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1938
March
Germany annexes Austria
September Munich Agreement
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October
Germany annexes Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia *
November
Kristallnacht; attack on Jews in Germany
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1939
March
Germany occupies the rest of Czechoslovakia
August
German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact
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September
Poland invaded by Germany, then the Soviet Union: the UK and France both declare war on Germany
November
Soviets invade Finland * |
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1940
April
Germany invades Denmark and Norway
May
Germany invades Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and France
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June
Italy enters the war on the German side:
France surrenders * |
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1941
April/May Germany invades Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete
June Germany invades the Soviet Union
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August Britain and USA agree joint war aims in the Atlantic Charter
December
Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. *
USA joins the war. Japan invades Malaya, Burma and the Philippines
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1942
January-June
German U-boats sink 88 ships a month in Battle of the Atlantic
February
Japan captures Singapore
June –British defeated at Tobruk in North Africa; US victory at Battle of Midway in the Pacific
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August
Americans launch offensive in the Pacific at Guadalcanal
October/November
Allies defeat German forces at El Alamein, North Africa *
November
Allies land in French North Africa
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1943
February
German forces surrender at Stalingrad
April/May
Allies begin to win Battle of the Atlantic against German U-boats
July – Soviet victory at the Battle of Kursk: Allies land in Sicily *
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September
Allies invade Italy: Italian surrender
November/December
Teheran Conference where Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet to plan for the end of the war
November
UN Relief Agency set up to work for refugees
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1944
April-June
Battles of Imphal and Kohima in north east India *
May-June
Allies capture Monte Cassino and liberate Rome
June
D-Day; Allies land in Normandy
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July
‘Bomb plot’ against Hitler fails
August
Paris is liberated
September
Battle of Arnhem
December
Battle of the Ardennes
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1945
January
Auschwitz is liberated: Soviet troops capture Warsaw
February
Yalta Conference
April
Roosevelt dies; Bergen Belsen is liberated by British troops; Hitler commits suicide |
May
Germany surrenders
June
United Nations founded
July
Potsdam Conference
August
Atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan *
September – Japan surrenders
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1946
March
Churchill makes his famous ‘iron curtain’ speech to describe the start of the Cold War
October
War crimes trial at Nuremberg ends, 12 Nazis sentenced to death *
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1947
Britain withdraws from India; India and Pakistan become independent states
USA commits $12 000 million for reconstructing Europe in the Marshall Plan *
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1948
June
Soviets blockade Berlin from the West; British and American air forces drop 1.5 million tonnes of supplies into the city over the next 10 months *
July
Olympic Games open in London |
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