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GERMANY INVADES POLAND
Germany invades Poland initiating World War II in Europe. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion. From East Prussia and Germany in the north and Silesia and Slovakia in the south, German units, with more than 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes, broke through Polish defenses along the border and advanced on Warsaw in a massive encirclement attack. -
THE SOVIET UNION INVADES FINLAND
The Soviet Union invades Finland, initiating the Winter War. The Finns call for an armistice and have to cede the northern shores of Lake Lagoda and the small Finnish coastline on the Arctic Sea to the Soviet Union. -
GERMANY ATTACKS WESTERN EUROPE
Germany attacks France and the neutral Low Countries. Luxembourg is occupied on May 10. The Netherlands surrenders on May 14 and Belgium surrenders on May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement by which the Germans occupy the northern half of the country and the entire Atlantic coastline. -
YUGOSLAVIA INVADED
Germany, Italy, Hungary, and Bulgaria invade Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia surrenders on April 17. Germany and Bulgaria invade Greece in support of the Italians. Resistance in Greece stops in early June 1941. -
THE SOVIET UNION IS INVADED
Nazi Germany and its Axis partners (except Bulgaria) invade the Soviet Union. Finland, seeking revenge for territorial losses in the armistice concluding the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly overrun the Baltic States and, joined by the Finns, lay siege to St. Petersburg by September. In the center, the Germans capture Smolensk in early August and drive on Moscow by October. In the south, German and Romanian troops capture Kiev in September. -
JAPAN BOMBS PEARL HARBOR
The Japanese launched a surprise air attack on the U.S. Naval Base at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. 2,400 Americans died, 21 ships were damaged or destroyed, and 188 U.S. aircrafts were destroyed. -
U.S ENTERS THE WAR
After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States declare war on Japan, entering World War II. -
THE BRITISH BOMB GERMANY
The British bomb Köln bringing the war home to Germany for the first time. Over the next three years Anglo-American bombing reduces urban Germany to rubble. -
BATTLE OF MIDWAY
British and US navies halt the Japanese naval advance in the central Pacific at Midway. They sink four Japanese aircraft carriers. Some believe that this is the turning point in the war. -
GERMANS PENETRATE THE SOVIET UNION
Germany and the Axis partners launch a new offensive attack in the Soviet Union. German troops fight their way into Stalingrad on the Volga River by the middle of September and penetrate deep into the Caucasus after securing the Crimean Peninsula. -
THE SOVIETS FIGHT BACK
Soviet troops counterattack, breaking through the Hungarian and Romanian lines northwest and southwest of Stalingrad. They trap the German Sixth Army in the city. Forbidden by Hitler to retreat or try to break out of the Soviet ring, the survivors of the Sixth Army surrender on January 30 and February 2, 1943. -
D-DAY
British and U.S. troops successfully land on the Normandy beaches of France, opening a "Second Front" against the Germans. -
THE SOVIETS DESTROY THE GERMAN ARMY GROUP CENTER
The Soviets launch a massive offensive in eastern Byelorussia, destroying the German Army Group Center. They also drive westward to the Vistula River across from Warsaw in central Poland by August 1. -
ALLIED TROOPS LIBERATE PARTS OF EUROPE
Allied troops reach Paris. On August 25, Free French forces, supported by Allied troops, enter the French capital. By September, the Allies reach the German border; by December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium, and part of the southern Netherlands are liberated. -
BATTLE OF THE BULGE
The Germans launch a final offensive in the west, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to re-conquer Belgium and split the Allied forces along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans are in retreat. -
SLOVAKIA SURRENDERS
The Soviets launch a new offensive, liberating Warsaw and Krakow in January, capturing Budapest after a two-month siege on February 13, driving the Germans and their Hungarian collaborators out of Hungary in early April, forcing the surrender of Slovakia with the capture of Bratislava on April 4, and capturing Vienna on April 13. -
HITLER DIES
As the Soviets approached Hitler in his bunker, He and his wife, Eva, comitted suicide. Hitler died from a self-inflicted gun shot. Eva ingested cyanide. -
V-E DAY
Great Britian and the U.S. celebrate Victory in Europe -
HIROSHIMA BOMBED
An American B-29 bomber dropped the world’s first deployed atomic bomb over the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The explosion wiped out 90 percent of the city and immediately killed 80,000 people; tens of thousands more would later die of radiation exposure. -
WORLD WAR II ENDS
Having agreed in principle to unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, Japan formally surrenders, ending World War II.
