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Germany invades Poland
at 4:45am Germany invaded Poland and WW11 began. The first attack of war took place on September 1 1939, by the German Nazis bombarding the town of Weilun killing 1,200 people.
The Polish army made several severe strategic miscalculations early on. Although 1 million strong, the Polish forces were severely under-equipped and attempted to take the Germans head-on with horsed cavaliers in a forward concentration, rather than falling back to more natural defensive positions. -
Britain & France declare war on Germany
On September 1, 1939 German troops swarmed across the Polish border. Hitler had been his attack since March. The Poles suspected the attack and readied their defenses.Unfortunately the Poles based their defensive strategy on the experiences of World War I. -
Churchill becomes Prim Minister of Britain
Churchill, who was known for his military leadership ability, was appointed British prime minister in his place. He formed an all-party coalition and quickly won the popular support of Britons. On May 13, in his first speech before the House of Commons, Prime Minister Churchill declared that “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat” and offered an outline of his bold plans for British resistance -
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Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
The evacuation of Allied forces from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast ends as German forces capture the beach port. The nine-day evacuation, the largest of its kind in history and an unexpected success, saved 338,000 Allied troops from capture by the Nazis. -
Italy enters war on side of Axsis Powers
The three principal partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries recognized German domination over most of continental Europe; Italian domination over the Mediterranean Sea; and Japanese domination over East Asia and the Pacific. -
France signs armistice with Germany
With Paris destroyed and the German conquest of France reaching its conclusion, Marshal Henri Petain takes Paul Reynaud place as prime minister and announces his intention to sign an armistice with the Nazis. The next day, French General Charles de Gaulle,made a broadcast to France from England, urging his countrymen to continue the fight against Germany. -
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Battle of Britan
German and British air forces clashed in the skies over the United Kingdom, locked in the largest sustained bombing campaign to that date. the battle finally ended when Germanys airforces retreated and failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population -
Tripartite Pact signed
The Tripartite Agreement was an international monetary agreement entered into by the United States, France, and Great Britain. this was an agreement to stabilize their nations' currencies both at home and in the international exchange markets. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sealion was the name given by Hitler for the planned invasion of Great Britain in 1940. Operation Sealion was never carried out during the war as the Germans lost the Battle of Britain.The whole plan relied on Germany having complete control of the English Channel, which, in turn meant that Germany had to have control of the skies so that the Royal Air Force could not attack German ships crossing the Channel. Hence victory in the Battle of Britain was an integral part of the plan. -
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Seige of Tobruk
Australians fought in land and air campaigns in Egypt and Libya in North Africa.Royal Australian Navy (RAN) ships served in the eastern Mediterranean and in particular provided support to ground forces during the 'Siege of Tobruk'The Germans conquered all before them but Tobruk held out against Rommel and stood in the way of his advance towards Egypt and the Suez Canal. The defiance of the defenders of Tobruk raised morale in the countries of the British Empire and Commonwealth. -
Opertation Barbarossa
Planning for Barbarossa had begun over a year previously, in the wake of Germany’s stunning success against the western allies in France. -
Bombing of Peal Harbour
Hundreds of Japanese fighter planes attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor near Honolulu, Hawaii. The barrage lasted just two hours, but it was devastating: The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
On this day, as America’s Pacific fleet lay in ruins at Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt requests, and receives, a declaration of war against Japan. -
Japan take Singapore
on the eve of the Pearl Harbor attack, 24,000 Japanese troops were transported from Indochina to the Malay Peninsula, and Japanese fighter pilots attacked Singapore, killing 61 civilians from the air. The battle between Japanese and British forces on the Malay Peninsula continued throughout December and January, killing hundreds more civilians in the process. The British were forced to abandon and evacuate many of their positions, including Port Swettenham and Kuala Lumpur. -
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Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one of the most brutal battles of World War II. This fleet engagement between U.S. and Japanese navies in the north-central Pacific Ocean resulted from Japan’s desire to sink the American aircraft carriers that had escaped destruction at Pearl Harbor. -
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First Battle of El Amein
The Battle of El Alamein marked the culmination of the North African campaign between the forces of the British Empire and the German-Italian army. the german- italy army commander, Rommel, commanded thirteen divisions and five hundred tanks, totaling about 100,000 men. Montgomery disposed of approximately double the number of tanks and men–an army of British, Australians, New Zealanders, Indians, and South Africans, together with some French and Greek units. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, and most historians consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the turning of the tide of war in favor of the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein, was a major battle of the Second World War that took place near the Egyptian railway halt of El Alamein. With the Allies victorious, it marked a major turning point in the Western Desert Campaign of the Second World War. It followed the First Battle of El Alamein, which had stalled the Axis advance into Egypt. -
D-Day Landings
During World War II, the Battle of Normandy, resulted in the Allied liberation of Western Europe from Nazi Germany’s control. Codenamed Operation Overlord, the battle began on June 6, 1944, also known as D-Day, when some 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces landed on five beaches along a 50-mile stretch of the heavily fortified coast of France’s Normandy region. The invasion was one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history and required extensive planning. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign launched through the densely forested Ardennes region of Wallonia in Belgium, France, and Luxembourg on the Western Front toward the end of World War II in Europe. United States forces bore the brunt of the attack and incurred their highest casualties for any operation during the war. Germany gained many losses -
Mussolini captured and exectuted
Mussolini was captured and executed along with his wife as they tried to flee Italy. Nazis waited for Mussolini and his girlfriend to enter their car, but as they did Nazis were ordered to stand in front of a stone wall at the entrance to Villa Belmonte where both were executed by machine gun fire. Mussolini and his girlfriends bodies were placed in a truck and dumped like garbage in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto, a deeply symbolic public square for the anti-fascist forces. -
Hittler commited
Nazi leader Adolf Hitler shot himself in the head with his pistol, likely after swallowing cyanide, ending his own life just before 3:30 pm on this very day. In the same room with Hitler was his new wife, Eva Braun, who ended her life by swallowing a cyanide capsule. After their deaths, SS men carried their bodies up to the courtyard, covered them with gasoline, and lit them on fire, to burn. -
German forces Surrender
On this day, German High Command, in the person of General Alfred Jodl, signs the unconditional surrender of all German forces, East and West, at Reims, in northwestern France. General demanded complete surrender of all German forces, those fighting in the East as well as in the West. If this demand was not met, Eisenhower was prepared to seal off the Western front, preventing Germans from fleeing to the West in order to surrender. -
V.E Day
V.E day is Victory day in Europe. to mark the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. This marked the end of World War II in Europe. The term VE Day existed as early as September 1944, in anticipation of victory. -
Atomic Bob dropped on Hiroshima
at 8:16 a.m. Japanese time, an American B-29 bomber, the Enola Gay, drops the world’s first atom bomb, over the city of Hiroshima. Approximately 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, and another 60,000 would be dead by the end of the year from the effects of the fallout. the decision to use the atom bomb to end the war, was in order to prevent what US President predicted would be a much greater loss of life were the United States to invade the Japanese mainland. -
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
The Soviet Union officially declares war on Japan, pouring more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. The dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima by the Americans did not have the effect intended: unconditional surrender by Japan. Half of the Japanese called the Supreme War Direction Council, refused to surrender unless guarantees about Japan’s future were given by the Allies. -
Atomic bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
on this day, a second atom bomb is dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting finally in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The United States had already planned to drop their second atom bomb, on August 11 in the event of such recalcitrance, but bad weather expected for that day pushed the date up to August 9th. The bomb was dropped 1,650 feet above the city. The explosion unleashed the force of 22,000 tons of TNT. The number killed is estimated between 60,000 and 80,000 -
Japanese Surrender- End of WW11
the defeat of Japan was a foregone conclusion. The Japanese navy and air force were destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. The invasion of Japan promised to be the bloodiest seaborne attack of all time. -
United Nations is Born
The United Nations was born of perceived necessity, as a means of better arbitrating international conflict and negotiating peace than was provided for by the old League of Nations. The growing Second World War became the real impetus for the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union to begin formulating the original U.N. Declaration, signed by 26 nations in January 1942, as a formal act of opposition to Germany, Italy, and Japan, the Axis Powers.