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Hitler Invades Poland
German forces invade Poland from the North, South, and West, despite having signed a nonaggression pact with England and France. German troops cross the border and begin bombing Poland. World War II officially begins. -
England and France Declare War
After Hitler invades Poland, England and France officially declare war on Germany on September 3. They can do little to save Poland, because Hitler executes a blitzkrieg or "lightning war", meant to overwhelm the Polish and allow them to invade quickly. -
France Surrenders to German Invasion
German troops invade Paris and other major French cities, and France is forced to sign an armisitice with Hitler, allowing his troops to occupy part of the country. France surrenders and is left with Nazi occupation in the north and a puppet government in the south. The Germans were met with plent of resistance, as Agnes Humbert talks about in his memoir Resistance: Memoirs of Occupied France. -
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North Africa and the Afrika Korps
Mussolini, in an alliance with Hitler, plans on gaining control of North Africa. During September 1940, Italians moved in on Egypt, and pushed British forces back. They were faced with a brutal counterattack on January 1941. The Italians were losing until Hitler intervened and sent German forces, known as the Afrika Korps, to the front in late March 1941. The two sides battled until June 1942, when the Allies finally lost. -
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The Battle of Britain
Germans bomb Great Britain, first focusing on the RAF, but eventually moving on to cities, such as London. Although bombing began on September 7, the night air raids started in October. Civilians were forced to evacuate to the countryside or spend their time in air raid shelters. Many memoirs and accounts made by British people exist, like one by Margaret Chifeny. Hitler calls off the attack on May 10, 1941. -
Operation Barbossa
After gaining control of the Balkans, Hitler begins Operation Barbossa, his strategy to invade the Soviet Union. The plan was to invade the country and gain control quickly, which was meant to be easy since the Soviet army was large but disorganized. However, the plan was drawn out, and many German troops died during the winter due to their lack of winter uniforms. -
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Japan conquers Pacific islands
As Japanese troops begin moving on European colonies in the Pacific, such as French Indochina, the United States is led to cut off their oil shipments to Japan out of fear that they would invade the Phillippines and Guam, two areas under American control. -
Attack on Pearl Harbour
Despite having cracked a Japanese code, Americans were taken completely by surprise when the Japanese began bombing Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. In just two hours, 2,300 Americans were killed and 19 boats were wither sunken or damaged. The United States immediately declares war on Japan, and officially joins World War II. -
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The Final Solution begins
At the Wanasee Conference, the Final Solution is created: to kill all of the Jews in Europe using concentration and extermination camps, where people would be killed through means of exhaustion, disease, starvation, and the use of gas chambers. Over 6 million Jews, and over 5 million non-Jews were exterminated. Memoirs of survivors of the Holocaust such as Night, were written describing their experiences. -
Doolittle Raid
Under the command of Lieutennant Colonel Doolittle, 16 American bombers set out and began bombing cities in Japan as revenge for the attack on Pearl Harbour. Even though the attacks didn't do much damage, it boosted American morale and revealed that the Japanese were not invincible. -
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The Battle of Midway
As Japan was advancing on Pacific islands, it soon set its eyes on Midway Island, a small but very useful strip of land with an American airfield on it. American forces hid on the horizon until Japanese troops advanced on the island and their first planes took off. They were met with a fierce attack from the Americans, resulting in the destruction of 332 Japanese planes, all 4 aircraft carriers, and 1 support ship. -
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Battle of Guadalcanal
As the Japanese were slowly gaining contorl of many Pacific Islands, the Americans decided to claim unimportant islands so they could get closer to the enemy. One of these islands was Guadalcanal, where the Japanese were building an air base. The island was easy to seize at first, but a battle broke out after new troops came in from both sides. Bodies littered the beaches and the fighting finally ended in February 1943. A diary written by a Japanese soldier exists, titled 'My Guadalcanal'. -
The D-Day Invasion
The Allies plan an attack on the coast of German-held Normandy. The Germans are taken by surprise, they had been fooled by a dummy army which was thought to invade Calais. On June 6, 1944, British, French, American, and Canadian troops invaded the beaches and gained control despite many casualties. This victory leads to the liberation of France, Belgium and Luxembourg in September later that year. -
The Battle of the Bulge
Germany was faced with a two-front war, with British and American troops attacking it from the west, and Soviet troops attacking from the East. Hitler decides to counterattack on the west, and plans to seperate the Allied forces so that their supply lines are broken up. Although the Germans were able to break through, the Allies eventually pushed them back. -
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Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference was a meeting between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin. They discussed the organization of Europe after the war if the Allies were to win, which was very likely at this point. It was decided that Germany would be split up into four zones, each controlled by a different country (France was included), and Germany would experience demiltarization and denazification. -
The Allies Move In on Japan
After hopping from island to island, American troops move to the island of Okinawa, just south of Japan, beginning one of the largest battles on the Pacific Front. The Japanese attacked using kamikaze pilots, men who flew their planes into targets, commiting suicide. Letters and poems written by these pilots exist, such as one by Kaneyuki Fukuda. By the end, the Japanese had lost over 100,000 men, and the Americans had lost only 12,000. -
The Germans Surrender
As the war was coming to a close, Allied troops were closing in on Berlin, and began shelling the city in a final attempt to beat the Germans. Hitler commits suicide on April 30, leaving the Germans without their leader, and on May 7, the Germans finally surrender. World War II in Europe was officially over. -
The Atomic Bomb is Dropped on Hiroshima
As a result of a secret project named the Manhattan Project, Americans had successfully created an atomic bomb and planned to use it against the Japanese, who refused to surrender despite low chances of them winning the war. On August 6, a uranium bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy" is dropped on the Japanese city of HIroshima, instantly killing over 70,000 people, and a further 90,000 more over the course of the year due to injuries, burns and radiation. -
The Atomic Bomb is Dropped on Nagasaki
After the bombing of the city of Hiroshima, the Americans moved on to bomb the city of Nagasaki three days later. On August 9, the Americans dropped a plutonium bomb, nicknamed "Fat Man", on Nagasaki, killing approximately 39,000 instantly, and up to 40,000 more died due to injuries, burns, and radiation in later months. -
The Japanese Surrender
The Japanese finally surrender to the Americans on September 2. With this surrender, World War II finally ends, 6 years and one day after is began. -
Primary Sources Citations
Wiesel, Elie. Night. Buenos Aires: Mark Turkov, 1956. Print.
Inui, Genjirou. My Guadalcanal. Diary.
Fukuda, Kaneyuki. Letter to mother. n.d.
Margaret Chifeny. Personal Interview. 2010.
Humbert, Agnes. Resistance: Memoirs of Occupied France. Paris: Emilie-Paul Freres. 1946. Print.
