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beginning of the war
September 1 Without declaring war, Germany invades Poland. The coordinated air-and-land attack is conducted with such brutal efficiency that "blitzkrieg" becomes a feared offensive tactic. September 3 Honoring their treaty with Poland, France and Great Britain enter the war against Germany. -
Beginning of the War
August 31 Germany's Adolf Hitler signs the order for an assault on Poland. After the Germans stage a phony raid on a Gleiwitz radio station, they blame the Polish for the "unprovoked attack." September 3 Honoring their treaty with Poland, France and Great Britain enter the war against Germany. -
Period: to
world war II Mr. Freniere
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The British drop the first bombs.
March 19 The British drop the first bombs on German soil as the RAF hits the seaplane base at Hornum
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May 10 Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. Because of the failure of his appeasement policies, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns. Forming a coalition government, Winston Churchill replaces him. Standing alone, Churchill soon began conferring with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for aid to the British cause. -
"Barbarossa" plan
March 21 The first all-black unit of the U.S. Air Corps — the 99th Pursuit Squadron — is activated. They became known as the Tuskegee Airmen.
May 27 On its first mission, the German battleship Bismarck is hunted down and sunk. June 22 Unleashing its "Barbarossa" plan, Germany invades the Soviet Union without declaring war. Despite massing troops at the border, the Germans encounter little opposition. Hitler is now fighting a two-front war. -
America's first strike at Japan
January 13-14 Silhouetted against the lights of Manhattan, eight unarmed vessels are sunk by a German U-boat. By the end of January, U-Boats would sink 25 tankers along the East Coast, continuing a fierce struggle for supremacy of the seas called the "Battle of the Atlantic" and threatening to choke off America's allies.
March 11 General Douglas MacArthur, under orders from the President, leaves the troops and departs for Australia. -
PEARL HARBOR AND THE JAPANESE EXPANSION, TO JULY 1942
In accordance with Yamamoto’s plan, the aircraft carrier strike force commanded by Admiral Nagumo Chuichi sailed eastward undetected by any U.S. reconnaissance until it had reached a point 275 miles north of Hawaii. From there, on Sunday, December 7, 1941, a total of about 360 aircraft, composed of dive-bombers, torpedo bombers, and a few fighters, was launched in two waves in the early morning at the giant U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor -
Casablanca and Trident, January–May 1943
To decide what should be done after victory in North Africa, Roosevelt and Churchill, with their advisers, met at Casablanca in mid-January 1943. After long argument, it was eventually agreed that Sicily should be the next Axis area to be taken, in JulyThe German counteroffensive of February 1943 threw back the Soviet forces that had been advancing toward the Dnepr River on the Izyum sector of the front, and by mid-March the Germans had retaken Kharkov and Belgorod
