-
Germany Invades Poland
German soldiers invade Poland. The Polish army military is defeated within three weeks. Over 2000 tanks and 1000 planes crossed the border of Poland, breaking its defenses, and moved straight through to Warsaw, the capital of Poland. Germans used the Blitzkrieg tactic is used. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Britan and France declare war on Germany after the invasion of Poland two days before-hand. British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, says that "Germany's deadline to withdraw it's troops from Poland has expired." -
Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
When WWII began, he was appointed the role of First Lord the Admiralty for another time. After Neville Chamberlain resigned from being Prime Minister, Churchill was elected for Prime Minister of Britain. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sea Lion was the name given by Hitler for the invasion of Great Britain. Operation Sea Lion was never carried out because the Battle of Britain was lost by the Germans -
Period: to
Evacuation of Dunkirk
The evacuation of Dunkirk was codenamed Operation Dynamo and is now known as the Miricle of Dunkirk. The Germans had pushed British and allied forces back to Dunkirk. German Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering had told Hitler to halt the German forces from killing the British soldiers because he assured Hitler that they would not come back to France because his fleet could kill them all. The British had used civilian boats and military ships to transport allied soldiers back to Britain. -
Period: to
Battle of Britain
Germany invades Britain using it's Luftwaffe (air force) bombing Britain in blitz. This was the longest bombing campaign to date. The Germans were trying to gain control over Britain's airspace so then the Germans could land troops on the ground. -
France signs armistice with Germany
France had been fully conquered by the Nazis. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud signed an armistice with Germany, thus taking France out of the war. -
Tripartite Pact signed
Axis Powers are formed. Germany, Italy, and Japan join forces. Later joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, and Bulgaria. -
Italy enters war on the side of the Axis powers
Italy had joined the Axis powers (Germany and Japan). Although they did not coordinate under the same leader, they all had the same intentions. To gain a larger territory and the destruction of the Soviet Union. -
Period: to
Siege of Tobruk
The siege of Tobruk lasted for 241 days. Axis powers had advanced through El Agheila into Cyrenaica in operation Sonnenblume in Lybia. -
Period: to
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa is Hitler's try to try and capture Stalingrad. His sole purpose was to open up a route to help bring troops to Japan and to enslave the Slavic population and exterminate the Jews. This is also known as "The Battle of Stalingrad" and it is the bloodiest battle in history, killing over 2 million troops and civillians. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbour
Pearl Harbour is a U.S. Naval Base near Honolulu in Hawaii. On 7th of December, 1941, Japanese Air Force bombed the base in a surprise attack in the morning. Just under 20 U.S. naval ships were sunk, 300 aeroplanes destroyed, 2400 people were killed and 1000 people were injured (including civilians). -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
The day after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared war on Japan. Japanese-Americans were rounded up all over the country and held in custody throughout the war, even when they had declared their loyalty to America. -
Japan takes Singapore
Since the 19th century, Singapore had been a British colony. Britain had a Naval Base in Singapore. Japan had out-numbered and out-gunned the British military in Singapore. 62,000 Allied soldiers were taken prisoner, and nearly half of them died as prisoners of war. -
Period: to
Battle of Midway
The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbour and were moving towards Midway Island. American Military had decoded Japanese secret messages and figured out what Japan's next move was. In the end of the battle, Japan had lost four carriers, a cruiser, 292 aircraft and just over 2500 troops. The US had lost a carrier, a destroyer, 145 aircraft and 307 troops. -
Period: to
First Battle of El Alamein
The British troops in Lybia had drawn Rommel into a defensive position. But Rommel was repelling all air and tank attacks, making the British lose large amounts of armoured strength and were then pushed back into the defensive again from Rommel's troops. Rommel's Afrika Korps was just under 100 kilometres from Britain's Naval base in Alexandria. The British were nearly defeated until they got reinforcements from ANZACs, US, Indian and South African forces. -
Period: to
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most crucial turning points in WWII. The Soviets stopped Germany's advancement into Southern Russia. This is the bloodiest battles in all of history, leaving over 2 million people dead. -
Period: to
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein was the Allies win for stopping the Axis troops from advancing into Africa. This stopped Germany from gaining control of oil fields in the Middle East and in Persia, and access to the Suez Canal. This pushed most of the Axis powers out of Africa. -
D-Day Landings
On June 6th, 1944, Paratroopers were behind enemy lines capturing exit routes and bridges for German Troops. At 6:30 am, British, Canadian and American troops landed on the beaches of Normandy in France to recapture France from the Nazis. in Just under a week, the Allied troops had fully captured Normandy. In the end of the battle, over 156,000 troops had landed on the beaches, and just over 4000 troops lost their lives. Approximately 1000 troops were injured or missing. -
Period: to
Battle of the Bulge
The Germans surprised the Allies by attacking the Ardennes mountains in Belgium, France and Luxemburg by using Blitzkrieg tactics. Not long after the fighting began, German forces started to run out of fuel, ammunition, food and troops. The Battle of the Bulge was one of the bloodiest battles of WWII. There were over 150,000 deaths. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Nearing the end of the war in Europe, Dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci were fleeing to Switzerland but were then captured by Italian Partisans. They were then executed and taken back to Milan where their bodies were hung upside down in public. -
Hitler commits suicide
Hitler was hiding in his bunker underneath his headquarters in Berlin, where he swallowed a cyanide pill and shot himself in the head. Soon after Hitler's death, Germany surrendered to the Allies. From 1943 Hitler knew that the Germans would fall under the Allies. -
German forces surrender
After Hitler's death, German General Alfred Josef Ferdinand Jodl wanted to only surrender the troops fighting the Western Allies. But General Dwight Eisenhower from the U.S. Army demanded that all forces surrendered. -
V.E. Day
Victory in Europe for the allied forces -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Since 1940, the US had been working on nuclear weapons after being told by Albert Einstein that the Germans were researching nuclear weapons. The US dropped the first successful bomb in 1945. Germany had already been defeated but the war in the Pacific continued. The US was originally going to invade Japan but that would result in too many American casualties, so on the 6th of Aug. 1945, USAF bomber 'Enola Gay' Dropped the first Atom Bomb on Hiroshima, instantly killing 80,000 people. -
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
The Soviet Union sent 1 million troops over to Japanese-occupied Manchuria to defeat the 700,000 troops strong army. The Japanese didn't think that they would have to engage on the Soviets until 1946, but the Soviets surprise attacked the Japanese in Pingyanchen. Of the 860 that were killed, 640 of the deaths were in the first two days. After this attack, the Japanese Emporer, Michinomiya Hirohito, declared that Japan should surrender. -
Atomic Bomb dropped on Nagasaki
After Hiroshima, Japan didn't surrender like the US intended. The US had already planned to drop their second bomb, nicknamed "Fat Boy", on the 11th, but bad weather was reported to be on that day. So the day was pushed back to the 9th. A bomber called 'Bock's Car' dropped the "Fat Boy" on Nagasaki at 11:02 am. This bomb was more powerful than the first one and had killed between 60,000-80,000. Another bomb was planned to be dropped on the 17th, but it was unnecessary. -
Japanese surrender- End of WWII
By the summer of 1945, both the Japanese Air Force and Navy had been completely destroyed. After the intense bombing of Japanese cities, it left the country and its economy in pieces. Aboard the USS Missouri, in Tokyo Bay, Japan officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing the war to a complete end. -
United Nations is born
On this day, the United Nations Charter was signed and put into action. The United Nations was made to find solutions to avoid conflict between countries so that there wouldn't be another WWII.