WWII Timeline 1939 SEPT 1 German invasion of

WWII Timeline

1939 ------------------------------------------SEPT 1 - German invasion of Poland - 8 pm curfew for Jews in Germany 3 - Britain and France declare war on Germany NOV 8 - Attempted assassination of Hitler 21 - British Blockade Begins 23 - Jews must wear star of David for identification 1940 ------------------------------------------FEB 12 - Deportation of Jews began APR 9 - Germany invades Denmark and Norway MAY 10 - Germany invades Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg - Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister 27 - June 4 - Miracle of Dunkirk, troops rescued by boat JUNE 10 - Italy declares war on Great Britain and France 14 - Germans occupy Paris - Germans break Maginot Line JULY 10 - Air attack on Britain begins SEPT 7 - All out Air war on Britain begins 15 - 185 German planes shot down in the Battle of Britain 17 - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain 27 - Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis signed OCT 16 - US Begins draft 16. 4 million registered 28 - Italy Invades Greece

1940 Cont. ------------------------------------------NOV DEC 15 - Warsaw Ghetto established 20 -25 -Hungary, Rumania, and Slovakia join the Tripartite Pact 15 - Great Britain invades Libya in Northern Africa 1941 ------------------------------------------FEB 12 -Rommel to North Africa from Germany created the Afrika Corps MAR 1 - Bulgaria joins Tripartite 11 - US approves Lend-Lease Act 28 - Battle of Cape Matapan-Great Britain defeated the Italian Fleet APR 6 - Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia 19 - British retreat in Greece 23 - British evacuate Greece 27 - Germans occupy Athens MAY 10 - Rudolph Hess flys to Scotland - German air raids damage Westminster Abby and Parliament in Britain 14 -Bormann becomes Hess’s successor - 3, 600 Jews arrested in Paris 16 - Petain approves collaboration with Germany 20 -Germany starts air attacks on Crete 27 - German ship Bismark sank - US in national emergency

1941 Cont. ------------------------------------------JUNE 1 - Crete falls to Germans 2 - Mussolini and Hitler meet at Brenner Pass 5 - Secretary of State Hull denounces the Vichy Collaboration 14 - Axis funds are frozen in the US 18 - Germany Turkish friendship pack signed in Ankara 22 - Germany attack the USSR from the Baltic to the Black Sea JULY 3 - Scorched Earth Policy began by Stalin 12 - Soviet-British mutual assistance pact 21 - Maidanek Concentration Camp opened 31 - All Jews in Europe are to be sent to extermination camps AUG 9 -12 - Roosevelt meets with Churchill off Newfoundland 14 - Atlantic Charter signed SEPT 19 - Germans occupy Kiev 23 - Gas chamber testing at Auschwitz OCT 2 - Germany drives toward Moscow NOV 18 - British attack in North Africa DEC 1 - Soviets attack at Tula 7 - Pearl Harbor Attacked 8 - US and Britain declare war on Japan 11 - Italy and Germany declare war on the US 13 - Hungary and Bulgaria declare war on the US 19 - Hitler assumes total control of the Armed Forces in the Reich by end of Dec. - Japan taken Hong Kong, Guam and Wake Islands, and invaded Burma, Malaya, Borneo, and the Philippines

1942 ------------------------------------------JAN 1 - United Nations declaration signed by 26 nations 20 - Wannsee Conference- Final Solution 21 - Field Marshall Rommel on the move in North Africa FEB -Japan occupies Singapore MAR 15 - Hitler predicts victory over USSR by summer 29 - Trains form Paris to Auschwitz APR 9 - US surrender to Japan at Batan MAY 6 - Resistance in Philippines ended at Corregidor 7 -8 - Battle of the Coral Sea--Japanese defeated 27 - Rommel counter attacks the British in North Africa 29 - Heydrich-Concentration Camp Commandant-attacked by Czech rebels 30 -31 - Air raid on Cologne by RAF-- 1, 000 bombers June 4 - Heydrich Dies, more grief put on Jews for the death - Battle of Midway--4 Japanese carriers destroyed 5 - Japan general retreat from Midway 10 - Lidice destroyed in reprisal for Heydrichs death 23 - First official gassings at Auschwitz 24 - Eisenhower commander of the US forces in Europe AUG 7 - US Marines land on Guadalcanal 23 - German attack Stalingrad 26 -28 - 7, 000 Jews arrested in unoccupied France

1942 Cont. ------------------------------------------SEPT OCT 18 - Food rations reduced for Jews 4 - All Jews in Concentration Camps sent to Auschwitz to die 23 - Montgomery(GB) attacks the Afrika Corps at El-Alamein NOV 5 - Rommel is defeated at El-Alamein 7 -8 - US and British troops land in Northern Africa 11 - Germany Invades unoccupied France 19 -20 - Soviet counter offensive at Stalingrad 20 - Montgomery captures Benghazi in North Africa, and has Rommel running 27 - French fleet is scuttled (destroyed) by its own sailors so Nazis can’t use 1943 ------------------------------------------JAN 14 -Casablanca Conference 18 - Resistance in Warsaw Ghetto 20 -26 -Deportation of Warsaw Jews to Auschwitz 23 -British enter Tripoli 24 -At the Casablanca Conference unconditional surrender FEB 2 - Stalingrad retaken by Soviets 9 - Guadalcanal secured by US 18 - Student uprising in Munich MAR 9 - Rommel recalled to Germany 13 - New crematorium built at Auschwitz - Failed assassination attempt on Hitler in an airplane 21 - Another failed assassination attempt on Hitler at the Heroes Memorial Day 27 - Mareth line broken in Northern Africa (southeast of Tunis)

1943 Cont. ------------------------------------------APR 17 - British and American forces link up in Tunisia 19 - Nazis destroy the Warsaw Ghetto MAY 7 - Tunis and Bizeria taken by Allies 13 - Germans surrender in Northern Africa 19 - Berlin declared Judenfrei (cleansed of Jews) JUNE 12 - Pantelleria Island of Sicily surrenders to Allies JULY 10 - Allies land in Sicily 19 - Allies bomb Rome 25 - Mussolini dismissed by King Victor Emmanuel AUG 17 - Sicily conquered by Allies SEPT 3 - Allies land on the Italian Mainland 8 - Italy surrenders 9 - Allies land at Salerno in Southern Italy 10 - Germany occupies Rome 13 - Mussolini rescued by Otto Skorzency OCT 1 - Allies enter Naples 13 - Italy declares war on Germany 18 - Jews for Rome sent to Auschwitz 19 -30 -Moscow Conference NOV 6 - Kiev recaptured by Soviets 9 - UNRRA United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration formed 22 -26 - Cairo Conference-- Churchill, Roosevelt, and Ciang. Kai-shek of China 27 - Auschwitz crematorium blown up 28 - Teheran Conference-- Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt

1943 Cont. ------------------------------------------DEC 3 -7 2 nd Cairo Conference-- included Stalin 24 - Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe 26 - Failed assassination attempt on Hitler by Lt. Col. Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg 1944 ------------------------------------------JAN 3 - Soviets reach Polish border 19 - 29 month siege of Leningrad ended 22 - Allies land at Anzio-behind German Lines in Italy FEB 15 - Monte Cassino destroyed-- Broke the Gustav Line APR 5 - Charles de Gaul head of French Liberation 14 - Jews from Athens to Auschwitz 22 - Soviets invade Rumania MAY 11 - Gustav line in Italy attacked--100 miles south of Rome 23 - Allies move from Anzio Beachhead 25 - Germans fall back from Anzio to Terracina JUNE 4 - Rome occupied by US 6 - D Day Allies land at Normandy Beach 12 - First V-1 rocket launched at Great Britain 14 - De Gaulle returns to France JULY 3 - Minsk recaptured by Soviets 9 - Rommel request removal of his troops form Normandy- Refused. Rommel joins the plot to kill Hitler

1944 Cont. ------------------------------------------JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC 18 - Line at Caen broken by Allies 20 -July Plot, fails at Rastenburg-- table stopped bomb from killing Hitler 25 -27 - US break throw in France at Saint-Lo 1 - Polish underground revolts 4 -8 - Trial to hang conspirators in attempt on Hitler 15 - Allies invade southern France 21 -US reaches Seine river in France and surround Paris 23 - Coup-de-tat in Rumania, Rumania surrenders 25 - de Gaul returns to Paris 3 - Brussels liberated by British 5 - Soviet declares war on Bulgaria 8 - First V-2 rocket launched at Britain 9 - Armistice with Bulgaria 12 - Invasion of Germany for West 14 - Rommel commits suicide 20 - Belgrade in Yugoslavia occupied by Soviets 16 - All out Operation Queen in west Germany by Allies 26 - Crematorium to be destroyed at Auschwitz, ordered by Himmler to cover up 4 - Battle of Saar begins 16 - Battle of Bulge, German counteroffensive beaten back to former line

1945 ------------------------------------------JAN 4 -13 - Kamikase pilots sunk 17 US ships 14 -Soviets invade East Prussia 17 - Warsaw liberated by Soviets - Budapest Jews around 80, 000 freed 20 - Armistice with Hungary 27 - Liberation of Lithuania FEB 4 -11 - Yalta Conference of big Three-- Japans unconditional surrender 13 - Fall of Budapest to the Soviets 19 - Marines land on Iwo Jima 23 - German Roer Line protecting Cologne breached by US MAR 3 - Declaration of war by Finland 7 - Fall of Cologne - Crossing of the Rhine by US 16 - Allied attack on the Saar Basin - US marines secure Iwo Jima 23 - British-American crossing of the Rhine in the north and a drive to the Rhur April 1 - US land on Okinawa 10 - More than 15, 000 Jews freed at Bushenwald 11 - Essen captured by the Allies--in west Germany in the heart of the Rhur 12 - Death of President Roosevelt. Truman becomes President. 13 - Occupation of Vienna by the Soviets 15 - Around 40, 000 prisoners freed at Belsen by British 16 - Soviets on final push to Berlin

1945 Cont. ------------------------------------------16 - Soviets on final push to Berlin 23 -Outskirts of Berlin reached by Soviets 25 - Refusal of Himmler’s offer to arrange German Surrender to the Allies - Opening of the United Nations parley at San Francisco - Meeting of American and Soviets troops at Torgau, on the Elbe s. of Berlin 28 - Mussolini executed by Italian partisans near Lake Como and put on display MAY JUNE JULY 30 - Hitler suicide in his Berlin bunker - Around 33, 000 inmates freed from concentration camps by US 2 - Unconditional Surrender of the German armies in Italy - Admiral Karl Doenity continues the Reich govt. - Capitulation of Berlin - Concentration camp at Theresienstadt taken over by Red Cross 5 - Surrender of German armies in the Netherlands, Denmark, and north Ger. 6 - Occupation of Plzen, Czechoslovakia, by US 7 - Unconditional surrender signed by Gen. Alfred Jodl at Reims 8 - V E Day victory in Europe 9 - Field Marshal Keitel and Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov sign the German unconditional surrender documents in Berlin 21 -Okinawa secured by US 26 - United Nations Charter signed by reps of 50 nations in San Francisco 12 -8/2 -Potsdam Conference 16 - Atomic bomb test in New Mexico

1945 Cont. ------------------------------------------AUG 6 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima--US#s 66 -78, 000 K 8 - Soviets invade Manchuria- Declare war on Japan 9 - Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki--US #’s 39, 000 K--Japan #s 240, 000 K 14 - V Day Japan surrendered-- allowed to keep its emperor SEP 2 - Official signing of Japan’s surrender aboard the USS Missouri NOV 20 - Nuremberg tribunal opens DEC 16 -26 - meeting of Big 3 in Moscow October 16, 1946 Execution of Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg