World War II Timeline

01/09/39 Germany and the USSR invade Poland

03/09/39 Britain and France declare war on Germany
10/09/39 Canada declares war on Germany
09/10/39 Hitler issues orders to prepare for the invasion of Belgium, et. al.
14/12/39 The USSR is expelled from the League of Nations
18/12/39 The first Canadian troops arrive in Europe

21/02/40 Work begins on the construction of concentration camp at Auschwitz
18/03/40 Agreed that Italy will enter the war at an opportune moment
28/03/40 Britain and France make a formal agreement that neither country will
seek a separate peace agreement with Germany
09/04/40 Germany invades Denmark and Norway; Denmark surrenders
10/05/40 Germany invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands,
ending the Phoney War
Churchill becomes Prime Minister of Britain
26/05/40 Operation Dynamo (allied evacuation of Dunkirk) begins
10/06/40 Italy declares war on Britain and France
Canada declares war on Italy
21/06/40 National Resource Mobilization Act is passed and allows for conscription
for home defence
22/06/40 France surrenders to Germany
09/07/40 German Luftwaffe attacks Britain (Battle of Britain) in preparation for
Operation Sealion
07/09/40 London Blitz begins (nightly bombings in London)
18/12/40 Confirmation of plans for Operation Barbarossa (German invasion of the
Soviet Union)

27/01/41 Joseph Grew (US Ambassador to Japan) informs the U.S. State
Department that Japan plans to attack Pearl Harbor
22/06/41 Germany invades the USSR (Operation Barbarossa)
12/07/41 Britain and the USSR sign a formal agreement that neither country will
seek a separate peace agreement with Germany
16/11/41 Canadian battalions arrive in Hong Kong
07/12/41 Japan launches an aerial attack on Pearl Harbor and declares war on the
United States and Britain
Canada declares war on Japan
08/12/41 United States declares war on Japan
Japan invades Hong Kong
11/12/41 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States (and United States
declares war on Germany and Italy)
25/12/41 Canadian soldiers are amongst those forced to surrender as the Japanese
take Hong Kong (Canadians first battle)
24/02/42 Japanese-Canadians sent to internment camps
27/04/42 Canadians vote in favour of conscription in 1942 National Plebiscite on
Conscription
09/07/42 Anne Franks family goes into hiding in an attic above her fathers office
in Amsterdam
19/08/42 Battle of Dieppe (Operation Jubilee) by British and Canadian forces ends
in disaster

10/07/43 Canadian troops participate in an invasion of Sicily and mainland Italy,
marking the beginning of allied invasion
24/07/43 British, Canadian and American airplanes begin bombing Hamburg in
Operation Gomorrah
19/08/43 Roosevelt and Churchill sign the Qubec Agreement co-ordinating
nuclear bomb research
03/09/43 British and Canadian troops invade Italy
20/12/43 Battle of Ortona, German paratroopers defeated

08/05/44 D-Day for Operation Overlord set for 5 June 1944
04/06/44 Operation Overlord postponed 24 hours due to high seas
05/06/44 British airplanes bomb German gun batteries on the Normandy coast in
preparation for D-Day
06/06/44 Battle of Normandy begins; Canadians land on Juno Beach
20/07/44 German dissidents attempt to assassinate Hitler
01/09/44 Dieppe is liberated by Canadian soldiers, followed by many other cities
12/09/44 Battle of the Scheldt (Canadians given task of clearing Scheldt estuary)

04/02/45 Yalta Conference held to discuss post-war reorganization of Europe
28/04/45 Italian partisans capture and execute Mussolini
30/04/45 Hitler commits suicide in Berlin
04/05/45 Canadian soldiers liberate Netherlands from German control
07/05/45 Germany surrenders
17/07/45 Potsdam Conference defines terms to end the war, Japan ignores terms
06/08/45 United States drops atomic bomb (Little Boy) on Hiroshima
09/08/45 United States drops atomic bomb (Fat Man) on Nagasaki
15/08/45 Japan surrenders
02/09/45 Japan signs official papers with United States, ending the war