CHURCHILL GAMBLED EVERYTHING AT DUNKIRK @ STALIN MURDERED RED ARMY OFFICERS @ HITLER LIED 10 GAIN HERO STATUS hal ¥ > . z yp = Py | iG bh q ( | y, ) aA General Rommel’s a Afrika Korps force ‘ Allies on the run. = we . Eisenhower wins battles, but never stands on the Front line. The general sees off Rommel, plans D-Day and makes himself unpopular with the US. iy HEROES AND VILLAINS CROSS SWORDS ith Europe overrun by Hitler’s W ornare war machine, Churchill is the only head of state with the courage to stand up to the Fuhrer. The British Prime Minister’s iron will makes him a role model in Great Britain and across the continent. Churchill and his V-sign become a symbol of resistance against Nazi Germany. In Germany in February 1942, armaments minister Albert Speer has the job of making sure that there’s a steady supply of prisoners of war to man the plants and factories —at the same time as the SS are on a killing spree. But Speer isn’t saving prisoners’ lives: men, women and children are worked to death producing weapons for the German army. Churchill was a true hero, and Speer, a nasty villain — or were they? Churchill had racist views, while Speer defied Hitler at risk to his own life and saved Germany’s infrastructure. Bringing History to Life gets up close to World War II’s greatest personalities. Happy reading! First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt hie pins the Soldier’s Medal on ; Ne cand Sam Morris for heroism ott! 4 “4 Are gees. | while under fire. ope 4 Hee i, ce © e 12 20 Dictator murdered his officers Josef Stalin condemned his old comrades to death. Death doctor tested weapons on people Shiro Ishii operates on prisoners without anaesthesia. Nazis lie about Fiihrer’s war achievements Adolf Hitler doesn’t deserve the Iron Cross medal he wears. : British bulldog refused to give up Winston Churchill rallies the British people. : Rebellious officer fought back Charles de Gaulle continues the fight from exile. Leaders’ women all played roles Wives, mistresses and secretaries act behind the scenes. Afrika Korps saved Italians Erwin Rommel forces the Allies out of Libya. Architect organised war effort Albert Speer accelerates Nazi war production. : Novice forged ahead on the battlefield Bernard Montgomery debuts with victory over Rommel. : The Allies prepare to land in Europe Dwight D Eisenhower leads the invasion of Sicily. : Playboy dictator humiliated to the end Benito Mussolini becomes Hitler’s puppet. Shipbuilder defeats the Nazis Andrew Higgins delivers crucial equipment for D-Day. Medals boosted the will to fight Both sides reward honour and courage. Cowboy general downs the Germans George S Patton sweeps the enemy aside with new tactics. : Stalin’s iron fist strikes the enemy down Georgy Zhukov’s success in war puts his future at risk. HEROES AND VILLAINS 1936: Soviet leader Josef Stalin eradicates anyone who threatens his grip on power. Read about the Moscow Purges on page 12. 7TH MARCH: Nazi Germany violates international treaties by sending troops into the demilitarised Rhineland zone. 19TH APRIL: an Arab riot in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Palestine breaks out against British rule and Jewish immigration. 11 are killed. Brutal medical experiments | 1936] Physician Shiro Ishii heads Unit 731, a secret laboratory that performs horrific biological and chemical experiments on captured Manchurians. At least 3,000 are killed. Read about his medical experiments on page 20 7TH MAY: Italy annexes Ethiopia and adds it to Eritrea and Italian Somalia to create the Italian East Africa colony. 17TH JULY: Spain’s Army of Africa launches a coup d'état against the government. The uprising leads to Civil War. 1ST AUGUST: the 11th Olympic Games opens in Berlin. 3RD NOVEMBER: Democrat Franklin D Roosevelt is re-elected US President after a landslide victory over Alf Landon, Governor of Kansas. 25TH NOVEMBER: the Nazis sign the Anti-Comintern Pact with Japan. The countries agree to fight the Soviet Union and communism worldwide. The lie of Hitler’s “heroism” yA le (0) =) ee ey When Hitler appears in public, he always wears a basic uniform adorned only with an Iron Cross. The regime promotes the idea that the Fiihrer played a full part in WWI, but the story is pure propaganda with no truth to it. Read about Hitler’s lies on page 28 5TH NOVEMBER: at a meeting in the Reichstag, Hitler formulates “Lebensraum”, a plan to give the Germans more _ territorial space. 13TH DECEMBER: Japanese occupy Nanking, killing 300,000 Chinese in just three months. 4TH FEBRUARY, 1938: Hitler assumes command of the German armed forces. 13TH MARCH: Germany annexes neighbouring Austria. 1ST OCTOBER: Germans annex the Sudetenland. 23RD AUGUST, 1939: Germany and the Soviet Union sign the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, an agreement to divide Eastern Europe between them. 1ST SEPTEMBER: Nazi soldiers invade Poland, and World War Il breaks out. [>>> D> D> D> ED ED >> ED >> ED >> ED >> ED >> D> D> E> >>> D>. >>>. >>> Germany invades the neutral countries of Norway and Denmark. Denmark is conquered in just four hours. the Soviet Union and Finland sign the Moscow Peace Treaty to end the Winter War after four months. the German occupiers establish a huge Jewish ghetto in the Polish industrial city of Lodz. British bulldog refuses to bow When Hitler’s rhetoric translates into an invasion of Holland and Belgium, Winston, Churchill’s warnings about the, ig Fithrer are proved correct.Aftera 25 crisis meeting, Neville ee Chamberlain resigns as Prime; Minster, and the task of leading the country falls to Churchill. attack France, Holland and Belgium. British forces had occupied Iceland on 9th May. German forces British Prime the Battle of Britain Minister Churchill orders the begins. German aircraft bomb evacuation of hundreds of British cities and air bases. thousands of British and French soldiers trapped at Dunkirk on The Royal the French coast. Air Force bombs Hamburg in retribution for Germany's = King Haakon VII of devastation of Coventry two - —_ Norway is evacuated to London days earlier. De Gaulle marshals the Resistance \anaiai ia eels a cruiser HMS Devonshire. W b k Colonel de Gaulle refuses to surrender as i omen bac Germany enters France. He brings together an army of : the Auschwitz the men of War 5,000 men, but the German forces are too big, and de Concentration (KZ) camp opens. = Gaulle flees to Britain. Here he forms “The Free French”, Clementine a government in exile, and urges resistance via the radio. : : German forces roll Churchill and Eleanor into Paris. France surrenders a Roosevelt often appear few days later, and on 23rd June Hitler visits the Eiffel Tower. >> aD >>> D>) >>> > >>> aD >> >>>) > D> >> >>> > >>> >>> >> >>> >>> >> a> >>> a at their husband’s side, while other women perform invisible roles as secretaries or « Sse mistresses to gi support the war’s Co leading men. 4 22ND JUNE: Operation Barbarossa, the largest invasion in history, begins when Axis attacks the Soviet Union. 9TH IVIAY: a German submarine containing the Enigma machine is captured, enabling the British to break German codes. 10TH APRIL, 1941: forces from Rommel’s new Afrika Korps lay siege to the port city of Tobruk in north-eastern Libya. Japanese aircraft attack the naval base at Pearl Harbor. The 7TH DECEMBER: 353 US declares war on Japan. Hitler’s favourite boosts production 8TH FEBRUARY, 1942 F.N casita ee Many Faber Exect Albert Speer has already won Sole git Acer ‘ 311 Hitler’s favour with his designs PEA ps Ee of the Nazi Parade Ground in Nuremberg in 1933 and later the Fiihrer’s Reich chancellery. When his Armaments Minister dies, Hitler appoints Speer in his place. With his talent for efficient organisation, Speer increases production of everything from tanks to rifles. Read about Germany’s weapons architect on page 74 23TH AUGUST: the Battle of Stalingrad begins. German troops move into the suburbs and surround the city. 12TH FEBRUARY: Rommel comes to Mussolini’s rescue Novice forges ahead at in North Africa. Read about on the battlefield the Desert Fox on page 66 26TH MARCH: Jews in Berlin STH AueUST| aed Bernard 23RD SEPTEMBER: the United are forced to identify themselves gomery ee States initiates the Manhattan ‘ i Rommel in Africa, leads the A : at i by marking their houses. ——- B Project. The project's goal: D-Day invasion and : b lar with i produce an atomic bomb. 22ND JULY: deportation ofJews | On = UPOPY nw i from the Warsaw ghetto begins. merican genera .: ; _ _ i | 15TH NOVEMBER: US forces Thousands of Jews from the Read about the British , ‘: ‘| win the Naval Battle of Polish capital are murdered at hero on page 82 Guadalcanal to retain control of the Treblinka KZ Camp. m \ the Pacific Ocean. >> >>> >> >>> >>> >>> D> D>>> D> >>> >> >>> >> >> >>> DD 1941-4" 2ND FEBRUARY: the German 6th Army surrenders to end five months of fighting in Stalingrad. 18TH FEBRUARY: Germany’s Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declares “total war” against the Allies. 19TH APRIL: the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins as Nazis enter the area to round up the last Jews. 5TH JULY: the Battle of Kursk begins, the last German offensive on the Eastern Front. 10TH JULY: Allied forces led by General Eisenhower land on Sicily. Read about the invasion on page 92 24TH JULY: Allied aircraft launch a series of bombing raids against Hamburg. Mussolini gets final chance 25TH JULY, 1943 Hitler liberates Italy’s deposed dictator from house arrest and places him as head of a German-controlled state in northern Italy. But Il Duce has lost his spark. Read about the playboy dictator on page 100 29TH JULY: a million inhabitants flee Hamburg after the Allied bombings, which kill 42,000 people by November. 2ND AUGUST: Lieutenant John | FKennedy’s Patrol Torpedo boat PT-109 is sunk by a Japanese destroyer near the Solomon Islands. The future US president is forced to swim with his crew to an uninhabited island. Ay ai | Higgins boat defeats Germans In US factories, perspiring workers slave away to build a landing boat. The boat’s developer is Andrew Higgins who, after years of struggle, has finally convinced the US Navy about his boat’s qualities. The following year, the vessel plays a crucial role in D-Day. Read about Higgins’ genius invention on page 108 14TH AUGUST: Italy’s new regime declares Rome an “open city” and offers to demilitarise in return for an Allied promise not to bomb the city any further. 23TH AUGUST: the Battle of Kursk ends in a serious defeat for German forces. 28TH AUGUST: The Danish government rejects Germans demands for the death penalty for saboteurs. Cooperation with the occupying power ends. 3RD SEPTEMBER: Allied forces under General Montgomery invade the Italian mainland. 18TH NOVEMBER: the RAF launches bombing raids against Berlin and other German cities. 1ST DECEMBER: the Tehran Conference sees Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt plan to invade Europe in May 1944 (the actual date will be 6th June). >>> >>> D>) > D>) >>>) >>> >>>) > D> >) D>) > D>) >>>) > >>>) >>>) >>> > iD>>>>iL>>>> >>>» >>> HEROES AND VILLAINS 9 Soviet troops launch twin offensives in Leningrad and Novgorod. the Battle of Monte Cassino in Italy beings. The Allies break the German Gustav Line and capture Rome. members of 12th SS Panzer Division Hitlerjugend (“Hitler Youth”) kill 86 civilians suspected of attempting to blow up a German train. Patton drives Germans back D-Day takes place. 150,000 Allied troops land on the beaches of Normandy in the greatest amphibious military operation in history. Japanese pilots make the first Kamikaze attack on US ships near the island of Iwo-jima. Hitler survives an assassination attempt by Claus von Stauffenerg. Behind US General George S Patton’s fiery exterior hides a brilliant tactician, whose abilities scare even Hitler himself. At the head of the US 3rd Army, Patton leads the quickest advance in history across France and Germany. » ae "a é -* 4 a Medals mark decisive battles Coloured ribbons and medals in iron, silver and gold honour soldiers’ efforts. One medal, however, will never be awarded: the Victory Medal to Hitler for winning the war. hi J 4,000 gypsies are gassed in the Auschwitz and Birkenau KZ camps. the world’s first undersea pipeline is laid between Britain and France. The pipeline is part of the Operation Overlord plans for the invasion of Normandy. the German commander of Paris, General Choltitz, surrenders after defying Hitler’s order to destroy the French capital. the German V2 rocket is ready for use - over 3,000 missiles will be launched at Allied targets. Finland and the Soviet Union sign a ceasefire to end the Continuation War - the name marks the connection with the previous Winter War. Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide by swallowing a phial of poison. the Allies recognise de Gaulle’s cabinet as the government of France. Germany launches the Ardennes Offensive. The plan is to drive a wedge into the Allied front line. D> >> ED >>>