Marshal Pétain, as the new premier of France, immediately asks Germany for an armistice

Charles de Gaulle broadcasts to the French nation from London, declaring himself the leader of the Free French

Mussolini invades France in the last-minute hope of gaining some territory in the armistice settlement

Adolf Hitler attends the signing of the armistice with France, in the railway carriage used for the armistice after the German defeat in 1918

Hitler orders preparations for the invasion of England, under the codename Operation Sea Lion

The Battle of Britain reaches its most intense phase, with 1500 German planes involved in a single day's assault

The first German night-time bombing raid on London signals the start of the Blitz on British cities

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

Adolf Hitler orders preparations to be made for Operation Barbarossa, his planned invasion of the Soviet Union

German armies cross the border to invade Russia on a front from the Baltic to southern Poland

Adolf Hitler sends Erwin Rommel to save the Italians from looming disaster in north Africa

In preparation for the invasion of Russia, Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler set up Special Task Commandos (Einsatzkommando) to exterminate Communists and Jews

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

The systematic shooting of Russian Jews by German Einsatzgruppen is the first step in the development of the Holocaust

Less than four weeks after crossing the Russian border, a German army is within 200 miles of Moscow

Goering orders Reinhard Heydrich to prepare plans for the 'final solution of the Jewish queston'

Nazi experiments are carried out on Jews and Soviet prisoners of war to find effective means of murder by gas

A week or two after reaching Leningrad a Germany army establishes a siege that will last 900 days

Adolf Eichmann, in an official letter about policy in relation to the Jews, uses the phrase 'the final solution'

The German advance is held just short of Moscow as winter arrives

In three adapted vans at Chelmno, in western Poland, the Germans begin using poison gas to kill Jews

Reinhard Heydrich convenes a meeting at Wannsee to discuss the practical details of the 'final solution'

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

The Nazis build a new style of concentration camp, at Auschwitz in Poland, in which the fit will work and the unfit will be killed

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