This timeline has been developed for Historiana by the Historical Content Team.;xNLx;;xNLx;The development of this timeline is supported by the Evens Foundation and the European Union.;xNLx;;xNLx;The background image is a picture of British troops advancing during the Second Battle of El Alamein, October 24, 1942. The image is in the public domain, at the courtesy of the Imperial War Museum © IWM (IWM Photograph E18474).
The Second Sino-Japanese War starts with Japan’s invasion of China.
The Declaration of Cooperation by the Chinese Communist Party strengthens the United Front between the Chinese Communists and Nationalists; halting their civil war to combine forces against Japan.
The Siege of Shanghai ends in Japanese victory.
The Japanese attack on USS Panay near Shanghai raises the possibility of conflict between Japan and the United States.
The Nanjing massacre were large-scale massacres of Chinese civilians following Japanese conquest of the city (then the capital of the Chinese Republic)
The Battle of Lake Khasan (also known as the Changkuleng Incident) marks the beginnings of military conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union in the Far East.
The Capture of Wuhan by Japan forces the Chinese Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-shek to retreat up the Yangtze river to Ghongqing
France and Great Britain guarantees the integrity of the borders of the Polish state. Sir Nevile Henderson was British Ambassador to Germany until he was recalled in March 1940, in protest against Germany’s annexation of Prague, Bohemia and Moravia.
The Battle of Suixian-Zapyang (Suizao) begins a Chinese Nationalist offensive in which the Chinese National Revolutionary Army began to regain the territories previously lost to the Japanese.
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol marks the decisive conflict of the undeclared war between Japan and the USSR in Mongolia.
The Nazi-Soviet Pact agrees secret terms for the invasion and partition of Poland and the Baltic States.
Germany invades Western Poland.
The Baltic States, Finland, Norway and Switzerland declare their neutrality.
Germany invades Poland. The military map from the History Department of the United States Military Academy shows the fighting in Poland in September 1939.
The Free City of Danzig is annexed by Gemany.
SS Athenia, a British cruise ship, is torpedoed by German U-boat U-30. 112 passengers and crew were killed. The source shows a young boy who has been rescued of the SS Athenia, which was torpedoed by the German forces, is supported by a member of the Army Medical Corps on the Norwegian ship KNUTE NELSON after its arrival in Galway harbour, Ireland.
Having guaranteed the integrity of Poland’s borders, Britain now declares war on Germany at 11.00. France declares war on Germany six hours later.
The British RAF (Royal Air Force) launches an unsuccessful air raid on the German fleet at Heligoland Bight.
The United States declares its intention to remain neutral. Two days before the Proclamation, President Roosevelt had committed the United States to a policy of neutrality in his ‘Fireside Chat’ radio broadcast to the American people.
French troops move into Saarland but the advance is halted after moving 13km into German territory.
The first troops of the British Expeditionary Force land in France.
The British Air Force (RAF) launches a series of raids on German naval bases.
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol in the Far East results in the decisive Soviet victory against Japanese forces.
The British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous is sunk by a German U-Boat U-29.
General Gamelin orders French troops to withdraw from Saarland.
The Soviet Union invades of Eastern Poland.
The Battle of Khalkhin Gol ends in victory of Soviet armies under General Zhukov.
German artillery opens fire on French villages near the French-German border.
The German-Soviet Boundary and Friendship Treaty, signed between Molotov and Ribbentrop, divides Poland in two.
No significant offensive is launched on the Western Front for the next 9 months – the so-called period of the Phoney War.
British troops move up to the Belgian border in anticipation of an invasion while French troops mobilize on the Maginot Line – a line of concrete fortifications close to the German border.
The surrender of Polish forces completes the Nazi-Soviet occupation of Poland.
Hitler proposes a peace agreement with Britain and France if they accept Germany’s occupation of Poland. The offer is rejected.
The British battleship HMS Royal Oak is sunk by U-47 at the main British naval base of Scapa Flow, Orkney.
First German air raid over Britain. German bombers attack a British convoy heading for the port of Rosyth near Edinburgh, Scotland. HMS Edinburgh was one of the Royal Navy warships attacked by German dive-bombers in the raid on Rosyth (the ‘Battle of the River Forth’) on 16 October 1939.
The British government publishes a report identifying concentration camps being built by the Third Reich for Jews and those who actively oppose the Nazis.
The Polish government-in-exile is established in London.
The 'Winter War' between the USSR and Finland begins.
By December 1939, the German battleship, Admiral Graf von Spee, had sunk nine British merchant ships in the South Atlantic. She was then attacked in the River Plate off the Uruguay port of Montevideo by three British cruisers. Damaged but not sunk the captain of the Graf Spee, believing that a major British naval force was steaming towards them, orders the ship to be scuttled and then he shot himself.
In the Battle of Helgoland Bight on 18 December 1939, German naval bases are attacked.
Troops from the British Empire arrive in Europe. The source shows a group of seven British empire military personnel in uniform: from left to right there is a West African soldier, a British soldier, an Indian soldier, an airman of the RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force), a New Zealand soldier in 'lemon squeezer' slouch hat, an Australian soldier and a sailor of the Royal Navy.
The Third Reich finalizes General Falkenhorst's plans to invade Denmark and Norway.
The German tanker, Altmark, was sailing through neutral Norwegian waters escorted by three Norwegian torpedo boats. She was carrying 299 British merchant navy sailors who had been taken prisoner by the Graf Spee. The Altmark is stopped by the British cruiser HMS Cossack and boarded. Seven German sailors are killed and another 11 wounded. The ship’s prisoners are freed and taken back to Britain. The Norwegian escort boats protest but do not intervene.
The Soviet-Finnish War ends with the Moscow Peace Treaty. Territories in Eastern Finland (near Lake Ladoga) are ceded to the Soviet Union.
Germany launches air raids on the British fleet based at Scapa Flow near Orkney.
The British and French governments sign a formal agreement that neither will seek a separate peace treaty with the Third Reich.
German forces invade Norway to establish U-boat bases along its coastline for attacks on Allied shipping in the North Atlantic and to create a safe supply route for iron ore supplies from neutral Sweden. The invasion is met by armed resistance from Norwegian forces, supported by Allied forces. The occupation is not completed until 10 June after the evacuation of allied forces and defeat of the Norwegian army in the north.
In preparation for an invasion of Norway, German forces cross the Danish border into the Jutland peninsula, followed by paratroop landings at the strategically important airfields at Ålborg in the north and Masnedø Island in the south. After a naval attack on Copenhagen the Danish government capitulates.
British destroyers and aircraft successfully attack the German surface fleet at the Battle of Narvik, off the Norwegian coast.
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