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Hitler annexed Austria and demanded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, he wanted to unify the German people. The prime minister of England tried to appease Hitler to prevent war.
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Hitler annexed Austria and demanded the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia in order to unite the German people. The British prime minister went to Germany to try and avoid war.
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The leaders of France, Italy, Germany, England, and Russia met in Munich and agreed to give Hitler the Sudetenland in exchange Hitler would stop expanding. Czechoslovakia didn't have a say, and everyone thought that war was avoided.
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Hitler ignored the Treaty of Munich and invaded and occupied Czechoslovakia.
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Britain began to rearm and prepare for war, introducing conscription and installing a secret radar system. They reassured Poland that they would defend them because Hitler was being aggressive.
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Hitler and Stalin signed a non-aggression pact which included secret clauses for the division of Poland.
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The months following Britain's declaration of war are referred to as the 'phoney war' because Britain saw no military action.
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Adolf Hitler invaded Poland.
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Britain and France declared war on Germany. The British prime minister broadcasted that the country was at war.
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Italian forces in North Africa were routed by the British led by General Wavell.
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Hitler invaded and occupied Denmark and Norway to safeguard supply routes of Swedish ore and also to establish a Norwegian base from which to break the British naval blockade of Germany.
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Hitler launched his blitzkrieg (lightning war) against Holland and Belgium. Rotterdam was bombed almost to extinction. Both countries were occupied.
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Neville Chamberlain resigned after pressure from Labour members for more active prosecution of the war and Winston Churchill became the new head of the wartime coalition government. Chamberlain gave Churchill his unreserved support. Ernest Bevin was made the minister of labor and recruited workers for the factories and stepped up coal production. Lord Beaverbrook, Minister of Aircraft Production increased production of fighter aircraft.
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The British commander-in-chief, General Gort, had been forced to retreat to the coast at Dunkirk. The troops waited, under merciless fire, to be taken off the beaches. A call went out to all owners of sea-worthy vessels to travel to Dunkirk to take the troops off the beaches of Dunkirk, More than 338,00 men were rescued, among them some 140,000 French who would form the nucleus of the Free French army under a little known general, Charles de Gaulle.
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Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis powers. Italy's motive for entering the war was the hope of rich pickings from the spoils of war.
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The French, Marshall Petain, signed an armistice with Germany taking France, which had been devastated, out of the war and into German occupation.
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Battle of Britain comprised 4 phases: July Hitler sent his bombers to attack British ports. His aim was to assess the speed & quality response RAF. August attacks on shipping continued but concentrated RAF airfields.The Blitz - Sep 7 London was heavily bombed. Hitler hoped to destroy morale of British Night bombing With failure of daylight bombing, Hitler began series of night bombing raids on London & other important industrial cities. RAF defended the skies & Oct 31 the raids ceased
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This pact of mutual alliance was signed by Germany, Italy, and Japan.
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German and Italian troops attacked Yugoslavia, Greece and the island of Crete. German field Marshall Erwin Rommel led the axis powers back to North Africa.
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Hitler sent 3 million soldiers and 3,500 tanks into Russia. The Russians were taken by surprise as they had signed a treaty with Germany in 1939. Stalin immediately signed a mutual assistance treaty with Britain and launched an Eastern front battle that would claim 20 million casualties. The USA, which had been supplying arms to Britain under a 'Lend-Lease' agreement, offered similar aid to the USSR.
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The Japanese who were already waging war against the Chinese, attacked the US pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, as a preliminary to taking British, French, and Dutch colonies in Southeast Asia.
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Britain and the United States declared war on Japan.
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The Japanese captured Singapore from the British, taking some 60,000 prisoners.
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The USA defeated the Japanese navy at the battle of Midway. Following the victory, the US navy was able to push the Japanese back.
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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.
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The Russians won their first victory against Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad.
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British and American forces under the command of General Dwight Eisenhower landed in the Northwest of Africa and assumed control of French Morocco and Algeria. They gradually closed in on the Germans.
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Montgomery attacked the German-Italian army in North Africa with a massive bombardment followed by an armored attack. He then proceeded to chase the routed enemy some 1500 miles across the desert.
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British and US forces invaded Sicily.
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The allied troops had won the island of Sicily.
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Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met to coordinate plans for a simultaneous squeeze on Germany. They also discussed post war settlements. Churchill mistrusted Stalin; Roosevelt anxious to show that the West would not stand against Russia, went along with Stalin's wishes for a second front in France and no diversions further east, Churchill was over-ruled and the fate of post-war Eastern Europe was thus decided.
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The British and American forces managed to defeat the Axis forces in North Africa.
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Mussolini had been thrown out of office and the new government of Italy surrendered to the British and the USA. They then agreed to join the allies. The Germans took control of the Italian army, freed Mussolini from imprisonment and set him up as head of a puppet government in Northern Italy. This blocked any further allied advance through Italy.
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The siege of Leningrad was lifted by the Soviet army.
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Although Italy had surrendered in September, it was only now that the allies were able to liberate Rome from the Germans.
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The allies launched an attack on Germany's forces in Normandy, Western France. Thousands of transports carried an invasion army under the supreme command of general Eisenhower to the Normandy beaches. The Germans who had been fed false information about a landing near Calais, rushed troops to the area but were unable to prevent the allies from forming a solid bridgehead. For the allies it was essential to first capture a port.
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British forces under General Slim, with help from guerrilla-fighting Chindits led by Orde Windgate evicted the Japanese from Burma.
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Germany launched its final defensive through the Ardennes region of Belgium. However they were beaten back by the allies
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The French capital of Paris was liberated from the Germans.
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The first V2 flying bombs killed three people in London
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The Allies crossed the Rhine while Soviet forces were approaching Berlin from the East.
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President Roosevelt died. He was succeeded by President Truman.
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The Russians reached Berlin shortly before the US forces
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Italian partisans captured Mussolini and executed him.
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The 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.
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German forces in Italy surrendered to the Allies
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German forces in northwest Germany, Holland, and Denmark surrender to Montgomery on Luneburg Heath. Admiral Donitz, whom Hitler had negotiated as his successor, tried to reach agreement to surrender to the Western allies but to continue to fight the Russians. His request was refused.
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Hitler's successor, Admiral Donitz, offered an unconditional surrender to the allies.
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Victory in Europe was celebrated
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Winston Churchill lost the election to Clement Attlee's Labor Party. The Labor party promised sweeping social reforms including nationalization of the coal and railway industries and the creation of a welfare state. The Labor Party gained 393 seats to the Conservatives 213. It was generally accepted that the landslide victory for the Labor party was due to the men and women of the armed services who did not want to resume civilians life under conditions that they had before they entered service
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The Japanese generals refused to surrender. The US dropped an atomic bomb on the Island of Hiroshima.
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Russia declared war on Japan and invaded Japanese ruled Manchuria.
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The US dropped an atomic bomb on the island of Nagasaki as the Japanese had not surrendered following Hiroshima.
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The Japanese unconditionally surrendered to the allies ending the second world war.
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US General, Douglas MacArthur accepted Japan's surrender thus formally ending the second world war.