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Germany invades Poland
Germany’s invasion of Poland began on September 1 in an attempt to secure more “living space” for Germany, and marked the beginning of a military campaign that initiated World War II in Europe. Originally a joint movement between predominantly Germany and the Soviet Union (who invaded September 17) , the two powers had completely overtaken Poland by October 6. Two days after the decisive victory, Germany and the Soviet Union divided and directly annexed Eastern and Western Poland, respectively. -
Britain and France declare war on Germany
Honouring their alliance with Poland, Britain and France sent demands to Hitler that he withdraw all German infantry and troops from Poland. On the third of September, 1939, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain took the radio airwaves to inform the British people that “no such undertaking has been received, and that consequently this country is at war with Germany.” -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
In 1938, after signing the Munich Agreement with Hitler, Neville Chamberlain promised the British nation that he had secured “peace for our time”. However, less than two years later he had lost the confidence of the House of Commons and the country after the Nazi rise and advance through Europe. Churchill, a respected military leader, was appointed to the office amid the turmoil. He gained popular support after outlining his plans for British resistance and displaying superb oratory prowess. -
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Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
Operation Dynamo became one of the most astonishing operations in wartime history, as from May 26 to June 4 over 330,000 Allied soldiers were rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk, France. After the troops had been cut off and surrounded by the German military forces in the Battle of France, German mistakes and a brave decision by the Allied Vice-Admiral allowed the core of the army to escape. -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
After the French government fled from the capital city of Paris during the Nazi invasion, Mussolini believed the war “would soon be over” and felt he needed to enter the war so he “could sit at the peace conference as a man who has fought.” As a result of this, he declared war on Britain and France on June 10, 1940, with the immediate goal of expanding Italian territory. -
France signs armistice with Germany
The armistice was signed at approximately 6:36 pm on June 22, 1940 at the symbolic Forest of Compiegne. Hitler deliberately chose the site of the 1918 German armistice which signalled the end of WWI as a way of patronising the French government. After a decisive and outright German victory in the Battle of France, the armistice represented total German military control in France. -
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Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain signifies the defence of the United Kingdom by predominantly the Royal Air Force against an onslaught by the German Air Force. This period is known as the Blitz and entailed a period of large-scale night attacks and ended in a decisive British victory. -
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Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sea Lion was a planned, last-resort method of attack, directed at the invasion of the United Kingdom. For the plan to work, however, the German army needed naval and air control of the English Channel which they never achieved throughout the war’s duration. The plan was eventually abandoned after the German commanders came to the conclusion that the plan had little chance of success. -
Tripartite Pact signed
The Tripartite Pact was signed on September 27, 1940 and was aimed at the neutral United States to make them think twice before entering the war on the side of the Allies. Signed by Japan, Germany and Italy, the pact agreed on a defensive military alliance and stated that if any country falls under attack by a neutral country, the others would respond and offer assistance. -
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Siege of Tobruk
The siege of Tobruk was a military campaign carried out by the Axis forces and the British Western Desert Force in Libya. Lasting for 247 days, the Axis forces started to siege of Tobruk on April 10 and were eventually defeated, along with Italy, by the Allied forces defending the area. -
Operation Barbarosaa
Operation Barbarossa was the codename given to the military campaign Germany employed to invade the Soviet Union. After a delayed start, the Germans entered the Soviet Union and won a series of resounding victories. However, the Soviet Union forces grinded the Germans down until they were short on both personnel and supplies. They eventually withdrew, and the Soviet Union won a decisive victory, although at huge national cost. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbour
On the morning of December 7, 1941, Japanese air forces bombed the naval base on Pearl Harbour, Hawaii in an effort to keep the United States out of the war. However, due to the devastating loss of resources and life, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Congress declared war on Japan and in turn Germany and Italy. After two years of abstinence and neutrality, the United States had finally entered the war on the side of the Allies. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
After the pre-meditated bombing of America’s Pacific Fleet the day before, President Roosevelt delivered a ten-minute speech to Congress requesting for mission to declare war on Japan. With only one dissenting vote (from a pacifist), Roosevelt got his request and later that day declared war on Japan and consequently, the Axis powers. Britain declared war on Japan the same day, following attacks on the British colonies of Hong Kong and Singapore. -
Japan take Singapore
After months of fighting, the Japanese eventually out-manned and out-gunned the British troops and successfully invaded Singapore on February 15, 1942. After destroying the Asian island’s primary method of defence – 15 inch coastal guns – two days previously, 5000 Japanese soldiers landed on the shores of Singapore and eventually beat the British forces. As a result, Britain lost its strategic outpost in the East. -
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Battle of Midway
Over the course of three days in early June, Japanese naval forces planned another attack on America, intending to wipe out its naval fleet and establish Japan as the major military power in the Pacific. However, thanks to major advances in codebreaking, the US forces were able to determine the time of the attack, and eventually win a decisive victory that the Japanese forces would never recover from. -
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First Battle of El Alamein
The First Battle of El Alamein was a desert campaign fought between the Axis-controlled Afrika Korps and the British colonial forces. The rapid advance of the Axis powers pushed the Allied forces back into Egypt from Libya, and into their base camp. With the camp only 60 miles away, the Axis powers leapt to the offensive, with Mussolini and Hitler sending in troops to wipe out the Allies. However, the latter fought bravely and succeeded in repelling the Korps and stalling their advance. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a military clash between the Soviet Union and Germany, fought over approximately 7 months on the Eastern Front. It was one of the bloodiest battles in history, with a combined total of nearly 2 million casualties. The Soviets managed to finally encircle the Germans and consequently decimated their army. It marked a major turning point in the war, with the Allies hereby taking the offensive in the field. -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
The Second Battle of El Alamein resulted in a decisive victory for the British forces in the North Africa campaign. After Churchill replaced the old commander with General Bernard Montgomery, several effective operations were carried out to annihilate the Axis army, which had stalled after the first battle. The result carried major implications for the outcome of the war, with the Allies taking their first steps towards victory. -
D-Day Landings
The D-Day landings (or Normandy landings) was the crossing of the English Channel by Allied forces in an attempt to invade and defeat German-occupied France. On the 6th of June, the landings began and over 5000 ships, 50,000 vehicles, 150,000 soldiers and extensive air support crossed the English Channel and reached the beaches of Normandy. The beginning of the end of the war in Europe, over the coming months the Allies would overpower the Germans and retake France. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge incorporated a desperate German counterattack, with the objective of splitting the Allied forces in Europe. Making a thrust from Ardennes (south-eastern Belgium) to Antwerp (northern Belgium), the German forces tried to force a way through four unexperienced and injured American divisions. However, they were able to stall the Germans long enough for reinforcements to arrive and altogether neutralise the German attack. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Benito Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee across the border to neutral Switzerland in order to escape falling into Allied capture and persecution. However, the soldiers Mussolini passed on his escape were partisans (opposed to his rule) and he and his mistress were discovered and consequently shot. Thereafter, his body was taken to Milan and defiled by the public. -
Hitler commits suicide
Since about two years previously, it had become increasingly apparent that the Axis powers would eventually fold and collapse under the continual Allied onslaught. In his last days, Hitler and mistress (latterly wife) Eva Braun retired to their self-sufficient underground bunker. On April 30, with Soviet forces closing in, they both poisoned themselves and Hitler shot himself in the head. They were cremated and Hitler’s ashes constantly moved to prevent future memorials. -
German forces surrender
The unconditional surrender or all German forces, East and West, came a week after Hitler committed suicide. At Reims in north-western France, General Dwight Eisenhower commanded the German representatives to sign a document of surrender or be left to the enclosing Soviet forces to deal with. The German commanders agreed, but ironically the majority were hanged for war crimes less than a year later. -
V.E. Day
Victory in Europe Day was celebrated throughout the continent as it represented the day when Nazi Germany forces finally laid down their arms and unconditionally surrendered. Mass celebrations were sparked all over Europe, and tens of thousands of prisoners of war were released back into their native countries. However, Japanese forces were still fighting in the Pacific theatre of war so celebrations were not carried out worldwide. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Even after the war in Europe against Germany had subsided, the Pacific theatre of war continued to rage. President Harry Truman ordered the dropping of the nuclear bomb on Hiroshima in order to bring the war to a speedy and sudden conclusion without any more American casualties. The fighter plane Enola Gay dropped the bomb on August 6. It killed 80 000 people on impact, and thousands more died over the coming weeks from burns and radiation poisoning. -
Soviet Union declares war on Japan
The dropping of the atomic bomb did not cause the Japanese to surrender, so the Soviet Union declared war on Japan and sent 1 million soldiers in to invade the Japanese-occupied province of Manchuria in northern China. The Japanese did not expect this sudden onslaught and some in positions of power began to reconsider the true sensibility of the decision non-surrender. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Even after the annihilation of the Japanese people after the bomb in Hiroshima, the Japanese war council still did not accept the terms of surrender from the Potsdam Declaration. At approximately 11am on the morning of August 9, a plane named “Bock’s Car” dropped the bomb on Nagasaki, killing at least 50 000 people instantly and thousands more over the coming days and even years due to assorted injuries and radiation poisoning. -
Japan surrenders - End of WWII
After the US dropped the two nuclear bombs on Japan, the promise of a third loomed large, and as a result of this the Emperor of Japan announced his country’s surrender on August 15 after continued debate within the government. The ceremony was held off until September 2 so the Allied powers had time to arrive. 250 Allied ships encircled Tokyo Bay, and the official document of surrender was signed by the Japanese foreign minister and all other involved parties. This signalled the end of the war. -
United Nations is born
The United Nations was created as a means of ensuring peace and better handling international disputes after the failure of the old League of Nations. Representatives of 50 countries were present 6 months previously for the formation of the U.N. Charter, and now that the war was over the organisation came into full effect. The U.N. also contained a security council, made up of the US, Great Britain, France, China and the Soviet Union to better help “negotiate and maintain the peace.”