GregP
Major
World War II Timeline Revisited Just for Fun
1939
1 Sep 39 Germany invades Poland.
2 Sep 39 The passenger liner SS Athenia is sunk by the German submarine U-30.
2 Sep 39 Italy proclaims neutrality in the German-polish conflict.
3 Sep 39 Britain, Frace, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa declare war on Germany.
5 Sep 39 United States proclaims neutrality.
7 Sep 39 French troops enter Saar, Germany.
10 Sep 39 Canada declares war on Germany.
16 Sep 39 British carrier HMS Courageous sunk.
17 Sep 39 Soviet Union invades Poland.
19 Sep 39 Soviet and German troops meet at Brest-Litovsk, Poland.
27 Sep 39 Warsaw surrenders.
6 Oct 39 Last organized resistance in Poland is crushed.
14 Oct 39 British battleship HMS Royal Oak sunk in the Scapa Flow naval base by a German submarine.
8 Nov 39 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in Bürgerbräukeller, Munich. The carpenter George
Elser is later arrested.
30 Nov 39 Soviet Union invades Finland.
1 Dec 39 Stalin forms a soviet puppet-regime in occupied Terijoki, Finland, led by Otto-Wille Kuusinen.
2 Dec 39 Soviet Union forces occupies Petsamo, Finland.
17 Dec 39 German battleship Graf Spee scuttled of Montevideo, Uruguary, following the Battle of the River Plate.
1940
17 Feb 40 British destroyer HMS Cossack board the German Altmark in Norway and free 400 British prisoners.
21 Feb 40 Soviet Union bombs Pajala, Sweden.
13 Mar 40 Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union
18 Mar 40 Italy joins the war with Germany.
8 Apr 40 British and French ships mine norwegian coastal waters and ports.
9 Apr 40 Germany invades Denmark and Norway (Operation Weserübung).
14 Apr 40 The allies send forces to Norway.
3 May 40 Vidkun Quisling becomes leader in Norway.
10 May 40 Germany invades Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and France.
10 May 40 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns and is replaced by Winston Churchill.
10 May 40 British forces land on Iceland.
11 May 40 Belgian fortress Eben Emael captured by German troops.
13 May 40 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina leaves the Netherlands.
14 May 40 Germany bombs Rotterdam.
15 May 40 Holland surrenders.
19 May 40 Britain bombs Bremen and Hamburg.
20 May 40 German forces reach the English Channel.
26 May 40 Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkerque begins (Operation Dynamo).
27 May 40 Belgium surrenders.
7 June 40 King Haakon leaves Norway onboard HMS Devonshire.
8 June 40 Allied forces are evacuated from Narvik, Norway.
8 June 40 British carrier HMS Glorious sunk.
10 June 40 Norway surrenders.
10 June 40 Italy declares war on Britain and France.
10 June 40 Italy invades France and bombs Malta.
11 June 40 Britain bombs Turin.
14 June 40 Germans occupy Paris.
18 June 40 Soviet Union invades the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
18 June 40 Germany begins transporting troops through neutral Sweden with the permission of the Swedish
government.
22 June 40 France signs an armistice with Germany.
24 June 40 France signs an armistice with Italy.
27 June 40 Soviet Union invades Romania. Romania cedes Bessarabia and northern Bucovina to the Soviet
Union.
28 June 40 Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
30 June 40 Germany invades the Channel Islands.
3 July 40 French fleet in Oran, Algeria, sunk by the British fleet.
9 July 40 Vichy is made the capital of France.
10 July 40 Battle of Britain begins.
11 July 40 Philippe Pétain is made leader of Vichy France.
19 July 40 Adolf Hitler broadcasts peace offer to Britain, but it is rejected.
3 Aug 40 Italy invades British Somaliland.
8 Aug 40 German Luftwaffe begin bombing the British radar-installations.
19 Aug 40 Italy controls entire British Somaliland.
25 Aug 40 Britain bombs Berlin.
3 Sep 40 USA trades Britain 50 destroyers for Atlantic bases.
13 Sep 40 Italy invades Egypt.
16 Sep 40 USA introduces conscription.
23 Sep 40 The allies attack Dakar.
27 Sep 40 Tripartite Pact (Axis) signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
7 Oct 40 German troops enter Romania.
23 Oct 40 Adolf Hitler meets with the spanish dicator Franco to persude him to join the war, but fails.
28 Oct 40 Italy invades Greece from Italian occupied Albania.
1 Nov 40 Italy bombs Athens and Salonika.
14 Nov 40 Greek army repels the Italian invasion and enter Albania.
20 Nov 40 Hungary, led by Miklos Horthy, joins the axis powers.
23 Nov 40 Romania, led by Marshall Ion Antonescu, joins the axis powers.
23 Nov 40 Slovakia, led by Premier Tuka, joins the axis powers.
15 Dec 40 British troops begins an offensive in North Africa.
1941
5 Jan 41 The allies enter Libya.
22 Jan 41 The allies captures Tobruk, Libya.
6 Feb 41 The allies captures Benghazi, Libya.
11 Feb 41 British forces invades Italian Somaliland.
12 Feb v Erwin Rommel is made commander of the German Afrika Korps.
16 Feb 41 Bulgaria and Turkey signs non-aggression pact.
16 Feb 41 10.000 Jews deported from Vienna.
25 Feb 41 The allies captures Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland.
1 Mar 41 Bulgaria joins the axis powers.
7 Mar 41 British troops arrive in Greece.
9 Mar 41 Italian offensive in Greece. It is halted within a week.
11 Mar 41 The Lend-Lease act is implemented.
25 Mar 41 Yugoslavia joins the axis powers.
27 Mar 41 The pro-German regime in Yugoslavia is toppled.
30 Mar 41 German troops begin their offensive in North Africa.
3 Apr 41 The pro-German general Rasch Ali Gailani takes power in Iraq.
4 Apr 41 German troops captures Benghazi.
4 Apr 41 The allies capture Addis Abeda.
6 Apr 41 Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
10 Apr 41 German troops captures Zagreb.
10 Apr 41 Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska) is declared independent.
10 Apr 41 Danish Greenland is placed under US control.
10 Apr 41 German troops besiege Tobruk.
12 Apr 41 German troops captures Belgrade.
13 Apr 41 Soviet and Japan sign non-aggression pact.
17 Apr 41 Yugoslavia surrenders.
17 Apr 41 British troops begin leaving the Greek mainland.
17 Apr 41 Croatia declares war on Britain.
22 Apr 41 German troops captures Thessaloniki, Greece.
24 Apr 41 The allied troops are evacuated from Greece.
27 Apr 41 German troops captures Athens.
2 May 41 British troops begin an offensive against the pro-German regime in Iraq.
10 May 41 The German deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland on a peace mission.
16 May 41 The Italian forces in east Africa surrenders.
20 May 41 German airborne assault on Crete.
24 May 41 The German battleship Bismark is sunk by the British navy.
31 May 41 The British forces on Crete surrenders.
31 May 41 British troops capture Bagdad.
8 June 41 The allies invades Vichy controlled Syria and Lebanon.
22 June 41 Germany invades Soviet Union.
22 June 41 Italy and Romania declare war on Soviet Union.
25 June 41 Soviet Union bombs Finland.
26 June 41 Finland and Hungary declare war on Soviet Union.
28 June 41 German troops capture Minsk.
29 June 41 Finland begins offensive against Soviet Union.
15 July 41 German troops capture Smolensk.
21 July 41 Germany bombs Moscow.
24 July 41 Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
31 July 41 Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring orders the SchutzStaffel (SS) to prepare the "total solution of
the Jewish question".
16 Aug 41 German troops capture Novogrod.
25 Aug 41 British and soviet troops enter Iran.
29 Aug 41 Finnish troops recapture Viborg.
1 Sep 41 German Jews ordered to wear a yellow star.
5 Sep 41 German troops capture Estonia.
15 Sep 41 The German siege of Leningrad begins.
16 Sep 41 British and soviet troops occupy Iran.
19 Sep 41 German troops capture Kiev.
28 Sep 41 The Lend-Lease act is expanded to include the Soviet Union.
1 Oct 41 Finnish troops capture Petrosadvosk.
16 Oct 41 Soviet Union moves government to Kuibyshev.
17 Oct 41 General Hideki Tojo made Prime Minister of Japan.
16 Oct 41 Romanian troops capture Odessa.
24 Oct 41 German troops capture Kharkov.
3 Nov 41 German troops capture Kursk.
14 Nov 41 British carrier HMS Ark Royal sunk.
22 Nov v German troops capture Rostov.
22 Nov 41 Britain orders Finland to cease all offensive operations against Soviet Union within two weeks
or face war.
25 Nov 41 German troops begin attack on Moscow.
5 Dec 41 German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
6 Dec 41 Britain and Canada declare war on Finland.
6 Dec 41 Soviet counter-offensive at Moscow.
7 Dec 41 Japan boms Pearl Harbour.
7 Dec 41 Japan declare war on USA.
7 Dec 41 Japan invades Siam and Malaysia.
8 Dec 41 The allies (not Soviet Union) declare war on Japan.
8 Dec 41 Japan invades Phillipines.
8 Dec 41 The first gassing of Jews (in Chelmno, Polen).
9 Dec 41 Egypt, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic etc declare war on Japan.
10 Dec 41 New Zealand, South Africa, India, Bolivia etc declare war on Japan.
11 Dec 41 Germany and Italy declare war on USA.
11 Dec 41 Guatemala, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic declare war on Germany.
13 Dec 41 Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia and Romania declare war on USA.
19 Dec 41 Hitler takes complete personal command of the German Army.
25 Dec 41 Japanese troops capture Hong Kong.
25 Dec 41 British troops capture Benghazi.
1939
1 Sep 39 Germany invades Poland.
2 Sep 39 The passenger liner SS Athenia is sunk by the German submarine U-30.
2 Sep 39 Italy proclaims neutrality in the German-polish conflict.
3 Sep 39 Britain, Frace, Australia, New Zealand, India and South Africa declare war on Germany.
5 Sep 39 United States proclaims neutrality.
7 Sep 39 French troops enter Saar, Germany.
10 Sep 39 Canada declares war on Germany.
16 Sep 39 British carrier HMS Courageous sunk.
17 Sep 39 Soviet Union invades Poland.
19 Sep 39 Soviet and German troops meet at Brest-Litovsk, Poland.
27 Sep 39 Warsaw surrenders.
6 Oct 39 Last organized resistance in Poland is crushed.
14 Oct 39 British battleship HMS Royal Oak sunk in the Scapa Flow naval base by a German submarine.
8 Nov 39 Failed assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler in Bürgerbräukeller, Munich. The carpenter George
Elser is later arrested.
30 Nov 39 Soviet Union invades Finland.
1 Dec 39 Stalin forms a soviet puppet-regime in occupied Terijoki, Finland, led by Otto-Wille Kuusinen.
2 Dec 39 Soviet Union forces occupies Petsamo, Finland.
17 Dec 39 German battleship Graf Spee scuttled of Montevideo, Uruguary, following the Battle of the River Plate.
1940
17 Feb 40 British destroyer HMS Cossack board the German Altmark in Norway and free 400 British prisoners.
21 Feb 40 Soviet Union bombs Pajala, Sweden.
13 Mar 40 Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union
18 Mar 40 Italy joins the war with Germany.
8 Apr 40 British and French ships mine norwegian coastal waters and ports.
9 Apr 40 Germany invades Denmark and Norway (Operation Weserübung).
14 Apr 40 The allies send forces to Norway.
3 May 40 Vidkun Quisling becomes leader in Norway.
10 May 40 Germany invades Belgium, Luxembourg, Holland and France.
10 May 40 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns and is replaced by Winston Churchill.
10 May 40 British forces land on Iceland.
11 May 40 Belgian fortress Eben Emael captured by German troops.
13 May 40 Dutch Queen Wilhelmina leaves the Netherlands.
14 May 40 Germany bombs Rotterdam.
15 May 40 Holland surrenders.
19 May 40 Britain bombs Bremen and Hamburg.
20 May 40 German forces reach the English Channel.
26 May 40 Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkerque begins (Operation Dynamo).
27 May 40 Belgium surrenders.
7 June 40 King Haakon leaves Norway onboard HMS Devonshire.
8 June 40 Allied forces are evacuated from Narvik, Norway.
8 June 40 British carrier HMS Glorious sunk.
10 June 40 Norway surrenders.
10 June 40 Italy declares war on Britain and France.
10 June 40 Italy invades France and bombs Malta.
11 June 40 Britain bombs Turin.
14 June 40 Germans occupy Paris.
18 June 40 Soviet Union invades the Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania).
18 June 40 Germany begins transporting troops through neutral Sweden with the permission of the Swedish
government.
22 June 40 France signs an armistice with Germany.
24 June 40 France signs an armistice with Italy.
27 June 40 Soviet Union invades Romania. Romania cedes Bessarabia and northern Bucovina to the Soviet
Union.
28 June 40 Britain recognizes General Charles de Gaulle as the Free French leader.
30 June 40 Germany invades the Channel Islands.
3 July 40 French fleet in Oran, Algeria, sunk by the British fleet.
9 July 40 Vichy is made the capital of France.
10 July 40 Battle of Britain begins.
11 July 40 Philippe Pétain is made leader of Vichy France.
19 July 40 Adolf Hitler broadcasts peace offer to Britain, but it is rejected.
3 Aug 40 Italy invades British Somaliland.
8 Aug 40 German Luftwaffe begin bombing the British radar-installations.
19 Aug 40 Italy controls entire British Somaliland.
25 Aug 40 Britain bombs Berlin.
3 Sep 40 USA trades Britain 50 destroyers for Atlantic bases.
13 Sep 40 Italy invades Egypt.
16 Sep 40 USA introduces conscription.
23 Sep 40 The allies attack Dakar.
27 Sep 40 Tripartite Pact (Axis) signed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
7 Oct 40 German troops enter Romania.
23 Oct 40 Adolf Hitler meets with the spanish dicator Franco to persude him to join the war, but fails.
28 Oct 40 Italy invades Greece from Italian occupied Albania.
1 Nov 40 Italy bombs Athens and Salonika.
14 Nov 40 Greek army repels the Italian invasion and enter Albania.
20 Nov 40 Hungary, led by Miklos Horthy, joins the axis powers.
23 Nov 40 Romania, led by Marshall Ion Antonescu, joins the axis powers.
23 Nov 40 Slovakia, led by Premier Tuka, joins the axis powers.
15 Dec 40 British troops begins an offensive in North Africa.
1941
5 Jan 41 The allies enter Libya.
22 Jan 41 The allies captures Tobruk, Libya.
6 Feb 41 The allies captures Benghazi, Libya.
11 Feb 41 British forces invades Italian Somaliland.
12 Feb v Erwin Rommel is made commander of the German Afrika Korps.
16 Feb 41 Bulgaria and Turkey signs non-aggression pact.
16 Feb 41 10.000 Jews deported from Vienna.
25 Feb 41 The allies captures Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland.
1 Mar 41 Bulgaria joins the axis powers.
7 Mar 41 British troops arrive in Greece.
9 Mar 41 Italian offensive in Greece. It is halted within a week.
11 Mar 41 The Lend-Lease act is implemented.
25 Mar 41 Yugoslavia joins the axis powers.
27 Mar 41 The pro-German regime in Yugoslavia is toppled.
30 Mar 41 German troops begin their offensive in North Africa.
3 Apr 41 The pro-German general Rasch Ali Gailani takes power in Iraq.
4 Apr 41 German troops captures Benghazi.
4 Apr 41 The allies capture Addis Abeda.
6 Apr 41 Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
10 Apr 41 German troops captures Zagreb.
10 Apr 41 Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska) is declared independent.
10 Apr 41 Danish Greenland is placed under US control.
10 Apr 41 German troops besiege Tobruk.
12 Apr 41 German troops captures Belgrade.
13 Apr 41 Soviet and Japan sign non-aggression pact.
17 Apr 41 Yugoslavia surrenders.
17 Apr 41 British troops begin leaving the Greek mainland.
17 Apr 41 Croatia declares war on Britain.
22 Apr 41 German troops captures Thessaloniki, Greece.
24 Apr 41 The allied troops are evacuated from Greece.
27 Apr 41 German troops captures Athens.
2 May 41 British troops begin an offensive against the pro-German regime in Iraq.
10 May 41 The German deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland on a peace mission.
16 May 41 The Italian forces in east Africa surrenders.
20 May 41 German airborne assault on Crete.
24 May 41 The German battleship Bismark is sunk by the British navy.
31 May 41 The British forces on Crete surrenders.
31 May 41 British troops capture Bagdad.
8 June 41 The allies invades Vichy controlled Syria and Lebanon.
22 June 41 Germany invades Soviet Union.
22 June 41 Italy and Romania declare war on Soviet Union.
25 June 41 Soviet Union bombs Finland.
26 June 41 Finland and Hungary declare war on Soviet Union.
28 June 41 German troops capture Minsk.
29 June 41 Finland begins offensive against Soviet Union.
15 July 41 German troops capture Smolensk.
21 July 41 Germany bombs Moscow.
24 July 41 Japanese troops occupy French Indo-China.
31 July 41 Reichsmarshall Hermann Göring orders the SchutzStaffel (SS) to prepare the "total solution of
the Jewish question".
16 Aug 41 German troops capture Novogrod.
25 Aug 41 British and soviet troops enter Iran.
29 Aug 41 Finnish troops recapture Viborg.
1 Sep 41 German Jews ordered to wear a yellow star.
5 Sep 41 German troops capture Estonia.
15 Sep 41 The German siege of Leningrad begins.
16 Sep 41 British and soviet troops occupy Iran.
19 Sep 41 German troops capture Kiev.
28 Sep 41 The Lend-Lease act is expanded to include the Soviet Union.
1 Oct 41 Finnish troops capture Petrosadvosk.
16 Oct 41 Soviet Union moves government to Kuibyshev.
17 Oct 41 General Hideki Tojo made Prime Minister of Japan.
16 Oct 41 Romanian troops capture Odessa.
24 Oct 41 German troops capture Kharkov.
3 Nov 41 German troops capture Kursk.
14 Nov 41 British carrier HMS Ark Royal sunk.
22 Nov v German troops capture Rostov.
22 Nov 41 Britain orders Finland to cease all offensive operations against Soviet Union within two weeks
or face war.
25 Nov 41 German troops begin attack on Moscow.
5 Dec 41 German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
6 Dec 41 Britain and Canada declare war on Finland.
6 Dec 41 Soviet counter-offensive at Moscow.
7 Dec 41 Japan boms Pearl Harbour.
7 Dec 41 Japan declare war on USA.
7 Dec 41 Japan invades Siam and Malaysia.
8 Dec 41 The allies (not Soviet Union) declare war on Japan.
8 Dec 41 Japan invades Phillipines.
8 Dec 41 The first gassing of Jews (in Chelmno, Polen).
9 Dec 41 Egypt, Mexico, Panama, Cuba, Dominican Republic etc declare war on Japan.
10 Dec 41 New Zealand, South Africa, India, Bolivia etc declare war on Japan.
11 Dec 41 Germany and Italy declare war on USA.
11 Dec 41 Guatemala, Costa Rica and Dominican Republic declare war on Germany.
13 Dec 41 Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia and Romania declare war on USA.
19 Dec 41 Hitler takes complete personal command of the German Army.
25 Dec 41 Japanese troops capture Hong Kong.
25 Dec 41 British troops capture Benghazi.
