1935 Dönitz in charge of U-boats
Adolf Hitler gives Karl Dönitz, a submarine commander from World War I, responsibility for Germany's U-boat programme

1939 Poland the first victim of German blitzkrieg
The new German technique of blitzkrieg ('lightning war') is demonstrated with devastating effect against Poland

1939 August 21 Ribbentrop-Molotov pact
Ribbentrop flies to Moscow to sign a Nonaggression Pact with Molotov, depriving Britain and France of an ally

1939 September 1 Hitler invades Poland
Adolf Hitler launches a massive attack on Poland, with tanks crossing the border and air raids on Warsaw

1939 September 3 Britain and France declare war on Germany
Britain and France, receiving no answer from Hitler to their ultimatum over his attack on Poland, declare war on Germany

1940 Lord Haw-Haw goes on air
William Joyce, broadcasting in English from Germany, becomes notorious in Britain as Lord Haw-Haw

1940  April 9 Hitler invades Denmark and Norway
German ships and marines occupy the harbours of neutral Denmark and Norway

1940 July 16 Hitler plans invasion of England
Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England, under the codename Operation Sea Lion

1940 September 27 Germany, Italy and Japan in pact
Germany, Italy and Japan form a Tripartite Pact as a military alliance

1940 October 2 Invasion of Britain cancelled
After the summer's losses in the air, Hitler orders the effective cancellation of operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of Britain

1940 October 31 First prisoners in Colditz
The castle at Colditz, adapted as a high-security prisoner-of-war camp, receives 140 Polish officers as its first inmates

1940 December 18 Hitler plans to attack Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler orders preparations to be made for Operation Barbarossa, his planned invasion of the Soviet Union

1941&nbIsp; May Hitler sets up murder squads
In preparation for the invasion of Russia, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler set up Special Task Commandos (Einsatzkommando) to exterminate Communists and Jews

1941  May 10 Hess flies solo to Britain
Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy in the Nazi party, flies to Britain on a bizarre secret mission

1941 July First steps taken in Holocaust
The systematic shooting of Russian Jews by German Einsatzgruppen is the first step in the development of the Holocaust

1941 July 31 Plans for Final Solution
Goering orders Reinhard Heydrich to prepare plans for the 'final solution of the Jewish queston'

1941 August Nazis experiment in murder by gas
Nazi experiments are carried out on Jews and Soviet prisoners of war to find effective means of murder by gas

1942  January 20 Death camps planned at Wannsee
Reinhard Heydrich convenes a meeting at Wannsee to discuss the practical details of the 'final solution'

1942  February Speer responsible for armaments
Hitler's chief architect, Albert Speer, is put in charge of Germany's armaments programme

1942  from March Factories move to Auschwitz
German industrial enterprises are moved from the vulnerable Ruhr valley to the slave labour facilities of Auschwitz

1942 December 17 German genocide condemned
An international declaration condemns Germany's 'bestial policy of cold-blooded extermination'

1943  May 16 Dam Busters raid Ruhr valleys
Two hydroelectric schemes in the Ruhr valley are destroyed by the RAF's Dam Busters and their bouncing bombs in Operation Chastise

1943 July Belsen becomes concentration camp
Belsen, used as a prisoner-of-war camp since 1940, is turned into a concentration camp

1943 July 28 First firestorm
The Hamburg Fire Department coins the word Feuersturm ('firestorm') to describe the unprecedented effects of an RAF raid on the city

1943 August 17 German rocket station bombed
The RAF bomb the German V-2 rocket research station at Peenemünde

1943 August 23 Bombers blitz Berlin
Allied bombers begin four months of night-time raids on Berlin

1944 July 25 Germans use jet in combat
The Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter-bomber flies into combat, introducing the jet era in aerial warfare

1945  January Hitler withdraws into bunker
Allied bombing of Berlin forces Hitler to take refuge in his underground bunker

1945  February 13 Bombers demolish Dresden
British bombers launch a devastating raid against Dresden, killing tens of thousands in a firestorm

1945  March 22 Allies cross Rhine
Patton's Third US Army is the first Allied force to cross the Rhine, at Oppenheim, south of Mainz

1945  March 23 Montgomery crosses Rhine
Montgomery's Twenty-First Army Group crosses the Rhine at several points in the north

1945  April Hitler demands scorched earth
Adolf Hitler orders a scorched earth policy within Germany, in the path of the advancing Allies

1945  April 5 Bonhoeffer executed
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed in a Nazi concentration camp just a month before the end of the war in Europe

1945  April 11 Horrors of Buchenwald revealed
American troops discover the German concentration camp at Buchenwald

1945  April 15 Belsen worse than Buchenwald
The British reach Belsen and reveal appalling Nazi atrocities, worse even than at Buchenwald

1945  April 25 Americans greet Russians
American and Soviet troops join up at Torgau, 70 miles south of Berlin

1945  April 25 Berlin surrounded
Soviet armies form a complete circle around Berlin to isolate the city

1945  April 29 Hitler marries Eva Braun
Adolf Hitler marries Eva Braun in his bunker, and holds a champagne reception with Goebbels as the principal guest

1945  April 30 Hitler and bride in suicide pact
Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun retire to their marital quarters in the Berlin bunker and commit suicide

1945  April 30 Soviet troops in central Berlin
Soviet troops storm the Reichstag in the centre of Berlin on the day when Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker below them

1945  April 30 Lord Haw Haw goes off the air
Anglo-US Fascist William Joyce ('Lord Haw Haw') makes his final English broadcast from Hamburg

1945  May 1 Goebbels kills his family
In the Berlin bunker, on the day after Hitler's death, Goebbels arranges for his six children to be lethally injected, and himself and his wife to be shot

1945  May 2 Berlin surrenders
The German general commanding Berlin, Helmuth Weidling, surrenders the city to the Allies

1945  May 7 Germany surrenders unconditionally
The unconditional surrender of all German forces is accepted at Eisenhower's headquarters

1945  May 23 Himmler commits suicide
Heinrich Himmler, escaping in disguise, takes poison when he is identified

1945 July 3 Four occupying forces for Austria and Germany
The four Allied powers (USA, UK, France, USSR) provide occupation forces for separate zones of Austria, Germany and Berlin

1945 July 17 Summit at Potsdam
Truman, Stalin and Churchill meet for a summit conference in Potsdam

1945 Death toll of Gypsies and mentally ill
[1939-1945] - in addition to 6 million Jews, the Nazi death camps have killed some 400,000 Gypsies and 100,000 'useless defectives'

1945 November 20 War crimes tribunal in Nuremberg
Twenty-two German defendants are put on trial in Nuremberg, charged with war crimes