Download United States History World War II Timeline

United States History World War II Timeline
1941
March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
Aug 1, 1941 - United States announces an oil embargo against aggressor states.
Sept 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor.
Dec 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 10, 1941 - Japanese invade the Philippines and also seize Guam
Dec 11, 1941 - Germany declares war on the United States.
Dec 22, 1941 - Japanese invade Luzon in the Philippines.
Dec 23, 1941 - Gen. MacArthur begins withdrawal from Manila to Bataan; Japanese take Wake Island.
Dec 25, 1941 - British surrender at Hong Kong.
1942
Jan 1, 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
Jan 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
Jan 20, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the
Jewish Question."
Jan 26, 1942 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
Feb 22, 1942 - President Roosevelt orders Gen. MacArthur out of the Philippines.
March 11, 1942 - Gen. MacArthur leaves Corregidor and is flown to Australia. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright
becomes the new U.S. commander.
March 18, 1942 - War Relocation Authority established in the U.S. which eventually will round up
120,000 Japanese-Americans and transport them to barb-wired relocation centers. Despite the
internment, over 17,000 Japanese-Americans sign up and fight for the U.S. in World War II in
Europe, including the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the most decorated unit in U.S. history.
In April - Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
April 9, 1942 - U.S. forces on Bataan surrender unconditionally to the Japanese.
April 10, 1942 - Bataan Death March begins as 76,000 Allied POWs including 12,000 Americans are forced
to walk 60 miles under a blazing sun without food or water toward a new POW camp, resulting in over
5,000 American deaths.
April 18, 1942 - Surprise U.S. "Doolittle" B-25 air raid from the HORNET against Tokyo boosts Allied
morale.
April 23, 1942 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
May 6, 1942 - Japanese take Corregidor as Gen. Wainwright unconditionally surrenders all U.S. and Filipino
forces in the Philippines.
May 7-8, 1942 - Japan suffers its first defeat of the war during the Battle of the Coral Sea off New Guinea the first time in history that two opposing carrier forces fought only using aircraft without the opposing
ships ever sighting each other.
May 8, 1942 - German summer offensive begins in the Crimea.
May 12, 1942 - The last U.S. troops holding out in the Philippines surrender on Mindanao.
In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
June 4-5, 1942 - Turning point in the war occurs with a decisive victory for the U.S. against Japan in the Battle
of Midway. Squadrons of U.S. torpedo planes and dive-bombers from ENTERPRISE, HORNET, and
YORKTOWN attack and destroy four Japanese carriers, a cruiser, and damage another cruiser and two
destroyers. U.S. loses YORKTOWN.
June 25, 1942 - Eisenhower arrives in London.
July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination
camp opened.
Aug 7, 1942 - The first U.S. amphibious landing of the Pacific War occurs as 1st Marine Division invades
Tulagi and Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands.
Aug 17, 1942 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
Sept 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Nov 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
Nov 19, 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
Dec 2, 1942 - Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor, conducts the worlds first nuclear chain reaction
test at the University of Chicago.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews
by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
1943
Jan 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
Jan 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt
announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
Jan 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
Feb 1, 1943 - Japanese begin evacuation of Guadalcanal.
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North
Africa.
April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.
May 7, 1943 - Allies take Tunisia.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.
July 19, 1943 - Allies bomb Rome.
July 22, 1943 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.
July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and
negotiates with Allies.
Sept 8, 1943 - Italian surrender is announced.
Sept 9, 1943 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
Sept 11, 1943 - Germans occupy Rome.
Sept 12, 1943 - Germans rescue Mussolini.
Oct 1, 1943 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
Oct 13, 1943 - Italy declares war on Germany;
Nov 1, 1943 - U.S. Marines invade Bougainville in the Solomon Islands.
Nov 28, 1943 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
1944
Jan 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
Jan 17, 1944 - First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
Jan 22, 1944 - Allies land at Anzio.
Jan 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
Jan 31, 1944 - U.S. troops invade Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands.
Feb 1-7, 1944 - U.S. troops capture Kwajalein and Majura Atolls in the Marshall Islands.
Feb 16, 1944 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
June 5, 1944 - Allies enter Rome.
June 6, 1944 - D-Day landings.
June 15, 1944 - U.S. Marines invade Saipan in the Mariana Islands.
June 22, 1944 - Operation Bagration begins (the Soviet summer offensive).
July 3, 1944 - 'Battle of the Hedgerows' in Normandy.
July 9, 1944 - British and Canadian troops capture Caen.
July 18, 1944 - U.S. troops reach St. Lô.
July 19, 1944 - U.S. Marines invade Guam in the Marianas.
July 20, 1944 - German assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
July 24, 1944 - Soviet troops liberate first concentration camp at Majdanek.
July 24, 1944 - U.S. Marines invade Tinian.
July 27, 1944 - American troops complete the liberation of Guam.
July 25-30 - Operation Cobra (U.S. troops break out west of St. Lô).
Aug 25, 1944 - Liberation of Paris.
Sept 13, 1944 - U.S. troops reach the Siegfried Line.
Sept 17, 1944 - Operation Market Garden begins (Allied airborne assault on Holland).
Oct 20, 1944 - U.S. Sixth Army invades Leyte in the Philippines.
Oct 23-26 - Battle of Leyte Gulf results in a decisive U.S. Naval victory.
Oct 25, 1944 - The first suicide air (Kamikaze) attacks occur against U.S. warships in Leyte Gulf. By the end
of the war, Japan will have sent an estimated 2,257 aircraft. "The only weapon I feared in the war," Adm.
Halsey will say later.
Dec 16-27 - Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes.
Dec 17, 1944 - Waffen SS murder 81 U.S. POWs at Malmedy.
Dec 26, 1944 - Patton relieves Bastogne.
1945
Jan 1-17 - Germans withdraw from the Ardennes.
Jan 16, 1945 - U.S. 1st and 3rd Armies link up after a month long separation during the Battle of the Bulge.
Jan 26, 1945 - Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz.
Feb 3, 1945 - U.S. Sixth Army attacks Japanese in Manila.
Feb 4-11 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Yalta.
Feb 16, 1945 - U.S. troops recapture Bataan in the Philippines.
Feb 19, 1945 - U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima.
March 7, 1945 - Allies take Cologne and establish a bridge across the Rhine at Remagen.
April 1, 1945 - The final amphibious landing of the war occurs as the U.S. Tenth Army invades Okinawa.
April 12, 1945 - Allies liberate Buchenwald and Belsen concentration camps
April 12, 1945 - President Roosevelt dies, succeeded by Harry S. Truman.
April 16, 1945 - Soviet troops begin their final attack on Berlin; Americans enter Nuremberg.
April 18, 1945 - German forces in the Ruhr surrender.
April 21, 1945 - Soviets reach Berlin.
April 28, 1945 - Mussolini is captured and hanged by Italian partisans; Allies take Venice.
April 29, 1945 - U.S. 7th Army liberates Dachau.
April 30, 1945 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide.
May 2, 1945 - German troops in Italy surrender.
May 7, 1945 - Unconditional surrender of all German forces to Allies.
May 8, 1945 - V-E (Victory in Europe) Day.
May 25, 1945 - U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff approve Operation Olympic, the invasion of Japan, scheduled for
November 1.
June 5, 1945 - Allies divide up Germany and Berlin and take over the government.
June 9, 1945 - Japanese Premier Suzuki announces Japan will fight to the very end rather than accept
unconditional surrender.
June 26, 1945 - United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
June 28, 1945 - MacArthur's headquarters announces the end of all Japanese resistance in the Philippines.
July 5, 1945 - Liberation of Philippines declared.
July 16, 1945 - First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam Conference begins.
July 26, 1945 - Components of the Atomic Bomb "Little Boy" are unloaded at Tinian Island in the South
Pacific.
July 29, 1945 - A Japanese submarine sinks the Cruiser INDIANAPOLIS resulting in the loss of 881 crewmen.
The ship sinks before a radio message can be sent out leaving survivors adrift for two days.
Aug 6, 1945 - First Atomic Bomb dropped on Hiroshima from a B-29 flown by Col. Paul Tibbets.
Aug 8, 1945 - U.S.S.R. declares war on Japan then invades Manchuria.
Aug 9, 1945 - Second Atomic Bomb is dropped on Nagasaki from a B-29 flown by Maj. Charles Sweeney -Emperor Hirohito and Japanese Prime Minister Suzuki then decide to seek an immediate peace with the
Allies.
Aug 14, 1945 - Japanese accept unconditional surrender; Gen. MacArthur is appointed to head the
occupation forces in Japan.
Sept 2, 1945 - Japanese sign the surrender agreement; V-J (Victory over Japan) Day.
World War II Casualties
Country
SovietUnion*
China
Germany
Poland850,000
Japan1,506,000
Yugoslavia
Rumania*
France*
Hungary*
Austria380,000
Greece*
Italy
Czechoslovakia
Great Britain
USA
Holland
Belgium
Finland
Canada39,000
India
Australia
Spain**
Bulgaria
New Zealand
South Africa
Norway
Denmark
Military
8,668,000
1,324,000
3,250,000
6,000,000
300,000
300,000
520,000
340,000
Civilian
16,900,000
10,000,000
3,810,000
6,850,000
1,806,000
1,400,000
465,000
470,000
145,000
525,000
330,000
80,000
326,000
295,000
14,000
10,000
79,000
62,000
236,000
75,000
Total
25,568,000
11,324,000
7,060,000
1,700,000
985,000
810,000
750,000
520,000
410,000
400,000
388,000
295,000
250,000
85,000
79,000
39,000
36,000***
29,000
12,000
19,000
12,000
9,000
5,000
4,000
10,000
2,000
36,000
29,000
22,000
21,000
12,000
9,000
5,000
4,000
Total: c 61 million
-----------------------------------------------------------------------The table above has been compiled from three sources:1. Alan Bullock - Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives pp987
2. The Times Atlas of the Second World War pp204,205
3. Richard Overy - Russia's War pp288
*The figures for these countries were very different in the three sources
** The military deaths for Spain, a neutral country during the war, are attributed to volunteers in the Axis
(4500) and Allied (7500) armies. According to source 2, above, 10,000 Spaniards died in concentration
camps. These figures may be very inaccurate and may be reviewed later.
*** This table does not take into account the 3 million Indians who died due to famine in 1943.