TIMELINE – WW II
AUG. 23, 1939 – Nonagression Pact: 10 yr.; divide Poland; USSR would get Baltic states and Finland
Sept. 1, 1939 – Hitler invaded Poland with blitzkrieg
Sept. 17, 1939 – Stalin invaded eastern Poland and then
Fall – 1939 – Stalin annexed Baltic states; invaded Finland
Sept. 1939 – US passed the Burke-Wadsworth Act (first peacetime military draft)
March, 1940 – Finland surrendered to Stalin
April 9, 1940 – Hitler invaded Norway and Denmark
May 1940 – Hitler invaded Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg; Hitler invaded France
May 26 – June 4 – Rescue at Dunkirk
June 1940 – Charles de Gaulle fled France and est. a gov’t. in exile
June 22, 1940 – France surrendered
Summer of 1940 – Battle of Britain (continued until May 1941); Winston Churchill rallied the Brits
Aug. 1940 – US became aware of Japan’s plans to take SE Asian colonies from Europe
Sept. 1940 – June 1942 – Allied and Axis powers fight in North Africa; victories go back and forth
Early 1941 – Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary joined the Axis powers
March 1941 – US passed Lend-Lease Act
April 1941 – Yugoslavia and then Greece fell to Hitler
June 22, 1941 – Operation Barbarossa (Hitler’s invasion of USSR) began – violation of Non-Agression Pact - nullified
June 1941 – March 1943 > Leningrad and Moscow refused to surrender – Hitler’s troops suffered through Russian winter; retreating Soviet troops used “scorched earth policy”
July 1941 – Japan took French Indochine (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos); FDR cut off oil supplies to Japan
Aug. 9, 1941 – Atlantic Charter (upheld free trade and self-determination)
Sept. 4, 1941 – German U-boat fired on US destroyer > US now in undeclared naval war w/ Germany
Dec. 7, 1941 – Japan attacked Pearl Harbor under leadership of Isoroku Yamamoto (2400 Americans killed; 1000+ wounded)
Dec. 8, 1941 – US declared war on Japan
Jan. 1942 – Japan took the Philippines
Jan. – March 1942 – Japan took Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, Philippines, Burma
TIDE TURNS
May 1942 – Battle of Coral Sea
June 1942 – Battle of Midway; General Douglas MacArthur used the “island-hopping” strategy
Oct. 1942 – Battle of El Alamein – Montgomery defeated Rommel in North Africa; Rommel fled west
Nov. 1942 – Operation Torch – Eisenhower / Montgomery defeated Rommel
Jan. 1943 – Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Casablanca (Morocco)
Feb. 2, 1943 – Battle of Stalingrad (started in June 1942)
Feb. 1943 – Battle of Guadalcanal
July 1943 – Allied forces invade Sicily
July 25, 1943 – King Victor Emmanuel has Mussolini arrested; Mussolini put back in power by Germans
Sept. 3, 1943 – Italy surrendered (but fighting continues in the North)
June 6, 1944 – D-Day invasion
Oct. 1944 – Battle of Leyte Gulf – Allied victory despite heavy kamikaze pilots
Dec. 1944 – Battle of the Bulge
Feb. 1945 – Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at Yalta
March 1945 – Battle of Iwo Jima
April 12, 1945 – President FDRoosevelt died; Truman becomes President
May 8,1945 – Germany’s surrender officially signed – V-E Day
June 1945 – Battle of Okinawa
Formation of the UN (United Nations)
July 25, 1945 – Pottsdam Declaration
Aug. 6 – US dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima
Aug. 9 – US dropped atomic bomb on Nagasaki
Sept. 2 – official surrender of Japanese to the US – V-J Day
1946 – Nuremberg Trials
1945 – 1950 US occupation of Japan