Download MARCH 5TH: The Spitfire, the iconic British fighter of World War Two

 1936
MARCH 5TH: The Spitfire, the iconic British fighter of World War Two, makes its maiden flight at Eastleigh
Aerodrome.
MARCH 7TH: German troops march into the demilitarized Rhineland in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles.
NOVEMBER 25TH: Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact allying them against the Soviet Union.
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1938
FEBRUARY 12TH: The first Jewish refugee children from Germany arrive in Britain on the 'Kindertransport'.
SEPTEMBER 29TH: The Munich Agreement between Britain, France and Germany cedes the Czech Sudetenland to
Germany.
OCTOBER 1ST: German troops march into the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, under the auspices of the Munich
Agreement.
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1939
MARCH 31ST: Britain and France issue guarantees that they will declare war if Poland is invaded by Germany.
AUGUST 23RD: The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact is signed, containing a secret protocol for the partition of
Poland.
AUGUST 30TH: In anticipation of war with Germany, British children begin to be evacuated from cities.
SEPTEMBER 1ST: Germany invades Poland, despite British and French guarantees, bringing Europe to the brink of
war.
SEPTEMBER 3RD: Britain and France declare war on Germany over the invasion of Poland - the start of World War
Two. Just hours into the war the British liner 'Athenia' is sunk, beginning the Battle of the Atlantic.
SEPTEMBER 17TH: The Soviet Union invades Poland without declaring war, having made a secret agreement
Germany.
DECEMBER 13TH: The Royal Navy attacks the German battleship 'Graf Spee' in the first major naval battle of the
war.
DECEMBER 17TH: The German battleship 'Graf Spee' is scuttled after being trapped by the Royal Navy off
Montevideo in Uruguay. The Battle of the River Plate.
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1940
JANUARY 8TH: Britain introduces food rationing with bacon, butter and sugar the first commodities affected.
APRIL 9TH: Germany launches a surprise invasion of Norway and Denmark, marking the end of the 'Phoney War'.
MAY 10TH: The German invasion of the Low Countries begins, using a new military doctrine called blitzkrieg.
MAY 14TH: On the night of 14th May 1940, Anthony Eden made his first speech as Secretary of State for War via the
BBC's Home Service. Part of this speech was asking for volunteers for the 'Local Defence Volunteers' , the LDV:
'We want large numbers of such men in Great Britain who are British subjects, between the ages of seventeen and
sixty-five, to come forward now and offer their services in order to make assurance [that an invasion would be
repelled] doubly sure. The name of the new force which is now to be raised will be the Local Defence Volunteers. This
name describes its duties in three words. You will not be paid, but you will receive uniforms and will be armed. In
order to volunteer, what you have to do is give your name at your local police station, and then, when we want you,
we will let you know...'
Before Eden's broadcast had ended, police stations in all regions of the nation found themselves deluged with eager
volunteers. By the end of the first 24 hours, 250,000 men - equal in number to the peacetime Regular Army - had
registered their names.
MAY 27TH: Operation Dynamo, the mass evacuation of encircled British and French troops from Dunkirk, begins.
JUNE 3RD: The last ship of Operation Dynamo leaves Dunkirk, completing the evacuation of 338,226 Allied troops.
JUNE 17TH: More than 3,000 die as RMS Lancastria is sunk by German bombers in Britain's worst maritime disaster.
JUNE 30TH: German troops land on British soil as they begin the invasion of the undefended Channel Islands.
JULY 10TH: The Battle of Britain begins with German air raids on British ports and shipping.
JULY 19TH: Germany makes a 'peace offer' to Britain, which Winston Churchill rejects outright.
JULY 23RD: Britain's 'Local Defence Volunteers' become the Home Guard after Winston Churchill coins the name.
AUGUST 25TH: The RAF bombs Berlin for the first time, in retaliation for a raid on London two nights earlier.
SEPTEMBER 4TH: Germany switches air raids away from military targets, promising to raze British cities 'to the
ground'.
SEPTEMBER 7TH: Germany begins systematic heavy air raids on British cities - 'the Blitz' - as 900 bombers hit
London.
SEPTEMBER 15TH: The Royal Air Force claims victory over the Luftwaffe, commemorated as Battle of Britain
Day.
SEPTEMBER 27TH: Germany, Italy and Japan sign a 10 year military and economic aid pact, dubbed the 'Axis'.
NOVEMBER 7TH: U.S. Roosevelt proposes a plan for renting US ships and equipment to Britain - the birth of LendLease.
NOVEMBER 11TH: The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm cripples or sinks nine Italian warships in a surprise attack at
Taranto.
NOVEMBER 14TH: German bombers raid Coventry, destroying much of the city including the Gothic cathedral.
DECEMBER 29TH: German bombers drop 10,000 incendiaries on London in the single most destructive night of the
Blitz.
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1941
MARCH 4TH: A daring British raid on the Lofoten Islands, Norway, captures a German Enigma machine and code
books.
MARCH 11TH: US congress passes the Lend-Lease Bill, authorising huge war loans to Britain and the Soviet Union.
MAY 16TH: The Blitz ends with German air force (the Luftwaffe) re-assigned east for the imminent invasion of
Russia.
MAY 24TH: HMS Hood is sunk by the German battleship 'Bismarck', with just three survivors from the 1,419 crew. HMS Prince of Wales is damaged during the battle.
MAY 27TH: The German battleship 'Bismarck' is sunk by the Royal Navy with only 110 survivors from its 2,192
crew.
JUNE 22ND: Operation Barbarossa, the massive German invasion of the Soviet Union by three million troops, begins.
AUGUST 21ST: The first Allied Arctic convoy carrying supplies for the USSR, codenamed 'Dervish', leaves from
Iceland.
NOVEMBER 13TH: Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed en route to Malta by a German U-boat, sinking the
next day.
DECEMBER 7TH: Japan launches a surprise attack at 7.55am with 350 aircraft on the US Pacific Fleet Pearl Harbour,
Hawaii. Within two hours, five battleships had been sunk, another 16 damaged, and 188 aircraft destroyed. Only
chance saved three US aircraft carriers, usually stationed at Pearl Harbour but assigned elsewhere on the day. The
attacks killed fewer than 100 Japanese but over 2,400 Americans, with another 1,178 injured. Singapore, Hong Kong
and the Philippines are also bombed by the Japanese on this day.
DECEMBER 8TH: The US and Britain declare war on Japan after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Hong
Kong.
DECEMBER 10TH: HMS 'Prince of Wales' and HMS 'Repulse' (Force Z) are sunk off Malaya by Japanese aircraft,
killing 840 men.
DECEMBER 11TH: Germany declares war on the United States. This was not a requirement of the Axis Pact signed
on September 27th 1940 in which Germany, Japan and Italy pledged to defend each other if one of them was attacked.
DECEMBER 25TH: Hong Kong's British governor, Sir Mark Young, surrenders the island to Japan after 18 days of
fighting.
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1942
JANUARY 19TH: Japan invades Burma, igniting the longest World War Two campaign fought by British troops.
FEBRUARY 15TH: Britain's colony of Singapore, impregnable from the sea, surrenders to Japanese forces attacking
by land.
FEBRUARY 19TH: Japanese bombers carry out their first attacks on mainland Australia, bombing Darwin.
MAY 30TH: The RAF carries out its first thousand bomber raid, dropping 2,000 tons of bombs on Cologne, Germany.
JUNE 6TH: The Battle of Midway ends in a huge victory for the US over Japan, reversing the tide of the Pacific War.
AUGUST 19TH: An Allied raid on the German-held port of Dieppe, France (Operation Jubilee), ends in complete
failure and heavy losses.
SEPTEMBER 23RD: The Manhattan Project to deliver an atomic bomb begins, directed by US General Leslie R
Groves.
OCTOBER 23RD: Montgomery's Eighth Army launches the second Battle of El Alamein against Axis forces in North
Africa. Operation Lightfoot.
OCTOBER 25TH: Operation Supercharge, the breakthrough battle, begins at El Alamein.
NOVEMBER 4TH: British forces achieve the first major Allied land victory over Germany, at El Alamein in Egypt.
NOVEMBER 8TH: The Allies launch operation Torch, the massive amphibious landing of 400,000 troops in North
Africa.
NOVEMBER 13TH: US liberty ship production reaches its peak with a single 10,500 ton ship built in less than five
days.
DECEMBER 2ND: The first sustained nuclear chain reaction is achieved at the University of Chicago by Enrico
Fermi.
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1943
JANUARY 14TH: Churchill and Roosevelt in Casablanca to draw up a blueprint for the defeat of the Axis powers.
FEBRUARY 28TH: Commandoes in Norway (the 'heroes of Telemark') destroy heavy water vital to the German
World War Two nuclear programme.
MAY 13TH: The Allies secure victory in North Africa with the surrender of 250,000 German and Italian troops.
MAY 16TH-17TH: The Dambusters Raid (Operation Chastise) by the RAF's elite 617 Squadron breaches the Mohne
and Eder dams in Germany's Ruhr valley.
MAY 24TH: Germany calls off the Battle of the Atlantic by withdrawing its U-boats from North Atlantic convoy
routes.
JULY 5th: The Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history, begins with a German attack on Soviet forces.
JULY 10TH: Allied forces land in Sicily.
AUGUST 17TH: Messina, capital of Sicily, is captured, securing the island.
SEPTEMBER 3RD: Allied troops land in Italy at Reggio Calabria, at the tip of the Italian toe as the Allies return to
mainland Europe for the first time. On the same day Italian emissaries signed an armistice with the allies.
SEPTEMBER 8TH: Italy surrenders and the Germans occupies Italy immediately a and Italian units were disarmed,
and were treated mercilessly if they resisted - the massacre of the Acqui division on the island of Cephalonia, the
background to Louis de Bernières' Captain Corelli's Mandolin, was a cruel fact.
SEPTEMBER 9TH: Allied troops under US General Mark Clark launch the main invasion of Italy, at Salerno, south
of Naples.
SEPTEMBER 10TH: The Italian fleet surrenders at Valetta, Malta, giving the Royal Navy control of the
Mediterranean.
OCTOBER 13TH: Under new leader Marshal Pietro Badoglio, Italy abandons the Axis and declares war on Germany.
NOVEMBER 28TH: The Big Three of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in Tehran to discuss the invasion of
France.
DECEMBER 26TH: Germany's last operational battleship, Scharnhorst, is sunk by the Royal Navy off Norway.
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1944
MARCH 24TH: In the 'Great Escape' from Stalag Luft III in Germany, 79 Allied airmen flee but 50 are caught and
shot.
APRIL 28TH: The Slapton Sands Disaster claims up to 750 American lives as troops rehearse (Exercise Tiger) for the
D-Day landings on Utah beach.
MAY 18TH: An assault by Polish troops ends the Battle of Monte Cassino, which cost 20,000 German and Allied
lives.
JUNE 4TH: The US Fifth Army reaches central Rome, making it the first Axis capital to fall. A formal procession
takes place the next day.
JUNE 6TH: The Allied invasion of Europe begins with the D-Day landings of more than 150,000 troops in
Normandy. Operation Overlord.
JUNE 13TH: German V1 flying bombs are used against Britain for the first time - six die in Bethnal Green, London.
JUNE 22ND: British and Indian troops meet at Milestone 110, ending the Japanese sieges of Kohima and Imphal,
Burma.
AUGUST 20TH: Two German armies are trapped and destroyed in the Falaise Gap, ending the battle for Normandy.
AUGUST 25TH: Paris is liberated intact after German general Dietrich von Cholitz disobeys an order to destroy it.
SEPTEMBER 8TH: The first German V2 rocket lands on London. It hits Chiswick, killing three people.
SEPTEMBER 11TH: The invasion of Germany from the West begins as Allied troops cross the Luxembourg-German
border.
SEPTEMBER 17TH: Operation Market Garden begins (17th is a Sunday). Market Garden (Market is the name for
the airborne landings and Garden is the name for the ground advance) was one of the boldest plans of World War
Two. Thirty thousand British and American airborne troops were to be flown behind enemy lines to capture the eight
bridges that spanned the network of canals and rivers (including the on the Dutch/German border. This involved
securing bridges over the Waal, Maas and Nader Rhein to allow the Allies to enter Germany, destroying heavy
industry in the Ruhr valley and ending the war by Christmas. 500 gliders and 1,500 aircraft are involved. The U.S.
101st airborne division lands around Eindhoven, the U.S, 82nd airborne division lands around Nijmegen while the
British 1st Airborne division lands the furthest into occupied territory to secure the bridges at Arnhem over the Nader
Rhine. At the same time, British XXX Corps were to push up a narrow road leading from the Allied front line on the
Belgian/Dutch border to these key bridges. They would relieve the airborne troops, and then cross the intact bridges
with Arnhem being reached in two to three days. The plan was conceived by General Bernard Montgomery,
commander of the British forces in Europe. SEPTEMBER 22ND: British midget submarines attack and badly damage the German battleship Tirpitz in a
Norwegian fjord.
SEPTEMBER 25TH : With XXX Corps on the other side of the Rhine river but unable to cross due to German
artillery controlling the river the British 1ST Airborne division withdraws across the Rhine during the night under
Operation Berlin. By the morning of the 26th some 2,500 eventually had made the crossing. Of the approximate tenthousand six hundred men who fought north of the River, only two thousand three hundred and ninety-eight returned.
Of the rest, including the Polish Brigade south of the Rhine and men who died in captivity, as a result of their wounds
or other causes until the end of 1944, one thousand four hundred and eighty-five men had died, and six thousand four
hundred and fourteen were taken prisoner, of whom about one-third were wounded. Official German figures record
that they suffered three thousand three hundred casualties in the Arnhem area, with one thousand three hundred of that
number killed. It is certain, however, that these figures are a highly conservative estimate, and further investigations
have accounted for at least one thousand seven hundred and twenty-five German dead, and as many as six thousand
wounded. The estimated number of total deaths during the Battle therefore, including four hundred and fifty-three
civilians and four hundred and seventy-four aircrew, is in excess of four thousand one hundred.
OCTOBER 25TH: In the Battle of Leyte Gulf, Japan uses kamikaze pilots for the first time, sinking the USS 'St Lo'.
NOVEMBER 12TH: The last great German battleship, Tirpitz, is sunk by RAF bombers in Tromso fjord, Norway.
NOVEMBER 20TH: The blackout ends in London as the lights of Piccadilly, the Strand and Fleet Street are switched
on.
DECEMBER 3RD: Britain's Home Guard is officially stood down at a special farewell parade in Hyde Park, London. From this date, the Home Guard became an inactive reserve unit.
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1945
JANUARY 27TH: Soviet troops liberate fewer than 3,000 survivors from the extermination camp at Auschwitz,
Poland.
FEBRUARY 4TH: Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at the Black Sea port of Yalta to shape the post-World War
Two world.
MARCH 7TH: US forces cross the German border at Remagen, taking Ludendorff Bridge and establishing a
bridgehead over the Rhine river.
MARCH 27TH: The last German V2 rocket falls on England, killing a woman on Kynaston Road in Orpington, Kent.
MARCH 29TH: The last German V1 flying bomb to hit England falls harmlessly on open ground at Sittingbourne in
Kent.
APRIL 15TH: British troops liberate Bergen-Belson concentration camp in Germany. Disease and starvation are
rampant.
APRIL 16TH: The notorious high-security prisoner of war camp at Colditz Castle in Germany is liberated by US
troops.
MAY 2ND: The Battle for Berlin ends after less than two weeks with the capture of the city by Soviet forces.
MAY 7TH: Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at General Eisenhower's HQ in Rheims, France.
MAY 8TH: Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces the end of the war in Europe following Germany's
surrender.
JUNE 21ST: Okinawa, the last major battle of World War Two, ends in a US victory over desperate Japanese
defenders.
JULY 16TH: The world's first atomic weapon (the Trinity Test) is tested by the US at Alamogordo Air Base in Los
Alamos, New Mexico. Trinity was a test of an implosion-design plutonium bomb. The Trinity detonation was
equivalent to the explosion of around 20 kilotons of TNT and is usually considered as the beginning of the Atomic
Age. The Manhattan Project, as the Allied effort was called, culminated in the test of a nuclear weapon at what is now
called Trinity site in July 1945, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki a few weeks later.
JULY 26TH: War leader Winston Churchill loses the general election to his Labour rival Clement Attlee.
AUGUST 6TH: A Uranium 235 atom bomb (code named Little Boy) is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima by
the US bomber 'Enola Gay' at 08.16 local time. In a split second 100,000 people ceased to exist.
AUGUST 8TH: The Soviet Union in accordance with an agreement with Great Britain and the USA declares war on
Japan three months after the end of the war in Europe and invades Japanese held Manchuria.
AUGUST 9TH: A Plutonium 239 atom bomb is dropped on the Japanese port of Nagasaki by the US bomber 'Bock's
Car' killing 40,000.
AUGUST 15TH: The Allies officially celebrate Victory over Japan day, and the end of World War Two. Note: the
Japanese administration under General Koiso did not officially surrender with a signed document until 2 September.
Both dates are known as VJ Day.
SEPTEMBER 2ND: Japan surrenders unconditionally on board USS 'Missouri' in Tokyo Bay, bringing to an end
World War Two.
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1946
MARCH 5TH: Winston Churchill makes his ‘Iron Curtain’ speech in Fulton, Missouri, warning of the Soviet threat.
JUNE 6TH: The government reveals that 357,116 members of Britain's armed forces were killed in World War Two.
JUNE 8TH: Field Marshall Lord Montgomery leads a grand victory parade for World War Two through London.
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1947
FEBRUARY 20TH: Former British military commander Lord Louis Mountbatten is appointed the last viceroy of
India.
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1948
JUNE 24TH: Soviet forces impose a total land blockade of West Berlin to drive the Western Allies from the city.
JUNE 25TH: The 'Berlin Airlift' begins when the order is given to fly supplies over the Soviet blockade into West
Berlin.
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1949
APRIL 4TH: The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation is signed into existence by its 12 founder nations.
MAY 12TH: Soviet forces lift the blockade of Berlin, during which the 'Berlin Airlift' made 278,228 supply flights.
AUGUST 24TH: NATO comes into existence to counter the Soviet military presence in Eastern Europe.
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1953
FEBRUARY 5TH: A decade of wartime sweet rationing ends in Britain, sparking a scramble for toffee apples and
nougat.