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Trace the Second World War from the invasion of Poland to the surrender of Japan.

Use the timeline below to navigate through major events and milestones.

World War II · 1939-1945
The Second World War

The Second World War

From the German invasion of Poland to the surrender on the USS Missouri — six years of total war on five continents that killed seventy million people, broke the European empires, exposed the Holocaust, and ended with the splitting of the atom and the partition of the world. Slide across the months to read the major events that closed the short twentieth century.

September 1939
European War
1 / 24

September 1939

European War
  • Military

    Germany invades Poland

    On 1 September 1.5 million German troops cross the Polish frontier, supported by Stuka dive-bombers and Panzer divisions. Britain and France declare war on 3 September.

24 milestones
Full Chronicle

The Second World War

From the German invasion of Poland to the surrender on the USS Missouri — six years of total war on five continents that killed seventy million people, broke the European empires, exposed the Holocaust, and ended with the splitting of the atom and the partition of the world. Slide across the months to read the major events that closed the short twentieth century.

  1. European War

    • Germany invades Poland

      On 1 September 1.5 million German troops cross the Polish frontier, supported by Stuka dive-bombers and Panzer divisions. Britain and France declare war on 3 September.

  2. European War

    • Winter War — Soviet invasion of Finland

      On 30 November the Red Army invades Finland after Helsinki refuses Soviet territorial demands. Finnish ski troops inflict humiliating defeats on Stalin's army through the winter.

  3. Fall of the West

    • Blitzkrieg in the West

      On 10 May the Wehrmacht invades the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France. Within six weeks the most powerful army in Europe is shattered.

  4. Fall of the West

    • Fall of France

      Paris falls on 14 June. On 22 June Marshal Pétain signs the armistice in the same Compiègne railway carriage where Germany surrendered in 1918. Italy enters the war on 10 June.

  5. Battle of Britain

    • Battle of Britain begins

      From July to October the Luftwaffe attempts to break the Royal Air Force as a prelude to invasion. The RAF's victory makes Operation Sea Lion impossible.

  6. War Spreads

    • Italian invasion of Greece — Ohi Day

      On 28 October Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas refuses Mussolini's ultimatum with a single word: 'No'. Italian forces cross the Albanian frontier hours later but are routed by the Greek army.

  7. War Spreads

    • German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece

      On 6 April the Wehrmacht crosses the Bulgarian frontier into both countries. Belgrade falls on 12 April; Athens on 27 April.

  8. War Spreads

    • Battle of Crete

      From 20 May to 1 June, German Fallschirmjäger paratroopers seize Crete in the first major strategic airborne assault in history. Cretan civilians take up arms beside Allied troops.

  9. Eastern Front

    • Operation Barbarossa

      On 22 June 3.8 million Axis soldiers in 153 divisions invade the Soviet Union along a 2,900-kilometre front — the largest military operation in history.

  10. Global War

    • Pearl Harbor & global war

      On 7 December Japanese carrier aircraft attack the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. Within four days Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

  11. Holocaust & Total War

    • Wannsee Conference

      On 20 January Reinhard Heydrich convenes fifteen senior Nazi officials at a villa near Berlin to coordinate the 'Final Solution to the Jewish question' — the industrial murder of European Jewry.

  12. Tide Turns

    • Battle of Midway

      From 4-7 June US Navy dive-bombers cripple three Japanese carriers — Akagi, Kaga, and Sōryū — in a single astonishing six-minute strike, with Hiryū sunk later the same day. Japan loses the strategic initiative in the Pacific forever.

  13. Tide Turns

    • Battle of Stalingrad begins

      On 23 August the Luftwaffe levels Stalingrad in a thousand-bomber raid. The German 6th Army under Paulus enters the city, beginning the most savage urban battle of the war.

  14. Tide Turns

    • Surrender at Stalingrad

      On 2 February the remnants of the German 6th Army — 91,000 starving, frostbitten survivors — surrender. It is the first capitulation of a German field marshal in history.

  15. Allied Offensives

    • Kursk, Sicily, and the fall of Mussolini

      On 5 July begins the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle in history. On 10 July Allies land in Sicily. On 25 July the Fascist Grand Council deposes Mussolini.

  16. Allied Offensives

    • Italian armistice

      On 8 September Italy publicly switches sides. Germany seizes northern Italy, rescues Mussolini, and installs the puppet Italian Social Republic at Salò.

  17. Liberation of Europe

    • D-Day & Operation Bagration

      On 6 June 156,000 Allied troops land on five Normandy beaches in the largest seaborne invasion in history. On 22 June the Red Army launches Bagration, destroying Army Group Centre.

  18. Liberation of Europe

    • Liberation of Paris & Warsaw Uprising

      On 25 August Free French troops enter Paris and General de Gaulle marches down the Champs-Élysées. In Warsaw, the Polish Home Army rises against the Germans on 1 August.

  19. Liberation of Europe

    • Liberation of Athens

      On 12 October the Wehrmacht withdraws from Athens. British forces and the Greek government-in-exile arrive on 14 October to a city ravaged by famine and on the brink of civil war.

  20. End in Europe

    • Yalta Conference

      From 4-11 February Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet at the Crimean palace of Livadia to settle the post-war order. Their agreements draw the borders of Cold War Europe.

  21. End in Europe

    • Fall of Berlin

      Roosevelt dies on 12 April; Mussolini is shot by partisans on 28 April; Hitler shoots himself in the Berlin bunker on 30 April as Soviet troops fight street by street toward the Reichstag.

  22. End in Europe

    • VE Day — German surrender

      On 7 May Generaloberst Jodl signs Germany's unconditional surrender at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims. The act is repeated for the Soviets in Berlin on 8 May.

  23. End in Asia

    • Hiroshima, Nagasaki & Japanese surrender

      On 6 August an American B-29 drops the uranium bomb 'Little Boy' on Hiroshima. On 9 August 'Fat Man' destroys Nagasaki. On 15 August Emperor Hirohito announces surrender by radio.

  24. End in Asia

    • Surrender on the USS Missouri

      On 2 September, in Tokyo Bay aboard the battleship Missouri, Foreign Minister Shigemitsu signs Japan's instrument of surrender. The Second World War is over.