-
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
President Paul von Hindenburg names Adolf Hitler, leader or fÜhrer of the National Socialist German Workers Party (or Nazi Party), as chancellor of Germany. -
German Anschluss with Austria
Hitler wanted all German-speaking nations in Europe to be a part of Germany. -
Treaty of Munich
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. -
Hitler invades Czechoslovakia
German troops marched into Czechoslovakia. They took over Bohemia, and established a protectorate over Slovakia. Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia was the end of appeasement: It proved that Hitler had been lying at Munich. -
Britain rearms and reassures Poland
erman Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German warships and U-boats attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. -
Russia and Germany sign pact
Hitler wanted a nonaggression pact with the Soviet Union so that his armies could invade Poland virtually unopposed by a major power, after which Germany could deal with the forces of France and Britain in the west without having to simultaneously fight the Soviet Union on a second front in the east. -
‘Phoney War’
eight months after Britain and France had declared war on Germany, German troops marched into Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, marking the end of the Phoney War. -
Hitler invades Poland
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, but Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. To Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German people. -
Britain and France declare war on
Britain and France declare war on Germany. Britain and France are at war with Germany following the invasion of Poland two days ago. At 1115 BST the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced the British deadline for the withdrawal of German troops from Poland had expired. -
Hitler invades Denmark and Norway
The attack on Denmark was planned as a part of the German Operation Weserübung Süd – the German plan for an invasion of Norway. The purpose was mainly to secure the iron ore shipping from Narvik. In order to capture Norway, the Germans had to control the airfield outside Aalborg in northern Jutland. -
British rout Italians in N. Africa
The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. The United States officially entered the war in December 1941 and began direct military assistance in North Africa on 11 May 1942. Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on 10 June 1940. -
Blitzkrieg
The Japanese turn back a Chinese counter-offensive; the Blitzkrieg Germany invasion of France; France falls; the British Army is evacuated from Dunkirk. -
Chamberlain resigns
after the disastrous Norwegian campaign, Chamberlain resigned and Winston Churchill became prime minister. Chamberlain served in Churchill's cabinet as lord president of the council. He died a few weeks after he left office, on 9 November 1940. -
Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
the evacuation of Allied soldiers during World War II from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, in the north of France. -
Italy enter war on side of Axis powers
Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, which became known as the Axis alliance. Even before the Tripartite Pact, two of the three Axis powers had initiated conflicts that would become theaters of war in World War II. -
France signs armistice with Germany
French government signed an armistice with Nazi Germany just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe. Background: Nazi Invasion of Western Europe. Share.
Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, starting World War II. -
Period: to
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe). It has been described as the first major military campaign fought entirely by air forces. -
Tripartite Pact
Axis powers are formed as Germany, Italy, and Japan become allies with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. The Pact provided for mutual assistance should any of the signatories suffer attack by any nation not already involved in the war. -
Italy and Germany attack Yugoslavia
Adolf Hitler gave the order for German forces - backed by Italian, Romanian, Hungarian and Bulgarian Axis allies - to invade Yugoslavia and Greece. He launched the assault in order to secure Germany's Balkan flank for Operation Barbarossa, his planned spring 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union. -
Hitler attacks Russia – Operation Barbarossa
just weeks after the German conquest of France and the Low Countries, Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union within the following year. On December 18, 1940, he signed Directive 21 (code-named Operation "Barbarossa"), the first operational order for the invasion of the Soviet Union. -
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii Territory, on the morning of December 7, 1941. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
United States Congress declared war (Public Law 77-328, 55 STAT 795) on the Empire of Japan in response to that country's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor the prior day. It was formulated an hour after the Infamy Speech of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt. -
Japanese take Singapore
After taking Singapore, the Japanese established the Shonan Japanese School (昭南日本学園, Shōnan Nihon Gakuen), to educate Malays, Chinese, Indians, and Eurasians in the Japanese language. Faye Yuan Kleeman, the author of Under an Imperial Sun: Japanese Colonial Literature of Taiwan. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most decisive naval battles of World War II. Thanks in part to major advances in code breaking, the United States was able to preempt and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, inflicting permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. -
Allies in N. Africa
Operation Torch: Allied Invasion of North Africa. On November 8, 1942, the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom launched an amphibious operation against French North Africa, in particular the French-held territories of Algeria and Morocco. -
Battle of Stalingrad
Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad (now Volgograd), Russia, U.S.S.R., during World War II. Russians consider it to be one of the greatest battles 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 favour of the Allies. -
Allies push into N. Africa
The Axis Powers. World War II was fought between two major groups of nations. They became known as the Axis Powers and the Allied Powers. The major Axis Powers were Germany, Italy, and Japan. -
Battle of El Alamein
The Battle of El Alamein marked the culmination of the World War II North African campaign between the British Empire & the German-Italian army. Deploying a far larger contingent of soldiers and tanks than the opposition, British commander Bernard Law Montgomery launched an infantry attack at El Alamein on Oct. 23, 1942. German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel returned to battle from illness and tried to halt the tide, but the British advantage in personnel and artillery proved too overwhelming. -
Allies invade Sicily
With North Africa secured and Sicily—the stepping stone to Italy—conquered, the Allied forces launched their invasion of Italy on 3 September 1943. It began with British forces skipping across the Strait of Messina to Calabria. -
Allies take Sicily
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. -
Axis surrender N Africa
The campaign was fought between the Allies, many of whom had colonial interests in Africa dating from the late 19th century, and the Axis Powers. The Allied war effort was dominated by the British Commonwealth and exiles from German-occupied Europe. -
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
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, on December 1, 1943. -
Leningrad relieved
The siege of Leningrad, also known as the 900-Day Siege though it lasted a grueling 872 days, resulted in the deaths of some one million of the city's civilians and Red Army defenders. Leningrad, formerly St. Petersburg, capital of the Russian Empire, was one of the initial targets of the German invasion of June 1941. -
Rome liberated
Although Rome was liberated, the Germans were not decisively defeated. After the fall of Rome German forces fell back to the so-called Gothic Line of defence, running across Italy just north of Florence. The Allies did not breach this line until September 1944. -
Japanese evicted from Burma
Japan officially took control of Korea and renamed it Chosen. Japanese occupation of Korea lasted until 1945 when the Japanese were defeated in World War II. Following the war, Korea was divided by Western powers. -
Battle of the Bulge
Adolph Hitler attempted to split the Allied armies in northwest Europe by means of a surprise blitzkrieg thrust through the Ardennes to Antwerp. Caught off-guard, American units fought desperate battles to stem the German advance at St.-Vith, Elsenborn Ridge, Houffalize and Bastogne. -
D-Day
In the military, D-Day is the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. The best known D-Day is during World War II, on June 6, 1944—the day of the Normandy landings—initiating the Western Allied effort to liberate mainland Europe from Nazi Germany. -
Paris liberated
German resistance was light, and General Dietrich von Choltitz, commander of the German garrison, defied an order by Adolf Hitler to blow up Paris' landmarks and burn the city to the ground before its liberation. -
V2 Flying Bombs
V1 and V2 Rockets. A SCUD missile, which is modeled after von Braun's V2. Guided missiles were one of Germany's most important technical achievements during World War II.Eyewitness accounts describe prisoners being hanged from cranes above the rocket assembly lines. Despite his complicity in the conditions at Mittelwerk, the engineer who designed the V2, Wernher von Braun, came to be feted as a hero of the space age. -
Allies cross the Rhine
German forces had been routed during the Allied break-out from Normandy. The Allies advanced rapidly against an enemy that put up little resistance. But after the liberation of Paris in late August 1944, the Allies paused to re-group and organise before continuing their advance from Paris to the River Rhine. The pause allowed the Germans to solidify their lines—something they had been unable to do west of Paris. -
Death of Roosevelt
President Franklin D Roosevelt died because of Cerebral hemorrhage. He was leaving Vice President Harry S. Truman in charge of a country still fighting the Second World War and in possession of a weapon of unprecedented and terrifying power. -
Russians reach Berlin
When the Soviet offensive resumed on 16 April, two Soviet fronts (army groups) attacked Berlin from the east and south, while a third overran German forces positioned north of Berlin. Before the main battle in Berlin commenced, the Red Army encircled the city after successful battles of the Seelow Heights and Halbe. -
Mussolini captured and executed
The death of Benito Mussolini, the deposed Italian fascist dictator, occurred on 28 April 1945, in the final days of World War II in Europe, when he was summarily executed by Italian partisans in the small village of Giulino di Mezzegra in northern Italy. He was die of the executed of the firing squad. -
Hitler commits suicide
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his. -
German forces surrender
Germany officially surrendered to the Allies, bringing an end to the European conflict in World War II. General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France, which would take effect the following day. -
Donitz offers unconditional surrender
Dönitz had instructed them to draw out the negotiations for as long as possible so that German troops and refugees could surrender to the Western powers, but when Eisenhower let it be known he would not tolerate their stalling, Dönitz authorised Jodl to sign the instrument of unconditional surrender. -
Churchill loses election
The result of the election came as a major shock to the Conservatives, given the heroic status of Winston Churchill, but reflected the voters' belief that the Labour Party were better able to rebuild the country following the war than the Conservatives. -
V.E. day
Victory in Europe Day, generally known as V-E Day, VE Day or simply V 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. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
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. On August 6, 1945, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped a five-ton bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. -
Russia declares war on Japan
The Russo-Japanese War developed out of the rivalry between Russia and Japan for dominance in Korea and Manchuria.The war began when the main Japanese fleet launched a surprise attack and siege on the Russian naval squadron at Port Arthur. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
The plane dropped the bomb–known as “Little Boy”–by parachute at 8:15 in the morning, and it exploded 2,000 feet above Hiroshima in a blast equal to 12-15,000 tons of TNT, destroying five square miles of the city. -
Japanese surrender
The surrender of Imperial Japan was announced on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945, bringing the hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) was incapable of conducting major operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent. -
MacArthur accepts Japan’s surrender
Multiple American scholars adopted the dominant Japanese point of view, arguing that the atomic bomb was unnecessary because the Japanese would have surrendered by the end of 1945.
