Timeline of World War II
World War II, also called the Second World War, was a global conflict during the years 1939–1945.
The principal combatants were the Axis powers—Germany, Italy, and Japan—and the Allies—France, Great Britain, the United States, the Soviet Union, and, to a lesser extent, China.
The war was in many respects a continuation, after an uneasy 20-year hiatus, of the disputes left unsettled by World War I and the conditions imposed on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, ending “The Great War.”
The 50,000,000–70,000,000 deaths incurred in World War II make it the bloodiest conflict, as well as the largest war, in history.
Below are some key dates in World War II.
Some of these events actually took place before the first “official” shot of WWII was fired on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland touching off the war in Europe.
There had already been fighting in the Pacific between Japan and neighboring countries. Japan’s December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor took the war to another level as the United States was thrust into this global conflict.
Even today, everyone has a personal connection to World War II in their family in some manner. It’s up to you to discover what that is.
30 Jan 1933
Aᴅᴏʟғ Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ becomes Chancellor of Germany
1937
Japanese invasion of Manchuria
1938
German Anschluss with Austria
30 SEPT 1938
Treaty of Munich
MARCH 1939
Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ invades Czechoslovakia
MARCH/APRIL 1939
Britain rearms and reassures Poland
LATE AUG 1939
Russia and Germany sign pact
1 SEPT 1939
Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ invades Poland
3 SEPT 1939
Britain and France declare war on Germany
SEPT 1939-MAY 1940
“Phoney War”
APRIL/MAY 1940
Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ invades Denmark and Norway
10 MAY 1940
Blitzkrieg
10 MAY 1940
Chamberlain resigns
26 MAY 1940
Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo)
11 JUNE 1940
Italy enters war on side of Axis powers
22 JUNE 1940
France signs armistice with Germany
10 JULY-31 OCT 1940
Battle of Britain
22 SEPT 1940
Tripartite Pact
DECEMBER 1940
British rout Italians in N. Africa
EARLY 1941
Italy and Germany attack Yugoslavia
22 JUNE 1941
Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ attacks Russia – Operation Barbarossa
7 DEC 1941
Pearl Harbor
8 DEC 1941
Britain and US declare war on Japan
18 APR 1942
Doolittle Raiders B0mb Japan
JUNE 1942
Battle of Midway
AUG 1942
Allies invade N. Africa
23 OCT 1942
Battle of El Alamein
NOV 1942
Battle of Stalingrad/
Allies push into N. Africa
12 MAY 1943
Axis surrenders in N. Africa
JULY 1943
Allies invade Sicily
AUG 1943
Allies take Sicily
3 SEPT 1943
Italy surrenders
NOV 1943
Allies meet at Tehran
JAN 1944
German siege of Leningrad ends
5 June 1944
Rome liberated
6 June 1944
D-Day in Normandy
25 AUG 1944
Paris liberated
8 SEPT 1944
V2 Flying B0mbs
16 DEC 1944
Battle of the Bulge Begins
MARCH 1945
Allies cross the Rhine
APRIL 1945
Russians reach Berlin
28 APRIL 1945
Mussolini captured and executed
30 APRIL 1945
Hɪᴛʟᴇʀ commits suicide
7 MAY 1945
Germany unconditionally surrenders
8 MAY 1945
V.E. day
5 JULY 1945
Churchill loses election
8 July 1945
Russia declares war on Japan
6 AUG 1945
Atomic B0mb dropped on Hiroshima
9 AUG 1945
Atomic b0mb dropped on Nagasaki
14 AUG 1945
Japanese surrender
2 Sept 1945
MacArthur accepts Japan’s unconditional surrender
