Sunday 22 April 2012

Timeline of world war II


1918

November 11 World War I ends with German defeat.

1919

April 28 - League of Nations founded.
June 28 - Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

1921

July 29 - Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist (Nazi) Party.

1923

November 8/9 Hitler's Beer Hall Putsch.

1925

July 18 Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.

1926

September 8 - Germany admitted to League of Nations.

1929

October 29 - Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.

1930

September 14 - Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

1932

November 8 - Franklin Roosevelt elected President of the United States.

1933

January 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.February 27 The German Reichstag burns.
March 12 First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.
March 23 - Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
April 1 - Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
May 10 Nazis burn books in Germany.
In June Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
July 14 - Nazi Party declared Germany's only political party.
October 14 - Germany quits the League of Nations.

1934

June 30 The Nazi "Night of the Long Knives."
July 25 - Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
August 2 - German President Hindenburg dies.
August 19 Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

1935

March 16 - Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
September 15 German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.

1936

February 10 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
March 7 - German troops occupy the Rhineland.
May 9 - Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
July 18 - Civil war erupts in Spain.
August 1 - Olympic games begin in Berlin.
October 1 - Franco declared head of Spanish State.

1937

June 11 - Soviet leader Josef Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
November 5 Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.

1938

March 12/13 Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
August 12 - German military mobilizes.
September 30 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
October 15 - German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
November 9/10 Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.
See also: The History Place - Holocaust Timeline

1939  Return to Top of Page

January 30, 1939 - Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
March 15/16 - Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
March 28, 1939 Spanish Civil war ends.
May 22, 1939 Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
August 23, 1939 Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.
August 25, 1939 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty. 

August 31, 1939 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London. 

September 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland. 

September 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany. 
September 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.
September 5, 1939 - United States proclaims its neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland. 

September 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins. 

September 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.
September 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to NazisReinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
See also: The History Place - Biography of Reinhard Heydrich.
September 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
In October - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
November 8, 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails. 

November 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland. 

December 14, 1939 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.

1940  Return to Top of Page

January 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain. 

March 12, 1940 - Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.
March 16, 1940 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland. 

April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins. 

May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
June 14, 1940 Germans enter Paris.
June 16, 1940 - Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with Nazi Germany.
June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.
June 28, 1940 - Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
July 5, 1940 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.
July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.
July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
August 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
August 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
August 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
August 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
August 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.
August 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
September 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sea Lion (the invasion of Britain).
September 7, 1940 - German Blitz against Britain begins.
September 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.
September 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
September 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.
September 27, 1940 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
October 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.
October 12, 1940 - Germans postpone Operation Sea Lion until Spring of 1941.
October 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.
November 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
November 10/11 - Torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.
November 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
November 20, 1940 - Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
November 22, 1940 - Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
November 23, 1940 - Romania joins the Axis Powers.
December 9/10 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.
December 29/30 - Massive German air raid on London.

1941  Return to Top of Page

January 22, 1941 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
February 11, 1941 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
February 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
February 14, 1941 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
March 7, 1941 - British forces arrive in Greece.
March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
March 27, 1941 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
April 3, 1941 Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
April 14, 1941 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
April 17, 1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
April 27, 1941 - Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
May 1, 1941 - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
May 10, 1941 - Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
See also: The History Place - Biography of Rudolph Hess
May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
May 15, 1941 Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).
May 24, 1941 - Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
May 27, 1941 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
June 4, 1941 Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
June 8, 1941 - Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
June 14, 1941 - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.
June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
In June - Nazi SS-Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
June 28, 1941 - Germans capture Minsk.
July 3, 1941 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
July 10, 1941 - Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
July 12, 1941 - Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
July 14, 1941 - British occupy Syria.
July 26, 1941 - Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations.
July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
August 1, 1941 - United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
August 14, 1941 - Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
August 20, 1941 - Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
September 1, 1941 Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
September 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
September 19, 1941 - Nazis take Kiev.
September 29, 1941 Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
October 2, 1941 Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
October 16, 1941 - Germans take Odessa.
October 24, 1941 - Germans take Kharkov.
October 30, 1941 - Germans reach Sevastopol.
November 13, 1941 - British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
November 20, 1941 - Germans take Rostov.
November 27, 1941 - Soviet troops retake Rostov.
December 5, 1941 German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
December 6, 1941 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.
December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl HarborHitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
December 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
December 11, 1941 - Hitler declares war on the United States.
December 16, 1941 - Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
December 19, 1941 - Hitler takes complete control of the German Army.

1942  Return to Top of Page

January 1, 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
January 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
January 20, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
January 21, 1942 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
January 26, 1942 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
In April - Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
April 23, 1942 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
May 8, 1942 - German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
May 26, 1942 - Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
May 27, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich attacked in Prague.
May 30, 1942 - First thousand-bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
June 4, 1942 - Heydrich dies of wounds.
June 5, 1942 - Germans besiege Sevastopol.
June 10, 1942 Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.
June 21, 1942 - Rommel captures Tobruk.
June 25, 1942 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower arrives in London.
June 30, 1942 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
July 1-30 - First Battle of El Alamein.
July 3, 1942 - Germans take Sevastopol.
July 5, 1942 - Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends.
July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
August 7, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
August 12, 1942 - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
August 17, 1942 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
August 23, 1942 - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
September 2, 1942 - Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
September 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
October 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
October 18, 1942 - Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
November 1, 1942 Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
November 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
November 11, 1942 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
November 19, 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
December 2, 1942 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.
December 13, 1942 - Rommel withdraws from El Agheila.
December 16, 1942 - Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
December 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
December 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.

1943  Return to Top of Page

January 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
January 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
January 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with "unconditional German surrender."
January 23, 1943 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
January 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
February 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
February 8, 1943 - Soviet troops take Kursk.
February 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
February 16, 1943 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.
February 18, 1943 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
March 2, 1943 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
March 15, 1943 - Germans re-capture Kharkov.
March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
April 19, 1943 Waffen-SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
May 7, 1943 - Allies take Tunisia.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
May 16, 1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto ends.
May 16/17 - British air raid on the Ruhr.
May 22, 1943 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
June 10, 1943 - 'Pointblank' directive to improve Allied bombing strategy issued.
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
July 5, 1943 - Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
July 19, 1943 - Allies bomb Rome.
July 22, 1943 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.
July 24, 1943 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.
July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
July 27/28 Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
August 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
August 17, 1943 - American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily.
August 23, 1943 - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.
September 8, 1943 - Italian surrender to Allies is announced.
September 9, 1943 Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
September 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome.
September 12, 1943 Germans rescue Mussolini.
September 23, 1943 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
October 1, 1943 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
October 4, 1943 SS-Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
October 13, 1943 - Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.
November 6, 1943 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
November 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
November 28, 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
December 24-26 Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.

1944  Return to Top of Page

January 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
January 17, 1944 First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
January 22, 1944 - Allies land at Anzio in Italy.
January 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
February 15-18 - Allies bomb the monastery at Monte Cassino.
February 16, 1944 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
March 4, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
March 15, 1944 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
March 18, 1944 British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
April 8, 1944 - Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate Crimea.
May 9, 1944 - Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
May 11, 1944 - Allies attack the Gustav Line south of Rome.
May 12, 1944 - Germans surrender in the Crimea.
May 15, 1944 - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line.
May 25, 1944 - Germans retreat from Anzio.
June 5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings on the northern coast of France.
June 9, 1944 - Soviet offensive against the Finnish front begins.
June 10, 1944 Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
June 13, 1944 First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
June 22, 1944 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
June 27, 1944 - U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg, France.
July 3, 1944 - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviets capture Minsk.
July 9, 1944 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen, France.
July 18, 1944 - U.S. troops reach St. Lô, France.
July 20, 1944 - Assassination attempt by German Army officers against Hitler fails.
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
July 25-30 - Operation Cobra (U.S. troops break out west of St. Lô).
July 28, 1944 - Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk. U.S. troops take Coutances.
August 1, 1944 - Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins; U.S. troops reach Avranches.
August 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
August 7, 1944 - Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Avranches.
August 15, 1944 - Operation Dragoon begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
August 19, 1944 - Resistance uprising in Paris.
August 19/20 - Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania.
August 20, 1944 Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
August 25, 1944 Liberation of Paris.
August 29, 1944 - Slovak uprising begins.
August 31, 1944 - Soviet troops take Bucharest.
September 1-4 Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rouen, Abbeville, Antwerp and Brussels liberated by Allies.
September 4, 1944 - Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire.
September 13, 1944 U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line in western Germany.
September 17, 1944 Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
September 26, 1944 Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
October 2, 1944 - Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
October 10-29 - Soviet troops capture Riga.
October 14, 1944 - Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
October 21, 1944 Massive German surrender at Aachen, Germany.
October 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
November 20, 1944 - French troops drive through the 'Beffort Gap' to reach the Rhine.
November 24, 1944 - French capture Strasbourg.
December 4, 1944 - Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
December 16-27 Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
December 17, 1944 - Waffen-SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
December 26, 1944 - Patton relieves Bastogne.
December 27, 1944 - Soviet troops besiege Budapest.

1945  Return to Top of Page

January 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes.
January 16, 1945 - U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
January 17, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw, Poland.
January 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
February 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
February 13/14 Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
March 6, 1945 - Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
March 7, 1945 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
March 30, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Danzig.
In April - Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in German salt mines.
April 1, 1945 - U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in northern Italy.
April 12, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps; President Roosevelt dies. Harry Truman becomes President.
April 16, 1945 - Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
April 18, 1945 - German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.
April 28, 1945 Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
April 29, 1945 U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 2, 1945 - German troops in Italy surrender.
May 7, 1945 Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
May 9, 1945 - Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army.
May 23, 1945 - SS-Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide; German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned.
June 5, 1945 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
June 26, 1945 - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
July 1, 1945 - American, British, and French troops move into Berlin.
July 16, 1945 - First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
July 26, 1945 - Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
August 6, 1945 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
August 8, 1945 - Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
August 9, 1945 Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
August 14, 1945 - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
September 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement;  V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
October 24, 1945 United Nations is born.
November 20, 1945 - Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.

1946  

October 16 - Hermann Göring commits suicide two hours before his scheduled execution.


Statistics of World War II
Including the European and Pacific Theaters

CountriesTotal Deaths% of Prewar PopulationMilitary DeathsCivilian Deaths
USSR20,600,00010.4%13,600,0007,000,000
CHINA10,000,0002.0%
GERMANY6,850,0009.5%3,250,0003,600,000
POLAND6,123,00017.2%123,0006,000,000
JAPAN2,000,0002.7%
YUGOSLAVIA1,706,00010.9%
FRANCE810,0001.9%340,000470,000
GREECE520,0007.2%
UNITED STATES500,0000.4%500,000
AUSTRIA480,0007.2%
ROMANIA460,0003.4%
HUNGARY420,0003.0%
ITALY410,0000.9%330,00080,000
CZECHOSLOVAKIA400,0002.7%
GREAT BRITAIN388,0000.8%326,00062,000
NETHERLANDS210,0002.4%198,00012,000
BELGIUM88,0001.1%76,00012,000
FINLAND84,0002.2%
AUSTRALIA39,0000.3%
CANADA34,0000.3%
ALBANIA28,0002.5%
INDIA24,0000.01%
NORWAY10,2620.3%
NEW ZEALAND10,0000.6%
LUXEMBOURG5,0001.7%
TOTAL52,199,262
 

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