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Germany invades Poland
On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Hitler had planned for the invasion to begin on the 26th of August, but it got delayed. Hitler found out on the 25th, Britain had signed a new treaty with Poland, promising military support should be attacked. August 31st, Hitler ordered hostilities against Poland. September 1st, the invasion began for good. The Polish Army was defeated. -
Britain & France declare war on Germany
In response to Hitlers invasion of Poland, on the 3rd of September 1939, Britain and France declared war on Germany. Both Britain and France had both sworn to defend Poland so the two countries demanded Hitler to withdraw from Poland, but Hitler declined. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
On May 10th, 1940, Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of Britain. Churchill was known for his military leadership ability. In his speech on May 13th, he declared that "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat" and offered an outline of his bold pans for British resistance. -
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Evacuatoin of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
May 1940, Germany invade Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and France. The French and British armies fell back in the hands of Germany and thousands of Allied troops retreated to the French Channel ports, particularly Dunkirk. The Birish government launched Operation Dynamo to evacuate as many British troops as possible. The operation only lasted 9 days. -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
During WWII, Italy sided with the axis powers of Germany. The Italians wanted to expand their Mediterranean empire by driving out the British. -
France signs armistice with Germany
The Armistice was signed by the French on the 22nd of June but only went into effect on the 25th. More than half of France was occupied by the Germans. -
Tripartite Pact signed
The Tripartite Pact was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan on the 27th of September. The pact allowed any of the signing countries to be defendered in an attack by any nation not already involved in the war. -
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Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain occured on the 10th of October and ended when Germany's airforces failed to gain air adventage over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain's air bases. Germans wasted most of there time in waiting for Britain to surrender and attack. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sealion was a tactic to invade Great Britain in the late 1940's but it was never successful. The planning began after the Fall of France, when Germany felt they had already won the war. Britain. however, refused to start peace talks, so more direct measures of reducing Britain resistance were thought of. -
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Siege of Tobruk
Between April and August 1941, around 14,000 Australian soldiers were besieged in Tobruk by a German-Italian army commanded by General Erwin Rommel. The Germans started striking with unexpected speed and mechanised strenghten. -
Operation Barbarossa
Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa, in June 1941, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union. Hitler wanted to invade the Soviet Union, along with the destruction of the Jews. So confident the Nazi hierarchy, that they provided their troops with summer uniforms but made no provision for the fierce Russian winter that lay further ahead. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
7th of December, 1941, Japanese planes attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. These bombings killed more than 2300 Americans, including soldiers and destroyed many ships. This attack was the cause that forced the US to enter World War II. -
Japan take Singapore
By February 14, the Japanese had captured Singapore's reservoirs and pumping stations. The bombing and fighitng continued until the next day on the 15th of Februrary. Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, the British commander in Singapore, called for a ceasefire and made the difficult decision to surrender. He signed the surrender document that evening at the Ford Factory on Bukit Timah Road. -
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Battle of Midway
The Battle of Midway was considered one of the most decisive battles of World War Two. The Battle of Midway effectively destroyed Japan's naval strength when the Americans destroyed four of its aircraft carriers.Japan’s navy never recovered from its mauling at Midway and it was on the defensive after this battle. -
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First Battle of El Alamein
The first of July was the beginning of the first Battle of El Alamein. The German-Italian troops led by Erwin Rommel attacked and fought in the deserts of North Africa. It started off as a small fight between Britain and Italy. Britain used tactic that crushed the Italian forces.The Battle of El Alamein was a turning point in World War Two. -
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Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a turning point of the eastern front and after this battle the Russians went on the offense instead of defense. On July 1942, the Nazi Army bombed the Soviet city of Stalingrad. The Soviet Union ended up winning the battle. -
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Second Battle of El Alamein
On the 23rd of October, the Second Battle of El Alamein occurred. British, Australian, South African, Indian and French troops teamed against the German and Italian troops in an attack of pushing the Axis back to the west and ending their hopes of taking Egypt giving them across to the middle east. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
Due to the 'Bombing of Pearl Harbor' Britain and US declared war on Japan. The United Kingdom declared war on Japan nin hours before the US did, due to Winston Churchill's promise to declare war "within the hour" of a Japanese attack on the United States. -
D-Day Landings
On June 6, 1944 the Allied Forces of Britain, America, Canada, and France attacked German forces on the coast of Normandy, France. With a huge force of over 150,000 soldiers, the Allies attacked and gained a victory that became the turning point for World War II in Europe. -
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Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major battle in Europe during World War II. It was Germany's last attempt to push the Allies off the mainland of Europe. Most troops involved on the Allies side were American troops. France and Germany thought that WWII in Europe was coming to an end but Adolf Hitler had ideas to launch an attack to cause The Battle of the Bulge. -
Mussolini captured and executed
Benito Mussolini was a dictator of Italy until 1943. Mussolini was shot by Italian partisans who captured Benito and his mistress, Clara, as they attempted to move to Switzerland. -
Hitler commits suicide
In late April, 1945, Hitler commited suicide by swallowing a capsule of cyanide and shooting himself in the head. Both Hitler and his wife were given clear instrcutions that both should be burned. -
German forces surrender
May 7th, 1945, Nazi Germany surrendered, ending Nazi Germany's involvement in World War II. Alfred Jodl signed surrender documents on the 6th allowing the plan to occur on the 7th. -
V.E. Day
V.E. Day has been declared a national holiday to mark Victory in Europe Day. Victory in Europe day is marked on the 8th of May to celebrate the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
August 6, 1945, The United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This bombing was said to be the most powerful bomb used to date. This bomb marked a victory over the Germans in the race to be first to produce a weapon using atomic energy. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the UK, made a statement that said, "considerable efforts had been made to disrupt German progress- including attacks on plants making constituent parts of the bomb." -
Soviet Union declared war on Japan
August 8, 1945, Soviet Prime Minister informed Japanese ambassador Sato that they had declared war on the Empire of Japan. Only 2 days after the atomic bomb was dropped, the Soviet Union started war against Japan. -
Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered.
Six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Emperor Hirohito and Japan surrendered to US forces. The Emperor announced this on the radio. At least 70,000 people died from the Nagasaki bombings. -
Japanese surrender- End of WWII
2 September 1945, more that two weeks after acceping the Allies terms, Japan formally surrendered. A full-scale invasion of Japan itself would mean hundreds of thousands of dead GIs, and, still, the Japanese leadership refused to surrender. But America unveiled a terrifying new weapon, dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. -
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.
