WWII Timeline

Harry S.Truman

1945 BCE

President Roosevelt did not live to see V-E Day. On April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait in Warm Springs, Georgia, the president had a stroke and died. That night, Vice President Harry S. Truman
became the nation’s 33rd president

Death of Hitler

1945 BCE

On April 29, he married Eva Braun, his longtime companion. The
same day, he wrote out his last address to the German people.
In it he blamed the Jews for starting the war and his generals
for losing it. “I die with a happy heart aware of the immeasurable deeds of our soldiers at the front. I myself and my wife choose to die in order to escape the disgrace of . . . capitulation,” he said. The
next day Hitler shot himself while his new wife swallowed poison.

V-E Day

1945 BCE

A week later, General Eisenhower accepted the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich. On May 8, 1945, the Allies celebrated V-E Day—Victory in Europe Day. The war in Europe was finally over.

D-Day

1944 BCE

The Allied invasion, code-named Operation Overlord, was originally set for June 5, but bad weather forced a delay. Banking on a forecast for clearing skies, Eisenhower gave the go-ahead for D-Day—June 6, 1944, the first day of the invasion. Shortly after midnight, three divisions parachuted down behind German lines. They were fol- lowed in the early morning hours by thousands upon thousands of seaborne soldiers—the largest land-sea-air operation in army history.

Korematsu v. United States

1944 BCE

In 1944, the Supreme Court decided, in Korematsu v. United States, that the government’s policy of evacuating Japanese Americans to camps was justified on the basis of “military necessity.”

Bloody Anzio

1944 BCE

The Battle of Anzio was an important battle of the Italian Campaign of World War II that took place on January 22, 1944, with the Allied amphibious landing known as Operation Shingle against the German forces in the area of Anzio and Nettuno.

The Battle of the Bulge

1944 BCE

In October 1944, Americans captured their first German town, Aachen.On December 16, under cover of dense fog, eight
German tank divisions broke through weak American
defenses along an 80-mile front. Hitler hoped that a victory
would split American and British forces and break up Allied
supply lines. Tanks drove 60 miles into Allied territory,
creating a bulge in the lines that gave this desperate lastditch
offensive its name, the Battle of the Bulge.

Unconditional surrender

1943 BCE

Even before the battle in North Africa was won, Roosevelt, Churchill, and their commanders met in Casablanca. At this meeting, the two leaders agreed to accept only the unconditional surrender of the Axis pow- ers. That is, enemy nations would have to accept whatever terms of peace the Allies dictated.

Operation Torch

1942 BCE

Operation Torch was the British-American invasion of French North Africa during the North African Campaign of the Second World War which started on 8 November 1942.

U.S. convoy system

1942 BCE

The Allies responded by organizing their cargo ships into convoys. Convoys were groups of ships traveling together for mutual protection, as they had done in the First World War. The convoys were escorted across the Atlantic by destroy- ers equipped with sonar for detecting submarines underwater. They were also accompanied by airplanes that used radar to spot U-boats on the ocean’s surface.

Women's Auxiliary Army Corps

1942 BCE

The military’s work force needs were so great that Army Chief of Staff General George Marshall pushed for the formation of a Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). “There are innumerable
duties now being performed by soldiers that can be done
better by women,” Under this bill, women volunteers would serve in noncombat positions. the bill establishing the WAAC became law
on May 15, 1942

Manhattan Project

1942 BCE

Hoping to shorten that time, the OSRD set up an intensive program in 1942 to develop a bomb as quickly as possible. Because much of the early research was performed at Columbia University in Manhattan, the Manhattan Project became the code name for research work that extended across the country.

War Productions Board

1942 BCE

The War Production Board (WPB) assumed that responsibility.
The WPB decided which companies would convert from peacetime to wartime production and allocated raw materials to key industries. The WPB also organized drives to collect scrap iron, tin cans, paper, rags, and cooking fat for recycling into war goods. Across America, children scoured attics, cellars, garages, vacant lots, and back alleys, looking for useful junk.

Internment

1942 BCE

General Delos Emmons was eventually forced to order the internment, or confinement, of 1,444 Japanese Americans, 1 per- cent of Hawaii’s Japanese-American population.

Pearl Harbor attack

1941 BCE

Early the December 7, 1941, morning, a Japanese dive-bomber swooped low over Pearl Harbor— the largest U.S. naval base in the Pacific. The bomber was followed by more than 180 Japanese warplanes launched from six aircraft carriers. In less than two hours, the Japanese had killed 2,403 Americans and wounded 1,178 more. The surprise raid had sunk or damaged 21 ships, including 8 battleships—nearly the whole U.S. Pacific fleet. More than 300 aircraft were severely damaged or destroyed.

Battle of Stalingrad

1941 BCE

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD The Germans had been fighting in the Soviet Union since June 1941. In November 1941, the bitter cold had stopped them in their tracks outside the Soviet cities of Moscow and Leningrad. When spring came, the German tanks were ready to roll.

The Battle of the Atlantic

1941 BCE

THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Hitler ordered submarine raids against ships along America’s east coast. The German aim in the Battle of the Atlantic was to prevent food and war materials from reaching Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Britain depended on supplies from the sea.

Lend-Lease Act

1941 BCE

t it would be impossible to negotiate a peace with Hitler. “No man
can tame a tiger into a kitten by stroking it.” To prevent such a situation, the United States had to help defeat the Axis threat by turning itself into what Roosevelt called “the great arsenal of democracy.” THE LEND-LEASE PLAN. Isolationists argued bitterly
against the plan, but most Americans favored it, and Congress passed the LendLease Act in March 1941.

Office of Price Asministration

1941 BCE

Roosevelt responded to this threat by creating the
Office of Price Administration (OPA). The OPA fought inflation by freezing prices on most goods. Congress also raised income tax rates and extended the tax to millions of people who had never paid it before. The higher taxes reduced consumer demand on scarce goods by leaving workers with less to spend.

Hitler's invasion of the Netherlands

1940 BCE

But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony
war had ended.

Marshal Philippe Petain

1940 BCE

On June 22, 1940, at Compiègne, as William Shirer and the rest of the world watched, Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi-controlled puppet government, head- ed by Marshal Philippe Pétain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France.

Hitler's invasion of Denmark and Norway

1940 BCE

Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion
of Denmark and Norway in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.”

Germany and Italy's invasion of France

1940 BCE

France’s Maginot Line proved to be ineffective; the German army threatened to bypass the line during its invasion of Belgium.
A few days later, Italy entered the war on the side of Germany and invaded France from the south as the Germans closed in on Paris from the north.

The Battle of Britain

1940 BCE

In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast. Because its naval power could not compete with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at the same time.The Battle of Britain raged on through the summer and fall. Night after night, German planes pounded British tar- gets.

Blitzkrieg

1939 BCE

At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. This invasion was the first test of Germany’s newest military strategy, the blitzkrieg, or lightning war.

Britain and France declare War on Germany

1939 BCE

Blitzkrieg made use of advances in military technology—such as fast tanks and more powerful aircraft—to take the enemy by surprise and then quickly crush all opposition with overwhelming force. On September 3, two days following the ter- ror in Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany.

Phony War

1939 BCE

THE PHONY WAR For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a system of fortifica- tions built along France’s eastern border, sat staring into Germany, waiting for something to happen.

Joseph Stalin's totalitarian government in the Soviet Union

1939 BCE

By 1939, Stalin had firmly established a totalitarian government that tried to exert complete control over its citizens. In a totalitarian state, individuals have no rights, and the government suppresses all opposition.

Nonaggression pact

1939 BCE

As tensions rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fas- cist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other.

Rome-Berlin Axis

1939 BCE

The war forged a close relationship between the German and Italian dictators, who signed a formal alliance known as the Rome-Berlin Axis. After a loss of almost 500,000 lives, Franco’s victory in 1939 established him as Spain’s fascist dictator. Once again a totalitarian government ruled in Europe.

Hitler's Anschluss

1938 BCE

On March 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unopposed. A day later, Germany announced that its Anschluss, or “union,” with Austria was complete. The United States and the rest of the world did nothing.

Munich Agreement

1938 BCE

On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich Agreement, which turned the Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot being fired.

Hitler invasion the Rhineland

1936 BCE

A year later, he sent troops into the Rhineland, a German region bordering France and Belgium that was demilitarized as a result of the Treaty of Versailles. The League did nothing to stop Hitler.

Francisco Franco

1936 BCE

In 1936, a group of Spanish army officers led by General Francisco Franco, rebelled against the Spanish republic. Revolts broke out all over Spain, and the Spanish Civil War began.

Hitler's military build-up in Germany

1935 BCE

In 1933, Hitler pulled Germany out of the League. In 1935, he began a military buildup in violation of the Treaty of Versailles. A year later, he sent troops into the Rhineland.

Mussolini's invasion of Ethiopia

1935 BCE

Meanwhile, Mussolini began building his new Roman Empire. His first target was Ethiopia, one of Africa’s few remaining independent countries. By the fall of 1935, tens of thousands of Italian soldiers stood ready to advance on Ethiopia. The League of Nations reacted with brave talk of “collective resistance to all acts of unprovoked aggression.”

Third Reich

1933 BCE

In January 1933, Hitler was appointed chancellor (prime minister). Once in power,Hitler quickly dismantled Germany’s democratic Weimar Republic. In its place he established the Third Reich, or Third German Empire. According to Hitler, the Third Reich would be a “Thousand-Year Reich”—it would last for a thousand years.

Storm troopers

1932 BCE

By 1932, some 6 million Germans were unemployed. Many men who were out of work joined Hitler’s private army, the storm troopers (or Brown Shirts). The German people were desperate and turned to Hitler as their last hope.

Japanese invasion of Manchuria

1931 BCE

Ignoring the protests of more moderate Japanese officials, the militarists launched a surprise attack and seized control of the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. The watchful League of Nations had been established after World War I to prevent
just such aggressive acts. In this greatest test of the League’s power, representatives were sent to Manchuria to investigate the situation.

Mein Kampf

1925 BCE

In his book Mein Kampf [My Struggle], Hitler set forth the basic beliefs of Nazism that became the plan of action for the Nazi Party. A third element of Nazism was national expansion. Hitler believed that for Germany to thrive, it needed more lebensraum, or living space. One of the Nazis’ aims, as Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf, was “to secure for the German people the land and soil to which they are entitled on this earth,”

Benito Mussolini's fascist government in Italy

1921 BCE

While Stalin was consolidating his power in the Soviet Union, Benito Mussolini was establishing a totalitarian regime in Italy.By 1921, Mussolini had established the Fascist Party. Fascism stressed nationalism and placed the interests of the state above those of individuals. To strengthen the nation, Fascists argued, power must rest with a single strong leader and a small group of devoted party members.

Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany

1919 BCE

Adolf Hitler had followed a path to power similar to Mussolini’s. At the end of World War I, Hitler had been a jobless soldier drifting around Germany. In 1919, he joined a struggling group called the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, better known as the Nazi Party. Despite its name, this party had no ties to socialism. Hitler proved to be such a powerful public speaker and organizer that he quickly became the party’s leader.