WW II Chronology
1939
15-March
German
troops invade Czechoslovakia.
30 France
and England pledge to protect Poland’s independence
7-April Italy
attacks Albania
23-August
Nazi
Germany and the USSR sign a non-aggression pact
25 Orders
to invade Poland are canceled
1-Sep Nazi
Germany invades Poland.
Norway
claims neutrality
Portugal
claims neutrality
Sweden claims
neutrality
3 Great
Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany.
Spain
claims neutrality
Ireland
claims neutrality
5 United
States proclaims neutrality.
8
President
of United States declares limited national emergency.
9 Canada
declares war
29 Germany and Soviet union
agree on the partition of Poland
6-Oct
Last remnant of Polish forces
surrenders to German Army
4-Nov
Congress passes law permitting
“cash and carry” sale of munitions to belligerents.
30 USSR attacks Finland.
1940
12-Mar
Soviet-Finnish war ends.
8-Apr
Nazi Germany occupies Denmark and
invades Norway.
14 - 20. British
land troops in Norway.
23 Greece
concludes armistice with Nazi Germany.
10-May
Nazi Germany launches
“Sichelschnitt” invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France.
Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as British
Prime Minister.
13 Nazi General Erwin Rommel’s
7th Panzer Division crosses the Meuse River near Dinant while
General Heinz Guderian’s 19th Armored Corps crosses the Meuse River
at Sedan.
15 The
Dutch surrender to Nazi Germany
23 Boulogne,
France, falls to Nazi Germany
24 Allies
withdraw from Norway
27 Belgium
surrenders to Nazi Germany
Allied
troops begin to evacuate from Dunkirk, France
3-Jun
United States releases war material
to Great Britain.
4 Evacuation of Allied
troops from Dunkirk is completed. Hitler allows 338,000 troops to escape to
England.
Churchill makes his “We
shall fight on the beaches...” speech to Parliament
9 Norwegian government falls
to Germany
10 Italy
declares war on France and Great Britain.
14 Germans
march into Paris.
22 France
and Nazi Germany conclude armistice.
24 France
and Italy conclude armistice
3-Jul
British
naval forces attack French fleet at Oran.
10
Battle of Britain - Nazi
Germany begins air offensive against Great Britain with 65 German airplanes.
16 Hitler issues an invasion of
Great Britain directive, Operation Sealion. to the German armed forces.
18 Churchill makes his “This
was their finest hour...” speech to Parliament.
19 Hitler in the Reichstag
makes a public peace offer to Britain, which is rejected on the 22nd
by Churchill.
31 German high command meets
with Hitler and agrees to attack the USSR in May.
27-Aug
Congress
authorizes call of reserve components for 12 months’ duty.
Hitler
approves Franco’s Spanish-German plan to attack Gibraltar
3-Sep
United States and Great Britain
conclude agreement to exchange destroyers (U.S.) for base rights (British).
Hitler orders
that British cities will be bombed every night, in retribution for their
bombing of Berlin
13 Italy invades Egypt seeking
to gain control of the Suez Canal
16 Draft
- Selective Service law enacted by Congress.
18
Hitler
postpones Operation Sealion
22 Japanese
invade French Indochina.
27 Axis
- Nazi Germany, Italy, Japan conclude three-power pact.
October 23
Franco
agrees to enter the war
28 Italy
attacks Greece
31
Churchill
considers the Battle of Britain over
20 Nov.
Hungary
joined the Axis
Romania
joined the Axis
1941
5 Jan.
British
soldiers invaded Ethiopia
29 British-American
Staff Conversations.
1-Mar
Bulgaria
joined the Axis
11 Congress
passes Lend-Lease Act.
6-April
Germany
invaded Greece and Yugoslavia
13 Japan and Russia
signed a non-aggression pact.
27-May
President
Roosevelt proclaims state of unlimited national emergency.
8 June
British
and French forces invaded Syria
22 Russia is invaded by
Hitler with approximately 3 million troops.
7-Jul
United
States forces land in Iceland.
26 United
States declares oil embargo on Japan.
7-Aug
The
Atlantic Charter was announced
14 Roosevelt and
Churchill announce
Atlantic Charter
4-Sep
German torpedo attack on USS Greer
opens tacit shooting war in Atlantic.
25 Army and Navy Secretaries
submit to Roosevelt an estimate of U.S. forces needed to defeat the Axis and
Japan.
1-Oct
First Soviet Protocol signed by
U.S., Great Britain, and USSR at Moscow.
7-8 Dec.
Japan delivers simultaneous bombing
attacks on Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, Wake, and Guam, invades Malaya and
Thailand, seizes Shanghai, and declares war on the U.S. and Great Britain.
8 German offensive in Russia
bogs down
Canada Declares War on Japan
9 China
declares war on Japan, Nazi Germany, and Italy.
10
Japanese capture Guam, land on Luzon
in Philippines.
11 Nazi Germany and Italy
declare war on United States, and United States declares itself at war with
them.
18 Japanese they attacked Hong
Kong and on Christmas Day the British surrendered.
20 Chennault’s
Flying Tigers enter combat against Japanese in China.
23 General
Macarthur decides to evacuate Manila and withdraw to Bataan.
Wake
Island captured by Japanese.
1942
1-Jan United Nations Declaration signed by
twenty-six nations at war with Axis.
2 Japanese
occupy Manila.
7 American
and Filipino forces complete withdrawal into Bataan.
9 Combined
Chiefs of Staff established.
14 -24.
Anglo-American Conference (ARCADIA)
at Washington.
19 Japanese
capture British North Borneo.
23 Japanese
capture Rabaul and Kavieng in the Bismarck Archipelago, invade Bougainville in
the Solomons.
1-Feb
U.S.
Navy bombards Gilberts and Marshalls.
2 Singapore
surrenders.
27 -28. Allies
loose the Battle of Java Sea. Japanese invade Java.
Mar - Nov. Submarine
attacks in Atlantic rise to record heights.
7 Japanese
occupy Burma.
9 War
Department is reorganized.
17 General
MacArthur reaches Australia and takes command of Allied forces.
8 -15
April British-American
conversations in London result in conditional agreement on BOLERO-ROUNDUP Plan.
9
Surrender of Bataan.
18
First U.S. air bombardment of Tokyo.
2-May
Japanese land on Tulagi, adjacent
to Guadalcanal, where they soon began to build an airstrip.
6 Surrender
of all U.S. forces in Philippines.
8
Allies win Battle of the Coral Sea.
20 Japanese
complete conquest of Burma.
27 Rommel
opens drive into Egypt.
3-6 June
Allies
win Battle of Midway.
5 The
United States declared war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.
7 Japanese
invade western Aleutians.
21 Axis
troops seized Tobruk in North Africa..
1-Jul
Germans capture Sevastopol.
2 Rommel’s
advance stops at border of Egypt.
4 One of the most
devastating submarine attacks on convoy to USSR along the northern route.
7 Second
Soviet Protocol signed.
15 British
suspend convoys to USSR on northern route.
18-25. British-American conversations in
London, resulting in decision to invade North Africa.
21
Japanese landing near Gona, New
Guinea, starts Papua Campaign.
7-Aug
South Pacific forces invade
Guadalcanal, Florida, and Tulagi Islands, in the Solomons.
19 British Commonwealth force
raids Dieppe, France that results in a disaster with 3,367 casualties including
1,946 prisoners of war.
23 Churchill accepts
Roosevelt’s proposal that the U.S. operate Persian Gulf facilities for aid to
USSR.
14-Sep
Battle for Stalingrad begins.
23-Oct
British
open counteroffensive at El Alamein.
8-Nov
Allies land at Casablanca, Oran, and
Algiers in French North Africa.
10 Axis
troops move into Tunis and Bizerte.
11 British
offensive reaches Libya.
French resistance to Allies in North
Africa ceases.
Axis troops march into unoccupied
France.
13 British
recapture Tobruk.
15 Allied
offensive in West reaches Tunisia.
19 The
Russians counter-attack at Stalingrad.
27 French
fleet scuttled in Toulon harbor.
24 December
Allied drive on Tunis ends in stalemate.
1943
14 -23 Jan.
Allied conference at Casablanca.
22 Campaign
for Papua, New Guinea, ends.
27 Eighth
Air Force makes its first attack on Nazi Germany, at Wilhelmshaven.
2-Feb Soviet
Army destroys remnants of German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.
9 Organized
Japanese resistance on Guadalcanal ceases.
20 Rommel
breaks through Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.
25 Allies
retake Kasserine Pass.
2-4 March
The Allies defeat the Japanese in
the Battle of the Bismarck Sea.
13 Japanese
troops retreated across the Yangtze
16 Final
Allied offensive in Tunisia begins.
18 Americans
capture E1 Guettar.
20 - 27 Montgomery
breaks through the Mareth Line.
11 - 31 May With
recapture of Attu by Allies Japanese are driven from the Aleutians.
13 Axis
forces in northern Africa surrendered.
12 -25.
TRIDENT Conference in Washington.
13
Axis forces in Tunisia surrender.
1-30 June Shipping losses reach
new low, signalizing victory over U-boat.
30 Allies begin operation for
reduction of Rabaul (CARTWHEEL) with attacks in central Solomons and New
Guinea.
4-Jul
Germany opened an assault near the
Soviet city of Kursk
10 Allies
invade Sicily.
25 Mussolini
falla from power in Italy
14 - 24 Aug
QUADRANT Conference at Quebec.
17 End
of Sicily campaign.
23 Germans
abandon Kharkov.
25 Allies
complete occupation of New Georgia, Solomon Islands.
3-Sep British troops invade Southern
Italy.
Italy
secretly signed an armistice with the Allies
4-16. Southwest
Pacific forces recapture Lae-Salamaua, New Guinea.
8 Italy formally surrenders.
9 Allies
under U.S. Fifth Army land on the Salerno beaches; British troops land at
Taranto.
Allies failed to pierce
German defenses at the Hitler Line south of Rome
11 Italian Fleet is surrendered at Malta.
1-Oct
Allies enter Naples and occupy
Foggia airfields.
2
Australians seize Finschhafen, New
Guinea.
13
Italy declares war on Nazi Germany.
14 Soviets
reach Zaporodzhe, industrial center of Ukraine.
19 - 30
Soviet,
British, American Foreign Ministers and military representatives confer in
Moscow.
1-Nov
South
Pacific forces invade Bougainville.
5 U.S.
Fifth Army attacks German Winter Line in Italy
6 The
Russians captured Kiev.
20 Opening
of Central Pacific offensive (Makin and Tarawa in Gilberts).
22 - 7
-Dec
Allied conferences, Cairo-Tehran
(SEXTANT, EUREKA).
14 Soviet armies begin first phase of
winter offensive.
26 Southwest
Pacific troops invade New Britain at Cape Gloucester.
1944
15-Jan
USSR opens offensive to relieve
Leningrad.
20 In Italy, beginning of
unsuccessful operations to cross the Rapido River and seize Cassino.
22 VI
Corps, U.S. Fifth Army, lands at Anzio.
27 The
Russians broke the siege of Leningrad
31 Central
Pacific forces invade the Marshall Islands.
12-Feb General Eisenhower is formally
designated Supreme Commander, Allied Expeditionary Force, Europe, by Combined
Chiefs of Staff.
18
U.S. Naval forces attack Truk in
Caroline Islands.
20 Reduction of Rabaul
completed with Japanese abandonment of it as an airbase.
24 In Burma, Merrill’s
Marauders advance into Hukawng Valley, with the Myitkyina airfield as their
goal.
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