America at war! (1941–) – Part 5

Chronology of World War II – from 1939 to today

From attack on Poland, struggle has involved almost every country

Tuesday, May 8, 1945

From the invasion of Poland by Germany on September 1, 1939, the war expanded until it encompassed virtually every part of the world.

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Pre-war Germany, before Austrian ‘Anschluss’ and annexation of Czechoslovakia.

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After Munich accord, which gave Germany Czechoslovakia, and after seizing Austria.

As the Allies moved toward victory, events in the war several years ago faded into the distance. To present a picture of the struggle, here is a chronology of important events in World War II:

1939

September 1 – World War I starts with German invasion of Poland.

September 3 – Britain, France declare war on Germany.

September 12 – Russia invades Poland.

September 27 – Germans capture Warsaw.

September 29 – Germany and Russia divide Poland.

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Poland invaded, surrenders in 26 days. Russia shares in partition of country.

October 14 – Nazi U-boat sinks British battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow.

November 30 – Russia invades Finland.

December 14 – British cruisers HMS Exeter, Ajax and Achilles battle German pocket battleship Graf Spee off Uruguay. Graf Spee takes refuge in Montevideo Harbor.

December 17 – Germans scuttle Graf Spee off Montevideo Harbor when time for repairs expires.

1940

February 1 – Finland asks for “honorable peace.”

February 3 – Russians drive through Mannerheim Line. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles leaves for tour of embattled Europe.

February 17 – British destroyer rescues 326 prisoners from German ship Altmark in Norwegian waters.

March 1 – Russians capture Viipuri.

March 2 – Sumner Welles talks with Hitler.

March 12 – Russia, Finland sign peace treaty.

March 20 – French Cabinet of Premier Edouard Daladier falls.

March 21 – Paul Reynaud forms new French Cabinet.

April 8 – Allies mine Norwegian territorial waters.

April 9 – Germans occupy Denmark and invade Norway.

April 13 – British battleship HMS Warspite leads armada into Narvik, sinking seven German destroyers and merchant shipping.

April 15 – British expeditionary force lands in Norway.

May 2 – Prime Minister Chamberlain announces British withdrawal from all of Norway south of Trondheim.

May 10 – Germany invades Holland, Belgium, launches offensive against France, Chamberlain resigns; Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.

May 14 – Dutch armies cease resistance.

May 15 – Nazis drive great bulge into French lines.

May 16 – President Roosevelt asks Congress for more than billion dollars for defense.

May 17 – Germans enter Brussels.

May 19 – Maxime Weygand succeeds Maurice Gamelin as French commander; Germans 80 miles from Paris.

May 21 – Germans reach Channel coast at Abbeville, cutting off British and Belgian forces.

May 28 – King Leopold surrenders Belgian Army.

May 30 – British begin evacuation at Dunkerque under rain of bombs.

June 3 – Germans bomb Paris.

June 4 – Dunkerque evacuation completed; 335,000 British soldiers saved, all equipment abandoned.

June 9 – British evacuate Narvik, ending venture in Norway.

June 10 – Italy declares war on France, Britain; Germans 25 miles from Paris; French Government flees.

June 11 – Italians invade British and French Somaliland.

June 13 – Germans march into Paris.

June 15 – Nazis capture Verdun; Russians march into Lithuania.

June 16 – Marshal Henri Philippe Petain succeeds Reynaud as French Premier.

June 17 – Petain asks Germans for armistice terms; Russians enter Latvia, Estonia.

June 22 – France signs armistice with Germany.

June 24 – France signs armistice with Italy.

June 25 – France gives “cease firing” order.

June 28 – Russians occupy Bessarabia and Bucovina, ceded by Romania.

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Invasion in west, with Nazi conquest of Norway, Denmark, the Lowlands and France.

July 2 – Romania accepts German “protection.”

July 3 – British sink three French battleships, disable fourth in battle at Oran, Algeria, when French refuse to surrender fleet. Other French ships interned by British.

July 10 – French Parliament votes itself out of existence.

July 12 – Petain picks Pierre Laval as vice-premier. President Roosevelt announces plan to call National Guard into federal service.

July 17 – Britain agrees to close Burma Road supply line to China for three months.

August 4 – Italians drive into British Somaliland.

August 12 – Germans open aerial blitzkrieg against England.

August 14 – British bomb Turin and Milan in Italy.

August 17 – Germany announces total blockade of Britain.

August 19 – British withdraw from British Somaliland.

August 20 – Churchill announces plan to lease bases in British territory in Western Hemisphere to United States.

August 26 – British bomb Berlin.

September 1 – Mr. Roosevelt calls 60,000 National Guardsmen into federal service.

September 3 – President announces trade of 50 overage U.S. destroyers for bases in British territory in New World.

September 6 – King Carol of Romania abdicates, son Michael becomes monarch.

September 7 – All-out bombing of London begins.

September 14 – Italians invade Egypt from west.

September 16 – President Roosevelt signs U.S. draft law.

September 22 – France gives Japs rights to move troops into Indochina.

September 23 – British, French fight naval battle off Dakar.

September 27 – Germany, Italy, Japan sign tri-power pact.

October 16 – All U.S. men between 21 and 36 register for draft.

October 28 – Italy invades Greece.

November 2 – Counterattacking Greeks drive Italians into Albania.

November 9 – Freighter City of Rayville sunk off Australia, first U.S. ship loss of war; Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain dies.

November 13 – British torpedo planes attack Italian fleet at Taranto.

November 14 – Greeks launch counteroffensive against Italians. Coventry devastated by German raid.

December 9 – British launch offensive against Italians in Egypt.

December 11 – British capture Italian base at Sidi Barani, Egypt.

December 14 – Laval ousted from Vichy Government.

December 31 – Hitler, in New Year’s speech, promises victory in 1941.

1941

January 5 – British capture Bardia, Libya.

January 6 – President Roosevelt proclaims Four Freedoms necessary for peace: Freedom of expression, worship, from want and fear.

January 7 – President Roosevelt creates Office for Production Management, headed by William Knudsen and Sidney Hillman to run “arsenal of democracy.”

January 8 – Mr. Roosevelt gives Congress $10 and a half billion defense budget.

January 9 – German troops pour into Italy.

January 17 – Churchill pleads for “avalanche” of U.S. weapons.

January 22 – British capture Tobruk, Libya.

January 29 – Greek Premier Metaxas dies.

January 30 – Hitler warns all U.S. ships nearing Britain will be sunk; British capture Derna, Libya.

February 6 – British capture Benghazi, Libya.

February 9 – Churchill asks U.S.: “Give us the tools and we will do the job;” British fleet bombards Genoa; British capture El Agheila, Libya. Darlan named vice premier by Petain.

March 1 – Bulgaria joins Axis; Nazi troops enter Bulgaria.

March 8 – President Roosevelt signs Lend-Lease Bill.

March 12 – British expeditionary force reaches Greece.

March 25 – Yugoslavia joins Axis. Germany announces blockade zone extending to waters around Iceland.

March 27 – Yugoslav Army stages anti-Axis coup, places King Peter on throne.

March 30 – U.S. seizes Axis ships.

April 1 – British capture Asmara, capital of Italian Eritrea.

April 4 – British abandon Benghazi.

April 6 – Germans invade Yugoslavia, Greece.

April 10 – U.S. extends protection to Greenland.

April 13 – Russia, Japan sign neutrality pact. Axis troops occupy Bardia.

April 18 – Yugoslav Army surrenders.

April 23 – Greek government flees Athens.

April 30 – British evacuate 48,000 of 60,000 soldiers from Greece.

May 2 – British invade Iraq.

May 6 – Stalin becomes Soviet premier.

May 10 – Rudolf Hess flies to Britain.

May 18 – Italians surrender Ethiopia.

May 20 – Nazi airborne troops begin attack on Crete.

May 21 – Robin Moor, flying U.S. flag, sunk in South Atlantic.

May 24 – Nazi battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood in North Atlantic.

May 27 – British sink Bismarck; President Roosevelt proclaims existence of unlimited national emergency.

June 1 – British evacuate Crete; Iraq surrenders to British.

June 4 – Former Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany dies.

June 8 – British, Free French, invade Syria.

June 14 – U.S. freezes all assets in America of Germany, Italy.

June 15 – U.S. closes all Axis consulates.

June 22 – Germany invades Russia.

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Taking the Balkans, Germany occupied Southeastern Europe by conquest or alliance.

July 3 – Nazis capture Riga.

July 7 – U.S. troops occupy Iceland.

July 12 – British win in Syria. Stalin Line pierced, Nazis say.

July 13 – Britain, Russia sign mutual aid pact.

July 17 – Germans capture Smolensk.

July 24 – Roosevelt freezes Jap assets in U.S.

August 1 – Roosevelt bans export of aviation gas and oil.

August 4 – U.S. pledges all-out aid to Russia. Japan cancels ship sailings to U.S.

August 9 – Roosevelt, Churchill meet on warship in Atlantic.

August 14 – Roosevelt-Churchill eight-point program of peace aims announced. Germans reach Black Sea.

August 25 – British and Russian troops invade Iran.

August 28 – Fighting ends in Iran.

August 30 – Nazis capture Tallinn, Estonia; Finns capture Viipuri.

September 4 – U.S. destroyer Greer attacked in Atlantic.

September 8 – Germans encircle Leningrad.

October 14 – Nazis 50 miles from Moscow.

October 15 – Russian government moves to Kuibyshev, on Volga River.

October 17 – U.S. destroyer Kearny damaged by torpedo in Atlantic.

October 25 – Nazis take Kharkov, begin drive into Crimea.

October 30 – U.S. destroyer Reuben James sunk in Atlantic.

November 5 – Saburo Kurusu named Jap “peace” envoy to U.S.

November 15 – Kurusu arrives in Washington.

November 16 – Navy seizes German ship masquerading as a U.S. vessel.

November 19 – British invade Libya.

November 22 – Nazis capture Rostov.

November 29 – Nazis evacuate Rostov.

December 6 – Roosevelt sends personal message to Emperor Hirohito of Japan.

December 7 – Japs bomb Pearl Harbor and other U.S. possessions in Pacific. Tokyo announces a state of war with U.S. and Britain, Jap troops land in Malaya, Canada, Netherlands East Indies declare war on Japan.

December 8 – U.S. declares war on Japan. Nazis abandon drive on Moscow.

December 9 – Japs invade Philippines.

December 10 – Japs sink battleship Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse off Malaya.

December 11 – U.S. declares war on Germany and Italy after Axis leaders announce hostilities, Jap battleship Haruna sunk off Philippines.

December 13 – Russia wins great victory, driving Nazis back on three fronts and retaking 400 town.

December 17 – Maj. Gen. Walter Short and Rear Adm. Husband Kimmel, commanders at Pearl Harbor, removed in shakeup of Army, Navy.

December 19 – Congress extends draft to all men from 20 to 44.

December 21 – Hitler takes over command of German Army.

December 22 – Prime Minister Churchill arrives in Washington; Japs capture Wake Island.

December 24 – Japs invade Borneo.

December 25 – Hong Kong surrenders to Japs; British capture Benghazi.

December 31 – Adm. Chester W. Nimitz takes command of Pacific Fleet.

1942

January 2 – Twenty-six anti-Axis countries sign United Nations pact. Japs capture Manila.

January 23 – Japs invade New Britain, New Guinea north of Australia.

January 24 – Pearl Harbor investigating committee blames disaster on Adm. Kimmel, Gen. Short.

January 26 – U.S. troops land in Northern Ireland.

January 29 – Nazis launch Libyan offensive, capture Benghazi.

January 31 – British abandon Malaya.

February 1 – U.S. naval task force raids Jap-held Gilbert and Marshall Islands.

February 8 – Japs invade Singapore; British halt Nazi drive in Libya 40 miles west of Tobruk.

February 15 – Singapore falls to Japs.

February 28 – Japs invade Java.

March 7 – Japs capture Rangoon, Burma.

March 10 – Southern Burma abandoned by British.

March 14 – Allies announce loss of 13 warships in Java Sea battle between Feb. 27 and March 1.

March 16 – Arrival of U.S. troops in Australia announced.

March 17 – Arrival of Gen. Douglas MacArthur in Australia from besieged Bataan Peninsula of Philippines announced.

March 25 – American task force raid on Wake and Marcus Islands on Feb. 24 announced by Navy.

March 30 – Pacific War Council formed by Allies.

April 9 – Bataan falls to Japs.

April 15 – U.S. long-range bombers raid Philippines.

April 18 – U.S. bombers under Doolittle raid Japan; Laval forms new Vichy government.

April 25 – U.S. troops reach New Caledonia, French island east of Australia, French Gen. Henri H. Giraud escapes from Nazi prison camp.

April 30 – Japs reach southern end of Burma Road.

May 5 – British invade Madagascar, French island off East Africa.

May 6 – Lt. Gen. Jonathan Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to Japs.

May 8 – Results of Battle of Coral Sea announced. U.S. fleet sinks nine Jap warships.

May 27 – Germans launch offensive in Libya.

May 31 – RAF hits Cologne in first 1,000-bomber attack.

June 3 – Japs bomb Dutch Harbor.

June 4 – Reinhard Heydrich, deputy Gestapo chief, dies eight days after wounding in Czechoslovakia.

June 6 – Midway battle ends; 27 Jap warships sunk, damaged against U.S. loss of three vessels.

June 11 – Britain, Russia sign 20-year alliance. Roosevelt, Soviet Foreign Commissar Molotov agree on necessity for second front in May 29-June 4 conference.

June 12 – Japs land on Attu in Aleutians.

June 12 – American fliers raid Ploesti oil fields of Romania.

June 18 – Churchill arrives in Washington.

June 21 – Nazis capture Tobruk.

July 1 – Germans capture Sevastopol after 250-day siege in Crimea. Nazis under Marshal Erwin Rommel reach El Alamein, Egypt, 55 miles from Alexandria.

July 27 – Germans capture Rostov.

July 29 – Germans drive into Caucasus.

August 5 – Germans cross Don River in Russia.

August 7 – U.S. Marines land in Guadalcanal and other Solomons Islands.

August 9 – Three American, one Australian cruisers lost in night battle off Guadalcanal; British intern Mohandas Gandhi.

August 12 – Churchill reaches Moscow to confer with Stalin.

August 19 – Canadian, British, American Commandos and Rangers raid Dieppe area of France, withdraw after nine hours.

August 30 – Jap invaders trapped in Milne Bay area on southeastern tip of New Guinea.

September 13 – Germans reach outskirts of Stalingrad.

September 28 – Australians attack Japs only 32 miles from Port Moresby, New Guinea.

October 7 – Navy announces abandonment of two Aleutian Islands by Japs.

October 12 – Jap cruiser, four destroyers and transport sunk off Guadalcanal.

October 23 – British under Gen, Bernard L. Montgomery begin offensive at El Alamein, Egypt.

November 6 – French yield on Madagascar, sign armistice with British.

November 7 – American, British forces under Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower land in French Northwest Africa.

November 8 – Vichy France breaks relations with United States.

November 11 – Germans occupy all of France, French surrender to Allies in Northwest Africa.

November 13 – Adm. Jean Francois Darlan takes over as French leader in Africa, Roosevelt signs bill to extend draft to 18-year-olds.

November 16 – Twenty-three Jap ships, including battleship, sunk in Nov. 13-15 battle near Guadalcanal, U. 8, losses total two cruisers, six destroyers.

November 18 – Allies cross Tunisian border.

November 20 – British capture Benghazi.

November 21 – Russians launch offensive at Stalingrad.

November 24 – Gona, New Guinea, captured by Allies. Russians lift three-month siege of Stalingrad.

November 27 – Germans seize French naval base of Toulon; French scuttle most of fleet.

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Deep in Russia, and with the Germans entrenched in North Africa and holding all France.

December 5 – U.S. bombers raid Italy for first time, attacking Naples. Full Navy report on Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor raid shows sinking or serious crippling of 10 warships, including five battleships, and damage to three other battleships and five smaller warcraft.

December 8 – Allies pushed back near Tebourba, Tunisia.

December 12 – British Eighth Army launches new drive in Libya.

December 15 – German troops pour into Tunisia.

December 19 – British push 40 miles into Burma.

December 24 – Darlan assassinated.

December 27 – Gen. Giraud named Darlan successor.

1943

January 11 – Navy announces loss of carrier Hornet in battle in South Pacific October 26, 1942.

January 16 – RAF raids Berlin heavily.

January 23 – Eighth Army captures Tripoli.

January 26 – Communiqué announces meeting of Roosevelt, Churchill near Casablanca to plan offensives for 1943.

January 27 – U.S. Flying Fortresses, Liberators make first, attack on Germany in heavy daylight raid on Wilhelmshaven.

January 29 – Moscow announces trapping of seven German divisions west of Voronezh and capture of 100.000 prisoners since mid-January.

February 2 – Russians announce surrender of Germans at Stalingrad.

February 9 – Japs announce evacuation of forces from Guadalcanal.

February 14 – Russians recapture Rostov.

February 15 – U.S. forces suffer sharp setback in Said Sened sector of Tunisia.

February 16 – Russians recapture Kharkov.

February 21 – Germans capture Kasserine Pass, Tunisia.

February 25 – Allies recapture Kasserine Pass.

March 4 – Yank planes destroy 10 Jap warships, 12 transports in Bismarck Sea at cost of one bomber and three fighters.

March 15 – Russians abandon Kharkov.

March 29 – British Eighth Army pierces Mareth Line in Tunisia.

April 7 – Eighth Army joins forces with American troops in Southern Tunisia.

April 21 – President Roosevelt announces that Japs have executed at least some of the eight captured U.S. fliers who bombed Japan in April 1942.

April 23 – U.S. Navy discloses occupation of Funafuti, island 450 miles south of Gilberts.

April 26 – Russia suspends relations with Polish exile government.

May 7 – British and American troops capture Tunis and Bizerte, Tunisia.

May 11 – Churchill reaches Washington to confer with Roosevelt.

May 12 – Allies announce surrender of Nazis in Tunisia.

May 14 – U.S. troops land on Attu in Aleutians.

May 30 – Japs admit Jap garrison on Attu has “perished.”

June 4 – Revolting army leaders seize power in Argentina.

June 11 – Allies capture Pantelleria after 18-day bombing.

June 12 – Allied planes hammer Lampedusia into submission.

June 30 – Gen. MacArthur starts offensive against Japs; Yanks land on Rendova and New Georgia Islands in Central Solomons and at Nassau Bay in New Guinea.

July 6 – Battle of Kula Gulf ends in South Pacific; Japs lose nine warships, U.S. loses cruiser.

July 10 – British and American forces land in Sicily.

July 25 – Mussolini ousted as Italian premier; Marshal Badoglio takes over.

August 4 – Russians capture Orel and Belgorod.

August 6 – Yanks capture airfield at Munda, on New Georgia in the Solomons.

Aug. 10—Churchill arrives in Quebec, Canada, for series of conferences with Roosevelt.

Aug. 16—Yanks capture Vella Lavella Island in Solomons.

Aug. 17—Allies complete conquest of Sicily.

Aug. 21 – U.S. forces occupy Kiska in Aleutians, find Japs have evacuated.

August 23 – Red Army recaptures Kharkov.

August 28 – King Boris of Bulgaria dies.

September 3 – British land on toe of Italy.

September 6 – Italy surrenders.

September 8 – British, Americans land at Salerno, Naples, Russians recapture Stalino, free Donets Basin.

September 11 – Bulk of Italian Navy escapes to Allies.

September 30 – Naples captured by Allies.

October 13 – Italy declares war on Germany, is accepted as Allied co-belligerent.

October 18 – U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull and British Foreign Minister Eden reach Moscow for three-power conference.

October 29 – Yanks land on Choiseul Island, in Northern Solomons.

November 1 – United States, Britain, Russia and China agree at Moscow to fight their common enemies until unconditional surrender. Yanks land on shore of Empress Augusta Bay, on Bougainville Island in Solomons.

November 2 – Russians drive into Crimea.

November 4 – Germans flee across lower Dnieper River. Allied bombers wreck Jap fleet at Rabaul, New Britain, blasting 26 vessels, including five warships, and 108 planes.

November 6 – Red Army recaptures Kiev.

November 11 – Allied planes sink Jap cruiser, two destroyers, wreck 88 enemy planes at Rabaul.

November 15 – U.S. bombers from Italy raid Sofia.

November 20 – Americans invade Gilbert Islands.

November 22 – More than 1,000 RAF bombers blast Berlin in heaviest raid of war.

December 1 – Roosevelt-Churchill meeting with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek at Cairo announced. Three leaders map plans for defeat of Japan.

December 2 – Seventeen Allied ships sunk in Nazi raid on Bari, Italy.

December 3 – Roosevelt and Churchill meet Stalin in Tehran, Iran, to map plans for defeat of Germany.

December 7 – Japs capture Changteh, city in China’s rice bowl.

December 9 – Chinese recapture Changteh.

December 17 – Americans invade New Britain, landing at Arawe in South Pacific.

December 24 – Gen. Eisenhower named chief of the Allied forces for the invasion of Western Europe.

December 26 – British sink Nazi battleship Scharnhorst off Norway.

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North Africa cleared of the Axis, Italy invaded and the Russians rolling back the Nazis.

1944

January 3 – Russians reach the 1939 Polish border west of Kiev. Americans land at Saidor, Northern New Guinea.

January 5 – Russians launch new offensive on Southern Ukrainian front.

January 11 – Count Galeazzo Ciano, Mussolini’s son-in-law, executed as traitor to Fascism.

January 16 – Gen. Eisenhower reaches London to take over invasion command.

January 22 – Allies land at Anzio, near Rome.

January 25 – Allies reach Cassino, Italy.

January 27 – Red Army lifts siege of Leningrad after 2½ years. U.S. government announces murder of 5200 American prisoners and thousands of Philippine prisoners by Japs.

February 1 – American troops land in Marshall Islands.

February 2 – Russians cross Estonian border.

February 4 – American warships shell Paramushiru.

February 8 – Allies win the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea.

February 16 – Americans invade Green Islands in Northern Solomons, trapping Japs to the south.

February 17 – U.S. naval carrier task force attacks Truk, sinking 23 Jap ships and destroying 201 planes. Two thousand U.S. warplanes raid Germany.

February 23 – Mariana Islands raided by U.S. task force.

March 1 – Americans invade Admiralty Islands in Southwest Pacific.

March 4 – American bombers raid Berlin.

March 8 – Two thousand U.S. planes raid Berlin.

March 15 – Cassino leveled by mass Allied plane and artillery bombardment.

March 18 – Russians cross Dniester River border of Bessarabia.

March 22 – Americans land on St. Matthias Islands, 600 miles south of Truk, Jap troops invade India.

March 30 – Palau Islands, 550 miles east of the Philippines, raided by U.S. task force; 214 Jap planes, 28 ships blasted.

April 2 – Russians cross Romanian border.

April 9 – Gen. Giraud resigns, Gen. Charles de Gaulle taking full charge of French Committee of National Liberation.

April 10 – Russians capture Odessa.

April 22 – American troops land at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea.

April 28 – Navy Secretary Knox dies.

May 5 – Japs announce the death in action of Adm. Mineichi Koga, chief of the Jap fleet. Gandhi released from internment.

May 9 – Russians capture Sevastopol.

May 10 – James Forrestal named Secretary of the Navy.

May 11 – Allies launch offensive in Italy.

May 17 – Americans invade Wakde Islands off Dutch New Guinea. Soerabaja, Java, raided by Allied carrier fleet.

May 18 – Cassino captured by Allies; American-Chinese force takes Myitkyina airfield in Northern Burma.

May 23 – Allies start offensive from Anzio beachhead.

May 25 – Anzio beachhead linked with main Allied force in Italy.

May 28 – Americans invade Biak Island, off Northwestern Dutch New Guinea.

June 2 – U.S. planes launch shuttle bombing of Axis, taking off from Italy, raiding Romania and landing in Russia.

June 4 – Allies capture Rome.

June 5 – King Victor Emmanuel of Italy yields powers to son Humbert.

June 6 – Allied forces invade France, landing on Normandy Peninsula.

June 9 – Badoglio resigns as Italian premier; 71-year-old Ivanoe Bonomi named successor.

June 10 – Russians launch offensive against Finland.

June 12 – U.S. task force sinks and damages 29 Jap ships, down 141 Jap planes in Marianas.

June 14 – Americans land on Saipan Island in Marianas; Naval carrier task force hits Bonin and Volcano Islands 600 miles from Japan.

June 15 – B-29 Superfortresses, in first raid on Japan, hit Yawata, on Kyushu Island.

June 16 – Germans launch heavy robot plane raids on Britain. U.S. orders Finnish minister to leave.

June 18 – American troops drive across Cherbourg Peninsula in France, isolating big port of Cherbourg.

June 19 – Two-day action between American carrier task force and Jap fleet in Marianas Island area and east of Philippines, results in sinking of two Jap plane carriers, one by submarine, and sinking and damaging of 16 other Jap ships. Americans destroy 747 Jap planes at cost of 151 aircraft.

June 20 – Russians capture Viipuri, Finland; Japs capture Changsha, China.

June 22 – Red Army launches big summer offensive on White Russian front.

June 26 – Americans capture Cherbourg.

July 20 – Nazis announce attempt to kill Hitler. Accuse Prussian generals of bombing attempt and anti-Nazi revolt. Nazis launch widespread purge of army officers. Tokyo announces Gen. Hideki Tojo removed as Jap premier, to be replaced by Adm. Kuniaki Koiso.

July 21 – Navy announces U.S. invasion on July 20 of Guam, first U.S. island seized by Japs.

July 24 – Navy announces U.S. invasion July 23 of Tinian Island, just south of Saipan in Marianas.

July 25 – Americans launch all-out offensive against Germans in Normandy.

July 29 – Roosevelt completes three-day conference in Hawaii with Gen. Douglas MacArthur and Adm. Chester W. Nimitz on Pacific war.

July 30 – American forces land at Sansapor, Dutch New Guinea, 600 miles from Philippines.

August 1 – U.S. troops reach Brittany Peninsula in breakout from Normandy. Russians reach Baltic, trap 200,000 Nazis in Latvia, Estonia. Risto Ryti resigns as president of Finland, to be succeeded by Marshal Mannerheim. Manuel Quezon, president of Philippines, dies at Saranac Lake, New York.

August 2 – Turkey breaks relations with Germany.

August 15 – Allied Army invades Southern France.

August 23 – Romania breaks with Germany, announces decision to join Allies. Marseille captured by Allies.

August 25 – Americans and French patriots liberate Paris.

August 31 – Russians capture Bucharest.

September 3 – British occupy Brussels.

September 4 – Finland surrenders to Russia.

September 5 – Russia declares war on Bulgaria. Bulgaria asks armistice of Russia seven hours after declaration of war.

September 8 – Bulgaria declares war on Germany.

September 11 – Americans invade Germany; U.S. troops from north and South France reach juncture; Roosevelt and Churchill begin “beat Japan” conference at Quebec.

September 15 – Americans invade Morotai Island, off Halmahera, and land in Palau Islands, east of Philippines.

September 16 – Yanks break through Siegfried Line east of Aachen.

September 17 – Allied airborne army lands behind German lines in Holland.

September 19 – Russia, Finland sign armistice.

September 27 – Allied invasion forces land in Albania and islands off Yugoslavia.

October 5 – British land in Greece.

October 6 – Russians invade Hungary.

October 9 – U.S., Britain, Russia and China announce plans for world peace organization to be called the United Nations. Churchill and Eden reach Moscow to discuss Polish dispute and other problems.

October 13 – U.S. Pacific Fleet announces series of carrier-plane attacks on Formosa, which, with Superfortress raids from China bases, culminates in destruction of hundreds of Jap planes and scores of ships at Formosa and Philippines. Jap fleet comes out but turns tail at sight of U.S. fleet. Red Army captures Riga.

October 14 – British occupy Athens.

October 16 – Hungary seeks armistice terms, but Germany takes over country.

October 20 – U.S. forces invade Philippines, Russians capture Belgrade.

October 23 – Russia announces invasion of East Prussia.

October 24 – Jap fleet emerges to challenge U.S. forces in Philippines. Naval-air battle costs Japs more than 34 warships sunk or damaged.

October 25 – Russians announce drive into Northern Norway.

November 7 – President Roosevelt reelected to fourth term.

November 12 – RAF bombers sink Nazi battleship Tirpitz in Norwegian fjord.

November 24 – Tokyo undergoes first B-29 raid.

December 15 – U.S. troops invade Mindoro Island, Philippines.

December 16 – Nazis break through on Belgium-Luxembourg front.

December 30 – Archbishop Damaskinos named regent of Greece.

1945

January 8 – Americans invade Luzon Island.

January 11 – Truce signed in Greek civil war.

January 13 – Russia launches offensive in Poland.

January 17 – Warsaw captured by Red Army.

January 20 – Russians invade German Silesia.

January 29 – First truck convoy reaches China over Ledo-Burma Road.

February 3 – Americans enter Manila.

February 7 – Conference of Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin at Yalta, Crimea, agrees on final blows to crush Germany, occupation of Reich and post-war peace organization.

February 15 – Americans recapture Bataan Peninsula.

February 17 – U.S. troops land on Corregidor.

February 19 – American landing on Iwo Island announced.

March 6 – Americans capture Cologne.

March 7 – U.S. troops drive across Rhine River.

March 22 – U.S. Third Army crosses Rhine above Ludwigshafen.

March 24 – Allies launch all-out drive across Rhine north of Ruhr.

April 1 – Americans invade Okinawa Island.

April 5 – Russia scraps neutrality pact with Japan.

April 12 – President Roosevelt dies at Warm Springs, Georgia; Harry S. Truman sworn in as President.

April 13 – Vienna captured by Russians.

April 21 – Russians drive into Berlin.

April 25 – United Nations conference on world security opens at San Francisco.

April 26 – American, Russian armies link up in Germany at Torgan, on Elbe River, 75 miles south of Berlin.

April 28 – Mussolini executed by Italian patriots.

May 1 – Hitler’s death announced by Nazis; Adm. Karl Doenitz takes over as Fuehrer.

May 2 – Nazi armies in Italy and Western Austria surrender; Russians capture Berlin.

May 4 – Germans surrender in Northwest Germany, Denmark, Holland.

May 5 – Four hundred thousand Germans surrender in Austria.

May 8 – Victory in Europe proclaimed.

chronology.map8
On Victory Day, Hitler’s once-nighty empire has shrunk to nothing.

Simms43

Simms: Europe faces rocky road to real peace

Seeds of future strife already sown
By William Philip Simms, Scripps-Howard foreign editor

SAN FRANCISCO, California – The end of the war in Europe starts one of the most difficult epochs in world history. That is the view of most conference delegates here.

For the next five to 10 years, they point out, Europe will face conditions bordering on chaos or worse. Revolt or civil war in certain areas is probable.

Millions of uprooted peoples will be on the move. Discontent, fed by misery, hunger and hate will spread as violent emotions suddenly are released.

Revolutionary minorities will find in this post-war chaos the opportunity of a lifetime and will try to make the best of it.

Problems only postponed

Problems presented by Eastern Europe and the Balkans have not been solved by the Big Three. They only have been postponed. Meanwhile, army discipline has kept down the cauldron lid. Now the lid will have to come off. Solutions for Europe’s impounded troubles will have to be found.

Therefore, foreign ministers in San Francisco warn, that this conference is the most crucial meeting ever held. It must create a peacekeeping organization which will work.

Germany, Italy and the Axis satellites have been defeated, but what to do with either the vanquished or the victims remains to be decided. The frontiers of Germany are still undetermined. Likewise, those of Poland and even of France, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia and other countries.

What of Poles, Serbs and Jews?

Millions of workers, used by the Nazis as slave labor, will be released and repatriated. But many of them – such as the Poles and the Serbs – feel they have no country to return to; or are afraid to return. Then there are the millions of dispossessed Jews – all that remain of some six million who had their homes in Europe. What is to become of them?

Italy is to be turned into a democratic state by the introduction of representative government with freedom of speech, religion and the press. Today she is almost in anarchy.

Iran is to be “independent and sovereign.” Recently her government was overthrown by one of the Big Three because it wasn’t quick enough with an oil concession.

Greece was to have self-government, but the first cabinet set up there soon had to defend itself against a leftist revolution.

Yugoslavia was promised representative rule, put the regime now at Belgrade is a dictatorship imposed from without.

Seeds for future trouble

Poland was to have a new government, reorganized “on a broader democratic basis with the inclusion of democratic leaders from Poland itself” But when the “democratic leaders from Poland itself” – the 16 underground officials – showed up for a conference, the Russians put them under arrest. And so on.

The seeds for much future trouble have already been sown.

The war in Europe ends today, but the peace to follow will be only a truce unless the Big Three here and at the peace table return to the principles of the Atlantic Charter.


Editorial: Make V-E stick!

We and our Allies have won victory in Europe. Our job now is to make the victory stick – which we failed to do last time. That will not be easy.

But we owe it to those who have paid with their lives, and the millions who suffered, to win the peace for which they sacrificed. We also owe it to our children who will be the next victims, if we fail now.

German militarism and Nazism have been mowed down. They still must be uprooted, and the remaining seeds destroyed as far as possible. All the Allies are agreed on that.

The first step after unconditional surrender is already planned. An Allied control commission of four generals – American, British, French and Russian – with headquarters in Berlin will rule Germany as a military government.

Its difficult problems will be multiplied by the necessary division of the conquered country into four zones of occupation. That will require much closer c-operation between Russia and the Western Allies than was achieved during the war. For any one of the four to seek selfish advantage, or otherwise fail to cooperate, would undermine enforcement and invite Nazi revival.

How long military government must continue will depend on the Germans. All the evidence to date indicates that they are unrepentant. More disturbing than reports that the Nazis are going underground, is the almost unanimous testimony of Allied intelligence officers and correspondents that rank-and-file Germans have no sense of war guilt. Even the big industrialists, who aided Hitler, hope to evade responsibility.

Apart from some church leaders, who had the courage to defy Hitler and survived, there seems to be no considerable group of Germans capable of creating or maintaining decent government now. In that, at least, the Nazis succeeded; they destroyed Germen capacity for self-government for some time to come. Maybe an entire new generation, educated for peace instead of war. must grow up before Germany can be trusted fully.

Perhaps the greatest shock to Germans will be the discovery that their standard of living cannot be restored. They must be fed, or rather allowed to feed themselves, but it will be at a very low level. They must contribute first to reconstruction of neighboring lands they destroyed. That will take several years at best. Germans’ extreme suffering during the coming period was decreed by themselves when, as recently as two months ago, they chose to continue the war rather than surrender and prevent destruction of their factories and cities.

Beyond policing and demilitarizing Germany, and prompt trial and punishment of war criminals, are the larger problems of a peace settlement. These include not only reparations and territorial questions, but the whole range of political and economic conditions which will make for order or chaos, for peace or another war. Though the big powers should have a large voice in these decisions, a peace dictated by them cannot survive.

Germany’s smaller neighbors and worst victims deserve a voice. They will be needed to make the settlement work. Therefore, the general peace conference should be called at the earliest possible moment.

Finally, to make V-E stick, there must be an international organization for security and peace, based on justice and law. The job of the San Francisco Conference is now more important than ever.

Success in that long-term job, as in military government of Germany and as in making a wise peace settlement, depends chiefly on Russia’s willingness to cooperate and keep her agreements.

Editorial: Post-war ABCs

Editorial: Mental torture

Editorial: Happy birthday, Mr. Truman

And indeed it’s a happy day for all of us, who share the hope of the man in the White House that victory in Europe will be followed by peace throughout the world long before another May 8 rolls around.

Edson: ‘Bleeding heart’ delegations get in the way

By Peter Edson

Ferguson: Handicapped make good

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Background of news –
Trusteeship in the Pacific

By F. M. Brewer

Rankin plan for flat sum bonus scored

VFW wants service record considered
By Ned Brooks, Scripps-Howard staff writer

Monahan: Atrocity films ghastly, but–

By Kaspar Monahan

Housewife-author wins Pulitzer Prize

Harvey, Mauldin’s cartoons honored


Cromwell’s daughter sues for divorce

Maybe Japs used movie for training

MANILA, Philippines (UP) – Philippine guerrilla forces, raiding behind Jap lines east of Manila, found five reels of motion picture film which they hoped would contain valuable information on enemy training or activity.

Instead, the projector flashed on the screen five chapters of a Junior G-Man series.

Col. Palmer: And now what?

By Col. Frederick Palmer

WASHINGTON – No broadcast from the Pacific is necessary to inform our, soldier in his hour of victory in Europe that we have yet another war – and a tough one – to win. As an expert in making war, he feels that tact down to the marrow of his homesick bones.

He wonders in which direction he will be reversed with the reversal of the mighty war machine in which he is one of the atomic human cogs. Will it be back to the homeland now for him, or to the Pacific, or to serve as a policeman in the portion of the enemy country which our forces are to occupy and patrol?

How big is the task of reversing that immense machine of war can be realized only by one who has seen it at work in pressing the war in Europe to a finish. That machine stretches from the French ports and Antwerp to the Elbe River and down into Austria and Czechoslovakia. It was two years in building in Great Britain and a year in its enlargement and extension across France and beyond the Rhine.

After the end of World War I, we left most of our enormous accumulation of war material in France. The one war we had to win was over. Wasn’t it the “war to end war”? We would have no further use for war material on a large scale. So, we left it to the French along with an immense amount of supplies of value for civilian use. The French were to pay us for some of this, but, with all their financial troubles, never got around to it.

This time we are going to transport to our other war front all war material that inspection finds useful. Food stores will be left as a nucleus for the immense amount needed to feed the hungry peoples of Europe.

Turning to personnel, Gen. Marshall, Army chief of staff, said in a statement May 4, that Gen. Eisenhower “anticipated no reduction of replacement requirements for June” and that “Norway, Denmark and sections of Holland” were still occupied by “strong and fanatical forces of the enemy.”

The next day a War Department announcement looked toward the reduction of the Army from its present size of 8,300,000 men to 6,980,000 in a year and with the drafted men filling the gaps, two million men would be discharged in a year.

Gen. Marshall’s statement is subject to the cheering news that now all the German armies have surrendered. Gen. Eisenhower’s replacement requirements may be for men to fill the gaps left by men in the army of occupation who are chosen to go to the Pacific.

Selection of the soldiers who are to go is not like that of the expert selection of materials of all classes which are to be sent, but, in the long run, is a human matter, though done on the “point” system, which includes giving thought to a man’s age, his physical fitness, length and character of combat service, and the number of children he has at home. Otherwise, under what conditions and how are the examiners to settle the immediate fate of hundreds of thousands of men? How long will those who pass through the United States on their way our war in the Pacific be allowed to stay at home?

Stokes: Making progress

By Thomas L. Stokes

Othman: Dis is DE Day

By Fred Othman

WASHINGTON – This is the day to whoop-and-holler, not yesterday.

If you’ve already torn up your phone book and thrown the pieces out the window it serves you right and don’t go blaming President Truman. He did his best. All day yesterday his assistants emerged at intervals from the executive offices and said, “Uhh-uh–not yet.”

The morning started out beautifully. German surrender was in the air and the odor of freshly cut grass. The White House gardeners were cutting the lawn. The sun was shining. The movers were hauling in the new President’s belongings and depositing them in living quarters painted varying shades of raspberry pink, green and blue. Everything looked wonderful.

It still looked that way at 10 a.m. when Press Secretary Jonathan Daniels called in the correspondents.

“All I have this morning,” he said, “is proclamation–.”

The scribes unsheathed their pencils and the press association men got set for the fastest foot race yet to the telephones.

“–a proclamation,” continued Daniels, “about National Rehabilitation Week.”

“Try and get that one on the wires,” cried a disappointed writing wretch.

“Then put it in your pocket,” said Daniels.

Daniels’ girl almost mobbed

An hour passed. Daniels’ girl stuck her head out his door and nearly got mobbed. Daniels had some more news, she gasped.

He did, too. It was a letter to the governors of the 48 states inviting them to drop in at the White House whenever they came to town. The reporters went back to their red leather seats in the reception room, where they smoked too many off-brand cigarettes and bit their fingernails. Lunchtime came. A messenger shagged in some tuna fish sandwiches.

At 1:55 p.m. that girl (the brave one in the tan dress) came out again. More news, she said. Then she leaped out of the way. Daniels read a four-line statement by President Truman saying he’d talked to London and Moscow and didn’t intend to do any talking about peace until they did, too.

Jimmy Byrnes drops in

Until then (and he didn’t say when) there wasn’t anything he could say. Word filtered out that he’d dropped over to the mansion for a bite.

A couple more hours passed and in came Jimmy Byrnes, who used to be the assistant president. He spent an hour with the President and then walked into an impromptu press conference. He said:

  1. The weather in South Carolina has been so cold and rainy lately that he hasn’t caught any fish.
  2. He will be in Washington all day today. (Why, Mr. Byrnes?) To visit his dentist and have his choppers polished, he said.

Soon thereafter came the news that President Truman had signed the franking bill for Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt. Now she doesn’t have to worry about running out of postage stamps, ever again.

The photographers ran outside to get pictures of President Truman’s piano being hoisted in the door. Another hour went by and at 6:10 p.m., Daniels himself came out (the girl must have lost her nerve) and said he had some news:

  1. Today is President Truman’s birthday.
  2. He will spend it for the first time in the refurnished White House.
  3. Today’s the day to whoop-and-holler. Nine a.m. is the hour.

Love: Japs and war bonds

By Gilbert Love

With the Japs still to be licked –
Victory in Europe costs United States 800,000 casualties, $185 billion

Rehabilitation to raise expense

WASHINGTON (UP – The victory in Europe cost the United States about 800,000 casualties and more than $185 billion.

These are the best conservative estimate available now. It will be a long time before the final figures are worked out.

A survey showed today that this country’s share of the cost of crushing the Nazi bid for world domination will exceed by three or four times the cost of World War I and its aftermath – whether the measuring standard is casualties or dollars.

The cost in money will be increased in future years by many billions of dollars through interest on government borrowings and benefits to veterans. The cost in broken lives, too, will be paid over a long period.

Experts consulted

Most of the government experts consulted believed that at least two-thirds of the dollar outlay since defense preparations began in 1940 went directly or indirectly into the war against Germany and Italy.

This is based on the allocation of men to the two major spheres of combat. The best available information is that two U.S. fighting men were sent to Europe for each one sent to the Pacific.

The cost estimate includes not only guns, bullets, planes and tanks, plus the plants to make them, but also such items as Lend-Lease expenditures, training costs, merchant ships, transportation, subsistence and literally thousands of articles and services that never appeared on the field of battle but were vital to victory.

Results of survey

Here are the results of the survey:

COST IN MONEY: Defense and war expenditures total more than $277,600,000,000 since July 1, 1940. Assigning two-thirds of this to the European War gives a figure of $185,066,000.0U0. This compares with the $55,345,000,000 cost of the last war.

The figure for the last war includes continuing expenses for many years after the war and unpaid war debts. The figure for this war is just the cost up to now.

COST IN CASUALTIES: Approximately 800,000 men killed, wounded, missing and prisoners. This is a projected figure because the official casualty compilations are far behind.

Army casualties compiled here by theaters as of March 31 showed a total of 685,247 for the European, Mediterranean, Middle East and Caribbean theaters – all part of the European war. The figures included 133,284 killed, 431,965 wounded, 67,008 missing and 52,990 prisoners.

Reports lag

But these figures actually included only casualties suffered until early March. Much severe fighting was not covered by these reports, and it will be months before final casualty data of the war against Germany is available. Best estimates are that the European Theater alone will report a final casualty total exceeding 800,000.

The Navy has never broken down its casualties by war theaters so it is impossible to determine accurately now what part of Navy casualties were incurred against Germany.

But an informed source said that through last July, a period which included the toughest phase of the Battle of the Atlantic as well as the landing operations in North Africa, Italy and Normandy, slightly less than 25 percent of Navy casualties were suffered in the war against Germany.

At the end of last July, the Navy had suffered 52,000 war casualties throughout the world. It may be estimated that naval casualties in the war on Germany totaled between 13,000 and 14,000. No breakdown of this figure into killed, wounded and missing is available now.

World War I figures

In World War I, the final casualty total for all the armed services was 259,735. This included 53,878 killed, 201,377 wounded and 4,480 prisoners.

Relatively speaking, the Merchant Marine suffered the highest death ratio of any of the services engaged in the war against Germany. Although its casualties by theaters are not available, an estimated 5,000 out of more than 6,000 casualties to date occurred in the Atlantic and adjacent waters. A large portion of these are dead or missing, mostly as a result of the German U-boat campaign in the first 18 months of the war.

MEN INVOLVED: Probably between 3,500,000 and 4,000,000 out of the Army’s 5,200,000 men overseas have been involved in the war on Germany and its satellites.

The Army has not announced allocation of its men by theaters, but some 70 divisions have been identified in the war against Germany. These divisions would total roughly 1,250,000 men, but to them must be added the tremendous U.S. Air Force and the great numbers of supply and maintenance men behind the lines.

Naval forces

It is estimated that not more than 235,000 men in the naval services were engaged in the war on Germany. All told, the Navy has a total of 2,352,275 sailors, marines and coast guardsmen now serving outside the continental limits. The Navy estimated that approximately 80 percent of this total are under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz’s command in the Pacific. The rest of them are scattered throughout the world with possibly less than 10 percent in the Atlantic. It was recalled that about 124,000 naval officers and men took part directly or indirectly in the invasion of Normandy.

These were in addition to the many thousands engaged in escorting convoys across the Atlantic and in protecting the supply lines.

COST IN WARSHIPS: A total of 96 naval vessels and naval craft were sunk in the Atlantic, the Mediterranean and European theaters.

The figure includes landing craft destroyers, some PT-boats, and transports. The largest vessel lost was the escort carrier USS Block Island. Many merchant ships were also lost.

Medal of Honor won by Tennessean

WASHINGTON (UP) – Sgt. Charles H. Coolidge, Signal Mountain, Tennessee, has been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for directing a four-day battle with a handful of reinforcements against a superior German force, the War Department announced today.

During that time the 24-year-old doughboy tried a bluff that failed, dueled two enemy tanks with his light carbine, advanced alone to blast a German attack with two cases of hand grenades and frustrated a determined Nazi attempt to turn the flank of his battalion.

The medal for the action, which took place near Belmont sur Buttet, Prance, last October, will be presented to Sgt. Coolidge in the European Theater.

Gracie Allen Reporting

By Gracie Allen

My goodness! They’re already talking of making a movie about Mussolini. It would have a moral lesson, of course, but I don’t think the hungriest actor in Hollywood could be coaxed to play the part, not even with a two-inch steak. Imagine being “typed” in that role.

But it just shows you how far some people in Hollywood would go with the biography cycle. First they filmed the lives of celebrities of long ago, then living celebrities, and now they even have scouts on the trails of those for whom great futures are predicted.

Well, I supposed they’ll end up doing the same characters over and over. Don Ameche should be able to look forward to at least three remakes showing him inventing the telephone. And the next time I hope he invents enough phones to go around in wartimes.