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WW2
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The Outbreak of WW2
World War II (WWII or WW2), also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, with more than 100 million people serving in military units. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their entire economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities -
Resignation of Neville Chamberlain
Chamberlain resigned the premiership on 10 May 1940, after the Allies were forced to retreat from Norway as he believed a government supported by all parties was essential, and the Labour and Liberal parties would not join a government headed by him. He was succeeded by Winston Churchill and remained very well regarded in Parliament, especially among Conservatives. Before ill health forced him to resign, he was an important member of Churchill's War Cabinet, heading it in the new premier's absen -
Winston Churchill's War Time Coalition/Ministry
The Churchill war ministry was a Conservative-led coalition government in the United Kingdom, which lasted for most of World War II. It was led by Winston Churchill, as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Formed in 1940, within a year of the war's outbreak, it was ended just after the war was won in 1945, resulting in a general election in which Labour, led by Clement Attlee, won by a landslide. -
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Winston Churchill's War Time Coaliton/Ministry
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Dunkirk Evacuation
The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of Allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and the early hours of 4 June 1940, because the British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War. -
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The Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain is the name given to the Second World War air campaign waged by the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) against the United Kingdom during the summer and autumn of 1940. The objective of the campaign was to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF), especially Fighter Command. The name derives from a famous speech delivered by Prime Minister, Winston Churchill -
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Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (German: Unternehmen Barbarossa), was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. Beginning on 22 June 1941, over 4 million soldiers of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mi) front, the largest invasion in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, Barbarossa used 600,000 motor vehicles and 750,000 horses. The ambitious operation was driven by Adolf Hitler's persistent desire to conquer the Soviet areas. -
USA join WW2
The US army join WW2, after the bombing of Pearl Harbour, a Japanese bombing mission. -
Battle of Singapore
The Battle of Singapore was fought in the South-East Asian theatre of the Second World War when the Empire of Japan invaded the Allied stronghold of Singapore. Singapore was the major British military base in South-East Asia and nicknamed the "Gibraltar of the East". -
Fall of Singapore
By the morning of 15 February, the Japanese had broken through the last line of defence and the Allies were running out of food and ammunition. The anti-aircraft guns had also run out of ammunition and were unable to repel any further Japanese air attacks which threatened to cause heavy casualties in the city centre. Looting and desertion by Allied troops further added to the chaos in the city centre. -
Operation Torch
Operation Torch (initially called Operation Gymnast) was the British–American invasion of French North Africa in World War II during the North African Campaign -
The Beveridge Report issued
The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom. It was chaired by William Beveridge, an economist, who identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to address these. Highly popular with the public. -
Axis Surrender in Tunisia
The Battle of Tunisia was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War The Allies consisted of British Imperial Forces, including Polish and Greek contingents, with American and French corps. The massive supply and numerical superiority of the Allies led to the Axis's complete defeat. Over 230,000 German and Italian troops were taken as prisoners of war, including most of the Afrika Korps. -
Start of the Allied Invasion of Sicily
The Allied invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, was a major World War II campaign, in which the Allies took Sicily from the Axis (Italy and Nazi Germany). It was a large scale amphibious and airborne operation, followed by six weeks of land combat. It launched the Italian Campaign. -
Overthrow of Benito Mussolini
King Victor Emmanuel III strips Mussolini of power and tells him “At this moment, you are the most hated man in Italy” -
D-Day Landings
The Normandy landings, codenamed Operation Neptune, were the landing operations of the Allied invasion of Normandy, in Operation Overlord, during World War II. The landings commenced on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 (D-Day), beginning at 6:30 am British Double Summer Time (GMT+2). In planning, as for most Allied operations, the term D-Day was used for the day of the actual landing, which was dependent on final approval. -
Butler's Education Act passed
The Education Act 1944 (7 and 8 Geo 6 c. 31) changed the education system for secondary schools in England and Wales. Called the "Butler Act" after the Conservative politician R.A. Butler, introduced the Tripartite System of secondary education and made all schooling--especially secondary education, free for all pupils. It raised the school leaving age to 15 (though the stated intention that it should be 16 was not effected until 1972), but kept age 11 as the decision point for sending children. -
Start of Attlee Ministry
The Labour Party came to power in the United Kingdom after their unexpected victory in the July 1945 general elections. Party leader Clement Attlee became Prime Minister and hastily replaced his predecessor Winston Churchill at the Potsdam Conference in late July -
End of WW2
The exact date of the war's end is also not universally agreed upon. It has been suggested that the war ended at the armistice of 14 August 1945 (V-J Day), rather than the formal surrender of Japan (2 September 1945); in some European histories, it ended on V-E Day (8 May 1945). However, the Treaty of Peace with Japan was not signed until 1951,[8] and that with Germany not until 1990 -
Nationalisation of the coal industry
Coal Industry Nationalisation Act of 1946 provided for the nationalization of the entire British coal industry. The National Coal Board (NCB) was the statutory corporation created to run the nationalised coal mining industry in the United Kingdom. Set up under the Coal Industry Nationalisation Act 1946, it took over the mines on "vesting day", 1 January 1947. -
Launch of the Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan (officially the European Recovery Program, ERP) was the American program to aid Europe, in which the United States gave economic support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to prevent the spread of Soviet Communism.The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948. Named after Secretary of State George Marshall, it was established on June 5, 1947, after meetings with participating European states -
British withdrawl from India
Increasing civil unrest and the mutiny of the Royal Indian Navy during 1946 led Attlee to promise independence no later than 1948. When the urgency of the situation and risk of civil war became apparent, the newly appointed (and last) Viceroy, Lord Mountbatten, hastily brought forward the date to 15 August 1947. The borders drawn by the British to broadly partition India into Hindu and Muslim areas left tens of millions as minorities in the newly independent states of India and Pakistan. -
Austerity policies
Drastic new economies announced by the British Government forced wartime austerity on the British people. They will enable Britain to save £280 million sterling a year in imports -
Treaty of Brussels (Stage 1 of creation of NATO)
The Treaty of Brussels, signed on 17 March 1948 by Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France, and the United Kingdom, is considered the precursor to the NATO agreement. The treaty and the Soviet Berlin Blockade led to the creation of the Western European Union's Defence Organization in September 1948. -
Establishment of the National Health Service (NHS)
The NHS is born on July 5 1948 out of a long-held ideal that good healthcare should be available to all, regardless of wealth. When health secretary Bevan opens Park Hospital in Manchester it is the climax of a hugely ambitious plan to bring good healthcare to all. For the first time all health services are brought together under one umbrella organisation that is free for all at the point of delivery. Financed entirely from taxation, which means that people pay into it according to their means. -
1949 anti-NATO riot in Iceland
Prompted by the decision of Alþingi, the Icelandic parliament, to join the newly formed NATO, thereby involving Iceland directly in the Cold War, opposing the Soviet Union and re-militarizing the country. At first the demonstrators were calm, but then got violent, as one of the main leaders announced that a main leader was being held hostage. Violence broke out, with rocks narrowly missing officials in government buildings, until the national police and volunteers calmed things down. -
Participation of USA and The North Atlantic Treaty (Stage 2 of the creation of NATO)
Participation of the United States was thought necessary both to counter the military power of the USSR and to prevent the revival of nationalist militarism, so talks for a new military alliance began almost immediately resulting in the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed in Washington, D.C. on 4 April 1949. It included the five Treaty of Brussels states plus the United States, Canada, Portugal, Italy, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. -
Devaluation of the pound
In 1940, an agreement with the U.S.A. pegged the pound to the U.S. dollar at a rate of £1 = $4.03. (Only the year before, it had been $4.86.) This rate was maintained through the Second World War and became part of the Bretton Woods system which governed post-war exchange rates. Under continuing economic pressure, and despite months of denials that it would do so, on 19 September 1949 the government devalued the pound by 30.5% to $2.80. -
Labour re-elected with reduced majority
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five seats over all other parties, a stark contrast to the previous election in 1945, where they had achieved a massive 146-seat majority, although Labour in fact received more votes than they had in 1945. -
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The Korean War
war between the Republic of Korea (South Korea), supported by the United Nations, and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea), at one time supported by the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union. It was primarily the result of the political division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II. The Korean Peninsula was split into two between USA (South) and Soviet Military Forces (North), in 1945. -
Festival of Britain
The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition held throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. It was organised by the government to give Britons a feeling of recovery in the aftermath of war and to promote the British contribution to science, technology, industrial design, architecture and the arts. The Festival's centrepiece was in London on the South Bank of the Thames. Festival celebrations took place in Cardiff, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath, Perth, Bournemouth, York, and elsewhere -
Labour defeated in General Election 1951
The 1951 United Kingdom general election was held eighteen months after the 1950 general election, which the Labour Party had won with a slim majority of just five seats. Labour called the election hoping to increase their majority. As Labour began to have some policy splits during the election campaign, the Conservatives ran an efficient campaign that was well funded and orchestrated, which eventually won them the General Election. -
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13 Years of Conservative governments