November 24 Strasbourg captured.
December 2 De Gaulle arrives in Moscow.
December 5 Allies take Ravenna
December 16 German offensive in the Ardennes begins.
December 18 North Burma cleared of Japanese.
December 27 Russians surround Budapest.
1945
January 3 Americans counter-attack Ardennes salient.
January 12 Great Russian offensive begins in Poland.
January 17 Russians take Warsaw.
January 19 Cracow captured.
January 20 Tilsit captured. Hungarian "Debrecen" Government signs armistice, January 23 Russians reach the Oder.
January 29 Russians encircle Poznan.
February 3 Allies capture Colmar.
February 4 Yalta conference opens.
February 5 Americans enter Manila. British and Canadians open offensive to reach the Rhine.
February 9 Königsberg almost surrounded.
February 10 Elbing captured.
February 13 Budapest falls.
February 19 Americans land on Iwojima.
February 23 Poznan taken.
March 7 Cologne captured.
March 13 Allies command west bank of Rhine.
March 23 Rhine crossed.
March 29 Russians cross Austrian frontier.
March 30 Danzig captured.
April 1 Americans invade Okinawa.
April 5 Osnabrück captured.
April 9 Königsberg surrenders.
April 9 Allies begin final offensive in Italy.
April 10 Hanover captured.
April 12 Death of President Roosevelt. Eighth Army cross the Santorno.
April 13 Russians take Vienna.
April 16 Final Russian Berlin offensive starts.
April 19 Americans take Leipzig.
April 21 Allies take Bologna.
April 23 Russians reach Berlin. Allies reach the Po.
April 27 Genoa and Verona taken. American and Russian forces meet at Torgau.
April 30 Hitler's suicide.
May 1 Surrender of German Army on Italian front.
May 2 Berlin surrenders to Russians.
May 4 Allies reach Trieste. Rangoon taken.
May 7 Jodl signs unconditional surrender at Eisenhower's H.Q. at Reims.
May 8 "V.E." Day. Keitel signs surrender at Zhakov's H.Q. near Berlin.
May 9 Russians take Prague. Victory Day in Soviet Union.
May 21 Organised resistance ends in Okinawa.
July 17 Potsdam conference begins.
August 6 Atom bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
August 8 Soviet Union declares war on Japan.
August 9 Atom bomb dropped on Nagasaki. Russian invasion of Manchuria begins.
August 14 Japanese agree to surrender.
September 2 Japan signs capitulation on board USS Missouri.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks are due to the following publishers for permission to quote from copyright
works :
Jonathan Cape Ltd., and Doubleday & Co. Inc., for Roosevelt and the Russians by E. R.
Stettinius, copyright 1949 by the Stettinius Fund Inc.
Cassell & Co. Ltd., and Houghton Mifflin Co. Inc., for The Second World War by Sir Winston Churchill,
Eyre & Spottiswoode Ltd., and Harper & Row, for The White House Papers of Harry L.
Hopkins, edited by R. E. Sherwood.
Michael Joseph Ltd., and E. P. Dutton & Co. Inc., for Panzer Leader by General H.
Guderian.
Macmillan & Co. Ltd., and The St. Martin's Press Inc., for German Rule in Russia by Alexander Dallin.