This Week in WWII
This Week in WWII – 4th Week of October
1929
Wall Street stock market crashes.
1933
Dachau opens.
This Week in WWII – 3rd Week of October
1933
Nazis open Dachau concentration camp.
1938
German troops occupy the Sudetanland.
This Week in WWII – 2nd Week of October
1940
Germans postpone Operation Sea Lion until spring of 1941. Nighttime raids throughout London and Manchester and fifteen airfields attacked.
1942
First flight of the P-51 with the new Rolls Royce Merlin engine. Battle of Cape Esperance, off Guadalcanal, occurs.
This Week in WWII: 1st Week of October
1939
Assassination attempt is made on Hitler by the Polish Army in Charles de Gaulles Square. The bomb failed to explode.
1940
Heavy bomber raids continue against cities at night. During the day fighter-bombers fly nuisance raids against coastal towns, airfields and other military targets.
This Week in WWII: 4th Week of September
1940
Poland surrenders to Germany.
1941
The first Moscow Conference of World War II, involving, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union, is held. Averell Herriman, representing the U.S. and Lord Beaverbrook, representing the U.K., met with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, to give assurances that both the U.S. and the U.K. would aid and support the Soviet Union in the common fight against Nazi Germany.
This Week in WWII: 3rd Week of September
1939
The German Army completes the encirclement of Warsaw, which ends with the surrender of Warsaw to the Nazis.
1941
Germany begins siege of Leningrad.
This Week in WWII: 2nd Week of September
1939
Assassination attempt on Hitler by General Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord.
1940
Victory for Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.
This Week in WWII: 1st Week of September
1939
Great Britain, France, New Zealand, Canada, and Australia declare war on Germany. Prime Minister Chamberlain was reluctant but capitulated to the necessity for the war declaration.
U.S.A. proclaims neutrality in the war in Europe.
1943
British troops land on mainland Italy, beginning the Allied campaign in Italy.
This Week in WWII: 4th Week in August
1940
First German air raids conducted on central London.
Churchill retaliates bombing of London with the first English air raid on Berlin.
1942
Battle of Stalingrad begins. The Battle of Stalingrad was a major and decisive battle of WWII in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia.
This Week in WWII: 3rd Week in August
1943
Schweinfurt attacked by over 180 B-17s of 8th Air Force, which drop 485 tons of high explosives and 88 tons of incendiaries on German ball-bearing plants.
1944
The Dumbarton Oaks Conference ends, setting up the basic structure for the United Nations.
1945
Japan unconditionally surrenders to the Allies, ending WWII.