Events of World War II

Important Dates and Events of World War II
1939
September 1	German forces invaded Poland and World War II began.
September 3	Britain and France declared war on Germany.
September 29	Germany and U.S.S.R., Germany's ally at the time, divide Poland between them.
1940
April 9	German forces invade Denmark and Norway. Allied troops helping Norway were defeated.
May 10	Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands were invaded by Germany.
June 4	Allied troops retreated to Dunkirk in France and were evacuated by a fleet of small boats.
June 10	Italy declared war on Britain and France.
June 22	France surrendered to Germany and a French government of collaboration was set up at Vichy.
July 1	German troops occupied the Channel Islands. The first time that a part of Britain had been occupied by a foreign power since 1066.
July 2	The Battle of Britain. A German bombing offensive began.
September 15	End of the Battle of Britain with the German Luftwäffe demoralised.
1941
March 11	President Roosevelt signed the Lend-lease Bill to aid Britain.
April 6	Germany attacked Yugoslavia and Greece and handed Greece over to Italy.
June 18	Treaty of Friendship between Turkey and Germany signed.
June 22	Germany turned against its Russian ally and Axis troops invaded the U.S.S.R.
September 16	German forces attacked Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. Fighting continued for more than a year.
December 7	Japan attacked Pearl Harbour. Two days later, the United States declared war on Japan.
December 10	Japanese invaded the Phillippines.
December 25	Hong Kong surrendered to Japanese.
1942
February 15	Singapore surrendered to Japanese.
June 3 - 7	Battle of Midway stopped Japan's eastward expansion.
October 23	El Alamein: Allied offensive opened in Egypt.
November 4	Rommel's army in full retreat, westward.
November 7	American forces landed in N.W. Africa, while British forces pushed westwards from Egypt.
1943
January 31	The last German forces in Stalingrad surrendered to the Russian army.
February 9	American forces cleared Japanese from Guadalcanal Island.
May 16	Dams in the Ruhr Valley breached by the R.A.F.
May 17	The German Army in North Africa finally collapsed.
July 10	The Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, was overthrown. Mussolini was rescued by the Germans.
August 17	The Allies occupied the Island of Sicily after 39 days of fighting.
September 7	Italy surrendered when Allied forces landed on the Italian mainland.
1944
June 6	D-Day: 4,000 ships landed Allied troops in France (Normandy).
June 12	First V - 1, flying-bomb, fell on England.
July 20	German generals unsuccessfully attempted to kill Hitler with a bomb.
August 25	Paris liberated. Romania declared war on Germany.
September 5	First V - 2, flying-bomb, fell on England.
1945
January	Allied troops stopped a German offensive, on American held lines, in Belgium in the Battle of the Bulge.
February 19	United States Marines took Iwo Jima island by storm.
April 1	American forces landed on the Japanese island of Okinawa.
April 12	President Roosevelt died. His vice-president, Harry S. Truman, became President.
April 25	Russian forces marching from the east and Allied troops from the west met at Torgua, Germany.
May 8	All German resistance ended after suicide of Hitler and capture of Berlin (VE Day).
June 26	Fifty nations signed the United Nations charter in San Francisco.
August 6	Hiroshima, Japan, was destroyed by an atomic bomb. Nagasaki was bombed three days later.
August 8	The U.S.S.R. declared war on Japan. U.S.S.R. attacked Japanese in Manchuria.
August 14	Japan surrendered to the Allies unconditionally (VJ Day).
August 19	End of U.S.S.R's Manchuria campaign Officially ended on August 14 but some Japanese commanders chose to ignore or did not receive the cease-fire order. Final conflict of World War II.
September 2	Japan signed the surrender agreement on board USS Missouri.
September 5	Allies reoccupied Singapore.

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