This is a timeline of events that occurred during 1944 in World War II.

World War II Timeline January 1944

• 4: The Battle of Monte Cassino begins.
• 4: The 1st Ukrainian Front of the Red Army enters Poland.
• 8: Filipino troops enter the province of Ilocos Sur in the Philippines against the Japanese forces.
• 9: British forces take Maungdaw, Burma, a critical port for Allied supplies.
• 11: The first battle of Monte Cassino. The Americans are driven off.
• 12: Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister and Mussolini's son-in-law is executed by Mussolini's revived Fascist government sympathisers.
• 17: British forces, in Italy, cross the Garigliano River
• 19: Red Army troops push westward toward the Baltic countries.
• 19: British Operation Outward accidentally claims lives in Sweden by causing a train crash by knocking out lighting
• 20: The Royal Air Force drops 2,300 tons of bombs on Berlin
• 20: The U.S. Army 36th Infantry Division, in Italy, attempts to cross the Rapido River but suffers heavy losses.
• 22: Allies begin Operation Shingle, the landing at Anzio, Italy. The U.S. Army 45th Infantry Division stand their ground at Anzio against violent assaults for 4 months. Time and again aggressive German artillery and troop attacks nearly overwhelm the beachhead.
• 24: The Allied forces have a major setback on the Rapido River.
• 30: United States troops invade Majuro, Marshall Islands.
• 31: American forces land on Kwajalein Atoll and other islands in the Japanese-held Marshall Islands.
• 31: Americans are still struggling to protect the beachhead at Anzio.

World War II Timeline February 1944

• 1: United States Marines mop up on Roi and Namur in the Marshall Islands.
• 1: The battles at both Monte Cassino and Anzio intensify.
• 2: Narva front near the east border of Estonia is formed between the Soviet and German forces.
• 3: United States taking of the Marshall Islands is nearing completion.
• 3: The Red Army take prisoner two German Army corps at the Korsun "pocket", south of Kiev.
• 3: American planes bomb Eniwetok in the Marshalls, later to be a major B-29 base.
• 4: Kwajalein, the world's largest atoll and a major Japanese naval base is secured.
• 5: American Navy bombards the Kuril Islands, northernmost in the Japanese homelands.
• 6: Germans continue to have continuing success in staving off the Allies at Cassino.
• 7: In Anzio, the Allies continue to be threatened by German artillery attacks.
• 7: In a radio interview, the last Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Uluots as acting Head of State supports mobilisation.
• 8: The plan for the invasion of France, Operation Overlord, is confirmed.
• 14: Meerapalu Landing of the 374th Rifle Regiment forms a bridgehead in the on the western shore of Lake Peipus.
• 14: Mereküla Landing of the special unit of the Soviet Baltic Sea Fleet in the rear of the Germans at the Narva front at Mereküla is resisted.
• 14: The underground organisation, the National Committee of the Republic of Estonia, is formed in Tallinn.
• 14: SHAEF headquarters are established in Britain by U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
• 14: Anti-Japanese revolt on Java.
• 15: The Soviet bridgehead on the west coast of Lake Peipus is annihilated
• 15: Soviet Leningrad Front initiates the Narva Offensive, February 15–28.
• 15: The "second" Battle of Monte Cassino begins. The history-rich monastery atop Monte Cassino is destroyed by Allied bombing. The bombing is controversial since the Germans deny the Allied charge that the grounds were used as observation posts.
• 16: Germans launch a major counter-attack at Anzio, threatening the American beachhead.
• 16: Germans, with Panzer forces leading, fail to break out of the Korsun pocket.
• 16: Diplomats from the USSR and Finland meet to sign an armistice.
• 17: American Marines land on Eniwetok Atoll.
• 18: The Light Cruiser HMS Penelope is torpedoed and sunk of the coast of anzio Italy with a loss of 415 crew
• 18: American naval air raids on the Truk islands, a major Japanese naval base, but it will be one of the bypassed fortresses of the Japanese outer defence ring.
• 19: Leipzig, Germany is bombed for two straight nights. This marks the beginning of a "Big Week" bombing campaign against German industrial cities by Allied bombers.
• 23: US Navy planes attack the Mariana Islands of Saipan, Guam, Tinian.
• 26: The "Big Week" bombing campaign comes to a successful conclusion; the American P-51 Mustang fighter with its long range proves invaluable in protecting American bombers over Germany.
• 26: Red Air Force continues to bomb Helsinki, as Finland continues peace talks.
• 28: The Admiralty Islands are invaded by U.S. forces, marked by the Battle of Los Negros and Operation Brewer. The struggle for this important fleet anchorage will continue until May. Rabaul is now completely isolated.

World War II Timeline March 1944

1: The keels of USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge are laid down.

: Anti-fascist strikes occur in northern Italy.
: Leningrad Front initiate the Narva Offensive, March 1–4

6: Wingate's Chindits make several successful forays in Burma.
: The Soviet Air Force bombs Narva, the city is destroyed. The Leningrad Front initiates the Narva Offensive, March 6–24
: The Australians receive faulty intelligence that the Japanese are about to mount an attack on Western Australia, causing them to greatly bolster defenses there. When no attack comes, they return to their regular stations on the 20th

7: Japanese begin an invasion attempt on India, starting a four-month battle around Imphal.

8: American forces are attacked by Japanese troops on Hill 700 in the Bougainville; the battle that will last five days.
: A Red Army offensive on a wide front west of the Dnieper in the Ukraine forces the Germans into a major retreat.

9: The Soviet Long Range Aviation carries out an air raid on Tallinn, Estonia. The military objects are almost untouched. Approx. 800 civilians die and 20,000 people are left without a shelter.

12: The creation of the Political Committee of National Liberation in Greece.

13: On Bougainville, Japanese troops end their failed assault on American forces at Hill 700.

15: The National Council of the French Resistance approves the Resistance programme.
: The "third" Battle of Cassino begins with the small town of Cassino destroyed.
: Americans take Manus Island in the Admiralty chain.

16: United States XI Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.

17: Heavy bombing of Vienna.

18: German forces occupy Hungary. The Red Army approach Romanian border.

19: Yugoslav partisans attack Trieste, on the border of Italy and Croatia.

20: Red Army advances in the Ukraine continue with great success.

21: Finland rejects Soviet peace terms.

22: Japanese forces cross the Indian border all along the Imphal front.
: Frankfurt is bombed with heavy civilian losses.

24: The Fosse Ardeatine massacre in Rome, Italy. 335 Italians are killed, including 75 Jews and over 200 members various groups in the Italian Resistance; this is a German response to a bomb blast that killed German troops.
: Orde Wingate is killed in a plane crash.
: Heavy bombings of German cities at various strategic locations last for 24 hours.

25: Soviet air force bombs the city of Tartu, Estonia.

26: On Narva front, Strachwitz Offensive destroys part of the Soviet bridgehead.

28: Japanese troops are in retreat in Burma.

30: RAF suffers grievous losses in a huge air raid on Nuremberg.

World War II Timeline April 1944

• 3: Allied bombers hit Budapest in Hungary, now occupied by the Germans, and Bucharest in Romania, ahead of the advancing Red Army.
• 4: General Charles de Gaulle takes command of all Free French forces.
• 5: US Air Force bombs Ploesti oil fields in Rumania, with heavy losses.
• 6: The Japanese drive on the Plain of Imphal, supposedly halted, proves strong enough to surround British forces at Imphal and Kohima, in India.
• 7: Red Army take Kerch in the eastern Crimea and drive toward Sevastopol
• 12: German troops begin evacuation of the Crimea.
• 14: Crimea and Odessa are liberated by Soviet forces.
• 15: Heavy air raids on Ploesti oil fields by both the RAF and the US Air Force.
• 17: Americans land on Mindanao, in the southern Philippines.
• 17: Japanese launch a major offensive in central China, aiming toward southeast China air bases where American bombers are located. By the next day they have had some successes.
• 17: Yalta, an important port in the southeast Crimea, is taken by the Red Army.
• 21: The Badoglio government in Italy falls and he is quickly asked to form another.
• 21: An air raid on Paris kills a large number of civilians.
• 22: American navy planes carry out widespread attacks in New Guinea. US troops land at Hollandia and Aitape in northern New Guinea. Japanese forces in New Guinea will now be cut off.
• 24: British troops force open the road from Imphal to Kohima in India.
• 27: The Slapton Sands tragedy: American soldiers are killed in a training exercise in preparation for D-Day at Slapton in Devon.
• 30: Vast preparations for D-Day are going on all over southern England.
• 30: American navy air raids continue in the Carolina Islands, including Truk.

World War II Timeline May 1944

• 6: Heavy Allied bombings of the Continent in preparation for D-Day.
• 8: D-Day for Operation Overlord set for June 5.
• 9: The German Army evacuates Sevastopol the largest city and an important port in the Crimea; the Red Army moves in.
  : The Battle at the "Gustav line" near Monte Cassino continues without resolution.
• 11: The British cross the Rapido River. A "fourth" battle of Monte Cassino begins, concurrent with the opening of an offensive campaign toward Rome.
• 12: Soviet troops finalise the liberation of Crimea.
  : Large numbers of Chinese troops invade northern Burma.
• 13: The bridgehead over the Rapido River is reinforced.
• 18: Battle of Monte Cassino ends with an Allied victory; Polish troops hoist their red and white flag on the ruins of Monte Cassino. The Germans have ceded it and departed.
  : Allied troops take airfields at Myitkyina, Burma, an important air base; the struggle over the city itself will continue for nearly three months.
  : The last Japanese resistance in the Admiralty Islands, off New Guinea comes to an end.
• 21: Increased Allied bombing of targets in France in preparation for D-Day.
• 23: Allies advance toward Rome, after a linkup of American II and III corps.
• 25: Germans are now in retreat in the Anzio area. American forces break out of the beachhead and link up with the Fifth Army; both then begin their advance on Rome.
• 27: Operation Hurricane starts. Americans land on Biak, Dutch New Guinea, a key Japanese air base; stubborn Japanese resistance until August.
• 31: The Japanese retreat from Imphal (India) with heavy losses; their invasion of India is over.

World War II Timeline June 1944

• 2: The provisional French government is established.
• 3: There are daily bombings of the Cherbourg peninsula and the Normandy area.
• 4: Operation Overlord is postponed 24 hours due to high seas.
  : American, British, and French troops enter Rome.
• 5: Rome falls to the Allies, becoming the first capital of an Axis nation to do so.
  : Operation Overlord commences when more than 1,000 British bombers drop 5,000 tons of bombs on German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in preparation for D-Day. And the first Allied troops land in Normandy; paratroopers are scattered from Caen southward.
  : In the Pacific, the U.S. fleet transporting the expeditionary forces for the invasion of Saipan in the Mariana Islands leaves Pearl Harbor.
• 6: D-Day begins with the landing of 155,000 Allied troops on the beaches of Normandy in France. The allied soldiers quickly break through the Atlantic Wall and push inland in the largest amphibious military operation in history.
• 7: Bayeux is liberated by British troops.
• 9: No agreement having been reached on their mutual borders, Stalin launches an offensive against Finland with the intent of defeating Finland before pushing for Berlin.
• 10: At Oradour-sur-Glane (a town near Limoges), France, 642 men, women, and children are killed in a German response to local Resistance activities.
  : In the Distomo massacre in Greece, 218 civilians are killed.
• 12: American aircraft carriers commence air strikes on the Marianas, including Saipan, preparing for invasion.
• 13: Germany launches a V1 Flying Bomb attack on England, in Hitler's view a kind of revenge for the invasion. He believes in Germany's victory with this "secret weapon." The V-1 attacks will continue through June.
  : The U.S. Naval bombardment of Saipan begins. In response, Admiral Toyoda Soemu, commander-in-chief of the Japanese Navy, orders his fleet to attack U.S. Navy forces around Saipan.
• 15: U.S. Marine and Army forces invade the island of Saipan. U.S. submarines sight the Japanese fleet en-route.
• 16: The main portions of the Japanese fleet rendezvous in the western part of the Philippine Sea, completing their refueling the next day.
• 17: Free French troops land on Elba.
• 18: Elba is declared liberated.
  : Allies capture Assisi, Italy.
• 19: With the U.S. Navy in position, the Battle of the Philippine Sea begins. It will be the largest aircraft carrier battle in history. Known by navy pilots as "the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot," large numbers of Japanese planes are destroyed and pilots shot down.
  : A severe Channel storm destroys one of the Allies' Mulberry harbours in Normandy.
  : The Red Army prepares for "Operation Bagration," a huge offensive in Byelorussia (White Russia).
• 20: The Battle of the Philippine Sea ends with three Japanese carriers sunk and three more damaged, forcing the fleet to withdraw.
  : The British take Perugia, Italy.
  : The Siege of Imphal is lifted after three months.
• 21: Allied offensive in Burma.
• 22: V-1's continue to hit England, especially London, sometimes with horrifying losses.
  : Operation Bagration: General attack by Soviet forces to clear the German forces from Belarus This results in the destruction of the German Army Group Centre, possibly the greatest defeat of the Wehrmacht during World War II.
  : In the Burma Campaign, the Battle of Kohima ends with a British victory.
• 23: The National Committee of the Republic of Estonia makes a declaration “to the Estonian People.” The declaration was made public to the world press in Stockholm in July 1944 and in Tallinn on 1 August 1944.
• 25: The Battle of Tali-Ihantala between Finnish and Soviet troops begins. Largest battle ever to be fought in the Nordic countries.
• 26: Cherbourg is liberated by American troops.

World War II Timeline July 1944

• 2: V-1's continue to have devastating effects in terms of material destruction and losses of life.
• 3: Minsk in Belarus is liberated by Soviet forces.
• 3: The Allies find themselves in the "battle of the hedgerows", as they are stymied by the agricultural hedges in Western France which intelligence had not properly evaluated.
• 3: Siena, Italy falls to Algerian troops of the French forces.
• 6: Largest Banzai charge of the war: 4,300 Japanese troops are slaughtered on Saipan.
• 7: Soviet troops enter Vilnius, Lithuania.
• 9: After heavy resistance Caen, France is liberated by the British troops on the left flank of the Allied advance.
• 9: Saipan is declared secure, the Japanese having lost over 30,000 troops; in the last stages numerous civilians commit suicide with the encouragement of Japanese military.
• 10: Japanese are still resisting on New Guinea.
• 10: Tokyo is bombed for the first time since the Doolittle raid of April, 1942.
• 11: President Roosevelt announces that he will run for an unprecedented fourth term.
• 12: Hitler rejects General Field Marshal Walther Model’s proposal to withdraw the German forces from Estonia and Northern Latvia and retreat to the Daugava River.
• 13: The Soviets take Vilnius, Lithuania.
• 13: The Lvov-Sandomierz Offensive begins.
• 16: First troops of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB) arrive in Italy
• 17: Field Marshal Rommel is badly wounded when his car is strafed from the air in France.
• 18: St. Lo, France is taken, and the Allied breakout from hedgerow country in Normandy begins.
• 18: General Hideki Tojo resigns as chief minister of the Japanese government as the defeats of the Japanese military forces continue to mount. Emperor Hirohito asks General Kuniaki Koiso to form a new government.
• 19: American forces take Leghorn (Livorno), Italy far up the Italian boot.
• 20: The July 20 Plot is carried out by Col. Claus von Stauffenberg in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Hitler was visiting headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia. Reprisals follow against the plotters and their families, and even include Rommel.
• 21: US Marines land on Guam.
• 22: Hitler gives permission to retreat from the Narva River to the Tannenberg defence line in the Sinimäed hills 20 km West from Narva.
• 24: At the start of the Soviet Narva Offensive, July 24–30, the Soviet 8th Army is beaten by the Estonian 45th Regiment and East Prussian 44th Regiment. The army detachment "Narwa" begins to retreat to the Tannenberg line.
• 24: Majdanek Concentration Camp is liberated by Soviet forces, the first among many. The Soviet Union is now in control of several large cities in Poland, including Lublin.
• 24: US bombers mistakenly bomb American troops near St. Lo, France.
• 24: Marines land on Tinian Island, last of the Marianas (after Saipan and Guam); Tinian will eventually be a B-29 base, and the base from which the atomic bombers departed.
• 24: "Operation Cobra" is now in full swing: the breakout at St. Lo in Normandy with American troops taking Coutances.
• 26: The Leningrad Front's Narva Offensive captures the town.
• 26: The first aerial victory for a jet fighter occurs, with an Me 262 of the Luftwaffe's Ekdo 262 damaging a de Havilland Mosquito reconaissance aircraft of the Royal Air Force's No. 540 Squadron RAF.
• 27 July to 10 August: Battles on the Tannenberg Line. At the start of the battles there are 25 Estonian and 24 Dutch, Danish and Flemish infantry battalions on the German side at the Narva Front. The artillery forces, and the tank, engineer and other special units are composed mainly of Germans. The attack by the Soviet Armed Forces is stopped, tens of thousands of men are killed in both sides.
• 28: The Red Army take Brest-Litovsk, the site of the Russo-German peace treaty in World War I.
• 29: A decisive day in the Battle of Narva, allowing the German army detachment "Narwa", including Estonian conscript formations to delay the Soviet Baltic Offensive for another one and a half months.

World War II Timeline August 1944

• 1: The Second Warsaw Uprising, this time by the Polish Home Army commences; the Polish people rise up, expecting aid from the approaching Soviet Union armies. The tragic event will last 63 days.
• 1: The Red Army isolates the Baltic States from East Prussia by taking Kaunas.
• 1: The Americans complete the capture the island of Tinian.
• 2: The battle for Guam, another island in the Marianas, however, continues.
• 3: Myitkyina in northern Burma, falls to the Allies (the Chinese and Americans under Stilwell), after a vigorous defence by the Japanese.
• 4: Florence is liberated by the Allies, particularly British and South African troops; before exiting, however, the Germans under General Kesselring destroy some historic bridges and historically valuable buildings.
• 4: The trials of the bomb conspirators against Hitler are underway in a court presided over by notorious Judge Roland Freisler.
• 4: Rennes is liberated by American forces.
• 5: Japanese POWs escape from an Australian prison near the town of Cowra. Two guards are killed and posthumously awarded the George Cross
• 8: Plotters in the bomb plot against Hitler are hanged, their bodies hung on meat hooks; reprisals against their families continue.
• 10: Guam is liberated by American troops and all of the Marianas are now in American hands. They will be turned into a major air and naval centre against the Japanese homeland.
• 11: The Warsaw Rising continues; the Red Army remain on the west side of the Vistula, apparently unwilling to help their supposed allies against the occupying Germans.
• 14: The failure of the Allies to close the Falaise gap in France, proves advantageous to the Germans fleeing to the east who escape the pincer movement of the Allies.
• 14: A clash between Italian POWs and American servicemen ends in the Fort Lawton Riot
• 15: The Allies reach the "Gothic Line", the last German strategic position in North Italy.
• 15: Operation Dragoon begins, marked by amphibious Allied landings in southern France.
• 16: The Red Armies makes moves to close in on Warsaw.
• 18: The Red Army reaches the East Prussian border.
• 19: French Resistance begins uprising in Paris, partly inspired by the Allied approach to the Seine River.
• 19: In a radio broadcast, Jüri Uluots, the acting Head of State of Estonia, calls the Estonian conscripts to hold the Soviet Armed Forces back until a peace treaty with Germany is signed.
• 20: The Red Army crosses the border into Romania.
• 21: The Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins, setting up the basic structure of the United Nations.
• 22: The Japanese are now in total retreat from India.
• 23: Romania breaks with the Axis, surrenders to the Soviet Union, and joins the Allies.
• 25: Paris is liberated; De Gaulle and Free French parade triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées. The German military disobeys Hitler's orders to burn the city. Meanwhile the southern Allied forces move up from the Riviera, take Grenoble and Avignon.
• 28: The Germans surrender at Toulon and Marseilles, in southern France.
• 28: Patton's tanks cross the Marne.
• 29: An anti-German rising starts in Czechoslovakia.
• 30: The Allies enter Rouen, in northwestern France.
• 31: The Soviet army enters Bucharest.
• 31: American forces turn over the government of France to Free French troops.

World War II Timeline September 1944

• 1: Canadian troops capture Dieppe, France, scene of their humiliation in August, 1942.
• 2: Allied troops enter Belgium.
• 2: Finland agrees to an armistice with the Soviet Union and demands a withdrawal of German troops.
• 3: Brussels liberated by British Second Army while Lyon is liberated by French and American troops.
• 4: Operation Outward ends
• 5: Antwerp is liberated by British 11th Armoured Division.
  : The uprising in Warsaw continues; Red Army forces are available for relief and reinforcement, but are apparently unable to move without Stalin's order.
  : United States III Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 6: The "blackout" is diminished to a "dim-out) as threat of invasion and further bombing seems an unlikely possibility.
  : Ghent and Liège are liberated by British troops.
• 8: Ostend is liberated by Canadian troops.
  : Soviet Union invades Bulgaria. Bulgaria declares war on Germany.
• 9: The first V-2 rocket lands on London.
  : De Gaulle forms provisional government in France, and Bulgaria makes peace with the USSR then declares war on Germany.
• 10: Luxembourg is liberated by U.S. First Army.
  : Two Allied forces meet at Dijon, cutting France in half.
  : First Allied troops enter Germany, entering Aachen, a city on the border.
  : Dutch railway workers go on strike. The German response results in the Dutch famine of 1944.
• 11: United States XXI Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 13: American troops reach the Siegfried line, the West wall of Germany's defence system.
• 14: Soviet Baltic Offensive commences.
• 15: American Marines land on Peleliu in the Palau Islands; a bloody battle of attrition continues for two and a half months.
• 16: The Red Army enters Sofia, Bulgaria.
• 17: Operation Market Garden, the attempted liberation of Arnhem and turning of the German flank begins.
• 17: Assorted British and commonwealth forces enter neutral San Marino and engage German forces in a small-scale conflict known as the Battle of San Marino
• 18: Brest, France, an important Channel port, falls to the Allies.
  : Jüri Uluots proclaims the Government of Estonia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Otto Tief.
• 19: Armistice is signed between the Soviet Union and Finland.
  : Nancy liberated by U.S. First Army
• 20: The Government of Estonia seizes the government buildings of Toompea from the German forces and appeals to the Soviet Union for the independence of Estonia.
  : United States XVI Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 20: The Battle of San Marino ends
• 21: British forces take Rimini, Italy.
  : The Second Dumbarton Oaks Conference begins: it will set guidelines for the United Nations.
  : San Marino declares war on the Axis
  : The Government of Estonia prints a few hundred copies of the Riigi Teataja (State Gazette) and is forced to flee under the Soviet pressure.
• 22: The Red Army takes Tallinn, the first Baltic harbour outside the minefields of the Gulf of Finland.
  : The Germans surrender at Boulogne.
• 23: Americans take Ulithi atoll in the Carolina Islands; it is a massive atoll that will later become an important naval base.
• 24: The Red Army is well into Poland at this time.
• 25: British troops pull out of Arnhem with failure of Operation Market Garden. Over 6,000 paratroopers are captured. Hopes of an early end to the war are abandoned.
  : United States IX Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.
• 26: There are signs of civil war in Greece as the Communist-controlled National Liberation Front and the British-backed government seem irreconcilable.
• 30: German garrison in Calais surrenders to Canadian troops. At one time, Hitler thought it would be the focus of the cross-Channel invasion.

World War II Timeline October 1944

• 1: Soviet troops enter Yugoslavia.
• 2: Germans finally succeed in putting down Warsaw Uprising by Polish Home Army. The Soviet Union armies have never moved to assist the Polish Home Army.
  : American troops are now in a full-scale attack on the German "West Wall".
  : Allied forces land on Crete.
• 5: Canadian troops cross the border into the Netherlands.
  : Red Army enters Hungary; meanwhile they launch an offensive to capture Riga, Latvia.
• 6: Soviet and Czechoslovak troops enter northeastern Slovakia.
  : The Battle of Debrecen begins as German and Soviet forces advance against each other in eastern Hungary.
• 9: Allied Conference ("Tolstoy") in Moscow: Churchill and Stalin discuss spheres of influence in the postwar Balkans.
• 10: The Red Army reach the Niemen River in Prussia and continue the battle around Riga.
  : The Allied combined forces take Corinth, in southern Greece.
• 12: Athens is liberated by EAM and evacuated by German troops.
• US Navy carriers attack Formosa (Taiwan).
  : The Second Quebec Conference ("Octagon"). President Roosevelt and Churchill discuss military cooperation in the Pacific, and the division of Germany.
  : United States XXIII Corps Arrives in European Theater.
• 14: British troops entering Athens.
  : Field Marshal Rommel, under suspicion as one of the "bomb plotters" voluntarily commits suicide to save his family. He is later buried with full military honors.
• 15: Allied bombardment of Aachen continues, the first major battle on German soil.
• 16: The Germans depose Admiral Horthy, regent and dictator of Hungary; once a fervent ally of Germany, he had lost the trust of the German government.
  : The Red Army and Yugoslav partisans under the command of Josip Broz Tito liberate Belgrade. The Red Army forces are also in East Prussia.
• 18: Hitler orders a call-up of all men from 16 to 60 for Home Guard duties.
• 20: Soviet forces in command of General Zhukov, with help of Yugoslavia Partizan and Chetnik forces liberated Belgrade.
• 21: Aachen is occupied by U.S. First Army; it is the first major German city to be captured.
• 22: Canadian soldier; Smokey Smith from the Seaforth Highlanders of Canada earns the Victoria Cross for his actions at the River Savio
• 23: The Allies recognise General de Gaulle as the head of a provisional government of France.
  : Battle of Leyte Gulf begins. Largest sea battle in history. Americans experience more kamikaze attacks]] from Japanese aircraft; the USS Princeton is hit with grave damage.
  : The battle of San Bernardino Strait; the Japanese attempt to stop MacArthur's landing on Leyte. Small aircraft carriers save the day as Admiral Halsey is lured north out of the action.
  : B-29's are now using Tinian Island, in the Marianas, as a base for the systematic bombing of Japan. Soviet forces in cooperation with Tito's Partizan forces, liberated Novi Sad in Yugoslavia (Serbia today)
• 25: Romania is fully liberated by Red Army and Romanian troops.
• 27: The battle of the Hurtgen Forest is developing, and will continue through October and November and have its last spasms in December.

World War II Timeline November 1944

• 1: British forces take Salonika in northern Greece. The situation for civilians in Athens is now desperate.
• : "Operation Infatuate": An Allied attempt to free the approaches to Antwerp; notably there are amphibious landings on Walcheren Island.
• 2: Canadian troops take Zeebrugge in Belgium; Belgium is now entirely liberated.
• 4: Remaining Axis forces withdraw from the Greek mainland. German occupation forces will remain in several Greek islands until capitulation.
• British Gen. John Dill dies in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Arlington Cemetery, the only foreigner to be so honored.
• 5: US planes bomb Singapore, under Japanese control since 1942.
  : Zionist terrorists assassinate the British government representative in the Middle East.
• 6: Franklin Delano Roosevelt wins a fourth term.
  : The aircraft carrier USS Lexington is heavily damaged by kamikazes.
• 9: General Patton's troops and tanks cross the Moselle River and threaten the city of Metz.
• 10: V-2 rockets continue to hit Britain, at the rate of about eight a day.
• 12: After numerous bombings while anchored in a fjord at Tromso, Norway, the German battleship Tirpitz is sunk.
• 17: The Germans give up Tirana, Albania, and the capital is liberated by the Albanian partisans (Allies).
• 21: San Marino declares war on Germany
• 20: Hitler leaves his wartime headquarters at Rastenberg, East Prussia, never to return; he goes to Berlin, where he will soon establish himself at the bunker.
• 23: Metz, France is taken, and Strasbourg, in eastern France, is liberated by French troops.
• 24: The first B-29 originating from Tinian, in the Marianas, raid Tokyo.
  : The USS Intrepid is hit by kamikazes for the third time; other American ships are heavily damaged.
• 25: Japanese take Nanning in south China, as the war in that theatre continues.
• 26: The war in Italy is at a stalemate, partly because of heavy rains.
• 28: Antwerp is now a major supply port for the onward moving Allies.
• 30: Kunming, China, an important air base, is threatened by Japanese attacks.
  : United States XXII Corps Arrives in European Theater.

World War II Timeline December 1944

• 3: The Dekemvriana ("December events") begin in the Greek capital, Athens, between members of the leftist National Liberation Front and government forces, backed by the British. The clashes are limited to Athens however, and the rest of the country remains relatively tranquil.
• 3: The British Home Guard is stood down.
• 5: The Allies are now in control of Ravenna, Italy.
• 8: The softening up bombardment of Iwo Jima begins.
• 15: Americans and Filipinos land troops at Mindoro, the Philippines.
• 16: The Battle of the Bulge begins as German forces attempt a breakthrough in the Ardennes region. The main object of Hitler's plan is the taking of Antwerp.
• 17: A typhoon hits the Third Fleet of Admiral Halsey; three destroyers capsize.
• 17: The Malmedy massacre: SS troops execute 86 American prisoners in the Ardennes offensive. The SS troops are led by SS commander Jochen Peiper.
• 18: Bastogne, an important crossroads, is surrounded.
• 20: General McAuliff's famous message of "Nuts" is sent to German officers at Bastogne demanding surrender.
• 22: The battle for Bastogne is at its height, with Americans running low on ammunition.
• 23: The skies clear over the Ardennes, permitting Allied aircraft to begin their attacks on the German offensive, the one factor that Hitler feared in his planning.
• 24: The American counter-attack at the "Bulge" begins.
• 24: The Belgian transport ship S.S. Leopoldville is sunk off the coast of France. More than 800 lives, predominantly those of American servicemen, are lost.
• 24: Manchester is attacked by V1 flying bombs
• 26: The siege of Bastogne is broken, and with it the Ardennes offensive proves a failure.
• 26: Racial tensions within the US military boil over into the Agana race riot on Guam
• 28: Churchill and his Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden are in Athens in an attempt to reconcile the warring factions.
• 29: Soviets launch the Battle of Budapest against German and Hungarian forces in and around the Hungarian capital city.
• 31: Hungary, now led by a Soviet-controlled government, declares war on Germany.

This is a timeline of events that stretched over the period of World War II.

World War II Timeline January 1942

• 2: Manila is captured by Japanese forces. They also take Cavite naval base, and the American and Filipino troops continue the retreat into Bataan.
• 5: The beginning of a major Red Army offensive under General Zhukov.
• 6: The British advance continues to El Agheila, on the western edge of Libya.
  : in his State of the Union speech, President Roosevelt promises more aid to Britain, including planes and troops.
• 7: Siege of the Bataan Peninsula begins.
  : Heavy air attacks on Malta; it is estimated that the bomb tonnage dropped on the island is twice that dropped on London.
• 9: Japanese advances in Borneo meet with little opposition.
• 11: Japanese troops capture Kuala Lumpur, Malaya; Japan declares war on the Netherlands and invades the Netherlands East Indies.
• 12: Japanese invade Indonesia, landing on the island of Celebes.
• 13: Red Army take Kirov and Medya, as their counter-offensive continues.
  : The German U-boat offensive comes closer to the US shores starting the Second Happy Time.
• 19: Japanese forces take prisoner large numbers of British troops north of Singapore.
• 20: Nazis at the Wannsee conference in Berlin decide that the "final solution to the Jewish problem" is relocation, and later extermination.
  : Japanese bomb Singapore as their troops approach the city.
• 21: Rommel begins a surprising counter-offensive at El Agheila; his troops, with new reinforcements and tanks, capture Agedabia, then push north to Beda Fomm.
• 23: The Battle of Rabaul, New Guinea begins.
  .
• 24: American troops land in Samoa, as part of a strategy to stop the Japanese advance in the Pacific.
• 25: Thailand declares war on the United States and United Kingdom; Japanese troops invade the Solomon Islands.
• 26: The first American forces arrive in Europe landing in Northern Ireland.
• 27: The British withdraw all troops back into Singapore.
• 28: Brazil breaks off relations with the Axis powers.
• 29: Rommel enters Benghazi, Libya in his drive east. For the next few months, the two sides will rest and rearm.
• 30: Hitler speaks at the Berlin Sports Palace and threatens the Jews of the world with annihilation; he also blames the failure of the offensive in Soviet Union on the weather.
• 31: The Japanese take the port of Moulamein, Burma; they now threaten Rangoon as well as Singapore.
  : On the Eastern front, the Germans are in retreat at several points.
  : The last organised Allied forces leave Malaya, ending the 54-day battle.

World War II Timeline February 1942

• 1: Vidkun Quisling becomes Minister-President of Norway despite strong opposition
• 1: Rommel's forces reach El Gazala, Libya, near the border with Libya; during a "Winter lull" he will remain there.
• 2: General Joseph ("Vinegar Joe") Stilwell is named Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-Shek and Commander-in-Chief of the Allied forces in China.
• 3: Japanese air power is thrown against Java, especially the naval base at Surabaya. Port Moresby, New Guinea is bombed, increasing the threat to Australia.
• 7: Americans continue their defence of Bataan against General Homma's troops.
• 8: The German armies in Soviet Union are driven from Kursk, an important point in the German strategy.
• 9: British troops are now in full retreat into Singapore for a final defence.
• 9: Top United States military leaders hold their first formal meeting to discuss American military strategy in the war.
• 10: The cruise liner "Normandie" catches fire and capsizes in New York harbour. Although the cause is probably a welder's torch, various conspiracies are imagined in the media.
• 11: The "Channel Dash." The Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen rush out of Brest through the English Channel to northern ports, including Wilhelmshaven, Germany; the British naval units fail to sink any of them.
• 13: The battle for Bataan continues.
• 15: Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces; this is arguably the most devastating loss in British military history.
• 16: Being discussed in high American government circles are plans for the internment of Japanese-Americans living generally in the western US.
• 17: Orders are given for Rangoon to be evacuated as Japanese forces approach.
• 19: Japanese aircraft attack Darwin, in Australia's Northern Territory.
• 19: President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 allowing the United States military to define areas as exclusionary zones. These zones affect the Japanese on the West Coast, and Germans and Italians primarily on the East Coast.
• 19: A military conscription law is passed in Canada.
• 20: Japanese troops cross the important Salween River in Burma.
• 20: Japanese invade Bali and Timor by a combined use of paratroops and amphibious troops.
• 21: The American Air Corps is now firmly established at bases in the UK.
• 22: President Franklin Delano Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defence of the nation collapses.
• 25: The internment of Japanese-American citizens in the Western United States begins as fears of invasion increase.
• 25: Princess Elizabeth registers for war service
• 27: Battle of the Java Sea. Under a Dutch Admiral, the combined forces lose one aircraft tender (the Langley), six destroyers, and five cruisers off Java.
• 28: Japanese land forces invade Java.

World War II Timeline March 1942

• 1: A Red Army offensive in the Crimea begins; in the north, the siege of Leningrad continues with all its horrors.
• 3: Japanese aircraft make a surprising raid on the airfield and harbour at Broome, Western Australia.
• 4: By Executive decree, all Japanese-Americans, especially on the West coast, find themselves subject to relocation in special camps.
• 5: New conscription laws in the United Kingdom include women and men up to the age of 45.
• 6: Rangoon falls to the Japanese.
  : Malta receives more fighters for its on-going defence.
• 8; The Japanese land at Lae and Salamaua, on Huon Bay, New Guinea, beginning their move toward Port Moresby, New Guinea, and then Australia.
• 9: It appears that the Japanese are in control of Java, Burma, and New Guinea.
  : The Secretary of War reorganises the General Headquarters (GHQ), United States Army into three major commands - Army Ground Forces, Army Air Forces, and Services of Supply, the later of which is later redesignated Army Service Forces. At the same time, the four Defense commands and all Theaters Of Operations (TOPNS) are subordinated to the War Department General Staff.
• 11: General MacArthur is ordered by President Roosevelt to leave the Philippines; he will travel to Australia by PT boat and aircraft. He tells General Wainwright and the Filipino people "I shall return."
  : The Japanese land on Mindanao, the southernmost island in the Philippines.
• 12: American troops begin to land in Nouméa, New Caledonia; it will become an important staging base for the eventual invasion of Guadalcanal.
• 13: RAF launches an air raid against Essen, Germany.
• 14: Japanese land troops in the Solomons, underscoring Australia's dangerous situation, especially if, as it is soon made clear, an airfield is built on Guadalcanal.
  : A Red Army offensive is started to retake Kharkov, lost to the Germans about a month ago.
  : The Japanese are now threatening American forces around Manila Bay; the retreat to Corregidor begins.
• 17: U.S. General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia, after leaving his headquarters in the Philippines.
  : The United Kingdom institutes rationing of electricity, coal, and gas; the clothing ration is decreased as well.
• 20: The bombing of Malta begun in December continues; an invasion is a possibility.
• 20: Operation Outward begins
• 22: A fractured convoy reaches Malta, after heavy losses to the Luftwaffe and an Italian sea force. Continued heavy bombing attacks on the island with slight opposition from overtaxed RAF air forces.
• 25: RAF sends bomber raids against targets in France and Germany.
• 26: Jews in Berlin must now clearly identify their houses.
• 28: The RAF sends a raid against Lübeck, destroying over 30% of the city, and 80% of the medieval centre. Hitler is outraged.
  : British commandos launch the a raid on Saint-Nazaire. HMS Campbeltown, filled with explosives on a time-delay fuse, rams the dock gates and commandos destroy other parts of the naval service area. The port is completely destroyed and does not resume service till 1947; however, around two-thirds of the raiding forces are lost.

World War II Timeline April 1942

• 2: Over 24,000 sick and starving troops (American and Filipino) are now trapped on Bataan.
• 2: Japanese make landings on New Guinea, most importantly at Hollandia.
• 3: Japanese forces begin an all-out assault on the United States and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula.
• 4: Germans plan "Baedeker raids" on touristy or historic British sites, in revenge for the Lübeck bombing.
• 5: On Bataan, the Japanese overwhelm Mt. Samat, a strong point on Allied defensive line.
• 5: The Japanese Navy attacks Colombo in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.
• 6: Japanese naval forces are observed on the Indian Ocean; they put troops ashore in the Solomon Islands.
• 8: Heavy RAF bombing of Hamburg.
• 8: German summer offensive in the Crimea opens up.
• 8: American forces are strained for one last offensive on Bataan.
• 8: With the withdrawal of the HMS Penelope from Malta Force K in malta comes to a close.
• 9: The Japanese Navy launches air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka); Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Hermes and Royal Australian Navy destroyer HMAS Vampire are sunk off the country's East Coast.
• 9: Bataan falls to the Japanese. The "Bataan Death March" begins, as the captives are taken off to detention camps in the north. Corregidor, in the middle of Manila Bay, remains a final point of resistance.
• 10: Japanese land on Cebu Island, a large middle island of the Philippines.
• 15: Malta is awarded the George Cross by King George VI for "heroism and devotion".
• 17: French General Henri Giraud, who was captured in 1940, escapes from a castle prison at Konigstein by lowering himself down the castle wall and jumping on board a moving train, which takes him to the French border.
• 18: Doolittle Raid on Nagoya, Tokyo and Yokohama; his B25's take off from the USS Hornet. The raids are a great boost of morale for Americans whose diet has been mostly bad news.
• 19: At a press conference, President Roosevelt explains with some amusement that the Doolittle bombers took off from "Shangri-La", an allusion to James Hilton's popular novel.
• 23: Beginning of so-called Baedeker Raids by the Luftwaffe on English provincial towns like Bath, Norwich, and York; attacks continue sporadically until June 6.
• 24: Heavy bombing of Rostock, Germany by RAF.
• 26: Hitler assumes a kind of supreme authority over Germany.
• 27: Rostock is bombed for fourth night in a row.
• 27: A national plebiscite is held in Canada on the issue of conscription. French Canadians are main, though not the only, objectors to the draft.
• 29: The "Baedeker raids" continue, focused on Norwich and York.
• 29: Japanese cut Burma Road with the capture of Lashio.

World War II Timeline May 1942

1: Rommel readies for a new offensive during the early part of this month.
: Japanese take Mandalay and other ports in Burma.

3: The Japanese forces land on Tulagi Island in the Solomons, not far from Guadalcanal.

4: The Battle of the Coral Sea begins: it will last four days and is a first in that the ships on both sides never are in sight of the other; the USS Lexington is sunk, but the Americans can claim an overall victory.

5: Heavy Japanese artillery attack on Corregidor.
: British forces begin "Operation Ironclad": the invasion of Madagascar to keep the Vichy French territory from falling to a possible Japanese invasion.
: The city of Exeter is bombed by the Luftwaffe, another "Baedeker Raid".

6: On Corregidor, the last U.S. forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. About 12,000 are made prisoners.

8: The Battle of the Coral Sea comes to an end. This is the first time in naval history where two enemy fleets fought without seeing each other. In addition to the loss of the Lexington the Yorktown is badly damaged; it returns to Pearl Harbor for repairs.
: The Germans take the Kerch peninsula in the eastern Crimea.

9: On the night of 8/9 May 1942, gunners of the Ceylon Garrison Artillery on Horsburgh Island in the Cocos Islands rebelled. Their mutiny was crushed and three of them were executed, the only British Commonwealth soldiers to be executed for mutiny during the Second World War.

11: Another first: An allied ship on the St. Lawrence River, Canada is sunk by a U-boat.

12: Second Battle of Kharkov - In the eastern Ukraine, the Soviet Army initiates a major offensive. During the battle the Soviets will capture the city of Kharkov from the German Army, only to be encircled and destroyed.

15: In the United States, a bill creating the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) is signed into law.

16: United States 1st Armored Division arrives in Northern Ireland.

18: The Red Army are in a major retreat at Kerch, after large numbers surrender.

20: The Japanese conquest of Burma is complete; it is called a "military catastrophe".

21: Invasion of Malta postponed indefinitely.

22: The battle of Kharkov continues; for the Germans it is an important step on the way to Stalingrad.
: Mexico declares war on the Axis.

25: In preparation for the next battle, the Japanese naval strategists send diversionary forces to the Aleutians.

26: The Anglo-Soviet Treaty: their foreign secretaries agree that no peace will be signed by one without the approval of the other. (An important treaty since Himmler and others will attempt to separate the two nations at the end of the war.)
: Rommel begins a Spring offensive at the Gazala line (west of Tobruk). The battle lasts well into June and ends with a total victory for Rommel.

27: Reinhard Heydrich, head of Reich Security, is fatally hurt in Prague during Operation Anthropoid by Czechoslovak soldiers; he will die on June 4 from his wounds.
: British use American Sherman tanks in attempts to stop Rommel's attacks on the Gazala line.
: The USS Yorktown, damaged at the Coral Sea, limps into Pearl Harbor; it is ordered to get repaired and ready as fast as possible for the impending battle.

29: The Jews in France are ordered to wear the yellow Star of David.
: Japanese forces have large successes south of Shanghai.
: Rommel turns his troops to Bir Hachim on the south edge of the Gazala line; once it is taken, he can move north and destroy the Allied emplacements in the line.

30: "The Thousand Bomber Raid" on Cologne, revealing new area bombing techniques.
: The USS Yorktown leaves Pearl after hasty repairs and moves to join the USS Enterprise for the next expected battle.

31: Huge German successes around Kharkov, with envelopment of several Red Army armies.
: Japanese midget subs enter Sydney harbour and sink one support ship; fears of invasion grow.

World War II Timeline June 1942

• 1: First reports in the West that gas is being used to kill the Jews sent to "the East".
  : Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy, and Japan.
• 2: Further heavy bombing of industrial sites in Germany, centred mainly on Essen.
• 3: The British coal industry is nationalised.
• 4: The Battle of Midway begins; The Japanese attack installations on the island, but only manage to detect one of the three nearby American carriers. American planes sink all four Japanese carriers present at the battle.
  : Reinhard Heydrich dies in Prague from medical complications that had arisen from injuries suffered from an attempted assassination by Czechoslovak patriots two weeks earlier (Operation Anthropoid)
• 5: United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania.
• 7: Japanese forces invade Attu and Kiska. This is the first invasion of American soil in 128 years.
  : The Battle of Midway comes to a close; the USS Yorktown sinks; four Japanese carriers and one cruiser are sunk. The battle is viewed as a turning point in the Pacific war.
  : The Greek People's Liberation Army makes its first appearance at Domnista, where Aris Velouchiotis proclaims the start of armed resistance against the Axis.
• 8: Malta receives a squadron of Spitfires.
  : A Japanese submarine fires several shells into a residential area in Sydney but with little effect.
• 9: Nazis burn the Czech village of Lidice as reprisal for the killing of Reinhard Heydrich. All male adults and children are killed, and all females are taken off to concentration camps.
• 10: Rommel pushes the Free French forces out of Bir Hakeim, a fortress south-west of Tobruk.
• 12: Heavy fighting in Sevastopol with serious losses of life on both sides.
  : Rommel finally pushes Allies out of Gazala line.
• 13: The United States opens its Office of War Information, a centre for production of propaganda.
• 16: Two convoys moving toward Malta suffer heavy losses; German air forces continue to bomb the island itself.
• 17: The British pull out of the areas called "Knightsbridge" and "the Cauldron" in the Western desert area between Tobruk and El Gazala. Tobruk is now surrounded.
• 18: Manhattan Project is started, the beginning of a scientific approach to nuclear weapons.
  : Winston Churchill arrives in Washington for meetings with Roosevelt.
  : The siege of Tobruk intensifies; some defending forces are pulled back to Egypt.
• 21: Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk, with 35,000 men captured; the road to Egypt is now open as the British retreat deep into Egypt. Tobruk's loss is a grievous blow to British morale. German land forces have been assisted by Luftwaffe attacks.
• 23: Marsa Matruh, Egypt falls to Rommel, about 140 miles from Alexandria.
• 24: British fall back to El Alamein, 60 miles from Alexandria, for a "final stand".
• 25: General Eisenhower arrives in London ready to assume the post of Commander of American forces in Europe.
  : Another massive "Thousand Bomber" raid, this time on Bremen; the raiders suffer grievous losses.
• 26: The Germans drive toward Rostov.
• 27: Doomed convoy PQ17 sets sail from Iceland; only 11 of 37 ships will survive.
• 28: Operation Blue, the German plan to capture Stalingrad and the Soviet Union oil fields in the Caucasus, begins. Generally, forces are shifted to the South.
• 30: Rommel reaches El Alamein.
  : United States of America deploys II Corps to the European Theater.

World War II Timeline July 1942

• 1: First Battle of El Alamein begins as Rommel begins first assault on British defences.
• 1: Sevastopol falls to the Germans; the end of Red Army resistance in the Crimea.
• 2: Churchill survives a censure motion in the House of Commons.
• 2: Allies experience heavy June losses of shipping to U-boats, including those of PQ17.
• 3: Guadalcanal is now firmly in the hands of the Japanese.
• 4: First air missions by American Air Force in Europe.
• 11: Rommel's forces are now stalemated before El Alamein, largely because of a lack of ammunition.
• 12: It now becomes clear that Stalingrad is the largest challenge to the invaders.
• 12: A balloon from Operation Outward knocks out a power station near Leipzig
• 15: The only action around El Alamein is light skirmishing.
• 16: On order from the Vichy France government headed by Pierre Laval, French police officers mass arrest 13,152 Jews and hold them at the Winter Velodrome before deportation to Auschwitz. (See: Vel' d'Hiv Roundup.)
• 17: Allies attack in North Africa; Operation Torch begins
• 18: The Germans test fly the Messerschmitt Me-262 V3 third prototype using only its jet engines for the first time.
• 19: Battle of the Atlantic - German Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the last U-boats to withdraw from their United States Atlantic coast positions in response to an increasingly effective American convoy system.
• 20: After landing in the Buna-Gona area, the Japanese in New Guinea move across the Owen Stanley mountain range aiming at Port Moresby in the south-eastern part of the island, close to Australia; a small Australian force begins rearguard action on the Kokoda Track.
• 22: The systematic deportation of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto begins. Treblinka, "a model" concentration camp is opened in Poland.
• 24: Germans take Rostov-on-the-Don; the Red Army is in a general retreat along the Don River.
• 26: A second attack by the British under Auchinleck fails against Rommel. First Battle of El Alamein may be said to be over.
• 27: Heavy RAF incendiary attack on Hamburg.
• 29: The Japanese take Kokoda, halfway along the Owen Stanley pass to Port Moresby.
• 30: Continuing stalemate at El Alamein between Rommel and Auchinleck.

World War II Timeline August 1942

• 1: The Germans continue their successful advance toward Stalingrad.
• 3: A convoy to Malta is decimated by the Luftwaffe and U-boats
• 5: The U.S. planning team for Operation Torch, which includes George S. Patton; James Doolittle; Kent Lambert; and Hoyt S. Vandenberg, meets in Washington, D.C. to join the combined planning team from London, England.
• 7: Operation Watchtower begins the Guadalcanal Campaign as American forces invade Gavutu, Guadalcanal, Tulagi and Tanambogo in the Solomon Islands.
• 8: In Washington, D.C., six German would-be saboteurs are executed (two others were cooperative and received life imprisonment instead).
• 8: The naval Battle of Savo Island, near Guadalcanal; the Americans lose three cruisers, the Australians one.
• 9: In their retreat out of the Crimean peninsula, the Red Army destroy oil refineries.
• 9: Numerous riots in favour of independence in India; Mahatma Gandhi is arrested.
• 10: Rommel begins an attack around El Alamein, but by September he is back to his original lines.
• 11: The HMS Eagle, a carrier on convoy duty to Malta, is torpedoed and sinks with heavy loss of life.
• 12: At a conference in Moscow, Churchill informs Stalin that there will not be a "second front" in 1942.
• 12: American forces establish bases in the New Hebrides islands.
• 12: Fighting increases as the Germans approach Stalingrad.
• 13: General Bernard Montgomery appointed commander of British Eighth Army in North Africa; Churchill is anxious to see more offensive action on the part of the British.
• 13: Disastrous end to the Malta convoy, but one tanker and four merchant ships get through.
• 15: Operation Pedestal arrives at the island fortress of Malta.
• 17: Major US Air Force bombing on Rouen, France and its rail network.
• 18: Japanese reinforce New Guinea; Australians also land troops at Port Moresby. Meanwhile, American planes have destroyed Japanese air power at Wewak, New Guinea.
• 19: Operation Jubilee, a raid by British but mainly Canadian forces on Dieppe, France, ends in disaster; they come under heavy gunfire and eventually most are killed or captured by the German defenders.
• 20: Henderson Field on Guadalcanal receives its first American fighter planes.
• 21: Japanese counter-attack at Henderson Field; in another foray at the Tenaru (or Ilu) River, many Japanese are killed in a banzai charge.
• 22: Brazil declares war on the Axis countries, partly in response to numerous riots by a populace angry at the sinking of Brazilian ships.
• 23: The Germans get closer to Stalingrad.
• 24: The naval battle of the Eastern Solomons; the USS Enterprise is badly damaged and the Japanese lose one light carrier, the Ryujo.
• 26: Battle of Milne Bay begins: Japanese forces land and launch a full-scale assault on Australian base near the eastern tip of New Guinea.
• 27: Marshal Georgii Zhukov is appointed to the command of the Stalingrad defence; the Luftwaffe is now delivering heavy strikes on the city.
• 28: Incendiary bombs dropped by a Japanese seaplane causes a forest fire in Oregon.
• 30: The Battle of Alam Halfa, Egypt, a few miles south of El Alamein begins. This will be Rommel's last attempt to break through the English lines; British air superiority plays a large role.
• 30: Luxembourg is formally annexed to the German Reich.

World War II Timeline September 1942

• 3: The Battle of Stalingrad proper may be said to have begun on this date, with German troops in the suburbs; even civilian men and boys are conscripted by the Red Army to assist in the defence.
• 4: There is IRA rioting in Belfast during the night.
• Manhattan Engineering District is formally created, full-effort production of the atomic bomb is begun.
• 5: Australian and U.S. forces defeat Japanese forces at Milne Bay, Papua, the first outright defeat for Japanese land forces in the Pacific War. Their evacuation and the failure to establish an airbase eases the threat to Australia.
• 6: The Black Sea port of Novorossisk is taken by the Germans.
• 9: A Japanese plane drops more incendiaries on Oregon, but with little effect.
• 10: RAF blasts Düsseldorf with large incendiary bombing.
  : (to the 14th). The Battle of "Bloody Ridge", Guadalcanal: Americans drive off Japanese forces attempting to recapture Henderson Field.
• 12: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers and Italian POWs, is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa and sinks.
• American troops push back the Japanese in the Battle for Edson's Ridge
• 13: The Battle for Stalingrad continues; it is now totally surrounded by the Germans. On the Soviet Union side General Vasily Chuikov is put in charge of the defence.
• 14: The Japanese retreat again from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal.
  : The Japanese are now within 30 miles of Port Moresby, New Guinea, on the Kokoda trail.
  : Continued convoy losses in the Atlantic.
• 15: Americans send troops to Port Moresby as reinforcements for the Australian defenders.
  : Light carrier USS Wasp is sunk by a Japanese submarine off Guadalcanal.
• 18: Battle of the "grain silo" in Stalingrad; the Germans are beaten back. The Red Army begins ferrying troops across the Volga at night.
• 20: RAF bombs Munich and Saarbrücken.
  : The Greek PEAN group blows up the offices of the pro-Nazi ESPO group in central Athens, thwarting attempts to raise a Greek volunteer legion for the Eastern Front.
• 23: General Rommel leaves North Africa for medical treatment in Germany.
• 24: United States of America deploys the I Corps to the Pacific Theater.
• 27: The Battle of Matanikau River, Guadalcanal; Japanese naval bombardment and landing forces nearly destroy Henderson field in an attempt to take it, but the land forces are soon driven back.
• 28: The Japanese continue their retreat back down the Kokoda trail in New Guinea.
• 30: The Eagle Squadron (American volunteers in the RAF) are officially transferred to the US Army Air Force.
  : Hitler speaks to the nation and boasts that Stalingrad will be taken.

World War II Timeline October 1942

• 3: First successful launch of A4-rocket at Peenemünde, Germany. The rocket flies 147 kilometres wide and reaches a height of 84.5 kilometres and is therefore the first man-made object reaching space.
• 4: British Commandos raid Sark, a Channel Island, capturing one German soldier.
• 6: By mutual arrangement, the Allies agree on a strategy whereby Americans will bomb in the daytime and the RAF at night.
• 7: Third Battle of the Matanikau
• 11: Battle of Cape Esperance - On the Northwest coast of Guadalcanal, United States Navy ships intercept and defeat a Japanese fleet on their way to reinforce troops on the island. With the help of radar they sink one cruiser and several Japanese destroyers.
• 12: The Red Army methods of ferrying troops across the Volga and into Stalingrad directly seems to be a success, as the German advance comes to a halt.
  : The US 100th Infantry Battalion, a force of over 1,400 predominantly Nisei became active.
• 13: Heavy bombardment of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal by the Japanese navy.
• 14: A German U-boat sinks the ferry SS Caribou, killing 137.
• 18: Hitler issues Commando Order, ordering all captured commandos to be executed immediately.
  : Admiral William "Bull" Halsey is given command of the South Pacific naval forces.
• 21: Heavy RAF activity over El Alamein.
• 22: Conscription age in Britain reduced to 18.
  : American General Mark Clark secretly lands in Algeria to confer with Vichy officials and Resistance groups in preparation for impending Allied invasion.
• 23: Second Battle of El Alamein begins with massive Allied bombardment of German positions. Then Australian forces, mainly, begin advance while offshore British naval forces support the right flank (n.b. the ongoing concurrent victories being prepared at Guadalcanal and Stalingrad).
• 23:Battle for Henderson Field
• 24: US Navy Task Force 34, consisting of aircraft carriers, a variety of support ships, including Troop Ships and other vessels, set sail from Hampton Roads, Virginia with Patton's forces for Operation Torch, the landing in North Africa. The other two task forces of Operation Torch, the first American-led force to fight in the European and African theatres of war, depart Britain for Morocco.
  : Crisis at El Alamein: British tanks survive German 88mm fire; Montgomery orders the advance to continue despite losses.
• 25: Rommel hurriedly returns from his sickbed in Germany to take charge of the African battle. (His replacement, General Stumme, had died of a heart attack).
  : The Japanese continue their attacks on the Marines west of Henderson field.
• 26: The naval Battle of Santa Cruz. The Japanese lose many aircraft and have two aircraft carriers severely damaged. The USS Hornet is sunk and the USS Enterprise is damaged.
• 29: The Japanese continue to send troops as reinforcements into Guadalcanal.
  : In the United Kingdom, leading clergymen and political figures hold a public meeting to register outrage over Nazi Germany's persecution of Jews.
  : United States 1st Armored Division moves from Northern Ireland to England.
• 31: The British make a critical breakthrough with tanks west of El Alamein; Rommel's mine fields fail to stop the Allied armour.

World War II Timeline November 1942

• 1: Operation Supercharge, the Allied breakout at El Alamein, begins.
• 1: The Americans begin the Matanikau Offensive against the Japanese
• 3: Second Battle of El Alamein ends - German forces under Erwin Rommel are forced to retreat during the night.
• 3: American victory over the Japanese in the Koli Point action
• 6: Carlson's Patrol begins
• 8: Operation Torch, the Allied invasion of Vichy-controlled Morocco and Algeria, begins; French resistance coup in Algiers, consisting of about 400 fighters neutralise the Vichyist XIXth Army Corps and the Vichyist generals (Juin, Darlan, etc.), contributing significantly to the immediate success of the operation.
  : the United States Combat Command "B" of the 1st Armored Division Landed east and west of Oran as part of Operation Torch.
• 10: In violation of a 1940 armistice, Germany invades Vichy France ; they are responding to the fact that French Admiral François Darlan has signed an armistice with the Allies in North Africa.
  : Oran, Algeria falls to US troops; 17 French ships are sunk at Oran, causing a rift between the French and the Allies. There are more Allied landings near the Tunisian border.
  : Montgomery begins a major British offensive beginning at Sollum on the Libya/Egypt border. The British reach Bardia on the 11th, Tobruk on the 12th, and Benghazi on the 18th.
  : Lieutenant General Montgomery is knighted and made a full General.
  : Churchill speaks: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
• 11: Convoys reach Malta from Alexandria; an official announcement proclaims that the island is "relieved of its siege".
• 12: Battle of Guadalcanal - A climactic naval battle near Guadalcanal starts between Japanese and American naval forces. Notably, the USS Juneau is sunk with much of its crew, including the five Sullivan brothers.
  : The Red Army makes an attempt to relieve Stalingrad at Kotelnikov.
• 13: British Eighth Army recaptures Tobruk.
• 13: In the Battle of Guadalcanal - aviators from the USS Enterprise sink the Japanese battleship Hiei.
• 14: The USS Washington sinks the Japanese battleship Kirishima.
• 15: The naval battle of Guadalcanal ends. Although the United States Navy suffers heavy losses, it still retains control of the sea around Guadalcanal.
  : The British move westward in Tunisia .
  :British Eighth Army recaptures Derna.
• 17: Japanese send reinforcements into New Guinea; Americans are stymied at Buna.
• 18: Heavy British RAF raid on Berlin with few losses.
• 19: At Stalingrad the Soviet Union forces under General Georgy Zhukov launch Operation Uranus aimed at encircling the Germans in the city and thus turning the tide of battle in the USSR's favor.
• 20: The Allies take Benghazi, Libya; the Afrika Corps continues the retreat westward.
• 21: The Red Army attempt at encirclement of Stalingrad continues with obvious success.
• 21: American army moves to shove Japanese off the extreme western end of Guadalcanal.
• 22: Battle of Stalingrad - The situation for the German attackers of Stalingrad seems desperate during the Soviet counter-attack Operation Uranus and General Friedrich Paulus sends Adolf Hitler a telegram saying that the German 6th Army is surrounded.
  : Red Army troops complete the encirclement of the Germans at Kalach, west of Stalingrad.
• 23: "Der Kessel"-- the Cauldron, a description of the heavy fighting at Stalingrad; Hitler orders General Paulus not to retreat, at any cost.
• 25: The encirclement of Stalingrad continues to stabilise. Hitler reiterates his demand of Paulus not to surrender.
  : Operation Harling: a team of British SOE agents, together with over 200 Greek guerrillas from both ELAS and EDES groups, blow up the Gorgopotamos railway bridge, in one of the war's biggest sabotage acts.
• 26: Hostilities erupt between the American and Australian soldiers in Brisbane. Fighting breaks out which results in multiple fatalities, it is dubbed the Battle of Brisbane
• 27: At Toulon, the French navy scuttles its ships (most notably the Dunkerque and Strasbourg) and submarines to keep them out of German hands; the French have declined another option --to join the Allied fleets in North African waters.
• 29: The Allied offensive in Tunisia meets with only minimum success.
• 30: The naval battle of Tassafaronga Point (off Guadalcanal); this is a night action in which Japanese naval forces sink one American cruiser and damage three others.

World War II Timeline December 1942

• 1: Gasoline rationing begins in the United States.
  : The US cruiser Northampton is sunk as Japanese destroyers attempt to come down "the Slot" to Guadalcanal.
• 2: Heavy fighting in Tunisia, as German forces are pushed into the final North African corner.
  : Below the bleachers of Stagg Field at the University of Chicago, a team led by Enrico Fermi initiate the first nuclear chain reaction. A coded message, "The Italian navigator has landed in the new world" is sent to President Roosevelt.
• 4: The first US bombing of mainland Italy --Naples.
• 4: Carlson's patrol ends
• 6: RAF bombs Eindhoven in Holland.
• 7: On the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack, the USS New Jersey, America's largest battleship is launched (commissioned five months later).
  : British commandos conduct Operation Frankton a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
• 9: The Marines turn over Guadalcanal to the American army.
• 12: Rommel abandons El Agheila and retreats to Tripoli; the final stand will be at the Mareth line in southern Tunisia.
  : In a large operation named "Winter Storm", the Germans attempt to break through to forces trapped in Stalingrad.
• 13: The Luftwaffe flies in meagre supplies to the beleaguered Stalingrad troops.
• 14: Naval action off Cape Bon, northern Tunisia; British destroyers sink two Italian cruisers.
• 15: American troops finally push Japanese out of Buna, New Guinea.
• 15: Allies clash with Japanese troops in the Battle of the Gifu
• 22: The Germans begin a retreat from the Caucasus.
  : The battle for "Longstop Hill" begins; a key position outside Tunis, the Germans eventually take it and hold it until April.
  : The remainder of the United States 1st Armored Division arrived at North Africa for Operation Husky.
• 24: French Admiral Darlan, the former Vichy leader who had switched over to the Allies following the Torch landings, is assassinated in Algiers.
  The United States of America reorganizes its Combat Arms Regiments with their Organic Battalions into Separate Groups and Battalions
• 25: The British take Sirto, Libya.
  : American bombers hit Rabaul.
• 26: Heavy fighting continues on Guadalcanal, now focused on Mount Austen in the West.
• 31: As the year comes to an end, things look bright for the Allies: Rommel is trapped in Tunisia, the Germans are encircled at Stalingrad, and the Japanese appear ready to abandon Guadalcanal.

This is a timeline of events that stretched over the period of World War II.

World War II Timeline January 1940

• 2: The Russian offensive in Finland is halted by several Finnish victories; numerous Russian tanks are destroyed.
• 7: Rationing of basic foodstuffs is established in the UK.
  A major Finnish victory at Suomussalmi is reported; one whole Russian division is eliminated, and again numbers of military vehicles are captured.
• 16: Captured documents reveal Hitler's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia and a postponement of the invasion of France and the Low Countries until the Spring, when the weather is more compatible to invasion.
• 17: The Russians are driven back in Finland and retaliate with heavy air attacks.
• 21: A U-boat sinks British destroyer HMS Exmouth a crew of 135 are all lost.
• 24: Reinhard Heydrich is appointed by Goering for the solution to "The Jewish question."
• 27: Germany makes final plans for the invasion of Denmark and Norway.

World War II Timeline February 1940

• 1: The Japanese Diet announces a record high budget with over half its expenditures being military.
• 5: Britain and France decide to intervene in Norway to cut off the iron ore trade in anticipation of an expected German occupation and ostensibly to open a route to assist Finland. The operation is scheduled to start about March 20.
• 9: Erich von Manstein is placed in command of German XXXIII Armour Corps, removing him from planning the French invasion.
• 10: USSR agrees to supply grain and raw materials to Germany in a new trade treaty.
• 14: British government calls for volunteers to fight in Finland.
• 15: The Soviet army captures Summa, an important defence point in Finland, thereby breaking through the Mannerheim Line.
  Hitler orders unrestricted submarine warfare.
• 16: British destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removes 303 British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters.
• 17: The Finns continue retreat from the Mannerheim line.
  Manstein presents to Hitler his plans for invading France via the Ardennes forest.
• 21: General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst is placed in command of the upcoming German invasion of Norway.

World War II Timeline March 1940

• 1: Adolf Hitler directs his generals in planning the invasion of Denmark and Norway.
• 3: Soviets begin attacks on Viipuri, Finland's second largest city.
• 5: Finland tells the Soviets they will agree to their terms for ending the war. The next day they send emissaries to Moscow to negotiate a peace treaty.
• 11: Meat rationing begins in Britain.
• 12: In Moscow, Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union after 105 days of conflict. The Finns are forced to give up significant territory in exchange for independence
• 16: German air raid on Scapa Flow causes first British civilian casualties.
• 18: Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Brenner pass on the Austrian border^[1]; Benito Mussolini agrees with Hitler that Italy will enter the war "at an opportune moment".
• 21: Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France following Daladier's resignation the previous day.
• 28: Britain and France make a formal agreement that neither country will seek a separate peace with Germany.
• 29: The Russians want new territories. Molotov speaks to the Supreme Soviet, about "an unsettled dispute", the question of Romanian Bessarabia.
• 30: Japan establishes a puppet regime at Nanking, China, under Wang Jingwei.

World War II Timeline April 1940

• 1: Sometime between April and early May, Polish officers are massacred by the USSR at Katyn.
• 1: Sometime between April and early May, Polish officers are massacred by the USSR at Katyn.
• 3: The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill) as its chair, replaces Normandy after Hitler's invasion of Poland;
• 9: Germans land in several Norwegian ports and take Oslo; The Norwegian Campaign lasts 3 months. The British begin their Norwegian Campaign. Denmark surrenders.
• 10: Germans set up a Norwegian government under Vidkun Quisling, former war minister.
• 11: First Battle of Narvik, British destroyers and aircraft successfully make a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. A second attack on April 13 will also be a British success.
• 12: British troops occupy the Danish Faroe Islands.
• 13: British and French troops begin landing at Namsos and Harstad in Norway.
• 14: The Enigma code is deciphered by the intelligence group at Bletchley Park in England for the first time.
• 15: British troops land at Narvik, Norway.
• 16: More British landings in Norway, notably at Trondheim; the struggle for Trondheim continues until the 22nd.
• 27: British troops begin pull-out from Norway.

World War II Timeline May 1940

• 1: Allies begin evacuating Norwegian ports; the efforts will continue until June.
• 5: Norwegian government in exile established in London.
• 8: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain barely survives Norway Debate vote in the House of Commons.
• 9: Conscription in Britain extended to age 36.
• 10: Germany invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom upon the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. The United Kingdom invades Iceland.
  Belgium declares a state of emergency. Churchill is called on to form a wartime coalition government.
  The massive German offensive against the Western front: The invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France begins. In a bold stroke, German paratroops capture the Belgian fort Eben Emael.
• 11: Luxembourg is occupied.
  Churchill offers the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, who is now living in the Netherlands, asylum in the United Kingdom; he declines.
• 12: The Belgians blow up all the bridges over the Meuse River to halt the German advance.
• 13: Dutch government in exile established in London.
  General Heinz Guderian's Panzer corps breaks through at Sedan, France.
  Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to asylum in the United Kingdom.
  Churchill's "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech in Commons.
• 14: The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers; (the Home Guard) is announced by the new Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden. It is mostly composed of the elderly and retired.
  Rotterdam is carpet-bombed by the Luftwaffe, causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. The Netherlands decide to surrender with the exception of Zealand.
  Churchill asks President Roosevelt and Canada for aid in these dark days. Outlines of the new British coalition, which includes Labour, Liberal, and Conservative members, is made public.
• 15: The capitulation of the Dutch army is signed.
  German forces cross over the River Meusse.
• 16: Churchill visits Paris and hears that the French war is as good as over; The United Kingdom stands alone in Europe.
• 17: Germans enter Brussels and also take Antwerp.
  Paul Reynaud forms new French government, including 84-year old Marshal Pétain, the French hero of World War I.
• 18: Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander of the French armed forces
  Antwerp captured
• 19: Amiens, France is besieged by German troops; Rommel's forces surround Arras; other German forces reach Noyelles on the Channel.
• 19: The British complete their invasion of Iceland
• 20: General Guderian's Panzer groups take Abbeville, threatening Allied forces in the area.
• 23: Oswald Mosley, leader of the pre-war British fascists, is jailed; he and his wife will spend the duration in prison.
• 24: The British make a final decision to cease operations in Norway.
• 25: The Allied forces, British and French alike, retreat to Dunkirk. Hitler orders a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allows Goering to use the Luftwaffe to attack. British R.A.F. defends the beachhead.
  Sporadic Luftwaffe bombings in England.
  Boulogne-sur-Mer surrenders to the Germans
• 25: Soviet Union is preparing a total takeover in the Baltic States organizing and staging conflicts between the Baltic States and the USSR. Soviet government accuses Lithuania of kidnapping Soviet soldiers.
• 26: Calais surrenders to the Germans.
  Operation Dynamo, the Allied evacuation of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk, begins. The move will last until June 3 under ferocious bombardment by the Luftwaffe.
• 28: Belgium surrenders to the Germans; King Leopold III of Belgium surrenders and is interned.
• 30: Crucial British Cabinet meeting: Churchill wins a vote on continuing the war, in spite of vigorous arguments by Lord Halifax and Chamberlain.
• 31: The Japanese heavily bomb Nationalist capital Chungking, on the upper Yangtse.

World War II Timeline June 1940

• 2: After an intense two-month struggle, and despite military assistance from Great Britain and France, Norway had no choice but to surrender. The last of British troops in Norway leave; losses have been heavy on both sides.
• 3: Last day of Operation Dynamo. 224,686 British and 121,445 French and Belgian troops have been evacuated.
  Germans bomb Paris.
• 7: German cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst sink the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and two destroyers off Norway; the British ships have had no air cover.
• 9: Red Army provokes conflicts in the Latvian border.
• 10: Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom.
  : Norway surrenders. King Haakon flees to the mountains and is eventually evacuated to Britain.
• 11: French government decamps to Tours.
• 13: Paris occupied by German troops; French government moves again, this time to Bordeaux.
• 14: Elements of the French Navy (Marine Nationale) based in Toulon carried out offensive operations against Italian targets along the Ligurian coast.
  A total military blockade on the Baltic States by the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Soviet troops along the Baltic borders are ready to organise communist coups in the Baltic States. Soviet bombers shoot down a Finnish passenger airplane Kaleva flying from Tallinn to Helsinki and carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki.
• 15: Eight hour ultimatum to surrender is given to Lithuania by the Soviets. President Smetona escapes from the country so the takeover is not possible to do in a formally legal way. Soviet troops enter Lithuania and attack Latvian border guards.
• 16: Philippe Pétain becomes premier of France upon the resignation of Reynaud's government.
  The French sloop La Curieuse forced the Italian submarine Provano to surface and then sank it by ramming.
  Soviet Union gives eight hour ultimatum to Latvia and Estonia to surrender.
• 17: Sinking of liner RMS Lancastria off St Nazaire while being used as a British troopship—Britain's worst maritime disaster since the Anglo-Dutch wars.
  Soviet troops enter Latvia and Estonia.
• 18: General De Gaulle forms the Comité Français de la Libération Nationale, a French government in exile; Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are occupied by the Soviet Union.
• 21: Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiègne.
  Elements of two Italian armies cross into France during Italian invasion of France.
• 21: The French battleship Lorraine opened fired on the Italian port of Bardia in Italian North Africa. During some of the last actions of the French against the Italians, French naval aircraft attacked Taranto and Livorno in mainland Italy.
• 21: Soviet-led coups in the Baltic States. In the only military resistance in Tallinn, 2 die on Estonian side and about 10 on the Soviet side.
• 22: Franco-German armistice signed.
• 24: Franco-Italian armistice signed.
• 25: France officially surrenders to Germany at 0:35.
• 26: The Soviet Union send an ultimatum demanding Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania.
• 27: Romanians propose negotiations. Molotov puts it straight: Land concessions or war. New ultimatum from the Soviets to the Romanians.
• 28: General De Gaulle recognised by British as leader of Free French.
  Marshal Italo Balbo, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa, is accidentally killed in a "friendly fire incident" by Italian anti-aircraft fire at Tobruk, Libya.
• 28: The Red Army occupies Romanian Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
• 28: The Luftwaffe bombs the demilitarised British Channel Islands. In Guernsey, 33 are killed and 67 injured, in Jersey, 9 are killed and many are injured.
• 30: Germany invades the Channel Islands.

World War II Timeline July 1940

• 1: Channel Islands occupation is completed by German forces.
  : French government moves to Vichy.
  : Marshal Rodolfo Graziani is named as Balbo's replacement in North Africa.
  : The Italian Royal Air Force starts bombing the British Mandate of Palestine.
• 2: Hitler orders preparation of plans for invasion of Britain, code-named Operation Sealion.
• 3: Cardiff is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the first time.
• 4: The destruction of the French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria by the Royal Navy; Vichy French government breaks off diplomatic relations with Britain in protest. At Alexandria the French agree to demilitarise the battleship Lorraine and several smaller ships.
  The Duke of Windsor (tainted by suspicion of pro-Nazism) is named governor of the Bahamas, putting him some distance from controversy.
• 10: The Battle of Britain begins with Luftwaffe raids on channel shipping.
  President Roosevelt asks Congress for huge increases in military preparations.
• 11: RAF raids on enemy emplacements in the Netherlands and on German munitions factories.
• 12: Luftwaffe attacks on Wales, Scotland and Northen Ireland.
• 14: Soviets organize rigged elections in the Baltic States. The parliaments will be in the control of the Soviets.
• 16: Adolf Hitler submits to his military the directive for the invasion of the United Kingdom, Operation Sealion.
• 18: In response to Mers-el-Kébir, the Vichy French Air Force bombs British-held Gibraltar.
• 19: General Johan Laidoner of Estonia is deported to Siberia.
• 21: Czechoslovakian government in exile arrives in London.
  In the Baltic States Soviet controlled parliaments request membership of USSR.
• 22: The Havana Conference meets; the nations of the Western hemisphere meet to discuss neutrality and economic cooperation.
  Fumimaro Konoye is named the Prime Minister of Japan.
• 23: The British "Home Guard" is officially established, drawing on elderly men and those considered unable to serve in the regular armed forces.
• 25: All women and children are ordered to evacuate Gibraltar.
• 26: The United States of America activates the General Headquarters (GHQ), United States Army, which is designed to facilitate mobilization by supervising the organization and training of the army field forces within the continental United States, which is code named the Zone of the Interior.
• 30: The President of Estonia, Konstantin Päts, is arrested and deported to Russia by the Soviets.

World War II Timeline August 1940

• 1: Hitler sets 15 September as the date for Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain.
  : Russian Foreign Minister Molotov reaffirms Molotov-Ribbentrop pact in the Soviet Supreme while verbally attacking both Britain and the USA. He also asserts that the boundaries of Soviet Union are moved to the shores of the Baltic Sea.
  : The Italian Royal Navy establishes its BETASOM submarine base in Bordeaux and joins the "Battle of the Atlantic."
• 2: General Charles de Gaulle sentenced to death in absentia by a French military court.
  : The USSR annexes Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
• 3: The USSR formally annexes Lithuania.
• 4: Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi invade and occupy British Somaliland during the East African Campaign.
• 5: Failure to achieve air superiority and bad weather in the Channel results in a postponement of the invasion of Great Britain.
  : The USSR formally annexes Latvia.
• 6: The USSR formally annexes Estonia.
• 11-15: Battle of Tug Argan fought in British Somaliland during the Italian invasion. To avoid encirclement, the British withdraw.
• 13: This is "Adler Tag" or "Eagle Day". Goering starts a two-week assault on British airfields in preparation for invasion. (For some German historians, this is the beginning of the "Battle of Britain.")
• 14: British scientist, Sir Henry Tizard, leaves for the United States on the Tizard Mission, giving over to the Americans a number of top secret British technologies including the magnetron, the secret device at the heart of radar. Radar is already proving itself in the defence of Britain.
  : The destroyer/base exchange between the US and Britain goes forward.
• 15: RAF victories over the Luftwaffe continue, in a wide-ranging fight along the East coast. British fighter aircraft production begins to accelerate.
  : Sinking of the Greek cruiser Elli by an Italian submarine on 15 August 1940 at the harbour of Tinos.
• 16: The Battle of Britain continues; Germans are hampered by poor aircraft range and British extensive use of RADAR.
  : A first draft of the destroyer/base trade by the US and Britain is made public.
• 17: Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
• 18: Heavy fighting in the Battle of Britain; Germans suffering severe losses on bomber formations. Goering declares cowardice among his fighter pilots and orders them to closely guard the bombers, further restricting their capabilities.
• 19: Italian forces take Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland and the British defenders flee to Aden. The fall of Berbera completes the invasion of the British colony. By the end of the month, the Italians control British Somaliland and several towns and forts along the border with the Sudan and Kenya including Kassala, Gallabat, and Moyale.
• 20: Italy announces a blockade of British ports in the Mediterranean area.
  : Churchill's speech in Commons: "never was so much owed by so many to so few".
• 20:Chinese Communists launch the Hundred Regiments Offensive against the IJA in North China
• 22: Germans are now shelling Dover and the nearby coastal area with long-range artillery.
• 24: German aircraft mistakenly bomb Coventry, accidentally dictating the future shape of the Battle of Britain.
• 25: Churchill orders the bombing of Berlin in retaliation for last night's bombing of Coventry.
• 26: Both London and Berlin are bombed, Berlin for the first time.
• 30: The bombing of England continues; London is now bombed in retaliation for the bombing of Berlin; thus, the beginning of "the London Blitz."
• 31: Luftwaffe attacks on British airfields continue, as well as on London. Attacks on Radar installations prove ineffective.

World War II Timeline September 1940

• 1: Germany's Jews are ordered to wear yellow stars for identification.
• 2: The Destroyers for Bases Agreement is completed. Britain obtains 50 destroyers in exchange for giving the United States land grants in various British possessions for the establishment of US naval and air bases, on ninety-nine-year rent-free leases.
• 3: Hitler postpones the invasion of Britain, as the Luftwaffe fails to break the British defenses. Fears of the forthcoming invasion continue, however, to haunt Britain.
• 6: King Carol abdicates the Romanian throne in favour of his son Michael while control of the government is taken by Marshal Antonescu.
• 7: In one of the major misjudgements of the war, the Luftwaffe shifts its focus to London, away from the RAF airfields. Success may be measured only in the estimated 2,000 civilian dead. Other British cities are hit.
• 9: During the Western Desert Campaign, Italian colonial forces in Libya under General Mario Berti launch the invasion of Egypt. The first objective is to advance from defensive positions within Libya to the border with Egypt.
  : Tel Aviv in the British Mandate of Palestine is bombed by Italian aircraft causing 137 deaths.
• 10: Operation Sealion is now set for 24 September.
  : The Italian Air Corps is formed to fight in the Battle of Britain.
• 13: After re-taking Fort Capuzzo just inside Libya, Italian colonial forces cross the border and advance into Egypt. The Italians take the small port of Sollum, but the only resistance to the invasion is a light British screening force which withdraws as the Italians advance.
• 14: Operation Sealion is postponed until 27 September, the last day of the month with suitable tides for the invasion.
• 15: Massive German bombing flights on English cities; most are driven off. The RAF begins to claim victory in the Battle of Britain.
• 16: Selective Training and Service Act of 1940 introduces the first peacetime conscription (this time for men between 21 and 35) in United States history.
  The Italian invasion of Egypt comes to a halt when approximately five Italian divisions set up defensively in a series of armed camps after advancing about 95 km to Sidi Barrani. The Italians never approach the main British positions at Mersa Matruh.
• 17: Decoded messages now reveal that Hitler has postponed Operation Sealion until further notice.
• 22: Heavy convoy losses to U-boats in the Atlantic.
  The Japanese occupy Vietnam and establish several bases in French Indochina; local French administrators become only figurehead authorities.
• 23: Free French and British forces attempt landing at Dakar, West Africa; Vichy French naval forces open fire sporadically for two days, and the expedition is called back.
• 24: Berlin suffers a large bombing raid by the RAF.
  : In response to Dakar, the Vichy French Air Force bombs Gibraltar for the first time since 18 July.
• 25: Vichy French aircraft return to Gibraltar for a second day of bombings.
  : Japanese 5th Division march into Hanoi, North Vietnam.
• 27: The Tripartite Pact is signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy, and Japan, promising mutual aid. An informal name,"Axis", emerges.
• 28: Vidkun Quisling becomes head of state in Norway.

World War II Timeline October 1940

• 1-31: The United States Of America separates the Corps Areas established in 1921 to perform the administrative tasks of the various regions of the US from the four Field Armies that had been established in 1932.
• 1: Chinese Nationalist and Chinese Communists fight each other in southern China. Meanwhile Japanese forces have a setback at Changsha.
• 2: The bombing of London continues throughout the month.
• 3: Warsaw's Jews are directed to move into the Warsaw ghetto.
• 4: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass to discuss the prospects in the war.
• 7: Germany invades Romania to block the Soviet Army and get access to valuable oil fields.
• 9: Neville Chamberlain resigns from the House of Commons for health reasons; Winston Churchill is elected head of the Conservative Party.
• 12: Any German invasion of Britain is postponed until Spring 1941 at the earliest.
• 13: British civilians are still being killed by German bombs though the attacks have dropped off significantly.
• 15: Clarence Addison Dykstra becomes Director of Selective Service in the United States.
• 15: Mussolini and his closest advisers decide to invade Greece
• 16: Draft registration begins in the United States.
• 20: Italian aircraft bomb Cairo, Egypt and American-operated oil refineries in the British Protectorate of Bahrain.
• 21: Liverpool is bombed for the 200th time.
• 23: Adolf Hitler meets with Franco at a Spanish border town; little is accomplished, and least of all Hitler's hope to convince Franco to enter the war on the Axis side.
• 24: The Italian Air Corps sees its first action during the Battle of Britain.
• 25: Berlin and Hamburg are bombed heavily.
• 28: Italy issues ultimatum to Greece and Greek Prime Minister Metaxas replies: "So it is war". The Italian Royal Army launches attacks into Greece from Italian-held Albania and begins the Greco-Italian War. Hitler is angered at the initiative of his ally.
• 29: Very heavy convoy losses during this period as numbers of U-boats increase.
• 29: The first number drawings for US Selective Service Act draftees.
• 30: President Roosevelt, in the middle of an election campaign, promises not to send "our boys" to war.
• 31: The Warsaw District government moves all Jews living in Warsaw to the ghettos.

World War II Timeline November 1940

• 2: The Italian advance into Greece continues. Vovousa is captured and Italian aircraft bomb Salonika.
• 4: President Roosevelt wins a third term. The British see the event as promising of more help from the US.
• 5: The HMS Jervis Bay, a merchant cruiser, is sunk on convoy duty, but much of the convoy escapes. The loss becomes a media event.
• 7: It becomes clear that Ireland will refuse to allow the United Kingdom to use its ports as naval bases.
• 9: Neville Chamberlain dies.
• 11: British naval forces launch attack against Italian navy at Taranto. Swordfish bombers from HMS Illustrious damage three battleships, two cruisers and multiple auxiliary craft. The event secures British supply lines in the Mediterranean. The British success will be studied by Japanese military already preparing for an attack on Pearl Harbor.
• 12: Molotov meets Hitler and Ribbentrop in Berlin. New World order is under discussion. Molotov expresses Soviet interest in Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Dardanelles and Bosbor, but Hitler talks along broad lines about worldwide spheres of influence between Russia, Germany, Italy and Japan.
• 13: Molotov meets Hitler again asking acceptance to liquidate Finland. Hitler now resists every attempt to expand soviet influence in Europe. He sees Britain as defeated and offers India to the Soviet Union.
  : The Battle of Pindus ends in a Greek victory.
• 14: A heavy night raid on Coventry. Coventry Cathedral is destroyed and the medieval centre of the city is levelled.
  : The Greek counter-offensive against the Italians begins.
• 15: The Soviet Union is invited to join Tripartite Pact and to share in the spoils of British Empire. Warsaw's Jewish ghetto is cordoned off from the rest of the city.
• 16: Churchill orders some British troops in North Africa to be sent to Greece, despite concerns by his military leaders that they are needed in the current campaign against the Italians in North Africa.
• 19: The Greeks continue to advance, and evict Italian troops from Greek soil.
• 20: Hungary signs the Tripartite Pact.
• 21: The Belgian government, in exile in Britain, declares war on Italy.
• 22: Fall of Korytsa to the Greeks.
• 23: Romania signs the Tripartite Pact.
• 24: The Slovak Republic signs the Tripartite Pact.
• 26: The Soviet Union gives her terms to join the Tripartite pact including substantial new territorial gains for Russia.
• 29: A massive overnight bombing raid on Liverpool.
• 30: A large bombing raid on Southampton in southern England; the city is hit again the next night, followed by Bristol on the 2nd of December, and Birmingham on the 3rd.

World War II Timeline December 1940

• 1-8: Greek forces continue to drive the Italian armies back, capturing the cities of Pogradec, Sarandë, and Gjirokastër.
• 1: Bombing raids are exchanged throughout the month between Germany and Britain. First German bombs, then Britain's.
  : Joseph P. Kennedy, the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom is asked to resign by President Roosevelt after he gives a newspaper interview expressing that "Democracy is finished in England".
• 5: The RAF bombs Düsseldorf and Turin.
• 6-9: British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launch Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces in Egypt. The Italians have seven infantry divisions and the Maletti Group in fortified defensive positions. Initial attacks are launched against the five Italian camps around and south of Sidi Barrani. The camps are overrun, Italian General Pietro Maletti is killed, and the Maletti Group, the 1st Libyan Division, the 2nd Libyan Division, and the 4th Blackshirt Division are all but destroyed. The remaining Italian units in Egypt are forced to withdraw towards Libya.
• 8: Francisco Franco rules out Spanish entry into the war; the immediate result is that Hitler is forced to cancel an attack on Gibraltar.
• 12: In North Africa, over 39,000 Italians lost or captured in Egypt.
• 16: The first RAF night raid--on Mannheim, Germany.
  : In North Africa, the British are in command at Sollum in Egypt and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya.
• 18: Hitler issues directive to begin planning for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union
• 22-24: Bombing raids on Manchester
• 28: The Greco-Italian War continues to go badly for the Italians and the Greeks hold roughly one-quarter of Albania.
  : Italy requests military assistance from Germany against the Greeks.
• 29: Large German air-raids on London; St Paul's Cathedral is damaged.