World War II - Timelines

All six timelines can be found on this page. It is certainly possible that I overlooked an event that you would like to mention. You can certainly do that.

If you are looking for more events, you could check out "The History Place." I simply edited these lists down from much more extensive timelines they had for the overall war.

WAR IN EUROPE

Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.

May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.

June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.

July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.

Sept 7, 1940 - German Blitz against England begins.

Dec 11, 1941 - Germany declares war on the United States.

Jan 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany

July 25/26, 1943 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls

June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings.

Aug 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris.

Dec 16-27, 1944 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.

April 28, 1945 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans

April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.

July 1, 1945 - U.S., British, and French troops move into Berlin.

May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.

Nov 20, 1945 - Nuremberg war crimes trials begin.

 

WAR IN NORTH AFRICA

Sept 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.

Dec 9/10, 1940 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.

Feb 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.

May 15, 1941 - Operation Brevity begins (the British counter-attack in Egypt).

June 30, 1942 - Rommel reaches El Alamein near Cairo, Egypt.

Aug 7, 1942 - British General Bernard Montgomery takes command of Eighth Army in North Africa.

Nov 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).

Jan 23, 1943 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.

March 2, 1943 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.

May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.

 

THE RUSSIAN FRONT

Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.

Nov 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland.

June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins.

July 3, 1941 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.

Aug 20, 1941 - Nazi siege of Leningrad begins.

Oct 2, 1941 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).

Dec 5, 1941 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.

Dec 6, 1941 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.

July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.

Sept 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.

Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.

Feb 8, 1943 - Soviet troops take Kursk.

Jan 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.

Jan 17, 1945 - Soviet troops capture Warsaw.

April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.

 

THE HOLOCAUST

In Oct 1940- Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.

In June 1941 - Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.

July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution.

Sept 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.

Sept 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Jan 20, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."

In June 1942 - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.

July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps

Dec 17, 1942 - 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.

June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.

July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.

Aug 4, 1944 - Anne Frank and family arrested by the Gestapo in Amsterdam, Holland.

Oct 30, 1944 - Last use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.

Jan 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.

April 12, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps

April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.

 

THE UNITED STATES AND THE WAR

Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality

July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.

Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.

March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.

June 14, 1941 - United States freezes German and Italian assets in America.

July 26, 1941 - Roosevelt freezes Japanese assets in United States and suspends relations.

Aug 14, 1941 - Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter.

Dec 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.

In April 1942- Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.

Dec 2, 1942 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in Chicago.

Jan 14-24, 1943 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.

Nov 28, 1943 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.

Feb 4-11, 1945 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.

April 12, 1945 - President Roosevelt dies. Truman becomes President.

 

WAR IN THE PACIFIC

December 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

December 10, 1941 - Japanese invade the Philippines and also seize Guam.   

April 10, 1942 - Bataan Death March begins as 76,000 Allied POWs including 12,000 Americans are forced to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp, resulting in over 5,000 American deaths.

May 7-8, 1942 - Japan suffers its first defeat of the war during the Battle of the Coral Sea.

June 4-5, 1942 - Turning point in the war occurs with a decisive victory for the U.S. against Japan in the Battle of Midway.

December 31, 1942 - Emperor Hirohito of Japan gives permission to his troops to withdraw from Guadalcanal.

October 25, 1944 - The first suicide air (Kamikaze) attacks occur against U.S. warships.

February 19, 1945 - U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima.

March 9/10, 1945 - Fifteen square miles of Tokyo erupts in flames after it is fire bombed by 279 B-29s.

July 5, 1945 - Liberation of Philippines declared.

August 6, 1945 - First Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

August 8, 1945 - U.S.S.R. declares war on Japan then invades Manchuria.

August 9, 1945 - Second Atomic Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki

August 14, 1945 - Japanese accept unconditional surrender

September 2, 1945 - Formal Japanese surrender; President Truman declares VJ Day.