Study
Tool: Chronological Events of the 1939-1945 Era
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This war is more than a catastrophic war; its terms and people and it strategies became part of thinking of multiple generations. Click here for details.
( ) with specific name – Name is for reference for you can find the information in the textbook index if needed. If you want more information, just ask.
Allies =
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Date |
Presidential Election/Event |
US Official -Unofficial Actions |
Allies |
Axis |
US War Actions |
Issue/Organization
Development |
Political Party
Development |
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1920s-1930s |
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1940-05 |
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Committee to Defend |
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1940-06 |
National Research Committee (and the Einstein
connection)[1] |
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Fr: Falls to Ger; |
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War Department:
Surplus, old munitions, arms, planes to Br |
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1940-08 to 10 |
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Selective Service Act |
Battle of Britain –
Constant attack by Nazis but the British held (“their finest hours” in
Churchill’s words.) |
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“Overage”
destroyers to Br for 99-yr. leases (Destroyers for Bases Agreement)[2] |
America First Committee – example of isolationism |
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FDR: Embargo on
steel, scrap iron to all but Br |
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1940-11 |
Wendell Willkie
vs. F. D. Roosevelt |
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1940-12 |
Fireside chat on
US as “the great arsenal
of democracy” |
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Japan: Embargo –
“unfriendly act” |
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1941-01 |
Four Freedoms[3]
speech to Congress |
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Threatened black march on |
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1941-03 |
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Lend-Lease Bill[5] |
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1941-04 |
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Rationing starts (later
Office of Price Administration) |
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1941-06 |
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Ger invades Ru. |
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Lend-Lease to Ru, not just Br |
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FDR: move to block
march[6] |
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1941-08 |
Atlantic Charter
announced[7] |
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1941-09, 10 |
“’Active defense’”
to Iceland |
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Reuben James sunk, Iceland convoy duty |
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1941-11 |
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Congress modifies
Neutrality Acts |
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1941-12 |
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Japan: Takes multiple areas[8] |
War Production
Board (WPB) |
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1941-12-07 |
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Japan: Pearl Harbor |
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1941-12-11 |
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US declares war on
Japan |
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Ger, Italy: Declare war on US |
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Rosie
the Riveter- Tuskegee Airmen |
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1942 |
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Detroit race riots; CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) forms |
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1942-02 |
Exec. Order 9066 – Relocation[9] |
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1942-04 |
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Draft starts |
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1942-11 |
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Allies N. Africa campaign
– victory against Vichy |
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1943-02 |
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Ru: Victory at
Stalingrad |
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US: Guadalcanal[10]
secured – 6 months (New Guinea), |
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“leapfrog” campaign starts[11] |
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1943-06 |
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Mobs against Mexican Americans (CA) |
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1943-07-08 |
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Sicily victory; enter
into N. Italy; Mussolini flees |
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1944-03 |
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GI Bill – avoids the disaster of WWI |
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1944-06 |
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Allies: Normandy- D.D. Eisenhower[12] |
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1944-07 |
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Port Chicago, CA – 250 black sailors killed |
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1944-12 |
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US/Br: Battle of Bulge
– stop German counter 77K US casualties |
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1945-02 |
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US: Philippines
victory – 7 months |
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Holocaust-“Final Solution” |
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Yalta[13] Accords – UN, free elections |
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1945-03 |
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US: Iwo Jima –
victory – 2 months |
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1945-04 |
FDR dead; Harry S Truman President |
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Ger: Suicide of Hitler |
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Foreign
policy trends -
Cold War begins -
Presidential power up (Note
that the Cold War makes foreign policy/treat of war a constant compared to
the roles of Congress and the states.) |
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1945-04-06 |
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UN Conference – draft charter |
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Nation
trends: |
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1945-05 |
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Allies: Berlin
falls (May 2), Ger surrenders (May 7), V-E (May 8) |
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- American workers’ pay increases (We have no completion in the world.) |
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1945-06 |
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German/Berlin occupation
zones est.; Ru., US, Fr, Br |
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-
Racism, as a foreign policy issue. (Hitler and later Stalin can criticize us
for our racism.) |
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1945-07 |
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Potsdam Conference
– agree to trials (Nuremberg with equivalent trials in Japan) |
Japan:
Rejects unconditional surrender |
US: Successful
atomic bomb test (Jul. 17) |
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1945-08 |
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US: Hiroshima, atomic bomb |
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US: occupies Japan |
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Issues that make this war worth learning for your future
Major Assets of the Allies
Once the US and Russia Join Britain
World War II¾People and Terms That Became
Symbols
Reminders About the Rise of the Axis
· Br – sea power – Attacked by Hitler in Battle of Britain - August to October, 1940. It was alone.
· Ru – manpower - They faced tremendous loses and continued to fight. Stalin’s policy was people fought or the were killed. – Attacked by Hitler, June 1941; FDR extends Lend-Lease to Russia
· US – “arsenal of democracy” – Attacked by Japanese, December 1941.
Chamberlain, Neville – British Prime Minister at Munich
Churchill, Winston – British Prime Minister during World War II
DeGaulle, Charles – in exile, leader of the free French
Hitler, Adolph – leader of the NAZIs
Mussolini, Benito – leader of Italy
Quisling, Vidkum – the puppet leader of Norway set up by Germany
Stalin, Joseph – leader of the Soviet Union
Wallenberg,
Raoul – Individual who rescued Jews. Also see Auschwitz, Dachau, Holocaust
Aryan
– racial term
Auschwitz–
concentration camp
Axis – the term for the alliance of Germany, Italy, and Japan
Bataan Death
March
Blitzkreig – German method of rapid attack
Dachau –
concentration camp
Dunkirk – rescue of stranded British soldiers by civilians who crossed the Channel in small vessels and at great personal risk
Gestapo – German secret police
Holocaust –
from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary: (usually cap.)
“the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps
during World War II” [from words meaning burnt whole]
Nazi - from Webster’s Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary: “a member of the National Socialist Workers’ party in Germany….”
Nuremberg Trials – trials of the Nazis for war crime
Vichy – the French puppet government set
up by Germany
|
Date |
Rise of Axis Powers |
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1931-09 |
Japan: Manchurian invasion |
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1933-01 |
Germany: Hitler, Chancellor |
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1935-05 |
Italy: Invades Ethiopia |
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1936 |
Germany: Reoccupies the Rhineland |
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Germany, Italy: Mutual defense pact |
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Germany, Japan: Mutual defense pact |
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Spanish Civil War (Germany and Italy practice warfare methods as allies of F. Franco |
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1937-12 |
Japan: Bombs US Panay in Yangtze River in China |
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Japan: As part of attacks on China (with high Chinese dead counts), fall of the city of Nanking (Nanjing), Rape of Nanking – torture, rape, mass murder |
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1938 |
Germany takes Sudetenland; Munich – Chamberlain |
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1938-11 |
Kristallnacht |
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Date |
US |
Allies |
Axis |
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1939-03 |
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Ger: Makes demands on Poles (Mar. 23) |
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Br, Fr:
Promise aid to Poles (Mar. 31) |
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1939-04 |
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Italy: Invades Albania (Apr. 7) |
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US/FDR: to Hitler
and Mussolini asking assurances (Apr. 15) |
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1939-05 |
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Ger/Italy: Military alliance (May 22) |
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1939-08 |
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Ger/Ru: Non-aggression pact (Aug. 23) |
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US/FDR: to Poles,
Hitler, Italy’s King Victor Emmanuel for negotiation (Aug. 24) |
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Poles: Accept
conciliation. No response so mobilize (Aug. 31) |
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1939-09 |
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Ger: Invades Poland (Sept. 1) |
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Br/Fr: declare war on Ger (Sept. 1) |
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US: Declares neutrality (Sept. 3) |
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Ru: Invades Poland
(Sept. 17) |
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Ger/Ru: Partition Poland (Sept. 18) |
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1939-11 |
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Ru: Invades Finland. Complete (Mar. 1940) |
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1940-04 |
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Ger: Invades Denmark, Norway |
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1940-05 |
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Ger: Invades The Netherlands, Belgium (May
10). Fall by June. |
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Copyright C. J. Bibus, Ed.D. 2003-2018 |
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WCJC Department: |
History – Dr. Bibus |
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Contact Information: |
281.239.1577 or bibusc@wcjc.edu |
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Last Updated: |
2018 |
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WCJC Home: |
[1] Military research, including the atomic bomb (or Manhattan Project), with Albert Einstein alerting FDR of German research. Other new weapons: radar, sonar.
[2] The public was isolationist, but FDR moved to help the Allies without actual involvement in the war. US got the right to build bases in British island colonies in the Caribbean. Britain got 50 old destroyers from the U.S.
[3] Of speech, of religion, from want, from fear
[4] During 1941, A. Phillip Randolph – Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters – For the account of this threat, see FDR’s action in 1941-06.
[5]
Following the election of 1940, Congress passed the Lend-Lease Bill. It allowed the president
to lend or lease (notice these words
don’t mean sell) “military
equipment to ‘any country whose defense the President deems vital to the
defense of the United States.”
[6] Fair Employment Practices Commission (FEPC) in return for no march
[7] Not binding, but signed by 15 countries by Sept. 24
[8] 1941-12 Japan takes Guam, Wake Island, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dutch East Indies, and others; Corregidor surrenders May; Bataan Death March follows
[9] Had to sell all property in 48 hours; only what they could carry. Internment camps for Japanese and American-born children. 1988 – Congress – survivors $20K reparations
[10] The Japanese had held (see 1941-12) key territories without defeats—with Guadalcanal Island being their first.
[11] After Quadalcanal, the U.S. strategy —called leapfrogging (for the very old kid’s game) or “wither on the vine” (if you nip or cut a vine, the fruit on it withers)–becomes bombing Japanese airbases and leaving the Japanese troops in place on the islands but without a way to supply the soldier.
[12] The primaries for this chapter cover some of the challenges of D-Day.
[13] FDR, Churchill, Stalin agree to the United Nations. Stalin promises aid in war against Japan, but our use of the atomic bomb ends that need. Stalin agrees to free and open elections in eastern Europe, areas the Russians hold, but does not.