Chronological History of World War II (part 1)

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Growth of Fascism
3. Hitler Absorbs Austria, Czechoslovakia
4. World War II Begins
5. Russia Invades Finland
6. Denmark and Norway Invaded April 9, 1940
7. Invasion of Low Countries, May 10, 1940
8. France Signs Armistice, June 22, 1940
9. The Battle of Britain
10. The Struggle for Libya Begins
11. United States arranges Lend-Lease Aid
12. Hitler Invades Balkins, April 6, 1941
13. Germans Invade Russia, June 22, 1941
14. Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941
15. The United States Declares War on Axis
16. The Philippines Fall to the Japanese
17. The Battle of Midway, June 3-6, 1942
18. Armies Shuttle To and Fro Across Libya
19. Germans Lay Siege to Stalingrad
20. Marines Land on Guadalcanal, August 7, 1942

Introduction

The peace arrived at in the mirrored halls of Versailles unquestionably sowed the seeds of World war II. During the years which followed World War I, the terms of the Treaty of Versailles festered in the minds of the Germans, while political, social, and economic disorganization gave opportunity for the rise of Hitlerism. The League Of Nations, formed solely as an adversary body, proved unable to halt the growth of aggression.
In Italy, Fascism came into power less tha four years after the Armistice, when Mussolini marched into Rome on October 28, 1922. The Austrian Adolf Hitler, began his public career with his Beer Hall Putsch on November 8, 1923. His political ideology, manifesting itself in violent propaganda against communist, pacifist, Jews, and Foreigners, gradually won Him support in the German electorate. When President Von Hindenburg finally appointed him Chancellor of the Reich in 1933, Hitler set out about ruthlessly transforming Germany into a totalitarian state.

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Growth of Fascism

Meanwhile, Japanese militarists made pretext in 1931-1932 to attack and occupy Manchuria. The world protested this aggression, but took no action. In 1935 Mussolini, envisioning a Greater Italian Empire, invaded Abyssinia, which he conquered in May the following year. Close accord between Italy, Germany and Japan was reached in 1936 and 1937 when these nations joined in a pact against communism.
On July 7, 1937, Japan started her war against China with what she termed the "China Incident." Her professed purpose henceforth was to do away white domination in the Far East. The sinking of the gunboat Panay in the Yangtze River on December 13, 1937, was evidence of Japan`s hostility toward the United States.
On July 17,1936, Moroccan troops led by General Francisco Franco rebelled against the Republican Government of Spain and thus began the Spanish Civil War which lasted until March 28, 1939. Franco received aid from Italy and Germany, while the Republicans were helped by Russia. With Franco`s victory Spain became a Fascist nation.

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Hitler Absorbs Austria, Czechoslovakia

During these years Hitler was building up German military strength and extending Nazi control in the east. On March 12, 1938, he annexed Austria. Then, under the appeasement policy of France and Great Britain, he obtained the Sudaten land by the Pact of Munich, September 29, 1938. On March 15, 1939, he seized the rest of Czechoslovakia. Alarmed, England and France offered guarantees to any country menaced by Germany. Rumania and Poland accepted, causing German cries of "encirclement."
Next Italy launched an attack eastward, landing troops in Albania on Good Friday, April 7, 1939. On April 28, in a speech before the Reichstag, Hitler abrogated Germany`s ten-year non-aggression pact with Poland, made in 1934, and denounced the 1935 Anglo-German Naval Agreement. He also made demands on Poland for Danzig and the Polish corridor. A new treaty was signed in Berlin on May 22, 1939, changed the friendly arrangement between the two countries, known as the Rome-Berlin Axis, into a definite military alliance, offensive and defensive.
During the summer of 1939, Great Britain and France tried unsuccessfully to conclude a treaty with Russia. Instead, the Soviet Union, on August 24, 1939, signed a ten-year non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany. Immediately after Soviet ratification of this agreement, on August 31, Hitler launched his blitzkrieg against Poland.

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World War II Begins

Early on the morning September 1, 1939, German forces attacked Poland by land, sea, and air. The partly mobilized and ill-equipped Polish army proved unable to stop the mechenized Nazi divisions. Great Britain and France, fulfilling their pledge to Poland, on September 3, 1939, declared war on Germany. Thus began World War II. On September 17 Russia invaded Poland from the east. Warsaw, the capital of Poland, Fell on September 27. The partition of Poland followed. By an agreement signed with Germany on September 28, Russia took the Ukraine and White Russian parts of Poland, while Germany annexed the rich western portion. Italy remained neutral. After the fall of Poland there began a period, propurly termed the "Phony War," in which land and air hostilities between Germany and the Allies remained relatively light. On the sea however German U-boats took a heavy toll of Allied and neutral merchant shipping. To avoid the possible sinking of United States vessels, Congress on November 4, 1939, amended the Neutrality Act to permit the sale of war supplies on a "cash and carry" basis.

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Russia Invades Finland

In October, 1939, Turkey signed a pact of friendship and non-aggression with France and Great Britain. On November 30 Russia, having demanded but not received strategic bases from Finland, began an undeclared war against her neighbor.
The first clash of navel units in World War II occurred off the coast of Uruguay Uruguay on December 13, 1939, when three British cruisers fought a running battle with one of Germany's three pocket battleships, the Graf Spee.The German ship, badly damaged, took refuge in the harbor at Montevideo, but was forced to leave three days later in accordance with international law. She was scuttled by her crew on December 17.
Russia, although greatly superior in equipment and manpower, encountered bitter resistance in her winter campaign against Finland. However, Soviet troops finally captured Viipuri, Finland's second largest city, and the strategic areas which Russia wanted inorder to strengthen her borders. In a peace treaty signed on March 12, 1940, Finland was forced to accede to Russian demands.

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Denmark and Norway Invaded April 9, 1940

The entire character of the war changed with stunning suddenness when Germany, on April 9 1940, invaded Denmark and Norway. Denmark made no resistance and was quickly overrun. Norway, although ill equipped and greatly outnumbered, tried to repel the highly organized blitzkrieg. British and French troops were sent to aid the Norwegians, while the British Navy attacked the invaders from the sea, but the Germans put 100,000 men in Norway and overwhelmed the Allies by the first week in May. On June 7, 1940, King Haakon and his Government fled to England. Three days later the last British units, holding out at Narvik, were evacuated.

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Invasion of Low Countries, May 10,1940

The conquest of Norway being virtually complete, Hitler on May 10, 1940, sent his troops into the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The next day Winston Churchill suceeded Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Enland and British forces were rushed to the aid of the Low Countries. But the Dutch Army ceased resistance on May 14. Queen Wilhelmina and her Goverment crossed to England and the Dutch Naval units joined the British Fleet. Luxembourg had been occupied in a few hours. France, having also hurried to assit the Low Countries, had thereby weakened her own defenses. On May 13, the Germans broke through at Sedan swept on to outflank the Miginot Line. On may 21, they reached the French coast at Abbeville, effectively cutting off thr allied forces in Belgium. On May 28, 1940, King Leopold surrendered Belgium and himself became a prisoner of the Nazis.
The British, trapped and unable to stem the German onslaught, retreated to the beaches of Dunkirk. They escaped complete annihilation only through the epic evacuation of May 30 to June 4, 1940. Every vessel that could be pressed into service brought some 335,000 British and French troops back to England.

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France Signs Armistice, June 22,1940

On June 10, when France was all but defeated, Mussolini joined his Axis partner the war against France and Great Britain. On June 13, Frence forces evacuated Paris, after it had been declared an open city, and the Germans occupied it the next day. The French government was moved to Bordeaux and then to Vichy. On June 14 also the Germans pierced the Miginot Line and captured Verdun. Marshal Petain, the new Premier or France, on June 17 asked for honorable terms. An armistice was signed at Compiegne on June 22,1940, in the same railway car in which Germany had surrendered in 1918. Germany occupied more than two-thirds of France.
Russia, under her pact with Germany, demanded from Rumania the return of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. These were ceded to her on June 28, 1940. In the following August she incorporated the Baltic states-Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania-into the Soviet Union.
On July 3, 1940, units of the British navy confronted a portion of the French fleet in the harbor or Oran, in North Africa, and gave it the choice of surrender or immobilization in the East Indies. When the French refused, the British sank or damaged several of the French warships.

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The Battle of Britain

Soon after Dunkirk, on June 18, 1940, the Germans began their all-out bombing of Britain from the air. The attacks increased in force until on August 15 more than 1,000 German planes struck at London and neighboring cities. There after wave after wave of planes were over England by day and by night, the air blitzkrieg reaching it's greatest height of destruction and tragedy during September. In this month civilian casualties were officially reported as 6,954 persons killed and 10,615 injured. But in the end the price the British made the Nazis pay for the bombing of England was too high. In one London raid alone, on September 15, 1940, the Germans lost 185 planes. After the end of September the Nazis gave up mass bombing of England.

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The Struggle for Libya Begins

Meanwhile on August 6 to 19, 1940, Italy had occupied British Somaliland. On September 12 Italian armies under Marshal Graziani invaded Egypt from Libay in a drive toward the Suez Canal. However the British held at Sidi Barrani, Egypt.
On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy, and Japan signed the Tripartite Pact, pledging that each of the three nations would go to the aid of any one of the others which was attacked. Thus became official the Axis plan that Germany was to dominate Europe; Italy, the Mediterranean area; and Japan, the Orient. Hungary joined partnership on November 23, 1940.
On October 28, 1940, Mussolini sent an ultimatum to Greece, demanding territorial concessions, and three hours later invaded that country. But the Greeks resisted with such fury that by the end of December they had repulsed the Italians and even occupied strategic Italian bases in Albania. This was the first important defeat of Axis land forces in World War II.
The British from their bases in Egypt on December 9, 1940, launched a surprise attack to recapture Sidi Barrini and smashed Graziani's divisions. Pressing the offensive, Wavell's forces took El Agheila by February 9, 1941. This British victory, which cost Italy 170,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, virtually destroyed the Italian armies in Africa.

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United States arranges Lend-Lease Aid

The United States on September 14, 1940, passed the first selective service act of this war. On November 3, 1940 our Government entered into an arrangement with Great Britain by which we turned over fifty World War I destroyers in return for permission top establish nine naval, air, and military on British possessions in the western hemisphere. President Roosevelt then proposed, as a further defense measure, the granting of lend-lease aid to those nations fighting the Axis. With the passage of the Lend-lease Act on March 11, 1941, the United States became the "Arsenal of Democracy."
On January 20, 1941, the British invaded Italian East Africa. During the next four months they took Eritrea, Italian Somaliland, and then Abyssinia, reestablishing Haile Selassie on his throne. This campaign ended on May 20, 1941.

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Hitler Invades Balkins, April 6, 1941

On March 1, 1941 Bulgaria joined the Axis and soon became a base for Hitler's next attack southward through the Balkans. With Greece endangered, Great Britain withdrew troops from Libya to support her Greek allies. On April 6 German armies struck simultaneously at Yugoslavia and Greece. In twelve days all organized resistance ceased in Yugoslavia. The Germans then moved down into Greece through Albania, thus coming to the rescue of Mussolini's forces. The Greek armies in Epirus and Macedonia surrendered on April 23, 1941. On April 25 the British made a last stand at the famed pass at Thermoplyae. Two days later the Germans occupied Athens, and the Greek and British evacuated to Crete and North Africa. The Germans next staged an airborne invasion of Crete and by June 1, 1941, captured the island.
In the Near East the British seized control of Iraq in May and June of 1941. With the assistance of the Free French they took Syria in July. On August 25, with Russian cooperation, the Allies obtained control of Iran in order to speed Lend-Lease shipments to Russia.

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Germans Invade Russia, June 22, 1941

By June, 1941, Hitler had conquered all of Western Europe with the execption of Great Britain and the neutral states. He then turned to the east and despite his treaty of non-aggression with Russia, on June 22, 1941, launched a powerful assault on the Soviet Union. On June 25 Finland, with Nazi support, joined the fight against Russia.
The Nazi blitzkrieg drove across Russia and reached the outskirts of Moscow in late November of 1941. The Germans occupied Smolensk, Kiev, the rich food lands of the Ukraine west of the Dnieper. They encircled Leningrad, overran the vital industrial centers of Donets basin, captured Kharkov and Rostov, and laid siege to Sevastopol. On November 18, they occupied Kerch, at the eastern tip of the Crimean Peninsula, and were poised for a crossing to the Caucasus. But as the Russian winter closed down, the Germans received their first serious setback before Moscow and were forced to retreat westward.
On July 7,1941, by agreement with the Danish Minister in Wastington, United States troops occupied Iceland. On August 14 Prime Minister Churchill and President Roosevelt announced a basis for common aims, known as the "Atlantic Charter." Congress on November 17,1941, allowed American ships to be armed and to enter belligerent zones.

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Attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941

The United States had meanwhile continued to permit the sale of materials to Japan for use in her war on China. On January 26, 1940, however, after 6 months' notice, America allowed her trade treaty with Japan to expire. In July 1940, President Roosevelt banned shipments of aviation gasoline to Japan and followed this, in September, with an embargo on scrap metal. In July, 1941, Japanese assets in the United States were frozen by Executive Order. Undeterred by economic pressure, Japan continued her aggression in China while negotiating for American recognition of her "new order" in Asia. On November 14, 1941, Saburo Kurusu, special Japanese envoy, arrived in Washington to discuss peace. On November 26 Secretary of State Hull offered a plan for peace embodying America's principles. On December 6, President Roosevelt personally appealed to the Japanese Emperor for peace, and a December 7, 1941, a Japanese reply was transmitted to Mr. Hull. But several hours earlier Japanese planes had bombed Pearl Harbor. Great Britain on December 7 declared war against Japan.

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The United States Declares War on Axis

On December 8, 1941, following an address by President Roosevelt, Congress declared that a state of war existed between the United States and Japan. On December 11 Germany declared war on the United States. The United States in return declared war against these nations. On the same day Germany, Italy, and Japan signed a pact to conduct their war jointly, as a global conflict. Three Axis satllites then declared war on the United States-Rumania on December 12, Hungary and Bulgaria on December 13, 1941.
The attack on Pearl Harbor was costly for the United States. Of the eight battleships stationed at the base, the Arizona was a total loss, the Oklahoma capsized, and three others sank to the bottom of the harbor. The other three suffered minor damage. In all, nineteen of our warships were sunk or badly damaged, including three light cruisers and three destroyers. Personal casualties were high. The army, Navy, and Marine Corps lost 3,343 men killed or missing; 1,842 were wounded, some of whom later died. Destruction of Army and Navy planes, airfields, and installations was heavy. Japanese losses were about sixty planes shot down by anti-aircraft fire. A few hours later, in an attack on the Philippines, the Japanese destroyed practically our entire air force in the islands.
The United States, unified by the blow at Pearl Harbor, moved quickly to consolidate the democracies of the world in their fight against the Axis. On January 1, 1942, the United Nations was formed, an organization composed of twenty-six countries then at war with Germany and her allies. During January, 1942, nineteen Latin American nations united to aid the democracies in the war. Only Chile and Argentina continued friendly relations with the Axis. In the course of the next year Mexico and Brazil declared war against Germany and her allies. The first contingent of American troops arrived in Northern Ireland by the end of January, 1942, the vanguard of the vast army of invasion.

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The Philippines Fall to the Japanese

The Japanese moved rapidly. On December 10, 1941, they invaded Luzon Island in the Philippines and by January 2, 1942 had captured Manila. Bataan surrendered on April 9; Coreggidor, on May 6,1942.
Striking simultaneously at British strongholds in the Far East, the Japanese captured Hong Kong on December 25,1941, while other forces pushed down the Malay Pininsula toward Singapore. The British battleship Prince of Wales and the cruiser Repulse, in trying to prevent Japnese landings in Malaya, were sunk by Japanese aircraft on December 9, 1941. Singapore fell on February 15, 1942, after a two weeks' siege.
On January 15, 1942, the Japanese invaded Burma and by the first week in May had driven out the British, cutting China's vital supply route, the Burma Road. Thereafter, supplies had to flow into China over the Himalaya Mountains. By March 8, 1942, Japanese forces had subdued the Netherlands East Indies.
On January 27, 1942, the Japanese landed troops in new Britain, New Ireland, and the Solomons. On March 8, they invaded the island of New Guinea, at Lae, Salamaua, and Finschhafen. An especially trained force then drove toward Port Moresby over the Owen Stanly Mountains, while a second spearhead pushed toward a British base by a coastal road to the south. American units, which had been arriving in Australia since March, were sent to reinforce Port Moresby on August 2. In September, 1942, the Japanese were stopped within thirty miles of the base. Later that month the Allies drove the enemy back across the Owen Stanly Mountains. On December 10, 1942 Australian troops seized Gona and with American help took Buna on December 15.

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The Battle of Midway, June 3-6, 1942

This peroid of reverses for the United Nations was lighted somewhat on April 18, 1942, when sixteen American bombers led by Jimmie Doolittle took off from the carrier Hornet and bombed Tokyo. While of slight military value, the raid served as notice to Japan that her cordron of defences was not impregnable.
Then on May 7 and 8, 1942, our Navy fought and won the Battle of the Coral Sea, turning back the Japanese trust toward Australia. Our principle losses were the carrier Lexington and sixty-six planes. The Japanese lost seventeen ships sunk or damaged.
A month later the Japanese fleet swept toward Hawaii and met defeat in the Battle of Midway, on June 3-6, 1942. Our victory at Midway restored the balence of naval power in the Pacific, largely offsetting our losses at Pearl Harbor. From this point on the United States was increasingly on the offensive in the Pacific. On June 12, 1942, Japanese forces landed on Attu, Agatta, and Kiska, in the Aleutains.

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Armies Shuttle To and Fro Across Libya

On the other side of the world, in North Africa, German forces under Marshal Erwin Rommel had been sent to oppose the British after the Italian defeat in early 1941. On March 30, 1941, Rommel attacked with his Afrika korps and drove the British back to Sollum, Egypt, before being stopped on April 30 Under General Sir Claude Auchinleck, the British then launched a new offensive on November 18, 1941, which by January 2, 1942, had driven the Germans back to El Agheila. Rommel, geting reinforcements, attacked during the later part of January, and buy the first of July forced the British to El Alamein, Egypt within seventy miles of Alexandria. Here the front remained stable until October 23, when the British under General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery launched their supreme offensive which was to carry them all the way to Tunisia.

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Germans Lay Siege to Stalingrad

On the Eastern Front, the Germans began their 1942 offensive in April with a drive through Southern Russia, the Crimea, and the Ukraine. On July 3 they captured Sevastopol, which had held out since the previous summer. Hitler then sent his armies north and on August 23, 1942, laid siege to the great Russian city of Stalingrad. Another Nazi army tried to take the Caucasian oil fields but was stopped just short of success.
On May 30, 1942, Cologne in Germany was bombed by 1,000 British planes, marking the first mass air assault on the continent.
On August 19, 1942, especially trained Allied forces made a cross channel raid on Dieppe, which tested invasion technigues but proved costly in human lives.

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Marines Land on Guadalcanal, August 7, 1942

Early in March, 1942, General MacArthur, on orders from President Roosevelt, had turned over command of the Philippines to Major General Jonathan Wainwright. He reached Australia on March 17, 1942, and began operations as Commander and Chief of the Southwest Pacific Area. On August 7, 1942, United States Marines landed on Guadacanal in our first invasion of Japanese-held territory. Months of bitter fighting followed, in which our men obtained their first taste of jungle warfare. The Japanese finally evacuated the island on February 8, 1943.
The Struggle for Guadalcanal was accompanied by a series of naval engagements. The Battle of Savo Island occurred on the night of August 9, 1942, when the Japanese attacked our ships protecting our Guadalcanal beachheads. We lost the cruisers Quincy, Vincennes, and Astoria; the Australians, the cruiser Canberra. The Battle of the Eastern Solomons occurred on August 23-25. The carrier Enterprise was severely damaged. The Battle of Cape Esperance , resulting from a Japanese attempt to put reinforcements on Guadalcanal, was fought October 11- 12. We lost the destroyer Ducan and our cruisers San Francisco and Bosie were badly damaged. The carrier Hornet and the destroyer Porter were sunk, and the Enterprise was again damaged. The Battle of Guadalcanal was fought on November 13, 14, and 15, and cost us seven destroyers and the cruisers Atlanta and Juneau. Seven other ships were damaged. In the Battle of Tassafaronga on November 30, we lost the cruiser Northampton.

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