A Global Conflict
World War II was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all of the great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The war involved the mobilisation of over 100 million military personnel, making it the most widespread war in history. In a state of "total war", the major participants placed their complete economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities at the service of the war effort, erasing the distinction between civilian and military resources. Over seventy million people, the majority of whom were civilians, were killed, making it the deadliest conflict in human history. From the invasion of Poland by Germany on 1 September 1939, to the defeat of Germany and Japan by a relentless tide of aircraft, tanks, ships, and men, the combined Allied effort finally saw the end of war in Europe. Atomic bombs finally ended the war against Japan.
1939
Month | Event |
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JAN |
United States President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, requests Congress to approve a defense budget of $552 million, marking a significant rise in military spending. |
FEB |
Japanese troops landed at Sanya on the southern coast of Hainan island in southern China. Germany responds to the British and French inquiry of 8 Feb 1939 regarding why Germany had not yet guaranteed Czechoslovakian sovereignty, noting that Germany must "await first a clarification of the internal development of Czechoslovakia". |
MAR |
Adolf Hitler begins the annexation of Bohemia and Moravia, both part of Czechoslovakia with large German populations. The operation, which is in direct violation of the Munich Pact, is completed by the 16th. Czechoslovakia ceases to exist, with only Slovakia remaining nominally independent. German troops occupy Prague. |
APR |
Italian forces invade Albania and quickly conquer the country. Hungary withdraws from the League of Nations. |
MAY |
The Italian government agress closer military ties with Germany. The strengthened alliance becomes known as the "Pact of Steel". Adolf Hitler orders his military hig command to begin planning the invasion of Poland. |
JUN |
Tientsin Incident: The Japanese blockade the British concession in Tianjin, China, beginning a crisis which almost causes an Anglo-Japanese war in the summer of 1939. |
JUL |
The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed by the Nazis. |
AUG |
Adolf Hitler gives his final approval for the invasion of Poland, and German forces move to their war stations along Poland's western border. Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop signs a non-agression pact with the Soviet Union's foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, in Moscow. The Soviet Union agrees not to oppose the German invasion of Poland and both countries agree to divide Poland between them. The Soviet leadership believes the agreement will give them time to reorganize their military forces, whose officer corps has been decimated by purges instigated by Joseph Stalin. |
SEP |
A German force of 53 divisions, supported by 1600 aircraft, crosses the German and Slovak borders into Poland in a pincer movement. Operation Full Weiss (White Plan), directed by General Walther von Brauchitsch, aims to totally paralyze Poland's 24 divisions by swift encirclement, thus cutting their lines of supply and communication. While Poland mobilizes its full strength, its forces in action, lacking both air and armored support, are largely placed on the country's borders. They are quickly overrun, and reinforcements often arrive too late to halt the German attacks. |
OCT |
In the first attack on British territory, the Germans hit the Brits at the Firth of Forth. They damage cruisers South-Hampton and Edinburgh and the destroyer Mohawk. |
NOV |
The Soviet Union invades Finland, occupies part of Poland, and, by threatening invasion, takes over Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. |
DEC |
The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for its aggression against Finland. The 1940 Olympic Games, to be held in Finland, are canceled. |
1940
Month | Event |
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JAN |
Reinhard Heydrich is appointed by Göring for the solution to the "Jewish Question."
|
FEB |
Britain and France decide to intervene in Norway to cut off the iron ore trade in anticipation of an expected German occupation and ostensibly to open a route to assist Finland. |
MAR |
The British drop the first bombs on German soil as the RAF hits the seaplane base at Hornum. |
APR |
Germany invades Denmark and Norway with the first major airborne attacks on Allied forces. |
MAY |
Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg. Because of the failure of his appeasement policies, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns. Forming a coalition government, Winston Churchill replaces him. Standing alone, Churchill soon began conferring with U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt for aid to the British cause. |
JUN |
Leaving behind weapons and supplies at Dunkirk, the British evacuate over 338,000 soldiers from France. |
JUL |
Japanese troops begin to occupy the French colony of Indochina. The United States responds by cutting off oil exports to Japan. |
AUG |
Hermann Göring starts a two-week assault on British airfields in preparation for invasion. For some German historians, this is the beginning of the "Battle of Britain." |
SEP |
The London Blitz starts as Germany, attempting to weaken the country's resolve, bombs the British capital. The U.S. Congress passes the Selective Service Act calling for the first peacetime draft in American history. To serve, men had to be five feet tall, weigh 105 pounds, have correctable vision and at least half their teeth. Germany, Italy and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact recognizing their right to establish a new order in Europe and Asia. |
OCT |
Close to 16 million American men between the ages of 21 and 36 are required to register at one of 6,500 draft boards across the country. Nearly 50 million men would register during the war. More than 400,000 Polish Jews are herded into a part of Warsaw known as the Warsaw Ghetto. Italy invades Greece. |
NOV |
Neville Chamberlain dies. The Australian Air Force joins the Desert war in Africa. Night bombing of Britain intensifies in November. |
DEC |
British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launch Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces in Egypt. |
1941
Month | Event |
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JAN |
Japanese Admiral, Isoroku Yamamoto, begins planning an air attack on Pearl Harbor. |
FEB |
Major organizational changes to the US Navy lead to it being divided into three fleets: 1) Atlantic, 2) Asiatic, and 3) Pacific. |
MAR |
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease act to provide aid to Great Britain, despite opposition from isolationists. |
APR |
Germany conquers Greece and Yugoslavia. Greenland is occupied by the United States. With the approval of a "free Denmark," the US will build naval and air bases as counters to the Uboat war. General Erwin Rommel begins the siege of Tobruk. The Allies, who repulse his first attacks, are determined to hold Tobruk as it is the only major port between Sfax in Tunisia and Alexandria in Egypt. Japan and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality pact. |
MAY |
On its first mission, the German battleship Bismarck is hunted down and sunk. |
JUN |
Unleashing its "Barbarossa" plan, Germany invades the Soviet Union without declaring war. Despite massing troops at the border, the Germans encounter little opposition. Hitler is now fighting a two-front war. |
JUL |
Ponary massacre killings begin, with the shooting of Soviet POWs captured during Operation Barbarossa, which began two weeks earlier, and with the deportation of hundreds of Jews from Vilnius to Soviet dug fuel tank pits near the Ponariai suburb of Vilnius, where they are shot or buried alive. Reports by survivors are accepted as hallucinations. |
AUG |
TEXT |
SEP |
As German conquest of the Soviet Union continues, German troops besiege Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). During the siege, which will continue until January 1944, more than 500,000 people in Leningrad will die of starvation. |
OCT |
Japanese Army and Navy officers say Japan should “get ready for war” against the United States. Gen. Hideki Tojo becomes prime minister in a military-controlled government. A German submarine torpedoes the U.S. Navy destroyer Reuben James in the North Atlantic. It is the first US warship sunk in the European War. Only 45 of the ship’s 160 crew members survive. The Germans reach the gates of Moscow. Civilians flee the "Bolshoi Trap" amid panic and looting. Soviet Premier Josef Stalin remains in Moscow, vowing that the city "will be defended to the last." |
NOV |
The United States tells Japan to get out of China and Indochina. Tojo decides that Japan’s only choice is to go to war. Japan sends diplomats to Washington to try to find ways to avoid war with the United States. Six Japanese aircraft carriers and other warships secretly leave northern Japan and head for Pearl Harbor. The United States cuts off all oil exports to Japan. |
DEC |
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Almost at the same time, Japanese warplanes attack the Philippines and two U.S. islands: Wake and Guam, which are later occupied. Japanese troops invade Malaya and Thailand and seize Shanghai. Later in December Japanese troops invade Burma and Hong Kong. Three days after Pearl Harbor, Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. |
1942
Month | Event |
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JAN |
Manila, Philippines, falls to Japanese troops. The Wannsee Conference in Germany establishes the "Final Solution" for Jews in Europe. The plan would attempt to exterminate an estimated 11 million people. |
FEB |
Japanese carrier planes bomb Darwin, Australia. In the Battle of the Java Sea, Japan defeats an Allied strike force, putting Japan in control of Java and the Netherlands Indies. Philip Johnston proposes to the Marines that the Navajo Indians be used to transmit military messages through a secure code. The code talkers would develop an unbreakable code. |
MAR |
Japanese land troops in the Solomon Islands, underscoring Australia's dangerous situation, especially if, as it is soon made clear, an airfield is built on Guadalcanal. |
APR |
First U.S. troops arrive in Australia. On the Bataan Peninsula of the Philippines, U.S. and Filipino troops, low on food and ammunition, surrender. Japanese troops force about 76,000 prisoners to march to distant camps; at least 5,200 Americans die on the march. Sixteen U.S. bombers, led by Lt. Col. James Doolittle, take off from an aircraft carrier 800 miles (1300 kilometers) off Tokyo and make the first bombing raid against Japan. The U.S. government forces thousands of Japanese-Americans to move from the U.S. West Coast to “relocation” camps in isolated areas. |
MAY |
The Battle of the Coral Sea rages on. The first air-naval battle in history prevents the Japanese from landing a large invasion force at Port Moresby and signals America's move from a purely defensive strategy in the Pacific to a mixed defensive-offensive one. Corregidor falls - the last American stronghold in the Philippines is now under Japanese control. |
JUN |
The Battle of Midway is fought. The first defeat of the Japanese navy in 350 years is the turning point in the Pacific as the U.S. goes on the offensive. The Japanese had hoped to smash what was left of the Pacific fleet, take Hawaii, hold its people hostage and force the United States to sue for peace. But American cryptographers had deciphered their plans and the Navy was waiting for them. The Japanese would lose 3,500 men, four carriers, a cruiser and 332 aircraft. The Americans would lose 307 men, the carrier Yorktown, one destroyer and 150 aircraft. Japanese troops land on Attu and Kiska in the Aleutian Islands. A Japanese submarine shells the military depot at Fort Stevens, Oregon in the first attack on the U.S. mainland. |
JUL |
First Battle of El Alamein begins as Rommel begins first assault on British defenses. |
AUG |
American land forces go on the offensive for the first time in the Pacific, landing on Guadalcanal. It would take six months to secure the island, but Japanese expansion is halted. |
SEP |
An aircraft launched from a Japanese submarine drops fire bombs on forests near Brookings, Oregon, in the first bombing of the continental United States. |
OCT |
After months of desert fighting, the British Eighth Army in North Africa puts Germany’s Afrika Corps to flight. |
NOV |
Operation Torch opens as Allied forces land in North Africa. While American planners had a straightforward idea of how to beat the Germans - invade France in the spring of 1943 and drive right for Berlin, the British favored attacking German and Italian forces in North Africa. American commanders thought invading Africa would be a dangerous and wasteful diversion. But Congressional elections were coming up. The Russians launch a major counter-offensive at Stalingrad. It would end with the annihilation of the German 6th Army. |
DEC |
German troops are near Moscow. But, forced to fight in freezing weather, the troops pull back—defeated by the Russian winter, which had also defeated Napoleon’s army in 1812. |
1943
Month | Event |
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JAN |
Japan’s attempt to take New Guinea ends as Australian and U.S. troops defeat Japanese troops at landing sites. Australia is no longer threatened by invasion. |
FEB |
German troops surrender at Stalingrad (now Volgograd). The Soviet Red Army, turning the tide of war, begins an offensive that will end in the capture of Berlin in 1945. |
MAR |
The Battle of the Bismarck Sea is fought for control of New Guinea. The decisive American victory forces the Japanese to re-enforce its troops by submarine — a defensive strategy employed to prevent the continued loss of transports and warships. The battle removes a threat to General Douglas MacArthur's invasion plans. |
APR |
U.S. code breakers intercept a Japanese radio message saying that Admiral Yamamoto is flying to the Solomon Islands. He is killed when U.S. fighters shoot down his plane. |
MAY |
The U.S. Navy announces that, except for the U.S.S. Arizona, U.S.S. Utah, and U.S.S. Oklahoma, all warships sunk at Pearl Harbor have been repaired and returned to sea. |
JUN |
A Japanese destroyer rams and sinks a small U.S. Navy vessel, PT-109, commanded by Lt. (and future President) John F. Kennedy. He and other survivors swim for five hours to reach a small island, where they are later rescued. |
JUL |
U.S. and British forces land in Sicily gaining control of the Mediterranean. The precursor to the invasion of Italy would take 38 days to secure. |
AUG |
To prevent further bombing, Rome is declared an open city. |
SEP |
Italy surrenders. But German troops, continuing to fight the Allies in Italy, seize Rome. |
OCT |
Italy declares war on Germany. |
NOV |
U.S. Marines land on Tarawa, an atoll in the Gilbert Islands. |
DEC |
Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin. |
1944
Month | Event |
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JAN |
Allied forces land at Anzio. |
FEB |
United States troops capture the Marshall Islands. |
MAR |
Soviets occupy Danzig. |
APR |
Odessa is liberated by Soviet forces. |
MAY |
Polish troops, eager to avenge the Nazi invasion of their country, finally take the ruined Monte Cassino monastery and the positions around it. The Gustav Line has broken. The Germans began falling back. Monte Cassino is in Allied hands. |
JUN |
U.S. Marines land on Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands. |
JUL |
U.S. troops liberate Guam. |
AUG |
U.S. Marines take Tinian Island in the Northern Marianas Islands. It will become a base from which B-29 bombers can bomb Japan. |
SEP |
General Dwight Eisenhower is given command of the combined Allied forces in Europe. |
OCT |
U.S. troops land on Leyte, beginning the liberation of the Philippines. |
NOV |
U.S. troops in Germany begin a drive to reach the Rhine River. |
DEC |
The Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces attempt a breakthrough in the Ardennes region. |
1945
Month | Event |
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JAN |
In the largest land battle ever fought by the U.S. Army, American soldiers turn back German troops, winning the Battle of the Bulge. |
FEB |
U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima, in the Bonin Islands. It will be a base for fighter planes escorting B-29s flying from Tinian Island. |
MAR |
B-29s bomb Tokyo, burning half the city; more than 80,000 people die. |
APR |
Vienna, Austria falls to Soviet troops. |
MAY |
Germany surrenders. |
JUN |
Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch Island, is the last part of Europe Allied troops reach. |
JUL |
The first atomic bomb for combat use is assembled on Tinian Island. |
AUG |
Atomic bombs are dropped on Hiroshima (August 6) and Nagasaki (August 9). |
SEP |
Japanese officials sign the surrender document on the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Harbor. |
OCT |
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NOV |
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DEC |
The US Coast Guard was transferred under the US Treasury Department. |