor Adolf Hitler in Berlin. 
07/07/1937 Full-scale war erupts between China and Japan 
05/11/1937 During the Hossbach Conference, Adolf Hitler announces to five of his chief subordinates his plans for an expansion of Germany over the next five years, in particular, into Austria and Czechoslovakia. 
06/11/1937 Italy signs the Anti-Cominterm Pact, joining Germany and Japan. 
21/12/1937 The German General Staff's strategy plan, Plan Green, is completed, anticipating an aggressive war with Czechoslovakia. 
 
04/02/1938 Hitler announces a reorganization of the army, abolishing the post of war minister, appointing General Wilhelm Keitel as chief of the armed forces high command (OKW). 
11/02/1938 Austrian Chancellor Dr. Kurt von Schuschnigg meets with Adolf Hitler in Berchtesgaden, Bavaria. Adolf Hitler demands that Austria become a protectorate of Germany, governed by him. Schuschnigg signs in agreement. 
20/02/1938 Adolf Hitler makes a speech in which he demands self-determination for Germans of Austria and Czecho-Slovakia. 
09/03/1938 Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg calls for a public vote for the 13th March, to decide if the country should remain independent, or join Germany. 
10/03/1938 Hitler orders a plan for the military occupation of Austria. 
11/03/1938 Hitler issues Directive No. 1 for the occupation of Austria and Directive No. 2 for the bloodless invasion of Austria. Austrian Chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg resigns. 
12/03/1938 Germany announces "Anschluss" (Union) with Austria, as German forces cross the border. 
27/05/1938 Swedish Foreign Minister Sandler announces that Sweden reserves the right to remain neutral. 
30/05/1938 Adolf Hitler issues a directive for Fall Gr�n (Case Green), for the occupation of Czechoslovakia. 
12/09/1938 Hitler says the Sudeten problem is an internal matter to the German minority in Bohemia and the Czecho-Slovak government. 
21/09/1938 Winston Churchill warns of the futility of appeasing Adolf Hitler: "The belief that security can be obtained by throwing a small state to the wolves is a fatal delusion." 
29/09/1938 A two-day conference begins in Germany, held by Adolf Hitler, Italy's Benito Mussolini, Britain's Neville Chamberlain, and France's Edouard Daladier, to discuss German demands on Czechoslovakian territory. 
30/09/1938 Shortly after 0100 hours the Munich Agreement, allowing Germany to annex the Sudetenland portion of Czechoslovakia, is signed, by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, French Premier �douard Daladier, Italian leader Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain says "This is the second time there has come back from Germany to Downing Street peace with honour. I believe it is peace for our time." 
01/10/1938 German forces occupy the Sudetenland. The Czech Government resigns. 
09/11/1938 Nazis terrorize Jews across Germany and Austria. Jewish homes, businesses, and synagogues are looted and burned. Dozens of Jews are killed, and thousands are taken to concentration camps. This becomes known as Reichskristallnacht, Crystal Night. 
 
 
24/01/1939 SS leader Reinhard Heydrich is ordered by G�ring to speed up emigration of Jews. 
27/01/1939 Neville Chamberlain is criticized by many members of the British Parliament for his recognition of the Franco government in Spain.
 
30/01/1939 In his speech before the Reichstag on the sixth anniversary of his coming to power, Hitler proclaims... 'In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power, it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the state and with it that of the whole nation and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevising of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!'.
 
 
05/02/1939 The Republican Government crosses the Pyrenees into France, followed by a flood of refuges. 
14/02/1939 The German battleship Bismarck is first launched. 
21/02/1939 Nazis force Jews to hand over all gold and silver items. 
27/02/1939 The British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain recognises Franco's Fascist Government in Spain. 
 
10/03/1939 Stalin postulates a "kinship" between Nazism and Communism in his radio speech. 
14/03/1939 Czech president Emil Hacha accepts Adolf Hitler making Bohemia-Moravia a German protectorate. 
15/03/1939 German troops occupy the rest of Czechoslovakia, annexing Bohemia and Moravia, making Slovakia a protectorate and giving Ruthenia to Hungary. This was all in violation of Munich Agreement of the previous year, but only produced weak British and French protests. 
17/03/1939 Edouard Daladier announces that France intends to increase defence spending.
 
18/03/1939 The Soviet Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Maxim Litvinov, suggests to British Ambassador Sir William Seeds that delegates from the UK, Soviet Union, France, Poland, and Romania should meet to discuss collective action in the event of war with Germany. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain tells the Cabinet that continuing negotiations with Adolf Hitler is impossible. 
19/03/1939 British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax replies to Soviet Commissar Maxim Litinov, saying they were examining an alternative scheme to a five-country pact. 
21/03/1939 Hitler reiterates his demands against Poland for the return of Danzig and the "Polish Corridor" to the Reich. 
22/03/1939 Poland again refuses German demands for the return of Danzig and the "Polish Corridor." 
23/03/1939 German troops occupy the city of Memel, which is situated on the border of East Prussia and Lithuania. Poland warns Germany that any similar attempt to seize Danzig would mean war. Poland partially mobilizes its armed forces. 
27/03/1939 At a Foreign Policy Committee meeting of the British Cabinet, the Ministers decide to side with Poland, rather than try for a multi-nation agreement involving the Soviet Union. 
28/03/1939 Madrid finally falls to Franco's forces as the Spanish Civil War nears its end. Poland again rejects German demands that Danzig be ceded to Germany. 
31/03/1939 France and Britain declare that they will stand by Poland. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announces in an address to the House of Commons British support of Polish independence. All resistance by Republican forces in Spain ends. 
 
01/04/1939 Franco declares the end of the Civil War in Spain. 
03/04/1939 Adolf Hitler issues a directive to the Army High Command to prepare for an attack on Poland, code named Fall Weiss (Case White), to be ready to implement by 1st September. 
06/04/1939 Britain and Poland sign a mutual-assistance pact. 
07/04/1939 Mussolini, jealous of Hitler�s successes, sends his troops into Albania which had been under Italian influence since the civil war of 1925, in which Italy had intervened. 
13/04/1939 Britain and France pledge to support Romania and Greece should they be attacked.
 
15/04/1939 President Roosevelt seeks assurances from Germany and Italy that they would not attack another European country. However, such assurances were not forthcoming. Hitler and Mussolini knew that Roosevelt�s hands were tied by the 1935-1937 Neutrality Acts, which forbade the USA from giving help to either side in the event of war. 
18/04/1939 The USSR proposes a ten-year alliance with Britain and France. 
19/04/1939 Slovakia passes its own anti-Jewish version of the Nuremberg Laws. 
28/04/1939 Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag in the Kroll Opera House in Berlin. He denounces the 1934 ten-year non-aggression pact with Poland and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement of June 1935. Hitler calls the Anglo-Polish Agreement an alliance directed exclusively against Germany and demands the return of Danzig to Germany. 
30/04/1939 Jews lose rights as tenants and are relocated into Jewish houses. 
 
06/05/1939 Two warships escort Britain's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on a visit to Canada. Each ship carries about 15 million Pounds Sterling in gold for safekeeping in Canada. 
12/05/1939 Turkey and Great Britain conclude a security pact. 
16/05/1939 In Halifax harbor, Nova Scotia, Canada, gold from two British warships is transferred to trains for delivery to Ottawa. 
17/05/1939 Sweden, Norway and Finland reject Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts, although Denmark accepts.
 
22/05/1939 At the Reich Chancellory in Berlin, Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign the Pact of Steel, which guaranteed support from the other in the event of war. 
 
    
 
04/07/1939 German Jews denied the right to hold government jobs. 
09/07/1939 Winston Churchill urges the British government to form a military alliance with the Soviet Union.
 
21/07/1939 Adolf Eichmann is appointed director of the Prague Office of Jewish Emigration. 
25/07/1939 Poland gives Britain and France a German Enigma machine each, whose codes they have broken. 
 
10/08/1939 Albert Forster, Gauleiter for Danzig and Nazi leader, addresses a crowd of 100,000 in Danzig: "The hour of liberation is at hand... our Motherland and our F�hrer, Adolf Hitler, are determined to support us." A trial blackout is ordered for London, England, in preparations for war. 
14/08/1939 Poland rejects the USSR's demand for permission for the Red Army to enter Poland. 
19/08/1939 Germany and Russia sign a trade treaty. 
21/08/1939 The German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee slips through the North Sea, unobserved by the British. 
22/08/1939 Hitler authorizes the killing "without pity or mercy, all men, women and children of Polish descent or language." 
23/08/1939 Germany and the USSR sign a non-aggression pact in Moscow. A severe blow to the hopes of Britain and France Poland�s death-knell, since one of the clauses agreed a split of the country between Germany and the USSR. It also gave Russia a free hand in the Baltic states and Bessarabia. Hitler now gives orders for the invasion of Poland to begin on the 26th August 1939. Another German pocket-battleship, this time the Deutschland sails through the North Sea, without the British noticing. 
25/08/1939 The Polish-British Common Defense Pact against Germany is signed. Mussolini complains to Hitler that he is not yet ready for war. The German battleship Schleswig-Holstein arrives at Danzig harbour. Hitler cancels his orders for an attack on Poland and issues Order X, for a partial mobilization in preparation for war. 
26/08/1939 Hitler cancels the order for the invasion of Poland on this day. He sets a new date of the 1st September. The Canadian Government issue orders for the callup of the militia to protect coastal defences and vulnerable industrial points. 
27/08/1939 Britain and France try to persuade Poland to negotiate with Germany, but she refuses. In preparation for war, Poland disperses military aircraft to small camouflaged airfields around Warsaw. 
29/09/1939 The British Admiralty assumes control of all British-registered merchant ships. 
31/08/1939 The British fleet is put on full alert. Hitler receives the Polish Ambassador to Berlin, mainly to appease Mussolini, who is trying to establish a peace formula. The talks lasted no longer than a few minutes as Hitler had already made up his mind to invade Poland. Directive Number One on the Conduct of the War" declares that at 04:45 on the 1st September 1939, the German Armed Forces will invade Poland. The German radio station at Gliewitz on the German-Polish border is "attacked" by Polish troops. However, all is not what it seems as these soldiers were actually concentration camp inmates, dressed in Polish uniforms and organised by the SS to give Hitler a pretext for invading Poland that he could show the world.

Famous Quotes

"I speak in the name of the entire German people when I assure the world that we all share the honest wish to eliminate the enmity that brings far more costs than any possible benefits... It would be a wonderful thing for all of humanity if both peoples would renounce force against each other forever. The German people are ready to make such a pledge." 
Adolf Hitler - 14th October 1933  
 "The assertion that it is the intention of the German Reich to coerce the Austrian State is absurd"
Adolf Hitler - 30th January 1934 
 "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss." 
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935  
 "Germany has concluded a Non-Aggression Pact with Poland... We shall adhere to it unconditionally... we recognize Poland as the home of a great and nationally conscious people." 
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935  
 "National Socialist Germany wants peace because of its fundamental convictions. And it wants peace also owing to the realization of the simple primitive fact that no war would be likely essentially to alter the distress in Europe... The principal effect of every war is to destroy the flower of the nation... Germany needs peace and desires peace!" 
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935  
 "Germany has solemnly recognized and guaranteed France her frontiers as determined after te Saar plebiscite... We thereby finally renounced all claims to Alsace-Lorraine, a land for which we have fought two great wars." 
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935  
 "Germany neither intends nor wishes to interfere in the internal affairs of Austria, to annex Austria, or to conclude an Anschluss." 
Adolf Hitler - 21st May 1935  
 "The League of Nations is still strong enough by its collective actions to avert or arrest aggression... There is no room for bargaining or compromise." 
Foreign Commissar Litvinoff - 21st September 1938) 
 "I have no further interest in the Czecho-Slovakian State, that is guaranteed. We want no Czechs"... 
Adolf Hitler - 26th September 1938  
  
 
 "In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power, it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the state and with it that of the whole nation and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem...but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevising of the earth and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!".
Adolf Hitler - Speech to the Reichstag - 30th January 1939 
 "In the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish independence and which the Polish Government accordingly considered it vital to resist with their national forces, His Majesty's Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the Polish Government all support in their power. They have given the Polish Government an assurance to this effect. I may add that the French Government have authorized me to make it plain that they stand in the same position in this matter."
Neville Chamberlain - 31st March 1939 
 �This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you that no such understanding has been received and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.�
Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain - 3rd September 1939 
 "This is a sad day for all of us, and to none is it sadder than to me. Everything that I have worked for, everything that I have believed in during my public life, has crashed into ruins. There is only one thing left for me to do: That is, to devote what strength and powers I have to forwarding the victory of the cause for which we have to sacrifice so much... I trust I may live to see the day when Hitlerism has been destroyed and a liberated Europe has been re-established."
Neville Chamberlain - 3rd September 1939 
  
 
 "My strength has now been reduced to the equivalent of 36 squadrons...we should be able to carry on the war single-handed for some time if not indefinitely."
Sir Hugh Dowding - RAF Fighter Command - May 1940 
 "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. War's are not won by evacuations."
Winston Churchill - To Parliament - 4th June 1940 
 "Dunkirk has fallen... with it has ended the greatest battle of world history. Soldiers! My confidence in you knew no bounds. You have not disappointed me."
Adolf Hitler - Order of the Day - 5th June 1940 
 "Mussolini is quite humiliated because our troops have not moved a step forward. Even today they have not succeeded in advancing and have halted in front of the first French fortification which put up some resistance."
Count Ciano - Italian Foreign Minister (written in his diary) - 21st June 1940 
 "My Luftwaffe is invincible...And so now we turn to England. How long will this one last - two, three weeks?"
Hermann Goring - June 1940 
 "Like so many of our people, we have now had a personal experience of German barbarity which only strengthens the resolution of all of us to fight through to final victory."
King George VI - September 1940 
 "Never has a military operation been undertaken so much against the will of the commanders."
Count Ciano - Italian Foreign Minister (Commenting on the Italian Advance into Egypt) - September 1940 
 "Never in the field of human conflict, has so much, been owed by so many, to so few!"
Winston Churchill - September 1940 
 "Once more a red fire blows steeply upwards...the factory will do no more work for Herr Churchill...tomorrow morning Coventry will lie in smoke and ruins."
Josef Goebbels - Ministry of Propaganda - September 1940 
 "Fuhrer, we are on the march! Victorious Italian troops crossed the Greco-Albanian frontier at dawn today!"
Benito Mussolini - (to Adolf Hitler) 28th October 1940 
 "Singapore... could only be taken after a siege by an army of at least 50,000 men... its not considered possible that the Japanese...would embark on such a mad enterprise.
Winston Churchill - 1940 
  
 
 "In my opinion the limit of endurance has been reached by the troops under my command...our position here is hopeless"
Major General Freyberg VC - (Shortly before the evacuation of Crete) - May 1941 
 "We did not intend to fight enemy warships...but we took up the fight. The crew have behaved magnificently. we shall win or die."
Admiral L�tjens - Commander of the Bismarck's Naval Squadron - 25th May 1941 
 "I should like to pay the highest tribute for the most gallant fight put up against impossible odds"
Admiral Tovey - (After the sinking of the Bismarck) - 27th May 1941 
 "I've had my fill of Hitler. These conferences called by a ringing of a bell are not to my liking; the bell is rung when people call their servants. And besides, what kind of conferences are these? For five hours I am forced to listen to a monologue which is quite fruitless and boring."
Benito Mussolini - (To his son in law) - 10th June 1941 
 "This war is not an ordinary war. It is the war of the entire Russian people. Not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our heads, but to aid all people groaning under the yoke of Fascism"
Josef Stalin - 22nd June 1941 
 "The Red Army and Navy and the whole Soviet people must fight for every inch of Soviet soil, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages...onward, to victory!"
Josef Stalin - July 1941 
 "We secured peace for our country for one and a half years, as well as an opportunity of preparing our forces for defense if fascist Germany risked attacking our country in defiance of the pact. This was a definite gain to our country and a loss for fascist Germany."
Josef Stalin - 3rd July 1941 - (Speaking of the 1939 non-aggression pact between the USSR and Germany) 
 "The Russian colossus...has been underestimated by us...whenever a dozen divisions are destroyed the Russians replace them with another dozen." 
General Franz Halder - Army Chief of Staff - August 1941 
 "A gigantic fleet... has massed in Pearl Harbor. This fleet will be utterly crushed with one blow at the very beginning of hostilities...Heaven will bear witness to the righteousness of our struggle."
Rear-Admiral Ito - Chief of Staff of the Combined Fleet - November 1941 
 "As a result of the cold, the machine-guns were no longer able to fire...the result of all this was a panic...The battle worthiness of our infantry is at an end" 
General Heinz Guderian - November 1941 
 "Oh merciful lord� crown our effort with victory� and give us faith in the inevitable power of light over darkness, of justice over evil and brutal force� Of the cross of Christ over the Fascist swastika� so be it, amen."
Sergei - Archbishop of Moscow - 27th November 1941 
 "The fate of the Empire rests on this enterprise every man must devote himself totally to the task in hand."
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto - Commander in Chief of the Japanese Navy - 7th December 1941 
 "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 - a date which will live in infamy - the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan...As Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense...With confidence in our armed forces - with the unbounded determination of our people - we will gain the inevitable triumph - so help us God."
President F.D. Roosevelt - 8th December 1941 
 "Before we're through with them, the Japanese language will be spoken only in hell.!
Admiral Halsey - December 1941 
  
 
 "With Malta in enemy hands, the Mediterranean route would be completely closed to us...this tiny island was a vital feature in the defence of our Middle East position."
General Hastings Ismay - 1942 
 "The assault on Malta will cost us many casualties...but...I consider it absolutely essential for the future development of the war. If we take Malta, Libya will be safe."
Count Ugo Cavallero - Italian Chief of Staff 1940-1943  
 "You are doomed... you have already cut rations by a half...but your prestige and honour have been upheld"
General Homma - Speaking to General MacArthur- January 1942 
 "I'll come back as soon as I can with as much as I can. In the meantime, you've got to hold."
General MacArthur - Speaking to General Wainwright - March 1942 
 "My attack on Singapore was a bluff, a bluff that worked... I was very frightened that all the time the British would discover our numerical weakness and lack of supplies and force me into disastrous street fighting"
General Yamashita - 1942 
 "On the European Front, the most important development of the past year has been the crushing German offensive against the great armies of Russia"
President Franklin D. Roosevelt - 29th April 1942 
 "The fruits of victory are tumbling into our mouths too quickly."
Emperor Hirohito (On his Birthday) - 29th April 1942 
 "Japan...is operating in the Pacific in the hope of extending her hold over New Guinea...from such a position she...could carry out raids on Australia...whilst awaiting our final defeat by Germany"
General Alan Brooke - 5th May 1942 
 "To every man of us, Tobruk was a symbol of British resistance, and we were now going to finish with it for good." 
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - June 1942 
 "Am sending mobile troops out tonight. Not possible to hold tomorrow... Will resist to the last man and last round."
Major General Hendrik Klopper - (Commander of the Tobruk Garrison to General Ritchie) - 21st June 1942 
 "Our citizens can now rejoice that a momentous victory is in the making. Perhaps we will be forgiven if we claim we are about midway to our objective."
Admiral Chester Nimitz - June 1942 
 "Just as the defending force has gathered valuable experience from...Dieppe, so has the assaulting force...He will not do it like this a second time." 
Field Marshal von Rundstedt - August 1942 
 "The Russian convoys are and always have been an unsound operation of this war"
Rear Admiral L.H.K Hamilton - September 1942 
 "The battle is going very heavily against us. We're being crushed by the enemy weight...We are facing very difficult days, perhaps the most difficult that a man can undergo." 
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel - 3rd November 1942 
 "Never in history has the navy landed an army at the planned time and place. But if you land us anywhere within 50 miles of Fedela and within 1 week of D-Day. I'll go ahead and win."
Major General George Patton - November 1942 (Commenting of the North Africa Landings) 
  
 
 "Most of the men are stricken with dysentery...Starvation is taking many lives and it is weakening our already extended lines. We are doomed. "
Major-General Kensaku Oda (Referring to the state of Japanese troops on Guadalcanal)- 12th January 1943 
 "The defeat of the enemy in the Battle of El Alamein, the pursuit of his beaten army and the final capture of Tripoli...has all been accomplished in three months. This is probably without parallel in history."
Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery - 23rd January 1943 
 "The troops of the Don Front at 4pm on the 2nd February 1943 completed the rout and destruction of the encircled group of enemy forces in Stalingrad. Twenty two division have been destroyed or taken prisoner."
Lieutenant General Rokossovski - February 1943 
 "Even without the allied offensive, I should have had to capitulate by the 1st June at the latest as I had no more to eat." 
General Oberst von Arnim - May 1943 - (Commenting after the Axis surrender in Tunisia) 
 "The disaster of Stalingrad profoundly shocked the German people and armed forces alike...Never before in Germany's history had so large a body of troops come to so dreadful an end." 
General Siegfried von Westphal - 1943 
 "No amphibious attack in history had approached this one in size. Along miles of coastline there were hundreds of vessels and small boats afloat and ant-like files of advancing troops ashore."
General Dwight Eisenhower - July 1943 (Sicily) 
 "Soldiers of the Reich! This day you are to take part in an offensive of such importance that the whole future of the war may depend on its outcome." 
Adolf Hitler - 5th July 1943 
 "It would have been easier to fight alone with inadequate forces than to have to accept...responsibility for our ally's lack of fighting qualities and dubious loyalty." 
Field Marshal Albert Kesselring - August 1943 (After the German evacuation of Sicily) 
 "The Germans may claim with some justification to have won if not a victory at least an important success over us."
General Alexander - September 1943 
 "They (the Americans) are, I think, a bit unwarrantably cock-a-hoop as a result of their limited experience to date. But they are setting about it in a realistic and business-like way...I have a feeling that they will do it..."
Air Vice-Marshal Sir John Slessor - 1943 
 "The enemy knows that he must wipe out our fighters. Once he has done that, he will be able to play football with the German people."
Field Marshal Erhard Milch - 1943 
 "The 2nd Marine Division has been especially chosen by the High Command for the assault on Tarawa...what you do there will set a standard for all future operations in the central pacific area."
Major General Julian C. Smith - Commander of the U.S. 2nd Marine Division - November 1943 
 "Casualties many; Percentage of dead not known; Combat efficiency; we are winning."
Colonel David M. Shoup - (Tarawa) - 21st November 1943 
  
 
  "I say that the bombing of the Abbey...was a mistake...It only made our job more difficult, more costly in terms of men, machines and time"
Lieutenant General Mark Clark - Commander of the U.S. Fifth Army - 1944 (After the bombing of Monte Cassino) 
  "Had Clark given more heed to Juin's views...the savage battles of Cassino would probably never have been fought and the venerable house of St Benedict would have been unscathed"
Rudolf B�hmler - 1st Fallschirmj�ger Division - 1944 (After the bombing of Monte Cassino) 
  "The enemy must be annihilated before he reaches our main battlefield...We must stop him in the water...destroying all his equipment while it is still afloat"
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel - 22nd April 1944 
  "Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I'd shoot a snake!"
General George S. Patton - (addressing to his troops before Operation Overlord) - 5th June 1944  
  "Your task will not be an easy one. Your enemy is well trained, well equipped and battle hardened. He will fight savagely"
General Dwight Eisenhower - 6th June 1944 
  "At the present time, it is still too early to say whether this is a large-scale diversionary attack or the main effort"
German C-in-C West - Morning Report for the 6th June 1944 
 
  
 
 "The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."
James Forrestal - Secretary of the Navy - 23rd February 1945 
 "Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."
Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz - 16th March 1945 
 "Attacks on cities are strategically justified in so far as they tend to shorten the war and so preserve the lives of allied soldiers."
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur "Bomber" Harris - 29th March 1945 
 "It is on this beautiful day that we celebrate the Fuhrers birthday and thank him for he is the only reason why Germany is still alive today"
Josef Goebbels - Ministry of Propaganda - 26th April 1945

World War 2

WORLD WAR II

�        Failure of collective security

�        Treaty of Versailles did not create an enduring peace by severely punishing Germany and triggering future resentment against the "dictated peace."

�        League of Nations, without (US & USSR) didn't have will nor support to maintain peace.

�        Washington Naval Conference, 1921-22: did not stop naval arms race

�        Five Power Treaty: created a 5-5-3 battleship ratio between U.S., Britain and Japan

�        Four Power Treaty replaced Anglo-Japanese Alliance of 1902: Bound Br., Japan, France, and U.S. to preserve status quo in the Pacific, a concession to Japan�s favor.

�        Nine Power Treaty agreed to uphold the Open Door in China

�        Locarno Pact, 1925: "spirit of Locarno" no longer relevant once Hitler took power

�        Kellogg-Briand Pact, 1928: "war is illegal"; not enforceable

�        Great Depression resulted in the rise of fascism in Japan and Germany

�        Japanese invasion of Manchuria, 1931: League did little; Japan pulled out of League

�        Hitler withdrew from League of Nations, 1933: secretly begins rearmament

�        Stresa Front, 1935: Mussolini and others concerned Hitler withdrew from Versailles Treaty

�        Italy, France, and Britain protested strongly, understanding the danger; agreed to use force to maintain status quo.

�        However only a year later, Mussolini allied with Hitler to help fascists win in Spain

�        Italian invasion of Ethiopia, 1935: League of Nations ineffective in its actions and protests

�        Spanish Civil War, 1936: Mussolini and Hitler use conflict as a testing ground for their military forces: Italy's army; Germany's airforce -- Luftwaffe

�        Fascism prevails under Francisco Franco; also known as Falangists (or Royalists)

�        League ineffective in helping republicans (Loyalists) against Franco.

�        Rome-Berlin Axis formed )"Fascintern"): an alliance between fascist Italy and Germany

�        German reoccupation of the Rhineland, 1936: violated Versailles Treaty and Locarno Pact

�        France unwilling to enforce the treaty without British aid; British didn't want another war

�        Anti-Comintern Pact, 1937: Italy signed with Germany to oppose communism in Europe.

�        Japan invades China, 1937: world watches the "rape of Shanghai" but does little

Road to World War II

�        Hitler repudiates Versailles Treaty and begins massive rearmament in mid-1930s

�        Anschluss: Germany annexes Austria, 1938

�        Sudetenland: Hitler demanded the German-speaking province in Czechoslovakia or else there would be war

�        Munich Conference, 1938 arranged by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain

�        Attended by Britain, France, Italy & Germany; Czechoslovakia or Russia not invited!

�        British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain adopted a policy of appeasement

�        Appeasement: making concessions to an aggressor in order to achieve peace

�        Pacifism is prevalent in Britain and France: memories of horrors of WWI; don't want war

�        Agreement: Czechoslovakia forced to give away Sudetenland

�        Chamberlain returns to Britain a hero: "peace in our time"

�        German invasion of Czechoslovakia, spring1939: Hitler double-crosses Chamberlain

�        Hitler makes demands on port city of Danzig in the Polish Corridor

�        Chamberlain says if Germany attacks Poland there will be war

�        Hitler does not want a two-front war against France & Britain in west and Russia in east

�        Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, Aug. 1939

�        World shocked that archenemies Hitler and Stalin would make such an agreement

�        Hitler sought assurances USSR would not attack Germany if Germany invaded Poland

�        Public agreement: nonaggression treaty

�        Private agreement: Germany and USSR would invade Poland and split the country in half.

�        Germany invades Poland, Sept. 1, 1939: marks beginning of World War II

�        September 3, Britain & France declare war on Germany

World War II

�        Blitzkrieg ("lightning war"): new form of warfare used by Germany to quickly defeat an enemy by poking a hole in enemy line and cutting off front lines from the rear thus surrounding enemy.

�        Used coordinated attack on one part of enemy line with airforce, tanks, and artillery

�        Poland defeated in about a month; partition occurred when USSR attacked from east

�        Stalin invades Finland (1939) and annexes Estonia, Latvia, & Lithuania (1940) to create a  buffer zone, believing Hitler will one day invade Soviet Union

�        sitzkrieg (�phony war�): After Poland, a 7-month lull ensued, causing some to say WWII was a myth. The world waited to see where Hitler might strike next.

�        Spring 1940: Hitler invaded Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium & Luxembourg

�        Fall of France, June 1940 occurred in less than six weeks

�        Dunkirk: thousands of French and British soldiers trapped on beaches of France

�        Before Germans came in for the kill, thousands were rescued by armada of British vessels

�         Vichy France: Hitler did not wish to waste time subduing all of France

�        Puppet gov't created in southern France

�        �Free French� led by General Charles De Gaulle, who fled to Britain

�        Battle of Britain: one of most critical battles of the war

�        Hitler sought to soften Britain up for an invasion ("Operation Sealion")

�        Luftwaffe (led by Herman Goring, one of Hitler's inner circle) sent to destroy Royal Air Force (RAF)

�        Winston Churchill emerged as inspirational war leader of Britain

�        After almost defeating RAF, Hitler ordered bombing of London: fatal error

�        RAF recovered and ultimately defeated Luftwaffe: Hitler forced to call off invasion of Britain

�        Significance: Hitler had to guard against a future two-front war; D-Day launched from Britain

�        Tripartite Pact, 1940: Japan added to Rome-Berlin axis for mutual defense and military support.

�        German invasion of Soviet Union, June 1941: Hitler's attempt at "lebensraum"

�        "Scorched Earth": Soviets destroyed anything of value as they withdrew to deprive German army of resources; 1,000's of towns disappeared!

�        By winter, Germans at the gates of Moscow; lay siege to Leningrad (lasted two years)

�        In Soviet Union, WWII became known as �Great Patriotic War of the Fatherland�

�        Atlantic Charter: Churchill and FDR meet secretly after invasion of Soviet Union

�        Decide once Axis Powers defeated, there would be no territorial changes contrary to the wishes  inhabitants (self-determination)

�        Called for �a permanent system of general security�: later became the United Nations

�        Stalin endorsed the agreement soon thereafter

�        U.S. neutrality

�        Neutrality Acts in 1930s prevented FDR from drawing U.S. into the conflict earlier

�        Lend-Lease Act (1941) gave large amounts of money and supplies to help Britain and Soviets; effectively ended U.S. neutrality

�        Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Dec. 7, 1941, resulted in U.S. entry into the war

�        Hitler declared war on U.S.: another fatal blunder!  Instead of focusing on Japan, U.S. (along with Britain) would instead focus on defeating Germany first.

�        The Grand Alliance formed in 1942: Britain, Soviet Union and U.S. and 2 dozen other countries

�        Turning points in the war

�        Stalingrad, Dec. 1942: first Nazi defeat on land; Soviets began the 2.5 year campaign of pushing the German army back to Berlin

�        �Operation Torch�, 1943: U.S. and British forces landed on North Africa

�        El Alamein: British drove the Germans out of Egypt

�        Germany eventually defeated and suffered mass casualties and surrenders.

�        Invasion of Sicily and Italy, 1943

�        D-Day, Operation Overlord, June 6, 1944: invasion of Normandy (northern French coast)

�        Western front established; spelled end of Nazi domination of Europe; Paris liberated 1 month later

�        Hitler now fighting on three fronts: east against Russians, west against U.S. and Britain (& France) and Italy against U.S. and Britain

�        Battle of the Bulge, Dec. 1944: Hitler's last gasp offensive to drive Allies away from western German border; after it failed, Allies quickly penetrated deep into Germany in 1945.

�        V-E Day, May 8, 1945: Germany surrenders (Hitler committed suicide a few days earlier)

�        Diplomacy during the war

�        Casablanca Conference, 1943:

�        FDR and Churchill declared a policy of unconditional surrender for �all enemies�

�        Italy would be invaded first before opening 2nd Front in France (to Stalin's dismay)

�        Moscow Conference: 1943: US obtained Soviet agreement to enter the war against Japan after Germany was defeated and to participate in a world organization after the war was over.

�        Tehran Conference, 1943: First meeting of the �Big Three�: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin

�        Allies agreed to an invasion of the Western Europe in 1944.

�        Stalin reaffirmed the Soviet commitment to enter the war against Japan

�        Stalin insisted on Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the carving up of Germany

�        Churchill demanded free governments in Eastern Europe and a strong Germany after the war to preserve a balance of power in Europe.

�        Roosevelt acted as a mediator and believed he could work with Stalin to achieve a post-world peace within the construct of the United Nations.

�        Yalta Conference, 1945: "Big Three" met again

�        Stalin agreed to enter Pacific war within 3 months after Germany surrendered

�        Stalin agreed to a �Declaration of Liberated Europe� which called for free elections.

�        Called for United Nations to meet in U.S. beginning in April 1945

�        Soviets would have 3 votes in General Assembly

�        U.S., Britain, USSR, France & China to be permanent members of Security Council.

�        Germany  to be divided into occupied zones and a coalition government of communists and non-communists was agreed to for Poland.

�        U.S.S.R. allowed to keep its pre-1939 territory.

�        FDR accepted Soviet control of Outer Mongolia, the Kurile Islands, the southern half of Sakhalin Island, Port Arthur (Darien), and partial operation of the Manchurian railroads.

�        Potsdam Conference, July 1945: Stalin, Harry Truman and Clement Atlee

�        Issued warning to Japan of unconditional surrender or face utter devastation

�        Stalin reversed his position on eastern Europe stating there would be no free elections

�        Approvals given to concept of war-crimes trials and the demilitarization and denazification of Germany.

�        Reparations from Germany could be taken from each respective zone.

�        During conference Truman ordered dropping of  atomic bomb on Japan

�        End of the war against Japan: U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Results of the war

�        About 55 million dead (including missing); 22 million in USSR alone

�        Holocaust resulted in deaths of 6 million Jews and 6 million others

�        Hitler's "Final Solution" to the Jewish problem

�        Formal plan came at Wanasee Conference in 1942

�        Six death camps built in Poland in addition to hundreds of concentration camps

�        Auschwitz was most notorious

�        Millions homeless and millions relocated (especially Germans living outside Germany)

�        Much of Europe lay in ruins: would take years to rebuild economy

�        Women played even larger role in the war economy than in WWI (gained more rights after war)

�        The U.S. and Soviet Union emerged as the two dominant powers in the postwar world.

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