istoryworld
Events relating to the second world war
Germany launches a bombing campaign specifically targeting historic British cities with three stars in the Baedeker guidebook
Bernard Montgomery is appointed commander of the demoralized British and Commonwealth Eighth Army in North Africa
Canadian troops provide most of the assault force in a disastrous raid on Dieppe
Hitler, disregarding the armistice, sends German troops to take control of Vichy France
French crews in Toulon scuttle the fleet to prevent it falling into German hands
British admiral Louis Mountbatten is appointed to head the new Southeast Asia Command, with his headquarters in Delhi
Colossus Mark I, the world's first computer, goes into decoding service at Bletchley Park in Britain
The RAF's first jet, the Gloster Meteor, flies with a Whittle engine
The Allies cross the Channel on D-day for the Normandy invasion
British general Bernard Montgomery commands the Allied land forces in the Normandy Landing on D-day
Two pre-constructed harbours, known by the code name Mulberries, are towed across the Channel to Normandy
The first V-1 flying bombs (or doodlebugs) appear over London, numbering more than 2000 in two weeks
The Seventh US army, commanded by Alexander Patch, opens another front with a landing on the French Riviera
George Patton gets a division of his Third US Army across the Seine southeast of Paris
Barricades are built in the streets as Parisians stage an impromptu uprising against the Germans
Tanks of the Second French Armoured Division are the first of the Allies to enter and liberate Paris
The first V-2 rocket lands on London, killing three people in Chiswick
The first of many thousands of war brides arrive in Canada, mainly from Great Britain
The Germans stage a counter-attack in the Ardennes region before being pushed back in the Battle of the Bulge
Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill meet at Yalta to discuss Allied post-war plans
Winston Churchill, losing the postwar general election in Britain, has to yield his seat at Potsdam in mid-conference to Clement Attlee
TheAllies celebrate V-J Day – victory over Japan and the end of the war
William Joyce, widely known as Lord Haw-Haw, is hanged by the British as a traitor
Winston Churchill, in a speech in Fulton, Missouri, expresses the harsh truth that an iron curtain has descended across Europe
Hermann Goering, sentenced to death at Nuremberg, kills himself with a potassium cyanide capsule the night before he is due to be hanged
