WWII Timeline
1933-1945
1933
• Hitler Comes to Power
1936
• Hitler takes back the Rhineland
1937
• Germany Annexes Austria
–
Hitler's arrival in
Austria
1938
• Germany starts to take over
Czechoslovakia(Sudetenland)
1939
• March-Finish dividing Czechoslovakia
• August 23- Non Aggression pact between Russia
& Germany
• Sept 1-Germany attacks Poland
• Sept 3- Britain & France declare
war on Germany
• Sept 3- FDR announces
American Neutralist
• Sept 17- Russia attacks
Eastern Poland
• Nov 30- Russia invades Finland
Russia attacking Poland 
1940
• Jan-April- “Phony War”
• April 9- Germany invades
Norway
• May 10- Germany invades
Belgium, Holland, & Luxembourg
• May 12- Germany invades France
• May 26-June 4- Miracle at Dunkirk
• June 22- France falls to Germany(divided in ½)
• July 10- Germany begins bombing Britain
• Sept 7- Blitz begins
• Sept 27- Germany, Italy, & Japan sign Tripartite Pact
• Oct 28- Italy invades Greece
1941
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Feb- Rommel moves into North Africa
May- British sink the Bismark
May-June – Stalin ignores warnings of German attack
July 24- Japan invades IndoChina (vietnam)
Aug 1- U.S cuts off oil supplies to Japan
Aug 28- Germany invades Russia (Leningrad)
Sept- Germany attacks U.S naval ships
Nov 26- Japan advances towards Hawaii
- 6 aircraft carriers
1941 continued…
• Dec 5,6- Germans dig in around Moscow, cold weather
stalls Germany, Russians counter and push Germans back
• Dec 7- Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
• Dec 8- U.S declares war on Japan
• Dec 9- Japan attacks MacArthur planes in Philippians
• Dec 10- Guam falls to Japan
• Dec 11- Hitler declares
war on U.S
• Dec 22- Wake Is. Fall to
Japanese
1942
• Jan 2- Manila falls to
Japanese
• Jan 20- Hitler plans
“Final Solution” to Jewish problem
• Feb 20- FDR- ok’s internment camps removing Japanese
Americans (110,000)
• Feb 27- March 1- Japan wins naval battle of Java Sea
• March 11- MacArthur leaves Philippians “I shall Return”
• April 9- 12,000 American soldiers surrender to Japanese
• April 10- Bataan Death March (85 miles in 6 days)
• April 18- Doolittle Raids
1942 continued…
• May- Japanese naval codes broken by American Joseph
Rochefort
• May 2-8 – The battle of Coral Sea, total fight done by air
• June- Germany turns attention to Southern oil fields of
Russia (Stalingrad<-Sept 3)
• June 3&4- Battle of Midway, Japan looses 4 aircraft
carriers
• June 21- Rommel in N.Africa captures Tobruk leaving
clear road to Egyptian oil fields
Battle of Midway
1942 continued again…
• Aug 7- U.S captures
Guadalcanal fighting continues
through December
• Sept- Rommel runs out of gas
• Oct 23-Nov 4 – 2nd Battle of El
Alamein-pushes Rommel back
• Nov 8-13 – American troops
land in N.Africa
• Nov 19- Germans trapped
around Stalingrad
Europe in 1942
1943
• Jan 31- Germany surrenders in Stalingrad
• Feb 9- Battle for Guadalcanal ends
- 1,752 US died
- 24,000 Japanese died
• Feb 14-20- Fighting in N.Africa Sherman
tank defected by German Tiger Tank
• March 9- Rommel leaves N.Africa
• April 1- food rationing begins in U.S
• April 19- Massacre of Jews in Warsaw
begins
Tiger Tank
Sherman Tank
1943 continued…
• May 9-14- Germans & Italians in N.Africa surrender
• July 9-10- U.S & British invade Sicily, taken August 17th
• July 12- Zitadelte greatest tank battle in History
Germany vs. Russia
• July 25- Mussolini arrested by Italian police
• Sept 8- Italy surrenders to Allied forces
• Sept 10- Germany forces outer Rome & take over the
country
• Oct 13- Italy declares war on Germany
• Nov 20-23- U.S Marines attack Gilbert Islands
• Nov 28-Dec 1- “Big Three” meet in Tetra, Iran
1944
• Jan-June- Massive buildup of troops in
Southern England
• Jan 22- Allied troops land in Italy (Anzio)
• March 6- U.S first attacks Berlin 660 Bombers, 800
fighters
• June 4- U.S forces liberate Rome & Italy
• June 6- D-Day “operation overload”
• July 10- City of Caen is take back by Allies
• July 30- Patton’s Third army breaks out of Normandy to
the south
• Aug 10- Americans recapture Guam
• Aug 25-26- Allied forces liberate Paris
1944 continued…
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Sept 17-25- Operation Market Garden- Failure
Oct 14- Rommel commits suicide
Oct 20- MacArthur returns to Philippines
Oct 23-26- Leyte Gulf- Japanese loss, first Kamakazees
Dec 16- Battle of the Bulge, through Jan 27 1945
1945
• Feb 4-11- Yalta conference on the
Black Sea
• Feb 19-March 26- Iwo Jima
• March 29- Bombing of Tokyo
• April-June 22- The Battle of Okinawa
• April 12-FDR dies
- Eisenhower discovers “Death” camps
• April 30- Hitler commits suicide
• May 2- German Army in Italy surrenders
• May 7- Germans sign a surrender
1945 continued…
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May 7- Germans sign a surrender
May 8- VE Day
July 16- Detonation of A-bomb in New Mexico
Aug 6-A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima
Aug 9- A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki
Aug 15- VJ-Day
Sept 2-Surrender
Ceremonies, USS
Missouri