THE SECOND WORLD WAR AND ITS AFTERMATH (1939-1945)

Britain, along with the dominions and the rest of the Empire, declared war on Nazi Germany in 1939, after the German invasion of Poland. After a quiet period of "phoney war", the French and British armies collapsed under German onslaught in spring 1940. The British with the thinnest of margins rescued its main army from Dunkirk (as well as many French soldiers), leaving all their equipment and war supplies behind. Winston Churchill came to power, promising to fight the Germans to the very end.

The Germans threatened an invasion—which the Royal Navy was prepared to repel. First the Germans tried to achieve air supremacy but were defeated by the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain in late summer 1940. Japan declared war in December 1941, and quickly seized Hong Kong, Malaya, Singapore, and Burma, and threatened Australia and India. Britain formed an alliance with the Soviet Union (starting in 1941) and very close ties to the United States (starting in 1940). The war was very expensive. It was paid for by high taxes, by selling off assets, and by accepting large amounts of Lend Lease from the U.S. and Canada. The US gave $40 billion in munitions; Canada also gave aid. (The American and Canadian aid did not have to be repaid, but there were also American loans that were repaid.)

1. WWII 1939, Pre-war build up

On 3rd September 1939 England declared war on warmongering Germany because they invaded Poland, having already annexed the Rhineland, Austria and Czechoslovakia.

Actually for the commencement of the war we must go as far back as 1931 and to the other side of the world, when Japan embarked on their first move in their expansionist bid to seize land in South East Asia to secure more territory for their bulging population together with supplies of oil and rubber. Their first stepping stone was the invasion of Manchuria. (An area in North East China which has a long history of changing hands between Russia, China and Japan.) However the Japanese were also particularly interested in the British oil and rubber territories of Malay and Burma.

Italy invades Africa Italy, under their Fascist dictator Mussolini, who had seized power in a coup in 1922 was in fact, the first aggressor in Europe, after the First World War, as he marched into the Horn of Africa in 1935. Abyssinia quickly fell to the much more powerful Italian army.

The world was outraged by all these aggressors, but did nothing.

The cause of this global war was the world wide recession, indeed “the slump”, in the 1920’s which caused a number of leaders to look for growth abroad to take the pressure off the disasters at home. This applied to the Germans, Italians and the Japanese. The result of World War One (1914-18), when Germany lost so much land created a determination to get it back when the time was right. The observation by the Japanese that they were the only country of significance without an Empire and as opposed to the British who had the largest world empire, had no cheap and secure source of oil, rubber (for car tyres), and food. (Rice in their case) 

At this time the forum for keeping world peace was the League of Nations, the precursor to the United Nations. England still had the largest navy in the world built to defend the huge British Empire. The English, after World War One, were not in the mood for war. Indeed a debate at Oxford University had come down on the side of those who if asked, would not take up arms for “King and Country”. Germany was ruled by another fascist dictator, Hitler, who was determined to not only get the lands back Germany had lost in the First World War but to rule the whole of Europe (Napoleon Style) based on an ideology of race. 

The Germans had for some time preached that as fair skin Arians they were superior to all other races, particularly Jews and Gypsies. Germany was friendly with Russia and although forbidden to build up an army after the First World War, not only did so, but undertook military exercises secretly in Russia where they perfected the use of new military technology particularly, tanks+ planes+ battlefield radio+ fast moving vehicle carried infantry. The technique they developed was called Blitzkrieg or lightning strikes. The French who with the English were on the winning side in the 1914-18 war had a larger army than the Germans, supported by tanks and planes but poor radio. Military commanders thought only in World War One terms so to defend France, they had dug a huge World War One type trench between France and Germany called the Magino Line which they were confidently sitting behind. No modern Blitzkrieg techniques were developed, indeed their cavalry still used horses. 

The French like the British had a substantial navy but conducted few naval exercises to hone new battle techniques. The Germans were forbidden to build up a Navy, but did. They also saw the submarine as a much better solution for sinking ships than slugging it out with bigger and better battle ships. The Germans also developed excellent army Blitzkrieg support fighter planes and light bombers. Notably the Messerschmitt 109 and the Junkers 87 dive bomber (Stukas). The only weakness in the Luftwaffe was perhaps with heavy bombers their best bombers were the lightweight Junkers 88 and Heinkel 111. The English were fortunate to have developed two top fighters, the Spitfire and the Hurricane which now everybody knows helped to win the Battle of Britain. As with Germany, England had no large four engined heavy bombers at the start of the war but were quick to develop them. 

At sea the English had the biggest Navy but it was stretched to support the Empire world wide. This put both the German, Italian and Japanese Navy’s at an advantage in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Eastern Oceans respectively. All these countries had Aircraft Carriers, Battleships, Cruisers, Destroyers, Frigates, Mine Sweepers and submarines. The Americans like Britain were initially reluctant fighters and took a lot of persuading to join the war. See later. When they joined, their fighting capabilities and equipment in all three services was only similar to the British and certainly not up to German standards. But as the Japanese had predicted The Americans were quick to learn. 

Although Britain had increased military spending and funding prior to 1939 in response to the increasing strength of Nazi Germany, its forces were still weak by comparison – especially the British Army. Only the Royal Navy – at the time the largest in the world – was of a greater strength than its German counterpart. The British Army only had nine divisions available for war, whereas Germany had 78 and France 86. 

Anticipating the outbreak of the Second World War, the Polish Navy, implementing the Peking Plan, in late August and early September 1939 evacuated to the United Kingdom three modern destroyers, Burza (Storm), Błyskawica (Lightning), and Grom (Thunder); the ships served alongside (and under the command of) the Royal Navy for the remainder of the war.

Pre-war build up

1935-1939 After Mussolini marches into Abyssinia and the world does nothing, Hitler is encouraged to take back the Rhineland which had been occupied by Britain and France since the end of the First World War. The Rhineland is the land between the Rhine River and present day France.

1936 March. Hitler sends German troops into the Rhineland and claims it once again as German soil. Britain and France do nothing. 

1938 Hitler sends troops into Austria. Pacifists Britain and France do nothing.

1938 Hitler sends his tanks into Czechoslovakia to claim back land lost in 1914-18. Britain and France do nothing and the world looks on. The Czecks are no match for Hitler’s honed Blitzkrieg war machine. 

1938 October to 1939 September. Encouraged by an easy victory, Hitler now publicly states he intends to take the land back in Poland he lost in 1918. The original heart of Germany was Prussia which included all of northern Poland. Britain and France say if you, Hitler invade Poland we will invade you. Hitler took no notice, invaded Poland on 1st September 

1939 and as promised Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3rd September 1939. 

2. Phase One

On 3 September, Britain and France declared war on Germany as obliged by the Anglo-Polish military alliance, the declaration was made 24 hours after the UK had issued an ultimatum to Germany to withdraw all German forces from Poland. After the fall of Poland, the Royal Navy was strengthened by the arrival of two Polish submarines Orzeł (Eagle) and Wilk (Wolf) and the formation of Polish Navy in the United Kingdom then supplemented with leased British ships.

The Army immediately began dispatching the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to support France. At first only regular troops from the pre-war Army made up its numbers. In 1940, however, men of the Territorial Army (TA) divisions being mobilized in the UK were sent. In the end, the BEF had I, II and III Corps under its command, controlling 200,000 men. The Royal Air Force (RAF) also sent significant forces to France at the start of hostilities. Some were French Army cooperation squadrons to help with matters like reconnaissance for the French Army. Others were Hawker Hurricane squadrons from RAF Fighter Command. Separately, Bomber Command sent the Advanced Air Striking Force, composed of squadrons flying the Fairey Battle and other machines that did not have the range to reach Germany from the UK.

During the Phoney War, the RAF carried out small bombing raids and a large number of propaganda leaflet raids (code named "Nickels") and the Royal Navy imposed a coastal blockade on Germany.

The British had landed their first troops on friendly French soil by 9th September. What the English did not know was that Hitler had previously agreed with Stalin, the Russian dictator, to attack Poland simultaneously, one from the West and the other from the East and share the spoils. 

The Russians invade on the 17th of September. The Poles resist manfully but are no match for the German Blitzkrieg techniques and by the 6th October this battle is over while the British army is still in France. 

Sept 6th. The loyal South Africans declare war on Germany. 

Sept 10th. The even more loyal Canadians declare war on Germany. Sept 30th General Sikorski forms The Polish Govt. in Exile in Paris

Also Sept 3rd. British cruse liner Athenia sunk by a German submarine (U boat). 28 Americans including tourists killed. The British commence their defensive “convoy” strategy (ships inline protected by naval vessels like Destroyers or Crusers on either side) for all future transatlantic shipping. 

Sept 17th. British aircraft carrier Courageous sunk by a German U boat. 

Oct 14th. A U boat sails into one of Britain’s most secure harbours, Scapa Flow, and sinks the British battleship Royal Oak with the loss of 800 crew. Scapa Flow is a stretch of water north of Scotland in the Orkney Islands. 

Oct 16th. German air force planes (Luftwaffe) bomb two British Cruisers in the Firth of Forth. (Edinburgh Scotland)

During this period Sept/Oct 1939 the English are expecting the Germans to bomb London as a precursor to a main land invasion and there is a mass exodus of children from London, without their parents, into the country where the London kids are welcomed by country folk. The bombing does not happen and after a few months many children go back to their London homes.

1940 May 10th Eight months after the commencement of war, Winston Churchill at 66 years old becomes Prime Minister of Britain and assumes responsibility for the armed forces. 

May 26th-June 4th. Dunkirk. The British and French armies who have been fighting against the well prepared German forces for some nine months are finally surrounded by the Germans in north eastern France. But the majority of the English and many French successfully escape in the operation known as Dunkirk when half a million troops are successfully shipped from Dunkirk, France to Kent, England by a flotilla of naval vessels supported by all the small fishing boats that can be found in time. 

June 1940. Commencement of nation wide speeches by Churchill to the British people saying no way will the British ever surrender to the Germans and will fight to the last man and woman. (“We will fight them on the beaches” etc and “I can only offer you blood tears toil and sweat.”)

June 10th 1940 The Italians join the war as they see the Germans are winning and attack France on June 20th. 

June 12th 1940 The Germans take Paris. 

June 22nd 1940 France surrenders to the Germans. Actually it is an armistice not a surrender which enables the formation of a new French government to rule southern France and all Frances colonies in for example North Africa and South East Asia. This puppet government under General Petain is headquartered at Vichy and cowtows to all things required by Nazi Germany. Many French see Petain as a traitor notably General de Gaulle who flees to England and the many brave French men and women who stay and form the French underground “Resistance”. 

June 24th France surrenders to Italy, again actually an Armistice to save face. 

August 17th 1940. “Eagle Day” for the Germans as they commence the “Battle of Britain”.

End of Phase One

England now “stands alone” as the only nation in Europe or indeed the world who is willing to stand up and face Hitler’s obviously excellent military machine. England have had a year, September 1939- August 1940 to:  

• Change the Prime Minister from the pacifist Neville Chamberlain to Winston Churchill
• Understand modern warfare demonstrated by the Germans, Blitzkrieg and submarines. 
• Build squadrons of Spitfire and Hurricane fighter planes to defend English skies and support Blitzkrieg type land warfare and even more importantly find suitable men to train as pilots. 
• Commence the building of an Army which understands modern warfare with tanks, anti tank guns, anti aircraft guns and troop carriers as already engineered by the Germans. 
• Introduce Radio, Radar and code breaking technologies sadly lacking but already developed in England. 
• Reluctantly accept the Free French into England as Churchill cannot stand de Gaulle. 
• Willingly accept fleeing Poles into England to become pilots and help develop military radio.

3. Phase 2, 3rd July 1940

This is a low point for England having been thrown out of Continental Europe by the Germans who are now prepared to invade England which is as difficult for them as it is for the English to land forces in Europe because of the 20 mile wide sea “moat” known as the English Channel.

Many things happen simultaneously: 

The French have a huge navy and Churchill has to test if Petain’s Vichy government will keep his ships for the Germans or order them to sail to England to join the British. On the 3rd July it is clear that Frenchman Petain is solidly on Germany’s side and the French ships fleet is destined for Hitler’s use. Churchill’s immediate response is to seize all French ships in British ports and sink as many as possible in French anchorage. 

4th August the Italians invade British East Africa, Somaliland. 

The Battle of Britain commences on 13th August 1940 with Germany intent to destroy the British Royal Air Force (RAF) prior to landing forces in England. 

7 Sept Britain prepares for a German land invasion within 2 weeks. 

13 Sept 1940 the Italians invade British Egypt from Italian controlled Libya. 

27 Sept. The so called “Axis” is formed. Germany, Italy and Japan agree to come to each others help if invaded by England, its empire or allies.

The Battle of Britain and the Blitz - perhaps better described as the Battle for Britain with the intended elimination of the RAF as the first stage of the planned German invasion of England. It is interesting to note that Hitler initially had no plans for invading England, indeed he would have preferred to strike a deal with Britain before he’d invaded Poland; that if Britain would not interfere with his plans to dominate Europe he would not strike at either England or the British Empire. Further he thought that after Dunkirk the war was over and he had won, so why should he invade England and the English who he had always admired. After all the Kings and Queens of England had been of German origin for 250 years.

What changed Hitler’s mind? 

Firstly Stalin of Russia told Hitler that Churchill had written to him saying; don’t trust Hitler not to invade Russia”. Stalin did not believe it but Hitler thought he could not trust Churchill. 

Roosevelt, the US President said in a re-election speech that; you could not trust the Nazis which made Hitler very concerned that the Capitalist duo of Britain and USA could attack him, so best to attack England first.

The Battle of Britain commenced on 13th August 1940 and lasted 3 months when Hitler saw the Luftwaffe had not achieved the air supremacy necessary for an invasion. On 17th September Hitler postponed the invasion and on 12th October he abandons all thought of invading England. The English did not know this as the so called Blitz carried on. How on earth did the English RAF win against the German Air force who had been preparing for 6 years? 

There were 3 main reasons; 

1.The English had developed and rapidly deployed Radar ahead of the Germans and could give advance warning to the RAF (and the civilian population) when an air attack was crossing the English Channel. 

2. The English Air Chief Marshall Dowding had refused to allow his beloved Spitfires and Hurricanes to support the British “Expeditionary Forces” in France in the September1939 to May 1940 when their numbers were small, to preserve them to defend any German invasion of England. 

England was blessed with these two magnificent fighter planes developed in the 1930s, the Spitfire and the Hurricane which were at least the equal of the German Messerschmitt 109. 

3. The British fighter pilots, many who had had limited and hurried training were at least the equal of the German aces. Bader of England and Galland of Germany typified the flying aces of each side. Douglas Bader had had his legs amputated in 1931 after a flying accident but fitted with two artificial legs became a flying ace in the Second World War. Adolf Galland became a General at the age of 29 largely due to his many hits on British aircraft in the Battle of Britain. He developed many air battle techniques to be generally adopted by German fighter pilots. 

On 7th Sept 1940 Hitler ordered a change of strategy for the Luftwaffe from bombing airfields to wreck the RAF, to bombing London. This was a drastic mistake as it allowed the RAF which was almost finished to regroup, repair planes and re-enter the battle.

What was is like to be in London and SE England during the Blitz? 

First of all a seemingly almost continuous high level noise. Mainly from anti-aircraft guns trying vainly to shoot down German bombers. 

Secondly the German Bombers themselves which seemed to be so numerous that the sky went black as they droned overhead. 

Thirdly fires. The Germans were dropping fire bombs (incendiaries) which when they fell on the chemical factories in the East End of London, caused fires which could be seen for 15 miles. (eg Silvertown in east London to Biggin Hill in Kent.) 

A young woman plays a gramophone in an air raid shelter in north London during 1940

Sleeping or trying to in a fortified part of your house, like under the stairs or in central London on the platforms of the underground rail system. (The Tube) 

The darkness of the nights because of the “Black Outs” People dying next door or down the road when their houses were hit. If you were under 10 and it was not your parents you took it in your stride. 

Dog fights or aerial battles between British and German aircraft. In those days they were quite visible from the ground being between only 1000 to 5000 feet above your head. 

The wailing sirens firstly to warn of enemy aircraft and then “at last” to give the “All Clear” when the nation thankfully emerged from their underground shelters.

12 October 1940, after about 3 months of continuous bombing, Hitler realises the English are made differently to the rest of Europe and wont give up and he abandons his plans for an invasion of England in preparation for opening up his eastern front for attacking Russia. 

11 May 1941 is the last day of the Blitz as Hitler diverts his air force to his eastern front. Londoners will however probably remember the 29th December 1940 as the worst night of the Blitz when Hitler ordered the largest air raid over London during he whole war. The whole of London seemed to be on fire and must surely disappear for ever. But the chaos just made the stoic Brits even more determined to fight to the now detested Germans.

All of Africa at this time is ruled by one or other European country.
In North Africa; Egypt is ruled by the British. The Suez Canal flows right through the middle of Egypt which is the shortest for British shipping, trading with and defending their Empire in Southern Asia and Australasia. 

Libya on the west of Egypt and much of the Horn of Africa in the east is ruled by Italy, hence now aligned with Hitler against England. 

Going west along Mediterranean North Africa, most of the other countries were then ruled by France and are thus effectively in the hands of the Germans.

British Egypt is therefore surrounded by Axis countries and on 13 September 1940 in the middle of the Blitz the Italians in Libya invade Egypt. The Italian army cannot be compared with the Germans. Whereas the Germans have been motivated by Hitler’s rhetoric to feel they are the superior race and are invincible, Mussolini is not so convincing and perhaps the average Italian would rather be at home enjoying the pleasures of wine, pretty girls and good food. The British army under General O’ Connor have no problem of driving the Italians back from Sidi Barrani in Egypt to Tobruk in Libya by 22 Jan 1941. However the Germans are not slow in coming to the aide of their Italian friends and on 12 February ‘41 Germany’s ace Blitzkrieg General, Erwin Rommel arrives in Libya as the British, under General Platt, invade and quickly rid the Horn of Africa of their Italian rulers.

The Atlantic - England is a densely populated island hence needs to import food by sea to feed its then population of about 52 million. Virtually all this merchant shipping needs to sail via the Atlantic Ocean. The Germans used both surface ships and submarines (U boats) to sink as many food and military supply ships as possible with devastating effect. The English adopted the convoy system (merchant ships sailing in line) with Battle Ships, Cruisers or Destroyers sailing along side to defend the convoy from U boat torpedoes. What saved the day for England was the development of Radar small enough to be carried both on ships and more particularly aircraft which solved the problem of detecting and locating the German attacking U boats at night. Notwithstanding this, all in England were very short of food, rationing was introduced which enabled food imports to be reduced by some 50%, and civilians were encouraged to cultivate any square inch of land they had to grow key crops like potatoes and carrots and breed chickens to produce eggs. The average English person however saw no eggs, bananas or fish from 1940 to the end of the war. The meat ration was 4 ounces per week but could sometimes be supplemented by rabbits or whale meat! Some say the population then was much healthier than today, certainly vastly slimmer.

England had for many years bought food from the US and attempted to continue, so the Germans torpedoed many neutral US merchant ship en-route to England which infuriated the Americans but did not cause them to come out of their staunchly neutral position in retaliation.

The American president, Franklin D. Roosevelt was re-elected for a record fourth time on 7 November 1940 and the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill continued to try and persuade Roosevelt to support England in their time of need. Roosevelt did however persuade the American people to let him supply ships and other military needs to England to replace those being destroyed by the German offensive. As England had spent every penny they had in keeping the Germans out of England, Roosevelt arranged a Lease-Lend financing package on 6 December 1940 to provide the supplies England so desperately needed but which could not be immediately paid for.

Back in North Africa and the Middle East, March-July 1941 England is now fighting the combined forces of Germany and Italy alone. The main theatre of land warfare is North and East Africa and the Middle East. Remember however Mainland England and the Atlantic fleets are also under continuous bombardment. Also note the English are now supported by the whole of their Empire which now includes forces from Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa and India. England fights in North Africa and the Mediterranean to keep the Suez Canal open to its empire in the East and fights in the Middle East to keep access to oil as Churchill was responsible for converting all the Royal Navy shipping from coal to oil fired boilers. In Africa the task is much harder because the German in command, Rommel is such a superb military tactician. In the Middle East, where England is supported by the “Free French” and Indians from the sub-continent, The Arabs who have been under either English or French control since the end of the First World War see their opportunity for self rule. England has to respond to secure the oil fields which they do not want in German hands.

Hitler changes his plans 1941 June 22. The overall balance of the war changes overnight as Hitler reneges on previous agreements with Stalin and invades Russia. Hence some two years after the outbreak of war Stalin is forced to look at Churchill and Roosevelt as allies rather than Hitler.

This is not particularly good news for England as; Churchill does not trust Stalin The Germans advance rapidly eastwards where they not only quickly close in on Moscow but also move through the Balkans onwards towards the vital English controlled oil fields in the Middle East. In a defensive move the English agree with the Russians to jointly move into Iran to secure the Anglo Iranian oil fields. 

17 Sept 1941. Note at this time England controls the oil fields in both Iraq and Iran. (and Burma further east)

August 2nd 1941. Roosevelt agrees to extend lease lend equipment supplies to Russia and the first convoy of US merchant ships (the Artic Convoy) evades German U boats and arrives on Russia’s northern (Arctic) coastline in September 1941.

The might of the American production machine can be gauged as at this time they are supplying England, Russia and China with vital supplies of arms and vehicles plus food to keep them from starvation. One supply route to China is facilitated by English ruled Burma via the notorious “Burma Road”. The Japanese have been occupying and “raping” parts of China for more than 10 years now and many areas are destitute.

4. Phase 3, December 1941

The Japanese commence their major territorial offensive. The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbour in the American Hawaiian Islands and destroy much of the US Pacific Fleet in one audacious pre-emptive airborne strike.

December 7th. The Japanese 25th army lands in Malay (Malaysia) which is part of The British Empire, and produces all the rubber for vehicle tyres.

December 8th. Japanese attack the only US colony, the Philippine Islands and destroy the US Far East Air Force.

December 8th. Germany and Italy declare war on USA, December 11th. British Hong Kong falls to the Japanese, December 25th.

In January 1942 the Japanese invade and occupy Singapore which is the Eastern defence centre for the British Empire. British Singapore surrenders on 5th February. 

The American Philippines. 

The Dutch controlled East Indies including Borneo and Sarawak

The Axis alliance mainly, Germany and Japan, is firmly in control. 
February 1942 The Japanese are now largely in control of an Empire they have craved for 25 years or more which will provide them with the extra space for their people and the essential raw materials like oil, rubber and rice they dearly need. The Germans likewise are poised to take Moscow but are thwarted by the onset of a particularly harsh Russian winter and further south are heading rapidly towards their objective of the Caucasian oil fields. The British and their Empire supporters are keeping the Germans under Rommel out of Egypt and the Suez Canal and the vital English controlled oil fields in Iran and Iraq. With the help of American convoys and British Radar and valiant navy are keeping themselves from starving in England even as the Germans continuously bomb English cities and torpedo their shipping. Indeed now the English are beginning to fight back with their newly deployed superior 4 engined heavy bombers as they commence on a plan to destroy German arms factories. (Halifax and soon the Lancaster)

The USA is now firmly in the Second World War but their novice forces are under extreme pressure and are retreating from the Japanese aggressor in South East Asia. Churchill has finally persuaded Roosevelt to become an active military ally in all theatres of war but American troops which were unprepared and not trained for active service are still unable to support England against Germany.

1942 A Summary  - all through 1942 Britain and their allies are on fighting for their lives and retreating on nearly all fronts. 

Britain looses Burma to the Japanese and evacuates Rangoon on 7th March. The Japanese now have Malay rubber and Burmese oil and already occupying China only need Australia for much needed coal, steel and uranium and lots of empty space for their expanding population. The Australians who are already supporting their colonial master, England in the Middle and Far East realise that England is not strong enough to come to their aid if Japan attacks their mainland. 

The Americans have lost both their Pacific fleet and their Far East Air Force to the Japanese and have evacuated the Philippines. But Churchill, Prime Minister of England and Hideki Tojo, the prime minister of Japan, know that the Japanese flea had only just tickled the American elephant and it is only time before the huge American car factories would be converted to making military armaments. 

The Russians were also fighting for their land and lives. By mid 1942 the Germans have effectively got the three major Russian cities in their sights, Leningrad (St Petersburg), Moscow and even further east Stalingrad (Volgograd).

The tide turns - however from the middle of 1942 the tide began to turn on all fronts. 

Battle of Midway 2nd June 1942. The Pacific Islands of Midway are a few hundred miles further west than Hawaii and Pearl Harbour. This was a naval battle between a regrouped US Pacific Fleet and a battle savvy Japanese Fleet, both having aircraft carriers and battleships at their disposal. America wins, loosing one aircraft carrier to 4 Japanese carriers sunk. This is the first major defeat for the Japanese in the Second World War. 

Montgomery (Monty) takes control of the British 8th Army in North Africa (The Desert Rats) on the 15 August 1942. Since Rommel arrived in North Africa in February 1941 the Germans had made steady progress in their quest to take Egypt and the Suez Canal but had not reached either of the Egyptian key cities of Alexandria and Cairo but had taken El Alamein only 100 miles west of Alexandria 

Montgomery defeats the Germans at El Alamein, Egypt, October 1942 and commences pushing them out of Egypt into Libya. This is the first major defeat for Rommel in the Second World War. 

Torch landings in Morocco and Algeria 8th November 1942. This was the name given to the first front line action of the American troops in support of the English against Hitler. It is interesting to note that President Roosevelt had wanted to land straight away in German occupied France (and so did Stalin) but Churchill persuaded the Americans that their army was without combat experience and should attack a softer target. Churchill was right, the American losses in their first “European” campaign were huge even though the main opposition was the Vichy French.

December 1942 - another harsh Russian winter freezes almost to death the German armies destined to attack Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad. Being 1000 miles east of Berlin the Luftwaffe cannot help them and they are out of petrol and out of food.

Throughout the whole of 1942, the English and later the US, flying from England, commenced to use their superior heavy bombers to smash German factories as follows; 

March (‘42) commencement of bombing Germany by the new four engined English designed and built Lancaster bomber. 

April, the English use the Lancaster to carry a huge 8000lb bomb to destroy the factories in Essen Germany. 

May, Cologne in bombed. 

August first raid into Germany by English based American heavy bombers. Boeing B17 Flying Fortress.

5. Phase 4, 1943 to 6th June 1944

This long 18 month period up to the D Day (European landings) saw the Allies (Britain and their Empire, US and Russia) slowly gain the initiative against the Axis forces (Germany, Italy, Vichy France and Japan) in every theatre of war. 

At home in England. The landscape had totally changed, still no food or perhaps just enough, still Germans bombing the cities particularly London but a new breed of humans were now living in England the American G I. (These were the American Military personnel who had finally arrived in England to help in North African and then the European theatre). American G I’s had money, looked well fed and walked around as though they owned the place. You either loved them or hated them depending on your age. The young loved them, the young boys admired their confidence and continuous wise cracking (joking), the slightly older girls liked their money, their supply of nylon stockings and their time available for dancing, love and sex. Older people disliked them for all the same reasons as Americans after all were of a lower brash class! 

In Hitler’s Germany one of the most terrible atrocities the world had ever seen was gathering momentum under the guidance of Heinrich Himmler and personal implementation of Adolf Eichmann. This so called Final Solution was the rounding up of all the Jews in Europe, murdering them by first gassing them and then burning their corpses. Some 6 million Jews disappeared in this manner but the total exterminated was more than 12 million including gypsies and homosexuals. Himmler managed this ethnic cleansing through his position as head of the Waffen SS, an elite squad of military/police thugs who on the battle field took no prisoners. All who surrendered were lined up and shot. The Nazi policy of murdering Jews contributed to Hitler loosing the war as it was the Jewish scientists who were working on such world beating products as radar, rockets and nuclear bombs. Some escaped to England and America but the majority were murdered. 

In the Atlantic the British Navy was slowly getting the upper hand over the German U boats. In May ’43 German losses were so bad that Grand Admiral Donitz the U Boat overall commander temporally withdrew all his submarines from the Atlantic. (Military historians feel that if Donitz had had enough U Boats at the beginning of the war he could have caused England to surrender through starvation. Indeed in August ’42 he was freely attacking US shipping along the east coast of America.) 

North Africa. Also in May ’43 the Germans surrendered to the Allies in North Africa when they became surrounded by the English on their eastern flank and the Americans on their west. The British and American armies immediately turned their attention north to liberate Italy. Mussolini had already fallen so Hitler diverts some crack German divisions into Italy under Rommel to keep Italy in German hands even though the Italian people are very much on the side of the British and Americans. 

Russia. In July ’43 the Germans and Russian tanks come head to head at Kursk in the largest tank battle in the war. Kursk is a town almost due south of Moscow and half way between Moscow and the Odessa on the Black Sea. 

Far East and Pacific. In January ’43 the Japanese were occupying virtually all countries east of India right through to the Pacific Ocean and including much of China but notably excluding British Australia and New Zealand. Many Allied military and civilian personal had been taken into Japanese concentration camps and treated with contempt or worse. Certainly all prisoners were starved and forced to work for the Japanese until they either died of malnutrition or disease for which there were no medicines supplied. However the territory above was as far as the Japanese got and they were now up against the Americans, British, Australians, Indians (under British rule) and the Chinese under American military command. All these allied forces worked closely together and received much logistical support from the American production colossus. This vast area can conveniently be divided into two, the Pacific plus South East Asia, which the Americans and the Australians were attacking the now well established Japanese and further west the British colonial territories of Burma and Malay which the English with support from British India were responsible for removing the occupying Japanese. At the end of 1943 all these territories were still dominated by Japanese.

6. Phase 5, June 1944

Finally the Allies (English, Canadians and Americans) were ready to attempt a landing, with sufficient number of troops and tanks, on heavily fortified French soil to liberate France, Belgium and Holland and cross the river Rhine into Germany. 

June 1944 

Europe. England had now been at war for nearly 4 years and with American help had cleared the Germans and the Italians out of North Africa. 

Had invaded German occupied Italy from the south and had pushed the crack German troops north as far as Rome. This was an extremely tough theatre with most Italian rivers flowing East-West and thus easily defended against a south to north allied advance. This was very similar to a World War One battle field. 

Were prepared for the “D Day landings” designed to put eventually, some 3 million Allied troops onto German occupied French soil for the onward march to Berlin. On the 6th June some 155,000 Allied troops crossed the English Channel and fought their way up the open Normandy beaches against stiff German resistance from dug in positions. There were huge Allied losses but not as many as Churchill had predicted. The main casualties were amongst the Americans who had refused to adopt many of the British anti mine devices because they looked too amateurish. 

Simultaneously on the Eastern Front the Russians commenced their summer offensive on June 9th and by July 20th had reached the eastern borders of Poland. 

Back in Normandy - France on the 6th June, the Americans had landed 57,500 troops with losses of 6000 and the British together with Canadians landed 75,200 with losses of 4,300. 

The Americans landed on the west end of the beaches in areas code named Utah and Omaha and in spite of heavy losses had taken the port of Cherbourg by June 27th. The English landed on beaches named Gold and Juno and the Canadians furthest east on Sword both being tasked to take the town of Caen by the 14th. They failed finally taking the town on July 18th but only after the RAF had flattened the old French city with 7,000 tons of bombs to rid it of German defences. The Free French headed by de Gaulle were allowed to “liberate” Paris a few hours ahead of the Americans who had done all the work, on August 25th 1944. Meanwhile the British who are fighting further north liberate Belgium on 3rd September and the vital port of Le Havre surrenders to the Canadians on September 12th. 

By the end of 1944 

The British, Canadians and Americans have retaken all of German occupied Western Europe up to the river Rhine. 

On the Eastern Front the Russians are as far west as Warsaw, the capital of Poland and Hungary’s Budapest. However they had shown their true colours in Warsaw during August when the city inhabitants rose up against the Germans on the understanding that the Russians, only a few miles away, would support them. The Russians preferred to watch as the Poles were massacred by the Germans which would make it easier for the Russians to suppress rather than liberate the Poles a few months later. 

In Italy the British and Americans were still experiencing stiff German resistance and were fighting northwards from Florence towards Milan. 

In the Far East - the Japanese have in desperation commenced their Kamikaze suicide flights against American shipping while the Americans helped by the Australians are slowly ridding the Indonesian and Philippine islands of the Japanese occupier. 

In the British theatre, the English and their Indian supporters are still in hand to hand combat with the Japanese in Burma and Malay. 

7. The end of the war in Europe

Germany surrenders in May 1945 - crossing the Rhine for the final run through Germany was no easy task and the necessary bridges were not taken until the end of March ’45 by which time the Russians had already taken some towns in the east of Germany and were only some 50 miles from Berlin which is in the East of Germany. Churchill had wanted to beat the Soviets (Russians) to the German capital because he feared (quite rightly as it turned out) that the Russians would stay there as occupiers not liberators. However he was over ruled by the American President and his team who in spite of all the Russian atrocities still trusted them. The British, Canadian and American armies were instructed to ensure crucial areas like the industrial Ruhr in Germany was firmly in Allied hands. When the Germans guessed this plan some 2 million German civilians and army deserters fled the east of Germany (mainly by foot) to give themselves up to the English or Americans whom they realised they could trust to treat them humanely.

The Germans surrendered to Americans in the Ruhr April 18th. 

Hitler commits suicide April 30th. 

Russians in Berlin May 2nd. 

Allies in Italy May 2nd. 

British, to Montgomery in North West Germany, Holland and Denmark May 4th. 

Americans in Riems France May 7th. 

May 8th Berlin surrender-ceremony to British, Russian, American and French. 

Roosevelt had died 12th April 1945 at 63 years old to be replaced by Harry Truman. 

Meanwhile back in the east against the Japanese both the English out of India and the American Pacific forces have made huge strides. The Japanese are down and in retreat but certainly not out. 

Recapping for the Asian theatre of war:

1941 December. Japanese invade Pearl Harbour. Americans now in the War. Japanese simultaneously invade British Malay (Now Malaysia) and British Hong Kong. England now has a war against both the Germans and the Japanese simultaneously. 

1942 5th February. Singapore, defence headquarters for the British Empires Far Eastern lands falls to the Japanese. 

1942 May. Japanese now control American Philippines with England’s Australia now in reach also England’s Malay and Burma. (Burma borders on England’s pride of the Empire, India.) 

1942 June. Americans fight their first significant battles against the Japanese at Midway, just west of Pearl Harbour and then in the Coral Sea just north of British dependent Australia. Both are victories to the Americans. 

1943 May. The British are driven back by the Japanese 1000 miles on foot from Rangoon in the south of Burma, to the comparative safety of India. 

1944 March. Chinese military, under the control of American General Stillwell attack and defeat the Japanese in the north of Burma. 

1944 July British forces in India now regrouped and revitalised by British General Slim re-enter the war and by August ‘45 the Japanese in Burma have surrendered. 

1944 October. The battle commences to re-take the Philippines. In the Battle of “Leyte Gulf” virtually the whole of the Japanese Navy is destroyed by the Americans. 

1945 March the Americans re-take Manila in the toughest of battles when the whole city is flattened. Nearly Half a Million Japanese are killed in the battle for the Philippines to the American numbers killed of 14,000 but the Japanese there refuse to surrender even after the end of the war. 

1945 February - June. First battle for a Japanese Island, Okinawa. Japanese troops surrender on 22 June and their commanding officer commits suicide. 

1945 May Germans surrender in Europe. 

1945 July. Churchill agrees to American request to drop atomic bombs on Japan. 

1945 August. America drops first Atomic bomb on 6th August 1945, 80,000 Japanese civilians killed. 8th August Russian declare war on Japan and invade Manchuria. 9th Aug atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Aug 10th Emperor of Japan Hirohito orders surrender, hardliners in Japan try to kill him. 

1945 September 2nd. Japanese formally surrender. 

1945 September 8th. British land in Malay, still occupied by the Japanese who refused to surrender. 

8. Aftermath

Casualties - the official figure is some 50 million people killed. A breakdown is as follows: 

• Russia and rest of USSR 20 million 
• China 10 million 
• Poland 5.8 million 
• Germany 5.5 million 
• Japan 2.3 million 
• Yugoslavia 1.5 million 
• France 600,000 
• USA 400,000 
• Britain 360,000 
• Italy 300,000 

The Holocaust - this was the German solution for ridding Europe of people they considered to be of a “lower life form” and would contaminate the pure fair skinned super race the German leaders considered themselves to be. In all some 12 million people were rounded up and murdered. Killing on such a massive scale needed a well thought out master plan (The Final Solution) which involved forcing Jews and others on trains (mainly cattle trucks) with the help of collaborators, notably the French Vichy Government, and trucking them without food and water to various “Death Camps” in Germany and German occupied Poland where they were first killed by lethal gas (the Gas Chambers) and then incinerated in specially designed furnaces. The British and Americans were not aware that this was going on but if they had they might not have been in a position to stop it. It is alleged that the Catholic Church in Rome was aware of it but turned a blind eye on the basis that they hated the Jews as much as the Nazis but this has never been proven. The Vatican has so far refused to confirm or deny the truth. When the death camps were finally liberated by British and American troops they could not believe what they found. There were considerable numbers of near dead Jews who were walking skeletons. The nearest thing seen today are the near dead starving African people seen on television in Nigeria and the Sudan. 

Jewish Holocaust victims by nationality, approximate: 

Poland 3million 

Russia 1 million 

Romania 500,000 

Czechoslovakia 250,000 

Hungary 200,000 

Germany 150,000 

Lithuania 150,000 

Holland 100,000 

France 100,000

World War II confirmed that Britain was no longer the great power it had once been, and that it had been surpassed by the United States on the world stage. Canada, Australia and New Zealand moved within the orbit of the United States. The image of imperial strength in Asia had been shattered by the Japanese attacks, and British prestige there was irreversibly damaged. The price for India's entry to the war had been effectively a guarantee for independence, which came within two years of the end of the war, relieving Britain of its most populous and valuable colony. The deployment of 150,000 Africans overseas from British colonies, and the stationing of white troops in Africa itself led to revised perceptions of the Empire in Africa.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR:

1939

15th March - The German Army invades Czechoslovakia., Edouard Daladier announces that France intends to increase defence spending.

17th March - Adolf Hitler demands the free city of Danzig in Poland.

21st March - Britain and France pledge to support Poland.

29th March - Italy invades and occupies Albania.

7th April - Britain and France pledge to support Romania and Greece.

13th April - Soviet Union proposes a triple alliance with Britain and France.

18th April - Sweden, Norway and Finland reject Germany's offer of non-aggression pacts.

17th May - Winston Churchill urges the government to form a military alliance with the Soviet Union.

9th July - Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler sign the Nazi-Soviet Pact.

23rd August - Britain and Poland sign a treaty of mutal assistance.

25th August - The German Army invades Poland and annexes the free city of Danzig.

1st September - Britain and France declare war on Nazi Germany.

3rd September - Parliament passes the National Services (Armed Forces) Act.

3rd September - Neville Chamberlain appoints Winston Churchill as First Lord of the Admiralty.

3rd September - the German Army reach the city of Brest- Litovsk on the Polish border with the Soviet Union.

17th September - The Red Army invades Poland.

17th September - Reinhard Heydrich announces that all Jews in Poland are to be imprisoned in Ghettos.

21st September - the Polish Army surrenders in Warsaw.

27th September - Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the USA will remain neutral in the European war.

3rd October - the British battleship Royal Oak is sunk by Uboat captained by Gunther Prien.

14th October - the Schutz Staffeinel (SS) establish the first Jewish Ghetto in Piotrkow.

28th October - Germany formally annexes western Poland into the German Reich.

1st November - Joseph Stalin formally annexes eastern Poland into the Soviet Union.

2nd November - the Red Army invades Finland.

30th November - the Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.

14th December - the Red Army attacks the Mannerheim Line in Finland.

1940

11th February - Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union.

12th March - Paul Reynaud replaces Edouard Daladier as prime minister of France.

20th March - Britain and France agree not to sign a separate peace with Nazi Germany.

28th March - Neville Chamberlain appoints Lord Beaverbrook as minister of aircraft production.

3rd April - Soldiers in the British Army land at Namsos in Norway.

8th April - The German Army invades Denmark and

9th April, Norway. Adolf Hitler launches his Western Offensive and invades France.

10th May, 1940 - Neville Chamberlain resigns as prime minister and is replaced by Winston Churchill.

10th May, 1940 - Anthony Eden announces the formation of the Home Guard.

14th May, 1940 - Netherlands surrenders and Queen Wilhelmina flees to England.

14th May, 1940 - Parliament grants Winston Churchill and his government wide emergency powers.

22nd May, 1940 - General Gerd von Rundstedt and the German Army pierce the French defences at Sedan.

23rd May, 1940 - Adolf Hitler orders the German forces in France and Belgium to halt their advance.

23rd May, 1940 - Adolf Hitler orders the German forces in resume their advance into France and Belgium.

25th May, 1940 - Evacuation from Dunkirk begins. 

27th May, 1940 Belgium surrender to the German Army and Leopold III is arrested.

28th May, 1940 - Winston Churchill appoints Stafford Cripps as British ambassador to the Soviet Union.

30th May, 1940 - The last of the 338,000 British, French and Belgian forces evacuated from Dunkirk.

4th June, 1940 - J. B. Priestley gives first BBC radio broadcast. 

5th June, 1940 Mussolini declares war on the Allies.

10th June, 1940 - Gotthard Heinrici and the 12th Corps break through the Maginot Line.

14th June, 1940 - The German Army enters Paris. 14th June, 1940. The USA rejects France's renewed appeal for help against the German Army.

15th June, 1940 - Henri-Philippe Petain begins to negotiate an armistice with Germany.

17th June, 1940 - France signs armistice with Nazi Germany and is divided into two zones.

22nd June, 1940 - Winston Churchill recognizes Charles De Gaulle as leader of the Free French.

28th June, 1940 - The Royal Navy destroys most of the French Navy at Mers-el-Kébir.

3rd July, 1940 - Franklin D. Roosevelt bans the shipment of strategic materials to Japan.

5th July, 1940 - Ark Royal sinks Dunkerqueat at Mers-el-Kébir. 

6th July, 1940 - The Luftwaffe launch the start of the Battle of Britain.

10th July, 1940 - Henri-Philippe Petain becomes president of Vichy France.

11th July, 1940 - Winston Churchill invites Hugh Dalton to establish the Special Operations Executive.

16th July, 1940 - The Italian Army advances into British Somaliland.

3rd August, 1940 - The Luftwaffe began attacking RAF Fighter Command's aircraft, airfields and installations.

13th August, 1940 - The Luftwaffe carry out a all-night bombing raid on London and begins the Blitz.

23rd August, 1940 - The Royal Air Force bombs Berlin.

25th August, 1940 - Rodolfo Graziani and Italian Army make a rapid advance into Egypt.

13th September, 1940 - City of Bernares sunk by a German torpedo killing 73 children on the way to Canada.

17th September, 1940 - Winston Churchill decides to abandon the attempt to capture the port of Dakar.

25th September, 1940 - Vidkun Quisling installed by the Germans as prime minister of Norway.

25th September, 1940 - Yosuke Matsuoka of Japan signs the Tripartite Pact with Nazi Germany and Italy.

27th September, 1940 - Winston Churchill appoints Kingsley Wood as Chancellor of the Exchequer.

3rd October, 1940 - Adolf Hitler postpones Operation Sealion.

12th October, 1940 - Adolf Hitler meets Francisco Franco an attempt to persuade Spain to join the war.

23rd October, 1940 - The Mustang P-51B makes its first flight.

26th October, 1940 - The Italian Army invades Greece.

28th October, 1940 - The Royal Navy attacks the Italian Navy at Taranto.

11th November, 1940 - The Luftwaffe bomb Coventry killing 380 people and injuring 865.

14th November, 1940 - The Royal Air Force bomb Hamburg in Germany.

16th November, 1940 - Airbourbe radar successfully used by the Royal Air Force for the first time.

18th November, 1940 - British Army captures Tobruk.

1941

1st March, 1941 - Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact and joins forces with Germany, Italy and Japan.

1st March, 1941 - The British Army invades Italian-controlled Ethiopia.

7th March, 1941 - US Congress passes the Lend-Lease Act.

11th March, 1941 - General Erwin Rommel mounts his first attack in the Desert War.

24th March, 1941 - General Andrew Cunningham, commander of allied forces in East Africa, enters Addis Ababa..

6th April, 1941 - Italian Army in Ethiopia surrenders to Allied 6th April, 1941 forces.

Germany, Italy and Bulgaria invade Yugoslavia. 

10th April, 1941 - General Paul von Kleist and the 1st Panzer Group enter Belgrade.

12th April, 1941 - Yosuke Matsuoka of Japan signs non-aggression pact with Soviet Union.

14th April, 1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the German Army. 

20th April, 1941 - Greece surrenders to the German Army. 

21st April, 1941 - General Erwin Rommel and his army enter Egypt.

25th April, 1941 - The Luftwaffe destroy the House of Commons in Westminster.

10th May, 1941 - Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland and is arrested by the authorities.

10th May, 1941 - Frank Whittle's jet-propelled Gloster E28 takes its first flight.

15th May, 1941 - The Bismarck sinks the British battlecruiser Hood.

24th May, 1941 - The Bismarck attacked and sunk by the Royal Navy.

26th May 1941 - The British government introduces plans to ration clothes and furniture.

1st June, 1941 - Syria invaded by British Army and Free French forces.

8th June, 1941 - Operation Punishment comes to and end. 

22nd June, 1941 - Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa. 

22nd June, 1941 - Finland declares war on the Soviet Union. 

25th June, 1941 - Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union. 

27th June, 1941 - Armistice signed in Syria. 

12th July, 1941 - Soviet Union and Britain sign an agreement of mutual aid.

12th July, 1941 - Richard Acland launches the Common Wealth Party.

26th July, 1941 - The German Army advances on Leningrad.

12th August, 1941 - Military forces from Soviet Union and Britain invade Iran.

25th August, 1941 - The German Army captures Kiev, the Ukrainian capital in the Soviet Union.

20th September, 1941 - The German Army advances on Moscow.

6th October, 1941 - The Royal Air Force bombs the German city of Nuremberg.

13th October, 1941 - General Hideki Tojo becomes prime minister of Japan.

16th October, 1941 - Masha Bruskina, first Soviet partisan to be executed in public by the German Army.

26th October, 1941 - The British aircraft carrier, Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar.

13th November, 1941 - Emperor Hirohito officially approves the attack on the United States.

1st December, 1941 - Britain declares war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

7th December, 1941 - Japanese forces attack the US Fleet at Pearl Harbor.

8th December, 1941 - Japanese troops invade Malaya, Thailand and the Philippines.

10th December, 1941 - Japanese forces sink the Prince of Wales and Repulse off the east coast of Malaya.

10th December, 1941 - Japanese troops invade Burma.

11th December, 1941 - America First Committee is dissolved. 

19th December, 1941 - Adolf Hitler sacks Heinrich von Brauchitsch as commander in chief of the German Army.

22th December, 1941 - Japanese Army capture Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

25nd December, 1941 - Hong Kong surrendered with the loss of its 12,000 garrison

1942

11th January, 1942 - Japanese Army capture Kuala Lumpur, the capital of the Malaya.

25th January, 1942 - General Arthur Percival orders retreat to Singapore.

29th January, 1942 - USA government announces the establishment of relocation camps for Japanese Americans.

12th February, 1942 - General Arthur Percival surrenders Singapore to Japanese.

15th February, 1942 - Japanese Air Force bomb Darwin in Australia. 

19th February, 1942 - General Douglas MacArthur and the United States forces leave the Philippines

27th March - The Royal Air Force bomb Lubeck in Germany.

9th April, 1942 - Hermann Balck and the 3rd Panzer Division captures Salonika.

18th April, 1942 - The United States Air Force bomb Tokyo. 

18th April, 1942 - Pierre Laval becomes minister of foreign affairs in Vichy France.

23rd April, 1942 - The Luftwaffe start bombing Exeter, Bath and other historic cities in Britain.

1st May 1942 - Japanese Army capture Mandalay in Burma. 

6th May, 1942 - Start of the battle of Coral Sea. 

27th May, 1942 - Richard Heydrich is shot in Prague by Czech resistance fighters.

30th May, 1942 - Arthur Harris orders the first 1000 bomber attack on Germany at Cologne.

3rd June, 1942 - Start of the battle of Midway. 

10th June, 1942 - The Gestapo destroy the village of Lidice in Czechoslovakia.

14th June, 1942 - Erwin Rommel defeats Neil Richie at Gazala. 

21st June, 1942 - Erwin Rommel and the German Army captures Tobruk.

2nd July, 1942 - General Erich von Manstein captures Sevastopol on the Black Sea.

5th July, 1942 - Donald Bennett appointed as commander of the Pathfinder Force.

7th July, 1942 - Japanese Army land on Guadalcanal. 

18th July, 1942 - The Messerschmitt Me 262 makes its first test flight.

26th July, 1942 - The Royal Air Force bomb Hamburg in Germany.

7th August, 1942 - Alexander Vandegrift and the US Marines land on Guadalcanal.

7th August, 1942 - The US Marines use the Navajo Code for the first time.

General Bernard Montgomery is appointed 13th August, commander of the British 8th Army. 1942

17th August, 1942 - The Flying Fortress begins making first daylight bombing raids on Europe.

19th August, 1942 - 5,000 Canadian and 1,000 British troops raid the port of Dieppe in France.

24th August, 1942 - The German Army enters Stalingrad.

25th August, 1942 - The Duke of Kent dies in an air crash in Scotland.

30th August, 1942 - Erwin Rommel attacks Eighth Army at Alam el Halfa.

21st September, 1942 - The B-29 Stratafortress makes its first flight.

23rd October, 1942 - General Bernard Montgomery orders counterattack at El Alamein.

26th October, 1942 - Thomas Kinkaid faces Nobutake Kondo at the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands.

27th October, 1942 - Hornet is sunk during the Battle of Santa Cruz Islands.

4th November, 1942 - The German Army defeated at El Alamein.

8th November, 1942 - General Dwight D. Eisenhower,leads the invasion of Tunisia.

11th November, 1942 - Admiral Jean Darlan surrenders French North Africa to Dwight D. Eisenhower.

11th November, 1942 - Adolf Hitler orders the occupation of Vichy France.

12th November, 1942 - The British Army recaptures Tobruk.

13th November, 1942 - Admiral William Halsey leads successful naval campain at Guadalcana.

12th December, 1942 - Erich von Manstein and the 4th Panzer Army begin the attempt to relieve the 6th Army.

24th December, 1942 - Admiral Jean Darlan assassinated by member of French Resistance in Algiers.

1943

18th January, 1943 - The Luftwaffe renews its air attacks on London.

23rd January, 1943 - The Allies capture Tripoli.

25th February, 1943 - British and US military aircraft begin round-theclock bombing of Nazi Germany.

9th March, 1943 - Jurgen von Arnium replaces Erwin Rommel as commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps.

13th April, 1943 - Germany announces the discovery of 4,443 Polish officers at Katyn in the Soviet Union.

19th April, 1943 - Yitzhak Zuckerman leads the Warsaw Uprising. 

7th May, 1943 - The Allies capture Tunis. 

13th May, 1943 - Over 130,000 members of the German Army surrender in Tunisia.

16th May, 1943 - Wing Commander Guy Gibson leads the Dambusters Raid.

27th May, 1943 - Jean Moulin holds the first meeting of the Conseil National de la Resistance in Paris.

8th July, 1943 - Jean Moulin, leader of the French Resistance, murdered by the Gestapo.

9th July, 1943 - A German aircraft bombs Whitehall Cinema in East Grinstead and kills 235 people.

10th July, 1943 - Allied troops land on German-occupied Sicily. 

24th July, 1943 - Air Marshall Arthur Harris orders further bombing of Hamburg.

25th July, 1943 - Victor Emmanuel III dismisses Benito Mussolini from office in Italy.

23rd August, 1943 - The Red Army recaptures the city of Kharkov.

3rd September, 1943 - Bernard Montgomery and the 8th Army land at Reggio in Italy.

7th September, 1943 - The Tirpitz and Scharnhorst bombard the Spitzbergen weather station.

12th September, 1943 - Benito Mussolini is rescued from prison by a team led by Otto Skorzeny.

15th September, 1943 - Benito Mussolini establishes a new fascist government at Salo on Lake Garda, Italy.

23rd September, 1943 - Italy's new prime minister, Pietro Badoglio, signs armistice with the Allies.

25th September, 1943 - The Red Army recaptures the city of Smolensk.

13th October, 1943 - General Mark Clark and 5th Army capture Naples.

13th October, 1943 - Italy's prime minister, Pietro Badoglio, declares war on Germany.

4th November, 1943 - Evans Carlson and the 2nd Raider Battalion land in Guadalcana.

6th November, 1943 - The Red Army recaptures the city of Kiev.

18th November, 1943 - The intensive bombing of Berlin by the RAF begins.

20th November, 1943 - Allied invasion of the Gilbert Islands.

12th December, 1943 - Eduard Benes and Joseph Stalin sign a Soviet- Czech peace treaty in Moscow.

26th December, 1943 - The Scharnhorst is sunk by the Duke of York off the coast of Norway.

28th December, 1943 - Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Joseph Stalin meet at Tehran in Iran.

1944

22nd January, 1944 - General John Lucas and US 5th Army land at Anzio.

19th February, 1944 - The Luftwaffe make their heaviest raids on London since May 1941.

24th February, 1944 - Merrill's Marauders begin their first campaign in Burma.

6th March, 1944 - United States Air Force begin daylight air attacks on Berlin.

29th March, 1944 - Paul von Kleist and Erich von Manstein recalled to Germany and sacked by Adolf Hitler.

30th March, 1944 - Allied bombing of Nuremberg Raid.

9th May, 1944 - The German Army evacuates Sevastopol. 

18th May, 1944 - Allied troops take Monte Cassino. 

4th June, 1944 - General Mark Clark and Allied troops capture Rome.

6th June, 1944 - Second Front opened with Allied landings in Normandy.

9th June, 1944 - Pietro Badoglio resigns and Invanoe Bonomi forms new government in Italy.

10th June, 1944 - The SS carry out a revenge attack on the Maquis at Oradour-sur-Glane.

13th June, 1944 - First V1 Flying bomb lands on Britain. 

3rd July, 1944 - The Red Army recaptures the city of Minsk. 

9th July, 1944 - Allied troops capture Caen in Normandy. 

18th July, 1944 - Hideki Tojo resigns as prime minister of Japan. 

20th July, 1944 - July Plot against Adolf Hitler fails. 

1st August, 1944 - Polish resistance forces in Warsaw rebel against German occupation.

4th August, 1944 - V1 Flying bomb brought down by a Gloster Meteor, Britain's first jet-fighter.

14th August, 1944 - Allied troops land on the French coast between the ports of Toulon and Cannes.

18th August, 1944 - Ernst Thaelmann is executed at Buchenwald.

24th August, 1944 - United States Army enters Paris.

25th August, 1944 - Romania declares war on Germany.

4th September, 1944 - British troops enter Brussels, the capital of Belgium.

8th September, 1944 - First V2 Rocket lands on Britain.

10th September, 1944 - The French provisional government abolishes the Vichy legislature.

11th September, 1944 - Allied troops enter Nazi Germany.

11th September, 1944 - Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet in Quebec to discuss post-war Germany.

12th September, 1944 - Romania signs an armistice with the United States, Britain and the Soviet Union.

19th September, 1944 - Finland signs an armistice with the Soviet Union.

25th September, 1944 - Allied troops forced to withdraw from Arnhem.

25th September, 1944 - Adolf Hitler calls up all remaining males between 16 and 60 in Germany for army service.

Canadian troops liberate the French port of 28th September, Calais. 1944

2nd October, 1944 - The German Army crushes Warsaw Uprising.

4th October, 1944 - The British Army land in German-occupied Greece.

6th October, 1944 - The Red Army enters Czechoslovakia.

9th October, 1944 - Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet in Moscow.

14th October,1944 - Erwin Rommel is forced to commit suicide by the Nazi government.

20th October, 1944 - General Douglas MacArthur returns to the Philippines.

22nd October, 1944 - General Walter Krueger and the US 6th Army landed on Leyte.

24th October, 1944 - The Battle of Leyte Gulf begins.

28th October, 1944 - Bulgaria signs an armistice with the Allies.

12th November, 1944 - The Tirpitz is sunk after being hit by Tallboy bombs.

21st December, 1944 - The Red Army establish new government in Hungary.

1945

9th January, 1945 - US forces make landings on the island of Luzon.

17th January, 1945 - The Red Army liberate Warsaw.

18th January, 1945 - The Red Army capture Budapest.

2nd February, 1945 - Start of Operation Ten-Go.

4th February, 1945 - Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin D. Roosevelt meet at the Yalta Conference.

13th February, 1945 - Air Marshall Arthur Harris orders the bombing of Dresden.

19th February, 1945 - United States Army land on Iwo Jima.

28th February, 1945 - United States Army capture Manila, the capital of the Philippines.

9th March, 1945 - United States Army Air Force creates firestorm in Tokyo.

British and Indian troops capture Mandalay in Burma.

20th March, 1945 - United States Army cross the River Rhine between Mainz and Mannheim.

22nd March, 1945 - Last V2 Rocket lands on Britain.

27th March, 1945 - The Red Army enters Austria.

29th March, 1945 - United States Army land on Okinawa. 1st April, 1945 A 700 plane kamikaze attack sink and damage 13 US destroyers..

6th April, 1945 - The Japanese giant battleship Yamato sunk off Okinawa.

7th April, 1945 - General Harold Alexander and British forces mount a new offensive in northern Italy.

9th April, 1945 - Pastor Dietrich Bonhoffer is hanged by the Nazi authorities.

12th April, 1945 - Franklin D. Roosevelt dies and is replaced by Harry S. Truman.

13th April, 1945 Ernie Pyle, America's most famous war journalist, killed by Japanese sniper.

25th April, 1945 - Liberation of Dachau. 

25th April, 1945 - United Nations Conference held in San Francisco.

28th April, 1945 - Benito Mussolini is executed in Milan by Italian partisans.

29th April, 1945 - German forces in Italy surrender to the Allies.

30th April, 1945 - Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide. 

1st May, 1945 - Joseph Goebbels commits suicide. 

2nd May, 1945 - Commander of German troops in Berlin surrenders.

2nd May, 1945 - Queen Wilhelmina returns to the Netherlands. 

3rd May, 1945 - Frank Messervy and his troops captures Ragoon in Burma.

4th May, 1945 - All military forces in Germany surrender to the Allies.

5th May, 1945 - Denmark liberated by Allied trrops. 

7th May, 1945 - End of the Battle of the Atlantic. 

8th May, 1945 - General Alfred Jodl signs the official surrender of Germany.

8th May, 1945 - Winston Churchill announces VE day. 

9th May, 1945 - The German Army in Czechoslovakia surrender to the Red Army.

22nd May, 1945 - Heinrich Himmler commits suicide. 

28th May, 1945 - William Joyce (Lord Haw Haw) is captured at Flensburg.

16th July, 1945 - Manhattan Project scientists test atom bomb at Alamogordo, New Mexico.

6th August, 1945 - United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Hiroshima. United States Army Air Force drops atom bomb on Nagasaki.