Chronology of the Second world war

Chronology of the Second world war - September 1939/September 1945

1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945

1939

Europe

  • January: In a speech, Hitler announces that “the war to come will involve the destruction of the Jewish race in Europe”.

  • January 5th:
    • Hitler announces to the Polish minister Polish Foreign affairs, colonel Beck, that Dantzig will early have or to late be restored in Reich.
    • a new parliamentary group is created with the the United Kingdom to fight the foreign politics of appeasing of Chamberlain.
  • January 10th: Inauguration with Berlin by Hitler of the new chancellery carried out by Albert Speer.
  • January 13rd: The Italy, the Germany and the Japan invite the Hungary to adhere to the Pacte Antikomintern.
  • February 2nd:
    • Mussolini agrees the proposal of Hitler to transform the Pacte Antikomintern into a defensive military alliance.
    • Mussolini specifies in France the Italian claims: free zone with Djibouti, repurchase of the railroad of Addis-Abeba, several seats with the board of directors of the Company of Suez, maintains statute of the Italians of Tunisia. He claims the Corsica , Nice and the Savoy.
  • February 6th:
    • Resignation of Stoyadinovitch in Yugoslavia.
    • Chamberlain declares with the Communes that any threat against the vital interests of France will involve the assistance of Great Britain
  • February 10th: Death of the pope Black and white XI.
  • February 14th: Launching with Hamburg, in the presence of Hitler, of the Bismarck, the largest German battleship.
  • February 16th: Government of Pál Teleki in Hungary (fine in 1941).
    • the fascistic movements defer forty mandates to the parliamentary elections. In February, Béla Imrédy is constrained to resign because the press discovers a Jew among his ancestors. The government of Pál Teleki takes some measurements against the extreme line without managing to dam up the vague Nazi.
  • March 2nd: The Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli becomes Pape under the name of Pie XII (fine in 1958).
    • Following the racial legislation of 1938, the rupture between the Italian fascistic mode and the Holy See seems eminent, but with dead of Pie XI, Pie XII is more inclined with the “diplomacy”.
  • March 10th: In a speech in front of the Communist party, Stalin allots the success of the takeovers by forces of Hitler to the weakness of the democracies.
  • March 14th:
    • Supported by Hitler, the Slovakia of Mgr Jozef Tiso proclaims its independence.
    • Convened with Berlin in the night from March 14th to 15th, Emil Hácha is constrained under the threat “to give with a full confidence the Czech country between the hands of Führer”.
  • March 15th, Czechoslovakia: The Germany occupies the Bohemia and the Moravie. The Hungary occupies the Ruthénie in March. Pro-Czechoslovakian demonstrations in Romania at the time of the entry of the Germans with Prague. Chamberlain condemns the violation of the Accords of Munich by Germany and reconsiders the policy of appeasing.
  • March 16th: Creation by Germany of the protectorate of Bohemia-Moravie.
  • March 17th: France and Great Britain start negotiations with the USSR.
  • March 19th: Arthur Neville Chamberlain gives the British guarantee to the Romania.
  • March 22nd: Adolf Hitler constrained the Lithuania to yield Memel to him.
  • March 23rd: Berlin imposes on the Romania a quinquennial trade agreement which holds in Germany the production of corn and Rumanian oil against the supply of weapons and ammunition.
  • March 26th: Warsaw disallows the proposals of Hitler to make of Poland a satellite of Germany against the USSR.
  • March 31st: Arthur Neville Chamberlain gives the British guarantee to the Poland.

  • April 2nd: Elections in Belgium: defeat of the Rexisme.

  • April 3rd: Chamberlain announces that Great Britain will be opposed by the force to all new territorial conquest of Germany.
  • April 6th: Poland signs a pact of military aid with Great Britain.
  • April 8th: Benefitting from the occupation of Czechoslovakia, Benito Mussolini occupies the Albania.
  • April 11th: The Hungary leaves SDN.
  • April 13rd: Arthur Neville Chamberlain gives the British guarantee to the Greece.
  • April 14th: Great Britain and France guarantee the territorial integrity of the Romania.
  • April 17th: French guarantee with the Poland.
  • April 18th: The Soviet Union proposes in France and Great Britain a military and political pact of mutual assistance. London will disallow the proposal the May 7th.
  • April 26th: Six months the military service is established in the United Kingdom.
  • April 28th: Adolf Hitler denounces the naval agreement germano- British of 1936 then the non-aggression pact germano-Polish.
  • April 29th: The ministers put Mussolini keeps some against the state of unpreparedness of the Italian army.
  • May 3rd, the USSR: Stalin relieves the police chief of the people to the Foreign affairs, Maxime Litvinov, in favor of the collective security policy, to replace it by Viatcheslav Molotov.
  • May 5th: The chief of the Polish government Joseph Beck refuses any modification of the statute of Dantzig.
  • May 11th: beginning of the Battle of Halhin Gol between the Soviet Armed and the Armed imperial Japanese woman * May 12th: British agreement turco- .
  • May 17th: France commits itself helping Poland in the event of German attack militarily.
  • May 22nd: Signature with Berlin of the Pact of Italian-German Steel.
  • May 24th: London and Paris accepts the principle of a pact of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against the Poland.
  • May: Second antijuive law in Hungary, on a racial basis.
  • June 7th: Germany, the Latvia, the Lithuania and the Estonia sign non-aggression pacts.
  • June 22nd: The Slovakia is integrated economically into Reich.

  • July 1st: The negotiations between France, Great Britain and the USSR for a pact of mutual assistance are enlisent.

  • July 10th: In front of the aggravation of the germano-Polish tension, the French Minister for the Foreign affairs, Georges Bonnet, London press to accept the Soviet conditions in order to lead to an agreement.
  • August 10th: Cabinet Dirk Jan de Geer with the Netherlands (end in September 1940).
  • August 12th:
    • Opening to Moscow of the tripartite negotiations (France/Great Britain/Soviet Union) for the signature of a military convention.
    • Ciano informed Hitler which Italy is not able to support Germany in the event of war. Duce subjects the entry in war to the sides of Germany to the military supply of material that the latter cannot deliver. Hitler recognizes the neutrality of Italy then.
  • August 22nd:
    • Chamberlain sends to Hitler an ultimate message to avoid the war. By pointing out engagements of his country with regard to Poland, British the Prime Minister asks for the introduction of a truce in order to regulate the conflicts by the negotiation. The same day, Hitler fixes the beginning of military operations against Poland at the 26.
    • Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop. the USSR signs with Germany a non-aggression pact for ten years. A secret protocol determines the zones of Soviet influence and allemande in Eastern Europe and in particular the division of the Poland.
  • August 23rd:
    • Abolition of the Constitution of the free city of Dantzig. The gauleiter proclaims Head of the State.
    • France: The Standing Committee of national defense is joined together: the army is held ready to intervene in the event of aggression against the Poland with reserves with regard to aviation.
  • August 24th:
    • Serbo-croatian Agreement.
    • the partial mobilization is issued in France.
    • Emergency Powers Act with the the United Kingdom: law giving to the new ministry for the internal security all the capacities on the English citizens and their properties (internment without judgment of the suspects, censures media, prohibition of the strikes, indentity card, curfew, re-establishment of the procedure of the Order in Council ). The Parliament of 1935 is extended until the end of the conflict.
  • August 25th: Signature in London of an agreement of assistance for five years between Poland and Great Britain.
  • August 26th:
    • the French government informs Hitler which France will hold its engagements towards Poland.
    • Creation of an autonomous banovine in Croatia.
  • August 26th: Germany communicates by radio its requirements: return of Dantzig to Germany and organization of a plebiscite in the corridor to decide fastening of the territory in Reich or Poland.
  • August 31st: Operation Himmler.

  • Demonstration organized by the government with Lisbon to support the organization supporter of corporatism. The state supporter of corporatism will remain however at the experimental stage.

Second world war

September 1939 - October 1939 - November 1939 - December 1939
  • September 1st:
    • the German troops attack the Poland without declaration of war.
      • Countryside of Poland - Fall Weiss (1939): Practitioner for the first time the “lightning war” ( Blitzkrieg ) with massive intervention of the tanks and aviation, the Wehrmacht submerges in a little more than two weeks Western Poland. Surprised before to have completed its mobilization and much lower in military potential, the Polish army is crushed.
    • France and Great Britain leave a last chance in Germany to withdraw its troops before September 3rd. Germany rejects the ultimatum.
    • General mobilization in France.
    • Creation in the United Kingdom of the ministries for the Provisioning, the economic War, Food and Navigation.
  • September 3rd: The United Kingdom (and its Empire), the Australia, the New Zealand and France (and its Empire) declare the war with the Germany. Beginning of the “Funny of war” (fine the May 10th 1940). The Belgium and the Yugoslavia are proclaimed neutral.
  • September 3rd: At 9 p.m., the German submarine " U-30" for a cargo liner armed the English steamer " takes; Athenia" of 13.500 tons, which transported 1.400 passengers including 300 Americans, and runs it off Ireland. There are 112 died, the first of the war on sea, including 28 Americans. This torpedoing, which points out that of the " Lusitania" in 1915, the anger of the Western capitals unchains, in particular that of Washington.
  • September 6th: Poland: the German troops seize Cracow.
  • September 6th: The South Africa declares the war with the Germany.
  • September 7th: To help the Poland, the French Army starts an attack " with objectives limités" against the Saar. It is not absolutely about an offensive of great style, but of rather of a little packed patrols.
  • September 12th: France: the first interallied Supreme council is held with the sub-prefecture of Abbeville. Chamberlain begs not " to break the army française" on the outposts of the Siegfried line. Taking pretext of the desperate plight of the Poland, the généralissime Gamelin decides to stop l'" offensive" Frenchwoman in the Saar.
  • September 17th:
    • the Soviet troops, pursuant to the secret protocol annexed to the pact germano-Soviet and under the pretext of ensure the protection of the Ukrainian minorities and Belorusse, invade Poland Eastern before making the junction with the Germans with Brest-Litovsk.
    • Début of the first battles of Changsha. In spite of the use of chemical weapons, the Armée imperial Japanese woman proves to be unable to conquer the city defended by the Chinese troops.
    • the submarine " U-29" run the British aircraft carrier " Courageous" in the Bristol-board channel. On the 1.260 members of the crew, there are 681 survivors.
  • September 23rd: London: died of Sigmund Freud.
  • September 27th: The Poland is occupied.
    • the Romania accommodates the government of Warsaw in exile with 100  000 refugees and reserves of gold of the national Bank. They can join France then England (1940), which causes the anger of Berlin which makes kill by the Garde of iron the Prime Minister Armand Călinescu with Bucharest the September 29th.
  • September 28th: Divide of Poland between Germany and the USSR. The country is divided between German in the west of the Bug and Soviet in the east. The treaty recognizes the supremacy of each power in its respective sphere and envisages a resistance common to any external interference. The Polish Galicie is attached to the RSS of Ukraine. Western Bielorussia is attached to the RSS of Bielorussia. Sovietization of the occupied zone. Hundreds of thousands of Pole are off-set in Siberia, of many officers of the Polish army are massacred with Katyn, the civil population is persecuted.
  • September 30th: Paris: formation of a Polish government in exile, whose Prime Minister is the general Wladyslav Sikorski.
  • October 5th: The Latvia sign a pact of mutual assistance with the Soviet Union. The Lithuanian and Soviet governments sign a treaty of mutual assistance in October.
  • October 14th: The submarine " U-47" , ordered by the lieutenant Gunther Prien, the English battleship " runs; Royal Oak" in roads of Scapa Flow. 24 British officers and 809 sailors perish in the shipwreck.
  • October 28th: The S require of the German government to make carry yellow star to the Jews.
  • November 4th: The American Congress votes the law Cash and Carry authorizing the sale of weaponry to the belligerents.
  • November 8th: Germany: attack against Hitler with the Buergerbräukeller brewery of Munich, where he made his traditional speech at the time of the birthday of the putsch of 1923. When the bomb exploded, Führer had already left the room. The attack made 7 died and 63 wounded. The assumption of a provocation of the services Nazis is not to exclude.
  • November 9th: Incident of Venlo: two British secret agents are removed by the Nazis in Holland, and are led in Germany.
  • November 20th:
    • Great Britain recognizes de facto the annexation of the Albania by Italy.
    • Hungary of Pál Teleki sign the Antikomitern pact.
  • November 25th:
    • Romania: The new government of Gheorghe Tătărescu tries to maintain a policy of neutrality.
    • the Soviet Union summons the Finland to withdraw its troops to 25 km of the border. The Soviet government asks Finland to yield to him the territory of the isthmus of Karelia, the North-East of Leningrad and to allow the USSR to establish a naval base with Hanko, on the gulf of Finland. The rejection by the Finnish government of the Soviet requirements leads to the war.
  • November 28th: The USSR denounces the non-aggression pact signed in 1932 with the Finland. The diplomatic relations are broken the following day.
  • November 30th: Beginning of the Russo-Finnish War (fine in 1940). The Soviet troops invade Finland and bombard Helsinki without declaration of war.
  • December 8th: The Soviet Union issues the blockade of the Finnish coasts.
  • December 13rd: Fights of Rio of Plata: the German battleship of pocket " Admiral Graf von Spee", which made hunting for the trading vessels combined since the beginning of the conflict, off Uruguay the British cruisers " faces; Exeter" , " Ajax" and " Achilles" , ordered by the commodore Harwood. After having damaged l'" Exeter" and l'" Ajax" , the " Graf Spee" , itself touched, is withdrawn in the wearing of Montevideo.
  • December 14th: The Soviet Union is excluded from the Société of the Nations following its attack of the Finland (Guerre of Winter).
  • December 17th: The German battleship of pocket " Admiral Graf von Spee" scuttles itself off Montevideo. Following a skilful operation of British intoxication, its commander, the captain Langsdorff, was persuaded that considerable English naval forces awaited its ocean liner, and he wanted to avoid an useless bloodshed. He will commit suicide two days later in a hotel of Buenos Aires. The scuttling of the " Graf Spee" is the first success combined since the beginning of the war.
  • December 22nd: In front of the keen resistance of the Finns, the first Soviet offensive shows a failure.

1940

  • January 1940
    • - 7: the USSR: the marshal Semion Konstantinovitch Timochenko is named ordering north-western sector of the Finnish face.
    • - 8: Finland: the battle of Suomussalmi is completed by a total Finnish victory. The 163e Soviet division was entirely destroyed, and the 44e, come has its help, knew the same fate. 27.500 Russian soldiers were killed or are deaths of cold, for which it is necessary to add 1.300 prisoners. All the material of two divisions was captured by the Finnish army.
    • - 10: Belgium: incident of Mechelen-on-Meuse. A plane transporting two German officers makes an emergency landing in Belgium. One finds on them the German plan of offensive, envisaging the violation of Belgian neutrality. With the agreement of certain persons in charge of the Belgian army, the French Army is declared ready to enter in Belgium to protect this country from the aggression Nazi, but the government of Brussels refuses. This incident will push the Germans to modify their plans.
    • - 17: The Europe knows a terrible cold wave. It makes -15° C in the north of the France, - 13° C with Paris.
    • - 18: The Denmark, the Norway and the Sweden affirm their neutrality.
    • - 26: France: the colonel De Gaulle sends to 80 political personalities and soldiers a memorandum entitled " The Advent of the force mécanique" , in order to alert them on the dangers which a German mechanical offensive would make run to the France.

  • February 1940

    • - 1st: Finland: the marshal Timochenko starts in the isthmus of Karelia an offensive of great scale. After an intense preparation of artillery, Soviet engages of the important forces, accompanied by many tanks and supported by a powerful aviation.
    • - 5: The interallied Supreme council, which brings together French and British ministers, adopts a plan of unloading in Norway with an aim of supporting the Finnish forces.
    • - 11: Finland: the Red Army attacks the line Mannerheim on a face of 19 kilometers. Finnish defenses in the sector of Summa are submerged.
    • - 12: The Soviet Union and the Germany sign a trade agreement to counter the Franco-British maritime blockade.
    • - 16: The English destroyer " Cossak" , ordered by the captain Philip Vian, l'" attacks; Altmark" (ship of supply of the " Graf von Spee") taken refuge in Norwegian water, and releases 299 British prisoners. While persuading Hitler that the Allies would not hesitate to violate Norwegian neutrality to cut the Road of Swedish iron, this incident will precipitate the German intervention in Norway.
    • - 23: The Allies set up the blockade of the North Atlantic to prevent the convoying by the Scandinavian ore Germans.
    • - 24: Development of the Plane yellow ( Fall Gelb ), the German offensive in the West.

  • March 1940

    • - 5: The members of the Politburo sign the order of execution of the Massacre of Katyń.
    • - 7: France: setting with flood of the battleship " Jean-Bart" in Saint-Nazaire.
    • - 12: Peace treaty enters the Finland and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union receives the territories of the Karelia and the port of Vyborg, as well as other strategic and economic advantages.
    • - 17: Hitler meets Mussolini with the collar of Brenner.
    • - 20: Paris: the government Daladier resigns.
    • - 21: Paris: Paul Reynaud form a new government. Edouard Daladier is Minister for the War.
    • - 27: Himmler decides the construction of the camp of Auschwitz.
    • - 30: China: installation with Nankin of a government pro-Japanese chaired by Wang Tsing-wei. The the United States refuse to recognize this government, and condemn the attitude of the Japan.
  • April 1940
    • - 4: Paris: 36 communist deputies are condemned to sorrows from 2 to 5 years of prison.
    • - 5: In front of the central Council of the " National Union off Conservative and Unionist Associations" , British the Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain declares " A fact is certain: the coche" missed;.
    • - 5: the USSR: in Katyń, the NKVD carries out thousands of Polish officers interned with the prison camp of war of Kozelsk.
    • - 8: Release of the operation " Wilfred" : in the night, 8 destroyers of Royal Navy wet three minefields in Norwegian territorial water, in particular in front of Narvik.
    • - 8: Informed by the Allies, Norway protests against the damping of the mines, but abstains from mobilizing.
    • - 8: To broad from Trondheim, British ships fall on a German squadron. The destroyer " HMS Glowworm" try éperonner the heavy cruiser Hipper but runs, leaving only 40 survivors.
    • - 9: The Denmark and the Norway are invaded by the Germany. Resistance is important in Norway. Close to Oslo, the guns of the fort of Oscaborg send by the bottom the German heavy cruiser " Blücher". In the night, the English submarine " Truant" run the German light cruiser " Karlsruhe" in front of Kristiansand.
      • In Norway, Vidkun Quisling tries to be essential on the capacity but does not receive the support of the Germans. Apolitical a “Administrative counsel”, composed of senior officials, is set up by the Supreme court, replaced by a “national government”, directed by Quisling, this time with the downstream of the Germans (1942).
    • - 10: Copenhagen, Oslo, Kristiansand, Stavanger, Bergen, Trondheim and Narvik are occupied by the Germans.
    • - 10: Rendering of the Denmark.
    • - 10: An English bomber " Skua" run the German light cruiser " Königsberg" with broad of Bergen. It is the first great naval unit destroyed by the action of aviation.
    • - 10: In Narvik, naval action between 5 British destroyers and 10 German destroyers. 2 buildings are run on each side.
    • - 10: Paris: declaration of Paul Reynaud: " The permanent Road of the Swedish iron ore towards Germany is and will remain from now on coupée."
    • - 13: Norway: a British squadron comprising the battleship " Warspite" destroyed the 8 German destroyers which remained in the port of Narvik.
    • - 14: Franco-British unloading in several Norwegian ports, in particular Narvik.
    • - 24: Joseph Terboven is named police chief of Reich in Norway.

  • May 1940 .
    • - 2: The king Haakon VII of Norway share in exile in Great Britain.
    • - 5: A Norwegian government in exile is formed with London.
    • - 10: Winston Churchill is named Prime Minister for the United Kingdom.
    • - 10: German offensive in the West against the Netherlands, the Belgium, the Luxembourg and the France.
    • - 10: French and British troops penetrate in Belgium.
    • - 10: Speech of Paul Reynaud: " The French Army fired the sword. The France recueille."
    • - 11: Belgium: the Germans seize the fort of Eben-Emael, on the Albert channel. He was regarded as impregnable.
    • - 11: France: the colonel De Gaulle is named with the head of the 4th armoured division of reserve, which has just been created.
    • - 13: The queen Wilhelmine of the Netherlands and the government of the Netherlands arrive at London.
    • - 13: At the time of one of its more famous speech with the Communes, Winston Churchill declares: " I have anything else to offer only blood, work, tears and sueur."
    • - 15: The Netherlands, invaded by the German , capitulate.
    • - 17: Belgium: the German Life armed with von Reichenau enters Brussels. Wehrmacht also occupies Leuwen, Malines and Namur.
    • - 17: France: the 4th DCR of De Gaulle, which did not even complete its formation, counter-attacks in the south of Montcornet.
    • - 19: The généralissime Gamelin is replaced with the head of the armies allied by the general Weygand, up to that point commander-in-chief with Raising.
    • - 19: Paris: the chiefs of the French government go to Notre-Dame, to request there for the safety of the France.
    • - 20: Opening of the concentration camps of Auschwitz, in Poland.
    • - 23: Died with the face, close to Dunkirk, the writer and essay writer French Paul Nizan (born in 1905).
    • - 24: Anglo-French defeat of the troops in Flanders. Evacuation of Dunkirk (fine the June 4th).
    • - 25: Because of his energetic action during the battle of Montcornet, the colonel De Gaulle is named brigadier general temporarily.
    • - 28: The king Léopold III of Belgium sign unconditional surrender of the Belgian army. The government of Hubert Pierlot, taken refuge in France, decides to continue the fight.
    • - 28: France: the 4th DCR of De Gaulle lance a counter-attack against the German head of bridge of Abbeville, on left bank of the Sum.
    • - 29: Arthur Seyss-Inquart becomes police chief of Reich to the Netherlands.

  • June 1940 .

    • - 3: Paris: Luftwaffe bombards the factories Renault and Citroen. It nearly 200 died there.
    • - 4: End of the evacuation of the folded up allied forces with Dunkirk. On the whole 338.226 allied soldiers were evacuated, including 115.000 French and Belgians.
    • - 5: After the end of the battle of Dunkirk, Wehrmacht turns to the south (" Rouge" plan;).
    • - 6: France: rehandling of the cabinet Paul Reynaud. Too judged defaitist, Edouard Daladier does not form any more part of the government. Among the newcomers: the General de Gaulle, appointed under-secretary of State to the War. He will assume the role of military adviser near Paul Reynaud and will be, moreover, in charge of the personal relations between Churchill and it president of the French Council.
    • - 7: End of the evacuation of the French troops which had unloaded with Narvik.
    • - 8: Off Norway, German cruisers of battle " Scharnhorst" and " Gneisenau" runs the British aircraft carrier " Glorious" and its two destroyers of escort. There will be very few survivors.
    • - 10: The Italy declares the War in France and Great Britain, in spite of the opposition of the opinion, the king and Ciano. President Roosevelt qualifies this event of " stab in the dos". Nevertheless on the military level the declaration of war of Duce will have (in the short run) very few consequences, the Italian army appearing completely impotent vis-a-vis few divisions of the French Army of the Alps.
    • - 11-12: The interallied Council of war of Briare.
    • - 14: Entry of the German troops in Paris. Several people do not support the arrival of the occupants and commit suicide, whose celebrates it surgeon Thierry de Martel.
    • - 14: Otto Abetz is named official representative of Wilhelmstrasse with Paris.
    • - 15: The Soviets occupy the Estonia, the Latvia and the Lithuania. After elections controlled by the Red Army , of the Communist regimes is set up and the eliminated opponents.
    • - 16: Philippe Pétain is named chief of the French government.
    • - 17: The Germans set up a total blockade of the the United Kingdom.
    • - 17: Via the ambassadors of Spain and the Vatican, the new French government makes steps at Germany and of Italy to know the conditions of a cessation of hostilities.
    • - 17: De Gaulle gains London.
    • - 17: Speech of Pétain to the radio: " It is the tight heart which I say to you today that the combat." should be ceased;
    • - 17: During the evacuation of the last British troops in France, the steamer " Lancastria" is run by Luftwaffe off Saint-Nazaire. More than 3.000 English soldiers perish. The British censure will keep this secret news until the end of the war.
    • - 17: In Chartres, the prefect Jean Moulin tries to commit suicide, rather than to sign a text dishonouring for soldiers of black race.
    • - 18: The General de Gaulle lance her Call of June 18th , urging the French to continue the fight and founds a French government in exile.
“ Struck down today by the mechanical force, we will be able to overcome in the future by a higher mechanical force. The destiny of the world is there. ”
    • - 19: Saint-Nazaire: the captain Ronarch succeeds in making leave the careening basin the battleship " Jean-Bart" , which was in the course of armament. It puts the course on Casablanca.
    • - 19: With Saumur, heroic resistance of the 800 juniors by the School of cavalry, supported by 1.500 soldiers also eager to save the honor. They will succeed in stopping the advance of Wehrmacht during two days.
    • - 21: France: the Germans continue their advance in the south of the Loire, and occupy Poitiers, Clermont-Ferrand, Vienna, Cholet.
    • - 21: Italian aviation bombards Marseilles. One will raise 143 dead and 136 wounded in the Old man-Port.
    • - 22: Signature of the armistice enters France and the Nazi Germany, in the Wagon of the armistice in the clearing of Rethondes. Churchill denounces it at once.
    • - 23: Accompanied inter alia architect Albert Speer and of the sculptor Arno Breker, Hitler goes to Paris. It will be the single visit of Führer in the French capital.
    • - 24: Rome: signature of an armistice enters France and Italy.
    • - 24: All the male population of the island of Center, is 133 men, gained Great Britain to continue the fight at the sides of de Gaulle.
    • - 25: Coming into effect of conventions of armistice. France is overcome, after approximately a forty day campaign during which more than 100.000 French, soldiers and civilians, found death. In its great majority the French population accommodates the end of the engagements with an immense relief. Only a negligible minority intends well to continue the fight, either inside the country, or by joining Great Britain.
    • - 25: New speech of the Marshal Pétain: " … You suffered. You will still suffer. (...) It is not me which will bernerai you by misleading words. I hate the lies which did so much difficulty to you. The ground, it, does not lie… "
    • - 27: The Général de Gaulle takes the title of Chef of the French Free S .
    • - 27: Ultimatum addressed by the Soviet Union to the Romania, forced to yield the Bessarabia, taken in Russia in 1918, as well as the Bucovine of North.
    • - 28: Libya: died of Italo Balbo, chief of Italian aviation and governor of Libya. The plane which transported the Balbo marshal was cut down accidentally by the DCA Italian above the port of Tobrouk. Dignitary of the fascistic party, veteran of walk on Rome, Italo Balbo had made himself famous for his air raids above the Atlantic. Man of character, it had not hidden with Mussolini his opposition to the entry in war of Italy. It was affirmed (without proof) that Duce had made it assassinate.
    • - 29: The lawyer Rene Cassin joined free France.
    • - 29: Swiss: died in Muralto of the painter and German graphic designer of Swiss origin Paul Klee (born in 1879).
  • July 1940
    • - 1: The British Admiralty orders with the admiral Somerville, chief of the " Force H" , to carry out the operation " Catapult" : seizure, taken under control, setting out of combat or destruction of all the French ships being able to be reached.
    • - 3: Battle of Seas-el-Kebir, the British ships bombard the French fleet.
    • - 4: Rupture of the diplomatic relations between France of Vichy and Great Britain. London decides to set up a blockade of France and French colonies.
    • - 6: Germany: of return to Berlin, Hitler is accommodated by enthusiastic crowd.
    • - 10: Luftwaffe starts to attack the British convoys in the English Channel. For many historians, this day marks the beginning of the Bataille of England.
    • - 10: France: joined together with the Large Casino of Vichy, the National Assembly (that of the Popular front) grants by 569 votes against 80 and 17 abstentions the full powerss to the marshal Pétain in order to promulgate " a new Constitution of the State français." The recent British aggression of Seas-el-Kébir largely facilitated the operations of Pétain and Laval.
    • - 11: Vichy: the marshal Pétain promulgates three constitutional Acts which make of him the Head of the French State with the full powerss, abolish the presidency of the Republic and defer the Rooms. Pierre Laval is vice-president of the Council.
    • - 12: Vichy: the constitutional Act n°IV, on the substitution and the succession of the Head of the State, indicates Pierre Laval like successor of Pétain.
    • - 14: London: at the time of the national Festival, the Général de Gaulle deposits a sheaf with the war memorial of Whitehall, and reviews the thin troops of free France.
    • - 16: Directive n° 16 of Hitler, known as " Seelöwe" (" Lion of mer" , or " Otarie") : " … I decided to prepare an operation of unloading and to carry out it if necessary. The goal of this operation is to eliminate the English metropolis as a base to continue the war against the Germany and, if it were to be necessary, to occupy it entièrement."
    • - 17: Germany: the OKH develops a detailed plan of unloading in England.
    • - 19: Berlin: speech of Hitler to the Kroll Opera. On moderated an enough tone, Führer proposes peace with the Great Britain, if it ceases regarding Germany as an enemy, and agrees to see in it more the great power of the continent.
    • - 19: The marshal Göring is named marshal of Reich (Reichsmarschall), which places it above all the German soldiers, and Grand Cross of the iron Cross (the only one of all the war). The Keitel generals, von Glass of bier, von Brauchitsch, von Kluge, von Leeb, List, von Reichenau, von Rundstedt, von Witzleben, Milch, Kesselring and Sperrle are promoted marshals.
    • - 19: In the evening, the BBC brings a first answer to the offer of German peace: it is a " No" categorical.
    • - 19: Washington: the Room of the representatives votes a credit of 4 billion dollars for the creation of a " float of both océans".
    • - 21: Berlin: during a conference of staff, Hitler declares with its generals that it is necessary to finish some quickly with England, because it for attacking Russia. It orders to the marshal von Brauchitsch to prepare a plan of invasion of the USSR.
    • - 21: London: creation of a Czechoslovakian government in exile, directed by Dr. Edvard Buckets.
    • - 22: Lord Halifax makes known the official response of Great Britain to the offer of peace of Hitler: " The Germany will obtain peace if it evacuates all the territories which it occupied, restores all freedoms which it cut down and gives of the guarantees for the avenir."
    • - 22: France: law of Vichy on the revision of all the naturalizations occurred since 1927.
    • - 29: United Kingdom: royal Navy gives up using destroyers in the English Channel. This measurement closes the first phase of the Bataille of England, which one can call " Battle of Channel".
  • August 1940
    • - 1 {{er}} - 8: The Baltic States (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) become republics of the Soviet Union by decrees of the Supreme Soviet. The Western democratic countries refuse to recognize the legality of the Soviet annexation, carried out in agreement with the Pacte Molotov-Ribbentrop.
    • - 1st: Germany: directive n°17 of Hitler: " German aviation must crush English aviation with all the means it has. (...) I reserve myself the decision of the terrorist attacks of reprisals. The intensified air war can begin on August 6th or later… "
    • - 3: East Africa: the Italian forces invade the British Somalia.
    • - 5: Otto Abetz is named ambassador of Reich in France.
    • - 6: Battle of England (fine in 1941).
    • - 7: Fastening of the Alsace-Lorraine to the Germany.
    • - 13: The " day of Aigle" (Adlertag): Luftwaffe launches its great air offensive against Great Britain. But the results will appear disappointing, and the heavy German losses.
    • - 13: Nigeria: arrived at Lagos of five envoys of De Gaulle (of Larminat, Hettier de Boislambert, Leclerc, Avoiding and Pleven) who have the role of preparing the rallying of the territories of the Africa-Equatorial Frenchwoman to the free France.
    • - 15: Greece: the Greek cruiser " Helle" is cast in roads of Tinos by a submarine of unknown nationality (in fact Italian). The incident is all the more felt in Greece, which it is held at the time of the pilgrimage which takes place every year in the island of Tinos.
    • - 19: British Somalia: the Italians occupy the port of Berbera.
    • - 20: Speech of Churchill to the House of Commons: " Never in all the History, so much of gratitude was not due by a so great number of men with regard to if little! "
    • - 21: Mexico City: the Russian revolutionist Leon Trotsky is assassinated with blows of ice pick by an agent of Stalin, Ramon Mercader.
    • - 26: The Chad adopts the free France.
    • - 28: First night bombardment on London, then first bombardment on Berlin in counterpart.
    • - 29: In their turn the Cameroun and the Congo join the free France.
    • - 30: Oubangui-Chari joins with De Gaulle.
    • - 30: Tokyo: signature of an agreement between the government of Vichy and the Japan, by which the France recognizes the preeminent situation of the Japanese Empire in the Far East and makes it possible the Japanese army to use the Indochinese territory to carry out operations against the China.

  • September 1940

    • - 4: the United States: creation of the committee " America First".
    • - 12: France: discovered Cave of Lascaux (the Dordogne).
    • - 13: The Italy invades the Egypt.
    • - 23: Supported by Royal Navy, the Général de Gaulle tries to rejoin in free France the large wearing of Dakar, capital of the Senegal and Africa Occidentale French. In front of the refusal of the authorities of Vichy, the attempt will turn to the confrontation, with many deaths on both sides. Finally French Free S and Britanniques will be forced to withdraw itself.
    • - 24: Takeover by Japanese force in Indo-China.
    • - 27: tripartite Pact between the Japan, the Italy and the Germany directed against the the United States and the Great Britain.

  • October 1940

    • - 2: The Germans order the construction of a wall around the Ghetto of Warsaw. The inhabitants will not be able to leave there any more without a pass.
    • - 3: Without the Germans asking him anything, the Vichy government promulgates a law carrying statute of the Jews.
    • - 12: Failure of the Battle of England. Hitler gives up the project of invasion of Great Britain, the Luftwaffe not having managed to dominate the British airspace.
    • - 22: France: Pierre Laval meets Hitler with Montoire-on-Dormouse.
    • - 23: Interview of Hendaye between Hitler and Free.
    • - 25: France: the Maréchal Pétain meets Hitler in Montoire.
    • - 27: Africa: by proclamation of Brazzaville, De Gaulle constitutes a political power truly organized, and creates the Council of Defense of the Empire.
    • - 28: The Italians attack the Greece. They essuient a series of reverse (November-December).
    • - 30: Pétain announces the Collaboration France with the Germany.

  • November 1940

    • - 3: The British unload in Crete to support the Greeks against Italy.
    • - 9: Died of the former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, the cantor of the " policy of apaisement".
    • - 11: Paris: manifestation of the high-school pupils to the Triumphal arch.
    • - 11: The British squadron of the Mediterranean, ordered by the admiral to sir Andrew Cunningham, achieves a daring raid on the Italian fleet in roads of Tarente. At the price of the loss of only one plane, the British run three Italian battleships, of which the very recent " Littorio" (two will be reinflated later). This operation, which the Japanese will take as a starting point for their raid on Pearl Harbor, will ensure the control of the Mediterranean the English for at least a year.
    • - 12: Visit Molotov with Berlin.
    • - 14: Violent one German bombardment on Coventry. Although of weak width compared to the raids which the Allies will assemble themselves as from 1943, this attack will strongly mark the English.
    • - 20: The Hungary and the Romania adhere to the tripartite pact.
  • December 1940
    • - 9: Release of the operation " Compass" , the British counter-offensive in Egypt. In two months the forces of the Commonwealth will crush an Italian army however quite higher of number.
    • - 13: " Blow of État" with Vichy: Pétain makes stop the chief of the government, Pierre Laval (which will be released by the Germans). Laval will be initially replaced by Pierre-Etienne Flandin, then by the admiral Darlan.
    • - 15: Paris: the Germany returns to the France the skin of Napoleon François Charles Jospeh Bonaparte, known as Napoleon II, the king of Rome or the Eaglet. The body of the son of Napoleon i had been buried with Vienna after its death in 1832; it will rest from now on in the crypt of the Invalids, beside the sarcophagus of his father. The Franco-German ceremony, conceived to coincide with the 100e birthday of the return of ashes of the Emperor in France, proceeds in an icy atmosphere, all the directions of the term, because of the crisis which burst between Reich and Vichy after the reference of Pierre Laval. Goguenards, the Parisian ones murmur: " They take coal to us and they return to us ash! "
    • - 18: Hitler fixes the plans of the Opération Barbarossa against the the USSR.
    • - 21: the United States: died with Hollywood of the writer Francis Scott Fitzgerald (°1896).
    • - 22: United Kingdom: Anthony Eden replaces Lord Halifax as Foreign Minister. Lord Halifax will become the new British ambassador with Washington.
    • - 23: France: Jacques Bonsergent is shot in Vincennes by the Nazis. The only crime of this 28 year old engineer was to have made it possible to flee with a young couple of his/her friends which, on November 10th, had hustled inadvertently a warrant officer of Wehrmacht.
    • - 26: France: the Admiral Darlan meets Hitler with Tool bag-on-Epte, in the south of Beauvais.
    • - 29: Luftwaffe starts on London one of its more violent ones bombardments of all the war.

1941

  • January 1941
    • - 2: London: wrongfully shown espionage, the admiral Muselier, chief of the Naval forces and air forces of free France, are stopped by the British authorities, which will cause the anger of de Gaulle.
    • - 4: Paris: died of the philosopher Henri Bergson (born in 1859).
    • - 5: Died of the British aviatrice Amy Johnson.
    • - 5: London: release of the admiral Muselier.
    • - 5: Libya: fall of the Italian fortress of Bardia.
    • - 6: Washington: Roosevelt pronounces the " Speech of the four Libertés" , by which he asks the Congress the adoption of the law lease-lend.
    • - 10: Albania: the battle of Këlcyrë is completed by a heavy Italian defeat.
    • - 10: Beginning of the German intervention in the Mediterranean: bombers in piqué " Stuka" belonging to 10th Fliegerkorps damages seriously the British aircraft carrier " Illustrious". The ship takes refuge in Malta. During following days, Luftwaffe will carry out several raids on the port of Valette to try to complete it.
    • - 11: The British cruiser " Southampton" is run by Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean.
    • - 12: Catch of Tobrouk by the British and Australian troops.
    • - 13: Switzerland: died in Zurich of the Irish writer James Joyce.
    • - 16: Beginning of the War free-inhabitant of Thailand.
    • - 17: Naval battle of Koh-Chang. A small French squadron ordered by the admiral Terraux and having for ship-admiral the cruiser " The Mound-Picquet" destroyed the two florets of the Siamese navy, the coastguards armoured " Dhomburi" and " Ahidéa". This battle is the single victory gained by the French navy only during the two World wars.
    • - 18: The Maréchal Pétain meets Pierre Laval with Ferté-Hauterive, in Combining it.
    • - 19: Beginning of the British offensive against the Italian colonies of East Africa (Ethiopia, Érythrée, Somalia).
    • - 28: End of the War free-inhabitant of Thailand.
    • - 29: Athens: died of Greek the Prime Minister, the general Ioannis Metaxas. Alexandros Koryzis, up to that point governor of the Hellenic Bank, succeeds to him.
  • February 1941
    • - 7: Libya: end of the battle of Beda-Fomm, and Italian capitulation of the Xe armed, which leaves between the hands of the forces of the Commonwealth 20.000 prisoners including 6 generals.
    • - 9: Libya: a reconnaissance patrol of 11th British Hussards reaches El-Agheila, at the border between Cyrénaïque and Tripolitaine. El-Agheila will remain for a long time the extreme point of the allied advance in North Africa.
    • - 9: Vichy: resignation of Pierre-Etienne Flandin. the admiral Darlan succeeds to him as vice-president of the Council and Foreign Minister.
    • - 11: Mussolini meets the Général Free with Bordighera, close to Genoa.
    • - 12: Libya: arrival of the general Erwin Rommel in Tripoli.
    • - 25: Mogadiscio, in Italian Somalia, is taken by British forces.
    • - 28: Rome: the former king d' Espagne Alphonse XIII dies, after having abdicated in favor of his small son gift Juan Carlos de Bourbon (who will become indeed king after the death of Free).
  • March 1941
    • - 4: Raid of the British commandos on the Norwegian islands Lofoten.
    • - 6: Directive of Churchill known as " Battle of Atlantique".
    • - 8: Washington: the American Senate adopts the law " loan-bail" by 60 votes against 31.
    • - 9: Albania: the Italian army launches its " offensive of printemps" , supported by a massive air support.
    • - 11: Failure of the Italian offensive in Albania.
    • - 19: London undergoes one of its more violent ones bombardments since the beginning of the war. One counts 750 killed.
    • - 25: The Yugoslavia adheres to the tripartite pact.
    • - 26: Yugoslavia: dissatisfied with the adhesion of the country to the tripartite pact, the population ravels in the streets of Belgrade to the cries of " Better the war is worth than the Pact! Rather death that slavery! " This protest movement, supported by the British, touches also the trade unions, the peasants, the Church and the army.
    • - 27: Coup d'etat pro-ally in Yugoslavia. Young prince Pierre goes up on the throne under the name of Pierre II. Furious, Hitler convenes its generals and, by his directive n°25, orders that Yugoslavia is " crushed with a rigor impitoyable". The principal consequence of this decision is that the operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the USSR, will have to be delayed four weeks.
    • - 27: Died (by suicide) of the British novelist Virginia Woolf (born in 1882).
    • - 28: the Mediterranean: with broad of the course Matapan, Royal Navy meets an Italian squadron and pours him 3 cruisers.
    • - 29: Vichy: Xavier Vallat leaves the general secretary of the War veterans to take the direction of the " General police station with the juives" questions; , lately created.
    • - 30: Adolf Hitler declares with its generals that the war in the East will be a war of extermination.
    • - 31: Libya: the 5th light division of Afrikakorps tackles the British positions with Mersa-Brega.
  • April 1941
    • - 1: Eastern Africa: Indian troops occupy Asmara, capital of Erythrée.
    • - 1: the Middle East: coup d'etat pro-German in Iraq. The regent, emir Abdul Al-Illah, is replaced by the germanophile Cherif Charaf, which takes Rachid Ali like Prime Minister.
    • - 2: Germany: first flight of a jet, the twin-jet aircraft Heinkel He 280.
    • - 3: Hungary: commit suicide Prime Minister, the count Pál Teleki (born in 1879), which thus intends to protest against the participation of its country in the next invasion of the Yugoslavia by the forces of the Axis.
    • - 4: Libya: the Germans take Benghazi, capital of Cyrénaïque.
    • - 6: The German army, supported by Italian, Hungarian and Bulgarian troops, attacks the Yugoslavia (operation " Opus 25") and Greece (operation " Marita").
    • - 6: Yugoslavia: violent one bombardment of Belgrade by Luftwaffe (operation " Châtiment").
    • - 6: Libya: Richard O' Connor, one of the most brilliant British generals and the craftsman of successes of the winter, are captured by the Germans.
    • - 6: Ethiopia: the British release Addis-Abeba.
    • - 9: Greece: after three days of a valiant resistance, the forces which defended the Metaxas line capitulate, leaving 70.000 prisoners to the hands of the Germans.
    • - 17: Capitulation of the Yugoslav army. The invasion of the Yugoslavia was a military walk (the Germans counted only 151 killed and 15 missings). This easy victory does not let of anything predict the horror which this country until its release at the end of 1944 will know, with the appearance of powerful resistance movements causing in reaction a repression relentless on behalf of the occupying forces, the doubled whole of a true civil war.
    • - 27: Athens is occupied by German troops. The German flag floats on the Acropole.
  • May 1941
    • - 10: Rudolf Hess, number two of the Nazi regime, is captured in Scotland after having jumped out of its plane. It intended (it appears) to meet British leaders in order to negotiate peace. On instruction of Hitler, the German press affirmed that it had acted of its own initiative, and that it was reached mental disorders. All the light made forever on this business, and Rudolf Hess died in the prison of Spandau in 1987 by carrying its secrecy in the tomb.
    • - 11: Very violent one German bombardment on London.
    • - 11: the admiral Darlan, vice-president of the Council of the government of Vichy, is received by Hitler in Berchtesgaden.
    • - 20: Release of the operation " Merkur" : the airborne invasion of Crete by the Germans.
    • - 24: Off Iceland, the German battleship " Bismarck" run the cruiser of English battle " Hood" , largest and one of the most beautiful ships of Royal Navy. A German shell having touched its ammunition store, the " Hood" exploded and sank very quickly, involving with him all its crew except 3 men.
    • - 27: Royal Navy takes its revenge by running the " Bismarck" in the Atlantic, to 650 km in the west of Brest.
  • June 1941
    • - 1: End of the evacuation of Crete by the British forces. Royal Navy lost 3 cruisers and 6 destroyers during the battle of Crete. The losses of the German parachutists were very heavy. Germany will launch never again of airborne operation of this scale.
    • - 8: The Syria is released by the free French Forces, the government supported by Vichy is reversed.
    • - 22: Hitler starts the operation " Barbarossa" : Wehrmacht invades the USSR; in the following days Romania, Hungary and Finland declare also the war in the Soviet Union. Great Britain and the United States commit themselves helping the USSR.
  • July 1941
    • - 3: With radio Soviet, Stalin calls with resistance against the invader and orders the scorched earth policy.
    • - 8: The Yugoslavia is dissolved by the Axis.
    • - 9: The USSR: fall of Minsk.
    • - 15: Departure for the Face of the East of the first elements of Spanish division " Azul" (" Bleue"). This division of approximately 18.000 men is made up exclusively of volunteers, Spain not being in war with the USSR.
    • - 15: The USSR: at the time of the battle of Smolensk, first use by the Red Army of the rocket launchers " Katioucha" , famous the " organ of Staline".
    • - 16: The Germans seize Smolensk.
  • August 1941
    • - 15: The Germans make control on the Ukraine.
    • - 25: Joint operation anglo-Soviet in Iran.
  • September 1941
    • - 15: The seat of Leningrad starts.
    • - 17: The Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi becomes the new emperor of Iran. He succeeds his father, forced to abdicate by the Allies, which judged it too germanophile.
    • - 19: The USSR: the Germans seize Kiev in ruins.
    • - 26: The German high command announces the capture of 665.000 prisoners during the combat of Kiev. This figure is undoubtedly exaggerated. One considers the losses total Soviet (killed and captive) during the battle of Kiev at approximately 500.000 men.
    • - 30: Ukraine: in Babi Yar, the Nazis massacre more than 33.000 Jews of Kiev.
  • October 1941
    • - 2: Face of the East: Wehrmacht launches the operation " Storm of Hiver" , the great offensive against Moscow.
    • - 4: Vichy: Constitutional act n°10, instituting the oath of fidelity of the civils servant to the Marshal Pétain.
    • - 7: Face of the East: the Group of Armies Centers von Bock seizes Berdiansk, thus closing the pocket of Viazma and capturing 600.000 Soviet prisoners.
    • - 8: Face of the East: in the south of Moscow, the forces of Guderian take Orel.
    • - 27: The Rumanian army massacres the Jews of Odessa.
  • November 1941
    • - 17: The general Ernst Udet, chief technical officer of Luftwaffe, commit suicide. Born in 1896, old ace of the Great War and air acrobat, Udet were a man of action, and certainly not a bureaucrat or a planner. The problems of Luftwaffe, worsened by the unmethodical authority of Göring, exceeded it completely.
    • - 18: Libya: release of the operation " Crusader" , offensive of British VIIIe armed intended to recover the ground conquered by Afrikakorps de Rommel, and to release Tobrouk.
    • - 22: Died of the ace of Luftwaffe Ernst Mölders (born in 1913). Its plane ran up against a factory chimney against Breslau, whereas it went to funerals of Ernst Udet.
    • - 23: With Auschwitz, first use of the gas chambers to kill out of the Jewish .
  • December 1941
    • - 1: France: interview Pétain - Göring in Saint-Florentin (Yonne).
    • - 1: Peaceful: the squadron of the admiral Nagumo receives the watchword " Niitaka Yama Nobore" (" Climb the Niitaka" mount;), confirming the attack against Pearl Harbor.
    • - 1: The state of emergency is issued in Malaysia; HongKong is put in state of alert.
    • - 2: Face of the East: the Germans are not any more but with a few kilometers of the Kremlin, the heart of Moscow.
    • - 3: Germany: decree " Nacht und Nebel " (" Harms and Brouillard").
    • - 3: Face of the East: the marshal Walther von Reichenau replaces von Rundstedt with the command of Southern GA.
    • - 4: The temperature goes down to -37° in Russia.
    • - 5: Face of the East: Hitler stops the German offensive against Moscow for the duration of the winter.
    • - 6: Face of the East: release of a Soviet counter-offensive, initially in the sector of Moscow (under the orders of Joukov), then on the whole of the face.
    • - 6: The Great Britain (imitated soon by the Dominions) declares the war with the Finland, the Hungary and the Romania.
    • - 6: Washington: the president Roosevelt lance a personal call to peace with the emperor Hirohito.
    • - 7: Air raids Japan eases on Pearl Harbor. A Japanese squadron ordered by the admiral Nagumo, and including/understanding inter alia 6 aircraft carriers and 2 battleships, approached discreetly in the North-West the Hawaii islands, and launched a surprise attack on the American fleet anchored in the roads of Pearl Harbor. The battleship " Arizona" is run and several others are seriously damaged, but the American aircraft carriers are safe. It is one of the major events of the war, which will precipitate America in the conflict.
    • - 10: With broad of the Malaysia, Japanese aviation runs two British linerships: the old cruiser of battle " Repulse" , and the recent battleship " Prince off Wales". 840 English sailors, whose admiral to sir Tom Philips, perish in this disaster.
    • - 11: The Germany and the Italy declare the war in the United States.

1942

  • January 1942 - the Brésil breaks its diplomatic relations with the forces of the Axis
    • - 20: Berlin: Reinhardt Heydrich, chief of the RSHA, chair the conference of Wannsee, which joins together ten dignitaries Nazis. The goal of this conference is to organize the " Final solution of the problem juif" in Europe. An official report is written by Adolf Eichmann.
  • February 1942 - 15: Capitulation of the British colony of Singapore in front of the army Japan ease
  • March 1942 - 20: The Americans evacuate the Filipino, following the bombardments of the Japan board
  • April 1942 - 27: Referendum on the conscription with the Canada. The country votes yes to 63%, Quebec votes not to 71%
  • May 1942 - Launching in the north of China of the operation " kill all, steals all, burns tout" ( sankô sakusen ) by which the Japanese army will exterminate approximately 2,7 million civilians in 3 years. Installation of the first maquis in Greece.
  • June 1942 - 4: Go of dead of Bataan imposed on the allies Filipino and American by the army Showa, American Victoire with the battles naval of Midway. Massacre Singapore (approximately 10.000 civilians) by the army Showa.
  • July 1942 - 3: Guadalcanal falls to the hands from the Japan board
  • August 1942 - 20: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad
  • September 1942 - 1: Stalingrad is now completely encircled by German forces
  • October 1942 - 23: Beginning of the victorious offensive British with the battles of El Alamein
  • November 1942
    • - 8: Unloading combined in Algeria and in Morocco.
    • - 9: Beginning of the arrival of German troops in Tunisia with the support of the admiral Jean-Pierre Estéva
    • - 11: Occupation in France of the “free Zone” by the Germans.
    • - 27: Toulon: the French fleet is scuttled, not to fall to the hands from the Germans.
  • December 1942 - 24: the admiral Darlan is killed with Algiers by the young patriot Bonnier of the Vault.

1943

  • January 1943

    • - 13: Hitler proclaims the “All-out war”.
    • - 14: Opening to Anfa of a conference joining together Churchill and Roosevelt, which decides that the Allies will unload in Italy in 1943 and in 1944 in France. The Germany, the Italy and the Japan will have to capitulate without conditions.
    • - 24: Hitler orders with its troops to fight with dead against Soviet to hold the town of Stalingrad

  • February 1943

    • - 2: Soviet Victoire with Stalingrad: capitulation of the German Life armed with Friedrich Paulus.
    • - 9: The Japanese fold up Guadalcanal. The imperial general Quartie starts to consider the possibility of a defeat. The Americans have from now on an important base for the protection of the Australia and the reconquest of the Northern Pacific.

  • March 1943

    • - 15: A German Sous-marin runs the steamer Empress off Canada off Freetown in South Africa, 400 dead

  • April 1943

    • - 4: The Royal Air Force bombards the factories Krupp with Essen as well as the factories Renault of Boulogne-Billancourt.
    • - 18: The plane of Yamamoto Isoroku is cut down by the Americans with Truck.
    • - 19: beginning of the insurrection of the ghetto of Warsaw

  • May 1943

    • - 12 - 27: The Conférence Trident with Washington ratifies the principle of an unloading on the French coasts. Churchill makes some push back the realization in spring 1944.
    • - 30: Charles de Gaulle settles with Algiers

  • July 1943

    • - 5: Face of the East: beginning of the operation " Citadelle" , German counter-offensive of which the goal is of " liquider" the projecting one of Koursk. The Soviets knew the plan of the attack thanks to their secret services, and they thus prepared a defense on several lines, while very important forces were ready to counter-attack.
    • - 8: Jean Moulin, chief of French Resistance, dies of the continuations of undergone tortures, during its transfer in Germany (° 1899).
    • - 10: Unloading of Combined in Sicily.
    • - 12: Face of the East: close to Prokhorovka is held one of the greatest battles of tanks of the History. In spite of their new armoured tanks " Tiger" , " Panther" and " Elefant" , the Germans do not manage to insert the Russian face.
    • - 12: The Soviet army launches a counter-offensive in the sector of covering of Orel.
    • - 13: Hitler orders the stop of the operation " Citadelle".
    • - 24: the Opération Gomorrah starts: British planes and Canadian bombard Hamburg the night, the American the day. At the end of the operation in November, 9.000 tons of explosives will have killed more than 30.000 people and will destroy 280.000 buildings.
    • - 28: Operation Gomorrah - the Britanniques bombard Hamburg causing a Tempête of fire which kills 42.000 German civilians .

  • August 1943

    • - 17: Conference Quadrant joined together with Quebec between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt (in which takes part the Canadian Mackenzie King and the Chinese T.V. Soong, representing Guomindang. The unloading in the north of France is planned for on May 1st 1944 and will be supplemented by an unloading in the south of the country. To decrease the German pressure on the side of the Soviet Union, the Allies decide also unloading on the Italian peninsula, the objective being the unconditional surrender of Italy.

  • September 1943

    • 2 - September 9th: Unloading combined in Italy of the South - Beginning of the countryside of Italy.
    • - 25: Eager to improve its relations with the Allies, Franco orders the repatriation of division " Azul" , which fights on the Face of the East. On the whole approximately 47.000 Spanish volunteers were useful in Russia. On this figure nearly 5.000 were killed. In spite of the recall of division, a certain number of volunteers will continue the combat at the sides of the Germans, sometimes while beginning in Waffen S, until in the ruins of Berlin.
  • October 1943
    • - 13: The Italy declares the war with the Germany.
    • - 18: Third conference of Moscow between the Allies (end the November 11th).
  • November 1943
    • 20: Attacks amphibians of the forces of the American admiral Chester Nimitz against the islands Gilbert. After three months of engagements very hard, the navy seizes Tarawa and Makin.
    • - 22: Conference of Cairo, which joins together Churchill, Roosevelt and Tchang Kaï-chek. The Allies are committed intervening against the Japanese in Burma. It is decided that the Japan will have to restore after the defeat all the conquered territories.
    • - 28: the Conference of Teheran, which joins together for the first time Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill starts (fine on February 1st). Many discussed were devoted to the plan of unloading in France (Opération Overlord), fixed at spring 1944. The Polish territorial question is not solved, not more than that of the future organization of Germany, for which various plans of dismemberment are considered.

  • December 1943

    • - 24: The general Eisenhower is named commander-in-chief of the allied forces which will unload in Normandy

1944

  • January 1944
    • - 4: Beginning of the Battle of the Mount Cassin in Italy.
    • - January 22nd: Unloading of Anzio in Italy.

  • February 1944

    • - 22: Stockholm is bombarded by the the USSR.

  • May 1944 -

    • 8:
      • the day-J for the Opération Overlord is fixed at the June 5th
      • the territory of the USSR is completely released.

  • June 1944

    • - 4: The allied forces enter Rome.
    • - 6: The Opération Overlord is launched by the Allies, to invade the Normandy (D Day). 176  000 men unload on the coasts Normans.
    • - 10: Massacre of 642 victims of Oradour-on-Glane by the S.
    • - 12: British the Prime Minister Winston Churchill visit beaches of the unloading.

  • July 1944

    • - 9: Normandy: the ruins of Caen are released by the Britanniques after terrible bombardments.
    • - 16: yielding to the pressures of influential members of his entourage like his brothers Yasuhito Chichibu, Nobuhito Takamatsu, some of his uncles and the prince Fumimaro Konoe, Hirohito congédie the Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and replaces it by Kuniaki Koiso.
    • - 17: Its car having been attacked by a combined fighter-bomber, the Rommel marshal is seriously wounded.
    • - 20: Attack against Hitler at its HQ of the " Wolfsschanze" (" Den of the loup"), into Prussia-Eastern. The colonel count Claus von Stauffenberg placed a bomb which exploded, and killed several officers, but Führer itself was only slightly wounded. It will put its survival on the account of the " Divine providence". This attack still will worsen the bad health and the paranoia of Hitler, like its hatred towards the German body of the officers. Repression will be bloody.
    • - 20: Winston Churchill visit ruins of Caen.
    • - 25: Normandy: in the area of Avranches, the Americans start the operation " Cobra" , which aims to bore the German lines to finish some once and for all with the battle of the scrap-metal. The attack is preceded by a very important air raid, which pulverizes the positions of Wehrmacht, but also made victims in the allied rows.

  • August 1944

    • - 7: Third visit of Winston Churchill on the face of Normandy.
    • - 15: Unloading in Provence.
    • - 25:
      • Paris is released. The general De Gaulle ravels triumphantly on the Fields-Élysées
      • Massacre of 124 inhabitants of the town of Maillé by a group of S not yet identified today.

  • September 1944

    • - 2: The allied troops enter in Belgium.
    • 5 and 6: Bombardment of the Harbor (Normandy) without true reason which made more civilian victims than military.
    • - 10: Conference Churchill - Roosevelt with Quebec, devoted especially in the future of the Germany. The Plan Morgenthau proposes to make a primarily agricultural country of them.
    • the allied troops enter in Germany.

  • October 1944

    • - Battle of Aachen: the 21 Wehrmacht capitulates there and the city becomes the first German big city taken by the allies in the west.
    • - 14: Athens is released by the Allies.
    • - 23 - 26: Half of the Japanese navy is destroyed with the gulf of Leyte.
    • - the Admiral Horthy is reversed by the Cross-Fléchées.

  • November 1944

    • - 11: Winston Churchill assists with the procession on the Fields-Élysées at the sides of the general de Gaulle.
    • - 23: Leclerc and its 2nd dB releases Strasbourg, thus respecting the oath of Koufra

  • December 1944 - 16: German counter-offensive in the the Ardennes

1945

Second world war Asia-Pacific Face

  • January 9th, Filipino: The Americans unload on the island of Luçon with 70  000 men
  • February 17th, the prince Fumimaro Konoe recommends to Hirohito to immediately negotiate an armistice with the enemy. This last refuses by calling upon the need for a last great victory ( tennozan ) to negotiate in strong position.
  • March 9th:
    • During 2 days, more 100  000 victims perish at the time of the Bombardement of Tōkyō by 300 American bombers B-29 which launch incendiary bombs.
    • Takeover by Japanese force against the French in Indo-China and with the Laos. French officers are parachuted to organize maquis.
  • April 2nd: Beginning of the Battle of Okinawa. The allied forces converge on Okinawa. More 500  000 soldiers will intervene in this operation amphibian. The island is completely conquered the June 21st (50  000 American victims, died or wounded).
  • April 5th, Japan: The government of Kuniaki Koiso, incompetent to ensure an adequate protection of the national territory, resigns following the bombardments of Tokyo. Hirohito names Kantaro Suzuki as substitute.
  • April 7th: The American Naval Aviation runs the largest building of the Japanese navy, the battleship Yamato .
  • April 14th: Hundreds of American Boeing B-29 bombard Tōkyō.
  • May 17th - August 14th: Direct air attack on the Japan since Okinawa.
  • May 25th: The bombardments redouble on Tokyo.
  • July 27th: “Declaration of Potsdam”: the joined together allies with Potsdam invite the Japan to go without conditions under penalty of destruction.
  • July 30th: The ship USS Indianapolis is run by a Japanese submarine.
  • August 6th: After the rejection of the ultimatum of Potsdam, an American bomber releases a atomic bomb with the Plutonium on Hiroshima - Assessment: 75  000 died and 90  000 wounded on a population of 250  000 people.

See also: atomic Bombardments of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

  • August 8th: The the USSR declares the war with the Japan, it will occupy Sakhaline, the islands Kouriles, and invades the Mandchourie.
  • August 9th: One second atomic bomb, Conceited Man , is released on Nagasaki, making approximately 38  000 dead.
  • August 12th: Occupation of the North Korea and Occupation of the Mandchourie by the Soviets.
  • August 14th: The emperor Hirohito announces the capitulation of the Japan to the radio. He asks in his short speech the stop of the engagements. It is the semi-official capitulation of the Japan.
  • August 15th: An agreement between the Soviet Union and nationalist China distributes their capacities in Mandchourie.
  • August 28th: The Allies occupy Japan (fine in 1952).
  • September 2nd: The emperor of Japan recognizes officially the defeat, by signing with the general Douglas MacArthur on the American battleship Missouri the document of his unconditional surrender. This act puts an end to the last conflict in the course of the Second world war and ratifies the occupation of Japan by the the United States.

  • the Japanese government remains in place on the condition of carrying out the instruction of the winners: demilitarization of the company, dissolution of the Zaibatsu (trusts enriched by industry by war), abolition of the police force controlling the public opinion, land reform, law on the working unions.

  • Communistes and nationalist is found face to face in China. Mao Zedong dominates North, penetrates in Mandchourie occupied by Soviet. Tchang Kaï-chek regains Nankin and recovers the majority of the big cities.
  • the Malaysia passes by again under British control.

Second world war European Face

External bonds

the Second world war, the war of the Millenium

history of the Second world war from day to day

the Second world war from day to day

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