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From Seoul 1895 to Tokyo Bay 1945

A Chronicle of the Second World War

Over half a century of history that ended in the largest and bloodiest armed conflict humanity has ever known.

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Events
1952
Battles
183
Period covered
X 1895 – IX 1945

The war in numbers →Map of the borders →

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    On this day in the chronicle

    1 September

    What happened on this day in different years.

    1. 1939
    2. 1941
    3. 1942
    4. 1943
    5. 1944
    The whole timeline (1952) →

    The war years

    (07)

    Year by year, from the first crises to the end of the war.

    1. The road to war1895–1938219 events from the murder of Queen Min in 1895 to the crises of 1938.Timeline →
    2. 1939

      172 events
      19 battles

      Hitler seizes the rest of the Czech lands, and a pact with Moscow opens his way east. Poland fights alone against two invaders, while Britain and France declare war but do not attack.

    3. 1940

      214 events
      22 battles

      Blitzkrieg in the west: within weeks Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and France fall. Churchill’s Britain is left alone and beats off the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.

    4. 1941

      286 events
      28 battles

      The war becomes a world war. Germany strikes at the USSR and is halted before Moscow, and Japan attacks Pearl Harbor, drawing the United States into the fight.

    5. 1942

      302 events
      25 battles

      The Axis reaches the height of its conquests, but at Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad the tide turns. At Wannsee the Nazis plan the murder of the Jews of Europe.

    6. 1943

      229 events
      15 battles

      Surrender at Stalingrad, German defeat in the Kursk salient and the fall of Mussolini. The Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto take up the fight, and Katyń comes to light.

    7. 1944

      306 events
      39 battles

      The Allies land in Normandy and the Red Army smashes Army Group Centre. The Warsaw Uprising lasts 63 days and ends in defeat.

    8. 1945

      224 events
      20 battles

      Berlin falls and Germany surrenders. Atomic bombs and war with the USSR force Japan to give in, while at Yalta and Potsdam the great powers lay down a new order.

    Turning points

    (15)

    The days that changed the course of the war.

    1. 19391 September 1939Germany invades PolandAt dawn on 1 September 1939 the Wehrmacht attacked Poland from the north, west and south without declaring war. The Slovak army struck alongside the Germans.
    2. 194010 May 1940Germany attacks in the WestOn 10 May 1940 the Wehrmacht struck the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The Allies advanced into Belgium as Kleist's tanks entered the Ardennes.
    3. 15 September 1940Battle of Britain DayOn 15 September 1940 the RAF beat off two great daylight Luftwaffe raids on London. The day became the symbol of British victory in the Battle of Britain.
    4. 194122 June 1941Germany invades the Soviet UnionAt dawn on 22 June 1941 Germany and its allies attacked the USSR. Operation Barbarossa broke the pact of 1939 and opened the Eastern Front.
    5. 7 December 1941The attack on Pearl HarborOn 7 December 1941 aircraft from six Japanese carriers struck Pearl Harbor. 2,403 Americans were killed and four battleships of the Pacific Fleet were sunk.
    6. 194220 January 1942The Wannsee ConferenceOn 20 January 1942 Heydrich gathered fifteen SS, Party and ministry officials by the Wannsee to co-ordinate the murder of Europe's Jews, already under way.
    7. 4 June 1942The sinking of Nagumo's carriersOn 4 June 1942 at Midway American dive-bombers set Akagi, Kaga and Sōryū ablaze, and Hiryū that evening. The Japanese managed to hit Yorktown first.
    8. 19432 February 1943The end of the Battle of StalingradOn 2 February 1943 General Strecker's northern pocket surrendered and the Battle of Stalingrad ended. A day later the Reich announced the Sixth Army's defeat.
    9. 5 July 1943The Battle of Kursk beginsOn 5 July 1943 the Germans launched Operation Citadel, attacking the Kursk salient from north and south, and ran into the Red Army’s strongest defences yet.
    10. 19446 June 1944D-Day: the Normandy landingsOn 6 June 1944 some 156,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy by sea and air. Five beachheads were taken, but Caen remained in German hands.
    11. 22 June 1944Operation Bagration beginsOn 22 June 1944, the third anniversary of Germany's attack on the USSR, four Soviet fronts opened an offensive in Belarus against Army Group Centre.
    12. 194530 April 1945Hitler's suicideOn 30 April 1945 Hitler and Eva Braun, whom he had married the day before, killed themselves in the bunker beneath the Reich Chancellery in encircled Berlin.
    13. 8 May 1945Victory in Europe DayOn 8 May 1945 the West celebrated Germany's surrender in London, Paris and New York. The guns fell silent at 11.01 p.m.; in Poland, joy was clouded by doubt.
    14. 6 August 1945The atomic bombing of HiroshimaAt 8.15 a.m. on 6 August 1945 the B-29 Enola Gay dropped the uranium bomb Little Boy on Hiroshima – the first nuclear weapon used in war.
    15. 2 September 1945The Japanese surrender on the “Missouri”On 2 September 1945, in Tokyo Bay, Japan signed the instrument of unconditional surrender aboard USS Missouri. The Second World War was over.

    Where to start

    (08)

    The whole war in 8 articles.

    about 125 min of reading

    1. 01Event13 minThe Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact23 August 1939
    2. 02Battle15 minInvasion of Poland1 September – 6 October 1939
    3. 03Battle16 minBattle of Britain10 July – 31 October 1940
    4. 04Battle18 minBattle of Stalingrad23 August 1942 – 2 February 1943Photo Rothkopf · CC BY-SA 3.0 de
    5. 05Event11 minThe Wannsee Conference20 January 1942
    6. 06Battle19 minWarsaw Uprising1 August – 2 October 1944
    7. 07Battle21 minBattle of Normandy6 June – 30 August 1944
    8. 08Event11 minThe atomic bombing of Hiroshima6 August 1945

    Fronts

    (12)

    War on every continent and ocean.

    Frontbefore 19391939194019411942194319441945EventsBattles
    Poland2110391817139112
    Western Front1052152626794425221
    Eastern Front392822442816134
    Mediterranean1736535233920024
    Balkans1918311143597
    Scandinavia8237695589
    Atlantic24101410631683
    Pacific149346597528741
    Far East3078522366315
    Central and Eastern Europe731377285
    Africa3712413307
    Middle East23164254

    The Polish thread

    (16)

    Poland on the timeline.

    The key Polish events of the chronicle: from the struggle for independence and the interwar years to September 1939, the occupation and the Poles who fought on every front.

    1. 19391 SeptGermany invades PolandAt dawn on 1 September 1939 the Wehrmacht attacked Poland from the north, west and south without declaring war. The Slovak army struck alongside the Germans.
    2. 193917 SeptThe Soviet invasion of PolandAt dawn on 17 September 1939 the Red Army entered Poland without a declaration of war, carrying out the secret protocol of its pact with Germany.
    3. 193928 SeptThe capitulation of WarsawOn 28 September 1939 Generals Kutrzeba and Blaskowitz signed the capitulation of Warsaw at Rakowiec, after its heaviest air raid and a general assault.
    4. 193926 OctThe annexation of Polish lands and the General GovernmentOn 26 October 1939 Hitler’s decrees took effect. Western Poland was annexed to the Reich and central Poland became Hans Frank’s General Government.
    5. 19403 AprThe Katyn massacreOn 3 April 1940 the first prisoners left Kozelsk for their deaths. By mid-May the NKVD had killed almost 22,000 Polish officers, policemen and prisoners.
    6. 19414 DecThe Sikorski–Stalin declarationOn 4 December 1941 General Sikorski and Stalin signed a declaration of friendship and mutual aid at the Kremlin. Anders's army was to grow and move south.
    7. 194319 AprThe Warsaw Ghetto Uprising beginsOn 19 April 1943, the eve of Passover, ŻOB and ŻZW fighters drove back the Germans entering the Warsaw Ghetto. They soon returned under Jürgen Stroop.
    8. 19434 JulThe death of General SikorskiOn 4 July 1943 a Liberator carrying General Władysław Sikorski crashed into the sea just after take-off from Gibraltar. Sixteen died; only the pilot survived.
    9. 194311 JulBloody Sunday in VolhyniaOn 11 July 1943 UPA units and local peasants attacked nearly 100 Polish villages and settlements in Volhynia – the bloodiest day of the Volhynia massacres.
    10. 194418 MayThe capture of Monte CassinoOn 18 May 1944 a patrol of the 12th Podolian Uhlans entered the ruins of the abbey, abandoned by the Germans overnight. The battle of Monte Cassino was over.
    All 197 events tagged “Poland” →

    Family history

    Finding a relative

    Deported to Siberia, held in a Stalag, a prisoner of Auschwitz, a soldier at Monte Cassino. Traces of their fates still lie in archives and databases. We show where to look, with what details, and how to ask.

    Start searching →All guides

    Series

    (08)

    Threads of the war, one article after another.

    All series →

    Pages from the chronicle

    (1952)

    Days torn from the chronicle’s calendar.

    The whole timeline (1952) →

    Battles from the archive

    (183)

    Three battles from the chronicle, picked at random.

    All battles (183) →

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    Readers' support is the project's only source of funding. It pays for running the site and lets us write more articles, guides and translations.

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    About the project

    A Polish chronicle of the Second World War, written day by day.

    We describe events in the order in which they really happened: from the crises that prepared the ground for war to battles, political decisions, orders and the fate of ordinary people. Every fact is checked against several sources, and where they disagree we say so openly. Poland and the Poles receive particular attention.

    More about the project →

    Get in touch

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    timelineof@thesecondwar.pl