WW2 Key Dates

Key World War 2 dates

By 1938 the prospect of another world war was looking increasingly likely. So much so, that my mother’s mother moved the family out of London, as she could not bear the prospect of being caught up in the London air-raids.

• 17^th Jul 1937 Japan occupies the Chinese capital of Peking
• 1^st Sept 1939 Germany invade Poland
• 3^rd Sept 1939 Neville Chamberlain declares war on Germany
  
• 10^th Sept 1939 Chamberlain’s War Cabinet prepare for a 3 year war
  
• 8^th Jan 1940 rationing of some meats begins, followed by other food & fuel
  
• 10^th May 1940 Chamberlain resigns, Churchill becomes Prime Minister
  
• 26^th May 1940 Operation Dynamo commenced (evacuation of Dunkirk)
  
• 7^th Dec 1941 Japan bombs Pearl Harbor
  
• 11^th Dec 1941 Germany declares war on USA (US join the war in Europe)
  
• 8^th Nov 1942 Operation Torch landings commence
  
• 6^th Jun 1944 Operation Overlord (the D-Day landings in France)
  
• 8^th May 1945 Winston Churchill announces the end of the war with Germany
  
• 15^th Jul 1945 Britain accepts $4.94b loan from US & Canada
  
• 26^th Jul 1945 Labour Party win general election (Churchill’s Tory party defeated)
  
• 6^th Aug 1945 USA drops atomic bomb over Hiroshima
  
• 8^th Aug 1945 Soviet Union declares war on Japan
  
• 9^th Aug 1945 USA drops atomic bomb over Nagasaki
  
• 15^th Aug 1945 Japan surrenders
  
• 4^th Jul 1954 Food rationing came to an end
  
• 31^st Dec 1960 end of National Service “call-up”. (all young healthy men from 17 – 21 had been required to join the armed services for a period 18 months).
  
• 29^th Dec 2006 Britain make last repayment on North American loan
  

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