1939:
\u200bSeptember 1: Germany invades Poland using Blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactics. This is the official start of the Second World War in Europe (Beevor, 2012).
\u200bSeptember 3: Britain and France, honoring their commitment to Poland, declare war on Germany (Gilbert, 1989).
\u200bSeptember 17: The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, as per the secret protocols to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (Weinberg, 2005).
\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1940:
\u200bMay 10: Germany launches an attack on France and the Low Countries, which comprise Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This is the end of the “Phoney War” (Beevor, 2012).
\u200bJune 22: France signs an armistice with Germany. France is now divided into occupied zones and the Vichy regime (Gilbert, 1989).
\u200bJuly 10 \u2013 October 31: The Battle of Britain occurs. The Royal Air Force (RAF) battles the Luftwaffe, the air force of Germany, to prevent an invasion of Britain (Weinberg, 2005).
\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1941:
\u200bJune 22: Germany launches Operation Barbarossa, an attack on the Soviet Union. It is the biggest military operation in history to date December 7: Japan launches a surprise air raid on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The US declares war on Japan the next day (Gilbert, 1989).
December 11: Germany and Italy declare war on the US, officially involving it in the war in Europe (Weinberg, 2005).
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1942:
August 23: The Battle of Stalingrad begins. This was one of the bloodiest battles in history and marked a turning point in World War II against Nazi Germany (Beevor, 2012).
October 23-November 11: The Second Battle of El Alamein. The British defeat the Axis armies in Egypt, preventing them from capturing the Suez Canal (Gilbert, 1989).
1943: Allied Advances
February 2: The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad. This marked the end of Germany\u2019s advance in the East (Weinberg, 2005).
July 10: The Allies invade Sicily, followed by the invasion of mainland Italy in September, which led to the fall of Mussolini\u2019s fascist government (Beevor, 2012).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1943:
\u200bFebruary 2: The German 6th Army surrenders at Stalingrad. This marks the end of Germany’s eastern expansion (Weinberg, 2005).
\u200bJuly 10: The Allies invade Sicily, followed by the invasion of mainland Italy in September, resulting in the fall of Mussolini’s fascist regime (Beevor, 2012).
\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1944:
\u200bJune 6: D-Day (Operation Overlord). Allied forces land on the beaches of Normandy, France, marking the long-awaited “Second Front” against Germany in Europe (Gilbert, 1989).
\u200bAugust 25: Paris is liberated by the French 2nd Armored Division and US forces (Weinberg, 2005).
\u200bDecember 16: The Battle of the Bulge. Germany makes its final major effort on the Western Front, which ultimately fails (Beevor, 2012).
\u200b<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1945:
\u200bFebruary 4-11: The Yalta Conference. Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet to discuss the post-war reorganization of Europe (Imperial War Museums, 2023).
\u200bApril 30: Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his bunker in Berlin as Soviet troops close in (Gilbert, 1989).
\u200bMay 8: Victory in Europe (VE) Day. Germany unconditionally surrenders to the Allies (Weinberg, 2005).
\u200bAugust 6 & 9: The United States drops atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Beevor, 2012).
\u200bSeptember 2: Victory over Japan (VJ) Day. Japan formally surrenders aboard the USS Missouri, Ending World War 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beevor, Antony. The Second World War<\/em>. London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 5 June 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gilbert, Martin. The Second World War : A Complete History<\/em>. Rosettabooks Uuuu-Uuuu, 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weinberg, Gerhard L. A World at Arms : A Global History of World War II<\/em>. Cambridge ; New York, Cambridge University Press, 2005.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 1939:\u200bSeptember 1: Germany invades Poland using Blitzkrieg (lightning war) tactics. This is the official start of the Second World War in Europe (Beevor, 2012).\u200bSeptember 3: Britain and France, honoring their commitment to Poland, declare war on Germany (Gilbert, 1989).\u200bSeptember 17: The Soviet Union invades Poland from the east, as per the secret protocols to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":561,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5216","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/561"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5216"}],"version-history":[{"count":48,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5530,"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5216\/revisions\/5530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitalspace.bradfordcollege.ac.uk\/10633466\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}