World War II Pictorial Chronology

Phase 1: Invasion of Poland – Battle of Britain (September 1939 – October 1940)

Invasion of Poland (1939)

German Armies Invade Western Poland (1939)

Border Crossing

Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stuka’ Highly-effective dive bomber used in ‘Blitzkrieg’ warfare, attacking defensive positions and tanks

Invasion of Denmark & Norway (1940)

Germany Invades Netherlands & Belgium (May – June 1940)

Invasion of France (June 1940)

Evacuation of Dunkirk ‘Operation Dynamo’ 300,000 British & French troops rescued by over 800 ships and pleasure craft

Fall of France (June 1940)

Vichy France (1940 – 1944)

Battle of Britain Radar Spitfire Mk IV Messerschmitt Bf109

The ‘Blitz’ (October 1940 – April 1941)

Phase II: Operation Barbarossa – North African Campaign (June 1941 – May 1943)

Invasion of USSR - Operation Barbarossa (June – October 1941) Hitler invades Russia with over 3 million men & 4,000 tanks, supported by the Luftwaffe 3 Army groups invade: Army Group North: Leningrad Army Group Centre: Moscow Army Group South: Stalingrad Hitler’s target was the oil-rich region of the Caucasus

Pearl Harbour (7 th December 1941)

Operation Uranus (19 th – 22 nd November 1942)

Operation Uranus Soviet troops encircle StalingradGeneral Von Paulus in Stalingrad

Battle of the Kursk (4 th – 20 th July 1943) Between 4 th & 20 th July, Hitler committed over 900,000 soldiers, 10,000 artillery guns, 2,700 tanks and 2,000 aircraft, hoping to counteract the Soviet offense that was pushing gradually westwards from 1943 on. It failed to surround the Soviet tanks and infantry which numbered 1.3 million soldiers, 20,000 artillery pieces, 3,600 tanks and 2,400 planes

Phase III: D-Day – Fall of Berlin (6 th June 1944 – 8 th May 1945)

Nazi Europe (6 th June 1944)

Field Marshall Rommel General Erwin Rommel inspects the Atlantic Wall defences (1944)

The Atlantic Wall

D-Day Landings: Operation Overlord (6 th June 1944)

D-Day Landing Sites

Liberation of France General deGaulle & Free French partisans parade in Paris following liberation by Allied troops

Liberation of France

Red Army advance on Berlin (1943 – 1945)

Battle of the Bulge

Germany Collapses

VE Day 8 th May 1945

War in the Pacific

Yalta Conference (4 th – 11 th February 1945)

Hiroshima & Nagasaki 6 th & 9 th August 1945 Oppenheimer

Hiroshima: 1945 (Before Atomic Bomb)

Hiroshima: 1945 (After Atomic Bomb)

VJ Day 15 th August 1945

Casualties of WWII

The Holocaust By the end of WWII, after the concentration & extermination camps were liberated throughout occupied Europe, it was estimated that over 6 million Jews had been murdered as part of ‘The Final Solution’; the plan to eradicate all Jews from Europe between 1942 & 1945.