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Germany invades Poland
location: Poland
who was involved: Germany, Hitler, and the nazis, Poland and many Poland civilians.
major actions: German forces bombard Poland on land and from the air, as Adolf Hitler seeks to regain lost territory and ultimately rule Poland. World War II had begun.
he immediately began setting up “security” forces to annihilate all enemies and Concentration camps for slave laborers and the extermination of civilians. they wanted to regain their lost land from the treaty of Versailles. -
Churchill becomes Prime minister of Britain
who was involved: Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill,Adolf Hitler
what happened: Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, is called to replace Neville Chamberlain as British prime minister following the latter’s resignation after losing a confidence vote in the House of Commons. -
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Dunkirk Evacuation
location: Dunkirk, France
who was involved: the British expeditionary force, allied troops from France, British, France and Belgium civilians.
The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ends as German forces capture the beach port. Dunkirk evacuation included the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force and other Allied troops from the French seaport of Dunkirk to England. Naval vessels and hundreds of civilian boats were used in the evacuation, which began on May 26. -
France signs armistice with Germany
who was involved: Marshal Henri Petain, Paul Reynaud
location: France, Germany
Marshal Henri Petain replaces Paul Reynaud as prime minister and announces his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis.
The armistice, signed by the French on June 22, went into effect on June 25, and more than half of France was occupied by the Germans. The remainder of France believed they were ‘free to be governed by the French.’ -
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battle of Britan
who was involved: German, Britain
Battle of Britain, during ww2 the successful defense of Great Britain against destructive air raids controlled by the German air force (Luftwaffe) from July through October 1940, after the fall of France.
The Battle of Britain ended when Germany's Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain's air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population. -
Operation Sealion
location: Great Britain
who was involved: Hitler, French, Germans
Operation Sealion was the name given by Hitler for the planned invasion of Great Britain in 1940. Germany had acquired the French ports on the other side of the Channel and planned to use them to launch an invasion of the island nation of Britain. The invasion was only to take place if Britain did not seek a peace agreement as the Germans assumed they would after France fell. -
Britan and france: war on germany
who was involved: prime minister Neville, Hitler/nazi, Albert Lebrun-leader of France who declared war on Germany.
what happened: in response to Hitler’s invasion of Poland, Britain and France, both allies of the overrun nation declare war on Germany. -
the Tripartite Pact signed
location: Berlin
who was involved: German,Italy,Japan
On this day in 1940, the Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan becomes allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. -
The siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk was an Allied defensive effort against the combined strength of German and Italian forces. The German Operation Sonnenblume had forced British troops into retreat from their positions towards the Egyptian border. The Allies left behind troops in Tobruk the port. The Germans and Italians began a siege on the area, but the combined strength of British, Australian, Indian, Polish and Czech forces managed to push them back, preventing the port from being captured. -
operation Barbarossa
location: soviet union
who was involved: Hitler
Adolf Hitler launched his armies eastward in a massive invasion of the Soviet Union three great army groups with over three million German soldiers, 150 divisions, and three thousand tanks smashed across the frontier into Soviet territory. Hitler wanted an invade the country and destroy it and repopulating it with ethnic Germans.
The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign meant that hitler lost the war. -
bombing of Pearl Harbor
The Battle of Pearl Harbor was a military strike by the Empire of Japan on the United States naval base at Pearl Habor in Hawaii. 353 fighter planes flew into range of the naval ships and proceeded to drop bombs on them. All eight ships targeted were damaged, and four were sunk. The Japanese had aimed to intimidate the US into staying out of the war, but this failed -
britan and the us declare war ion the japen
As a result of the Pearl Harbor attacks, President Roosevelt of the United States declared war on the Empire of Japan, prompting Japan’s allies, Germany and Italy to declare war on the United States in return. Britain actually declared war on Japan nine hours before the US did, because of Churchill’s promise to declare war on Japan ‘within the hour’ of a Japanese attack on America. -
Japen takes singapore
the Empire of Japan captured Singapore from Britain and its colonies.
there had been Allied efforts to stop the Japanese advance towards Singapore. The country was a very important part of the British defense network around the region because it was their main military. on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, 24,000 Japanese troops were transported from Indochina to the Malay Peninsula, and Japanese fighter pilots attacked Singapore, killing 61 civilians from the air. -
battle of the Midway
Scouts found the Japanese early in the morning of June 4. Although initial strikes by Midway-based planes were not successful, American carrier-based planes turned the tide. The result of the battle was the victory of the United States, enabling them to continue their Pacific advance towards Japan. -
first Battle of El Alamein
who was involved: Germans, Italy
The first battle of El Alamein was an engagement which put German and Italian forces against British Imperial forces from England, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and India up against one another. The Axis were trying to push into Egypt to capture the port cities located there. The Germans and Italians mounted their offense at El Alamein, with the Allies defending from Alexandria. The Allies managed to defend the German-Italian assault, slowing the Axis. -
The Battle of Stalingrad
Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
Second Battle of El Alamein
Theatre: North Africa
Location: Around the Egyptian town of El Alamein, 100km (60 miles) west of Alexandria
Outcome: Allied victory, forcing Rommel to retreat into Tunisia.
The Second Battle of El Alamein ended the long fight for the Western Desert and was the only great land battle won by the British and Commonwealth forces without direct American participation. The victory also persuaded the French to start cooperating in the North African campaign. -
italy enters war on side of axis powers
On this day in 1943, the government of Italy declares war on its former Axis partner Germany and joins the battle on the side of the Allies.His main reason was that he wanted to sit at the ‘inevitable peace conference’ as a ‘man who has fought’. -
d-day landings
who was involved: France
the D-day landings resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the when 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region.Forces from most Allied countries took part in the beach landings, which aimed to establish a command center in France. -
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The Battle of the Bulge
It was a German offensive intended to drive a wedge between the American and British armies in France and the Low Countries and recapture the port of Antwerp in The Netherlands to deny the Allies use of the port facilities. It fell far short of its goals but managed to create a bulge in the American lines 50 miles wide and 70 miles deep, which gave the struggle its name. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.
This symbolised the end of Italy's involvement in ww2. -
Hitler commits suicide
who was involved: Adolf Hitler, the Russian army
Hitler consumes a cyanide capsule then shoots himself with a pistol, as he was about to be captured by the Russian army. this lead to the end of Germany involvement in ww2. -
German forces surrender
who was involved: General Alfred Jodi, German forces
location: northwestern and, east and west German.
the german high command signs the unconditional surrender of all german forces. general Jodi hoped to limit the terms of german surrender to only those forces still fighting the western alies. the war in -
V.E day
location: Great Britain, Western Europe, the United States and Australia, and on May 9 in the Soviet Union and New Zealand. V-E Day shows the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied forces in 1945, ending World War II in Europe. German military leaders signed surrender documents at several locations in Europe on May 7, capitulating to each of their victorious foes.
V-E Day did not end the war, Attention turned to finishing the war against Imperial Japan. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
The United States becomes the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during war when it drops an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Though the dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II, many historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. President Harry S. Truman, warned by some of his advisers that any attempt to invade Japan would result in horrific American casualties, ordered that the new weapon be used to bring the war to a speedy end. -
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atomic bombs dropped on nagasaki
location: Nagasaki, Empire of Japan
a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States. Because damage from these bombings was small, it created concern in Nagasaki and many people were evacuated to rural areas for safety, therefore reducing the population in the city at the time of the nuclear attack. Plenty of civilians died and some had injuries.
this bomb was to indicate that the United States would continue to drop atomic bombs on Japan until the country surrendered badly -
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soviet union declared 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.
But the Soviets surprised them with their invasion of Manchuria, an attack so strong that After destroying the Japanese Kwangtung army, the Japanese were thinking about the option of surrender. -
Japan surrenders
Japan surrenders to the Allies, bringing an end to World War II.
The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. In the six years of global conflict, an estimated seventy million people lost their lives, making it the bloodiest war in human history. -
The United Nations was born
the United Nations Charter, which was adopted and signed on June 26, 1945, is now effective and ready to be enforced.
The United Nations was born of perceived necessity, as a means of better arbitrating international conflict and negotiating peace than was provided for by the old League of Nations. it was the growing Second when World War became the real motivation for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N.