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Germany Invades Poland
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Britain and France declare war upon Germany
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Battle of Dunkirk
Lasted untill the fourth of June in 1940. It was a strategic retreat from the shores of France into Britain to regroup as the Germans were taking over France. This was an emergency manuever that utilized all civilian and military vessels available in Great Britain and saved about 300,000 British and Fench people. -
French sign an Armistace with Germany
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Battle for Britain
German's commenced a four-phase amphibious areial assault on Britain, during which towns and cities were targeted exlusively after the date of September seventh. This battle ended in the Fall of 1940 as a German loss. -
Vichy Government installed
the Parlimant of France voted full powers to Philippe Pétain, and to make a new constitution, thus founding the French Vichy puppet government of and in collaboration with Nazi Germany. -
FDR approves 'shoot on sight"
Due to German attacks on merchant vessels, President Roosevelt approved of shooting German U-boats on sight as a defencive tatcic, even though America was not officially involved in the war. -
Japan joins the Axis
The Japanese join the axis powers to give itself more leway in attaining thier own ambitions. -
Japanese Ambassadors arrive in America
Saburō Kurusu (arrived November 15th)and Kichisaburō (arrived later in November to replace Kensuke Horinouchi) were sent to America as a special envoy to negotiate terms for keeping peace between Japan and the U.S. Through much of 1941 they met with Secretary of State Cordell Hull, then were interned for a wile as a result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, which had promptly ended the negotiations. -
Hitler breaks Non-Aggression agreement and invades the Soviet Union
Having begun plans for Operation Barbarossa (the unanounced attack on the USSR by Nazi-Germany) on the eighteenth of December (1940), and started preparations in the following Spring, Hitler had the USSR invaded with 600,000 motor vehicles, 750,000 horses and over 4 and a half million soldiers. This was the largest offensive staged in History at this point, and was seen at the outset as a major victory. In truth, it signalled the Decline of NAzi Germany in WWII. -
Merchant vessels sunk.
The Athenia Steamship was the first British merchant vessels sunk, followed by a long and relatively constant stream of such merchant vessels being attacked by German U-boats, though unrestricted submarine warfare was officially declared by Hitler in December. -
Pearl Harbor
Japan made an unannounced Naval air attack upon Pearl Harbor, destroying four of the battle-ships in the harbor, damaging four more, destroying three destroyers and decimating a good deal of the planes on the island. This attack happened while Japan was making negotiations with the US through an Ambassador. -
Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
After Japan attacked Pearl HArbor, starting war with the U.S., Germany and Italy soon followed through with thier agreements in the Tripartite and also declared war on the U.S., claiming that the U.S. were either fundamentally against thier axis and/or were acause of the war and/or already assisting in attempts to destroy it. -
Macarthur Promises 'I shall return' to the Philipine people.
When MAcarthur was ordered to Australia Mar 11, 1942, he made a promise to return to the Philipines, to take them back, as it was predicted Japan would take them over. -
Bataan Death March
The Bataan death march was a mass prisoner transfer of about 75,000 American and Filipino POW's that began at Mariveles and ended at Capas. The death toll is approximated at having been 28% as a result of provokless beatings, exicution of straglers, people who asked for water or complained or were unllucky, thirst, and malnutrition. The Japanese were later tried on this as a war crime. -
Battle of Coral Sea
A naval battle in the Pacific theatre between Japanese and U.S./Austalian forces that lasted for four days (ending May eigth). The battle took place when Japanese air craft carriers were sent to destroy nearby American vessels after having taken Tuliga in New Guinea. This battle helped lessen Japanese ship availability in the following battle of Midway, and stemmed the tide of Japanese advances, even though the Japanese sunk more ships. -
Battle of Midway
Japanese Admiral Yamamoto had the vast majority of his navy moving toward the island of Midway, a U.S. military pit-stop island, from which they were intending to campaign thier way to Pearl Harbor again. This battle happened soon after the battle of the Coral Sea, in which the planes of Japanese aircraft carriers had been used up. U.S. air craft carriers had planes attack the Japanese fleet from several hundred miles away and eventually gained victory. -
Guadalcanal Campaighn
This was the first major offensive attempted by the Allies against the Empire of Japan and lasted untill February 9, 1943. It began when Allied forces landed on the Solomon Islands of Tulagi and Florida and progressed untill Japan decided to give up the Guada Canal. -
Germans surrender at Stalingrad
After a campaign from July seventh to February second, German forces attempting to take Stalingrad, battered and no longher being reinforced with anything but munition supplies, surrendered rather then opting to fight to the death at the end of a long struggle that resulted in failure. -
Sicily Falls
The Allied forces launched a combined attack upon Sicily by the sea, land and air with over half a million troops during the night of July ninth, eventually taking the area 38 days later after an indecisive but successfull campaign. -
Rome Falls
A small town called Santa Marie Infante proved to be the stronghold of German defenses and after some initial setbacks and counter-attacks Allied forces managed to take the town. Troops previously stationed in Azio then managed to cause the remaining German forces in the area to flee, giving up Rome, the first axis capital to fall in WWII. -
D-Day, the invasion of the beaches of Normandy, commenced.
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Kamikaze Strategy Officially Implimented.
Vice-Admiral Onishi of the Japanese Navy established the idea of kamikaze attacks after being assigned to command the air attacks against the huge American invasion fleet off the Philippines. The vast majority of kamikazes were done in the battle of Okinawa, in ten seperate waves. -
General Macarthur returns to the Philipines.
General MAcarthur directed an attack to retake Leyte, a small island north of the Surigao Strait in the Philippines, having bombed, invaded the shore of the East coast and had himself a stroll onto the beach later that day. -
Battle of the Bulge
This was a battle initiated by the Germans in the Adrennas mountains against the American forces in that lasted thirty-one days (ending 25 January 1945). -
US flag raised on Mt. Suribachi
This symbolically signalled victory on the Island of Iwa Jima. -
Truman becomes President
President Roosevelt suffered a cerebral hemorrhage wile taking a two-week period of recouperation in Georgia and died within minuts. After this, Vice President Truman became president of the United States. -
Okinawa (Ryukyu Islands) fall.
Japan lost over 100,000 troops, and the Allies suffered more than 50,000 casualties and approximately one-quarter of the civilian population died due to the invasion. -
Hitler commits suicide
Hitler married Eva Bruan on the twenty-eigth of April, just before Midnight. The next day he was informed of the death of Mussolini and the downfall of Mussolini's regime, tested some poison on his favorite dog 'blondi' before handing some poison capsules to his two secretaries in case the Soviets stormed the bunker. The thirtieth he shook the hands of his staff members, retreated into his private suit and Eva and Hitler poisoned themselves and Hitler shot himself (after his new wife died). -
Victory in Europe Day- the official end of the war against Germany
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Hiroshima bombing.
The Japanese port city of Hiroshima was approved by President Truman as an ok location to drom an atomic bomb, for it's strategic military locations, war industries, and placement in a valley. It was thought that the bomb would kill far fewer civillians and have a more condensed radius and scope of damage then it did, and was used to try and end the war before the Soviets could Join. -
Nagasaki bombing.
A day after the Soviets joined the war against Japan, the U.S. dropped a second nuclear warhead upon a japanese city, this time one named Nagasaki. -
Formal surrender of Japan
On this day, General Macarthur of the Allies and United States and representatives of 11 different countries, including Japan, sighned the Japanese Instrument of Surrender wile on board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay. -
Okinawa is first invaded
Operation Iceberge (the American invasion of the Okinawa Islands) began.
