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German forces invaded Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
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German armored forces, in a surprise move, broke through the lightly defended Ardennes Forest area north of the Maginot Line.
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The Dutch army had to give up the fight.
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King Leopold of Belgium surrendered his army.
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May 29 to June 4 the Allies evacuated 360,000 soldiers from Dunkirk.
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The battle of France began
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The Germans occupied Paris
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The Franco-German armistice was signed on June 22 in the forest of Compiègne.
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The Franco-Italian armistice was signed.
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Japan signed the Tripartite, or Axis, Pact with Germany and Italy.
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The United States banned shipments of many of these materials to Japan.
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the United States transferred 50 old destroyers to Britain.
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Germany and Italy started a campaign against British power in the Mediterranean region.
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almost all Mussolini’s East African empire was in British hands.
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The Japanese continued to take new territory in the first half
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The British had withdrawn from Burma and focused on the defense of India.
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The Soviet Union had regained one sixth of the territory it had lost.
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A small group of carrier-launched Army aircraft bombed Tokyo.
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The British started a devastating attack from El Alamein. Rommel’s tank force was routed.
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The British had driven the Axis forces from Egypt.
American and British forces under the command of United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower landed in French North Africa -
The Japanese were on the defensive everywhere in the Pacific.
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Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands finally fell to United States Marines and Army forces.
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General MacArthur and Admiral W.F. (Bull) Halsey worked closely together.
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Australia was no longer threatened by the Japanese.
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General Eisenhower was appointed commander in chief of the Allied armies in the North African theater of operations.
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Benito Mussolini was forced to resign as premier of Italy.
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Admiral Nimitz’s forces advanced more than 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometers) from Hawaii to seize Kwajalein atoll and Enewetak in the Marshall Islands.
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After savage fighting by land, sea, and air forces the conquest of Leyte was complete about Christmas Day.
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Throughout the early months of 1944 the main pressure upon the Germans was caused by Soviet attacks.
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In December, the British General William Slim’s 14th Army launched a campaign to drive the Japanese from Burma
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By the end of March the Americans and British had advanced halfway across Germany.
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General MacArthur’s forces in the Pacific landed an invasion force at Lingayen Gulf in Luzon, in the Philippines.
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(this date was September 1 in the United States), Japan formally surrendered aboard the battleship Missouri anchored in Tokyo Bay.
