World War II Diaries - The Complete War Report
World War II Diaries - The Complete War Report
1939 September
London begins to prepare for enemy air attacks while the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, reshuffles his cabinet, bringing in people who have criticized his policy of appeasement.
1939 October
Roosevelt, watching the events in Europe with alarm, decides to end American diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany to desist from aggression.
1939 November
The Nazis and Soviets continue to commit atrocities in Poland. The Gestapo arrest 167 professors from the University of Cracow and send them to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, to the north of Berlin.
1939 December
In Poland, there is no letup in the public executions carried out by the Soviets and the Germans.
1940 January
Nazi terror is enforced by a curfew, forcing all inhabitants to be inside their houses from eight at night onwards.
1940 February
For Churchill, one of the biggest problems of the war is the threat posed by the German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic.
1940 March
In London, the British Secret Service warns the government of the build-up of German troops and ships on the Dutch and Belgian coasts.
1940 April
In London, the Allied supreme war council decides that if Hitler's troops invade Belgium and the Netherlands, the British and French armies will enter both countries to stop the offensive.
1940 May
In London, Prime Minister Chamberlain confirms in the House of Commons the evacuation of the British and French troops from Norway.
1940 June
From Italy, Mussolini offers Hitler his help in the occupation of France. The Nazi leader declines his offer, saying to General Wilhelm Keitel “This fool said that his country wasn't prepared for war and now he is in a rush to share the spoils”.
1940 July
Hitler's troops have taken over the Channel Islands, adding pressure on Churchill's government.
1940 August
In Berlin, Hitler goes over the strategic plan for the capture of the British Base of Gibraltar.
1940 September
For the German press, there is no doubt that America fully supports Britain.
1940 October
Waves of Luftwaffe planes bomb London without letup. The city is enveloped by thick clouds of smoke and flames and its inhabitants are forced to take refuge in precarious shelters with no water or electricity.
1940 November
After 57 consecutive days of heavy bombing, the city of London has a quiet night. It is now evident that the Germans have been unable to break British air defenses and their hopes that the Battle of Britain would only last a couple of weeks have faded.
1940 December
The Battle of Britain, Southampton, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth, and Bristol endure Luftwaffe attacks.
1941 January
In Washington, President Roosevelt tells members of the 77th American Congress that the United States is at a moment of unprecedented history.
1941 February
Winston Churchill declares in a speech on the radio that the American people and government are resolved to provide Britain with everything it needs for victory. "Give us the means and we will finish the job," he says.
1941 March
In a meeting with the War Cabinet, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill analyzes the German occupation of Bulgaria.
1941 April
In Berlin, Hitler again meets with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, who is returning from his visit to Italy. They study the possibility of an attack against Singapore and the consequences of a possible American intervention in the war.
1941 May
In London, in the House of Commons, Winston Churchill outlines the situation in the Mediterranean.
1941 June
Winston Churchill speaks with President Roosevelt on the telephone and appeals for more help as Britain is in a desperate situation.
1941 July
In London, Winston Churchill declares on the radio that in recent weeks British planes have dropped on Germany half the number of bombs that the Germans have dropped during the whole war.
1941 August
The American government announces a new oil embargo on all countries outside the Western Hemisphere except those belonging to the British Empire. Japan is hit the hardest by the measure.
1941 September
In Berlin, a decree is introduced ordering all Jews older than six years of age and living in German territory to wear a Star of David sewed onto their clothes over the chest.
1941 October
The government of the Third Reich decrees that no Jews will be allowed to leave Germany or the occupied territories. The Battle of Moscow begins. The third and fourth Panzer groups of Marshal Von Bock launch the first attack of Operation Typhoon (Taifun).
1941 November
The American public is shocked by the deaths of some of the crew members of the destroyer Reuben James. Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, declares that the sinking of the vessel was a cowardly action even worse than piracy.
1941 December
The Japanese Naval Air Forces commanded by Vice Admiral Nagumo launch their attack against the American military base.
1942 January
President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet in the White House.
1942 February
Japan is stretched to the limits of their capacities. They have suffered ten thousand casualties in Malaysia and their supply system is broken.
1942 March
In London, a depressed Winston Churchill passes through one of his worst moments in office.
1942 April
At his headquarters in Rastenburg, Hitler meets with Himmler.
1942 May
In the Philippines, General Jonathan Wainwright informs President Roosevelt and General MacArthur that it is useless to keep defending their positions on the island of Corregidor.
1942 June
A decree is issued in France and the Netherlands, making use of the Star of David on clothes compulsory.
1942 July
In Berlin, Heinrich Himmler presides over a secret meeting along with his personal doctor, Karl Gebhardt.
1942 August
General Dwight Eisenhower is officially named Commander in Chief of the Allied forces in Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill also agree to put him in charge of Operation Torch, the Allied landings on the French colonies of North Africa.
1942 September
The Fuhrer, distanced from direct contact with his High Command, and as he had vowed, eats alone and refuses to shake hands with some of his commanders. His obsession has become the rapid conquest of Stalingrad.
1942 October
Hitler is obsessed with the conquest of Stalingrad, although General Kurt Zeitzler, the new Chief of the Army General Staff
1942 November
Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, after analyzing the situation orders part of the Italian forces to withdraw to positions behind the Afrika Korps.
1942 December
In Stalingrad, two hundred and fifty thousand German soldiers from the Sixth Army have been trapped in the Cauldron (Der Kessel), where rotting corpses are piling up.
1943 January
In the Pacific, the Japanese High Command decides to evacuate the island of Guadalcanal. This means giving up complete control of the Solomon Islands and mastery of their northwest shipping routes to Australia and New Zealand.
1943 February
In Stalingrad, the men of General Shumilov capture Marshal Friedrich Paulus. The remainders of the Sixth Army and the Fourth Panzerarmee have surrendered to the Red Army.
1943 March
At Madison Square Garden's in New York, more than 20,000 Jews gather under the banner of the "American Jewish Congress"
1943 April
Many among the Nazi leadership are convinced that Germany will eventually be defeated.
1943 May
In Poland, over two thousand Jews are transferred from Wlodawa to the Sobibor death camp, directed by the SS general Franz Reichleitner.
1943 June
German and Ukrainian soldiers encircle the Lvov ghetto (eastern Poland) to prevent its inhabitants from fleeing.
1943 July
The losses on both camps are rocketing. The intensity of the fighting is draining the morale out of men who are fighting among heaps of rotting corpses and tanks that have been turned into scrap.
1943 August
The American planes take off from a base near Benghazi (Libya) and, after flying 2,400 miles to reach the target, find it are heavily defended by German fighters and anti aircraft batteries.
1943 September
The American carrier-based fighter plane Grumman F6F ‚Hellcat sees action for the first time. Protected by a heavy fuselage and armed with six 12.7mm machineguns, it will attain air supremacy.
1943 October
Hitler orders the Marshal Kesselring to maintain defensive lines south of Rome and use any means necessary to avoid the Allies' advancing north. In Poland, 1196 children arrive at Auschwitz death camp from the Bialystok ghetto.
1943 November
In Europe, Heinrich Himmler has decided to annihilate outright the Jews of the Polish labour camps. He orders Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger, head of the SS and the police in occupied Poland, to direct the extermination.
1943 December
Several squadrons of the RAF bomb Berlin, dropping more than 1,500 tons of bombs that destroy two factories owned by Siemens and several railway centers located around the city.
1944 January
In Germany, Hitler in his New Year's address to the German people, reasserts his will to keep fighting ‚no matter how long the war may last
1944 February
Over 800 RAF bombers launch a night-time attack against the German city of Leipzig, which is followed in the morning by an air raid by the Eight US Air Force in what comes to be known as the Big Week
1944 March
Allied commanders estimate that German troops need an average of four thousand tons of supplies daily to supply the forces that are in position on the Gustav Line and surrounding the Anzio beachhead.
1944 April
Hitler issues an order to the commanders on the Eastern Front encouraging them to achieve victory and saying "the Russians have exhausted their strength and it's time to finally stop their advance."
1944 May
Stalin claims that Germany has been defeated during a speech delivered during the May Day celebrations.
1944 June
In the early hours of the morning, 180 men of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Battalion of the Sixth Airborne Division, known as The Red Devils
1944 July
To date, the Allies have landed to date more than one million soldiers and one hundred and seventy thousand vehicles in northern France.
1944 August
Under Hitler's instructions, Heinrich Himmler orders that all family members of Von Stauffenberg be persecuted. His wife Nina, a few months pregnant, is arrested by security forces and sent to prison and then to the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp.
1944 September
On the Western Front in northern France, General Eisenhower sets up his headquarters in the city of Reims.
1944 October
Hitler orders that all women born in 1928, in other words all 16 year-olds, are to be mobilized for the war effort.
1944 November
The Japanese launch the strategy of sending fire balloons over the Pacific Ocean with the hope that they will reach the United States and produce massive wildfires in the West Coast woodlands.
1944 December
Charles De Gaulle travels to Moscow to meet with Josef Stalin. After a number of meetings over several days, they will sign a military alliance against Germany.
1945 January
Both for Germany and for Japan, the outcome of the year 1944 has been catastrophic. Hitler's secret weapons have not had the desired effect, and they are proving inconsequential in the development of the war.
1945 February
Among the few remaining active senior figures within the German High Command, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Alfred Jodl and Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, are still unquestioningly loyal to Hitler.
1945 March
On the Eastern Front, the Germans fight a cutthroat battle, roused by National Socialist fanaticism and radical anti-communism.
1945 April
Fifty thousand U.S. troops land unopposed along thirteen kilometers of beach of the southwest coast near Hagushi. Casualties are so scarce that the Marines call today the day of love.
1945 May
In Germany, Hamburg radio announces Hitler's death: ‚fallen at his command in the Reich Chancery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism. Grand Admiral Karl Donitz becomes the new head of state.
1945 June
American bombers attack the Japanese city of Osaka, dropping over three thousand firebombs.
1945 July
In Europe, the power of Stalin and his armies has penetrated into the heart of Europe. American and British troops begin to withdraw from the areas assigned to the Soviets, accompanied by many refugees.
1945 August
On the Pacific front, American Secret Services, after intercepting Japanese government messages, are convinced they will not accept unconditional surrender.
1945 September
The various delegations that will participate in the formal Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri continue to arrive.
