-
Hitler comes to power
Once Hitler had come to power in 1933, German military preparations were made for these wars. The emphasis in the short term was on weapons for the war against the western powers, and for the long term, on the weapons for war against the United States. -
Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
Adolf Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles by introducing compulsory military conscription in Germany and rebuilding the armed forces. This included a new Navy, the first full armoured divisions, and an Air Force. -
Pact of Rome
Italy, Austria & Hungary signed the Pact of Rome. -
Second Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War, so named due to the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from 1937 to 1941. China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the greater conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. -
Pact of Steel
Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy. Originally intended to be a tripartite alliance. Japan, Italy, and, Germany were to sign it but the three had started to disagree over the focus of its terms. While Japan’s focus was its immediate rival from Asia, a growing dynamic, the Soviet Union, the European nations, quite predictably wanted to focus on Britain and France, the potential adversaries. -
Nazis invaded Poland 1939
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. 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 -
England declared war
England declared war on warmongering Germany because they invaded Poland, having already annexed the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia. -
Soviets invade Poland.
Russian troops invade poland from the East. This surprised the western powers which suddenly lost one of the war fronts. This surprised Poland, which also had a treaty with the USSR - the Riga Peace Treaty. -
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States. -
Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
Auschwitz concentration camp authorities establish a camp at the site of the I.G. Farben plant near Monowitz and redesignate the Buna Labor Detachment as the Buna (or Monowitz) subcamp of Auschwitz. -
Rommel 1942
In 1942 Rommel achieved a series of impressive victories against the British. He captured Tobruk in May 1942 and pushed deep into Egypt. By July 1942 he had reached El Alamein. Desperate resistance from British Empire forces forced him to halt here. -
General Montgomery
In August 1942 the British 8th army got a new commander, General Montgomery. He reorganised British Empire forces and attacked Rommel in October 1942, achieving a decisive victory. -
Germans surrender at Stalingrad
On this day, the last of the German forces fighting at Stalingrad surrender, despite Hitler’s earlier declaration that “Surrender is out of the question. The troops will defend themselves to the last!” -
Allies Gain Control of Africa
British & Commonwealth troops drive German forces out of Libya, into Tunisia. U.S. and Free French Forces invade from the West. The Germans are trapped in Tunisia, being attacked by Allies from all directions. They are forced to surrender on May 13, 1943, with nearly 240,000 prisoners of war. -
Battle of makin
.On the morning of November 23, Smith reported that Makin had been cleared and secured. In the fighting, his ground forces sustained 66 killed and 185 wounded/injured while inflicting around 395 killed on the Japanese. A relatively smooth operation, the invasion of Makin proved far less costly than the battle on Tarawa which occurred over the same time span. -
Rome falls to Allies
It is the first capital of an Axis nation to fall; More than 1000 British bombers drop 5000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. -
D-Day invasion begins
More than 160,000 Allied troops landed along a 50-mile stretch of heavily-fortified French coastline, to fight Nazi Germany on the beaches of Normandy, France. More than 5,000 Ships and 13,000 aircraft supported the D-Day invasion, and by day’s end, the Allies gained a foot-hold in Continental Europe. The cost in lives on D-Day was high. More than 9,000 Allied Soldiers were killed or wounded. -
Mussolini was executed
Italian politician, journalist, and leader of the National Fascist Party, ruling the country as Prime Minister from 1922 until his ousting in 1943. He ruled constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped all pretense of democracy and set up a legal dictatorship. Known as Il Duce, Mussolini was one of the key figures in the creation of fascism. Mussolini was executed in April of 1945 -
Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
During the final stage of the Second World War, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The two bombings, which killed at least 129,000 people, remain the only use of nuclear weapons for warfare in history. -
Japan surrenders
Japan formally surrendered in a formal ceremony aboard the U.S.S. Missouri, ending World War II.Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu signed the surrender of Japan documents on behalf of the Japanese government, military forces, and people. General Umezu signed that the Japanese armed forces would no longer form any attacks against the Allied powers, as agreed upon in the Potsdam Declaration.
