Chronology of World War II

We explain what World War II was, the main events in chronological order and its consequences regarding World War I.

What was World War II?

World War II was a military conflict that faced the forces of the axis (Germany, Italy and Japan) with the allies (France, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union and China).

The war began on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany began the invasion of Poland, and concluded in 1945 with the surrender of Germany (in May) and Japan (in September). Although one of the epicenters of the conflict was Europe, the war reached multiple regions and involved much of the world.

The level of destruction of World War II far exceeded the catastrophe of World War I (1914-1918) and left a balance of more than 40 million dead.

See also: World War II alliances

Chronology of World War II

1939

• September 1. Germany invades Poland.
• September 3. France and the United Kingdom declare war on Germany.
• September 17. The Soviet Union invades the East of Poland and agrees with Germany the distribution of the Polish territory (on September 28).
• November 30. The Soviet Union attacks Finland.
• December 13. British ships face the German battleship Graf Spee in the battle of the Río de la Plata. The battleship, dedicated to attacking vessels in the South Atlantic, is finally sunk by his own captain.

1940

• March 12. The Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty.
• April 9 to June 10. Germany occupies Denmark and Norway.
• May 10. Germany attacks Holland, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. Winston Churchill is appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
• May 26. The evacuation of the British troops in Dunkerque (France) begins.
• June 10. Italy declares war to France and the United Kingdom.
• June 14. German army troops enter Paris.
• June 17. The Soviet Union begins the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
• June 22. The Marshal Pétain government (who assumed as president of the Council of Ministers of France a few days before) signs the Franco-German armistice in Compiègne: France is divided into an area occupied by the German army and a free zone but governed by a collaborative regime (chaired by Pétain and based in Vichy). From exile, General Charles de Gaulle proclaims France Free (June 18) and calls the French to continue fighting
• Julio-October. Battle of England: The Luftwaffe (German Air Force) attacks the south of England with the intention of destroying the Royal British Air Force and preparing the invasion of the island, but fails.
• August 5. Italy invades British Somalia.
• September-October. Italy invades Egypt and Greece. War begins in the Balkans and North Africa.
• November 1940-April 1941. Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece are under the domain of axis troops.
• December 9, 1940-9, 1941. British, Indian and Australian troops take control of Egypt and East Libya after beating Italian troops.

1941

• February 12. The Afrika Korps German, commanded by Erwin Rommel, disembarks in Libya and achieves important victories against the British (at the end of March and early April).
• June-Julio. Allied troops invade Syria and Lebanon.
• June 22. Germany launches the barbarja operation: the invasion of the Soviet Union.
• June 27. The recruitment of the blue division begins (infantry unit formed by Spanish volunteers, integrated into the German Wehrmacht).
• July 6. Soviet are expelled from Eastern Poland and Baltic countries
• July 12. The Anglo-Soviet Pact against Germany is signed.
• August 14. Winston Churchill (United Kingdom) and Franklin D. Roosevelt (United States) spread the Atlantic letter, a statement contrary to territorial ambitions and favorable to commercial relations or cooperation between nations.
• September 8. The German army begins the Leningrad site (which extends until January 1944).
• October 16. General Hideki Tojo is appointed Prime Minister of Japan.
• December 7. Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor, the United States Naval Base in Hawaii is produced. A day later, the United States declares war to Japan.
• December 11. Germany and the United States declare war mutually.
• December 25. Japan occupies Hong Kong.

1942

• January 20. Wansee Conference: The Nazi hierarchy agrees to undertake what he called “the final solution of the Jewish problem.”
• January 21. The Afrika Korps, commanded by Rommel, resumes the offensive in North Africa.
• April 9. Japan completes the occupation of the Philippines.
• June 4 to 7. Japanese defeat in the battle of Midway inclines the balance in favor of the United States on the Pacific front.
• September. The Germans enter Stalingrad.
• October-November. Battle of El Alamein (northern Egypt): British troops under the command of General Bernard Montgomery beat the Germans and Italians. The landing of more allied troops in North Africa occurs.
• November 19. The Red Army begins the counteroffensive in Stalingrad.

1943

• January 14 to 24. At the Casablanca Conference, Roosevelt and Churchill declare that the “unconditional surrender” of the axis powers must be achieved.
• January 31 to February 2. The Germans capitulate in Stalingrad.
• May 12. German troops surrender in Tunisia.
• Julio-August. Allied landing is produced in Sicily and Southern Italy.
• July 25. Benito Mussolini is dismissed from the Italian government and is arrested.
• September 3. Italy signs the armistice with the allies (it becomes public on September 8).
• September 12. Mussolini is rescued by the Germans and is at the head of the Italian Social Republic with capital in Saló, in northern Italy.
• November 22 to 26. At the Cairo Conference, Roosevelt (United States), Churchill (United Kingdom) and Chiang-Kai-Shek (China) agree to remove the conquered territories from Japan and return to China the regions occupied by the Japanese army.
• November 28 to December 1. At the Tehran Conference, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin deliberate on the next military actions on the eastern and western fronts.

1944

• January. Allied offensives are produced in the Pacific and the Soviets break the Leningrad site.
• June 4. Allies enter Rome.
• June 6. Allied landing is produced in Normandy (“day D”).
• June 13. The United States bombs the island of Saipán, in the Pacific, and two days later the US troops disembark on the island.
• July 18. General Tojo resigns to the government of Japan.
• July 23. The Red Army takes Lublin, in Poland.
• August. The Dumbarton Oaks conference begins in which United States leaders, the Soviet Union, the United Kingdom and China, among others, decide the creation of the UN (United Nations Organization).
• August 25. Allies enter Paris.
• September-December. The Soviet Union conquers the Balkan region, except Greece.
• October 20. American troops begin to disembark in the Philippines.
• December 16. Germany launches an offensive in the Ardenas that fails in January 1945.

[1945

• January 17. The Red Army enters Warsaw
• February 4 to 11. At the Yalta conference, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agree on the treatment they will give to Germany at the end of the war, as well as their territorial partition. Stalin undertakes to declare war on Japan when Germany surrenders
• February 19. American troops disembark in Iwo Jima (Japanese island) and, after more than a month of resistance, they manage to overcome the Japanese.
• April 1. American troops disembark on the Japanese island of Okinawa and establish a battle that lasts 82 days.
• April 13. Soviet troops occupy Vienna.
• April 28. Mussolini is executed by a group of partisans.
• April 30. With the Soviet troops on the outskirts of Berlin, Hitler committed suicide.
• May 7 to 8. Germany signs unconditional surrender in Reims (France). The war concludes in Europe.
• Julio-August. At the Potsdam Conference, Harry S. Truman (which happens to Roosevelt in the presidency of the United States), Churchill (then replaced by Clement Attlee) and Stalin agree on the conditions of peace, including the establishment of occupation areas in Germany and the separation between Germany and Austria.
• August 6. The United States launches the first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima (Japan).
• August 8. The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invade Manchuria.
• August 9. The United States launches the second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki (Japan).
• August 14. Japan stops its military actions.
• September 2. Japan signs unconditional surrender in Tokyo Bay. The Second World War concludes.

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References

• AA.VV. (1996). 20th century history. Salvat
• Beevor, A. (2012). World War II. Past and present.
• Hughes, Ta & Royde-Smith, JG (2022). World War II. Britannica Encyclopedia. https://www.britannica.com/
• Stone, N. (2013). Brief history of World War II. Ariel.