Second World War Timeline

(click on the year you want to see)

1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945

Key:

The colours indicate the geographic region where an event or battle occurred; while the shape of symbol shows what kind of combat was involved.

Blue: Western Europe Red: Eastern Europe Yellow: Mediterrean and North Africa Green: Asia and Pacific

Land Combat Air Combat Naval Combat

This symbol shows when a treaty, surrender or other agreement was signed, while this shows an event related to the Holocaust.

1939

	March 15/16 - Germans take Czechoslovakia.
	March 28 - Spanish Civil war ends.
	May 22 - Germans sign 'Pact of Steel' alliance with Italy.
	Aug 23 - Germans and Soviets sign non-aggression pact, promising not to attack each other.
	Aug 25 - Britain and Poland sign Mutual Assistance Treaty.
	Sept 1 - Germans invade Poland.
	Sept 3 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
	Sept 10 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
	Sept 17 - Soviets invade Poland.
	Sept 27 - Warsaw surrenders to Germans.
	Nov 30 - Soviets attack Finland.

1940

	March 12 - Finland sues for peace, and agrees to give up large parts of its eastern provinces to the Soviet Union.
	April 9 - Germans invade Denmark and Norway using air, ground and land forces.
	May 10 - German armoured forces invade France, Belgium and Luxembourg, while the Netherlands is invaded by German ground forces and more than 10,000 parachute troops. Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
	May 11-13 - German armoured forces fight and win the battle of Sedan, breaking through the French lines.
	May 14 - Dutch port city of Rotterdam is bombed, Dutch army surrenders.
	May 26 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
	May 28 - Belgium surrenders to Germans.
	June 10 - Norway surrenders to Germans; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
	June 14 - Germans enter Paris.
	June 18 - Soviet army occupies Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania without a fight.
	June 22 - France signs Armistice with Germans.
	July 1 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
	July 10 - Battle of Britain begins.
	Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
	Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London.
	Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
	Sept 7 - German Blitz, the concentrated bombing campaign against London, begins.
	Sept 13 - Italians invade Egypt.
	Sept 27 - Japan becomes allies with Germany and Italy.
	Oct 28 - Italy invades Greece.
	Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
	Dec 9/10 - British begin Western Desert Offensive in North Africa against the Italians.

1941

	Jan 22 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to British and Australians.
	Feb 14 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps', under Erwin Rommel, arrive in North Africa.
	March 7 - British forces arrive in Greece.
	April 6 - Germans invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
	April 14 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
	April 17 - Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
	April 27 - Greece surrenders to Germany.
	May 27 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
	June 22 - Operation Barbarossa begins, the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. German SS Einsatzgruppen, "special forces teams", begin mass murders in eastern Europe.
	Aug 20 - German siege of Leningrad begins.
	Sept 3 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
	Sept 19 - Germans take Kiev.
	Sept 29 - Germans murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
	Oct 2 - Operation Typhoon begins as Germans advance on Moscow.
	Oct 16 - Romanian forces, allied to Germany, take Odessa.
	Dec 5 - German attack on Moscow defeated.
	Dec 7 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.
	Dec 8 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
	Dec 11 - Hitler declares war on United States.
	Dec 16 - Rommel begins retreat to El Agheila in North Africa.
	Dec 25 - Hong Kong captured by Japanese

1942

	Jan 20 - SS Leader Heydrich holds Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question," the massacre of the European Jews.
	Jan 21 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
	Jan 26 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
	Feb 15 - Singapore falls to Japanese attack.
	Feb 27 - The combined American-British-Dutch-Australian fleet is defeated by a Japanese squadron in the Battle of the Java Sea.
	March 8 - Dutch forces in Indonesia surrender on Java.
	March 10 - Japanese army captures Burma.
	May 7-8 - The first battle between aircraft carriers in history is fought at the Battle of the Coral Sea in the South Pacific, between American and Japanese forces. The result is a tie.
	May 30 - First 1000 bomber British air raid, on Cologne, Germany.
	June 4 - Japanese carrier fleet suffers a decisive defeat at the Battle of Midway.
	In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
	June 30 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.
	July 1-30 - First Battle of El Alamein.
	July 9 - Germans begin drive towards Stalingrad in the USSR.
	Aug 19 - Canadian raid on Dieppe on the French coast is defeated with heavy losses.
	Sept 2 - Rommel driven back by Montgomery in Battle of Alam Halfa.
	Sept 13 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
	Nov 8 - Operation Torch begins U.S. invasion of North Africa.
	Dec 16 - Italian troops on the River Don in the USSR are defeated in Soviet counter- offensive at Stalingrad. The Romanian and Hungarian armies are shattered as well.

1943

	Jan 27 - First bombing raid by USA on Germany, at Wilhelmshaven.
	Feb 2 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
	Feb 6 - American recapture the island of Guadalcanal from Japanese after 6-month battle.
	March 2 - Germans begin withdrawal from Tunisia, North Africa.
	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 19 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance fighters in Warsaw ghetto.
	May 13 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
	May 16 - Jewish resistance in Warsaw ghetto ends.
	July 5 - Germans begin last offensive against Kursk.
	July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
	July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
	July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes firestorm in Hamburg.
	Aug 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
	Sept 9 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto on the Italian mainland.
	Nov 6 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.
	Nov 18 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
	Nov 28 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran Conference.
	Dec 24-26 - Soviet troops launch offensives on Ukrainian front.
	Dec 28-30 - Canadian forces win the battle of Ortona, Italy.

1944

	Jan 22 - Allies land at Anzio, Italy.
	Jan 27 - Leningrad relieved after 900-day siege.
	June 5 - Allies enter Rome.
	June 6 - D-Day landings in Normandy, France.
	June 13 - First German V-1 rocket attack on Britain.
	June 15 - Saipan is captured by the Americans.
	June 22 - Japanese invasion of India from Burma is defeated at the battle of Imphal-Kohima.
	July 3 - Soviets capture Minsk.
	July 9 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen, Normandy.
	July 24 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
	July 25-30 - Operation Cobra, U.S. troops break out west of St. Lo, Normandy.
	July 28 - Soviet troops take Brest-Litovsk.
	Aug 4 - Anne Frank and family arrested by Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.
	Aug 8 - Japan captures Hengyang, China, starting the biggest Japanese offensive there since 1940.
	Aug 19/20 - Soviet offensive in Balkans begins with attack on Romania.
	Aug 25 - Liberation of Paris.
	Sept 14 - Chinese army of Burma defeats the Japanese at Teng-Chung.
	Sept 17-25 - Battle for Arnhem results in the worst defeat of the war for the British with the loss of an entire parachute division.
	Oct 2 - Warsaw Uprising ends as Polish Home Army surrenders to Germans after two-month battle.
	Oct 6-Nov 8 - Canadians win the Battle of the Scheldt.
	Oct 21 - Aachen is captured--first major German city to be occupied by the Allies.
	Oct 30 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
	Dec 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes forest, Belgium, as German army makes its last major counter-attack against the Allies.
	Dec 27 - Soviet troops besiege Budapest, Hungary.

1945

	Jan 17 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
	Jan 26 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
	Feb 13/14 - Dresden destroyed by firestorm after Allied bombing raids.
	Feb 19 - Japanese defeated on Iwo Jima by the Americans.
	March 6 - Last German offensive of the war to defend oil fields in Hungary.
	March 7 - Allies take Cologne and cross the Rhine at Remagen.
	March 10 - Massive fire raid on Tokyo by American bombers.
	April 1 - U.S. troops encircle German troops in Ruhr.
	April 12 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps; President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President.
	April 16 - Soviet troops begin final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
	April 18 - German forces in Ruhr pocket surrender.
	April 21 - Soviets begin the battle for Berlin.
	April 28 - Mussolini captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
	April 30 - Soviet troops reach the Reichstag in central Berlin; Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
	May 2 - German troops in Italy surrender.
	May 5 - German troops in Holland surrender to Canadian army.
	May 7 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
	June 26 - United Nations World Charter of Security signed in San Francisco.
	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 surrender agreement on USS Missouri, Tokyo Bay.
	Oct 24 - United Nations is officially born.

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