|
4 Jan |
Operation Ring approved
by STAVKA - Russian HQ. It entails the destruction
of the German VI Army at Stalingrad, unit by unit. |
|
8 Jan |
Von Paulus, commander of
the VI Army at Stalingrad, refuses the Russian offer
of surrender. |
|
10 Jan |
Operation Ring begins at
08.00 with a massive artillery attack on the VI
Army, and, as per instructions, the German troops
were hunted down unit by unit. |
|
13 Jan |
Two Russian armies
attack the Germans at Kharkov in the Ukraine. |
|
14 Jan |
The start of the
Casablanca conference. Churchill and Roosevelt
agreed to increase American bombing of Germany, and
to transfer of British military resources to the Far
East once Italy had been defeated. Stalin, not
invited, was left out in the cold! |
|
22 Jan |
The Germans evacuate
Tripoli in North Africa. |
|
31
Jan |
Von Paulus surrenders
the southern group of the German VI Army at
Stalingrad. Two days later, the northern group led
by Schreck surrender too. |
|
8 Feb |
The Russians retake the
city of Kursk |
|
9 Feb |
Guadacanal is taken by
American forces. |
|
14 Feb |
Wingate's Chindits start
their long-range penetration patrols. |
|
16 Feb |
Russians retake Kharkov. |
|
20 Feb |
The Germans, led by
Manstein, launch a counter-offensive against the
Russians. |
|
2 March |
Germans destroy the
Russian 3rd Tank Army. |
|
3 March |
Manstein masses four
Panzer corps south-west of Kharkov to launch another
attack on the Russians. |
|
15 March |
The Germans re-capture
Kharkov. |
|
31 March |
An early spring thaw
prevents Manstein from making further gains, but in
five weeks he has managed to push the Russians back
100 miles on the south-eastern Russian front |
|
13 April |
The first news of the
Katyn Wood massacre was broadcast. The Germans had
discovered a mass grave of 4,500 Polish soldiers in
Russia. |
|
19 April |
Start of the Warsaw
Uprising. |
|
7 May |
The German army in North
Africa surrender to the British and Americans. |
|
5 June |
Start of Operation
Citadel; the German attempt to cut off the Kursk
salient (a bulge in the Russian battle-line). |
|
10 July |
Allied forces invade
Sicily. |
|
12 July |
The greatest tank battle
in history takes place at Kursk. |
|
16 July |
The start of the German
withdrawal from Kursk. |
|
17 July |
Rome receives its first
major bombing raid of the war. |
|
24 July |
The fascist Grand
Council agree that military power in Italy should
rest with the king, Victor Emmanuel. |
|
25 July |
Mussolini is arrested. |
|
28 July |
A bombing raid on
Hamburg results in a firestorm that kills more than
50,000 people. |
|
3 Aug |
Italy signals the
potential for a peace settlement with the Allies. |
|
6 Aug |
German troops pour into
Italy to stop any chance of a peace settlement
taking Italy out of the war. |
|
22 Aug |
The Germans begin to
withdraw from Kharkov, the Russians enter the city
the next day. |
|
3 Sept |
Allied forces invade
Italy. |
|
8 Sept |
Allied forces land at a
little town just south of Naples called Salerno. |
|
25 Sept |
In Russia Smolensk is
liberated. |
|
1 Oct |
British troops enter
Naples. |
|
9 Oct |
The liberation of the
Russian northern Caucasus is completed. |
|
6 Nov |
German troops are forced
out of Kiev. |
|
20 Nov |
The Battle of Tarawa
starts which will ultimately cause the death of over
1,000 US Marines. |
|
23 Nov |
The Japanese are driven
out of the Gilbert Islands. |
|
28 Nov |
Start of the Tehran
conference. The meeting was the first time the
so-called ‘Big Three’ met - Stalin, Churchill and
Roosevelt, it set the direction for the rest of the
war in Europe. |
|
26 Dec |
The German battleship 'Scharnhorst'
is sunk north of Norway. |
