Timeline of World War 2 and related events

1918

• Nov 11 - World War One ends with German defeat.

1919

• April 28 - League of Nations founded.
• June 28 - Signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

1921

• July 2 - Adolf Hitler becomes leader of National Socialist 'Nazi' Party.

1923

• Nov 8/9 - The Beer Hall Putsch.

1925

• July 18 -Hitler's book "Mein Kampf" published.

1926

• Sept 8 - Germany admitted to League of Nations.

1929

• Oct 29 - Stock Market on Wall Street crashes.

1930

• Sept 14 - Germans elect Nazis making them the 2nd largest political party in Germany.

1932

• Nov 8 - Roosevelt elected President of the United States.

1933

• Jan 30 - Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany.
• Feb 27 - The Reichstag burns.
• March 12 - First concentration camp opened at Oranienburg outside Berlin.
• March 23 - Enabling Act gives Hitler dictatorial power.
• April 1 - Nazi boycott of Jewish owned shops.
• May 10 - Nazis burn books in Germany.
• In June - Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
• July 14 - Nazi party declared only party in Germany.
• Oct 14 - Germany quits the League of Nations.

1934

• June 30 - The "Night of the Long Knives."
• July 25 - Nazis murder Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss.
• Aug 2 - German President Hindenburg dies.
• Aug 19 - Adolf Hitler becomes Führer of Germany.

1935

• March 16 - Hitler violates the Treaty of Versailles by introducing military conscription.
• Sept 15 - German Jews stripped of rights by Nuremberg Race Laws.

1936

• Feb 10 - The German Gestapo is placed above the law.
• March 7 - German troops occupy the Rhineland.
• May 9 - Mussolini's Italian forces take Ethiopia.
• July 18 - Civil war erupts in Spain.
• Aug 1 - Olympic games begin in Berlin.
• Oct 1 - Franco declared head of Spanish State.

1937

• June 11 - Soviet leader Stalin begins a purge of Red Army generals.
• Nov 5 - Hitler reveals war plans during Hossbach Conference.

1938

• March 12/13 - Germany announces 'Anschluss' (union) with Austria.
• Aug 12 - German military mobilizes.
• Sept 30 - British Prime Minister Chamberlain appeases Hitler at Munich.
• Oct 15 - German troops occupy the Sudetenland; Czech government resigns.
• Nov 9/10 - Kristallnacht - The Night of Broken Glass.

1939  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 30 - Hitler threatens Jews during Reichstag speech.
• March 15/16 - Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
• March 28 - Spanish Civil war ends.
• May 22 - Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
• Aug 23 - Nazis and Soviets sign non-aggression pact.
• Aug 25 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.
• Aug 31 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.
• Sept 1 - Nazis invade Poland, World War 2 begins.
• Sept 3 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
• Sept 4 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.
• Sept 5 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.
• Sept 10 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
• Sept 17 - Soviets invade Poland.
• Sept 27 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis; Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
• Sept 29 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
• In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
• Nov 8 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
• Nov 30 - Soviets attack Finland.
• Dec 14 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.

1940  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 8 - Rationing begins in Britain.
• March 12 - Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.
• March 16 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
• April 9 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
• May 10 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
• May 15 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
• May 26 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
• May 28 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
• June 3 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
• June 10 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
• June 14 - Germans enter Paris.
• June 16 - Marshal Pétain becomes French Prime Minister.
• June 18 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.
• June 22 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.
• June 23 - Hitler tours Paris.
• June 28 - Britain recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
• July 1 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
• July 5 - French Vichy government breaks off relations with Britain.
• July 10 - Battle of Britain begins.
• July 23 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
• Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
• Aug 13 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
• Aug 15 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
• Aug 17 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
• Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.
• Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
• Sept 3 - Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).
• Sept 7 - German Blitz against England begins.
• Sept 13 - Italians invade Egypt.
• Sept 15 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
• Sept 16 - United States military conscription bill passed.
• Sept 27 - Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
• Oct 7 - German troops enter Romania.
• Oct 12 - Germans postpone Operation Sealion until Spring of 1941.
• Oct 28 - Italy invades Greece.
• Nov 5 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
• Nov 10/11 - A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy.
• Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
• Nov 20 - Hungary joins the Axis Powers.
• Nov 22 - Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
• Nov 23 - Romania joins the Axis Powers.
• Dec 9/10 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.
• Dec 29/30 - Massive German air raid on London.

1941 Return to Top of Page

• Jan 22 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
• Feb 11 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
• Feb 12 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
• Feb 14 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
• March 7 - British forces arrive in Greece.
• March 11 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
• March 27 - A coup in Yugoslavia overthrows the pro-Axis government.
• April 3 - Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
• April 6 - Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
• April 14 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
• April 17 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
• April 27 - Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
• May 1 - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
• May 10 - Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
• May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
• May 15 - Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).
• May 24 - Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
• May 27 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
• June 4 - Pro-Allied government installed in Iraq.
• June 8 - Allies invade Syria and Lebanon.
• June 14 - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.
• June 22 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.
• In June - Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
• June 28 - Germans capture Minsk.
• July 3 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
• July 10 - Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
• July 12 - Mutual Assistance agreement between British and Soviets.
• July 14 - British occupy Syria.
• July 26 - Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations.
• July 31 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.
• Aug 1 - United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
• Aug 14 - Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.
• Aug 20 - Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.
• Sept 1 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
• Sept 3 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
• Sept 19 - Nazis take Kiev.
• Sept 29 - Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
• Oct 2 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
• Oct 16 - Germans take Odessa.
• Oct 24 - Germans take Kharkov.
• Oct 30 - Germans reach Sevastopol.
• Nov 13 - British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
• Nov 20 - Germans take Rostov.
• Nov 27 - Soviet troops retake Rostov.
• Dec 5 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
• Dec 6 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.
• Dec 7 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
• Dec 8 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
• Dec 11 - Germany declares war on the United States.
• Dec 16 - Rommel begins a retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
• Dec 19 - Hitler takes complete command of the German Army.

1942  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 1 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
• Jan 13 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
• Jan 20 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
• Jan 21 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
• Jan 26 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
• In April - Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
• April 23 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
• May 8 - German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
• May 26 - Rommel begins an offensive against the Gazala Line.
• May 27 - SS Leader Heydrich attacked in Prague.
• May 30 - First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
• In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
• June 4 - Heydrich dies of wounds.
• June 5 - Germans besiege Sevastopol.
• June 10 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination.
• June 21 - Rommel captures Tobruk.
• June 25 - Eisenhower arrives in London.
• June 30 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
• July 1-30 - First Battle of El Alamein.
• July 3 - Germans take Sevastopol.
• July 5 - Soviet resistance in the Crimea ends.
• July 9 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
• July 22 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
• Aug 7 - British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.
• Aug 12 - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
• Aug 17 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
• Aug 23 - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
• Sept 2 - Rommel driven back by Montgomery in the Battle of Alam Halfa.
• Sept 13 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
• Oct 5 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
• Oct 18 - Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
• Nov 1 - Operation Supercharge (Allies break Axis lines at El Alamein).
• Nov 8 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
• Nov 11 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
• Nov 19 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
• Dec 2 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.
• Dec 13 - Rommel withdraws from El Agheila.
• Dec 16 - Soviets defeat Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR.
• Dec 17 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
• Dec 31 - Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.

1943  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
• Jan 10 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
• Jan 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
• Jan 23 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
• Jan 27 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
• Feb 2 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
• Feb 8 - Soviet troops take Kursk.
• Feb 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
• Feb 16 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.
• Feb 18 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
• March 2 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.
• March 15 - Germans re-capture Kharkov.
• March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
• March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
• April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
• April 19 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
• May 7 - Allies take Tunisia.
• May 13 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
• May 16 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends.
• May 16/17 - British air raid on the Ruhr.
• May 22 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
• June 10 - 'Pointblank' directive to improve Allied bombing strategy issued.
• June 11 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
• July 5 - Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.
• July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
• July 19 - Allies bomb Rome.
• July 22 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.
• July 24 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.
• July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
• July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
• Aug 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
• Aug 17 - American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily.
• Aug 23 - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.
• Sept 8 - Italian surrender is announced.
• Sept 9 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
• Sept 11 - Germans occupy Rome.
• Sept 12 - Germans rescue Mussolini.
• Sept 23 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
• Oct 1 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
• Oct 4 - SS Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.
• Oct 13 - Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.
• Nov 6 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
• Nov 18 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
• Nov 28 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
• Dec 24-26 - Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.

1944  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 6 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
• Jan 17 - First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
• Jan 22 - Allies land at Anzio.
• Jan 27 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
• Feb 15-18 - Allies bomb the monastery at Monte Cassino.
• Feb 16 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
• March 4 - Soviet troops begin an offensive on the Belorussian front; First major daylight bombing raid on Berlin by the Allies.
• March 15 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
• March 18 - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.
• April 8 - Soviet troops begin an offensive to liberate Crimea.
• May 9 - Soviet troops recapture Sevastopol.
• May 11 - Allies attack the Gustav Line south of Rome.
• May 12 - Germans surrender in the Crimea.
• May 15 - Germans withdraw to the Adolf Hitler Line.
• May 25 - Germans retreat from Anzio.
• June 5 - Allies enter Rome.
• June 6 - D-Day landings.
• June 9 - Soviet offensive against the Finnish front begins.
• June 10 - Nazis liquidate the town of Oradour-sur-Glane in France.
• June 13 - First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
• June 22 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
• June 27 - U.S. troops liberate Cherbourg.
• July 3 - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy; Soviets capture Minsk.
• July 9 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen.
• July 18 - U.S. troops reach St. Lô.
• July 20 - German assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
• July 24 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
• July 25-30 - Operation Cobra (U.S. troops break out west of St. Lô).
• July 28 - Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk. U.S. troops take Coutances.
• Aug 1 - Polish Home Army uprising against Nazis in Warsaw begins; U.S. troops reach Avranches.
• Aug 4 - Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
• Aug 7 - Germans begin a major counter-attack toward Avranches.
• Aug 15 - Operation Dragoon begins (the Allied invasion of Southern France).
• Aug 19 - Resistance uprising in Paris.
• Aug 19/20 - Soviet offensive in the Balkans begins with an attack on Romania.
• Aug 20 - Allies encircle Germans in the Falaise Pocket.
• Aug 25 - Liberation of Paris.
• Aug 29 - Slovak uprising begins.
• Aug 31 - Soviet troops take Bucharest.
• Sept 1-4 - Verdun, Dieppe, Artois, Rouen, Abbeville, Antwerp and Brussels liberated by Allies.
• Sept 4 - Finland and the Soviet Union agree to a cease-fire.
• Sept 13 - U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line.
• Sept 17 - Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
• Sept 26 - Soviet troops occupy Estonia.
• Oct 2 - Warsaw Uprising ends as the Polish Home Army surrenders to the Germans.
• Oct 10-29 - Soviet troops capture Riga.
• Oct 14 - Allies liberate Athens; Rommel commits suicide.
• Oct 21 - Massive German surrender at Aachen.
• Oct 30 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
• Nov 20 - French troops drive through the 'Beffort Gap' to reach the Rhine.
• Nov 24 - French capture Strasbourg.
• Dec 4 - Civil War in Greece; Athens placed under martial law.
• Dec 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
• Dec 17 - Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
• Dec 26 - Patton relieves Bastogne.
• Dec 27 - Soviet troops besiege Budapest.

1945  Return to Top of Page

• Jan 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes.
• Jan 16 - U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
• Jan 17 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
• Jan 26 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
• Feb 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
• Feb 13/14 - Dresden is destroyed by a firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
• March 6 - Last German offensive of the war begins to defend oil fields in Hungary.
• March 7 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
• March 30 - Soviet troops capture Danzig.
• In April - Allies discover stolen Nazi art and wealth hidden in salt mines.
• April 1 - U.S. troops encircle Germans in the Ruhr; Allied offensive in North Italy.
• April 12 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps;
• President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President.
• April 16 - Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
• April 18 - German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
• April 21 - Soviets reach Berlin.
• April 28 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
• April 29 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
• April 30 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
• May 2 - German troops in Italy surrender.
• May 7 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
• May 8 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
• May 9 - Hermann Göring is captured by members of the U.S. 7th Army.
• May 23 - SS Reichsführer Himmler commits suicide; German High Command and Provisional Government imprisoned.
• June 5 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
• June 26 - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
• July 1 - U.S., British, and French troops move into Berlin.
• July 16 - First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
• July 26 - Atlee succeeds Churchill as British Prime Minister.
• Aug 6 - First atomic bomb dropped, on Hiroshima, Japan.
• Aug 8 - Soviets declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
• Aug 9 - Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan.
• Aug 14 - Japanese agree to unconditional surrender.
• Sept 2 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement; V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
• Oct 24 - United Nations is officially born.
• Nov 20 - Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.

1946

• Oct 16 - Hermann Göring commits suicide two hours before his scheduled execution.