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Hitler invades Poland.
The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack.
Britain and France declare war on Germany two days later. -
Period: to
II World War
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Declaration of war
In 1939, the Allied Forces of Great Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand responded to Nazi Germany's invasion of Poland by declaring war. Two days before war was declared, German forces had bombed Polish cities and towns, killing and injuring thousands. -
USA
United States proclaims its neutrality.The US did not enter World War II for another two years, after its naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, was the victim of a surprise attack by Japanese forces in December 1941. -
Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland.
On this day in 1939, Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov declares that the Polish government has ceased to exist, as the U.S.S.R. exercises the “fine print” of the Hitler-Stalin Non-aggression pact—the invasion and occupation of eastern Poland. -
Soviet Union invaded Finland.
the Red Army crosses the Soviet-Finnish border with 465,000 men and 1,000 aircraft. Helsinki was bombed, and 61 Finns were killed in an air raid that steeled the Finns for resistance, not capitulation. -
Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union.
The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on 21 March. It marked the end of the 105-day Winter War. The treaty ceded parts of Finland to the Soviet Union. However, it preserved Finland's independence, ending the Soviet attempt to annex the country. -
Nazis invation
Hitler begins his Western offensive with the radio code word “Danzig,” sending his forces into Holland and Belgium. -
German army enters Paris.
Parisians awaken to the sound of a German-accented voice announcing via loudspeakers that a curfew was being imposed for 8 p.m. that evening-as German troops enter and occupy Paris. -
Italian forces attacked southern France
Italian forces attacked southern France Italy's entry into the war widened its scope considerably in Africa and the Mediterranean Sea. The goal of the Italian leader, Benito Mussolini, was the elimination of Anglo-French domination in the Mediterranean, the reclamation of historically Italian territory (so-called Italia irredenta) and the expansion of Italian influence over the Balkans and in Africa. -
France signs armistice with Germany.
The Armistice was signed near Compiègne, France, by the top officials of Nazi Germany and more junior representatives from the French Third Republic. this armistice established a German occupation zone in Northern and Western France that encompassed all English Channel and Atlantic Ocean ports and left the remainder "free" to be governed by the French. -
Air war over England began
which British prime minister Winston Churchill termed the Battle of Britain. The German Luftwaffe was to knock out the Royal Air Force (RAF) in preparation for Operation Sealion, the proposed naval invasion of Britain, or force Churchill to seek a negotiated peace. -
Itali on Africa
The Italian conquest of British Somaliland was a military campaign in the Horn of Africa, which took place in August 1940 between forces of Italy and those of several British Commonwealth countries. The expedition formed part of the East African Campaign. -
Tripartite Pact.
The Tripartite Pact was a piece of propaganda directed primarily at the United States. Its practical effects were limited, since the Italo-German and Japanese operational theatres were on opposite sides of the world and the high contracting powers had disparate strategic interests. -
Battle of Britain ended
the defense mounted by the badly outmanned RAF led Hitler to abandon plans for the invasion. -
Sidi Barrani, Egypt,
The Battle of Sidi Barrani was the opening battle of Operation Compass, the first big British attack of the Western Desert Campaign. Sidi Barrani on the Mediterranean coast in Egypt, had been occupied by the Italian 10th Army, during the Italian invasion of Egypt and was attacked by British, Commonwealth and imperial troops who re-captured. -
capture of Torbruk.
British and Commonwealth forces enter the port at Tobruk, in Libya, and tens of thousands of Italian occupiers are taken prisoner. -
Nazi invasion
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.The German air force launches Operation Castigo, the bombing of Belgrade, on this day in 1941, as 24 divisions and 1,200 tanks drive into Greece.
The attack on Yugoslavia was swift and brutal, an act of terror resulting in the death of 17,000 civilians–the largest number of civilian casualties in a single day since the start of the war. Making the slaughter all the worse was that nearby towns and villages had emptied out into the capital city to celebrate P -
Operation Barbarossa
Germany and its allies launched Operation Barbarossa, a massive invasion of the Soviet Union from the Baltic shore in the north to the Black Sea in the South. The Soviets were caught by surprise. -
Operation Typhoon
Operation Typhoon begins and the Germans advance on Moscow. The German drive to capture Moscow and knock the Soviet Union out of the war. As the last chance to escape the dire implications of a winter campaign, Hitler directed seventy-five German divisions, almost two million men and three of Germany's four panzer groups into the offensive, resulting in huge victories at Viaz'ma and Briansk – among the biggest battles of the Second World War. -
German attacks Moscow
The Soviet defensive effort frustrated Hitler's attack on Moscow, capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) and the largest Soviet city. Moscow was one of the primary military and political objectives for Axis forces in their invasion of the Soviet Union. -
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the United States Territory of Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941 (December 8 in Japan). The attack led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
Declaration of war
The United States, led by US president, Franklin D Roosevelt, declares war on the Axis powers -
Singapore falls to Japanese.
was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the British stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East". -
British capture Madagascar.
The Battle of Madagascar was the British campaign to capture Vichy French-controlled Madagascar during World War II. It began with Operation Ironclad, the seizure of the port of Diego Suarez near the northern tip of the island, on 5 May 1942. A subsequent campaign to secure the entire island, Operation Streamline Jane, was opened on 10 September. Fighting ceased and an armistice was granted on 6 November.[ -
Surrender of all US forces in the Philippines
General Wainwright, only recently promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and commander of the U.S. armed forces in the Philippines, offered to surrender Corregidor to Japanese General Homma, but Homma wanted the complete, unconditional capitulation of all American forces throughout the Philippines. Wainwright had little choice given the odds against him and the poor physical condition of his troops (he had already lost 800 men). He surrendered at midnight. -
Sevastopol falls to Germans.
Sebastopol was a port in the Black Sea. As such, the city had a strategic value to the Germans in their drive south-east to the oil fields. The successful taking of the city would also compensate for the failure of the Wehrmacht to take Moscow and Leningrad. -
Battle of El Alamein
Took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It followed the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance into Egypt -
German surrender at Stalingrad.
Marked by constant close quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians by air raids, it is often regarded as the single largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare.The heavy losses inflicted on the German Wehrmacht make it arguably the most strategically decisive battle of the whole war. It was a turning point in the European theatre of World War II–the German forces never regained the initiative in the East and withdrew a vast military force from the West to replace their -
Surrender of Axis forces in North Africa.
The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States entered the war in 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. -
Fascist government overthrown.
Within five years he had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means, aspiring to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943. -
Italy signs armistice.
The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 by Walter Bedell Smith and Giuseppe Castellano, and made public on 8 September, between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies ("United Nations") of World War II. It was signed at a conference of generals from both sides in an Allied military camp at Cassibile in Sicily, which had recently been occupied by the Allies. The armistice was approved by both King Victor Emanuel III and Prime Minister Pietro Badoglio. -
Italy surrenders to the Allies
With Mussolini deposed from power and the earlier collapse of the fascist government in July, Gen. Pietro Badoglio, the man who had assumed power in Mussolini’s stead by request of King Victor Emanuel, began negotiating with Gen. Eisenhower for weeks. Weeks later, Badoglio finally approved a conditional surrender, allowing the Allies to land in southern Italy and begin beating the Germans back up the peninsula. Operation Avalanche, the Allied invasion of Italy, was -
Mussolini rescue
Germans rescue Mussolini who re-established a Fascist government -
War!!
The government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the battle on the side of the Allies. -
Hungary occupied by German Army
In 1940, under pressure from Germany, Hungary joined the Axis. In 1941, Hungarian forces participated in the invasion of Yugoslavia and the invasion of the Soviet Union. -
Germans surrender in Crimea
was a series of offensives by the Red Army directed at the German-held Crimea. The Red Army's 4th Ukrainian Front engaged the German 17th Army of Army Group A, which consisted of German and Romanian formations. The battles ended with the evacuation of the Crimea by the Germans. The German and Romanian forces suffered considerable losses during the evacuation. -
Allies in Rome
The first American soldiers, members of the 5th Army, reached the centre of Rome late last night after encountering dogged resistance from German forces on the outskirts of the city. -
Allied invasion of Normandy.
Was the invasion by and establishment of Western Allied forces in Normandy, during Operation Overlord in 1944 during World War II; the largest amphibious invasion to ever take place. -
Allied landing
The invasion was initiated via a parachute drop by the 1st Airborne Task Force, followed by an amphibious assault by elements of the United States Seventh Army, followed a day later by a force made up primarily of the French First Army.The landing caused the German Army Group G to abandon southern France and to retreat under constant Allied attacks to the Vosges Mountains. -
Allies liberate Paris.
the bulk of the 2nd Armored Division and US 4th Infantry Division entered the city. Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of The German garrison and the military governor of Paris, surrendered to the French at the Hôtel Meurice, the newly established French headquarters, while General Charles de Gaulle arrived to assume control of the city as head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. -
US landings on Iwo Jima.
The American invasion, designated Operation Detachment, had the goal of capturing the entire island, including the three Japanese-controlled airfields (including the South Field and the Central Field), to provide a staging area for attacks on the Japanese main islands.This five-week battle comprised some of the fiercest and bloodiest fighting of the War in the Pacific of World War II. -
Soviets enter Berlin.
By prior agreement, the Allied armies (positioned approximately 60 miles to the west) halted their advance on the city in order to give the Soviets a free hand. The depleted German forces put up a stiff defense, initially repelling the attacking Russians, but ultimately succumbing to overwhelming force. -
Mussolini executed.
The death of Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by anti-fascist partisans in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. The "official" version of events is that Mussolini was shot by Walter Audisio, a communist partisan who used the nom de guerre of "Colonel Valerio". -
Hitler suicide.
Adolf Hitler killed himself by gunshot on 30 April 1945 in his Führerbunker in Berlin.His wife Eva (née Braun) committed suicide with him by taking cyanide.That afternoon, in accordance with Hitler's prior instructions, their remains were carried up the stairs through the bunker's emergency exit, doused in petrol, and set alight in the Reich Chancellery garden outside the bunker. -
German unconditional surrender.
On this day in 1945, the German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. -
VE day
Was the public holiday celebrated on 8 May 1945 to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces.It thus marked the end of World War II in Europe. -
Hiroshima
Little Boy exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city. -
Atomic bomb on Nagasaki.
In August 1945, during the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. -
Japanese surrender.
The combined shock of these events caused Emperor Hirohito to intervene and order the Supreme Council for the Direction of the War to accept the terms the Allies had set down in the Potsdam Declaration for ending the war. After several more days of behind-the-scenes negotiations and a failed coup d'état, Emperor Hirohito gave a recorded radio address across the Empire. -
End of war
Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.
