Accomplish as many of the applicable SOL as time allows.

Social Sciences:
6.6, 6.10, 6.11, 9.9, 9.10, 10.14, 10.15, 11.11, 11.12, 11.17, 11.18

   Classroom activities developed by a teacher committee (funded through a grant from Jesse Ball du Pont Fund).

Length of Program: 4+ hours to accomplish all aspects of the lesson.

Cost: Field Trips to the MacArthur Memorial can be taken without charge.

1. If intending to take your class on a field trip to the MacArthur Memorial, please contact Linda McCubbins, MacArthur Memorial Education Coordinator, to arrange the date and time of the visit.
2. Confirmation of the visit will be sent to the lead teacher, with pre-visit information and a parking map.

   By helping us determine the sequence of events, timelines help us understand different periods in history. The following timeline is based on events between 1939 and 1945, and is designed to help students understand more fully the impact of World War II on the United States and the world. A field trip to the MacArthur Memorial followed by the activities below will help summarize and reinforce what students have learned in class about World War II.

Activity One::

   Using the timeline below, students work as groups to identify and list the ten most significant events of World War II. Have the groups discuss their choices with the entire class.

Activity Two:

   As a group, students develop albums that show a visual representation of the events in the timeline.

1939

• Sep.  1  Germans Invade Poland.
• Sep.  3  Britain and France declare war on Germany.
• Sep. 17  Soviet Russia, under a secret understanding with Germany, invades Poland from the east.
• Sep. 27  Poland surrenders to the Germans.
• Nov. 30  Soviet Armed Forces invade Finland and bomb the capital Helsinki.

1940

• Mar. 12  Peace treaty is signed in Moscow between Soviet Russia and Finland, ceding territory to Russia.
• Apr.  9  Germans invade Denmark and Norway. Denmark offers no resistance, but Norway fights.
• May 10  Germans smash into the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
• May 10  Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister after the resignation of Neville Chamberlain.
• May 14  Germans cross the French frontier. The Armed Forces of the Netherlands capitulate.
• May 28  Belgian Army surrenders, by order of King Leopold III.
• May 26 - June 4  Some 340,000 British, French and other Allied troops are evacuated across the English Channel through the Dunkirk beachhead.
• Jun. 10  Italy declares war on Britain and France.
• Jun. 14  Hitler's forces enter undefended Paris.
• Jun. 16  Marshal Henri Philippe Petain becomes Premier of France when Paul Reynaud resigns.
• Jun. 22  France and Germany sign an armistice at Compiegne, on terms dictated by Nazi conquerors.
• Jul. 10  First large-scale German attack on the United Kingdom marks the beginning of the Battle of Britain.
• Sep.  7  London suffer its first air blitz.
• Sep. 27  Japan joins the Rome-Berlin Axis in the Tripartite Pact for mutual defense.
• Dec. 15  British drive the Italian Army out of Egypt.

1941

• Jan. 10  Lend-Lease bill introduced in the U.S. Congress, touching off a great debate between isolationists and interventionists.
• Mar. 11  U.S. Congress passes Lend-Lease Act, giving President power to provide all-out aid to Britain and other enemies of Axis powers.
• Mar. 27  Military leaders in Yugoslavia overthrow the government of Prince Regent Paul and put Peter II in power to prevent their country from joining the Axis.
• Mar. 28  British fleet wins a decisive battle with the Indian Navy at Cape Matapan, gaining supremacy in the Mediterranean.
• Mar. 30  Hitler's Afrika Corps launches a counteroffensive in North Africa.
• Apr.  6  Nazi forces invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
• Apr. 18  Yugoslav Army surrenders to the Germans, but guerilla resistance continues.
• May 10  Rudolf Hess, Deputy Fuehrer, parachutes into Scotland on his own peace mission to Britain.
• May 20  Germans invade British-held island of Crete in eastern Mediterranean.
• May 27  German battleship Bismark is sunk in North Atlantic by British.
• Jun.  1  British surrender to Crete
• Jun. 14  President Franklin D. Roosevelt freezes Axis assets in the United States; State Department orders closing of all German consular and propaganda offices.
• Jun. 22  Germany declares war on the Soviet Union; launches invasion on a 1000 mile front from the Baltic to the Black Sea.
• Jul. 2  Roosevelt orders freezing of all Japanese assets in the United States and discontinues trade with Japan.
• Aug.  9 - 14  Churchill and Roosevelt meet in secret conference at sea off Newfoundland and issue statement of common war aims known as the Atlantic Charter.
• Sep.  8  Germans complete land encirclement of Leningrad, starting a 900-day siege of the city.
• Sep. 19  Nazis occupy Kiev, Capital of Soviet Ukraine.
• Oct. 17  General Hideki Tojo, war minister and leader of military extremists, becomes Prime Minister of Japan.
• Oct. 31  U.S. destroyer Reuben James on convoy duty with arms shipments, sunk by a German submarine, with the loss of 115 lives.
• Nov. 14  Saburo Karusu, special envoy from Tokyo arrives in the United States to discuss the Japanese-American crisis.
• Nov.18  British Eighth Army in North Africa begins desert offensive in Libya.
• Dec.  7  At 7:55 a.m. (Hawaiian time) Japan unleashes surprise attack on Pearl Harbor imposing immense damage on U.S. naval and military forces. Tokyo declares war on the United States and Britain.
• Dec.  8  U.S. Congress adopts declaration of war against Japan; Churchill informs Parliament that Britain is at war with Japan. Japan makes first landings and massive air attacks on Philippines. Defending forces are under command of General Douglas MacArthur.
• Dec. 10  British warships Prince of Wales and Repulse are sunk by Japanese air attacks off Malayan coast.
• Dec. 11  Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. Congress recognizes existence of state of war with both countries.
• Dec. 13  Hungary and Bulgaria declare war on the United States.
• Dec. 22  Churchill arrives in Washington for conference with Roosevelt.
• Dec. 25  British colony of Hong Kong surrenders to Japan.

1942

• Jan.  1  Twenty-six countries sign the Declaration of the United Nations, forming a great coalition against the Axis.
• Jan.  2  Japanese take over Manila as MacArthur's forces retire to Bataan peninsula.
• Jan. 11  Japanese invade Netherlands East Indies
• Feb. 15  General Tomoyuki Yamashita receives the surrender of Singapore from British General Arthur E. Percival.
• Feb. 27  March 1ÑSmall Allied fleet under Dutch command destroyed in Battle of the Java Sea.
• Mar.  7  British evacuate Rangoon, capital and main port of Burma
• Mar.  9  Java is unconditionally surrendered to Japanese by Dutch, British and American defenders.
• Apr.  9  U.S. forces on Bataan surrender to Japanese. General Jonathan M. Wainwright retreats to Corregidor with small group.
• Apr. 18  U.S. Army planes, commanded by Col. James H. Doolittle, carry out bombing raid on Tokyo.
• May  4 - 8  Both Americans and Japanese claim victory in the Battle of the Coral Sea; aircraft carrier USS Lexington is sunk.
• May  6  General Wainwright surrenders Corregidor to the Japanese
• Jun.  3 - 6  Japanese planes attack Midway Islands, lose heavily in the great air and sea Battle of Midway.
• Jun.  21  German General Erwin Rommel captures Tobruk in North Africa.
• Jun. 25  Lieutenant General Dwight D. Eisenhower is appointed commander of U.S. forces in European theatre.
• Jul.  1  Sevastopol, main Russian stronghold on Black Sea, falls to German-Rumanian forces after twenty-five day siege.
• Aug.  7  U.S. marines land on Guadalcanal in Solomon Islands
• Aug. 19  British and Canadian Commandos raid Dieppe, on French coast of English Channel, suffering heavy losses.
• Aug. 31  British, led by Lt. General Bernard Montgomery, defeat Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Battle of Alam Halfa in Egypt.
• Nov.  5  Rommel's forces, beaten at the Battle of Alamein, begin to retreat to Tunisia.
• Nov.  8  Troops of Allied Army, Navy and Air Force, with Eisenhower in overall command, land in North Africa.
• Nov. 11  Nazis invade the unoccupied part of France.
• Nov. 13  British retake Tobruk from the Germans.
• Nov. 19 - 22  In the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet forces, commanded by Gen. Georgi K. Zhukov, begin a counteroffensive.

1943

• Jan. 14 - 24  Roosevelt, Churchill and military leaders hold Casablanca Conference
• Jan. 30  British Air Force makes first day-light bombing raid on Berlin
• Feb.  2  Battle of Stalingrad ends when exhausted German troops surrender; General Friederich von Paulus had been taken prisoner two days earlier.
• Feb.  7  Japanese evacuate Guadalcanal, ending six months' resistance.
• Mar.  2 - 4  Battle of Bismarck Sea is fought off the New Guinea coast; large portion of the Japanese fleet is destroyed.
• May  11  U.S. forces land on Attu in Aleutian Islands
• May 12  Organized Axis resistance ends in Tunisia, marking Allied victory in all of North Africa. Rommel flees to Germany.
• Jul.  9 - 10  Allied forces, under the overall command of Eisenhower, invade Sicily,
• Jul. 25  Mussolini resigns as Italian Premier and is replaced by Marshal Pietro Bagdoglio.
• Aug. 1  Rumanian oil fields in Ploesti are bombed by U.S. Liberator planes.
• Aug. 17  Conquest of Sicily is completed by the Allies
• Sep.  3  Allies invade southern Italy across Strait of Messina.
• Sep.  8  Italy announces its surrender to the Allies.
• Sep. 10  Germans shell and seize Rome. Italian Navy is turned over to the Allies.
• Oct.  1  U.S. Fifth Army captures Naples.
• Oct. 13  Italy declares war on Germany.
• Oct. 19  Nov. 1ÑForeign Ministers of Leading members of United Nations hold a conference in Moscow; Secretary of State Cordell Hull represents the United States.
• Nov.  1  American troops land on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands
• Nov.  6  Russians recapture Kiev from the Germans.
• Nov. 20  American forces land on Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert Islands
• Nov. 23 - 26  First Cairo Conference is held in Egyptian capital by Roosevelt, Churchill, and Chiang Kai-Shek.
• Nov. 28 - Dec.1  Conference at Teheran, Iran of "Big Three:" Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin.
• Dec. 24  Eisenhower appointed Supreme Commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces, to plan and direct the invasion of Europe.
• Dec. 26  German battleship Scharnhorst sunk by British off North Cape.

1944

• Jan. 22  American and British troops land behind German lines at Anzio, Italy.
• Feb.  2  Soviet Army enters Estonia and launches offensive against Latvia. U.S. marines capture Roi-Namur in the Marshalls; take Kwajalein Island five days later.
• Feb.  21  Hideki Tojo, named chief of Japanese Army General Staff, becomes military dictator.
• Mar.  20  Nazi forces invade Hungary to meet threat to Balkans.
• Apr.  5  General Charles de Gaulle becomes head of the French Provisional Government in London.
• Apr. 22  MacArthur leads American landings at Hollandia, Netherlands, New Guinea.
• May  9  Soviet forces recapture naval base of Sevastopol.
• May 18  Nazis evacuate Cassino monastery, ending three-month siege.
• May 23  Allies unleash offensive from Anzio, Italy, beachhead.
• May 25  Germans yield entire coastline from Anzio to Terracina.
• Jun.  4  Anglo-American troops take Rome, left undamaged by the Germans.
• Jun.  6  D-Day, Allies, in vast strength, with Eisenhower in supreme command, invade Normandy for long-planned offensive against Hitler.
• Jun. 13  First German V-1 rockets attack England.
• Jun. 14  General de Gaulle, visiting liberated Normandy coast, returns to France for the first time in four years.
• Jun. 15  U.S. Superfortresses (B-29s) make first raids on Japan.
• Jun. 19  Carrier-borne U.S. aircraft attack the Japanese fleet. between Luzon in Philippines and the Marianas, in the Battle of the Philippine Sea.
• Jun. 21  Okinawa falls to Americans, as organized Japanese resistance ends.
• Jul.  9  American forces take Saipan, in Marianas, after twenty-five-day struggle.
• Jul. 11  Red Army penetrates borders of Latvia and Lithuania.
• Jul. 18  British Second Army breaks through German lines at Caen, France.
• Jul. 20  Hitler is slightly wounded in bomb attempt on his life at Rastenburg, his headquarters in East Prussia; plot is a failure.
• Jul. 21  U.S. marines and infantry establish beachheads on Guam.
• July 26  American forces make breakthrough west of St.-Lo in France.
• Aug. 10  Americans complete conquest of Guam after three-week battle.
• Aug. 11  Nazis abandon Florence, undamaged, as Allies close in on the city.
• Aug. 15  Allied troops invade southern France between Cannes and Toulon.
• Aug. 21  U.S. armored columns reach the Seine River to the north and south of Paris.
• Aug. 23  Rumania surrenders to Russians and joins the Allies.
• Aug. 25  Paris liberated; German commandant surrenders to Gen. Jacques LeClerc.
• Aug. 27  General Eisenhower enters Paris with Lt. Gen. Omar N. Bradley.
• Sep.  3  British Second Army liberates Brussels, the capital of Belgium.
• Sep.  4  Armistice declared between Finland and Soviet Russia.
• Sep.  5  Soviet Russia declares war on Bulgaria.
• Sep.  8  First German V-2 rockets land on London.
• Sep.  9  Bulgaria signs armistice with the Soviet Union.
• Sep. 10  Roosevelt and Churchill meet in Quebec.
• Sep. 17  Allied airborne troops land deep in the Netherlands.
• Sep. 24  Russian Army advances twenty miles into Czechoslovakia from Poland.
• Oct. 3  Warsaw Resistance Army surrenders to Germans after two months' struggle.
• Oct. 20  U.S. forces land on Leyte, in central Philippines.
• Oct. 23 - 26  Battle of Leyte Gulf; Japanese fleet suffers heavy losses; U.S. carrier Princeton sunk.
• Nov.  6  Stalin renounces neutrality pact with Japan.
• Nov.  7  Roosevelt elected to fourth term as President.
• Nov. 12  German battleship Tirpitz sunk by Royal Airforce off Tromso, Norway.
• Nov. 24  U.S. B-29s bomb Tokyo.
• Dec. 16  Germans launch massive counter-offensiveÑBattle of the Bulge.

1945

• Jan.  9  MacArthur's forces land on Luzon at Lingayen Gulf, 100 miles north of Manila.
• Jan. 17  Soviet Army captures Warsaw, capital of Poland.
• Jan. 20  Provisional Government of Hungary signs armistice with Allies.
• Jan. 31  Churchill and Roosevelt meet at British island of Malta, in prelude to Yalta Conference.
• Feb. 3  U.S. troops enter Manila.
• Feb.  4 - 11  Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin hold Yalta Conference, plan occupation of Germany and other liberated countries in eastern Europe.
• Feb. 19  U.S. marines land on Iwo JimaÑ750 miles away from Tokyo.
• Feb. 23  Marines capture Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
• Mar.  4  Finland declares war on Germany, postdating it to September 15, 1944.
• Mar.  7  U.S. First Army crosses Ludendorff Bridge at Remagen on the Rhine. Cologne falls to the Allies.
• Mar.  9  Biggest B-29 bombing of Tokyo flattens sixteen square miles of city and kills 100,000.
• Mar. 26  Iwo Jima secured.
• Apr. 1  American forces invade Okinawa, 340 miles south of Japan.
• Apr.  7  Baron Kantaro Suzuki becomes Japan's prime minister.
• Apr. 12  President Roosevelt dies and is succeeded by Harry S Truman.
• Apr. 13  Vienna falls to the Russians.
• Apr. 16  Soviet Army begins its final push toward Berlin on forty-five mile front.
• Apr. 25  American and Soviet forces meet in ceremonial juncture near Torgau on the Elbe River.
• Apr. 28  Mussolini, his mistress and sixteen Fascist henchmen are assassinated in the village of Giulino di Messegra on Lake Como.
• Apr. 30  Adolf Hitler commits suicide. Soviet Russian flag is raised on Berlin Reichstag; Americans free 33,000 inmates of Dachau concentration camp.
• May  2  Berlin falls to Russia; German troops in northern Italy surrender.
• May  3  Rangoon, Burma port, recaptured by British.
• May  7  Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies and Russia.
• May  8  VE (Victory in Europe) Day celebrated by the Allies.
• May  9  Ratification of surrender signed in Berlin.
• Jun.  5  Four Powers (U.S., Britain, Soviet Union, France) sign declaration of German defeat and assume supreme power in Germany.
• Jun. 21  Battle of Okinawa ends with complete victory for the United States.
• Jun. 26  Representatives of fifty nations in San Francisco sign World Security Charter establishing the United Nations.
• Jul.  4  General MacArthur announces liberation of all the Philippines.
• Jul. 5  Churchill is defeated in general election; Labour Party, led by Clement Atlee gains power.
• Jul. 16  First atom bomb tested successfully at Alamorgordo, New Mexico.
• Jul. 17  Potsdam Conference begins in Germany.
• Aug.  2  Potsdam Declaration, imposing a hard peace on Germany is made public.
• Aug.  6  U.S. atom bomb is dropped on Hiroshima.
• Aug.  8  Soviet Russia declares war on Japan.
• Aug.  9  Atom bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
• Aug. 14  Japan surrenders unconditionally.
• Sep. 2  Japanese Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemetsu and military leaders sign surrender terms on the U.S.S. Missouri.

   Extensions may be written to reinforce the oral reporting skills and writing skills by asking the students to discuss and write about the things they learn in the activities.

   Assessment activities should be developed around the objectives outlined in the SOL covered in this field trip activity and appropriate to the various grade levels participating.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about World War II
Books Go To War: The Armed Services Editions of World War II
WWW-VL History: Central Catalogue
Historical Text Archive: World War II
World War II Slides
World War II Timeline

Linda McCubbins
Education Coordinator
General Douglas MacArthur Memorial
MacArthur Square
Norfolk, Virginia 23510

PHONE: (757) 441-2965
E-MAIL: macmem@norfolk.infi.net