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1939 BCE
Britain rearms and reassures Poland
When Hitler invaded Poland, he was confident that Britain and France would continue their policy of appeasement and broker a peace deal.how it But Britain starts to rearm and reassure Poland which led Europe to stumble into war. -
1939 BCE
Britain and France declared war on Germany
On September 9, in 1939, in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
1939 BCE
Hitler invades Czechoslovakia
On March 15, 1939, during a meeting with Czech President Emil Hacha–a man considered weak, and possibly even senile–Hitler threatened a bombing raid against Prague, the Czech capital, unless he obtained from Hacha free passage for German troops into Czech borders. He got it. That same day, German troops poured into Bohemia and Moravia. The two provinces offered no resistance, and they were quickly made a protectorate of Germany. By evening, Hitler made a triumphant entry into Prague. -
1939 BCE
Hitler invades Poland
Nazi Germany forcec attack Poland -
1938 BCE
Treaty of Munich
The Treaty of Munich was an agreement between France, Italy, Nazi Germany and Britain. After Germany invaded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, the British and French prime ministers tried to get Hitler to agree not to use his military in the future in return for the land he had taken. Hitler agreed. -
Anschluss
On March 12, 1938, German troops march into Austria to annex the German-speaking nation for the Third Reich. In early 1938, Austrian Nazis conspired for the second time in four years to seize the Austrian government by force and unite their nation with Nazi Germany. -
‘Phoney War’
An 8 month period from beginning the World War 2, during which there were no major military war operations on the Western Front. -
Russia and Germany sign pact
It was a neutrality pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was an important battle in World War II. After Germany and Hitler had conquered most of Europe, including France, the only major country left to fight them was Great Britain. Germany wanted to invade Great Britain, but first they needed to destroy Great Britain's Royal Air Force. The Battle of Britain was when Germany bombed Great Britain in order to try and destroy their air force and prepare for invasion. -
British rout Italians in N. Africa
In December 1940 British forces routed Italy`s North African army -
Hitler invades Denmark and Norway
On April.8 & 9, 1940 Hitler invades Norway and Denmark
Hitler wanted a base for German U-boats (all Norwegian shipping goes to Britain)
Sweden stayed neutral but had friendly steel trade with Germany. -
Blitzkrieg
Invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and France by Germany according to the tactic of ''lightning war''. -
Chamberlain resigns
Neville Chamberlain came under mounting pressure to resign as prime minister -
Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and other Allied troops from the French seaport of Dunkirk (Dunkerque) to England. -
Italy enter war on side of Axis powers
After defeat of France, Italy, as the part of Axis Alliance, enters the war. -
France signs armistice with Germany
The Armistice of June 22,1940 was signed near Compiègne, France, by the top military 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. -
Tripartite Pact
An agreement between Germany, Italy and Japan, signed on September 22,1940, which created a defensive military alliance and basicly was a pledge of these countries “to assist one another with all political, economic and military means” . -
Italy and Germany attack Yugoslavia
A German-led attack on the Kingdom of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers which began on 6 April 1941 during World War II. -
Hitler attacks Soviet Union – Operation Barbarossa
Without any prior declaration of war, at 4 am on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the largest German military operation of World War II, known as Barbarossa. -
Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. The attack, also known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor, led to the United States' entry into World War II. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
In response to atttack of Pearl Harbour, Britain and the United States declared war on Japan. -
Allies push into N. Africa
British and American forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower landed in the NW of Africa and assumed control of French Morocco and Algeria. They gradually closed in on the Germans. -
Allies in N. Africa
General Alexander was given a hand-written directive from Churchill ordering that his main directive was to be the destruction of the German-Italian army commanded by Field-Marshall Rommell together with all its supplies and establishments in Egypt and Libya. As soon as sufficient material had been built up, Alexander handed the campaign over to General Montgomery. -
Japanese take Singapore
Singapore, the “Gibraltar of the East” and a strategic British stronghold, falls to Japanese forces. -
Battle of Midway
Early on the morning of June 4, aircraft from four Japanese aircraft carriers attacked and severely damaged the US base on Midway -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad took place in and around the present day city of Volgograd between July 17, 1942 and February 2, 1943.
Soviet infantry, Battle of StalingradThe battle is considered to be the turning point of World War II. The Soviet counter-offensive, which trapped and destroyed the German 6th Army (and their Axis comrades), led to the first large-scale German defeat of the war. -
Battle of El Alamein
The conflict was cause by the desire to have control over the Suez Canal. By winning the Suez Canal you were able to control the Mediterranean. The battle started on October 23rd,1942 and ended on November 4th, 1942, took place near the town of El Alamein which is 60 miles west of Alexandria. The Allie force was led by General Bernard Montgomery. The Axis force was led by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel -
Axis surrender N Africa
The British and American forces defeated the Axis forces in North Africa -
Allies invade Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major campaign of World War II, in which the Allies took the island of Sicily from the Axis powers (Italy and Nazi Germany). -
Allies take Sicily
The allied militia had won the island of Sicily. -
Italy surrenders
Italy has signed an unconditional armistice with the Allies, General Dwight D Eisenhower has announced. The surrender was signed five days ago in secret by a representative of Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Italy's prime minister since the downfall of Benito Mussolini in July. -
Allies meet at Tehran
The Tehran Conference was a meeting between U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin in Tehran, Iran, between November 28 and December 1, 1943.During the Conference, the three leaders coordinated their military strategy against Germany and Japan and made a number of important decisions concerning the post World War II era. -
Japanese evicted from Burma
The Japanese were evicted from Burma by British forces under General Slim, with help from guerrilla-fighting Chindits led by Orde Wingate. -
Leningrad relieved
Soviet forces permanently break the Leningrad siege line, ending the almost 900-day German-enforced containment of the city, which cost hundreds of thousands of Russian lives. -
Rome liberated
The allies liberated Rome from the Germans. -
D-Day
the day the Allied powers crossed the English Channel and landed on the beaches of Normandy, France, beginning the liberation of Western Europe from Nazi control during World War II. -
Paris liberated
The French 2nd Armored Division and the U.S. 4th Infantry Division after over 4 years of Nazi Occupation were able to Liberate Paris. On August 25, 1944, Germany surrendered Paris. -
V2 Flying Bombs
V2 rockets, a German secret ``revenge`` weapon, were used for the first time and striced Britain, killing three people. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Germans launch the last major offensive of the war, Operation Mist, also known as the Ardennes Offensive and the Battle of the Bulge, an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. The Battle of the Bulge, so-called because the Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, was the largest fought on the Western front. -
Allies cross the Rhine
As the Allied forces gathered on the west banks of the Rhine River, it was no longer a matter of surprise. The German troops knew that the Allied forces were only taking a short time to gather up strength before the invasion into Germany would commence. George Patton's US 5th Division crossed the Rhine River during the night of 22 Mar 1945, establishing a six-mile deep bridgehead after capturing 19,000 demoralized German troops. -
Death of Roosevelt
President Roosevelt dies. His death marked a critical turning point in U.S. relations with the Soviet Union, as his successor, Harry S. Truman, decided to take a tougher stance with it. He also left Truman with the difficult decision of whether or not to continue to develop and, ultimately, use the atomic bomb. It was not until Roosevelt died that Truman learned of the Manhattan Project. -
Soviet Union troops reach Berlin
Red Army reaches Berlin and, after short battle, captures the city. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Mussolini was captured and executed by Italian partisans. -
Hitler commits suicide
The Nazi German leader, Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bombproof shelter together with his mistress, Eva Braun, who he had, at the last minute, made his wife. -
German forces surrender
Allied forces occupied most of Germany by the end of April 1945. German forces fighting in Italy were the first to surrender unconditionally to the Allies. Representatives of the German command in Italy signed the surrender on April 29, and it became effective on May 2, 1945. -
German forces surrender
German forces in north west Germany, Holland and Denmark surrendered to Montgomery on Luneburg Heath. Admiral Donitz, whom Hitler had nominated as his successor, tried to reach agreement to surrender to the Western allies but to continue to fight the Russians. His request was refused. -
Donitz offers unconditional surrender
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the western Allies, ending the war in Europe. -
V.E. day
Europe celebrated Victory Day. -
Churchill loses election
Winston Churchill is remembered as a highly successful politician, but when the votes were counted after the general election of July 1945, Churchill’s Conservative Party took a crushing defeat at the hands of Clement Attlee’s Labour Party. Opinion polls were available, and had consistently been showing a solid lead for the Labour Party – but still managed to lose the 1945 election immediately after leading the allies to victory in World War II. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
After Japanese generals refused to surrender, the US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Hiroshima. -
Russia declares war on Japan
The Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
The US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Nagasaki as the Japanese had not surrendered following Hiroshima. -
Japanese surrender
Aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay, Japan formally surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II. -
MacArthur accepts Japan’s surrender
Douglas MacArthur, commander of the U.S. Army in the Pacific, accepted the surrender. He wanted officers to wear their daily service clothes — khaki button-up shirts with open collars and no ties. "We fought them in our khaki uniforms, and we'll accept their surrender in our khaki uniforms," MacArthur was reported to have said.
