World War II Timeline
World War II had no exact beginning but clearly was in progress with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 and was clearly a world conflict with the bombing of the U.S. Navy base at Pearl Harbor by Japan in December of 1941. The end of the war was quite clearly the surrender of Japan on 2 September 1945. In between there were events, large and small, in eastern and western Europe, Asia, Africa, across the oceans, and in many other places as the war ground on. Death and destruction was the common experience and everyone lost something, directly or indirectly.
This timeline gives the broad overview of events to help understand the unfolding of the vastness of the World War II action. For more detail, go to one of the recommended time line web sites that have daily reports of events.
Prelude
13 Dec 1937: Nanking, China surrenders beginning the Rape of Nanking
1939
March 14: Germany invades Czechoslovakia after annexing the Sudetenland
August 23: Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia sign a mutual non-aggression pact
September 1: German troops and aircraft attack Poland
September 3: Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
September 17: Soviet troops invade Poland from the east
September 27: Warsaw falls and Poland surrenders to Germany
September 28: Poland partitioned between Germany and Soviet Union
November 30: Soviet Union invades Finland
December 17: German Pocket Battleship Graf Spee is scuttled at Montevideo, Uruguay
1940
March 12: Peace signed in Moscow between USSR and Finland
April 9: Germany occupies Denmark and invades Norway
May 10: German Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") begins with air attacks on Dutch cities and invasion of Belgium and Luxembourg
May 10: British Prime Minister Chamberlain resigns and is replaced by Winston Churchill
May 15: Dutch armies surrender to Germany
May 16: French line broken at Sedan
May 27: Belgium surrenders to Germany
May 27: Evacuation of Dunkirk begins, withdrawing British forces from continental Europe.
June 10: Italy declares war on Britain and France, invades France
June 10: Norway surrenders to Germany
June 14: German army seizes Paris
June 15-16: Russians occupy Baltic countries: Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia
June 18: Soviet Union invades Baltic countries
June 22: France signs armistice with Germany
June 27: Rumania cedes Bessarabia and No. Bukovina to USSR
July 3: British attack French ships at Oran
July 10: Start of Germain air campaign against England, the Battle of Britain
September 3: US-Great Britain destroyer and base exchange agreement
September 3: King Carol of Rumania abdicates
September 7: First day of the London Blitz
September 16: Selective Service Act begins the military draft in the US
September 27: Germany, Italy and Japan sign Tripartite Pact
October 28: Italy invades Greece
November 11-12: Royal Air Force attacks Taranto
November 14-16: German air raids on Coventry
November 20-25: Hungary, Rumania, Slovakia join Tripartite Pact
December 9: British North African offensive begins against Italian forces in Somaliland, Egypt and Libya
1941
January 6: President Roosevelt gives Four Freedoms speech
January 10: Lend-Lease Bill introduced in U.S. Congress
January 10: Soviet-German trade pact signed
January 22: British and Australians capture Tobruk, Libya
March 1: Bulgaria joins Tripartite Pact
March 11: Lend-Lease Bill signed by President Roosevelt
March 27: Revolution in Yugoslavia
March 28: Battle of Matapan
March 30: German Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins offensive in N. Africa, recaptures lost territory
April 6: Germans invade Greece and Yugoslavia
April 13: Soviets and Japanese sign neutrality pact
April 16: Britain receives 1st American "Lend-Lease" aid shipment
May 2-31: Revolution in Iraq suppressed by British
May 10-11: Rudolf Hess files to Scotland
May 20: Start of Battle of Crete
May 27: German battleship Bismarck sunk
June 1: British withdraw from Crete
June 8: Allies enter Syria
June 14: Axis financial assets in the U.S. frozen
June 18: Germany and Turkey sign treaty of friendship
June 22: Operation Barbarossa, German invasion of the Soviet Union, ends the 1939 "nonaggression" pact
July 12: British-USSR mutual aid pact signed
August 14: Roosevelt and Churchill meet at sea to agree on war aims, The Atlantic Charter
August 25: British and Russian troops enter Iran
September 15: After string of German victories in Russian cities, Seige of Leningrad begins
September 19: Germans occupy Kiev
October 11: General Hideki Tojo becomes Premier of Japan
November 18: British Eighth Army offensive in Libya
November 25: Germans reach Moscow but cannot sustain attack
November 28: Russians retake Rostov
December 1: Russians counterattack at Tula
December 7: Japanese attack U.S. Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii and invade Siam and Malaya
December 7: Japanese declare war on Britain and U.S.
December 8: Allies declare war on Japan, without Soviets
December 8: Japanese attack U.S. military in Philippines
December 8: Japanese landings in Thailand and Malaya
December 9: H.M.S. Prince of Wales and H.M.S. Repulse sunk by Japanese air attacks of Malayan coast
December 11: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States and U.S. reciprocates
December 18: American Volunteer Group starts the Flying Tigers in China
December 13: Hungary and Bulgaria declare war on U.S.
December 22: Japanese land major attack force in Philippines
December 22: Churchill & Roosevelt hold First Washington Conference
December 24: Wake Island surrenders to the Japanese
December 25: Japanese capture Hong Kong
1942
January 1: Declaration of the United Nations signed by 29 Allied nations
January 2: Japanese capture Manila and Cavite, Philippines
January 10: Japan declares war on Netherlands and Japanese troops invade the Dutch East Indies
January 11: Japanese occupy Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
January 13: German U-boat offensive begins along the US east coast
January 21: German counteroffensive in North Africa
February 12: Battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with German heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen make the "Channel Dash" - Operation Cerberus - escape from Brest to Germany
February 15: Singapore falls to Japanese
February 19: Executive Order 9066 signed authorizing forced transfer 100,000 West Coast Japanese-Americans
Original Caption from National Archives: Hayward, California. As Bataan fell, as recorded in these newspapers of 9 April 1942, evacuation of residents of Japanese ancestry was already under way in California. This newsstand was pictured at a corner drugstore in a neighborhood in which such residents lived. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.
March 8: Japanese enter Rangoon, Burma
March 17: MacArthur arrives in Australia, evacuated from Philippines
April 9: U.S. troops in Philippines surrender to Japanese
April 10: Bataan Death March begins
April 18: Doolittle raid takes American bombers to Tokyo
May 6: Last US forces on Phillipines, at Corregidor, surrender
May 7: First day of the Battle of the Coral Sea
May 15: Gas rationing begins for the Eastern United States
May 26: German counteroffensive in North Africa
May 30: First 1,000-bomber attack on a German city (Cologne)
June 4: Battle of Midway ends Japanese naval superiority in the Pacific
June 21: Rommel captures Tobruk, Libya
June 25-27: Second Washington Conference between Roosevelt and Churchill
July 22: Japanese invade Papua, New Guinea, beginning a long campaign.
August 7: U.S. Marines invade Guadalcanal
August 12: First Moscow Conference
August 17: Raid on Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands
August 19: Ill-fated Canadian commando raid on French city of Dieppe, 3,500 Canadians lost
August 22: Battle of Stalingrad begins
October 23: Battle of El Alamein begins
November 8: Operation Torch begins, 125,000 US-British troops land at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers
November 11: Germans take control of all of France
November 19-22: Russian counteroffensive at Stalingrad
December 2: First controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is realized by the Manhattan Project, first step toward the atomic bomb
December 24: Admiral Darlan, de facto head of the French Government in North Africa, assasinated
1943
January 10: Soviets begin offensive against Germans at Stalingrad
January 14: Churchill-Roosevelt Casablanca conference begins
January 22: Allied forces establish foothold in New Guinea to forstall Japanese invasion of Australia
January 23: British Eighth Army under Montgomery takes Tripoli
February 2: Germans surrender at Stalingrad, Hitler's first big defeat
February 8: Allied forces capture Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands
February 14: Battle of Kasserine Pass between US and German armored forces begins
March 2: Battle of the Bismark Sea
April 1: Meat, fats, canned goods, and cheese rationed in US. Wages, salaries, and prices are frozen
May 11-27: Third Washington Conference between Churchill and Roosevelt
May 12: Organized Axis resistance in North Africa ends
June 30: Invasion of New Georgia, Central Solomons
July 5: Battle of Kursk begins, last German offensive in Russia
July 9: US-British invasion of Sicily begins
July 19: First bombing of Rome
July 25: Mussolini replaced by Badoglio as Italian Premier
August 17-24: First Quebec Conference
September 3: Allied invasion of Southern Italy begins with British landings in Calabria
September 8: Italian army surrenders, German army in Italy takes control and fights on
September 9: Operation AVALANCHE, invasion of Italy at Salerno
September 10: Germans occupy Rome
October 13: Italy declares war on Germany
October 18-November 1: Moscow Conference of foreign ministers
November 1: US troops land on Bougainville
November 6: Soviet troops retake Kiev
November 20: Makin, Tarawa invaded in the Gilbert Islands
November 22-26: First Cairo Conference between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek
November 28: Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran Conference
December 4-6: Second Cairo Conference with Roosevelt, Churchill, and Ismet Inönü of Turkey
December 24: Start of Soviet Ukrainian offensive
December 26: German battleship Sharnhorst sunk off North Cape
1944
January 22: Allies land at Anzio, Italy
January 27: Russian troops retake Leningrad after 900 day siege
February 17: First day of the Battle of Truk, one of the most significant Pacific Theater air battles
March 8: Finns reject Soviet armistice terms
March 19: German forces occupied Hungary
April 10: Russians recapture Odessa
May 23: Allied breakout from Anzio beachhead
June 4-5: Allies enter Rome
June 6: "D-Day" the largest invasion force in history lands at Normandy on the French coast
June 12-14: First German V-1 rockets directed at England
June 15: US invades Saipan, first island close enough to support bombing of Japan
June 15: First raid on Japan by B-29 Superfortress bombers based in China
19 June: First day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, the last major carrier aircraft battle
July 3: Minsk retaken by Soviets
July 19: St. Lo taken in Normandy, first step in breakout
July 20: German assassination plot against Hitler fails
July 21: US forces land on Guam
July 25: Operation COBRA starts U.S. breakout from Normandy
August 11: Guam secured in the Marianas
August 15: Operation DRAGOON (aka ANVIL) invasion of Southern France
August 23: Rumania and Russia agree on armistice terms
August 25: Paris is liberated by Allied troops
September 3: Brussels liberated by Allied troops
September 4: Russian-Finnish war ends
September 5: USSR declares war on Bulgaria
September 8: USSR invades Bulgaria
September 8: First V-2 rocket directed at London
September 9: Communist coup and Bulgarian armistice with USSR
September 10: Second Quebec Conference
September 13: US troops reach the Siegfried Line after liberating French and Belgian cities
September 15: US Marines invade Peleiu
Sept 17: Allied airborne assault on Holland begins, Operation Market Garden
October 1: Start of the Battle of Hürtgen Forest
October 9: Third Moscow Conference
October 14: Allies occupy Athens, Greece
October 20: Philippines invaded by Allies at Leyte
October 20: Belgrade, Yugoslavia liberated by Russian Red Army
October 21-22: Battle of Leyte Gulf
November 12: German battleship Tirpitz sunk in Tromsø Fiord by British RAF planes
December 16: Battle of the Bulge begins, major German counteroffensive in Ardennes Forest, Belgium
1945
January 9: U.S. invasion of Luzon, Philippines
January 16: US 1st and 3rd Armies link up ending Battle of the Bulge
January 17: Soviet troops capture Warsaw
January 20: Hungary signs armistice with Allies
January 26: Soviets liberate Auschwitz
January 27: Memel, Lithuania liberated by Red Army
January 31: Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Malta
February 3: U.S. troops return to Manila, Philippines
February 4-12: Yalta Conference between Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin
February 13: Dresden destroyed by Allied bombing firestorm
February 13: Soviet forces occupy Budapest
February 19: US Marines attack Iwo Jima
March 4: Finland declares war on Germany
March 6: Last German offensive of the war begins, to protect Hungarian oil fields
March 7: U.S. First Army crosses Rhine at Remagen
April 1: US troops land on Okinawa
April 12: President Roosevelt dies and Truman becomes President
April 13: Soviets enter Vienna
April 21: Soviets enter Berlin
April 25: United Nations meeting in San Francisco
April 25: U.S. and Soviet troops meet at Torgau, on the Elbe River in in northwestern Saxony, Germany
April 28: Mussolini executed by Italian Partisans
April 30: Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin
April 30: Dachau concentration camp liberated by U.S. troops
April 30: Soviet flag raised over the Reichstag in Berlin
May 1: Grand Admiral Doenitz takes command in Germany
May 2: German troops in Italy surrender
May 2: Fall of Berlin to the Soviet Army
May 3: Rangoon liberated
May 7: Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies
May 8: VE Day (Victory in Europe)
June 26: United Nations Charter signed in San Francisco
July 16: Trinity Test, first US atomic bomb
July 17-August 2: Potsdam Conference with Truman, Stalin, Churchill
July 26: Allies issue the Potsdam Declaration
August 6: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
August 8: Soviets declare war on Japan and invade Manchuria
August 9: Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki, Japan
August 14: Japanese agree to unconditional surrender
September 2: Japanese surrender, VJ Day (Victory over Japan)
September 8: Japanese forces in China surrender
September 12: Japanese forces in southeast Asia surrender
October 24: United Nations officially comes into existence
November 20: Nuremberg war crimes trials begin
Find More Information on the Web
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