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The Rise of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler is apppointed Chancellor of Germany. Through a combination of legal means and violence, his government makes the Nazi Party the only legal political party in Germany and establishes a dictatorship. Germany begins legal discrimination against Jews. -
German Soldiers Swear Personal Loyalty
German President Paul von Hindenburg dies. Rather than holding new elections, Hitler assumes the role of Führer und Reichskanzler (leader and chancellor). German soldiers and sailors are forced to swear personal loyalty to Hitler. -
Re-election
Franklin Roosevelt is re-elected President. -
Roosevelt
Roosevelt, supporting the Chinese resistance to Japan, declines to enforce the Neutrality Act and does not declare an embargo. The decision allows U.S. sales of arms and supplies to China on credit. -
Italian Treaty
Germany signs alliance treaty with Italy (the "Pact of Steel"). -
Invasion
Germany invades Poland on September 1. Britain, France, Australia, and New Zealand declare war on Germany two days later, and the following day the British Royal Air Force attacks German naval vessels. -
Bomb Paris
Germany bombs Paris on June 3. German troops enter Paris on June 14th. France is divided in half: a German occupation zone in the north and west, and an independent France with a capital at Vichy in the South. Vichy France quickly elects a pro-Axis government. Britain recognizes Charles de Gaulle as the leader of "Free France." De Gaulle will lead a resistance to the Vichy government and German occupation for the remainder of the war. -
The Ghetto
The Nazis seal off the Warsaw ghetto, a 3.5 square mile section of the city in which they have confined 400,000 Jews. Jews attempting to leave the area were to be shot on sight, and only enough food was allowed into the ghetto to permit each person a bowl of soup per day. Hundreds died each day of starvation and disease. -
Supplying Birtitsh
U.S. begins its "Lend-Lease" program. This supply's Britain and other Allied nations with war materiel on credit. The act formally ends U.S. neutrality, and Hitler orders U-boat attacks on U.S. merchant ships. -
Japanese Embargo
To pressure the Japanese to withdraw from China, the U.S. begins an embargo against Japan, cutting off all oil and steel shipments. Japan is dependent on the U.S. for 80% of its oil and is now forced to withdraw from China or expand its war to find other sources of oil. The embargo does not settle well with the Japenese. -
Invasion on Poland
The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east on September 17, quickly capturing the capital, Warsaw. On September 29 the Soviets and Germans agree to divide the conquered nation in two. -
Attack of Pearl Harbor
Japan bombs Pearl Harbor on December 7. The following day, the United States and Britain declare war on Japan. Germany responds on December 11 with a declaration of war on the U.S. Japanese forces also attack Thailand, Malaya, Shanghai, the Philippines, and the Pacific Islands of Guam, Wake Island, and Midway. In the following weeks they invade Burma, British Borneo, and Hong Kong. -
Battle of Java Sea
The Battle of Java Sea on February 27–28 results in most severe U.S. naval losses since Pearl Harbor and leads to the collapse of organized Allied military resistance in that area. -
Battel of Coral Sea
In the Battle of Coral Sea, May 7–8, the US gives Japan its first defeat of the war. It is the first naval battle ever fought entirely by aircraft, without the opposing ships ever sighting each other. -
Jew Torture
The mass murder of Jews in gas chambers at Auschwitz begins. In July, Nazis begin deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to concentration camps. By September, only 60,000 Jews remain in the ghetto. -
Bomb plans
Japanese planes reach the continental US and bomb forests in Oregon. Fearing panic, the US government asks newspapers not to report the attack, and they agree. It is the only bombing of the continental US in the war. -
Surrender
German forces surrender at Stalingrad — the first major defeat of a German army since the war began. -
U-Boat Attack
German U-boats sink 27 merchant ships on the Atlantic between March 16 and 20. -
New German Government
After defeats in Africa and Allied attacks, Italian armies are in disarray. Italian dictator Mussolini is forced from power and arrested, and the Fascist government of Italy falls. The new government begins negotiations with the Allies. -
D-Day
160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. General Dwight D. Eisenhower called the operation a crusade in which “we will accept nothing less than full victory.” More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end on June 6, the Allies gained a foot- hold in Normandy. The D-Day cost was high -more than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wou -
German Attack on British
Germany begins using V-2 rockets against Britain. The V-2 travels faster than the speed of sound, reaching a height of 50 miles before turning downward toward its target at nearly 4,000 miles per hour. More than a thousand V-2 rockets were fired at London, each carrying a 2,000-pound warhead. -
Battel of the Bulge
The Germans begin a counter-offensive in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg, the "Battle of the Bulge." The "bulge" is visible on maps in newspapers as the dent in the Allied line the Germans initially succeed in making. The battle lasts for more than a month; with 800,000 US troops participating and 19,000 killed, it is the biggest and bloodiest battle of the war for the US. -
Iwo Jima
On February 19, U.S. Marines invade the island of Iwo Jima. Bitter fighting continues through March before the U.S. takes the island. The island gives the U.S. a base from which to attack Japan. -
Atomic Bombs
B-29 fire-bomb attack on Tokyo leaves much of the city in ashes and inaugurates a series of incendiary (firebombing) strikes against other Japanese cities. -
German Surrender
On May 8, V-E (Victory in Europe) Day, Germany unconditionally surrenders its remaining armies to Allied commanders. A ceremonial second surrender takes place the following day in Soviet-occupied Berlin.