World War II
From the Nazi rise to power to Hiroshima: the key turning points of the most destructive war in history, in Europe, on the Eastern Front and in the Pacific.
The globe flies from place to place and the timeline from year to year. Every step has its own link — handy for showing it in class.
Tour steps
-
1933 The Nazis take power
On 30 January 1933 Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany. Within months the Nazis ban all other parties and set up a dictatorship.
-
1938 Munich
Britain and France agree to hand Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland to Germany, without the Czechoslovaks at the table. Six months later Hitler occupies the whole country: appeasement has failed.
-
1939 The war begins
On 23 August the USSR and Germany sign a non-aggression pact with a secret protocol dividing Eastern Europe. On 1 September Germany invades Poland, and the Second World War begins.
-
1940 The fall of France
In spring 1940 Germany defeats France in six weeks, and the British evacuate their army from Dunkirk. In summer and autumn the Luftwaffe loses the Battle of Britain.
-
1941 22 June
On 22 June 1941 Germany and its allies invade the Soviet Union. The Eastern Front becomes the main theatre of the war in Europe.
-
1941 Moscow and Leningrad
From September Leningrad is under a siege that will last 872 days. German troops come within 25–30 km of Moscow, but on 5 December the Red Army counter-attacks and the Blitzkrieg fails.
-
1941 Pearl Harbor
On 7 December 1941 Japanese aircraft launch a surprise attack on the main US fleet base in Hawaii. The next day the United States declares war on Japan, and the war becomes truly global.
-
1942 The Holocaust
Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murder the Jews of Europe: in mass shootings, in ghettos and in death camps such as Auschwitz, Treblinka and Sobibor. About six million Jews will be killed.
-
1942 Midway
American codebreakers uncover the Japanese plan in advance, and on 4 June 1942 off Midway Atoll Japan loses four aircraft carriers. The initiative in the Pacific passes to the United States.
-
1942–1943 Stalingrad and El Alamein
In autumn 1942 the British defeat Rommel at El Alamein in Egypt. On the Volga a Soviet counter-offensive encircles Paulus's Sixth Army, which surrenders on 2 February 1943: the turning point of the war.
-
1943 Kursk
The Wehrmacht's summer offensive against the Kursk salient is stopped, and a great tank battle is fought at Prokhorovka. After Kursk the strategic initiative passes for good to the Red Army.
-
1944 D-Day
On 6 June 1944 American, British, Canadian and other Allied troops land in Normandy, the largest seaborne invasion in history. A second front opens in Europe.
-
1945 Victory in Europe
In February the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Britain meet at Yalta to shape the post-war world. After the fall of Berlin, Germany's unconditional surrender is signed on 8 May, already 9 May in Moscow, Victory Day.
-
1945 Hiroshima and the end of the war
On 6 and 9 August 1945 the United States drops atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; on 2 September Japan signs its surrender. The war, which cost tens of millions of lives, is over, and the world enters the nuclear age.