Curated category
Military history of Germany during World War II
- French declaration of war on Germany (1939)The defensive treaty with Poland stood as the legal foundation for France's entry into conflict. This agreement obligated Paris to intervene if Berlin…
- Commissar OrderPlanning for Operation Barbarossa began in June 1940. Adolf Hitler started vague allusions to the operation during December 1940.
- Hunger PlanGermany in the 1930s relied on foreign imports to feed its population. This dependency worsened when war broke out and the military requisitioned tractors…
- Anglo-German Naval AgreementPart V of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed severe limitations on Germany's naval forces. The treaty allowed no submarines, no naval aviation, and only…
- German prisoners of war in the Soviet UnionIn early 1943, the German 6th Army surrendered at Stalingrad. Ninety-one thousand survivors became prisoners of war. Eighty-five thousand died in the months…
- End of World War II in EuropeField Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed the German Instrument of Surrender in Karlshorst, Berlin on the 8th of May 1945. This document marked an unconditional…
- Molotov–Ribbentrop PactThe outcome of World War I was disastrous for both the German and Russian empires. The Russian Civil War broke out in late 1917 after the Bolshevik…
- Anglo-Iraqi WarThe Kingdom of Iraq, also known as Mesopotamia, remained under British control through a League of Nations mandate until 1932.
- German Army (1935–1945)Adolf Hitler announced the German rearmament programme in 1935. Only 17 months later, the army reached its projected goal of 36 divisions.
- Blockade of Germany (1939–1945)In 1937, Sir Frederick Leith-Ross began urging senior British government figures to revive the World War I blockade strategy.