World war 2 timeline

By tropical_miami_boomer

  • Japan invades Manchuria.

  • Fascist Italy invades, conquers, and annexes Ethiopia.

  • Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the Soviet Union and the international Communist movement.

  • Germany incorporates Austria in the Anschluss.

  • France and Great Britain guarantee the integrity of the borders of the Polish state.

  • Fascist Italy invades and annexes Albania.

  • Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a nonaggression agreement and a secret codicil dividing eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

  • Germany invades Poland, initiating World War II in Europe.

  • Honoring their guarantee of Poland’s borders, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

  • The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east.

  • Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack; Norway holds out until June 9.

  • Italy enters the war. Italy invades southern France on June 21.

  • The Soviet Union forces Romania to cede the eastern province of Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina to the Soviet Ukraine.

  • The air war known as the Battle of Britain ends in defeat for Nazi Germany.

  • The Italians invade British-controlled Egypt from Italian-controlled Libya.

  • Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact.

  • Italy invades Greece from Albania on October 28.

  • Bulgaria joins the Axis.

  • Japan bombs Pearl Harbor.

  • Nazi Germany and its Axis partners declare war on the United States.

  • British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway.

  • Axis forces in Tunisia surrender to the Allies, ending the North African campaign.

  • The Germans launch a massive tank offensive near Kursk in the Soviet Union. The Soviets blunt the attack within a week and begin an offensive initiative of their own.

  • US and British troops land on Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies control Sicily.

  • Allied troops land on the beaches of Salerno near Naples.

  • Soviet troops liberate Kiev.

  • Allied troops liberate Rome. Within six weeks, Anglo-American bombers could hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time.

  • British and US troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a “Second Front” against the Germans.

  • Anglo-American forces break out of the Normandy beachhead and race eastward towards Paris.

  • Allied forces land in southern France near Nice and advance rapidly towards the Rhine River to the northeast.