World War 2 Timeline
1929
The Great Depression. The American economy crashes and German people are hit badly with poverty.
This is because they are still recovering from the First World War and used American loans to help them rebuild the economy.
People do not have enough to eat and there are no jobs. They look for a new leadership that will help them get back on their feet.
Hitler’s Nazi party come up with a slogan to make people vote for them: ‘work and bread’ (‘Arbeit Und Brot’). Nazi propaganda (mass media to brainwash people) begins.
1933
January 30
Adolf Hitler is elected Chancellor (like prime minister) of Germany. He has a party called the Nazi party who takes power.
Hitler introduces censorship (where there are limits on what newspapers can say), and passes the Enabling Act. The Enabling Act makes him dictator for at least four years.
This means he cannot be voted out.
1934
Hitler merges the posts of chancellor and president.
1936
October 25
Nazi Germany and the Fascist government from Italy form the Rome-Berlin Axis Treaty (a pact agreeing to support each other).
1936
25th November
Japan and Germany sign a pact to fight against Russia and communism called the ‘Anti-Comintern’ pact.
1937
July 7
Japan invades China.
1938
March 12
Hitler invades Austria and takes it over: this is known as ‘Anschluss’.
1939
September 1
Germany invades Poland and World War 2 begins.
1939
September 3
France and Great Britain declare war on Germany.
1940
April 9 to June 9
Germany takes control of Denmark and Norway.
1940
May 10 to June 22
German has a policy called Blitzkrieg (‘lightening war’) to very quickly take a lot of western Europe including the Netherlands, Belgium, and northern France.
1940
May 30
Winston Churchill becomes prime minister in Britain.
1940
June 10
Italy joins the war (on Germany’s side as a member of the Axis Powers).
1940
July 10 – October
The Battle of Britain: Germany attacks Great Britain in the air.
1940
September 22
Germany, Italy, and Japan join to sign the Tripartite Pact (the Axis Alliance).
1941
June 22
The Axis Powers attack Russia with over four million troops.
1941
December 7
Pearl Harbor: A Japanese attack on the US navy. The next day the US enters World War II (on the Allies’ side).
1942
June 4
The Battle of Midway: the US navy defeats the Japanese navy.
1942
July 10
The Allies invade Italy (and take the island of Sicily).
1943
September 3
Italy surrenders to the Allies but Germany helps Mussolini to escape and set up a government in Northern Italy.
1944
June 6
D-day and the Normandy invasion. Allied forces invade France and push back the Germans.
1944
August 25
Paris (which was under German control) is freed.
1944
December 16
The Battle of the Bulge: Germans launch a huge attack but lose to the Allies.
1945
February 19
US Marines invade the island of Iwo Jima and seize control from Japan.
1945
April 12
US President Franklin Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman replaces him.
1945
March 22
The US Third Army (under General Patton) crosses the Rhine River in Germany.
1945
April 30
Adolf Hitler commits suicide because he knows Germany has lost the war.
1945
May 7
Germany surrenders.
1945
August 6
The United States drops the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima, Japan. The city is devastated and many innocent people are killed.
1945
August 9
Another atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
1945
September 2
Japan surrenders to US General Douglass MacArthur and the Allies.
