Mid-April: The project to develop the first powered armor is started in the German Weimar Republic.
1924[]
October 1: The vortex engine project is started in Germany.
1926[]
November 26: The world's first jet engine is tested in Germany.
1931[]
March 4: The vortex engine project is scrapped, for the technology is not viable yet.
1933[]
January 30: Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor. The remainder of his rise to power proceeds as in OTL.
August 12: Development on a new "supertank" is commenced in Germany.
1935[]
January 17: Saarland reunified with Germany.
Early September: The first powered armor suits are mass-produced in Nazi Germany.
Late September: The first jet engines are mass-produced in Nazi Germany.
1936[]
March 7: Rhineland remilitarized.
March 8: An aide shows Josef Stalin one of the photographs published of Germany's new powered armor suits. He immediately orders for the military to begin working on a Soviet suit, and puts General Georgi Zhukov in charge of development, and he appoints several prominent Soviet engineers to begin working on designs.
Mid-August: The prototype Soviet suit, nicknamed the "Lenin Mk. I," is tested at the Soviet military base at Kasputin Yar in front of Stalin. He is pleased and orders more funding to go to the program.
1938[]
March 12: Germany concludes its Anschluss with Austria.
October 10: After negotiating with Britain, France, and Italy, Germany takes the Sudetenland.
November 1: France begins its own mech research program.
November 7: After hearing about the French program, the British begin working on their own powered armor program as well.
1939[]
Early January: The Red Army begins training powered armor pilots in top-secret camps located in the remote regions of the Soviet Union. The military intends to keep this weapon as a surprise.
Late January: Germany begins producing larger suits of powered armor, known as mechs.
Early February: After a document detailing the German mech plans is deposited on the windowsill of the British Consulate in Oslo (the Oslo Report), the British and French begin their own mech programs. A Soviet agent in Paris reports this back to his superiors in Moscow, and, as a result, the Soviets begin their own program.
March 13: Germany occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia.
March 23: Memel territory annexed.
April 18: The Lenin Mk. I is put into (top-secret) mass-production in the Soviet Union.
The Lenin powered armor suit. This example is a Mark IV. Given the fact that the operator is not wearing a helmet, this is most likely a propaganda picture.
August 23: Germany and the Soviet Union stun the world by signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.
August 26: The Italians begin their own powered armor project.
August 29: The French begin to mass-produce their first mech, the Charlemagne. Around twenty will be ready by September 1.
September 1: Germany invades Poland, starting World War II. The world is finally shown the full extent of Germany's prewar research. The German supertank proves to be devastatingly effective in combat, smashing through Polish lines. Powered armor units also prove to be highly effective.
September 2: Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand and Canada declare war on Germany.
