Military history

Appendix 2: Timeline

1939

1 September	Germany invades Poland.
3 September	Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

1940

10 May	Germany invades Western Europe.
26 May	Start of the Allied evacuation from France at Dunkirk.
14 June	German forces occupy Paris.
18 June	Charles de Gaulle broadcasts his ‘Appeal of 18 June’ from London urging the French to continue the fight against the Nazi invaders.
22 June	France surrenders.
11 July	Philippe Pétain, already prime minister, becomes president of the French Vichy government.

1941

22 June	Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.
7 December	Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
11 December	War declared on the USA by Germany (and Italy).

1942

23 March	Hitler issues his Führer Directive No. 40, ordering the construction of what became known as the ‘Atlantic Wall’.
19 August	The Allies’ ill-fated Dieppe Raid.

1943

14–24 January	Casablanca Conference at which Churchill and Roosevelt agree that a cross-Channel invasion is a necessity.
March	Frederick Morgan, given the title Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), is charged with the initial planning stages of a cross-Channel invasion, codenamed Overlord.
June	The Allies launch Operation Pointblank, the strategic bombing of Germany by the USAAF and the RAF.
10 July	Allied forces land in Sicily.
August	The Quadrant Conference held in Quebec accepts Morgan’s plans, prioritizes the defeat of Germany over that of Japan, and sets 1 May 1944 as D-Day.
December	General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed the Supreme Commander for the planned invasion of France, and his team, the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) is assembled.

1944

February	Hitler appoints Erwin Rommel to oversee the defence of France.
March	The Allies launch Operation Transportation, the strategic bombing of German facilities in occupied France.
27–8 April	US troops training at Slapton Sands in Devon for the landing at Utah beach are fired upon by friendly fire and a German patrol. Nine hundred and forty-six American servicemen are killed.
May	D-Day is postponed to 5 June.
2 June	The first warships set sail for Normandy from their ports within Britain.
3 June	Rommel, believing poor weather would rule out an invasion, returns home to Germany.
3–4 June	Lancaster bombers destroy the radar station at Urville-Hague near Cherbourg, the Germans’ primary listening station in Normandy.
4 June	Eisenhower postpones D-Day by twenty-four hours. Ships already out at sea are recalled. At 9.45 p.m., Eisenhower issues his three-word order launching the invasion of Normandy, ‘OK, we’ll go.’
5 June	Eisenhower visits US troops about to embark for the invasion. US general, Mark Clark, leads the Allied liberation of Rome.

D-Day, 6 June

00:16 hours	British and American gliders and paratroopers drop behind enemy lines into Normandy.
00:35	Pegasus and Horsa bridges secured by British airborne troops.
02:00	First wave of bombers are launched, attacking German targets in France.
03:30	Assault troops begin boarding landing craft.
04:30	British troops capture Merville Battery.
05:30	Allies begin bombardment of the beaches.
06:30	H-Hour on Omaha and Utah beaches.
07:00	The first landing wave on Omaha beach becomes pinned down under heavy enemy fire.
07:30	H-Hour on Sword and Gold beaches.
07:45	H-Hour on Juno beach. On Utah beach, American troops begin advancing inland.
10:15	Rommel is informed of the Allied invasion and hastens back to France.
13:30	On Omaha beach, American troops advance inland.
16:30	The German 21st Panzer Division assaults the Allies at the Sword beachhead.
18:00	British advance towards Caen held back.
23:59	All five Allied beachheads have been secured.

Post D-Day

7 June	British troops capture Bayeux.
10 June	SS soldiers murder inhabitants of Oradour-sur-Glane.
12 June	Allied troops link up their positions over the five beaches.
13 June	Germany launches the first V-1 attack against London.
19 June	Severe gales destroy the American Mulberry Harbour and damage the British one.
22 June	Stalin launches Operation Bagration, the Soviet Union’s counteroffensive against Germany.
27 June	US troops capture Cherbourg.
2 July	Hitler replaces Karl Gerd von Rundstedt with Günther von Kluge.
9 July	British troops capture Caen.
17 July	Rommel is injured by a British fighter plane and is invalided back to Germany.
20 July	Hitler survives the ‘July Bomb Plot’ assassination attempt at his Wolf’s Lair.
25 July	US Operation Cobra launched.
30 July	American troops capture Avranches.
7 August	German counterattack launched.
12 August	First PLUTO pipeline, running from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg, becomes operational.
15 August	Secondary Allied attack, Operation Dragoon, lands in the south of France.
17 August	Kluge commits suicide.
20 August	Falaise Pocket closed.
25 August	Paris liberated.
26 August	De Gaulle returns to Paris.
3 September	Brussels liberated.
8 September	Germany launches the first V-2 against London.
17 September	Start of Operation Market Garden.
14 October	Rommel forced into committing suicide.
21 October	US troops capture Aachen, the first German city to fall into Allied hands.
23 October	The Allies recognize General de Gaulle as the head of France’s provisional government.
2 November	Canadian troops capture Zeebrugge; Belgium is now entirely liberated.
16 December	Hitler launches his Ardennes offensive, the Battle of the Bulge.

1945

7 March	US troops cross the Rhine.
23 April	Soviet troops enter Berlin.
25 April	Soviet and US forces meet at the River Elbe.
30 April	Hitler commits suicide.
4 May	German forces in the Netherlands, Denmark and north-west Germany surrender.
7 May	German unconditional surrender to the West.
8 May	German unconditional surrender to the East.
6 August	Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
8 August	Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
9 August	Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki.
14 August	Japan agrees to surrender.
2 September	Formal Japanese surrender.

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