The US remains neutral but president Roosevelt declares 'limited national emergency'.
Russia invades Poland
Warsaw surrenders
The last remaining polish forces surrender
Russia invades Finland
The first German Enigma messages are decoded by British intelligence
Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
Russia-Finland war ends. It convinces Hitler that the Russian military is ineffective.
British forces land in Narvik, Norway, but leave in 10 days
Germany invades France, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg. Winston Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister.
German forces reach the English channel.
Evacuation of British and French forces to Britain at Dunkirk begins.
The evacuation at Dunkirk ends. 338,000 troops were rescued. Churchill declares that Britain will never surrender.
Norway surrenders
Italy declares war on the collapsing France and on Britain.
German troops march into Paris
Russia invades Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
France surrenders
Russia annexes the eastern regions of Romania.
Germany invades the British Channel Islands.
The 'Battle of Britain' air campaign begins.
Churchill declares this is Britain's finest hour.
The Luftwaffe begins to bomb British early warning radars
The Luftwaffe loses 76 aircraft in one day
British night bombers bomb Berlin
Hitler changes the Luftwaffe's objective from destroying the Royal Air Force to bombing London. This allows the R.A.F to recover and win the battle of Britain.
Italy invades British-held Egypt from Libya, the north African campaign begins.
The largest Luftwaffe daytime bombardment, it loses 56 aircraft
Japan joins the 'axis'
German troops enter their Ally Romania, Germany's only source of oil which is threatened by Russia
Hitler cancels the invasion of Britain.
Spain rejects Hitler's offer to join the war and remains neutral.
Italy invades Greece from Albania, but stopped, twice.
British carrier aircraft sink Italian fleet in Taranto's harbour. Yamamoto in Japan is impressed by their success.
Hungary and Romania, both military dictatorships, join the axis.
British forces in Egypt counter attack the Italians and advance along the Libyan coast
Hitler sends Rommel and the 'Afrika Korps' to help the Italians in north Africa
Bulgaria joins the axis. The axis-Russian border now stretch from the Baltic sea to the black sea.
Rommel attacks the British forces in north Africa.
British troops arrive at Greece to support it.
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece
After military clashes, Japan and Russia sign non-aggression pact.
Yugoslavia surrenders. British forces evacuate Greek mainland to Crete
German troops occupy Athens
U-boat U-110 is captured with Enigma settings tables
German paratroopers and airborne troops invade Crete by air
British forces in Crete surrender.
British forces aided by Israeli volunteers invade French controlled Syria and Lebanon
Germany invades Russia. Hitler orders "maximum cruelty" against civilians, which results in fanatic Russian resistance.
Stalin orders the 'scorched earth' strategy.
German army group 'centre' takes Smolensk, just 220 miles from Moscow.
The Luftwaffe bombs Moscow
Japan invades French Indo-China (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
Hitler, eager to occupy the rich Ukraine first, orders to stop army group centre's advance to Moscow and to transfer its two tank armies to army groups 'north' and 'south'. This is perhaps Hitler's greatest mistake. The German generals argue in vain again
Hermann Goering orders the S.S. to prepare "the final solution", the plan to murder the millions of European jews.
Hitler orders to restore the advance to Moscow, in order to take it "in the limited time before winter". Army group 'centre', is given back its two tank armies, plus a third tank army and additional air units.
The long German siege of Leningrad begins.
The Germans in the south occupy Kiev and reach the Crimea.
The final German attack towards Moscow begins (operation Typhoon).
Rains stop German advance to Moscow due to deep mud which stops both tanks and infantry.
Russian government leaves Moscow, the Germans occupy Odessa.
General Tojo becomes Japan's prime minister
Churchill orders top priority to any request by the Enigma decoders.
The Germans occupy Kharkov
With the mud frozen by the dropping temperatures, German advance to Moscow resumes.
The foremost German forces reach 27km from Moscow, but can advance no further due to strong Russian resistance.
At temperatures of -34C (-29F) and below, a major Russian counter attack near Moscow begins. Moscow is saved, and the Germans are pushed back.
With the German failure to defeat Russia, which is marked by their failure to take Moscow, and with the United States joining the war a day later, This date marks the main turning point of world war 2
Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
Hitler orders "fanatic resistance" and appoints himself military commander-in-chief.
Japanese forces occupy Manila
Japanese forces invades Indonesia
Japanese forces occupy Malaysia
Japanese forces invade Burma
German U-boats begin to sink ships along the US east coast.
Rommel begins another offensive in north Africa
Japanese forces invade the Solomon islands
US troops begin to arrive in Britain
Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
Doolittle's raid - US bombers bomb Tokyo.
The last American troops in the Philippines surrender
Battle of the Coral Sea. One Japanese carrier and one American carrier are sunk
The German spring offensive in southern Russia begins.
'industrial-scale' murder of Jews by poison gas begins in Nazi death camps.
The battle of Midway. Four Japanese carriers are sunk, and one American carrier. Japan's naval superiority is lost.
Japanese forces land in Guadalcanal
Stalin forbids further Russian retreats, at any cost.
US forces land in Guadalcanal
Allied forces land in western north Africa, at Rommel's back
Montgomery becomes commander of the British 8th army in north Africa
Allied landing in Dieppe fails.
The German 6th army reach Stalingrad, the battle of Stalingrad begins.
The German advance in Stalingrad is stopped.
The Russian flanking counter attack around Stalingrad begins
The Germans fail to break the encirclement of their army in Stalingrad
The last German forces in Stalingrad surrender
The long north Africa campaign ends. The allies control north Africa
41 German u-boats sunk in 3 weeks. Doenitz retreats all u-boats from the North Atlantic
The battle of Kursk begins
The allies invade Sicily
Mussolini is replaced and arrested.
The Germans know the the Enigma was decoded, but believe the new models and procedures are safe again.
The allies invade Italy's mainland
Italy surrenders. The German forces in northern and central Italy occupy it
The Russians liberate Smolensk
Allied anti submarine bases established in the Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
The Russians liberate Kiev
Rommel takes command of the 'Atlantic wall' in the French coast
The marines land in Tarawa
P-51 fighters provide all-the-way long range escort to bombers over Germany
Eisenhower becomes supreme commander of western allies forces
Allies land in Anzio, Italy
The Russians advance into the Ukraine
The Russians liberate Odessa
Allied bombers begin to concentrate on the German fuel industry
The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
D-Day. American, British, Canadian forces invade France at the beaches of Normandy
1st German V-1 cruise missile attack on Britain
The marines land in Saipan
Battle of the Philippine sea
The Russians advance to Belarus
Cherbourg is liberated
Hitler survives an assassination attempt by senior German officers with light wounds.
Hitler appoints General Guderian to chief of the army (OKH). The marines land in Guam
The marines land in Tinian
The Russians reach the old German-Russian border in central Poland
Patton breaks out of the beachhead deep into France
Warsaw revolts against the Germans
The allies land in southern France
Romania surrenders to the Russians. Its oil fields were Germany's only source of natural oil
Paris is liberated.
Allied fighters achieve air superiority over Germany
Finland and Bulgaria surrenders to the Russians
1st German V-2 ballistic missile attack on Britain
Operation 'Market Garden' in Holland
British forces land in Greece
The Germans evacuate Riga, Latvia
Athens is liberated
The marines land in Leyte
B-29 bombers begin to bomb Tokyo from bases in the Mariana islands
The German attack in the Ardennes begin (Battle of the Bulge)
The marines land in Luzon, Philippines
The Russians reach Germany itself at the Oder river
The Russians liberate the Auschwitz death camp
The Ardennes campaign ends
The Russians occupy Budapest, Hungary. Dresden bombed.
The marines land in Iwo Jima
Manila is liberated
The allies occupy Cologne, Germany
US forces cross the Rhine on the Remagen bridge
The battle of Iwo Jima ends
V-2 missile attacks end
German forces encircled in the Ruhr by the Americans
The marines land in Okinawa. Japan orders all its forces to use kamikaze suicide tactic
The super battleship Yamato is sunk on its way to a kamikaze fight in Okinawa
The allies occupy Hanover
The allies liberate the Buchenwald death camp
President Roosevelt dies.
The Russians enter Vienna
The Russians begin final advance to Berlin
American and Russian forces meet
German defence in northern Italy finally collapses
Mussolini is executed by the Italian resistance. The allies liberate the Dachau death camp
Adolph Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin. He appoints Admiral Doenitz as his successor.
Germany surrenders. The war in Europe ends
450 B-29 bombers bomb Yokohama
660 B-29 bombers bomb Japanese cities
Battle of Okinawa ends
the US tests the atomic bomb in New Mexico. It works
