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Germany Invades Poland
The Invasion of Poland in 1939 was a military offensive in which Nazi Germany invaded Poland. It is often considered the most immediate cause of WWII. The invasion took place from 1st September to 6th October; the Polish army was defeated within weeks of the attack. Germany and the Soviet Union (who also invaded Poland) divided the country, following a treaty signed years before the war. Hitler's aim was to gain 'Lebenspraum', meaning 'living space' and to expand the German Empire. -
Britain & France Declare War on Germany
On 3rd September, 1939 - in response to the Nazis' invasion of Poland - Allies Britain and France declared war on Germany. The first casualty of that declaration was not Germany but a British ocean liner - Athenia - which was sunk by a German submarine that assumed the liner was armed. There were more than 1100 passengers on board, 112 of whom lost their lives. Of those, 28 were Americans but despite the tragedy the United States remained neutral at this point. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
On 10th May, 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister of Britain and was replaced by Winston Churchill. The war was not going well for Britain and some people thought that they could not win so the government should make peace with Hitler. Churchill was sure that Britain could win the war so he promised to continue the fight. He was one of the ‘Big Three’, along with his friend Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the United States and Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union. -
Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
The Evacuation of Dunkirk - also known as Operation Dynamo - was a British mission to rescue Allied soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk, France. It lasted from 26th May to 4th June, 1940. Winston Churchill ordered any ship or boat available to pick up the soldiers. They were originally only to pick up 45,000 as they thought the Germans would try to stop them but more than 900 ships were able to evacuate 200,000 British and 140,000 French soldiers. -
Italy Enters War on side of Axis Powers
In Italy, many were unhappy with the results of WWI. The fascist movement brought Benito Mussolini to leadership, where he promised to make Italy a great power by creating its colonial empire. The 'Axis Powers' is the name for some countries that fought together against the 'Allies' during World War II. The most important Axis countries included Nazi Germany under Hitler, Empire of Japan under Hirohito and Hideki Tojo and Fascist Italy under Mussolini, who entered the war on 10th June, 1940. -
France Signs Armistice with Germany
On 22nd June, 1940, Hitler dictated that the French capitulation take place at Compiegne, a forest north of Paris. This is was the same place where 22 years earlier the Germans had signed the Armistice ending WWI. Hitler intended to avenge the Germans by disgracing the French. To deepen the humiliation of the French, he ordered that the signing ceremony take place in the same railroad car that hosted the earlier surrender. -
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain was an attack by the Germany’s ‘Luftwaffe’, meaning ‘Air Force’ on Great Britain from 10th July to 31st October, 1940. The first objective of the campaign was to gain control of the air space above Britain from the Royal Air Force (RAF). From July 1940, shipping convoys and centres like Portsmouth were the main targets. A month later, the Luftwaffe shifted its attacks to RAF airfields and infrastructure. Eventually, the Luftwaffe switched to attacking population centres. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sea Lion was a plan for the Nazis to invade the United Kingdom during the 1940s. However, Germany first had to control the sky and sea of the English Channel before a land invasion. With the German Air Force defeated in the Battle of Britain, the operation was put off on 17th September, 1940 and never happened. The invasion force would have used a varied amount of weapons; developing underwater tanks and a massive underwater army as well as the first jet-powered aeroplane. -
Tripartite Pact Signed
The Tripartite Pact was a pact signed in Berlin, Germany on 27th September, 1940 and set up the Axis Powers of WWII. It was originally signed by three countries: Germany, Italy, and Japan. Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Croatia had joined the pact by 1941. This included some countries that were under Japanese control. These countries agreed that they would help one another for ten years in political, economic and military ways or if one country went to war. -
Siege of Tobruk
The Siege of Tobruk was a battle in Libya during WWII that lasted from 10th April to 26th November, 1941 (241 days). British forces were forced to withdraw from Libya but tried to hold Tobruk because it was a deeply protected harbour and the only possible way to bring in supplies. 2/3 of the troops sent to protect Tobruk were Australian. On 13th April, Erwin Rommel’s plan to launch a full scale attack was carried out but several attempts failed, causing Germany's first major setback. -
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for the Axis Powers’ invasion of the Soviet Union during WWII. It began on 22nd June 1941; with over 4.5 million men fighting along the 2,900 km front, it was the largest military invasion in history. The Germans held important economic areas of the Soviet Union but they were pushed back from Moscow and could not start an attack that large on the Eastern Front again. The failure led to Hitler's demands for more operations, but all of them failed. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
The Bombing of Pearl Harbor was a surprise attack by Japan against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 7th December 7, 1941. It is what led the United States into WWII. Japan attacked so the US Pacific Fleet would not enter the war that Japan was planning in Southeast Asia. The attack was made up of two aerial attack waves with a total of 353 aircrafts launched from six Japanese aircraft carriers. 2,390 people died in the bombing and Japan declared war on the US that day. -
Britain and US Declare War on Japan
On 8th December, 1941, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, US President Franklin Roosevelt requested that the Congress to declare war on Japan in an important and memorable speech and as a result, received a declaration of war against Japan. Although Roosevelt had received reports indicating an attack by Japan, he hoped that they would come to a peaceful solution. Because of the attack, millions of Americans were determined to defend the nation and thus enter WWII on the side of the Allies. -
Japan takes Singapore
In 1941 - due to the country's weak defences - Japan attacked Singapore and took control of the colony on 15th February, 1942. The country was renamed to ‘Syonan-to’, meaning ‘Light of the South’ during this time. Britain decided to surrender to Japan on this day at the Ford Motor Factory. People of Singapore went through difficult times during the Japanese occupation, until the surrender of the Japanese in September 1945. Singapore was returned to Britain but they later became independent. -
Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was an important naval battle of WWII between the United States and Japan. It took place from 4th June to 7th June, 1942. The US Navy defeated the Japanese northwest of Hawaii in Midway Atoll. The battle was an obvious victory for the Americans as it weakened the Imperial Japanese Navy for the rest of the war; Japan could not build up its forces again. The US replaced their lost ships and planes with better ones quickly while Japan could only make a few poor replacements. -
First Battle of El Alamein
After defeat in Libya, General Rommel's Afrika Korps managed to push the British soldiers into Egypt, forcing them to flee and leave many of their weapons in Libya. The First Battle of El Alamein began in Egypt on the 1st July, 1942, with the Allied soldiers defeating the Axis soldiers and forcing them back into the defensive. It ended on the 22nd July, 1942. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was an important battle that marked the end of Germany’s advances and was fought during WWII between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union. The battle was fought between 17th July, 1942 and 2nd February, 1943 over the control of Stalingrad. On 19th November, 1942, the Red Army launched an attack which led the Germans to surrender. A reported 1.6 million people died or were wounded in battle. It was a victory for the Soviets despite more Soviet than German deaths. -
Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein was a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of WWII. The battle lasted from 23rd October to 5th November, 1942. After the first battle, Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery took command of the British Eighth Army in August 1942. The Allies won and their victory turned the tide in the North African Campaign because it ended the Axis Powers' hopes of occupying Egypt, taking control of the Suez Canal and reaching to the Middle Eastern oil fields. -
D-Day Landings
Many different events are referred to as ‘D-Day’ but the most famous was the D-Day Landings on 6th June, 1944. On 7th April and 15th May, Bernard Montgomery presented his 90 day battle plan for the invasion, which was to end when the forces reached Seine. It was the largest invasion by sea in history with almost 3 million troops crossing over from England and landing on the beach. The Allies invaded German-occupied France and won the battle, which was important in the long term of ending WWII. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge - which lasted from 16th December, 1944 to 25th January, 1945 - was the deadliest battle fought by the US in WWII. Of the 610,000 US troops who fought in Belgium, France and Luxembourg; 19,000 were killed. Germany’s goal was to force the Allies to negotiate a peace treaty so they moved in the dark and surprised the Allies. While they initially overpowered the Allies, when the weather improved, the Allies were able to retaliate by air, which led to Germany’s failure. -
Mussolini Captured and Executed
In 1943, the Allies landed in Southern Italy. The Fascist party and King Vittorio Emanuel III deposed Mussolini and put him in jail but he was set free by the Germans, who made him ruler of the Italian Social Republic puppet state. When the war was almost over, Mussolini tried to escape to Switzerland with Clara Petacci but they were both captured and shot by partisans on 28th April, 1945. Mussolini - along with Petacci and some of his helpers - was hung upside down and displayed publicly. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Adolf Hitler committed suicide on 30th April, 1945. The day prior, he married Eva Braun, who he met in Munich when she was only 17 years old. Hitler and Braun both committed suicide in Berlin less than 24 hours after their marriage. Eva Hitler and Braun used cyanide - a poison - to kill themselves but Hitler then shot himself in the head with his gun. Hitler ordered earlier that their bodies be burned to prevent him from being captured by soldiers of the Red Army, who were closing in on him. -
German Forces Surrender
On 7th May, 1945, the German High Command - in the person of General Alfred Jodl - signed the unconditional surrender of all German forces - East and West - at Reims in northwestern France. At first, General Jodl hoped to limit the terms of German surrender to only those forces still fighting the Western Allies. However, General Dwight Eisenhower demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. Germany was - at least on paper - defeated. -
Victory in Europe Day
On 8th May, 1945, both Great Britain and the United States celebrated what is known as 'Victory in Europe Day'. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, celebrating the defeat of the Nazi war machine. It was when German troops across Europe finally laid down their arms.The main concern of many German soldiers was to avoid Soviet forces, who took around 2 million prisoners in the period just before and after the German surrender. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
Hiroshima was the site of the first ever atomic bombing near the end of WWII. The bomb exploded over Hiroshima at 8:16 on 6th August, 1945. Over 100,000 people were killed, either instantly or afterwards, due to radiation sickness. It is now estimated that 140,000 people were killed by the explosion. Between 1950 and 1990, approximately 21,343 people died of cancer from the radiation caused by the atomic bomb. A building near the blast centre still remains and is called the Atomic Bomb Dome. -
Soviet Union Declares War on Japan
On the 8th August, 1945, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan. This was two days after the dropping of the first Atomic Bomb over Hiroshima. The Japanese did not surrender after this so the Soviet Union declared war on them and surprised them by invading the Japanese held town of Manchuria in China. The Soviet Union's army was strong and the Japanese were surprised and underestimated their capabilities. This began to prompt discussions over surrender by the Japanese government. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki was a nuclear attack on the Empire of Japan during WWII. The United States and the Allies were fighting against Japan and slowly winning. US President Harry S. Truman ordered two nuclear bombs to be dropped, one on the city of Hiroshima and one on the city of Nagasaki. By the end of 1945, the Nagasaki atomic bomb had killed 80,000 people. 6 days after the bombing of Nagasaki - on 15th August - Japan announced that it was surrendering to the Allied Powers. -
Japanese Surrender - End of WWII
2nd September, 1945, was the formal surrender of the Japanese government to the Allies. Victory over Japan was celebrated back in the US. In Tokyo Bay, aboard the Navy battleship USS Missouri, the Japanese foreign minister, Mamoru Shigemitsu, and the chief of staff of the Japanese army, Yoshijiro Umezu, signed the “instrument of surrender.” Representing the Allied victors was Gen. Douglas MacArthur, and Adm. Chester Nimitz, commanders of the US Army in the Pacific, and the Pacific Fleet. -
United Nations is Born
The United Nations was established on 24th October, 1945 to replace the League of Nations. The organisation was founded after WWII to prevent another international conflict from occurring. Most nations are members of the UN and send people to help make decisions about global issues; the first meeting was held in January 1946. The main goals of the UN are to keep world peace, help countries get along, improve living conditions for people all over the world and make the world a better place.
