World War Two timeline

1939 Timeline

Sep 1	Germany invades Poland, world war 2 begins.
Sep 3	Britain and France declare war on Germany.
Sep 8	The US remains neutral but president Roosevelt declares 'limited national emergency'.
Sep 17	Russia invades Poland
Sep 27	Warsaw surrenders
Oct 6	The last remaining polish forces surrender
Nov 30	Russia invades Finland

1940 Timeline

Jan 17	The first German Enigma messages are decoded by British intelligence
Mar 12	Russia-Finland war ends. It convinces Hitler that the Russian military is ineffective.
Apr 8	Germany invades Denmark and Norway.
Apr 14	British forces land in Narvik, Norway, but leave in 10 days
May 10	Germany invades France, Holland, Belgium, Luxemburg. Winston Churchill becomes Britain's prime minister.
May 20	German forces reach the English channel.
May 27	Evacuation of British and French forces to Britain at Dunkirk begins.
Jun 4	The evacuation at Dunkirk ends. 338,000 troops were rescued. Churchill declares that Britain will never surrender.
Jun 9	Norway surrenders
Jun 10	Italy declares war on the collapsing France and on Britain.
Jun 14	German troops march into Paris
Jun 18	Russia invades Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Jun 22	France surrenders
Jun 27	Russia annexes the eastern regions of Romania.
Jul 1	Germany invades the British Channel Islands.
Jul 10	The 'Battle of Britain' air campaign begins.
Jul 18	Churchill declares this is Britain's finest hour.
Aug 8	The Luftwaffe begins to bomb British early warning radars
Aug 15	The Luftwaffe loses 76 aircraft in one day
Aug 25	British night bombers bomb Berlin
Sep 3	Hitler changes the Luftwaffe's objective from destroying the Royal Air Force to bombing London. This allows the RAF to recover and win the battle of Britain.
Sep 13	Italy invades British-held Egypt from Libya, the north African campaign begins.
Sep 15	The largest Luftwaffe daytime bombardment, it loses 56 aircraft
Sep 27	Japan joins the 'axis'
Oct 7	German troops enter their Ally Romania, Germany's only source of oil which is threatened by Russia
Oct 12	Hitler cancels the invasion of Britain.
Oct 23	Spain rejects Hitler's offer to join the war and remains neutral.
Oct 28	Italy invades Greece from Albania, but stopped, twice.
Nov 11	British carrier aircraft sink Italian fleet in Taranto's harbour. Yamamoto in Japan is impressed by their success.
Nov 20	Hungary and Romania, both military dictatorships, join the axis.
Dec 9	British forces in Egypt counter attack the Italians and advance along the Libyan coast

1941 Timeline

Feb 12	Hitler sends Rommel and the 'Afrika Korps' to help the Italians in north Africa
Mar 1	Bulgaria joins the axis. The axis-Russian border now stretch from the Baltic sea to the black sea.
Mar 3	Rommel attacks the British forces in north Africa.
Mar 5	British troops arrive at Greece to support it.
Apr 6	Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece
Apr 13	After military clashes, Japan and Russia sign non-aggression pact.
Apr 17	Yugoslavia surrenders. British forces evacuate Greek mainland to Crete
Apr 27	German troops occupy Athens
May 9	U-boat U-110 is captured with Enigma settings tables
May 20	German paratroopers and airborne troops invade Crete by air
May 31	British forces in Crete surrender.
Jun 8	British forces aided by Israeli volunteers invade French controlled Syria and Lebanon
Jun 22	Germany invades Russia. Hitler orders "maximum cruelty" against civilians, which results in fanatic Russian resistance.
Jul 3	Stalin orders the 'scorched earth' strategy.
Jul 16	German army group 'centre' takes Smolensk, just 220 miles from Moscow.
Jul 21	The Luftwaffe bombs Moscow
Jul 24	Japan invades French Indo-China (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)
Jul 29	Hitler, eager to occupy the rich Ukraine first, orders to stop army group centre's advance to Moscow and to transfer its two tank armies to army groups 'north' and 'south'. This is perhaps Hitler's greatest mistake. The German generals argue in vain against it.
Jul 31	Hermann Goering orders the SS to prepare "the final solution", the plan to murder the millions of European jews.
Sep 6	Hitler orders to restore the advance to Moscow, in order to take it "in the limited time before winter". Army group 'centre', is given back its two tank armies, plus a third tank army and additional air units.
Sep 15	The long German siege of Leningrad begins.
Sep 18	The Germans in the south occupy Kiev and reach the Crimea.
Oct 2	The final German attack towards Moscow begins (operation Typhoon).
Oct 15	Rains stop German advance to Moscow due to deep mud which stops both tanks and infantry.
Oct 16	Russian government leaves Moscow, the Germans occupy Odessa.
Oct 17	General Tojo becomes Japan's prime minister
Oct 21	Churchill orders top priority to any request by the Enigma decoders.
Oct 26	The Germans occupy Kharkov
Nov 15	With the mud frozen by the dropping temperatures, German advance to Moscow resumes.
Nov 30	The foremost German forces reach 27km from Moscow, but can advance no further due to strong Russian resistance.
Dec 6	At temperatures of -34C (-29F) and below, a major Russian counter attack near Moscow begins. Moscow is saved, and the Germans are pushed back.
Dec 7	The Japanese navy attacks Pearl Harbour and the Phillipines, and the US joins the war. With the German failure to defeat Russia, which is marked by their failure to take Moscow, and with the United States joining the war a day later, This date marks the main turning point of world war 2
Dec 11	Germany and Italy declare war on the US.
Dec 19	Hitler orders "fanatic resistance" and appoints himself military commander-in-chief.

1942 Timeline

Jan 2	Japanese forces occupy Manila
Jan 10	Japanese forces invades Indonesia
Jan 11	Japanese forces occupy Malaysia
Jan 12	Japanese forces invade Burma
Jan 13	German U-boats begin to sink ships along the US east coast.
Jan 21	Rommel begins another offensive in north Africa
Jan 25	Japanese forces invade the Solomon islands
Jan 26	US troops begin to arrive in Britain
Feb 15	Singapore surrenders to the Japanese
Mar 20	'industrial-scale' murder of Jews by poison gas begins in Nazi death camps.
Apr 18	Doolittle's raid - US bombers bomb Tokyo.
May 7	Battle of the Coral Sea. One Japanese carrier and one American carrier are sunk
May 6	The last American troops in the Philippines surrender
May 8	The German spring offensive in southern Russia begins.
Jun 4	The battle of Midway. Four Japanese carriers are sunk, and one American carrier. Japan's naval superiority is lost.
Jul 3	Japanese forces land in Guadalcanal
Jul 28	Stalin forbids further Russian retreats, at any cost.
Aug 7	US forces land in Guadalcanal
Aug 13	Montgomery becomes commander of the British 8th army in north Africa
Aug 19	Allied landing in Dieppe fails.
Aug 23	The German 6th army reach Stalingrad, the battle of Stalingrad begins.
Sep 6	The German advance in Stalingrad is stopped.
Sep 23	The battle of El Alamein in north Africa begins.
Nov 8	Allied forces land in western north Africa, at Rommel's back
Nov 19	The Russian flanking counter attack around Stalingrad begins
Dec 19	The Germans fail to break the encirclement of their army in Stalingrad

1943 Timeline

Feb 2	The last German forces in Stalingrad surrender
May 13	The long north Africa campaign ends. The allies control north Africa
May 22	41 German u-boats sunk in 3 weeks. Doenitz retreats all u-boats from the North Atlantic
Jul 5	The battle of Kursk begins
Jul 10	The allies invade Sicily
Jul 25	Mussolini is replaced and arrested.
Aug 10	The Germans know the the Enigma was decoded, but believe the new models and procedures are safe again.
Sep 3	The allies invade Italy's mainland
Sep 8	Italy surrenders. The German forces in northern and central Italy occupy it
Sep 25	The Russians liberate Smolensk
Oct	Allied anti submarine bases established in the Azores, in the middle of the Atlantic ocean
Nov 6	The Russians liberate Kiev
Nov 19	The marines land in Tarawa
Nov	Rommel takes command of the 'Atlantic wall' in the French coast
Dec	P-51 fighters provide all-the-way long range escort to bombers over Germany

1944 Timeline

Jan 16	Eisenhower becomes supreme commander of western allies forces
Jan 22	Allies land in Anzio, Italy
Mar	The Russians advance into the Ukraine
Apr 10	The Russians liberate Odessa
May	Allied bombers begin to concentrate on the German fuel industry
Jun 5	The German navy's Enigma messages are decoded almost in real time.
Jun 6	D-Day. American, British, Canadian forces invade France at the beaches of Normandy
Jun 12	1st German V-1 cruise missile attack on Britain
Jun 15	The marines land in Saipan
Jun 19	Battle of the Philippine sea
Jun 22	The Russians advance to Belarus
Jun 27	Cherbourg is liberated
Jul 20	Hitler survives an assassination attempt by senior German officers with light wounds.
Jul 21	Hitler appoints General Guderian to chief of the army (OKH). The marines land in Guam
Jul 24	The marines land in Tinian
Jul 28	The Russians reach the old German-Russian border in central Poland
Jul 30	Patton breaks out of the beachhead deep into France
Aug 1	Warsaw revolts against the Germans
Aug 15	The allies land in southern France
Aug 23	Romania surrenders to the Russians. Its oil fields were Germany's only source of natural oil
Aug 25	Paris is liberated.
Aug	Allied fighters achieve air superiority over Germany
Sep 6	Finland and Bulgaria surrenders to the Russians
Sep 8	1st German V-2 ballistic missile attack on Britain
Sep 17	Operation 'Market Garden' in Holland
Oct 5	British forces land in Greece
Oct 10	The Germans evacuate Riga, Latvia
Oct 14	Athens is liberated
Oct 20	The marines land in Leyte
Nov 14	B-29 bombers begin to bomb Tokyo from bases in the Mariana islands
Dec 16	The German attack in the Ardennes begin (Battle of the Bulge)

1945 Timeline

Jan 9	The marines land in Luzon, Philippines
Jan 23	The Russians reach Germany itself at the Oder river
Jan 27	The Russians liberate the Auschwitz death camp
Jan 28	The Ardennes campaign ends
Feb 13	The Russians occupy Budapest, Hungary. Dresden bombed.
Feb 19	The marines land in Iwo Jima
Mar 4	Manila is liberated
Mar 6	The allies occupy Cologne, Germany
Mar 7	US forces cross the Rhine on the Remagen bridge
Mar 16	The battle of Iwo Jima ends
Mar 27	V-2 missile attacks end
Apr 1	German forces encircled in the Ruhr by the Americans
Apr 6	The marines land in Okinawa. Japan orders all its forces to use kamikaze suicide tactic
Apr 7	The super battleship Yamato is sunk on its way to a kamikaze fight in Okinawa
Apr 10	The allies occupy Hanover
Apr 11	The allies liberate the Buchenwald death camp
Apr 12	President Roosevelt dies.
Apr 13	The Russians enter Vienna
Apr 16	The Russians begin final advance to Berlin
Apr 25	American and Russian forces meet
Apr 26	German defence in northern Italy finally collapses
Apr 29	Mussolini is executed by the Italian resistance. The allies liberate the Dachau death camp
Apr 30	Adolph Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin. He appoints Admiral Doenitz as his successor.
May 8	Germany surrenders. The war in Europe ends
May 28	450 B-29 bombers bomb Yokohama
Jun 2	660 B-29 bombers bomb Japanese cities
Jun 21	Battle of Okinawa ends
Jul 16	the US tests the atomic bomb in New Mexico. It works
Aug 6	Hiroshima is destroyed by an atomic bomb
Aug 8	Russia declares war on Japan
Aug 9	Nagasaki is destroyed by an atomic bomb
Aug 14	Japan surrenders. World war 2 finally ends.