16 January Eisenhower assumes duties as Commander-in-Chief, Allied
Expeditionary Force, for the invasion of France
22 January Allies land at Anzio south of Rome
27 January Leningrad relived by Soviet forces
4 February Japanese launch offensive on the Arakan front, Burma, to force Allies
back to India
20 February Major US daylight raids on Germany resumed
March-June Japanese invasion of India halted at the Battles of Imphal and Kohima
19 March Germans occupy Hungary and start deporting Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz
1 May Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference opens in London
18 May Allies take Monte Cassino
4 June Allies enter Rome
6 June D-Day: the Allied invasion of Normandy
13 June Start of German V1 flying bomb offensive against Britain
15 June The first B-29 bomber raid on Japan
23 June Soviet offensive opens on the Central Front
24 July The liberation of Majdanek concentration camp
1 July International Monetary Conference opens in London
20 July Attempt to assassinate Hitler
25 July Allied breakout from the Normandy bridgehead begins
1 August -3 October Warsaw uprising
15 August Allies land in southern France
21 August Dumbarton Oaks Conference on post-war security agrees on setting up a
new international organisation - the United Nations
25 August Paris liberated
31 August Soviet forces capture Bucharest
8 September First V2 rocket lands on London
10 September Second Quebec Conference between Churchill and Roosevelt
17 September Allies begin Operation Market Garden to secure Maas, Waal and Rhine
crossings. British 1st Airborne Division lands at Arnhem
25-26 September Withdrawal from Arnhem of survivors of British 1st Airborne
Division begins
9 October Moscow Conference between Churchill and Stalin
14 October Athens Liberated
23-26 October Battle of Leyte Gulf
12 November German battleship Tirpitz sunk by RAF
16 December German offensive in the Ardennes begins
27 January The liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp
17 January Germans evacuate Warsaw
9 January US forces land on Luzon in the Philippines
14 February The liberation of Gross-Rosen concentration camp
4 February Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt meet at a conference at Yalta
13 February Major raids by RAF and USAAF on German city of Dresden
19 February US forces land on Iwo Jima
7 March US forces cross the River Rhine at Remagen
23 March Allies cross the Rhine
27 March Last V2 Rocket lands at Orpington, Kent
April The liberation of Westerbork, Salzwedet, Bergen-Belsen, Dora-Mittelbau,
Buchenwald, Ohrdruf, Flossenbuerg, Dachau, Landsberg, Ravensbrüeck and
Sachsenhausen concentration camps
1 April US forces invade Okinawa
12 April Roosevelt dies and is succeeded by Truman
13 April Vienna captured by Russian troops
16 April Soviet forces launch final offensive towards Berlin
25 April San Francisco Conference on the United Nations begins
28 April Mussolini executed by Italian partisans
30 April Hitler commits suicide
May The liberation of Neuengamme, Woebbelin, Strutthof, Gunskirchen, Ebensee,
Gusen and Mauthausen concentrations camps
2 May Soviet forces capture Berlin
2 May German forces in Italy surrender
3 May British forces capture Rangoon
4 May German forces in north-west Germany, Holland and Denmark surrender to
Montgomery at Lüneberg Heath
7 May Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies
8 May Victory in Europe Day
23 May Himmler commits suicide
26 June United Nations Charter signed
5 July General Election in United Kingdom
16 July First atom bomb tested successfully in New Mexico
17 July Potsdam Conference between Churchill, Stalin and Truman. Attlee replaces
Churchill on 27 July.
26 July Results of the General Election announced. Churchill resigns as Prime
Minister and is succeeded by Attlee
6 August Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
8 August Soviet Union declare war on Japan
9 August Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
14 August Japan accepts Allied demand for unconditional surrender
15 August Victory over Japan Day
2 September Formal surrender of Japan signed
20 November Nuremberg Trial of major Nazi war criminals begins