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BBC Teach > Primary Resources > History KS2. Using archive video and images from the Imperial War Museum, as well as first-person testimony from veterans and eye-witnesses, this series of short...
Find out about World War Two with BBC Bitesize History. For students between the ages of 11 and 14.
Learn about and revise World War Two and how it changed history with BBC Bitesize Scotland History guide for Third Level in Curriculum for Excellence.
- Poland
- Scandinavia and The Low Countries
- France
- Great Britain
- The Atlantic Ocean
- North Africa
- The Soviet Union
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. This began World War II. The Germans used a new kind of attack. They called it blitzkrieg, or “lightning war.” Blitzkrieg relied on fast-moving tanks and warplanes to shock the enemy into surrendering. After this invasion, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, India...
Between April and June 1940 the Germans took over Norway and Denmark. In May they moved into the Low Countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
In mid-May 1940 the first German troops crossed into France. By June 14 the Germans had entered Paris, the French capital. On June 22 France agreed to let Germans rule most of their country. However, many French people continued to fight the Germans. They were called the Free French. They took orders from Charles de Gaulle. De Gaulle’s headquarters...
Hitler’s next target was the island of Great Britain. Starting in June 1940, German warplanes began bombing Britain. However, the British had a new invention called radar. Radar warned the British when German aircraft were nearing. British fighter airplanes shot down many attackers. This battle, called the Battle of Britain, was the world’s first m...
The British also fought the German navy. Early in the war, the Germans sank many of the supply ships that delivered food and weapons from North America. In 1943 the Allies began to use aircraft carriers to protect convoys, or groups, of supply ships. The number of supply ships reaching Britain then increased.
In the autumn of 1940 the Italians invaded Egypt. They wanted to control the Suez Canal, which linked the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. However, the British drove the Italians back. Then the German general Erwin Rommel led the Germans to victories in North Africa. In 1942 British forces finally stopped Rommel in two battles...
After conquering the countries on Germany’s borders, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. The attack began on June 22, 1941. The Soviet Union joined the Allies soon afterward. The Soviets stopped the Germans on the edges of Moscow (the Soviet capital) and Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg). In 1942 Hitler decided to take the Soviet city of Stalingrad(now...
- World War 2 was a battle between two groups of countries. – the “Allies” and the “Axis“. The major Allied Powers were Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States.
- Before World War 2 began, Germany was ruled by a man named Adolf Hitler. Together with the Nazi Party, he wanted Germany to rule Europe. To gain more land and power, on 1 September 1939 German troops invaded Poland.
- During the course of the war, German forces advanced through Europe. By the summer of 1941 they had invaded France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Denmark, Norway, Greece, Yugoslavia* and the USSR*.
- Millions of Germans were imprisoned and killed because they didn’t fit the image of the ‘perfect’ German. Hitler wanted to create what he thought was the “best” and strongest race – and to the Nazi Party, this excluded certain groups, such as Jews, Gypsies and those with physical and mental disabilities.
World War 2 was a battle between two groups of countries which are known as the Allies and the Axis. The Allies were Britain, Russia, China, France, and the US. The Axis included Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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We meet Alan and his grand-daughter Isabel. Alan lived in north London during the Second World War and was in his home when the neighbour's house suffered a ...
