Key dates and events of World War 2. Stages of the Second World War

1939 , September 1. The attack of Germany (with the support of Slovakia) on Poland is the beginning of the Second World War. Main events of the Polish campaign: defeat of the Polish armies in the border battle (September 1–6, 1939); the battle of Bzura, during which German troops repelled the offensive of the Polish armies “Poznan” and “Pomoże” (9–22.9.1939); the battle of Tomaszow Mazowiecki, in which two Polish groups trying to break through to the Romanian border were successively defeated (September 17–26, 1939); surrender of Warsaw (28.9.1939); surrender of the Modlin fortress (29.9.1939); surrender of the Polish garrison on the Hel Peninsula (October 2, 1939); surrender of the Polesie group - the last organized formation of the Polish army (10/6/1939).

1939 , September 1. The adoption in the USSR of a new law on military service, which abolished restrictions on social grounds.

1939 , September 3. Declaration of war on Germany by France and Great Britain (along with the latter were its dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). The beginning of the “Phantom War” on the Franco-German border.

1939 , September 17. Soviet troops crossing the Polish border and occupying Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.

1939 , September -October. The conclusion of the USSR agreements with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the deployment of military bases on their territory.

1939 , November 30th. The beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war, which ended on March 12, 1940 with the signing of peace, according to which Finland retained its independence, although it ceded the Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg and Eastern Karelia to the USSR.

1939 , December 14. Expulsion of the USSR from the League of Nations for aggression against Finland.

1940 , April 9. The invasion of Denmark and Norway by German troops is the beginning of the Norwegian campaign. Main events: the Germans captured the main strategic points of Denmark and Norway (by April 10, 1940); landing of allied Anglo-French troops in Central Norway (13–14 April 1940); defeat of the Allies and evacuation of their troops from Central Norway (by May 2, 1940); Allied offensive on Narvik (12.5.1940); evacuation of the Allies from Narvik (by 8/6/1940).

1940 , May 10. The beginning of the offensive of German troops on the Western Front. Main events: defeat of the Dutch army and its surrender (by 14.5.1940); encirclement of the British-Franco-Belgian group on the territory of Belgium (by 20.5.1940); surrender of the Belgian army (27.5.1940); evacuation of British and part of French troops from Dunkirk to Great Britain (by 3/6/1940); the offensive of the German army and the breakthrough of the defense of the French army (06/09/1940); signing of an armistice between France and Germany, under the terms of which most of France was subject to occupation (June 22, 1940).

1940 , May 10. The formation of a government in Great Britain led by Winston Churchill, a strong supporter of war until victory.

1940 , June 18. General Charles de Gaulle's address to the French people, which laid the foundation for Free France, an organization that continued the fight against Germany.

1940 , June 26. The USSR's demand to Romania for the return of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina captured by it in 1918 (the Soviet demand was satisfied on June 28, 1940).

1940 , July 10. The transfer of power by the French parliament to Marshal Philippe Pétain is the end of the Third Republic and the establishment of the “Vichy regime”.

1940 , 21 -July 22. Adoption by the parliaments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania of the declaration on joining the USSR (their decisions were approved by the Soviet side on August 3–6, 1940).

1940 , August 1. The beginning of the air battle for Great Britain, which ended on 6.1941 with the recognition by the German command of the fact of the impossibility of achieving air superiority.

1940 , 9th of September. The Italian attack on Egypt marks the beginning of the war in North Africa. Egypt formally declares war on Italy and its allies.

1940 , September 22nd. Signing of the Franco-Japanese agreement on the entry of Japanese troops into French Indochina.

1940 , September 27. Signing of the Tripartite Pact between Germany, Italy and Japan.

1940 , 28 of October. Italian attack on Greece, spreading the war to the Balkans.

1940 , November 12 and 13. Molotov's negotiations in Berlin, during which the USSR refused to join the Tripartite Pact.

1940 , November 14. The most destructive German air raid on Coventry, which became a symbol of Nazi air piracy.

1940 , 9th December. The beginning of the offensive of British troops in North Africa, which led to a heavy defeat for the Italian army.

1940 , December 18. Hitler's approval of the plan for waging war against the USSR (Plan "Barbarossa").

1941 , January. Franco-Thai conflict in Indochina.

1941 , January 19. The beginning of the offensive of the British army in East Africa, which ended on May 18, 1941 with the surrender of Italian troops and the liberation of the Italian colonies (including Ethiopia).

1941 , February. The arrival of German troops in North Africa, which on March 31, 1941 went on the offensive and defeated the British.

1941 , April 6. The offensive of the German army with the assistance of Italy and Hungary against Yugoslavia (its army surrendered on April 18, 1941) and Greece (its army surrendered on April 21, 1941).

1941 , April 10th. Proclamation of the “Independent State of Croatia”, which included the Bosnian lands.

1941 , April 13. The USSR signed a non-aggression treaty with Japan, which provided for neutrality in the event of an attack on one of the powers of a third state, as well as the liquidation of Japanese concessions in Northern Sakhalin in exchange for guaranteed supplies of Soviet oil.

1941 , May. The Anglo-Iraqi War, which ended with the removal of the pro-German government from power in Iraq (16.1.1943 Iraq declared war on Germany).

1941 , 12 May. Introducing the Z3 computer in Germany, the first truly functional programmable computer.

1941 , May 20. The German parachute landing on Crete, which ended in the defeat of British and Greek troops.

1941 , June 8. The beginning of the Syrian-Lebanese campaign, during which British troops and Free French forces forced the capitulation of French troops subordinate to the government of Marshal Pétain (July 14, 1941), and established control over Syria and Lebanon.

1941 , 22nd of June. Germany declares war on the Soviet Union and begins the offensive of the German army. Together with Germany, its allies – Italy, Romania, Finland, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia – acted.

1941 , 22nd of June – July 9. Border battles in the Baltic states (Northwestern Front, Colonel General F.I. Kuznetsov), Belarus (Western Front, Army General D.G. Pavlov) and Western Ukraine (Southwestern Front, Colonel General M.P. Kirponos), which ended with the abandonment of these territories and the encirclement of large groups of Soviet troops in the areas of Bialystok and Minsk.

1941 , 30 June. The creation of the State Defense Committee (GKO) under the chairmanship of I.V. Stalin - a body that concentrated all power in the country during the war.

1941 , 3 July. J.V. Stalin's speech on the radio, in which he called on Soviet citizens to unite with the party and the army in order to repel the German offensive.

1941, July 7 -September 26. Kiev defensive operation, in which parts of the German army groups “Center” (Field Marshal F. von Bock) and “South” (Field Marshal I. Rundstedt) surrounded the Soviet armies of the Southwestern Front (Colonel General M. P. Kirponos ) and captured most of Ukraine and Kyiv (19.9.1941).

1941 , July 10. The beginning of the offensive of the German Army Group North (Field Marshal W. Ritter von Leeb) against the Soviet armies of the North-Western Front - the beginning of the battle for Leningrad. Main events: battles on the Luga River (7.1941); breakthrough of German forces in the Luga fortified area (8/8/1941); capture of Shlisselburg - beginning of the siege of Leningrad (8.9.1941); the capture of Tikhvin on the right bank of the Volkhov - the threat of double envelopment of Leningrad (11/8/1941); Soviet counteroffensive and liberation of Tikhvin (12.1941); the unsuccessful Lyuban operation of Soviet troops to lift the blockade of Leningrad (1–4.1942); the unsuccessful Sinyavinsk operation of Soviet troops to lift the blockade of Leningrad (8–10.1942); breaking the blockade of Leningrad (Operation Iskra, 1.1943); complete lifting of the blockade of Leningrad (1.1944).

Fronts of the Great Patriotic War. 1941

1941 , July 10 -10 September. The Battle of Smolensk, during which the Western Front (Marshal S.K. Timoshenko), reinforced by Bryansk (Lieutenant General A.I. Eremenko), Central (Colonel General F.I. Kuznetsov) and Reserve (Army General G.K. Zhukov) fronts, was able to delay the advance of Army Group Center on Moscow.

1941 , July 18. Resolution on the organization of struggle in the rear of German troops, which marked the beginning of partisan warfare.

1941 , July 18. Resolution on the introduction of a card distribution system in Moscow and Leningrad (later in other areas).

1941 , 10th of August – October 16. Defense of Odessa by the Separate Primorsky Army (Lieutenant General G. P. Safronov).

1941 , 25-th of August. The beginning of the Soviet-British operation to occupy Iran (declared war on Germany on September 9, 1943).

1941, September 30 – 1942 , 6th January. The Battle of Moscow, in which the Soviet armies of the West (Colonel General I.S. Konev, then Army General G.K. Zhukov), Reserve (Marshal S.M. Budyonny, then Army General G.K. Zhukov), Bryansk ( Lieutenant General A. I. Eremenko, then Major General G. F. Zakharov) and Kalinin (Colonel General I. S. Konev) fronts repelled the attack on Moscow by the German Army Group Center (Field Marshal F. von Bock ), went on a counter-offensive (December 5, 1941) and defeated it, disrupting the implementation of the German plan for a lightning war.

1941 , October 30. The beginning of the defense of Sevastopol by units of the Separate Primorsky Army transferred from Odessa (Major General I. E. Petrov), which continued until the evacuation of the city on July 3, 1942.

1941 , November 17. The beginning of the counter-offensive of the Soviet armies of the Southern Front (Colonel General Ya. T. Cherevichenko), which allowed the liberation of Rostov-on-Don.

Fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Winter 1941–1942

1941 , December 7. The Japanese attack on the American base at Pearl Harbor marks the beginning of the Pacific War and the rapid advance of Japanese troops. The main events of the first stage of the war: Japanese landings in Thailand, British Malaya and the Philippines (12/8/1941); destruction of the British fleet off the coast of Malaya (12/10/1941); the beginning of the seizure of the British and Dutch colonies in the Indonesian archipelago (12/14/1941); capture of Hong Kong (12/25/1941); the beginning of the Japanese offensive in Burma (21.1.1942); surrender of Singapore, the Far Eastern stronghold of Great Britain (15.2.1942); surrender of allied forces in Indonesia (8.3.1942); cessation of resistance by American troops in the Philippines (8.5.1942); completion of the capture of Burma by the Japanese (by May 15, 1942).

1941 , December 8. Declaration of war on Japan by the United States and Great Britain. Their example is formally followed by the United States' Central American allies - Haiti, Guatemala, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Cuba, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador.

1941 , December 25. The Kerch-Feodosia operation was a Soviet landing on the eastern coast of Crimea, which eased German pressure on Sevastopol.

1942 , January. Attempt Soviet army go on the offensive along the entire front. Main events: Rzhev-Vyazemskaya and Toropetsko-Kholmskaya operations of the Kalinin (Colonel General I.S. Konev), Western (Army General G.K. Zhukov) and Northwestern (Lieutenant General P.A. Kurochkin) fronts, in during which the Soviet units that broke through behind enemy lines were blocked and were unable to build on their success (1–4.1942); the unsuccessful Lyuban operation of the Leningrad Front (Lieutenant General M. S. Khozin) to break the blockade of Leningrad (1–4.1942); unsuccessful battles in the Demyansk area, where an encircled group of German troops defended (1–4.1942); the offensive of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts under the overall command of Marshal S.K. Timoshenko with the aim of encircling German troops near Kharkov, which did not produce decisive results (1–3.1942).

1942 , January 8. The beginning of the Battle of Rzhev - a series of unsuccessful operations by Soviet troops to encircle Army Group Center (Field Marshal G. von Kluge). Main events: Rzhev-Vyazma operation of the Kalinin (Colonel General I. S. Konev) and Western (Army General G. K. Zhukov) fronts (8.1–20.4.1942); 1st Rzhev-Sychevsky operation of the Kalinin (Colonel General I.S. Konev) and Western (Army General G.K. Zhukov) fronts (30.7–1.10.1942); 2nd Rzhev-Sychevsky operation of the Kalinin (Colonel General M. A. Purkaev) and Western (Colonel General I. S. Konev) fronts (Operation “Mars”, 11/25–12/20/1942); withdrawal of German troops from the Rzhev salient (Operation Buffel, 3.1943).

1942 , January 20th. The Nazis adopted a plan to exterminate all the Jews of Europe during the Wannsee Conference (“the final solution to the Jewish question”).

1942 , March 8. The Japanese invasion of New Guinea, heavy fighting for which ended in their defeat by January 21, 1943.

1942 , March 14th. The first case of a patient being successfully cured with penicillin.

1942 , March 16. The first test of the German V-2 ballistic missile, the ancestor of modern ballistic and space rockets.

1942 , 4 -May 8. The Battle of the Coral Sea is the first ever aircraft carrier combat engagement.

1942 , 5 May. The beginning of the landing of British troops in Madagascar and battles with French troops subordinate to the government of Marshal Pétain, which ended with the transfer of the island to the control of the Free French (by November 8, 1942).

1942 , May 17. The German army went on the offensive against the Soviet troops weakened by the ineffective offensive. Main events: an attempted Soviet offensive near Kharkov (12/5/1942), repelled by a German counter-offensive (17/5/1942), as a result of which the Soviet strike force was surrounded; defeat of the Crimean Front (5.1942); German offensive against the Southwestern Front and the withdrawal of Soviet troops east of Kharkov (6.1942); The Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad defensive operation, during which the German army inflicted a heavy defeat on the Soviet troops, captured the Donbass and crossed the Don, posing a threat to Stalingrad and North Caucasus (28.6–24.7.1942).

1942 , 4 -June 7. The defeat of the Japanese fleet at Midway Atoll was a turning point in the war in the Pacific.

1942 , July 17th -1943 , February 2 . Battle of Stalingrad, during which the Soviet troops of Stalingrad (Marshal S.K. Timoshenko, from July 23, 1943 - Lieutenant General V.N. Gordov, from August 9, 1943 - Colonel General A.I. Eremenko), South-Eastern (General- Colonel A. I. Eremenko) and Don (Lieutenant General K. K. Rokossovsky) fronts repelled the offensive of the German Army Group B (Field Marshal F. von Bock, then Colonel General M. von Weichs), crossed on 11/19. 1942 in a counteroffensive, defeated Army Group B, surrounded the 6th German Army (Field Marshal F. von Paulus) and forced it to capitulate (2.2.1943), repelling all attempts by the German command to release it. The victory in the Battle of Stalingrad meant a turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

Fronts of the Great Patriotic War. 1942

1942 , July 25 – 1943 , October 9. The Battle of the Caucasus, during which the German Army Group A (Field Marshal W. List, then Field Marshal E. von Kleist) was able to reach the foothills of the Caucasus, where it was stopped by Soviet troops of the North Caucasus (Marshal S.M. Budyonny, then Lieutenant General I. I. Maslennikov, from 8.1943 - Lieutenant General I. E. Petrov) and Southern (Colonel General A. I. Eremenko) fronts (11.1942) and due to the defeat of Army Group “B” began a retreat (1.1.1943), which ended on 9.4.1943, leaving part of the forces on the Taman Peninsula, which were knocked out from there during the Novorossiysk-Taman operation (9.9–9.10.1943).

1942 , 8 August. The beginning of the battles for the island of Guadalcanal - the first major offensive of the Americans and their allies, which ended with the evacuation of the Japanese (by February 7, 1943).

1942 , November 8. The landing of British and American troops in French North Africa.

1942 , November 19. The beginning of the Soviet counteroffensive at Stalingrad, which led to the encirclement of the 6th Army - for the first time the German army was destroyed in encirclement.

1943 , April 7. Bolivia formally declares war on Germany, Japan and their allies. Until the end of the war, the rest of the South American republics followed suit: Colombia (11/26/1943), Peru (2/12/1944), Ecuador (2/2/1945), Paraguay (2/7/1945), Venezuela (2/15/1945), Uruguay (2/15/1945) ), Argentina (27.3.1945) and Chile (11.4.1945).

1943 , 12 May. The surrender of German-Italian troops in Tunisia is the end of the fighting in North Africa.

1943 , May 15. The dissolution of the Comintern is a rejection of the policy of inciting revolutions throughout the world.

1943 , 5'th of July. The beginning of the last strategic offensive of the German army - the Battle of Kursk, during which Soviet troops with stubborn defense exhausted the advancing army groups "Center" (Field Marshal G. von Kluge) and "South" (Field Marshal E. von Manstein) and in as a result of the counteroffensive of the Central (Army General K.K. Rokossovsky), Voronezh (Army General N.F. Vatutin), Steppe (Colonel General I.S. Konev), Western (Colonel General V.D. Sokolovsky), Bryansk ( Colonel General M. M. Popov) and the South-Western (Army General R. Ya. Malinovsky) fronts were liberated by Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov. The strategic initiative finally passed into the hands of the Soviet command.

1943 , July 10. The landing of British-American troops in Sicily marks the beginning of the war in Italy. Main events: Mussolini's removal from the post of prime minister (25.7.1943); signing of the armistice between Italy and the Allies (3.9.1943, published 8.9.1943); the beginning of the landing of allied troops in Italy (8.9.1943); the release of Mussolini (18.9.1943), who announced the creation of a fascist republic in the North of Italy (18.9.1943); declaration of war on Germany by the Italian royal government (10/13/1943); entry of American troops into Rome (4.6.1944); the beginning of the decisive Allied offensive (April 9, 1945), which led to the surrender of German troops in Italy and the cessation of fighting (by May 1, 1945).

1943 , 25-th of August – December 23. The Battle of the Dnieper, during which Soviet troops of the Belorussian (Army General K.K. Rokossovsky), 1st (Army General N.F. Vatutin), 2nd (Army General I.S. Konev), 3rd ( Army General R. Ya. Malinovsky) and the 4th (Army General F. I. Tolbukhin) Ukrainian fronts liberated Left Bank Ukraine, took Kiev (11/6/1943), crossed the Dnieper and began the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine.

1943 , September. Russian Cathedral Orthodox Church, at which the patriarch was re-elected (since 1925, the Bolsheviks did not allow the Council to be convened and the patriarch to be elected), this is a manifestation of the improvement in relations between the Soviet government and the Church.

1943 , November 2. The deportation of the Karachais is the beginning of a series of deportations of peoples who were entirely accused of collaborating with the German occupiers. The following people were evicted from their native places: Kalmyks (12/28/1943), Chechens and Ingush (2/23/1944), Balkars (3/8/1944), Crimean Tatars (5/18/1944) and other peoples of Crimea (6/2/1944).

1943 , November 22. Recognition of the independence of Lebanon on behalf of France by General Charles de Gaulle.

1943 , November 28 – December 1. Tehran Conference of the leaders of the USSR (J.V. Stalin), Great Britain (W. Churchill) and the USA (F. Roosevelt), at which, among others, decisions were made on the landing of Anglo-American troops in France, on the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan and about moving the Polish border to the west.

1944 , January 14 – March 1. "1st Stalin's blow": lifting the blockade of Leningrad by the troops of the Leningrad (Colonel General L. A. Govorov) and Volkhov (Army General K. A. Meretskov) fronts, while the troops of Army Group North (Field Marshal von Küchler, then Colonel General V . Model) were thrown back to the borders of the Baltic states.

1944 , January 24 – April 17. “2nd Stalinist strike”: delivered by the 1st (Army General N.F. Vatutin), 2nd (Army General I.S. Konev), 3rd (Army General R. Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th m (Army General F.I. Tolbukhin) Ukrainian fronts defeat the troops of Army Groups “South” (Field Marshal E. von Manstein) and “A” (Field Marshal E. von Kleist), liberation of Right Bank Ukraine and part of Moldova, capture Odessa (10.4.1944) and the encirclement of part of the German troops near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky.

1944 , January 27. Liberia formally declares war on Germany and its allies.

1944 , March 8. The beginning of the Japanese attack on India, repelled by British troops who launched a counteroffensive (by 11/1944).

1944 , April 8 -12 May. “Stalin’s 3rd strike”: liberation of Crimea by the 4th Ukrainian Front (Army General F.I. Tolbukhin) and the Separate Primorsky Army (Army General A.I. Eremenko), while the German 17th Army was destroyed and Sevastopol was occupied (9.5.1944).

1944 , June 6. The landing of British-American troops in Normandy is the opening of a “second front” in Europe and the beginning of the liberation of France. Main events: Allied offensive from the captured bridgehead (25.7.1944); landing of American-French troops in the South of France (August 15, 1944); liberation of Paris (25.8.1944); exit of the Allied armies to the German border (11.9.1944); liberation of Alsace and Lorraine (by 11.1944); liquidation of the Colmar bridgehead (by 9.2.1945).

1944 , June 10th – August 9. “Stalin’s 4th blow”: the defeat of the Leningrad (Marshal L. A. Govorov) and Karelian (Marshal K. A. Meretskov) fronts of the Finnish army, the liberation of Karelia and Vyborg, forcing Finland to conclude a truce (19.9.1944) and the start of fighting against the German army.

1944 , June 17. Iceland breaks its union with Denmark and Iceland becomes an independent republic.

1944 , 22nd of June. The beginning of Operation Bagration, which led to the collapse of the German Army Group Center and the withdrawal of Soviet troops to the borders of Germany.

1944 , June 23 – August 29. “Stalin’s 5th strike”: Operation Bagration of the 1st (Army General K.K. Rokossovsky), 2nd (Colonel General G.F. Zakharov), 3rd Belorussian (Colonel General I.D. Chernyakhovsky) and the 1st Baltic Front (Army General I. Kh. Bagramyan) for the liberation of Belarus, accompanied by the defeat of the German Army Group Center (Field Marshal General E. Bush, then Field Marshal V. Model), encircling it large group in the area of ​​Vitebsk - Mogilev - Gomel and entering the territory of Poland.

1944 , July 13 – August 18. “Stalin’s 6th strike”: Lvov-Sandomierz operation of the 1st Ukrainian Front (Marshal I. S. Konev), which led to the defeat of Army Group “Northern Ukraine” (Colonel General J. Harpe) and the liberation of Western Ukraine.

1944 , July 31. Resolution on the eviction of Meskhetian Turks, Kurds and Hemshils from the regions of Georgia bordering Turkey.

1944 , August 1. The beginning of the Warsaw Uprising, which was suppressed by German troops on October 3, 1944.

1944 , August 20 – October. “Stalin’s 7th strike”: Iasi-Kishinev operation of the 2nd (Army General F.I. Tolbukhin) and 3rd (Army General R.Ya. Malinovsky) Ukrainian fronts, which ended in the defeat of Army Group “Southern Ukraine” (General -Colonel J. Friesner), the encirclement of a large German group, the liberation of Moldova, the transition of Romania to the side of the Soviet Union (August 24, 1944) and the subsequent liberation of Romania and Bulgaria.

1944 , 4 September. Finland concluded a truce with the USSR and began military operations against German troops located on its territory.

1944 , September 14 – 22 of October. “8th Stalinist strike”: Baltic operation of the 1st (Army General I.Kh. Bagramyan), 2nd (Army General A.I. Eremenko), 3rd Baltic (Army General I.I. Maslennikov) and Leningrad (Marshal L. A. Govorov) fronts in the Baltic States, which ended with the capture of Riga (10/15/1944), the retreat of the German army to the pre-war border and the blocking of Army Group North (Colonel General F. Schörner) in western Latvia.

1944 , 8 September – 1945 , February 13. “Stalin’s 9th strike”: East Carpathian operation of the 1st (Marshal I. S. Konev) and 4th (Army General I. E. Petrov) Ukrainian fronts, during which Soviet troops entered the territory of Czechoslovakia, Budapest operation with the participation of the 2nd (Army General F. I. Tolbukhin) and 3rd (Army General R. Ya. Malinovsky) Ukrainian Fronts, which ended with the occupation of the territory of Hungary, and the Belgrade operation of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and 46 1st Army of the 2nd Ukrainian Front with the assistance of Yugoslav and Bulgarian troops, which ended with the liberation of Belgrade (10/20/1944) and the main part of Serbia.

1944 , 17 -September 26. Allied airborne operation in Arnhem.

1944 , October 7th – Nov. 1. “Stalin’s 10th blow”: the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation of the 14th Army (Lieutenant General V.I. Shcherbakov) of the Karelian Front, which ended with the liberation of the Soviet Arctic, the occupation of nickel mining in the Pechenga region and the entry into Norway.

1944 , October 11. Entry of the Tuvan People's Republic into the USSR as an autonomous region.

1944 , 24 -the 25th of October. The defeat of the main forces of the Japanese fleet in the Battle of Leyte Gulf.

Fronts of the Great Patriotic War. 1941–1944

1944 , November 19. The beginning of the offensive of British troops in Burma, which ended with its liberation (by May 3, 1945).

1944 , December. Clashes in Greece between communist partisans, on the one hand, and the British and their supporters, on the other, ending in January 1945 with the disarmament of the partisans.

1944 , 16 -December 25. The Battle of the Ardennes was the successful repulsion by the Allies of the last offensive of the German army on the Western Front.

1945 , January 12 – February 3rd. The Vistula-Oder operation of the 1st Belorussian (Marshal G.K. Zhukov) and 1st Ukrainian Fronts (Marshal I.S. Konev), during which most of the modern territory of Poland was occupied and the Kyustrinsky bridgehead on the Oder River was captured, which an attack on Berlin has been prepared.

1945 , 13th of January – 25th of April. East Prussian operation of the 2nd (Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) and 3rd Belorussian (Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky, from 20.2.1945 - Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky) fronts, which led to the defeat of Army Group Center "(Colonel General G. Reinhardt, then Colonel General L. Rendulic), during which the territory of East Prussia and its center, the city of Königsberg, were occupied (4/9/1945).

1945 , January 31. A torpedo attack by a Soviet submarine on the German liner Wilhelm Gustloff is the largest maritime disaster in human history (over 9,000 dead, mostly refugees).

1945 , 4 -11 February. The Yalta Conference of the leaders of the USSR (J.V. Stalin), Great Britain (W. Churchill) and the USA (F. Roosevelt), at which, among others, a decision was made on the post-war structure of Germany.

1945 , February 10 -early April. The East Pomeranian operation of the 1st (Marshal G.K. Zhukov) and 2nd (Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) Belorussian fronts, which ended with the defeat of the Vistula Army Group (Reichsführer SS G. Himmler), the occupation of Eastern Pomerania (northern -western part of present-day Poland) and securing the right flank of the Soviet group, which was to attack Berlin.

1945 , February 13. The three-day Allied bombing of Dresden begins, causing enormous civilian casualties.

1945 , February 19. The landing of American troops on the island of Iwo Jima (the defeat of the Japanese garrison was completed by March 26, 1945).

1945 , February 23. Turkey's formal declaration of war on Germany and its allies. Her example is followed by other states of the Middle East: Syria and Lebanon (27.2.1945), Saudi Arabia (28.2.1945).

1945 , 6 -March 15th. The Balaton defensive operation of the Soviet troops, during which they successfully repelled the last enemy offensive on the eastern front.

1945 , March 16 -April 1. Vienna operation of the 2nd (Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky) and 3rd (Marshal F. I. Tolbukhin) Ukrainian fronts, during which Army Group South (Infantry General O. Weller) was defeated and the main part of Austria was occupied with Vienna.

1945 , March 23. The beginning of the offensive of the Allied armies on the Rhine, which ended with the defeat of the German army on the western front.

1945 , April 1. The landing of American troops on the Japanese island of Okinawa begins (the Japanese garrison was destroyed by July 2, 1945).

1945 , April 16 -May 8. The Berlin operation of the 1st (Marshal G.K. Zhukov) and 2nd (Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky) Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian (Marshal I.S. Konev) fronts, during which Soviet troops occupied East Germany and the city of Berlin (the garrison capitulated on May 2, 1945).

1945 , 6 -May 11. The Prague operation of the 1st (Marshal I.S. Konev), 2nd (Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th Ukrainian (Army General A.I. Eremenko) fronts, during which their units occupied the territory of the Czech Republic, providing assistance to Prague, which rebelled against the Germans.

1945 , 9th May. The acceptance of Germany's surrender by the Soviet command is the official date of the end of the Great Patriotic War.

1945 , July 16. Testing of the first nuclear bomb by the United States of America.

1945 , July 17th – August 2. The Potsdam Conference of the heads of the USSR (J.V. Stalin), the USA (H. Truman) and Great Britain (K. Attlee), which decided to eradicate Nazism in Germany and establish a democratic system in it. By decision of the conference, Germany was deprived of Silesia, part of Pomerania and Prussia, which went to Poland and the USSR (where the Koenigsberg, now Kaliningrad, region was created).

1945 , August 6 and 9. Atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by American aircraft.

1945 , August 9 -September 2. Manchurian operation of the Transbaikal (Marshal R. Ya. Malinovsky), 1st (Marshal K.A. Meretskov) and 2nd (Army General M.A. Purkaev) Far Eastern Fronts under the overall command of Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky, during which defeated the Kwantung Army and occupied Manchuria and Port Arthur.

1945 , 11 -25-th of August. The South Sakhalin operation of the 16th Army (Lieutenant General L. G. Cheremisov) of the 2nd Far Eastern Front, which ended with the liberation of South Sakhalin.

1945 , August 18 -September 1. The Kuril landing operation of part of the forces of the 2nd Far Eastern Front and the Pacific Fleet, which ended with the occupation of the Kuril Islands.

1945 , September 2. The surrender of Japan (it ceded Southern Sakhalin to the Soviet Union, Kurile Islands, Port Arthur and CER) – the end of World War II.

The largest war in human history, the Second World War became a logical continuation of the First World War. In 1918, the Kaiser's Germany lost to the Entente countries. The result of the First World War was the Treaty of Versailles, according to which the Germans lost part of their territory. Germany was prohibited from having a large army, navy and colonies. An unprecedented crisis has begun in the country. economic crisis. It became even worse after the Great Depression of 1929.

German society barely survived its defeat. Massive revanchist sentiments arose. Populist politicians began to play on the desire to “restore historical justice.” The National Socialist German Workers' Party, led by Adolf Hitler, began to enjoy great popularity.

Causes

Radicals came to power in Berlin in 1933. The German state quickly became totalitarian and began to prepare for the upcoming war for dominance in Europe. Simultaneously with the Third Reich, its own “classical” fascism arose in Italy.

The Second World War (1939-1945) involved events not only in the Old World, but also in Asia. In this region, Japan was a source of concern. In the Land of the Rising Sun, just like in Germany, imperialist sentiments were extremely popular. China, weakened by internal conflicts, became the object of Japanese aggression. The war between the two Asian powers began in 1937, and with the outbreak of conflict in Europe it became part of the overall Second World War. Japan turned out to be an ally of Germany.

During the Third Reich, it left the League of Nations (predecessor of the UN) and stopped its own disarmament. In 1938, the Anschluss (annexation) of Austria took place. It was bloodless, but the causes of World War II, in short, were that European politicians turned a blind eye to Hitler’s aggressive behavior and did not stop his policy of absorbing more and more territories.

Germany soon annexed the Sudetenland, which was inhabited by Germans but belonged to Czechoslovakia. Poland and Hungary also took part in the division of this state. In Budapest, the alliance with the Third Reich was maintained until 1945. The example of Hungary shows that the causes of the Second World War, in short, included the consolidation of anti-communist forces around Hitler.

Start

On September 1, 1939, they invaded Poland. A few days later, France, Great Britain and their numerous colonies declared war on Germany. Two key powers had allied agreements with Poland and acted in its defense. Thus began the Second World War (1939-1945).

A week before the Wehrmacht attacked Poland, German diplomats concluded a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. Thus, the USSR found itself on the sidelines of the conflict between the Third Reich, France and Great Britain. By signing an agreement with Hitler, Stalin was solving his own problems. In the period before the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Red Army entered Eastern Poland, the Baltic states and Bessarabia. In November 1939 it began Soviet-Finnish war. As a result, the USSR annexed several western regions.

While German-Soviet neutrality was maintained, the German army was engaged in the occupation of most of the Old World. 1939 was met with restraint by overseas countries. In particular, the United States declared its neutrality and maintained it until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

Blitzkrieg in Europe

Polish resistance was broken after just a month. All this time, Germany acted on only one front, since the actions of France and Great Britain were of a low-initiative nature. The period from September 1939 to May 1940 received the characteristic name of the “Strange War”. During these few months, Germany, in the absence of active actions by the British and French, occupied Poland, Denmark and Norway.

The first stages of World War II were characterized by transience. In April 1940, Germany invaded Scandinavia. Air and naval landings entered key Danish cities without hindrance. A few days later, monarch Christian X signed the capitulation. In Norway, the British and French landed troops, but they were powerless against the onslaught of the Wehrmacht. The early periods of World War II were characterized by the general advantage of the Germans over their enemy. The long preparation for future bloodshed took its toll. The whole country worked for the war, and Hitler did not hesitate to throw more and more resources into its cauldron.

In May 1940, the invasion of Benelux began. The whole world was shocked by the unprecedented destructive bombing of Rotterdam. Thanks to their swift attack, the Germans managed to occupy key positions before the Allies appeared there. By the end of May, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg had capitulated and were occupied.

During the summer, the battles of World War II moved into France. In June 1940, Italy joined the campaign. Its troops attacked the south of France, and the Wehrmacht attacked the north. Soon a truce was signed. Most of France was occupied. In a small free zone in the south of the country, the Peten regime was established, which cooperated with the Germans.

Africa and the Balkans

In the summer of 1940, after Italy entered the war, the main theater of military operations moved to the Mediterranean. The Italians invaded North Africa and attacked British bases in Malta. At that time, there were a significant number of English and French colonies on the “Dark Continent”. The Italians initially concentrated on the eastern direction - Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Sudan.

Some French colonies in Africa refused to recognize the new French government led by Pétain. Charles de Gaulle became the symbol of the national struggle against the Nazis. In London, he created a liberation movement called "Fighting France". British troops, together with de Gaulle's troops, began to recapture the African colonies from Germany. Equatorial Africa and Gabon were liberated.

In September the Italians invaded Greece. The attack took place against the backdrop of the fighting for North Africa. Many fronts and stages of the Second World War began to intertwine with each other due to the increasing expansion of the conflict. The Greeks managed to successfully resist the Italian onslaught until April 1941, when Germany intervened in the conflict, occupying Hellas in just a few weeks.

Simultaneously with the Greek campaign, the Germans began the Yugoslav campaign. The forces of the Balkan state were split into several parts. The operation began on April 6, and on April 17 Yugoslavia capitulated. Germany in World War II increasingly looked like an unconditional hegemon. Puppet pro-fascist states were created on the territory of occupied Yugoslavia.

Invasion of the USSR

All previous stages of World War II paled in scale compared to the operation that Germany was preparing to carry out in the USSR. War with the Soviet Union was only a matter of time. The invasion began exactly after the Third Reich occupied most of Europe and was able to concentrate all its forces on the Eastern Front.

Wehrmacht units crossed the Soviet border on June 22, 1941. For our country, this date became the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. Until the last moment, the Kremlin did not believe in the German attack. Stalin refused to take intelligence data seriously, considering it disinformation. As a result, the Red Army was completely unprepared for Operation Barbarossa. In the first days, airfields and other strategic infrastructure in the western Soviet Union were bombed without hindrance.

The USSR in World War II faced another German blitzkrieg plan. In Berlin they were planning to capture the main Soviet cities in the European part of the country by winter. For the first months everything went according to Hitler's expectations. Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states were completely occupied. Leningrad was under siege. The course of World War II brought the conflict to a key point. If Germany had defeated the Soviet Union, it would have had no opponents left except overseas Great Britain.

The winter of 1941 was approaching. The Germans found themselves in the vicinity of Moscow. They stopped on the outskirts of the capital. On November 7, a festive parade was held dedicated to the next anniversary of the October Revolution. Soldiers went straight from Red Square to the front. The Wehrmacht was stuck several tens of kilometers from Moscow. The German soldiers were demoralized by the harsh winter and the most difficult battle conditions. On December 5, the Soviet counteroffensive began. By the end of the year, the Germans were driven back from Moscow. The previous stages of World War II were characterized by the total advantage of the Wehrmacht. Now the army of the Third Reich stopped for the first time in its global expansion. The Battle of Moscow became the turning point of the war.

Japanese attack on the USA

Until the end of 1941, Japan remained neutral in the European conflict, while at the same time fighting China. At a certain point, the country's leadership faced a strategic choice: to attack the USSR or the USA. The choice was made in favor of the American version. On December 7, Japanese aircraft attacked naval base Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. As a result of the raid, almost all American battleships and, in general, a significant part of the American Pacific fleet were destroyed.

Until this moment, the United States had not openly participated in World War II. When the situation in Europe changed in favor of Germany, the American authorities began to support Great Britain with resources, but did not interfere in the conflict itself. Now the situation has changed 180 degrees, since Japan was an ally of Germany. The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Washington declared war on Tokyo. Great Britain and its dominions did the same. A few days later, Germany, Italy and their European satellites declared war on the United States. This is how the contours of the alliances that faced head-to-head confrontation in the second half of World War II were finally formed. The USSR had been at war for several months and also joined the anti-Hitler coalition.

In the new year of 1942, the Japanese invaded the Dutch East Indies, where they began to capture island after island without much difficulty. At the same time, the offensive in Burma was developing. By the summer of 1942, Japanese forces controlled all of Southeast Asia and large parts of Oceania. The United States in World War II changed the situation in the Pacific theater of operations somewhat later.

USSR counter-offensive

In 1942, the Second World War, the table of events of which usually includes basic information, was at its key stage. The forces of the opposing alliances were approximately equal. The turning point occurred towards the end of 1942. In the summer, the Germans launched another offensive in the USSR. This time their key target was the south of the country. Berlin wanted to cut off Moscow from oil and other resources. To do this, it was necessary to cross the Volga.

In November 1942, the whole world anxiously awaited news from Stalingrad. The Soviet counter-offensive on the banks of the Volga led to the fact that since then the strategic initiative was finally in the hands of the USSR. There was no bloodier or larger-scale battle in World War II than the Battle of Stalingrad. The total losses on both sides exceeded two million people. At the cost of incredible efforts, the Red Army stopped the Axis advance on the Eastern Front.

The next strategically important success of the Soviet troops was the Battle of Kursk in June - July 1943. That summer, the Germans tried for the last time to seize the initiative and launch an attack on Soviet positions. The Wehrmacht's plan failed. The Germans not only did not achieve success, but also abandoned many cities in central Russia (Orel, Belgorod, Kursk), while following the “scorched earth tactics.” All tank battles of World War II were bloody, but the largest was the Battle of Prokhorovka. It was a key episode of the entire Battle of Kursk. By the end of 1943 - beginning of 1944, Soviet troops liberated the south of the USSR and reached the borders of Romania.

Allied landings in Italy and Normandy

In May 1943, the Allies cleared the Italians from North Africa. The British fleet began to control the entire Mediterranean Sea. Earlier periods of World War II were characterized by Axis successes. Now the situation has become exactly the opposite.

In July 1943, American, British and French troops landed in Sicily, and in September on the Apennine Peninsula. The Italian government renounced Mussolini and within a few days signed a truce with the advancing opponents. The dictator, however, managed to escape. Thanks to the help of the Germans, he created the puppet republic of Salo in the industrial north of Italy. The British, French, Americans and local partisans gradually conquered more and more cities. On June 4, 1944, they entered Rome.

Exactly two days later, on the 6th, the Allies landed in Normandy. This is how the second or Western Front was opened, as a result of which the Second World War was ended (the table shows this event). In August, a similar landing began in the south of France. On August 25, the Germans finally left Paris. By the end of 1944 the front had stabilized. The main battles took place in the Belgian Ardennes, where each side made, for the time being, unsuccessful attempts to develop its own offensive.

On February 9, as a result of the Colmar operation, the German army stationed in Alsace was surrounded. The Allies managed to break through the defensive Siegfried Line and reach the German border. In March, after the Meuse-Rhine operation, the Third Reich lost territories beyond the western bank of the Rhine. In April, the Allies took control of the Ruhr industrial region. At the same time, the offensive continued in Northern Italy. On April 28, 1945 he fell into the hands of Italian partisans and was executed.

Capture of Berlin

In opening a second front, the Western Allies coordinated their actions with the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1944, the Red Army began to attack. Already in the fall, the Germans lost control over the remnants of their possessions in the USSR (with the exception of a small enclave in western Latvia).

In August, Romania, which had previously acted as a satellite of the Third Reich, withdrew from the war. Soon the authorities of Bulgaria and Finland did the same. The Germans began to hastily evacuate from the territory of Greece and Yugoslavia. In February 1945, the Red Army carried out the Budapest operation and liberated Hungary.

The route of Soviet troops to Berlin ran through Poland. Together with her, the Germans left East Prussia. The Berlin operation began at the end of April. Hitler, realizing his own defeat, committed suicide. On May 7, the act of German surrender was signed, which came into force on the night of the 8th to the 9th.

Defeat of the Japanese

Although the war ended in Europe, bloodshed continued in Asia and the Pacific. The last force to resist the Allies was Japan. In June the empire lost control of Indonesia. In July, Great Britain, the United States and China presented her with an ultimatum, which, however, was rejected.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These cases were the only ones in human history when nuclear weapons were used for combat purposes. On August 8, the Soviet offensive began in Manchuria. The Japanese Surrender Act was signed on September 2, 1945. This ended the Second World War.

Losses

Research is still being conducted on how many people suffered and how many died in World War II. On average, the number of lives lost is estimated at 55 million (of which 26 million were Soviet citizens). The financial damage amounted to $4 trillion, although it is hardly possible to calculate exact figures.

Europe was hit hardest. Its industry and agriculture continued to recover for many years. How many died in World War II and how many were destroyed became clear only after some time, when the world community was able to clarify the facts about Nazi crimes against humanity.

The largest bloodshed in human history was carried out using completely new methods. Entire cities were destroyed by bombing, and centuries-old infrastructure was destroyed in a few minutes. The Third Reich's genocide of World War II, directed against Jews, Gypsies and Slavic populations, is horrifying in its details to this day. German concentration camps became real “death factories,” and German (and Japanese) doctors conducted cruel medical and biological experiments on people.

Results

The results of the Second World War were summed up at the Potsdam Conference, held in July - August 1945. Europe was divided between the USSR and the Western allies. Communist pro-Soviet regimes were established in eastern countries. Germany lost a significant part of its territory. was annexed by the USSR, several more provinces passed to Poland. Germany was first divided into four zones. Then, on their basis, the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany and the socialist GDR emerged. In the east, the USSR received the Japanese-owned Kuril Islands and the southern part of Sakhalin. The communists came to power in China.

Western European countries lost much of their political influence after World War II. The former dominant position of Great Britain and France was occupied by the United States, which suffered less than others from German aggression. The process of disintegration has begun colonial empires. In 1945, the United Nations was created to maintain world peace. Ideological and other contradictions between the USSR and Western allies caused the start of the Cold War.

Today they like to repeat the phrase that the war is not over until the last soldier is buried. Is there an end to this war, when search engines every season find hundreds and hundreds of dead soldiers who remained on the battlefield? There is no end to this work, and many politicians and military men, and simply not very healthy people, have been swinging batons for many years now, dreaming of once again putting in their place the countries that are “presumptuous”, in their opinion, reshaping the world, taking away what they cannot get in peaceful way. These hotheads are constantly trying to ignite the fire of a new world war in different countries of the world. Fuses are already smoldering in Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It will light up in one place and explode everywhere! They say they learn from mistakes. Unfortunately, this is not entirely true, and two world wars in the 20th century alone are evidence of this.

Historians are still arguing how many died? If 15 years ago they claimed that there were more than 50 million people, now another 20 million have been added. How accurate will their calculations be in another 15 years? After all, what happened in Asia (especially in China) is most likely simply impossible to evaluate. The war and the famine and epidemics associated with it simply did not leave evidence in those parts. Can't this really stop anyone?!

The war lasted for six years. The armies of 61 countries with a total population of 1,700 million people, that is, 80% of the entire earth's population, were under arms. The fighting spanned 40 countries. And the worst thing is that the number of civilian deaths exceeded the number of deaths in military operations several times.

Previous Events

Returning to the Second World War, it should be noted that it began not in 1939, but most likely in 1918. The First World War did not end in peace, but rather in a truce; the first round of global confrontation was completed, and in 1939 the second began.

After the First World War, many European states disappeared from the political map, and new ones were formed. Those who won did not want to part with their acquisitions, and those who were defeated wanted to return what they had lost. The far-fetched solution to some territorial issues also caused irritation. But in Europe, territorial issues were always resolved by force; all that remained was to prepare.

Very close to territorial ones, colonial disputes were also added. In the colonies, the local population no longer wanted to live in the old way and constantly raised liberation uprisings.

The rivalry between European states intensified even more. As they say, they bring water to the offended. Germany was offended, but did not intend to transport water for the victors, despite the fact that its capabilities were severely limited.

Dictatorships became an important factor in preparing for a future war. They began to multiply in Europe in the pre-war years with amazing speed. Dictators first asserted themselves in their countries, developing armies to pacify their peoples, with a further aim to capture new territories.

There was another important factor. This is the emergence of the USSR, which was not inferior in strength Russian Empire. And the USSR also created the danger of the spread of communist ideas, which European countries could not allow.

The outbreak of World War II was preceded by many different diplomatic and political factors. The Versailles agreements of 1918 did not suit Germany at all, and the Nazis who came to power created a bloc of fascist states.

By the beginning of the war, the final alignment of the warring forces had taken place. On one side were Germany, Italy and Japan, and on the other were Great Britain, France and the USA. The main desire of Great Britain and France was, right or wrong, to ward off the threat of German aggression from their countries, and also to direct it to the East. I really wanted to pit Nazism against Bolshevism. This policy resulted in the fact that, despite all the efforts of the USSR, it was not possible to prevent war.

The culmination of the policy of appeasement, which undermined the political situation in Europe and, in fact, pushed for the outbreak of war, was the Munich Agreement of 1938 between Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy. Under this agreement, Czechoslovakia “voluntarily” transferred part of its country to Germany, and a year later, in March 1939, it was completely occupied and ceased to exist as a state. Poland and Hungary also took part in this division of Czechoslovakia. This was the beginning, Poland was next in line.

Lengthy and fruitless negotiations between the Soviet Union and England and France on mutual assistance in the event of aggression led to the fact that the USSR signed a non-aggression pact with Germany. Our country was able to delay the start of the war for almost two years, and these two years allowed it to strengthen its defense capability. This agreement also contributed to the conclusion of a neutrality pact with Japan.

And Great Britain and Poland literally on the eve of the war, on August 25, 1939, signed an agreement on mutual assistance, to which France joined a few days later.

Beginning of World War II

On August 1, 1939, after a provocation staged by German intelligence services, military operations began against Poland. Two days later, England and France declared war on Germany. They were supported by Canada, New Zealand and Australia, India and the countries of South Africa. So the capture of Poland turned into a world war. But Poland never received real help.

Two German armies, consisting of 62 divisions, completely occupied Poland within two weeks. The government of the country left for Romania. The heroism of Polish soldiers was not enough to defend the country.

Thus began the first stage of the Second World War. England and France did not change their policy until May 1940; they hoped until the last that Germany would continue its offensive in the East. But everything turned out to be not quite so.

The most important events of World War II

In April 1940, Denmark was in the way of the German army, followed immediately by Norway. Continuing to carry out its Gelb plan, the German army decided to attack France through its neighboring countries - the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg. The French Maginot line of defense could not stand it, and already on May 20 the Germans reached the English Channel. The armies of Holland and Belgium capitulated. The French fleet was defeated, and part of the army was evacuated to England. The French government left Paris and the act of surrender was signed. Next up is the UK. There was no direct invasion yet, but the Germans blockaded the island and bombed English cities from airplanes. The island's staunch defense in 1940 (Battle of Britain) only briefly deterred aggression. The war at this time began to develop in the Balkans. On April 1, 1940, the Nazis captured Bulgaria, and on April 6, Greece and Yugoslavia. As a result, all of Western and Central Europe came under Hitler's rule. From Europe the war spread to other parts of the world. Italo-German troops launched offensives in North Africa, and already in the fall of 1941 it was planned to begin the conquest of the Middle East and India with the further connection of German and Japanese troops. And in the developing Directive No. 32, German militarism assumed that, having decided English problem and by defeating the USSR, he will eliminate the influence of the Anglo-Saxons on the American continent. Germany began preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union.

With the attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, the second stage of the war began. Germany and its allies sent an invasion army unprecedented in history to destroy the Soviet Union. It consisted of 182 divisions and 20 brigades (about 5 million people, about 4.4 thousand tanks, 4.4 thousand aircraft, more than 47 thousand guns and mortars, 246 ships). Germany was supported by Romania, Finland, and Hungary. Assistance was provided by Bulgaria, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain, Portugal and Turkey.

The Soviet Union was not fully prepared to repel this invasion. And therefore, the summer and autumn of 1941 were the most critical for our country. Fascist troops were able to advance from 850 to 1200 kilometers deep into our territory. Leningrad was blockaded, the Germans were dangerously close to Moscow, large parts of Donbass and Crimea were captured, and the Baltic states were occupied.

But the war with the Soviet Union did not go according to the German command’s plan. The lightning capture of Moscow and Leningrad failed. The defeat of the Germans near Moscow destroyed the myth of the invincibility of their army. The German generals were faced with the question of a protracted war.

It was at this time that the process of uniting all military forces in the world against fascism began. Churchill and Roosevelt officially announced that they would support the Soviet Union, and already on July 12, the USSR and England concluded a corresponding agreement, and on August 2, the United States pledged to provide economic and military assistance to the Russian army. On August 14, England and the USA promulgated the Atlantic Charter, to which the USSR joined.

In September, Soviet and British troops occupied Iran to prevent the creation of fascist bases in the East. An anti-Hitler coalition is being created.

December 1941 was marked by an aggravation of the military situation in the Pacific Ocean. The Japanese attacked the American naval base at Pearl Harbor. The two largest countries went to war. The Americans declared war on Italy, Japan and Germany.

But in the Pacific, Southeast Asia and North Africa, not everything worked out in favor of the Allies. Japan captured part of China, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. The army and navy forces of Great Britain, Holland and the USA suffered heavy losses in the Javanese operation.

The third stage of the war is considered to be a turning point. Military operations at this time were characterized by scale and intensity. The opening of the Second Front was postponed indefinitely, and the Germans threw all their efforts into seizing the strategic initiative on the Eastern Front. The fate of the entire war was decided at Stalingrad and Kursk. The crushing victories of the Soviet troops in 1943 served as a strong mobilizing incentive for further action.

Nevertheless, active Allied action on the Western Front was still a long way off. They expected further depletion of the forces of Germany and the USSR.

On July 25, 1943, Italy withdrew from the war and the Italian fascist government was liquidated. The new government declared war on Hitler. The fascist union began to fall apart.

On June 6, 1944, the Second Front was finally opened, and more active actions by the Western Allies began. At this time, the fascist army was driven out of the territory of the Soviet Union and the liberation of European states began. The joint actions of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition led to the final defeat of the German troops and the surrender of Germany.

At the same time, the war in the East was in full swing. Japanese forces continued to threaten the Soviet border. The end of the war with Germany allowed the United States to strengthen its armies fighting against Japan. The Soviet Union, faithful to its allied obligations, transferred its armies to the Far East, which also took part in the hostilities. The war in the Far East and Southeast Asian territories ended on September 2, 1945. In this war, the United States used nuclear weapons against Japan.

Results and consequences of World War II

The main result of World War II should be considered, first of all, the victory over fascism. The threat of enslavement and partial destruction of humanity has disappeared.

The greatest losses were suffered by the Soviet Union, which took the brunt of the German army: 26.6 million people. The victims of the USSR and the resistance of the Red Army as a result led to the collapse of the Reich. No nation was spared human losses. More than 6 million people died in Poland, 5.5 million in Germany. A huge part of the Jewish population of Europe was destroyed.

The war could lead to the collapse of civilization. The peoples of the world at global trials condemned war criminals and fascist ideology.

A new political map of the planet has appeared, which nevertheless again divided the world into two camps, which in the future still became a reason for tension.

The use of nuclear weapons by the Americans in Nagasaki and Hiroshima forced the Soviet Union to accelerate the development of its own atomic project.

The war changed and economic situation countries all over the world. European states were knocked out of the economic elite. Economic dominance passed to the United States of America.

The United Nations (UN) was created, which gave hope that countries would be able to come to an agreement in the future and thereby eliminate the very possibility of conflicts such as the Second World War.

Briefly about the main stages of the Second World War

Briefly point by point, the entire course of World War II is divided into five main stages. We will try to describe them clearly for you.

• The shortest stages in the table for grades 9, 10, 11
• The beginning of the European conflict - initial stage 1
• Opening of the Eastern Front - Stage 2
• Fracture - stage 3
• Liberation of Europe - stage 4
• The end of the war - final stage 5

Table for ninth, tenth, eleventh grades

The stages of the Second World War briefly point by point - the main points
The beginning of the European conflict - First First stage 1939 - 1941

• The first stage of the largest armed conflict in terms of its scale began on the day when Hitler’s troops entered Polish soil and ended on the eve of the Nazi attack on the USSR.
• The beginning of the second conflict, which acquired global proportions, was officially recognized as September 1, 1939. At dawn of this day, the German occupation of Poland began and European countries realized the threat posed by Hitler's Germany.
• 2 days later, France and the British Empire entered the war on the side of Poland. Following them, the French and British dominions and colonies declared war on the Third Reich. Representatives of Australia, New Zealand and India were the first to announce their decision (September 3), then the leadership of the Union of South Africa (September 6) and Canada (September 10).
• However, despite entering the war, the French and British states did not help Poland in any way, and generally did not begin any active actions for a long time, trying to redirect German aggression to the east - against the USSR.
• All this ultimately led to the fact that in the first war period Nazi Germany managed to occupy not only Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Belgian, Luxembourg and Dutch territories, but also most of the French Republic.
• After which the Battle of Britain began, which lasted more than three months. True, the Germans did not have to celebrate victory in this battle - they never managed to land troops on the British Isles.
• As a result of the first period of the war, most European states found themselves under fascist German-Italian occupation or became dependent on these states.

Opening of the Eastern Front - Second stage 1941 - 1942

• The second stage of the war began on June 22, 1941, when the Nazis violated the state border of the USSR. This period was marked by the expansion of the conflict and the collapse of Hitler's blitzkrieg.
• One of the significant events of this stage was also the support of the USSR from the largest states - the USA and Great Britain. Despite their rejection of the socialist system, the governments of these states declared unconditional assistance to the Union. Thus, the foundation was laid for a new military alliance - the anti-Hitler coalition.
• The second most important point of this stage of the Second World War is considered to be joining the US military action, provoked by an unexpected and rapid attack by the fleet and air force of the Japanese Empire on an American military base in the Pacific Ocean. The attack occurred on December 7, and the very next day war was declared on Japan by the United States, Great Britain and several other countries. And after another 4 days, Germany and Italy presented the United States with a note declaring war.

Turning point during World War II - Third stage 1942-1943

• The turning point of the war is considered to be the first major defeat of the German army on the approaches to the Soviet capital and the Battle of Stalingrad, during which the Nazis not only suffered significant losses, but were also forced to abandon offensive tactics and switch to defensive ones. These events occurred during the third stage of hostilities, which lasted from November 19, 1942 until the end of 1943.
• Also at this stage, the Allies entered Italy, where a power crisis was already brewing, almost without a fight. As a result, Mussolini was overthrown, the fascist regime collapsed, and the new government chose to sign a truce with America and Britain.
• At the same time, a turning point occurred in the theater of operations in the Pacific Ocean, where Japanese troops began to suffer defeats one after another.

Liberation of Europe - Fourth stage 1944 -1945

• During the fourth war period, which began on the first day of 1944 and ended on May 9, 1945, a second front was created in the west, the fascist bloc was defeated and all European states were liberated from the German invaders. Germany was forced to admit defeat and sign an act of surrender.

End of the war - Fifth final stage 1945

• Despite the fact that German troops laid down their arms, the world war was not over yet - Japan was not going to follow the example of its former allies. As a result, the USSR declared war on the Japanese state, after which Red Army units began military operation in Manchuria. The resulting defeat of the Kwantung Army hastened the end of the war.
• However, the most significant moment of this period was the atomic bombing of Japanese cities by the American air force. This happened on August 6 (Hiroshima) and 9 (Nagasaki), 1945.
• This stage ended, and with it the entire war, on September 2 of the same year. On this significant day on board the American battle cruiser"Missouri" representatives of the Japanese government officially signed the act of surrender.

Main stages of World War II

Conventionally, historians divide the Second World War into five periods:

The beginning of the war and the invasion of German troops into Western Europe.

World War II began on September 1, 1939 with an attack fascist Germany to Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany; The Anglo-French coalition included the British dominions and colonies (September 3 - Australia, New Zealand, India; September 6 - Union of South Africa; September 10 - Canada, etc.)

The incomplete deployment of the armed forces, the lack of assistance from Great Britain and France, and the weakness of the top military leadership put the Polish army before a disaster: its territory was occupied by German troops. The Polish bourgeois-landowner government secretly fled from Warsaw to Lublin on September 6, and to Romania on September 16.

The governments of Great Britain and France, after the outbreak of the war until May 1940, continued the pre-war foreign policy course in only a slightly modified form, hoping to direct German aggression against the USSR. During this period, called the “Phantom War” of 1939-1940, the Anglo-French troops were virtually inactive, and the armed forces of Nazi Germany, using the strategic pause, were actively preparing for an offensive against the countries of Western Europe.

On April 9, 1940, formations of the Nazi army invaded Denmark without declaring war and occupied its territory. On the same day, the invasion of Norway began.

Even before the completion of the Norwegian operation, the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany began to implement the Gelb plan, which provided for a lightning strike on France through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands. The fascist German troops delivered the main blow through the Ardennes Mountains, bypassing the Maginot Line from the North through Northern France. The French command, adhering to a defensive strategy, placed large forces on the Maginot Line and did not create a strategic reserve in the depths. Having broken through the defenses in the Sedan area, tank formations of fascist German troops reached the English Channel on May 20. On May 14, the Dutch armed forces capitulated. The Belgian army, the British expeditionary force and part of the French army were cut off in Flanders. On May 28, the Belgian army capitulated. The British and parts of the French troops blocked in the Dunkirk region succeeded, losing all their heavy military equipment, evacuate to the UK. At the beginning of June, fascist German troops broke through the front hastily created by the French on the Somme and Aisne rivers.

On June 10, the French government left Paris. Having not exhausted the possibilities of resistance, the French army laid down its arms. On June 14, German troops occupied French capital. On June 22, 1940, hostilities ended with the signing of the act of surrender of France - the so-called. Compiègne Armistice of 1940. According to its terms, the territory of the country was divided into two parts: a Nazi occupation regime was established in the northern and central regions, the southern part of the country remained under the control of the anti-national government of Pétain, which expressed the interests of the most reactionary part of the French bourgeoisie, oriented towards fascist Germany (t .n. produced by Vichy).

After the defeat of France, the threat looming over Great Britain contributed to the isolation of the Munich capitulators and the rallying of the forces of the English people. The government of W. Churchill, which replaced the government of N. Chamberlain on May 10, 1940, began organizing a more effective defense. The US government gradually began to reconsider its foreign policy course. It increasingly supported Great Britain, becoming its “non-belligerent ally.”

Preparing a war against the USSR, Nazi Germany carried out aggression in the Balkans in the spring of 1941. On March 1, Nazi troops entered Bulgaria. On April 6, 1941, Italo-German and then Hungarian troops launched an invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, occupied Yugoslavia by April 18, and the Greek mainland by April 29.

By the end of the First Period of the War, almost all countries of Western and Central Europe found themselves occupied by Nazi Germany and Italy or became dependent on them. Their economy and resources were used to prepare for war against the USSR.

The attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR, the expansion of the scale of the war, the collapse of Hitler's Blitzkrieg doctrine.

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941 - 1945 began, which became the most important part of the 2nd World War.

The entry of the USSR into the war determined its qualitatively new stage, led to the consolidation of all the progressive forces of the world in the fight against fascism, and influenced the policies of the leading world powers.

The governments of the leading powers of the Western world, without changing their previous attitude towards the social system of the socialist state, saw in an alliance with the USSR the most important condition for their security and the weakening of the military power of the fascist bloc. On June 22, 1941, Churchill and Roosevelt, on behalf of the British and US governments, issued a statement of support for the Soviet Union in the fight against fascist aggression. On July 12, 1941, an agreement was concluded between the USSR and Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany. On August 2, an agreement was reached with the United States on military-economic cooperation and providing material support to the USSR.

On August 14, Roosevelt and Churchill promulgated the Atlantic Charter, to which the USSR joined on September 24, expressing a special opinion on a number of issues directly related to the military actions of the Anglo-American troops. At the Moscow meeting (September 29 - October 1, 1941), the USSR, Great Britain and the USA considered the issue of mutual military supplies and signed the first protocol. To prevent the danger of creating fascist bases in the Middle East, British and Soviet troops entered Iran in August–September 1941. These joint military-political actions marked the beginning of the creation of the Anti-Hitler coalition, which played an important role in the war.

During the strategic defense in the summer and autumn of 1941, Soviet troops offered staunch resistance to the enemy, exhausted and bled the forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht. The fascist German troops were unable to capture Leningrad, as envisaged by the invasion plan, and were shackled for a long time by the heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, and stopped near Moscow. As a result of the counter-offensive of Soviet troops near Moscow and the general offensive in the winter of 1941/42, the fascist plan for a “lightning war” finally collapsed. This victory had world-historical significance: it dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist Wehrmacht, confronted fascist Germany with the need to wage a protracted war, inspired the European peoples to fight for liberation against fascist tyranny, and gave a powerful impetus to the Resistance movement in the occupied countries.

On December 7, 1941, Japan launched a war against the United States with a surprise attack on the American military base at Pearl Harbor in the Pacific Ocean. Two major powers entered the war, which significantly affected the balance of military-political forces and expanded the scale and scope of the armed struggle. On December 8, the USA, Great Britain and a number of other states declared war on Japan; On December 11, Nazi Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

The entry of the United States into the war strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition. On January 1, 1942, the Declaration of 26 States was signed in Washington; Later, new states joined the Declaration.

On May 26, 1942, an agreement was signed between the USSR and Great Britain on an alliance in the war against Germany and its partners; On June 11, the USSR and the USA entered into an agreement on the principles of mutual assistance in waging war.

Having carried out extensive preparations, the fascist German command in the summer of 1942 launched a new offensive on the Soviet-German front. In mid-July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began (1942 - 1943), one of the greatest battles of the 2nd World War. During the heroic defense in July - November 1942, Soviet troops pinned down the enemy strike group, inflicted heavy losses on it and prepared the conditions for launching a counteroffensive.

IN northern Africa British troops managed to stop the further advance of German-Italian troops and stabilize the situation at the front.

In the Pacific Ocean in the first half of 1942, Japan managed to achieve supremacy at sea and occupied Hong Kong, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, the most important islands of Indonesia and other territories. At the cost of great efforts, the Americans managed to defeat the Japanese fleet in the Coral Sea and at Midway Atoll in the summer of 1942, which made it possible to change the balance of forces in favor of the allies, limit Japan's offensive actions and force the Japanese leadership to abandon their intention to enter the war against the USSR.

A radical turning point in the course of the war. The collapse of the offensive strategy of the fascist bloc. The 3rd period of the war was characterized by an increase in the scope and intensity of military operations. The decisive events in this period of the war continued to take place on the Soviet-German front. On November 19, 1942, a counteroffensive of Soviet troops began near Stalingrad, which ended with the encirclement and defeat of a 330-thousand group of troops of the pr-ka. The victory of Soviet troops at Stalingrad shocked Nazi Germany and undermined its military and political prestige in the eyes of its allies. This victory became a powerful stimulus for the further development of the liberation struggle of the peoples in the occupied countries, giving it greater organization and purpose. In the summer of 1943, the military-political leadership of Nazi Germany made a last attempt to regain the strategic initiative and defeat the Soviet troops

in the Kursk region. However, this plan was a complete failure. The defeat of fascist German troops in the Battle of Kursk in 1943 forced fascist Germany to finally switch to strategic defense.

The USSR's allies in the anti-Hitler coalition had every opportunity to fulfill their obligations and open a 2nd front in Western Europe. By the summer of 1943, the strength of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain exceeded 13 million people. However, the strategy of the USA and Great Britain was still determined by their policies, which ultimately counted on the mutual exhaustion of the USSR and Germany.

On July 10, 1943, American and British troops (13 divisions) landed on the island of Sicily, captured the island, and in early September they landed amphibious assault forces on the Apennine Peninsula, without encountering serious resistance from Italian troops. The offensive of the Anglo-American troops in Italy took place in the context of an acute crisis in which the Mussolini regime found itself as a result of the anti-fascist struggle of the broad masses led by the Italian Communist Party. On July 25, Mussolini's government was overthrown. The new government was headed by Marshal Badoglio, who signed an armistice with the United States and Great Britain on September 3. On October 13, the government of P. Badoglio declared war on Germany. The collapse of the fascist bloc began. Anglo-American forces landed in Italy launched an offensive against the Nazi troops, but, despite their numerical superiority, they were unable to break their defenses and suspended active operations in December 1943.

During the 3rd period the wars occurred significant changes in the balance of forces of the warring parties in the Pacific Ocean and in Asia. Japan, having exhausted the possibilities of further offensive in the Pacific theater of operations, sought to gain a foothold on the strategic lines conquered in 1941-42. However, even under these conditions, the military-political leadership of Japan did not consider it possible to weaken the grouping of its troops on the border with the USSR. By the end of 1942, the United States made up for the losses of its Pacific Fleet, which began to surpass the Japanese fleet, and intensified its operations on the approaches to Australia, in the northern part of the Pacific Ocean and on Japan's sea lanes. The Allied offensive in the Pacific Ocean began in the fall of 1942 and brought the first successes in the battles for the island of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands), which was abandoned by Japanese troops in February 1943. During 1943, American troops landed on New Guinea, drove the Japanese out of the Aleutian Islands, and a number of significant losses to the Japanese navy and merchant fleet. The peoples of Asia rose more and more decisively in the anti-imperialist liberation struggle.

The defeat of the fascist bloc, the expulsion of enemy troops from the USSR, the creation of a second front, liberation from the occupation of European countries, the complete collapse of fascist Germany, and its unconditional surrender. The most important military-political events of this period were determined by the further growth of the military-economic power of the anti-fascist coalition, the increasing force of the blows of the Soviet Armed Forces and the intensification of the actions of the allies in Europe. On a larger scale, the offensive of the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain unfolded in the Pacific Ocean and Asia. However, despite the well-known intensification of allied actions in Europe and Asia, the decisive role in the final destruction of the fascist bloc belonged to the Soviet people and their Armed Forces.

The course of the Great Patriotic War irrefutably proved that the Soviet Union was capable of, on its own, achieving a complete victory over Nazi Germany and liberating the peoples of Europe from the fascist yoke. Under the influence of these factors, significant changes took place in the military-political activities and strategic planning of the United States, Great Britain and other participants in the anti-Hitler coalition.

By the summer of 1944, the international and military situation was such that a further delay in the opening of the 2nd Front would have led to the liberation of all of Europe by the USSR. This prospect worried the ruling circles of the United States and Great Britain and forced them to rush to invade Western Europe across the English Channel. After two years of preparation, the Normandy landing operation of 1944 began on June 6, 1944. By the end of June, the landing troops occupied a bridgehead about 100 km wide and up to 50 km deep, and on July 25 went on the offensive. It took place in a situation when the anti-fascist struggle of the Resistance forces, which numbered up to 500 thousand fighters by June 1944, was especially intensified in France. On August 19, 1944, an uprising began in Paris; By the time the allied troops arrived, the capital was already in the hands of French patriots.

At the beginning of 1945, a favorable environment was created for the final campaign in Europe. On the Soviet-German front it began with a powerful offensive of Soviet troops from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians.

The last center of resistance to Nazi Germany was Berlin. At the beginning of April, Hitler’s command pulled the main forces to the Berlin direction: up to 1 million people, St. 10 thousand guns and mortars, 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, 3.3 thousand combat aircraft, on April 16, the Berlin operation of 1945, grandiose in scope and intensity, began with troops of 3 Soviet fronts, as a result of which the Berlin enemy group. On April 25, Soviet troops reached the city of Torgau on the Elbe, where they united with units of the 1st American Army. On May 6-11, troops from 3 Soviet fronts carried out the Paris Operation of 1945, defeating the last group of Nazi troops and completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia. Advancing on a broad front, the Soviet Armed Forces completed the liberation of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe. Carrying out a liberation mission, Soviet troops received gratitude and active support European peoples, all democratic and anti-fascist forces of the countries occupied by the fascists.

After the fall of Berlin, capitulation in the West became widespread. On the eastern front, Nazi troops continued their fierce resistance where they could. The goal of the Dönitz government, created after Hitler’s suicide (April 30), was to, without stopping the fight against the Soviet Army, conclude an agreement with the United States and Great Britain on partial surrender. Back on May 3, on behalf of Dönitz, Admiral Friedeburg established contact with the British commander Field Marshal Montgomery and obtained consent to surrender the Nazi troops to the British “individually.” On May 4, the act of surrender of German troops in the Netherlands, North-West Germany, Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark was signed. On May 5, fascist troops capitulated in Southern and Western Austria, Bavaria, Tyrol and other areas. On May 7, General A. Jodl, on behalf of the German command, signed the terms of surrender at Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, which was to take effect on May 9 at 00:01. The Soviet government expressed categorical protest against this unilateral act, so the Allies agreed to consider it a preliminary protocol of surrender. At midnight on May 8, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, occupied by Soviet troops, representatives of the German High Command, led by Field Marshal W. Keitel, signed an act of unconditional surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. Unconditional surrender was accepted on behalf of the Soviet government by Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov together with representatives of the USA, Great Britain and France.

Defeat of imperialist Japan. Liberation of the peoples of Asia from Japanese occupation. End of World War 2. Of the entire coalition of aggressive states that started the war, only Japan continued to fight in May 1945.

From July 17 to August 2, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 heads of government of the USSR (J. V. Stalin), the USA (H. Truman) and Great Britain (W. Churchill, from July 28 - K. Attlee) took place, at which, along with a discussion of European problems, a large attention was paid to the situation in the Far East. In a declaration dated July 26, 1945, the governments of Great Britain, the United States and China offered Japan specific terms of surrender, which the Japanese government rejected. The Soviet Union, which denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality pact in April 1945, confirmed at the Potsdam Conference its readiness to enter the war against Japan in the interests of quickly ending World War II and eliminating the source of aggression in Asia. On August 8, 1945, the USSR, true to its allied duty, declared war on Japan, and on August 9. The Soviet Armed Forces began military operations against the Japanese Kwantung Army concentrated in Manchuria. The entry of the Soviet Union into the war and the defeat of the Kwantung Army accelerated the unconditional surrender of Japan. On the eve of the USSR's entry into the war with Japan, on August 6 and 9, the United States used new weapons for the first time, dropping two atomic bombs. Hiroshima and Nagasaki are beyond any military necessity. About 468 thousand residents were killed, wounded, irradiated, or went missing. This barbaric act was intended, first of all, to demonstrate the power of the United States in order to put pressure on the USSR in solving post-war problems. The signing of the act of surrender of Japan took place on September 2. 1945. World War 2 ended.

Ours won

Figase briefly... To begin with, Stalin and Hitler entered into an alliance and both tore Poland apart. France and England were allies of Poland and declared war on Germany. But Hitler beat them both up, drove the British across the strait, captured Holland, Belgium, Denmark and half of France. I wanted to cross to England, but I realized that I didn’t have enough strength. He went to the Balkans, captured Yugoslavia and Greece. Then he realized that he and Stalin were cramped on the same planet, and Stalin himself was about to attack him, he decided to take an adventure, attack and defeat the Red Army, in order to protect himself for a long time from an attack from the East, and only then deal with England. But he miscalculated, a complete defeat did not happen, and he initially did not have the resources for a long war. At this time, Japan captured everything around itself and also decided to remove its competitor in the Pacific Ocean in the person of the United States - and struck a blow at the American fleet. But in the end they also miscalculated, the Americans recovered quite quickly and began to push the Japanese around all the islands. Hitler suffered a terrible defeat at Stalingrad, then his plan to attack Moscow in the summer of 1943 failed, and after that his resources became very bad; all he could manage was fierce resistance on all fronts. In 1944, after the defeat of Army Group Center in Belarus and the Allied landings in Normandy, things became very bad, and in the spring of 1945 it all ended. Japan was finished off in August after the nuclear bombing of their cities... Well, this is quite simple and brief.

1939, September 1 The attack of Germany and Slovakia on Poland - the beginning of the Second World War. 1939, September 3 Declaration of war on Germany by France and Great Britain (along with the latter, its dominions - Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa). 1939, September 17 Soviet troops cross the border of Poland and occupy Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. 1939, September 28 Surrender of Warsaw - the end of organized resistance to the Polish army. 1939, September - October The USSR concludes agreements with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the deployment of Soviet military bases on their territory. 1939, November 30 Beginning of the Soviet-Finnish war, which ended on March 12, 1940 with the defeat of Finland, which ceded a number of border territories to the USSR. 1940, April 9 Invasion of German troops into Denmark and Norway - the beginning of the Norwegian campaign. Main events: the Germans captured the main strategic points of Denmark and Norway (by April 10, 1940); landing of allied Anglo-French troops in Central Norway (13-14.4.1940); defeat of the allies and evacuation of their troops from Central Norway (by May 2, 1940); Allied offensive on Narvik (12.5.1940); evacuation of the allies from Nar-vik (by 8/6/1940). 1940, May 10 Beginning of the offensive of German troops on the Western Front. Main events: defeat of the Dutch army and its surrender (by June 14, 1940); encirclement of the British-Franco-Belgian group on the territory of Belgium (by 20.5.1940); surrender of the Belgian army (27.5.1940); evacuation of British and part of French troops from Dunkirk to Great Britain (by 3/6/1940); the offensive of the German army and the breakthrough of the defense of the French army (06/09/1940); signing of an armistice between France and Germany, under the terms of which most of France was subject to occupation (June 22, 1940).

1940, May 10 Formation of a government in Great Britain led by Winston Churchill, a strong supporter of war until victory. 1940, June 16 Entry of Soviet troops into Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. 1940, June 10, Italy declares war on Great Britain and France. 1940, June 26, the USSR demands that Romania hand over Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which it captured in 1918 (the Soviet demand was satisfied on June 28, 1940). 1940, July 10 The French parliament transfers power to Marshal Philippe Petain - the end of the Third Republic and the establishment of the “Vichy regime” 1940, July 20 Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania become part of the USSR. 1940, August 1 Beginning of the air battle for Great Britain, which ended in May 1941 with the recognition by the German command of the impossibility of achieving air superiority. 1940, August 30, Romania cedes part of its territory to Hungary. 1940, September 15, Romania cedes part of its territory to Bulgaria. 1940, October 28 Italian attack on Greece, spreading the war to the Balkans. 1940, December 9 The beginning of the offensive of British troops in North Africa, which led to a heavy defeat for the Italian army. 1941, January 19 The beginning of the offensive of the British army in East Africa, which ended on May 18, 1941 with the surrender of Italian troops and the liberation of the Italian colonies (including Ethiopia). 1941, February Arrival of German troops in North Africa, which went on the offensive on March 31, 1941 and defeated the British. 1941, April 6 The offensive of the German army with the assistance of Italy and Hungary against Yugoslavia (its army capitulated on April 18, 1940) and Gresha (its army capitulated on April 21, 1940). 1941, April 10 Proclamation of the “Independent State of Croatia,” which included the Bosnian lands. 1941, May 20 German parachute landing on Crete, which ended in the defeat of British and Greek troops. 1941, June 22 Attack of Germany and its allies (Finland, Romania, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Croatia) on the Soviet Union. ..Further from the source..

World War II, brief chronology
September 18, 1931
Japan attacks Manchuria.

October 2, 1935 - May 1936
Fascist Italy invades, conquers and annexes Ethiopia.

October 25 - November 1, 1936
Nazi Germany and fascist Italy conclude a cooperation agreement on October 25; On November 1, the creation of the Rome-Berlin Axis is announced.

November 25, 1936
Nazi Germany and imperialist Japan conclude the Anti-Comintern Pact, directed against the USSR and the international communist movement.

July 7, 1937
Japan invades China and World War II begins in the Pacific.

September 29, 1938
Germany, Italy, Great Britain and France sign the Munich Agreement, obliging the Czechoslovak Republic to cede the Sudetenland (where key Czechoslovak defenses were located) to Nazi Germany.

March 14-15, 1939
Under pressure from Germany, the Slovaks declare their independence and create the Slovak Republic. The Germans violate the Munich Agreement by occupying the remnants of Czech lands and create the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

March 31, 1939
France and Great Britain guarantee the inviolability of the borders of the Polish state.

August 23, 1939
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression pact and a secret annex to it, according to which Europe is divided into spheres of influence.

September 3, 1939
Fulfilling their obligations to Poland, Great Britain and France declare war on Germany.

September 27-29, 1939
On September 27, Warsaw surrenders. The Polish government goes into exile through Romania. Germany and the Soviet Union divide Poland between themselves.

November 30, 1939 - March 12, 1940
The Soviet Union attacks Finland, starting the so-called Winter War. The Finns ask for a truce and are forced to cede the Karelian Isthmus and the northern shore of Lake Ladoga to the Soviet Union.

April 9 - June 9, 1940
Germany invades Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrenders on the day of the attack; Norway resists until June 9.

May 10 - June 22, 1940
Germany invades Western Europe - France and the neutral Benelux countries. Luxembourg occupied on May 10; The Netherlands surrenders on May 14; Belgium - May 28. On June 22, France signs an armistice agreement, according to which German troops occupy the northern part of the country and the entire Atlantic coast. A collaborationist regime is established in the southern part of France with its capital in the city of Vichy.

June 28, 1940
The USSR forces Romania to cede the eastern region of Bessarabia and the northern half of Bukovina to Soviet Ukraine.

June 14 - August 6, 1940
On June 14-18, the Soviet Union occupies the Baltic states, stages a communist coup in each of them on July 14-15, and then, on August 3-6, annexes them as Soviet republics.

July 10 - October 31, 1940
The air war against England, known as the Battle of Britain, ends in the defeat of Nazi Germany.

August 30, 1940
Second Vienna Arbitration: Germany and Italy decide to divide disputed Transylvania between Romania and Hungary. The loss of northern Transylvania leads to the fact that the Romanian king Carol II abdicates the throne in favor of his son Mihai, and the dictatorial regime of General Ion Antonescu comes to power.

September 13, 1940
The Italians attack British-controlled Egypt from their own-controlled Libya.

November 1940
Slovakia (November 23), Hungary (November 20) and Romania (November 22) join the German coalition.

February 1941
Germany sends its Afrika Korps to northern Africa to support the hesitant Italians.

April 6 - June 1941
Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria invade and divide Yugoslavia. April 17 Yugoslavia capitulates. Germany and Bulgaria attack Greece, helping the Italians. Greece ends resistance in early June 1941.

April 10, 1941
The leaders of the Ustasha terrorist movement proclaim the so-called Independent State of Croatia. Immediately recognized by Germany and Italy, the new state also includes Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia officially joins the Axis powers on June 15, 1941.

June 22 - November 1941
Nazi Germany and its allies (with the exception of Bulgaria) attack the Soviet Union. Finland, seeking to regain territory lost during the Winter War, joins the Axis just before the invasion. The Germans quickly captured the Baltic states and by September, with the support of the joining Finns, besieged Leningrad (St. Petersburg). On the central front, German troops occupied Smolensk in early August and approached Moscow by October. In the south, German and Romanian troops captured Kyiv in September, and Rostov-on-Don in November.

December 6, 1941
The counteroffensive launched by the Soviet Union forces the Nazis to retreat from Moscow in disarray.

December 8, 1941
The United States declares war on Japan and enters World War II. Japanese troops land in the Philippines, French Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia) and British Singapore. By April 1942, the Philippines, Indochina and Singapore were occupied by the Japanese.

December 11-13, 1941
Nazi Germany and its allies declare war on the United States.

May 30, 1942 - May 1945
The British bomb Cologne, thus bringing hostilities into Germany itself for the first time. Over the next three years, Anglo-American aviation almost completely destroys big cities Germany.

June 1942
British and American naval forces stop the advance of the Japanese fleet in the central Pacific Ocean near the Midway Islands.

June 28 - September 1942
Germany and its allies are launching a new offensive in the Soviet Union. By mid-September, German troops make their way to Stalingrad (Volgograd) on the Volga and invade the Caucasus, having previously captured the Crimean peninsula.

August - November 1942
American troops stop the Japanese advance towards Australia at the Battle of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands).

October 23-24, 1942
The British army defeats Germany and Italy at the Battle of El Alamein (Egypt), forcing the forces of the fascist bloc into a disorderly retreat through Libya to the eastern border of Tunisia.

November 8, 1942
American and British troops land at several locations on the coasts of Algeria and Morocco in French North Africa. A failed attempt by the Vichy French army to thwart the invasion allows the Allies to quickly reach the western border of Tunisia and results in Germany occupying southern France on November 11th.

November 23, 1942 - February 2, 1943
The Soviet army counterattacks, breaks through the lines of Hungarian and Romanian troops north and south of Stalingrad and blocks the German Sixth Army in the city. The remnants of the Sixth Army, which Hitler had forbidden to retreat or try to break out of encirclement, capitulate on January 30 and February 2, 1943.

May 13, 1943
The troops of the fascist bloc in Tunisia surrender to the Allies, ending the North African campaign.

July 10, 1943
American and British troops land in Sicily. By mid-August, the Allies take control of Sicily.

July 5, 1943
German troops launch a massive tank attack near Kursk. The Soviet army repels the attack for a week and then goes on the offensive.

July 25, 1943
The Grand Council of the Italian Fascist Party removes Benito Mussolini and instructs Marshal Pietro Badoglio to form a new government.

September 8, 1943
Badoglio's government unconditionally capitulates to the Allies. Germany immediately seizes control of Rome and northern Italy, establishing a puppet regime led by Mussolini, who was released from prison by a German sabotage unit on September 12.

March 19, 1944
Anticipating Hungary's intention to leave the Axis coalition, Germany occupies Hungary and forces its ruler, Admiral Miklós Horthy, to appoint a pro-German prime minister.

June 4, 1944
Allied troops liberate Rome. Anglo-American bombers hit targets in eastern Germany for the first time; this continues for six weeks.

June 6, 1944
British and American troops successfully land on the coast of Normandy (France), opening a Second Front against Germany.

June 22, 1944
Soviet troops launch a massive offensive in Belarus (Belarus), destroying the German Army of Group Center, and by August 1 head west to the Vistula and Warsaw (central Poland).

July 25, 1944
The Anglo-American army breaks out of the Normandy bridgehead and moves east towards Paris.

August 1 - October 5, 1944
The Polish anti-communist Home Army rebels against the German regime, trying to liberate Warsaw before the approach Soviet troops. The advance of the Soviet army is suspended on the eastern bank of the Vistula. On October 5, the remnants of the Home Army that fought in Warsaw surrender to the Germans.

August 15, 1944
Allied forces land in southern France near Nice and quickly move northeast towards the Rhine.

August 20-25, 1944
Allied troops reach Paris. On August 25, the French Free Army, with the support of the Allied forces, enters Paris. By September the Allies reach the German border; by December, virtually all of France, most of Belgium and parts of the southern Netherlands were liberated.

August 23, 1944
The appearance of the Soviet army on the Prut River prompts the Romanian opposition to overthrow the Antonescu regime. The new government concludes a truce and immediately goes over to the Allied side. This turn of Romanian policy forces Bulgaria to surrender on September 8, and Germany to leave the territory of Greece, Albania and southern Yugoslavia in October.

August 29 - October 27, 1944
Underground units of the Slovak Resistance, under the leadership of the Slovak National Council, which includes both communists and anti-communists, rebel against the German authorities and the local fascist regime. On October 27, the Germans captured the town of Banska Bystrica, where the rebels' headquarters were located, and suppressed organized resistance.

September 12, 1944
Finland concludes a truce with the Soviet Union and leaves the Axis coalition.

October 15, 1944
The Hungarian fascist Arrow Cross party stages a pro-German coup d'état to prevent the Hungarian government from negotiating surrender with the Soviet Union.

December 16, 1944
Germany launches a final offensive on the western front, known as the Battle of the Bulge, in an attempt to recapture Belgium and divide the Allied forces stationed along the German border. By January 1, 1945, the Germans were forced to retreat.

January 12, 1945
The Soviet army launches a new offensive: in January it liberates Warsaw and Krakow; February 13, after a two-month siege, captures Budapest; in early April expels the Germans and Hungarian collaborators from Hungary; taking Bratislava on April 4, forces Slovakia to capitulate; April 13 enters Vienna.

April 1945
Partisan troops led by Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito capture Zagreb and overthrow the Ustasha regime. The leaders of the Ustasha party flee to Italy and Austria.

May 1945
Allied forces capture Okinawa, the last island on the way to the Japanese archipelago.

September 2, 1945
Japan, having agreed to the terms of unconditional surrender on August 14, 1945, officially capitulates, thereby putting an end to World War II.

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