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Germany Invades Poland
Germany invaded Poland only days after signing the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact, under which the Soviet Union agreed not to defend Poland from the east if Germany attacked it from the west.
According to Adolf Hitler, the conquest of Poland would bring Lebensraum, or “living space,” for the German people. Hitler claimed the massive invasion was a defensive action, although Britain and France were not convinced. On September 3, they declared war on Germany, initiating World War II. -
Britain and France Declare War on Germany
At 1115 BST the British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, announced the British deadline for the withdrawal of German troops from Poland had expired.
"I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and consequently this country is at war with Germany." - Neville Chamberlain. -
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
In 1938, Prime Minister Chamberlain signed the Munich Pact with Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, giving Czechoslovakia over to German conquest but bringing, as Chamberlain promised, “peace in our time.” In September 1939, that peace was shattered by Hitler’s invasion of Poland. -
Evacuation of Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
26 May to 4 June 1940. -At 18:57 hours on 26 May 1940, the signal was received to start Operation Dynamo.
-France had fallen before the German advance, and with less than a week to prepare, the operation was the responsibility of Vice-Admiral Ramsay.
-The aim was the evacuation of up to 40,000 troops under attack. -
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
The three main partners in the Axis alliance were Germany, Italy, and Japan. These three countries supported German domination over most of continental Europe.
Italy entered World War II on the Axis side on June 10, 1940, as the defeat of France became obvious. -
France Signs Armistice with Germany
Officials of Nazi Germany and the French Third Republic signed an armistice at 18:36 near Compiègne, France, just six weeks after the Nazis launched their invasion of Western Europe.
The armistice came into effect after midnight on 25 June, and more than half of France was occupied by the Germans. -
Battle of Britain
On 10 July 1940, the Luftwaffe made their first bomber attack on British ships. 31 October 1940 is considered to be the end of the Battle of Britain after the RAF caused significant damage to the Luftwaffe. 1,547 allied aircraft were lost during the Battle of Britain.
The battle was won by the Royal Air Force (RAF), whose victory blocked the possibility of invasion, and also prompted the conditions for Great Britain’s survival during the war and for the eventual defeat of Nazi Germany. -
Operation Sea Lion
Operation Sealion was the name given by Hitler for the planned invasion of Great Britain in 1940, following Britain's rejection of Hitler's final offer of a negotiated peace settlement. Hitler wanted an immediate invasion to prevent the British army recovering from its defeat in France, and all this was to be completed by 10 August 1940. However, this operation was never carried out during the war as the Germans lost the Battle of Britain. -
Tripartite Pact Signed
The Axis powers formed Germany, Italy, and Japan on this day, with the signing of the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. This formalizing of the alliance was focused on the United States to think twice before joining the side of the Allies. The Pact also identified the two spheres of influence. Japan acknowledged “the leadership of Germany and Italy in the establishment of a new order in Europe,” while Japan was granted lordship over “Greater East Asia.” -
Siege of Tobruk
This was a battle in Libya during World War II, between Axis and Allied Forces when Tobruk was surrounded by an Italian and Nazi German force commanded by Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel. The siege continued up to 27 November 1941 until an allied army took control of Tubruk. The Allies wanted control to defend Egypt and the Suez Canal. Both sides wanted control as it had a protected harbour - a good place shelter ships. Plus, the number of cliffs helped protect the town from attack and -
Operation Barbarossa
This was the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. The failure of German troops to defeat Soviet forces in the campaign signaled an important turning point in the war.
The invasion covered a front from the North Cape to the Black Sea, a distance of two thousand miles. 4.5 million troops launched a surprise attack deployed from German-controlled Poland, Finland, and Romania. -
Bombing of Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is a U.S. naval base near Honolulu, Hawaii, which was the victim of a surprise attack by Japanese forces. Just before 8 a.m. on that Sunday morning, hundreds of Japanese fighter planes came down onto the base, managing to destroy/damage almost 20 American naval vessels. More than 2,400 Americans died in the attack, including civilians. Another 1,000 people were wounded. The following day, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan. -
Britain and US declare war on Japan
President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked the US Congress to declare war on Japan following the previous day's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor.
"I ask that the Congress declare that since the unprovoked and dastardly attack by Japan on Sunday, December 7th, 1941, a state of war has existed between the United States and the Japanese empire." - Roosevelt, Speech to Congress.
After Pearl Harbor, Winston Churchill, recognised that a state of War existed between the Britian and Japan. -
Japan takes Singapore
The fall of Singapore was possibly Britain's greatest military defeat, ending with 140,000 troops and citizens in Singapore captured, wounded or killed. Around 80,000 British, Indian and Australian troops based in Singapore became Prisoners of War as a result. Winston Churchill called the capture of Singapore the 'worst disaster' and 'largest capitulation' in British military history. Japan occupied it after defeating the British, Indian, Australian, and Malayan during the battle. -
Battle of Midway
Six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States defeated Japan in one a critical naval battle. This is partly thanks to the advances in code-breaking, as the United States was then able to anticipate and counter Japan’s planned ambush of its few remaining aircraft carriers, imposing permanent damage on the Japanese Navy. This was an important turning point in the Pacific campaign as the victory allowed the United States and its allies to move into an offensive position. -
First Battle of El Alamein
After the First Battle of El-Alamein, Egypt, ended in a stalemate, the second one was decisive. It marked the end for the Axis in North Africa. The Field Marshal Erwin Rommel was defeated by the British Eighth Army, and Allied material superiority meant that he had little chance of rallying his broken forces. -
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was the successful Soviet defense of the city of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. Russians consider it to be the greatest battle of their Great Patriotic War, while historians even consider it to be the greatest battle of the entire conflict. It stopped the German advance into the Soviet Union and marked the positive turning point for the Allies. The Battle of Stalingrad has a combined military and civilian casualties of nearly 2 million. -
Second Battle of El Alamein
The theatre was North Africa, around the Egyptian town of El Alamein, 100km west of Alexandria. It was an Allied victory, forcing Rommel to retreat into Tunisia. The Second Battle of El Alamein was the turning point of the Western Desert Campaign, -
D-Day Landings
The invasions began at 6:30 a.m. The British, Canadians and Americans went on to attempt capturing beaches. U.S. forces faced heavy resistance at Omaha Beach, resulting in 2,000 American casualties. By the end, about 156,000 Allied troops had stormed Normandy’s beaches. Around 4,000 Allied troops lost their lives in the D-Day invasion, plus thousands wounded or missing. On June 11 the beaches were secured with 326,000 troops, 50,000 vehicles and 100,000 tons of equipment. -
Battle of the Bulge
The Germans launched the last major offensive of the war as an attempt to push the Allied front line west from northern France to northwestern Belgium. It is called The Battle of the Bulge because Germans created a “bulge” around the area of the Ardennes forest in pushing through the American defensive line, and was the largest fought on the Western front. The battle continued for three weeks, resulting in a big loss of American and civilian life. -
Mussolini Captured and Executed
Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by partisans as they tried to flee Italy. At the picturesque Lake Como, the partisans stopped the car, pushed Mussolini and Petacci out, and ordered them against a wall. Their bodies were then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly. -
Hitler Commits Suicide
Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, consumed a cyanide capsule, then shot himself with a pistol inside of a air-raid shelter. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer’s orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956. -
German Forces Surrender
Germany officially surrendered to the Allies which brought an end to the European conflict in World War II. General Alfred Jodl, representing the German High Command, signed the unconditional surrender of both east and west forces in Reims, France. This took affect the following day. May 8 was declared Victory in Europe (VE) Day as a result and this holiday is still celebrated by many European countries. -
V.E. Day
Great Britain and the United States celebrate Victory in Europe Day. Cities in both nations, as well as formerly occupied cities in Western Europe, put out flags and banners, celebrating the defeat of the Nazis in World War II. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Hiroshima
The United States became the first and only nation to use atomic weaponry during wartime when it dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The dropping of the atomic bomb on Japan marked the end of World War II with Japan, although historians argue that it also ignited the Cold War. Since 1940, the United States had been working on developing an atomic weapon, after Albert Einstein warned that Nazi Germany was conducting research into nuclear weapons. -
Soviet Union Declares War on Japan
The Soviet Union officially declared war on Japan, immerging more than 1 million Soviet soldiers into Japanese-occupied Manchuria, northeastern China, to take on the 700,000-strong Japanese army. The Soviets surprised Japan with their invasion of Manchuria, an assault so strong that of the 850 Japanese soldiers engaged at Pingyanchen, 650 were killed or wounded within the first two days of fighting and Emperor Hirohito began to plead with his War Council to reconsider surrender. -
Atomic Bomb Dropped on Nagasaki
A second atomic bomb was dropped on Japan by the United States, at Nagasaki, resulting in Japan’s unconditional surrender. The shocking results of the Hiroshima bombing was not sufficient in convince the Japanese War Council to accept the Potsdam Conference’s demand for unconditional surrender. -
Japanese Surrender – End of WWII
By the summer of 1945, Japanese surrender was highly expected with the Japanese navy and air force being destroyed. The Allied naval blockade of Japan and intensive bombing of Japanese cities had left the country and its economy devastated. At the end of June, the Americans captured Okinawa, a Japanese island from, which the Allies could launch an invasion of the main Japanese home islands. -
United Nations is Born
In 1945, representatives of 50 countries met in San Francisco at the United Nations Conference to draw up the United Nations Charter. The Charter was signed on 26 June 1945 by representatives of 50 countries. Poland signed it later. The United Nations became official once the Charter was ratified by China, France, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and the United States. United Nations Day is celebrated on 24 October each year.
