A Collection of World War II Documents (Illustrated Edition)

*Includes the following documents: The Munich Pact, Germany's Invasion of Poland, The Allies Response to the invasion, Pearl Harbor Documents, German Declaration of War against the United States, Armistice with Italy, Yalta Conference, and Germany's surrender to the Allies. On September 1, 1939, the world was changed forever. Despite several attempts by the French and British to appease Hitlers Nazi regime to avoid war, most notably allowing Hitler to annex the Czechs Sudetenland, Germany invaded Poland on that day, officially starting the deadliest conflict in human history. For the French and British, the Nazi invasion of Poland promised war, and by September 3 both countries declared war on Germany. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union, fresh off a nonaggression pact with Hitler, invaded the Baltic. France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans, responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the League of Nations. Britain and France also began a naval blockade of Germany on September 3 which aimed to damage the country's economy and war effort, but the Nazis would blitzkrieg across the continent over the next year and eventually overwhelm France in mid-1940, leaving the British to fight alone. For the first two years of the war, it looked as though the Axis powers may very well win the war and usher in a new world order. This collection of World War II documents spans the Allies attempt to appease Hitler at Munich, the German invasion of Poland and the Allies response, Pearl Harbor, the Yalta Conference, the armistice with Italy, and finally Germanys surrender to the Allies. It includes pictures of the wars important leaders and generals, as well as a Table of Contents.