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

World War II Timeline January 1945

• 1: The Germans begin a surprise offensive Operation Nordwind along the Saar and aimed at retaking Strasbourg.
• 1: Unternehmen Bodenplatte is launched by the Luftwaffe against western Allied air bases in Belgium and Holland by elements of ten different Jagdgeschwadern (fighter wings), as its last major air offensive of the war in the West.
• 2: The Japanese increasingly use kamikaze tactics against the US naval forces nearby.
• 3: The Allies take the offensive east of the Bulge but they fail to close the pincers (which might have surrounded large numbers of Germans) with Patton's tanks.
• 4: US navy air attacks on Formosa (Taiwan)
• 5: The German offensive "North Wind" crosses the border into Alsace.
• 5: Japanese retreat across the Irrawaddy River in Burma with General Slim's troops in pursuit.
• 6: American B-29's bomb Tokyo again.
• 7: Germans, as part of the plan to retake Strasbourg, break out of the "Colmar Pocket", a bridgehead on the Rhine, and head east.
• 8: The battle of Strasbourg is underway, with Americans in defence of their recent acquisition.
• 9: Americans land on Luzon, the central island of the Philippines and there inside by the Philippine Commonwealth troops and recognized guerillas; there are more kamikaze attacks on the American navy.
• 12: The first convoy moves on the Ledo (or "Stilwell") road in northern Burma, linking India and China.
• 12: A major Red Army offensive in East Prussia begins.
• 14: British forces clear the Roer Triangle during Operation Blackcock; it is an area noted for its industrial dams.
• 15: Hitler is now firmly ensconced in the bunker in Berlin with his companion Eva Braun.
• 15: The British commander in Athens, General Ronald Scobie, accepts a request for a ceasefire from the Greek People's Liberation Army. This marks the end of the Dekemvriana, resulting in clear defeat for the Greek Left.
• 16: United States First and Third link up following Battle of the Bulge; Soviet troops meanwhile lay siege to Budapest.
• 17: Warsaw liberated by Red Army troops. A government favourable to the Communists is installed.
• 17: It is announced officially that the Battle of the Bulge is at an end.
• 18: Americans drive on Manila.
• 20: The Red Army advances into East Prussia. Germans renew the retreat.
• 20: Franklin D. Roosevelt is sworn in as President (his fourth term); Harry Truman is sworn in as Vice President.
• 25: American navy bombards Iwo Jima in preparation for invasion.
• 25: The Allies officially win the Battle of the Bulge.
• 27: Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated by Soviet troops.
• 28: The Red Army completes the occupation of Lithuania.
• 31: Red Army crosses the Oder River into Germany and are now less than 50 miles from Berlin.
• 31: A second invasion on Luzon by Americans by inside to the Filipino soldiers and guerilla fighters, this time on the west coast.
• 31: The whole Burma Road is now opened as the Leado Road linkage with India is complete.

World War II Timeline February 1945

• 1: Ecuador declares war on Germany.
• 2: Naval docks at Singapore are destroyed by B-29 attacks.
• 3: U.S. forces enter Manila by helping with the Allied Philippine Commonwealth troops and recognized guerillas, Japanese forces in the city massacre 100,000 Filipinos civilians and devastates the city. A vicious urban battle ensues, to last for some weeks. Also known as Battle for Liberation of Manila
• 3: Heavy bombing of Berlin.
• 4: Yalta Conference ("Argonaut" of Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin begins; the main subject of their discussions is postwar spheres of influence.
• 4: Belgium is now cleared of all German forces.
• 8: Paraguay declares war on Germany.
• 9: The "Colmar Pocket", the last German foothold west of the Rhine, is eliminated.
• 12: Peru declares war on Germany.
• 13: The Battle of Budapest ends with Soviet victory, after a long defence by the Germans.
• 13/14: The controversial bombing of Dresden; it is firebombed by Allied air forces and large parts of the historic city are destroyed. Allies claim it is strategically important.
• 14: Bombing of Prague; later called a mistake on the order of the bombing of Dresden.
• 16: American naval vessels bombard Tokyo and Yokohama.
• 16: American paratroopers and the Philippine Commonwealth troops land on Corregidor Island, in Manila Bay. Once the scene of the last American resistance in early 1942, it is now the scene of Japanese resistance.
• 19: U.S. Marines invade Iwo Jima.
• 21: Vicious fighting in and around Manila was joint by Filipino and American troops.
• 23: U.S. Marines raise the American flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
• 24: Egypt declares war on Axis.
• 24: Massive bombing of Germany by approximately 9,000 bombers.
• 25: US incendiary raids on Japan.
• 25: Turkey declares war on Germany.
• 25: After ten days of fighting, American and Filipino troops recapture Corregidor.
• 26: Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.
• 28: The Sixth United States Army captures Manila, capital of the Philippines by continued the Allied Philippine Commonwealth troops and recognized guerilla fighters after an unyielding Japanese defence force. A Philippine government is established.
• 28: The combined Filipino and American military forces increase their presence in the Philippines by invading Palawan, a western island in the group.

World War II Timeline March 1945

• 3: The combined Filipino and American soldiers take Manila, the Philippines.
• 3: Battle of Meiktila, Burma comes to an end with General Slim's troops overwhelming the Japanese; the road to Rangoon is now cleared.
• 4: Finland declares war on Germany, backdated to September 15, 1944.
• 6: Germans launch an offensive against Soviet forces in Hungary.
• 7: When German troops fail to dynamite the Remagen Bridge over the Rhine, Americans begin crossing the Rhine into Germany.
• 7: Germans begin to evacuate Danzig.
• 9: The US firebombs a number of cities in Japan, including Tokyo, with heavy civilian casualties.
• 9: Amid rumours of a possible American invasion, Japanese overthrow the Vichy French Jean Decoux Government which had been operating independently as the colonial government of Vietnam: they proclaim an "independent" Empire of Vietnam, with Emperor Bảo Đại as nominal ruler. Premier Trần Trọng Kim forms the first Vietnamese government.
• 10: Japanese Fugo Attacks damage the Manhattan Project slightly but cause no lasting effects
• 11: Nagoya, Japan is firebombed by hundreds of B-29's.
• 15: V-2 rockets continue to hit England and Belgium.
• 16: The German offensive in Hungary ends with another Soviet victory.
• 16: Iwo Jima is finally secured after a month's fighting;the battle is the only time that the number of American casualties is larger than the Japanese's. Sporadic fighting will continue as isolated Japanese fighters emerge from caves and tunnels.
• 18: Red Army approaches Danzig (postwar Gdańsk).
• 19: Heavy bombing of important naval bases in Japan, Kobe and Kure.
• 20: German General Gotthard Heinrici replaces Heinrich Himmler as commander of Army Group Vistula, the army group directly opposing the Soviet advance towards Berlin.
• 20: Mandalay liberated by Indian 19th Infantry Division.
• 20: Tokyo is firebombed again.
• 20: Patton's troops capture Mainz, Germany
• 20: Mandalay, in central Burma, is now firmly under British and Indian control.
• 22-23: US and British forces cross the Rhine at Oppenheim.
• 23: By this time it is clear that Germany is under attack from all sides.
• 24: Montgomery's troops cross the Rhine at Wesel.
• 27: The Western Allies slow their advance and allow the Red Army to take Berlin.
• 28: Argentina declares war on Germany, the last Western hemisphere country to do so; its policies for sheltering escaping Nazis are also coming under scrutiny. Argentina had not declared war before due to British wishes that Argentine shipping be neutral (and therefore Argentine foodstuffs would reach Britain unharmed), this, however, went against the plan of the USA, who applied much political pressure on Argentina.
• 29: The Red Army enters Austria. Other Allies take Frankfurt; the Germans are in a general retreat all over the centre of the country.
• 30: Red Army forces capture Danzig.
• 31: General Eisenhower broadcasts a demand for the Germans to surrender.

World War II Timeline April 1945

• 1: U.S. troops start Operation Iceberg, which is the Battle of Okinawa. It would have been a leaping off base for a mainland invasion.
• 1: Americans retake Legaspi, Albay in the eastern Philippines was helping the Philippine Commonwealth troops and Bicolano guerillas, one of the original Japanese landing sites in December,1941.
• 2: Soviets launch Vienna Offensive against German forces in and around the Austrian capital city.
• 2: German armies are surrounded in the Ruhr region.
• 4: Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, is over-run by advancing Soviet forces. The remaining members of Prime Minister Jozef Tiso's pro-German government fled to Austria.
• 4: Ohrdruf death camp is liberated by the Allies.
• 5: Po Valley Campaign begins in northern Italy.
• 7: The Japanese battleship Yamato is sunk in the North of Okinawa as the Japanese make their last major naval operation.
• 9: Battle of Königsberg ends in Soviet victory.
• 9: A heavy bombing at Kiel by the RAF destroys the last two major German warships.
• 9: Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer is executed at Flossenburg prison.
• 10: Buchenwald concentration camp liberated by American forces.
• 11: Spain breaks diplomatic relations with Japan.
• 11: Japanese kamikaze attacks on American naval ships continue at Okinawa; the carrier Enterprise and the battleship Missouri are hit heavily.
• 12: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies suddenly. Harry S. Truman becomes president of the United States.
• 13: Vienna Offensive ends with Soviet victory.
• 14: Large-scale firebombing of Tokyo.
• 15: Bergen-Belsen concentration camp is liberated by the British Army.
• 16: The Battle of the Seelow Heights and the Battle of the Oder-Neisse begin as the Soviets continue to advance towards the city of Berlin.
• 18: Ernie Pyle, famed war correspondent for the GI's, is killed by a sniper on Ie Shima, a small island near Okinawa.
• 19: Switzerland closes its borders with Germany (and former Austria).
• 19: Allies continue their sweep toward the Po Valley.
• 19: The Soviet advance towards the city of Berlin continues and soon reach the suburbs.
• 20: Hitler celebrates his 56th birthday in the bunker in Berlin; reports are that he is in an unhealthy state, nervous, and depressed.
• 21: Soviet forces under Georgiy Zhukov (1st Belorussian Front), Konstantin Rokossovskiy (2nd Belorussian Front), and Ivan Konev (1st Ukrainian Front) launch assaults on the German forces in and around the city of Berlin as the opening stages of the Battle of Berlin.
• 21: Hitler ordered SS-General Felix Steiner to attack the 1st Belorussian Front and destroy it. The ragtag units of "Army Detachment Steiner" are not fully manned.
• 22: Hitler is informed late in the day that, with the approval of Gotthard Heinrici, Steiner's attack was never launched. Instead, Steiner's forces were authorised to retreat.
• 22: In response to the news concerning Steiner, Hitler launches a furious tirade against the perceived treachery and incompetence of his military commanders in front of Wilhelm Keitel, Hans Krebs, Alfred Jodl, Wilhelm Burgdorf, and Martin Bormann. Hitler's tirade culminates in an oath to stay in Berlin to head up the defence of the city.
• 22: Hitler ordered German General Walther Wenck to attack towards Berlin with his Twelfth Army, link up with the Ninth Army of General Theodor Busse, and relieve the city. Wenck launched an attack, but it came to nothing.
• 23: Hermann Göring sends a radiogram to Hitler's bunker, asking to be declared Hitler's successor. He proclaims that if he gets no response by 10 PM, he will assume Hitler is incapacitated and assume leadership of the Reich. Furious, Hitler strips him of all his offices and expels him from the Nazi Party.
• 23: Albert Speer makes one last visit to Hitler, informing him that he ignored the Nero Decree for scorched earth.
• 24: Meanwhile, Himmler, ignoring the orders of Hitler, makes a secret surrender offer to the Allies, (led by Count Folke Bernadotte, head of the Red Cross) provided that the Red Army is not involved. The offer is rejected; when Hitler hears of Himmler's betrayal, he orders him shot.
• 24: Forces of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front link up in the initial encirclement of Berlin.
• 24: Allies encircle last German armies near Bologna, and the Italian war in effect comes to an end.
• 25: Elbe Day: First contact between Soviet and American troops at the river Elbe, near Torgau in Germany.
• 26: Hitler summons Field Marshall Robert Ritter von Greim from Munich to Berlin to take over command of the Luftwaffe from Göring. While flying into Berlin, von Greim is seriously wounded by Soviet anti-aircraft fire.
• 27: The encirclement of German forces in Berlin is completed by the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Ukrainian Front.
• 28: Head of State for the Italian Social Republic, Benito Mussolini, heavily disguised, is captured in northern Italy while trying to escape. Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, are shot and hanged in Milan the next day. Other members of his puppet government are also executed by Italian partisans and their bodies put on display in Milan.
• 29: Dachau concentration camp is liberated by the U.S. 7th Army. All forces in Italy officially surrender and a ceasefire is declared.
• 29: Hitler marries his companion Eva Braun.
• 30: Hitler and his wife commit suicide, he by a combination of poison and a gunshot. Before he dies Adolf Hitler dictates his last will and testament. In it Joseph Goebbels is appointed Reich Chancellor and Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz is appointed Reich President.
• 30: While Donitz ascends to his high office, Goebbels and his wife kill their six children and then take poison in the bunker.
• 30: Soviet troops declared final victory over Germany.

World War II Timeline May 1945

• 1: As one of his last acts Reich Chancellor Joseph Goebbels has sent German General Hans Krebs to negotiate the surrender of the city of Berlin with Soviet General Vasily Chuikov. Chuikov, as commander of the Soviet 8th Guards Army, (and one time leader of the defence at Stalingrad) commands the Soviet forces in central Berlin. Krebs is not authorized by Goebbels to agree to an unconditional surrender, so his negotiations with Chuikov end with no agreement.
• 1: Partisan leader Tito and his troops capture Trieste in northwest Italy. New Zealand troops play a supporting role.
• 1:Goebbels and his wife kill their children and then commit suicide.
• 1: The war in Italy is over but some German troops are still not accounted for.
• 1: Australian troops land on Tarakan island off the coast of Borneo
• 2: The Battle of Berlin ends when German General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defence Area, (and no longer bound by Goebbels commands), unconditionally surrenders the city of Berlin to Soviet General Vasily Chuikov.
• 3: The German cruiser Hipper is scuttled, having been hit heavily by the RAF in April.
• 3: Eamon de Valera, Prime Minister of Ireland, offers regrets for Hitler's death to German officialdom.
• 3: Rangoon is liberated.
• 4: Neuengamme concentration camp is liberated.
• 4: German troops are surrendering throughout Europe, notably to Montgomery in the North.
• 5: Czech resistance fighters started Prague uprising.
• 5: Soviets started Prague Offensive.
• 5: Mauthausen concentration camp is liberated.
• 5: German troops in the Netherlands officially surrender; Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands accepts the surrender.
• 5: Denmark liberated by Allied troops.
• 5: Formal negotiations for Germany's surrender begin at Reims, France.
• 5: Kamikazes have major successes off Okinawa.
• 5: Japanese Fire balloons claim their first and only lives
• 6: This date marks the last fighting for American troops in Europe.
• 6: German soldiers open fire on a crowd celebrating the liberation in Amsterdam.
• 7: Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies at the Western Allied Headquarters in Rheims, France at 2:41 a.m. In accordance with orders from Reich President Karl Dönitz, General Alfred Jodl signs for Germany.
• 7: Hermann Göring, for a while in the hands of the SS, surrenders to the Americans.
• 8: Ceasefire takes effect at one minute past midnight; V-E Day in Britain
• 8: The remaining members of the Prime Minister Jozef Tiso's pro-German Slovak Republic capitulates to the American General Walton Walker's XX Corps in Kremsmünster, Austria.
• 8: Germany surrendered again unconditionally to the Soviet Union army but this time in a ceremony hosted by the Soviet Union. In accordance with orders from Reich President Karl Dönitz, General Wilhelm Keitel signs for Germany.
• 8: In accordance with orders from Reich President Karl Dönitz, Colonel-General Carl Hilpert unconditionally surrenders his troops in the Courland Pocket.
• 8: Prague uprising ends with negotiated surrender with Czech resistance which allowed the Germans in Prague to leave the city.
• 8: Soviet forces capture the Reichstag during which the soviets install the famous flag of Soviet Union over Reichstag.
• 8: Viet Nam is considered a minor item on the agenda; in order to disarm the Japanese in Viet Nam, the Allies divide the country in half at the 16th parallel. Chinese Nationalists will move in and disarm the Japanese north of the parallel while the British will move in and do the same in the south. During the conference, representatives from France request the return of all French pre-war colonies in Indochina. Their request is granted. Viet Nam will once again become French colony following the removal of the Japanese.
• 9: Red Army entered Prague as part of the Prague Offensive.
• 9: Soviet Union officially pronounces May 9 as the Victory Day.
• 9: German garrison in Channel Islands agreed to unconditional surrender.
• 11: Prague Offensive ends with Soviet capture of the capital city, the last major city to be liberated, though the war is over. Eisenhower stops Patton from participating in the liberation.
• 11: German Army Group Centre in Czechoslovakia surrenders.
• 11: War in New Guinea continues, with Australians attacking Wewak.
• 14: Nagoya, Japan is heavily bombed.
• 14: Fighting in the southern Philippines continues.
• 16: British troops complete liberation of Channel Islands.
• 18: Continued fierce fighting on Okinawa.
• 20: Georgian Uprising of Texel ends, concluding hostilities in Europe.
• 23: British forces capture and arrest the members of what was left of the Flensburg government. This was the German government formed by Reich President Karl Dönitz after the suicides of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels.
• 23: Heavy bombing of Yokohama, an important port and naval base.
• 23: Heinrich Himmler, head of the notorious SS, dies of suicide by cyanide pill.
• 29: Fighting breaks out in Syria and Lebanon, as nationalists demand freedom from French control.

World War II Timeline June 1945

• 5: A huge Pacific typhoon hits the American navy under Admiral Halsey; the fleet suffers widespread damage.
• 5: Allies agree to divide Germany into four areas of control.
• 10: Australian troops land at Brunei, Borneo.
• 13: The Australians capture Brunei
• 15: Osaka, Japan is bombed heavily.
• 16: The Japanese are in a general retreat in central China.
• 19: The United Kingdom begins demobilisation.
• 20: Schiermonnikoog, a Dutch island, is the last part of Europe freed by Allied troops.
• 21: The defeat of the Japanese on Okinawa is now complete.
• 26: The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco.
• 27: The first oil pump is restored at Tarakan Island

World War II Timeline July 1945

• 1: Australian troops land at Balikpapan, Borneo in the Western Allies last major land operation of the war
• 4: General MacArthur announces that the Philippines have been liberated.
• 6: Norway declares war on Japan.
• 10: US Navy aircraft participate in attacks on Tokyo for the first time.
• 14: Italy declares war on Japan.
• 16: U.S. conducts the Trinity test at Alamogordo, New Mexico, the first test of a nuclear weapon.
• 17: The Potsdam Conference begins. The Allied leaders agree to insist upon the unconditional surrender of Japan.
• 22: America and Japan engage in a small bloodless skirmish in the Battle of Tokyo Bay. The Japanese take slight losses
• 24: Truman hints at the Potsdam Conference that the United States has nuclear weapons.
• 24: British and Americans commence the Bombing of Kure
• 26: The Labour Party win the United Kingdom general election by a landslide. The new United Kingdom Prime Minister Clement Attlee replaces Churchill at the negotiating table at Potsdam.
• 28: The Japanese battleship Haruna is sunk by aircraft from US Task Force 38.
• 30: The USS Indianapolis is sunk shortly after midnight by a Japanese submarine after having delivered atomic bomb material to Tinian; because of poor communications, the ship's whereabouts are unknown for some time and many of its men drown or are attacked by sharks in the next four days.
• 31: US air attacks on the cities of Kobe and Nagoya in Japan.

World War II Timeline August 1945

• 2: End of the Potsdam Conference: Issues such as the expulsion of Germans from the eastern quarter of Germany and elsewhere in eastern Europe are mandated in the Potsdam Agreement.
• 6: Enola Gay drops the first atomic bomb "Little Boy" on Hiroshima.
• 8: Soviet Union declares war on Japan; the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation begins about an hour later which includes landings on the Kurile Islands. The Japanese have been evacuating in anticipation of this.
• 9: Soviet troops enter China and Korea.
• 9: Bockscar drops the second atomic bomb "Fat Man" on Nagasaki.
• 14: An attempted coup by Japanese military and right-wingers to overthrow the government and prevent the inevitable surrender.
• 14: Last day of United States Force combat actions. All units frozen in place.
• 15: Emperor Hirohito issues a radio broadcast announcing Japan's surrender; though the surrender seems to be "unconditional", the Emperor's status is still open for discussion.
• 15: World-wide celebration of VJ Day.
• 16: Emperor Hirohito issues an Imperial Rescript ordering Japanese forces to cease fire.
• 17: Indonesia declares independence from Japan.
• 19: At a spontaneous non-communist meeting in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh assume a leading role in the movement to wrest power from the French. With the Japanese still in control of Indochina in the interim, Bảo Đại goes along because he thought that the Viet Minh were still working with the American OSS and could guarantee independence for Vietnam. Later, Ho Chi Minh's guerrillas occupy Hanoi and proclaim a provisional government.
• 19: Hostilities between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists break into the open.
• 22: Japanese armies surrender to the Red Army in Manchuria.
• 27: Japanese armies in Burma surrender at Rangoon ceremonies.
• 30: Royal Navy force under Rear-Admiral Cecil Harcourt liberates Hong Kong.
• 31: General MacArthur takes over command of the Japanese government in Tokyo.

World War II Timeline September 1945

• 2: The commander of the Imperial Japanese Army General Tomoyuki Yamashita surrenders to Filipino and American troops at Kiangan, Ifugao in Northern Philippines.
• 2: Japan signs the articles of surrender on the deck of the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.
• 2: Ho Chi Minh issues his Proclamation of Independence, drawing heavily upon the American Declaration of Independence from a copy provided by the OSS. Ho declares himself president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and pursues American recognition but is repeatedly ignored by President Harry S. Truman.
• 5: Singapore is officially liberated by British and Indian troops.
• 13: British forces under Major-General Douglas Gracey's 20th Indian Division, some 26,000 men in all, arrive in Saigon which is in turmoil, South Vietnam to disarm and accept surrender of Japanese Occupation Forces in South Vietnam south of the 16th parallel. 180,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers, mainly poor peasants, arrive in Hanoi, North Vietnam to disarm and accept surrender north of the line. After looting Vietnamese villages during their entire march down from China, they then proceed to loot Hanoi.
• 16: Japanese garrison in Hong Kong officially signs the instrument of surrender.
• 22: The British release 1,400 French Paratroopers from Japanese internment camps around Saigon. Those French soldiers enter Saigon and go on a deadly rampage, attacking Viet Minh and killing innocent civilians including children, aided by French civilians who joined the rampage. An estimated 20,000 French civilians live in Saigon.

World War II Timeline October 1945

• 1: In southern Vietnam, a purely bilateral British/French agreement recognizes French administration of the southern zone. In northern Vietnam, Chinese troops go on a "rampage". Hồ's Việt Minh are hopelessly ill-equipped to deal with it.

The non fraternization directive for U.S. troops against German civilians was rescinded. Previously even speaking to a German could lead to court martial, except for "small children", these had been exempt in June 1945. ((:

World War II Timeline November 1945

• 29: The prohibition against marriage between GIs and Austrian women was rescinded on November 29. Later It would be rescinded for German women too. Black soldiers serving in the army were not allowed to marry white women, (in the case that they remained in the army) so they were restricted until 1948 when the prohibition against interracial marriages was removed.

World War II Timeline December 1945

• 31: The British Home Guard is disbanded.
• The US prohibition against food shipments to Germany is rescinded. "CARE Package shipments to individuals remained prohibited until 5 June 1946".

March 1946

?:Hồ Chí Minh accepts an Allied compromise for temporary return of 15,000 French troops to rid the North of anti-Communists. British/Indian troops depart Vietnam and Nationalist Chinese troops flee to Taiwan, looting as they depart, leaving the war in Vietnam to continue with the conflict between the French and the Viet Minh. As World War II ends, starvation kills over 2 million Vietnamese.

December 1946

U.S. President Harry S. Truman declares: Although a state of war still exists, it is at this time possible to declare, and I find it to be in the public interest to declare, that hostilities have terminated. Now, THEREFORE, I, HARRY S. TRUMAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the cessation of hostilities of World War II, effective twelve o'clock noon, December 31, 1946.

February 10, 1947

U.S. Signs Peace treaties with Italy, Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, and Romania.

19 October 1951

End of state of war with Germany was granted by the U.S. Congress on 19 October 1951, after a request by president Truman on 9 July. In the Petersberg Agreement of November 22, 1949 it was noted that the West German government wanted an end to the state of war, but the request could not be granted. The U.S. state of war with Germany was being maintained for legal reasons, and though it was softened somewhat it was not suspended since "the U.S. wants to retain a legal basis for keeping a U.S. force in Western Germany".

May 5, 1955

End of occupation of West Germany. West Berlin remained as a special territory. The Eastern quarter of Germany remained annexed by the Allies, but Germany would not legally accept this as a fact until in 1970 when West Germany signed treaties with the Soviet Union (Treaty of Moscow) and Poland (Treaty of Warsaw) recognizing the Oder-Neisse line between Germany and Poland.

1956

Last major repatriation of German Prisoners of War and German civilians who were used as forced labor by the Allies after the war, in accordance with the agreement made at the Yalta conference. Most Prisoners of War held by the U.S. France and the U.K. were released by 1949.

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.

World War II Timeline January 1943

• 2: The Japanese are now cleared out of Buna, New Guinea after a fierce two-month struggle; it becomes clear that the American campaign was badly mismanaged.
• 7: Japanese land more troops at Lae, New Guinea.
• 9: United States Western Task Force reverts to I Armored Corps status.
• 10: Soviet troops launch an all-out offensive attack on Stalingrad; they also renew attacks in the north (Leningrad) and in the Caucasus.
• 13: The Soviet Union prematurely announces that the Leningrad siege has been broken.
• 14: Casablanca Conference of Allied leaders begins. Churchill and Roosevelt discuss the eventual invasion of mainland Europe, the impending invasion of Sicily and Italy, and the wisdom of the principle of "Unconditional Surrender."
• 15: The British start an offensive aimed at taking far-off Tripoli.
• 16: Iraq declares war on the Axis powers.
  : RAF begins a two-night bombing of Berlin.
• 18: The Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto rise up for the first time, starting the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
  : Besieged defenders of Leningrad link up with relieving forces.
• 19: General Georgy Zhukov is promoted to Marshal as the Stalingrad struggle grinds to a close.
• 21: Last airfield at Stalingrad is taken by Red forces, ensuring that Goering's aircraft will be unable to supply German troops any further; Hitler still demands that Paulus continue the fight.
  : Red Army armies have more victories in the Caucasus.
• 23: Allies capture Tripoli, Libya.
  : Japanese continue their fight in western Guadalcanal; they now seem to have given up completely on the Papua campaign.
• 24: German forces in Stalingrad are in the last phases of collapse.
• 25: United States XIV Corps arrives in Pacific Theater.
• 26: French forces enter Tripoli.
• 27: 50 bombers mount the first all American air raid against Germany. (Wilhelmshaven, the large naval base, is the primary target).
• 28: A new conscription law in Germany: men between 16 and 35 and women between 17 and 45 are open to mobilization.
• 29: The Japanese beat the Americans at the naval battle of Rennell Island, near Guadalcanal; the USS Chicago is lost.
  : Another two-day bombing of Berlin by the RAF.
• 30: The last Japanese have cleared out of Guadalcanal by a brilliant evacuation plan undetected by the Americans.
• 31: Large parts of the German 6th Army at Stalingrad, including the now Field Marshal Paulus, surrender.

World War II Timeline February 1943

• 2: In the Soviet Union, the Battle of Stalingrad comes to an end with the official surrender of the German 6th Army. The German public is informed of this disaster, marking the first time the Nazi government has acknowledged a failure in the war effort.
• 2: Rommel retreats farther into Tunisia, establishing his troops at the Mareth line. Within two days, Allied troops move into Tunisia for the first time.
• 5: The Allies now have all of Libya under control.
• 5: Essen is bombed, marking the beginning of a four-month attack on the Ruhr industrial area.
• 7: In the United States, it is announced that shoe rationing will go into effect in two days.
• 8: The Chindits (a "long range penetration group") under British General Orde Wingate begin an incursion into Burma.
  : Nuremberg is heavily bombed.
  : United States VI Corps arrives in North Africa.
• 9: Guadalcanal is finally secured; it is the first major achievement of the American offensive in the Pacific war.
  : Munich and Vienna are heavily bombed, along with Berlin.
• 11: U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower is selected to command the Allied armies in Europe.
• 13: Rommel launches a counter-attack against the Americans in western Tunisia; he takes Sidi bou Zid and Gafsa. The Battle of the Kasserine Pass begins: inexperienced American troops are soon forced to retreat.
• 14: Rostov-on-Don is liberated by the Red Army;
• 16: Soviet Union reconquers Kharkov, but is later driven out in the Third Battle of Kharkov.
• 18: In a speech at the Berlin Sportpalast German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declares a "Total War" against the Allies; The Nazis arrest the members of the White Rose movement, an anti-Nazi youth group.
  : Chindits under Wingate cut the railway line between Mandalay and Myitkyina.
• 22: Hans and Sophie Scholl are executed.
• 21: Americans take the Russell Islands, part of the Solomons chain.
• 25: Japanese POWs refuse to work at Featherson prisoner of war camp, this escalates into a deadly clash between the inmates and the guards
• 26: Rommel retreats northward from the Mareth line in Tunisia.
• 28: The SS United Victory, the first Victory ship is launched; this class of transport will prove to be crucial in hauling men and supplies across the oceans.
  : Operation Gunnerside, 6 Norwegians led by Joachim Ronneberg successfully attack the heavy water plant Vemork.

World War II Timeline March 1943

• 1: Heinz Guderian becomes the Inspector-General of the Armoured Troops for the German Army.
• 1: Battle of the Bismarck Sea. United States and Australia naval forces, over the course of three days, sink eight Japanese troop transports near New Guinea. Heavy losses of Japanese lives.
• 2: Wingate's Chindits continue their localised strikes in Burma.
• 5: In early March, Rommel stirs up small attacks near the Mareth line, southern Tunisia.
• 5: German advances around Kharkov threaten Red Army earlier gains.
• 5: Continued RAF bombing of the Ruhr valley, particularly Essen.
• 6: Battle of Medenine, Tunisia. It is Rommel's last in Africa as he is forced to retreat.
• 8: Continuing German counter-attacks around Kharkov.
• 9: Members of The Calcutta Light Horse carry out a covert attack against a German merchantship, which had been transmitting Allied positions to U-boats from the Mormugao Harbour in Portugal's neutral territory of Goa.
• 10: The USAAF 14th Air Force is formed in China, under General Claire Chennault, former head of the "Flying Tigers."
• 10: The US House of Representatives votes to extend the Lend Lease plan.
• 11: The Germans enter Kharkov and the fierce struggle with the Red Army continues.
• 13: German forces liquidate the Jewish ghetto in Kraków.
• 14: The Germans succeed in taking Kharkov, lost to the Red Armies about a month ago.
• 16: The first reports of the Katyn massacre in Poland seep to the West; reports say that more than 22,000 prisoners of war were killed by the NKVD, who eventually blame the massacre on the Germans.
• 16: Stalin for the ninth time demands a "Second Front," accusing his allies of treachery.
• 17: Devastating convoy losses in the Atlantic due to increased U-boat activity; the middle of the Atlantic apparently is not sufficiently covered by planes or ships.
• 18: General Patton leads his tanks of II Corps into Gafsa, Tunisia.
• 19: First Warsaw Rising, carried out by the Jews in the ghetto; the outcome is probably inevitable.
• 19: The Bermuda Conference opens, the subject being the plight of the European Jews; the Allies come to no solid conclusion.
• 20: Montgomery's forces begin a breakthrough in Tunisia, striking at the Mareth line. (This defensive line was originally built by the French to hold off Italian tanks and infantry.)
• 23: American tanks defeat the Germans at El Guettar, Tunisia.
• 26: The British break through the Mareth line in southern Tunisia, threatening the whole German army. The Germans move north.
• 26: Battle of the Komandorski Islands. In the Aleutian Islands United States Navy forces intercept Japanese attempting to reinforce a garrison at Kiska. Poor leadership on both sides leads to a stalemate of sorts, and the Japanese withdraw without achieving their goal.

World War II Timeline April 1943

• 1: Allies continue to squeeze the Germans into the corner of Tunisia; the seaport of Sfax is bombed. It will be taken on the 10th.
• 3: Racial tensions between American marines and New Zealand troops of Māori origin result in the Battle of Manners Street, a small-scale riot in which no lives were lost
• 6: Hitler and Mussolini come together at Salzburg, mostly for the purpose of propping up Mussolini's fading morale.
• 7: Allied forces--the Americans from the West, the British from the East--link up near Gafsa in Tunisia.
• 7: Bolivia declares war on Germany, Japan, and Italy.
• 8: The Red Army attacks in an attempt to free all of the Crimea of German forces; they take Kerch in the East on the 11th, and the Germans retreat westward to Sevastopol.
• 11: The Germans offer an official surrender of Sfax, but heavy fighting continues as other units move north.
• 12: The last units of the Afrika Korps surrender in the northern corner of Tunisia.
• 13: Radio Berlin announces the discovery by Wehrmacht of mass graves of Poles purportedly killed by Soviets in the Katyn massacre.
• 15: Heavy RAF raid on Stuttgart.
• 18: Admiral Yamamoto, chief architect of Japanese naval strategy, is killed when his plane is shot down by American P38's over Bougainville. He was on an inspection tour.
• 18: The "Palm Sunday massacre": large numbers of German troop-transport aircraft are shot down before reaching Tunisia, where they were to pick up the isolated German troops.
• 19: The Warsaw Ghetto uprising continues, with new German army units sent in to fight the Jewish Resistance.
• 19: The Seraph sets sail, bound for near the Spanish coast, in Operation Mincemeat.
• 26: The British finally take "Longstop Hill" in Tunisia, a key position on the breakout road to Tunis.
• 28: Allies attempt to close the mid-Atlantic gap in the war against the U-boats with long-range bombers.
• 30: Operation Mincemeat: Lt. Jewell's crew releases Martin's body near the Spanish coast. Later, the body washes up on the Spanish coast and is discovered by a local fisherman.

World War II Timeline May 1943

• 1: Allies close in on the cornered Germans in the Tunis area.
• 2: Japanese aircraft again bomb Darwin, Australia.
• 7: Tunis captured by British First Army. Meanwhile the Americans take Bizerte.
• 9: German and Italian forces in Tunisia announce surrender to British.
• 11: American troops invade Attu Island in the Aleutian Islands in an attempt to expel occupying Japanese forces. The battle is difficult, including banzai charges.
• 12: Trident Conference begins in Washington, D.C. with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill taking part. The discussions are mostly on future strategy.
• 13: German Afrika Korps and Italian troops in North Africa surrender to Allied forces. Allies take over 250,000 prisoners.
• 15: The French form a "Resistance Movement."
• 16: The Dambuster Raids by RAF 617 Squadron on two German dams, Mohne and Eder; the Ruhr war industries lose electrical power.
• 16: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends. The ghetto is destroyed.
• 17: Surviving RAF Dam Busters return.
• 19: Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress. He praises the partnership of the two Allies.
• 19: Propaganda Minister Goebbels announces that all the Jews have left Berlin.
• 22: Allies begin heavy bombing of Sicily and Sardinia, both possible landing sites.
• 24: Admiral Karl Dönitz orders the majority of U-boats to withdraw from the Atlantic because of heavy losses to new Allied anti-sub tactics.
• 24: Josef Mengele becomes Chief Medical Officer in Auschwitz.
• 29: RAF bombs Wuppertal, causing heavy civilian losses.
• 30: The Japanese abandon Attu Island in the Aleutians.
• 31: American B-17's bomb Naples.

World War II Timeline June 1943

• 4: General Henri Giraud becomes Commander of the Free French forces in North Africa.
• 8: Japanese forces abandon Kiska Island in the Aleutians, their last foothold in the Western hemisphere. The event is almost to the year of their landing.
• 11: British forces take Pantelleria and Lampedusa, small islands between Tunisia and Sicily, after several days of bombardment.
• 13: Heavy US aircraft losses over Kiel.
• 17: Allies bomb Sicily and the Italian mainland, as signs increase of a forthcoming invasion.
• 20: Operation Cartwheel opens with landings by the United States 4th Marine Raider Battalion at Segi Point on New Georgia in the Solomon Islands. It will not be secured until August.
• 22: The Red armies begin a major offensive.
• 23: American troops land in the Trobriand Islands, close to New Guinea. The American strategy of driving up the Southwest Pacific by "Island Hopping" continues.
• 24: Continuing attacks against the Ruhr industrial valley. One result is the evacuation of large numbers of German civilians from the area.
• 30: American troops land on Rendova Island, New Georgia, another part of Operation Cartwheel.

World War II Timeline July 1943

• 4: Exiled Polish leader General Władysław Sikorski assassinated during his visit in Gibraltar.
• : The Battle of Kursk begins.
• 5: The Red Army take Belgorod.
• 6: The Battle of Kula Gulf near the Solomons ends inconclusively.
• 7: Rocket scientist Wernher von Braun briefs the V-2 rocket to Hitler, who approves the project for top priority.
• 10: Operation Husky is launched. The Allied invasion of Sicily to liberate Europe began.
• 12: The tank Battle of Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle in human history and part of the Battle of Kursk, is the pivotal battle of Operation Citadel.
• 13: The Japanese won a tactical victory at the Battle of Kolombangara.
• 19: The Allies bomb Rome for the first time.
• 21: The Operation Bellicose targeting of Friedrichshafen Würzburg radars is the first bombing of a V-2 rocket facility.
• 22: The fall of Palermo in the Allied invasion of Sicily inspired a subsequent Coup d'état against Mussolini.
• 23/24: The RAF bombs Kiel in the first major raid on a German city since April 1943 and the heaviest RAF raid of the war.
• 24: The Operation Gomorrah firestorm bombing of Hamburg begins (at the time the heaviest assault in the history of aerial warfare.)

World War II Timeline August 1943

• 2: John F. Kennedy's PT-109 is rammed in two and sunk off the Solomon Islands.
• 3: The publicized "slapping incident" resulted in General Patton being relieved of duty for 10 months.
• 6: The United States won the Battle of Vella Gulf off Kolombangara in the Solomons.
• 7: The Allies won the Battle of New Georgia in the Solomons.
• 15: The Land Battle of Vella Lavella island in the Solomons began as part of Operation Cartwheel
• 17: Operation Husky completes the Allied invasion of Sicily.
  :: 60 Allied bombers are lost in the Schweinfurt-Regensburg mission.
  :: Operation Crossbow begins as Operation Hydra bombs the Peenemünde V-2 rocket facility.
• 19: Roosevelt and Churchill signed the Quebec Agreement during the Quebec Conference.
• 23: Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev liberated Kharkov in the Ukraine.
  :: The Battle of Kursk became the first successful major Soviet summer offensive of the war.
• 29: During the Occupation of Denmark by Nazi Germany, martial law replaced the Danish government.

World War II Timeline September 1943

• 3: Mainland Italy is invaded as Allied forces under Bernard L. Montgomery land at Reggio di Calabria. An Italian Armistice is signed and Italy drops out of the war.
• :: Nazi Germany begins the evacuation of civilians from Berlin.
• 4: Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.
  :: The 503rd Parachute Regiment under American General Douglas MacArthur lands and occupies Nadzab, just east of the port city of Lae in northeastern Papua New Guinea. Lae falls into American hands and Australian troops take Salamau.
• 8: United States General Dwight D. Eisenhower publicly announces the surrender of Italy to the Allies.
  ::The USAAF bombs the German General Headquarter for the Mediterranean zone at Frascati.
• 9: The Allies land at Salerno, Italy; meanwhile the British troops take Taranto in the heel of the Italian "boot." Allied strategy aims at a "drive" up the "boot".
  :: Red Army executes an offensive at Kiev, capital of the Ukraine.
  :: Iran, seeing the successes of the Allies in Italy, declares war on Germany.
• 10: Germans occupy Rome, now that Italy has surrendered to the Allies. The Italian fleet meanwhile surrenders at Malta and other Mediterranean ports.
• 12: Mussolini is rescued from a mountaintop captivity ordered by the Fascist Council (see above entry for July 24) by German paratroopers led by Otto Skorzeny. Mussolini is then set up by Hitler, who remains loyal to his old friend, as the head of "Salo," a quasi government: "the Italian Social Republic."
• 13: German and Italian troops are fighting each other in Greece.
  :: The Salerno beachhead is in jeopardy, as German counterattacks increase.
• 14: German troops commence the Holocaust of Viannos in Crete that will continue for two more days.
  :: British troops take Bari, an important port in southeastern Italy. American troops meanwhile land on Sardinia and in effect take it.
• 15: Mussolini proclaims the "Italian Social Republic." (See above September 12 entry.)
  :: Chiang Kai-shek, newly elected president of China, asks that General Stilwell, American military advisor/commander, be recalled for suggesting an alliance with the Communists.
• 16: British forces land on various Italian-held Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, beginning the Dodecanese Campaign.
  :: British and American troops link up near the Salerno beachhead.
• 20: Allied forces approach Naples.
• 21: British midget submarines attack the German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in a Norwegian fjord, crippling her for six months.
  :: The battle of the Solomons can now be considered at an unofficial end.
  :: The Cephallonia massacre begins: After resisting for a week, the Italian Acqui division on the Greek island of Cephallonia surrenders to the Germans. During the next days, over 4,500 Italians are executed, and further 3,000 lost during transport at sea.
• 22: Australian forces land at Finschhafen, a small port in New Guinea. The Japanese continue the battle well into October.
• 25: The Red Army takes Smolensk, an important city west of Moscow; they also reach the suburbs of Kiev.
• 27: Chiang Kai-shek has Mao Zedong's brother executed.
• 28: The people of Naples, sensing the approach of the Allies, rise up against the German occupiers. The uprising is put down with many civilian deaths. Allied forces do not show.
  :: The Germans take over the island of Corfu from the Italians, the previous occupiers.
• 29: News arrives that the Danes are secretly sending their Jewish countrymen to Sweden by means of dangerous boat crossings; thousands have been saved already.

World War II Timeline October 1943

• 1: Neapolitans complete their uprising and free Naples from German military occupation.
• 3: Churchill appoints Lord Louis Mountbatten the commander of South East Asia Command.
• 4: Corsica is liberated by Free French forces.
• 5: The Allies cross Italy's Volturno Line.
• 6: The Naval Battle of Vella Lavella completes the second phase of Operation Cartwheel.
• 7: 98 American civilian prisoners were executed on Wake Island.
• 9: United States VII Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 12: Operation Cartwheel begins a bombing campaign against Rabaul.
• 13: Italy declares war on Germany.
• 14: 229 of 292 B-17s reached the target in the Second Raid on Schweinfurt.
• 18: Chiang Kai-shek takes the oath of office as president of China.^{[citation needed]}
• 18: The Third Moscow Conference convened.
• 19: The German War Office contracts the Mittelwerk to produce 12,000 V-2 rockets.
• 22/23: The Bombing of Kassel causes a seven day firestorm.
• 25: The Red Army takes Dnipropetrovsk.
• 28:Cruiser HMS Charybdis sunk and destroyer HMS Limbourne damaged by German MTBs off the North coast of Brittany with large loss of life. Bodies of 21 RN and RMs washed up on the Island of Guernsey. Buried with full military honours by the German Occupation authorities allowing around 5000 Islanders to attend and lay some 900 wreaths.
• 29: Troops replace striking London dockworkers.
• 31: Heavy rains in Italy slow the Allied advance below Rome.

World War II Timeline November 1943

• 1: In Operation Goodtime, United States Marines land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. The fighting for this island will continue to the end of the war.
• 2: In the early morning hours, American and Japanese ships fight the inconclusive Battle of Empress Augusta Bay off Bougainville, but the Japanese are unable to land reinforcements.
• 2: British troops, in Italy, reach the Garigliano River.
• 5: The British bombing of the Vatican.
• 6: The Red Army liberates the city of Kiev. This is an anniversary of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
• 9: Allies take Castiglione, Italy.
• 9: General De Gaulle becomes President of the French Committee of National Liberation.
• 11: American air power continues to hit Rabaul.
• 12: Germans overrun British forces on the Dodecanese islands, off Turkey.
• 14: Heavy bombers hit Tarawa, in the Gilbert Islands in the Pacific.
• 15: Allied Expeditionary Force for the invasion of Europe is officially formed.
• 15: German SS leader Heinrich Himmler orders that Gypsies and "part-Gypsies" are to be put "on the same level as Jews and placed in concentration camps."
• 16: Anti-German resistance in Italy increases; there are explosions in Milan.
• 16: The Battle of Leros ends with the surrender of the British and Italian forces to the Germans.
• 16: 160 American bombers strike a hydro-electric power facility and heavy water factory in German-controlled Vemork, Norway.
• 16: Japanese submarine sinks surfaced USA submarine USS Corvina near Truk
• 18: 440 Royal Air Force planes bomb Berlin causing only light damage and killing 131. The RAF lose nine aircraft and 53 aviators.
• 19: Prisoners of the Janowska concentration camp stage a mass escape/uprising when they are ordered to cover up evidence of a mass-murder. Most are rounded up and killed
• 20: Battle of Tarawa begins - United States Marines land on Tarawa and Makin atolls in the Gilbert Islands and take heavy fire from Japanese shore guns. The American public is shocked by the heavy losses of life.
• 20: British troops under Montgomery continue their slow advances on the eastern side of Italy.
• 22: US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and ROC leader Chiang Kai-Shek meet in Cairo, Egypt, to discuss ways to defeat Japan.
• 23: Heavy damage from Allied bombing of Berlin. Notably, the Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin district of Charlottenburg is destroyed.
• 24: Heavy bombing of Berlin continues.
• 25: Americans and Japanese fight the naval Battle of Cape St. George between Buka and New Ireland. Admiral Arleigh Burke's destroyers distinguish themselves.
• 25: Rangoon is bombed by American heavy bombers.
• 26: The Red Army offensive in the Ukraine continues.
• 27: The Casablanca Conference ("Sextant") ends; Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-shek complete the Cairo Declaration, which deals with the overall strategic plan against Japan.
• 27: Huge civilian losses in Berlin as heavy bombing raids continue.
• 28: The Teheran Conference . US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin meet in Teheran to discuss war strategy; (on November 30 they establish an agreement concerning a planned June 1944 invasion of Europe codenamed Operation Overlord). Stalin at last has the promise he has been waiting for.
• 29: Second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war order of the country.
• 30: In Malaya, Japanese introduce the GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION No. 41 to encourage families to grow their own food crops and vegetables. Families who are successful will be awarded prizes while family who fail to comply this notification or leave their vacant lands unplanted will be punished. This notification was written by Itami Masakichi (Penang Shu Chokan) on 25 November 2603/1943

World War II Timeline December 1943

• 2: The Germans conduct a highly successful Air Raid on Bari, Italy. One of the German bombs hits an allied cargo chip carrying mustard gas, releasing the chemical which killed 83 allied soldiers. Over 1000 other soldiers died in the raid.
• 3: Edward R. Murrow delivers his classic "Orchestrated Hell" broadcast over CBS Radio describing a Royal Air Force nighttime bombing raid on Berlin.
• 4: Bolivia declares war on all Axis powers.
  : In Yugoslavia, resistance leader Marshal Tito proclaims a provisional democratic Yugoslav government in-exile.
• 12: Rommel is appointed head of "Fortress Europa", chief planner against the expected Allied offensive.
• 13: German soldiers carry out the Massacre of Kalavryta in southern Greece.
  : United States VIII Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 14: United States XV Corps arrives in European Theater.
• 16: Kalinin is retaken in a large Red Army offensive.
• 24: US General Dwight D. Eisenhower becomes the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.
• 26: German battle cruiser Scharnhorst is sunk off North Cape (in the Arctic) by an array of British cruisers and destroyer torpedoes.
• 26: American Marines land on Cape Gloucester, New Britain.
• 27: General Eisenhower is officially named head of Overlord, the invasion of Normandy.
• 28: In Burma, Chinese troops have some success against the Japanese.