TIMELINE:
- May 1st, 1937: President Franklin D Roosevelt signs the Neutrality Act, which bands travel on belligerent ships, bans American merchant ships to be armed, and issues an arms embargo with warring nations
- February 1938: The US shows popular support for American action against Japan, which exceeds the support for action against Nazi Germany
- May 1939: The US Senate blocks the president’s request to help Britain and France economically in case of war
- June 6th, 1939: Passenger ship St. Louis, which had 907 Jewish refugees, begins a journey back to Europe after the US refuses to let it dock.
- September 25th, 1940: US refuses to sell iron and steel to Japan, which causes Japan to join the Axis powers two days later
- December 1940: US Naval Intelligence crack Japan’s secret communications and learn that Japan wants to conquer China
- January 6th, 1941: Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease act, which allows America to sell goods, with delayed payment, to any and all allied force
- March 30th, 1941: US Coast Guard seizes 65 German ships and holds them in ‘protective custody’.
- May 15th, 1941: American merchant ship Robin Moor is sunk by a German torpedo. President Roosevelt responded by declaring a national emergency
- August 17th, 1941: Roosevelt warns Japanese Government to stop all aggression towards neighboring countries, or else face the US forces.
- November 3-29, 1941: Japanese Government decides to attack Pearl Harbor if negotiations with the US fail. US cryptographers learn from Japanese code that Japan plans aggressive action if an agreement with US is not met. Japan dismissed US demands to withdraw from China.
- December 7th, 1941: The catastrophe of Pearl Harbor ensues, losing aircrafts and naval vessels, and killing 2,355 US servicemen and 68 civilians.
- December 11th, 1941: War is declared between the US and the Axis powers
- October 23, 1942: First major Allied offensive takes place, in which British and US armies attack Germany’s African Korps and chase forces back towards Libya
- September 8th, 1943: Italy surrenders to Allied forces, though Germany still occupies much of Italy
- December 1st, 1943: Allied powers announce the Cairo Declaration, in which all three declare intention to establish an international organization to maintain peace and security of the world
- June 1st, 1944: In England, allied powers assembled 2.9 million men, 2.5 million tons of supplies, 11,000 airplanes and hundreds of ships to prepare for D-Day
- June 6th, 1944: The first of nearly 3 million Allied soldiers arrive in Normandy, on the northern shores of France
- July 24th, 1944: Allied troops take large parts of Normandy and Brittany, which sparks a German retreat
- August 25th, 1944: Paris is liberated from Nazi control by US forces and Free French division
- February 11, 1945: Allied powers meet in Yalta to negotiate Soviet dominance in Eastern Europe. Yalta Conference would result in the dual administrations in Berlin, the break up of Germany, and the prosecution on war criminals
- May 1st, 1945: Hitler commits suicide
- May 2nd, 1945: Germany signs an unconditional surrender
- May 5th, 1945: American Air Force in Europe heads for the war in the Pacific
- May 1945: Demobilization of American army begins
- May 1945: An atomic bomb is successfully detonated in New Mexico desert
- July 26th, 1945: Allied leaders meet in Potsdam, Germany to send an ultimatum to Japan. Japan issues no surrender
- August 6th, 1945: US drops an atomic bomb - the first to be used in warfare - on Hiroshima. It killed 75,000 people instantly, and injured more than 100,000. The second bomb is dropped later in the day
- August 10th, 1945: Tokyo asks for peace on the condition that Emperor Hirohito will keep his throne. The Allies let it happen.
- September 2nd, 1945: A formal surrender ceremony is conducted in Tokyo Bay on the US battleship Missouri. The war is done
Helmut Podcast
We got the opportunity to speak to a World War II Veteran names Helmut. Helmut was a German soldier in World War II, and was a part of the Hitler Youth Program. He was happy to answer a few of our questions, as well as tell a few of his own stories. One of the questions our class asked him was “What can we learn from WWII?”