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Germany, under Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, and the Soviet Union, under Communist dictator Joseph Stalin, sign the Nonaggression Pact, which secretly accepts Germany’s plan to invade Poland.
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Germany invades Poland in a blitzkrieg (lightning war). England and France react by declaring war on Germany.
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The Soviet Union invades Finland, occupies part of Poland, and, by threatening invasion, takes over Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.
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Germany invades Norway and Denmark and will soon conquer both countries.
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Germany invades the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
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German troops occupy northern and western France. Pro-German French officials set up a capital in Vichy and run the rest of France under Germany’s watchful eye. Italy, under fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, declares war on England and France.
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Hundreds of German warplanes begin bombing London every night for 57 nights in attacks that will continue until May 1941. More than 40,000 people will die in the Blitz as Londoners call the air raid campaign.
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Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a treaty (the Tripartite Pact) that makes the three countries allies against England and France.
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Italy invades Greece. German troops later come to the aid of Italian troops.
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Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Almost at the same time, Japanese warplanes attack the Philippines and two U.S. islands: Wake and Guam, which are later occupied. Japanese troops invade Malaya and Thailand and seize Shanghai. Later in December Japanese troops invade Burma and Hong Kong
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Three days after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
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German troops are near Moscow. But, forced to fight in freezing weather, the troops pull back—defeated by the Russian winter, which had also defeated Napoleon’s army in 1812.
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German troops surrender at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The Soviet Red Army, turning the tide of war, begins an offensive that will end in the capture of Berlin in 1945.
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The Royal Air Force and U.S. Eighth Air Force begin round-the-clock bombing of Germany.
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French and American troops liberated Paris.
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In the largest land battle ever fought by the U.S. Army, American soldiers turn back German troops, winning the Battle of the Bulge.
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Italian guerrilla fighters capture and kill Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. German forces in Italy surrender.
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Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler kills himself.
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Germany signed an unconditional surrender at Allied headquarters in Reims, France, to take effect the following day, ending the European conflict of World War II.
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The first bomb was dropped on the centre of Hiroshima. ‘Little Boy’ was a gun-type fission bomb, using a conventional explosive charge to fire one sub-critical mass of uranium into another. This kind of device had never been tested before, but the scientists were confident it would work.
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The bombing of Nagasaki on August 9th was the last major act of World War Two and within days the Japanese had surrendered.
