World War II Timeline

June 1919 Treaty of Versailles is signed

1920s: Germanys Economy is Destroyed
November 1923 Hitler attempts a coup and fails. Sent to jail where he writes Mein
Kampf
October 1929 Stock Market Crash (US). Further destroys German Economy
1930 1937: Rise of the Nazis / Japanese Expansion in Asia
September 1930 Nazis win 18% of seats in Parliament
September 1931 Japan invades Manchuria
January 1933 Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
November 1936 Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy form an Alliance
November 1936 Japan and Nazi Germany form an Alliance
July 1937 Japan invades China
1938: German Expansion Begins
March 1938 Germany annexes Austria
September 1938 Germany annexes part of Czechoslovakia
November 1938 Jews are attacked across Germany (Kristallnacht)
1939: WWII Begins in Europe
March 1939 Great Britain and France promise to protect Poland
August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union make a secret alliance to invade
Poland
September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland, Britain and France Declare War on
Germany
September 17, 1939 The Soviet Union invades Poland (Britain and France do not
declare war)
September 27, 1939 Poland surrenders, divided by Germany and Soviet Union
November 1939 Soviet Union invades Finland
1940: German Expansion & the Axis Powers
April 1940 Germany invades Denmark and Norway
May 1940 Germany attacks Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, France (All are
defeated by end of June)

June 1940 Italy enters war, invades France from south

June 1940 Soviet Union invades Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia)
September 1940 Germany, Italy and Japan sign formal Alliance (Axis Powers)
October 1940 Italy invades Greece
November 1940 Slovakia, Hungary and Romania join Axis Bulgaria joins 4 months
later
1941: Axis Expansion Continues / US Joins the War
April 1941 The Axis invade Yugoslavia
June 1941 Germany and the Axis invade the Soviet Union, breaking the former
treaty
December 1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
December 1941 US declares war on Japan, Japan invades Philippines, Vietnam,
Laos, Cambodia, Singapore
December 1941 Hitler and the Axis declare war on the USA
December 1941 Nazis begin systematic murder of Jews in concentration camps
1942: The Allies Push Back
May, 1942 The British and Americans begin bombing Germany
June 1942 The British and Americans stop Japanese expansion at the Battle of
Midway
November 1942 The US stops the Japanese advancing toward Australia
October 1942 The British defeat the Germans and Italians in Egypt
1943: Continued Losses for the Axis
February 1943 The Soviet Union ends the German advance at the Battle of
Stalingrad
May 1943 The Axis armies in North Africa are defeated
November 1943 The Soviet Union begin retaking Russian cities from the Germans
1944: Germany Surrounded
June 1944 The Allies land in Normandy France and begin attacking Germany from
the West
June 1944 The Soviet Union has pushed Germany out of Russia and is now invading
from the East
August 1944 Western Europe is liberated, the Allies are on the German borders

August 1944 The Germans are forced out of the Balkans

1944 The US lands in the Philippines
December 1944 The Nazis attempt a final invasion of Belgium (Battle of the Bulge)
and fail

1945: Germany and Japan Surrender

March 1945 US troops invade Germany
April 1945 The Soviet Union encircles Berlin Hitler commits suicide
May 1945 Germany surrenders
May 1945 The Allies conquer Okinawa the last island before Japan
August 6, 1945 The US drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima
August 8, 1945 The Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria
August 9, 1945 The United States drops an atomic bomb on Nagasaki
August 10, 1945 The Soviet Union invades North Korea
August 14, 1945 Japan agrees to surrender, formally surrenders September 2

Post WWII: Decolonization and the Cold War

1945 Indonesia begins war of independence from the Dutch
1946 Vietnam begins war of independence from France
1947 Libya gains independence from Italy
1947 India gains independence from the British
1947 Truman Doctrine The USA promises to support any country against the
spread of communism
1947 Marshall Plan US gives aid to help rebuild Europe
1949 Germany is split between the US and the Soviet Union
1949 The Soviet Union becomes the second country with nuclear weapons
June, 1950 Communist North Korea invades the US-Allied South Korea