# How the Second World War unfolded The peace of 1919 carried the seeds of the next war: how resentment, appeasement, and ambition burned the world a second time. *This story part of: Military and security* *How the First World War unfolded led to this story* *Japan's wartime command economy parallel this story* > The story begins where the last war ended: a treaty that humiliated Germany without breaking her power. Fourteen years later, a veteran of the trenches rode that resentment into office. ## 28 June 1919 — Treaty of Versailles The peace treaty assigns Germany responsibility for the war, imposes reparations, and redraws the map of Europe. Signed five years to the day after the assassination. > Rearmament followed, then one gamble after another, each unanswered. ## 30 January 1933 — Adolf Hitler appointed Chancellor President Hindenburg appoints Hitler Chancellor of Germany; within eighteen months the republic is a dictatorship. > Each unpunished breach taught the same lesson: the victors of 1918 would not fight. ## 7 March 1936 — Remilitarization of the Rhineland German troops re-enter the demilitarized Rhineland in open breach of Versailles; Britain and France do nothing. > With the western powers appeased, Hitler needed only to secure his eastern flank. ## 30 September 1938 — Munich Agreement Britain and France cede the Sudetenland to Germany without consulting Czechoslovakia; Chamberlain promises "peace for our time". > Nine days later, the tanks rolled. ## 23 August 1939 — Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact with a secret protocol dividing eastern Europe between them. > After a winter of quiet, the storm turned west. ## 1 September 1939 — Invasion of Poland Germany invades Poland; Britain and France declare war two days later. The Second World War begins in Europe. > Britain stood alone, and the war moved to the air. ## 10 May 1940 to 25 June 1940 — Fall of France Germany conquers the Low Countries and France in six weeks; the British army escapes at Dunkirk without its equipment. > Balked in the west, Hitler turned on the ally he had bought in 1939. ## 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940 — Battle of Britain The RAF denies the Luftwaffe air superiority; the planned invasion of Britain is shelved. > Six months later, on the other side of the world, the war became truly global. ## 22 June 1941 — Operation Barbarossa Germany invades the Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometre front, the largest invasion in history. > The tide turned in the ruins of a city on the Volga. ## 7 December 1941 — Attack on Pearl Harbor Japan strikes the US Pacific Fleet; the United States enters the war, and Germany declares war on America four days later. > While the Red Army ground west, the Allies opened the second front. ## 23 August 1942 to 2 February 1943 — Battle of Stalingrad The German Sixth Army is encircled and destroyed; the strategic initiative in the east passes to the Soviet Union for good. > Squeezed from east and west, the Reich collapsed in eleven months. ## 6 June 1944 — Normandy landings The largest seaborne invasion in history opens the western front; Paris is liberated within three months. > The war in the Pacific ended three months later, under a new kind of cloud. ## 8 May 1945 — Victory in Europe Germany surrenders unconditionally a week after Hitler kills himself in the ruins of Berlin. ## 6 August 1945 to 9 August 1945 — Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Two atomic bombs destroy two cities; the nuclear age begins. ## 2 September 1945 — Surrender of Japan Japan signs the instrument of surrender aboard USS Missouri. The Second World War is over; some sixty million people are dead.