WORLD WAR II A timeline

1939 Nazis take Czechoslovakia Nazis sign Pact of Steel with Italy Nazis sign Non-Aggression pact with USSR Nazis invade Poland Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany

1940 Nazis invade Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands Battle of Britain, German Blitz against England begins Italy invades Egypt Tripartite Pact signed Italy invades Greece Britain begins desert offensive in North Africa

1941 British troops invade Italian Somaliland German Afrika Korps arrive in North Africa Germans continue bombing London Germany attacks Soviet Union Nazi SS begins mass murder Germany abandons attack on Moscow Japan bombs Pearl Harbor

1942 First American troops arrive in England Japanese-Americans put into internment camps Rommel and the Afrika Korps reach El Alamein, Egypt Germans resume attack on USSR and advance toward Stalingrad Rommel withdraws from Egypt

1943 Soviets repel attack on Stalingrad and begin counter-offensive Allies take Tunisia, German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender Allies land in Sicily Italy surrenders and Mussolini is arrested. Germans occupy Rome and rescue Mussolini Allies enter Naples, Italy

1944 Soviet troops advance into Poland Allies enter Rome D-Day landings begin First German V-1 rocket attacks on Britain Soviets enter Romania Paris liberated Allies cross Siegfried Line

1945 Soviet troops capture Warsaw and liberate Auschwitz Allies take Cologne and bridge the Rhine Soviets reach Berlin Hitler commits suicide Unconditional German surrender (VE Day) Atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Unconditional Japanese surrender (VJ Day)