Several month into World War II , as Nazi Germany marched through France and eastern Europe , Adolf Hitler ’s thoughts turned increasingly to the prospect of the invasion of the Soviet Union . His fanatical anticommunism was certainly one grounds . He was also pull by the oil and raw - fabric resources of the Soviet area – as well as the neighborhood ’s vast pale yellow ground , which had long been regarded in Nazi Germany as a possible country for colonization , or " living space . "
Strategic calculation also drive Hitler toward war . On the one handwriting , licking of the Soviet Union , he consider , would eliminate the last prognosis that Britain had for creating an anti - German alliance , and thus would induce British surrender . Defeat of the Soviet Union would also justify Japan to move in the Pacific . Thus , there was not one cause but many for Hitler ’s directive to " crush Soviet Russia in a speedy campaign . "
While Nazi Germany was fighting in the West , the Soviet Union took advantage of the situation . In June 1940 , the three Baltic States were incorporated formally into the Soviet Union , just as eastern Poland had been . In addition , the Soviets ram Romania to hand over the territories of Bessarabia and northerly Bukovina . In all of these areas , social and political opponent of the Soviet Union were rounded up and exile or murdered . In the Katyn Forest and two other site , thou of becharm Polish military officer were knock off , their body bury in huge mass grave , each with abullethole in the back of the cervix .
Joseph Stalin ’s ambition continue to thrive . The Soviets pressured Bulgaria to concede Soviet base , and they urged Turkey to concede rights over the straits that separated the Black Sea from the Mediterranean . In October 1940 , Italian potentate Benito Mussolini launched a war against Greece . On September 27 , Germany , Italy , and Japan signalize the Tripartite Pact , dividing the Earth into spheres in which they could each establish a " new gild . "
In November 1940 , Soviet alien minister Vyacheslav Molotov was bid to Berlin to hash out prospect for a further German - Soviet agreement . Molotov laid down terms for Soviet influence in Bulgaria and Turkey . Joachim von Ribbentrop , the German foreign minister , agreed to nothing and urged the Soviet Union to turn toward India as a sphere of expanding upon . Three weeks afterward , Adolf Hitler approved the operational plans for invasion of the Soviet Union , and on December 18 he sign up War Directive 21 for Operation Barbarossa .
The plan called for launch the attempt in May 1941 , but deportation and provision problems forced hold into June . Using base in Hungary , Bulgaria , and Romania – all states that had now add up into the German orbit – Adolf Hitler plan to rescue his Italian ally , whose troops were bogged down in the fight with Greece . When Hitler demanded transit right through Yugoslavia , anti - German elements launched a coup in Belgrade . German force attacked Yugoslavia on April 6 , 1941 , and by April 30 the whole of the Balkan peninsula was in German hands .
The Nazi Germans keep utmost secretiveness regarding their preparations , but word generator alerted Moscow . Joseph Stalin , anxious that nothing should molest warfare , refused to accept the warnings and made every campaign to appease the Germans . Though some Soviet reserves were moved to the frontier in May and June , nothing could stop the massive rape by more than three million German , Romanian , Finnish , and other force along the whole Soviet line in the West . In the other hours of June 22 , 1941 , they set up the largest invasion in public chronicle .
On the next page is a detailed World War II timeline summarizing authoritative events from former January 1941 .
To follow more major events of World War II, see:
World War II Timeline: 27 April 2025-12 April 2025
The new yr of 1941 dawned with a bleak outlook for the Allies . Below is a timeline of important World War II consequence from the first days of January 1941 .
World War II Timeline: January 1-January 10
January 1 : A circumstances of Bremen , Germany , burns out of command when nearly 100 British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) planes strike the city withfirebombs .
January 2 : In an early meter reading of the drear day to come , all Jews in the Netherlands are required to register with the authority .
January 3 : After two straight sidereal day of tune assaults by the RAF , Australian earth force capture Libya ’s Italian - occupied townsfolk of Bardia .
TheLuftwaffearrives in Albania to aid Italy ’s counteroffensive against Greek forces .
In an effort to encourage Irish Prime Minister Eamon de Valera to continue to refuse Allied petition to utilize indifferent Ireland ’s military bases , Germany bombs Northern Ireland three times over the grade of 24 hours .
January 6 : In a congressional speech that have his principle of four freedoms – of speech , of religion , from want , and from fear – President Franklin Roosevelt promotes his lend - lease architectural plan to " pretend as an arsenal " and allow for material backing to European allies .
January 7 : Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto pose on paper Operation Z , a scheme to attack U.S. and British military position in Hawaii , the Philippines , Java , the central Pacific islands , and elsewhere .
January 8 : In his annual budget request to Congress , President Roosevelt asks for an addition in defense spending to a total of $ 10.8 billion for 1942 .
January 9 : A epitome of the British - build Avro Lancaster prospicient - orbit heavybombermakes its maiden ocean trip .
January 10 : Britain loses restraint of shipping in the central Mediterranean when theLuftwaffecripples the carrierIllustrious , which had been escorting supply convoys to Malta . Shipping path to North Africa are now position open for the Germans .
World War II Headlines
Below are more image and highlights from World War II and the Axis and confederate military campaign of 1941 .
Sheffield major target in German safety blitz : Sheffield was a cardinal British armaments center that produced everything from bayonets to armour , including essential component part of the Spitfire aircraft . ineluctably , the " Steel City " became a prey of German bombardment , though not at the sustained tier expected . The Sheffield blitz occurred on the night of December 12 and 15 , 1940 , when more than 660 people were kill and almost 80,000 buildings damaged . The bombs fell on the city nitty-gritty rather than the steel mill , which remained largely untouched . Though many civilian look at cover in Anderson shelters , some were killed while sheltering in cellar , most tragically in the Marples Hotel .
Nazi propaganda film spews anti - Semitism : This poster promotes the 1940 German filmDer ewige Jude , known in English asThe Eternal Jew . A viciously inaccurate anti - Semitic impostor - documentary , the film purports to recount the history of the Jewish people . It claims that Jews had a pernicious influence on nontextual matter , skill , politics , finance , sexual morality , and many other aspects of contemporaneous liveliness . Frequent images of rotter symbolize the infestation of Jews throughout gild . The pic ’s climax boast a speech by Adolf Hitler promising the annihilation of European Jewry . doer Peter Lorre , though render on the poster ’s lower right , does not appear inDer ewige Jude .
World War II Timeline: 12 January 2025-9 March 2025
In January 1941 Italy found itself draw back in north Africa and Albania . This and other important World War II events are summarise on the timeline below .
World War II Timeline: January 10-January 24
January 10 : The Soviets spend about $ 7.5 million worth of gold for a humble area of southerly Lithuania that had been prognosticate to Germany but was occupied by the Red Army .
After advance over the Albanian delimitation in pursuance of the retreating Italian army , Greece captures the Ithiel Town of Klisura , near the Greek - Albanian frontier .
January 13 : Adolf Hitler demands that King Boris of Bulgaria sign the Tripartite Pact , defend alongside the other members of the Axis , and allow the Germans to attack Greece from Bulgarian stain . The unverbalized yet obvious result of a Bulgarian denial is invasion .
January 14 : Nazi Germany puts Romania on posting that the metre has come for it to begin fight alongside the other member of the Axis .
January 15 : Emperor Haile Selassie returns to Ethiopia five year after he was sent into expatriation by an Italian occupation force out .
January 19 : Italy retreats in the brass of a British onrush on forces in Eritrea and Ethiopia on the same day that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini discuss the on-going difficulties on the North African and Albanian fronts . Hitler agrees to send German troop support to Libya .
January 19 - 21 : forcefulness controlled by Roumanian dictator Ion Antonescu brutally stamp down acoupattempt by the leadership of the Iron Guard .
January 21 : The United States suspends its " moral embargo " on exportation destine for the Soviet Union .
January 22 : The Allies occupy Tobruk , Libya , in a remarkably unbalanced struggle that leaves the Italians poor 25,000 soldier at the disbursal of 400 Australian and British casualties .
January 24 : The United States denies a Vichy Gallic petition to welcome German Jewish refugees to America .
More headlines and mental image detail the events of World War II and the Allied and Axis campaigns are below .
British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) Gladiator date but effective : Although understandably dated , the Gladiatorbiplanewas the RAF ’s principalfighter aircraftin 1938 . However , its outstanding manoeuvrability and fourmachine gunscould not recompense for its comparatively slow maximal speed of about 250 miles per hour . Spitfires and Hurricanes soon replace the Gladiators in Europe , although the biplane continued to operate in the Middle East , where they were particularly effective against the Italian air force . They also playact a vital part in the defense of Malta in 1940 - 42 .
The Lee - Enfield Britain ’s standard - takings rifle : Winston Churchill study the .303 - in Lee - Enfield rifle , which was the standard issue rifle of the British and Commonwealth forces throughout the war . In many respects , it had changed little from its First World War predecessor . Robust , honest , and extremely accurate – even at compass beyond 1,000 yards – the magazine hold 10 rounds of the same caliber as the British Army ’s Bren loose machine gun and Vickers medium political machine gun . Although the bolt had to be worked between shot , a cultivate soldier could fire 20 aimed injection per arcminute . The rifle ’s bayonet options included a traditional bladed type and a inadequate spiked rule .
The United States go by the Lend - Lease Bill in February 1941 . Learn about this and other major World War II events on the next page .
World War II Timeline: 14 March 2025-26 February 2025
In February 1941 , the Lend - Lease Bill , which allowed the United States to actively serve the Allies , was transcend . This and other important World War II events are detail in the timeline below .
World War II Timeline: January 26-February 15
January 26 : Japan ’s imperialistic architectural plan are evident when Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka calls for a " new rescript " in Asia .
January 27 : Joseph Grew , the American ambassador in Tokyo , passes on to Washington a rumor that Japan is project a surprisal fire on theU.S. naval baseat Pearl Harbor , Hawaii .
January 29 : Representatives from the United States and Britain secretly meet in Washington to discuss jointmilitarystrategy if the U.S. is forced into war .
January 30 : In an effort to cut the British supply strand , Nazi Germany peril totorpedoany neutral ship carrying supplies to Allied troops .
January 31 : The governing of Turkey denies Winston Churchill ’s request to post 10 squadrons of British Royal Air Force ( RAF)planesand pilot on Turkish grease .
February 1 : Recognizing a need to protect merchandiser ships in the Atlantic , the U.S. Navy create the Atlantic Fleet , with Rear Admiral Ernest J. King commanding .
February 8 : The Lend - Lease Bill , designed to provide a framework through which the United States can assist the Allies while keep disinterest , excrete the House of Representatives . It will hap the Senate on March 8 .
February 14 : President Franklin Roosevelt cautions Yugoslavia ’s Prince Paul against array with Nazi Germany on the same Clarence Day that Adolf Hitler sends an ultimatum demanding cooperation .
February 15 : The Nazi administration in Austria kick off its programme to carry Austrian Jews to Polish ghettos .
More images and headlines detail major event of World War II and the German encroachment are below .
RAF Commander Keith Park " win " Battle of Britain : RAF Commander Keith Park top air protection and reconnaissance during the Dunkirk voidance and during the Battle of Britain . In 1947 Lord Tedder , chief of the RAF , sound out of Park , " If any one man advance the Battle of Britain , he did . " Even though Park was pay back for his avail with the Order of Commander of the Bath , he was removed from instruction during rancorous argumentation about his button-down tactics . begin in July 1942 , Sir Park saw action in Malta , Italy , and Sicily , and then as air force officer of Allied military force in the Middle East . Park is often referred to as the "Savior of Britain . "
TheBismarcksinks theHood : The German battleshipBismarckfires toward the British engagement cruiserHoodon May 24 , 1941 . According to Lieutenant Esmond Knight , who find the attack while on the BritishPrince of Wales , " a great spirt plosion cut from the inwardness of theHood , tremendous attain tongues of pallid - scarlet flame shot into the air , while dense swarm of off-white - yellow smoke burst upwards , gigantic pieces of bright burning debris being hurled hundreds of feet in the aura … Hoodhad literally been blow to pieces . " Of theHood ’s crowd of more than 1,400 men , only three survived .
British sink Nazi battleshipBismarck : After go down theHoodon May 24 , 1941 , and seriously prejudicial thePrince of Wales , the German battleshipBismarckslipped aside . British crews thirstily tried to catch theBismarck , but with their ship turn tail low on fuel , the British despaired of catch Nazi Germany ’s magnificent menace . Then , on May 26 , a Royal Air Force wing boat spotted theBismarckheading for the French coast . British torpedo planes slowed the German ship down , but then lost it again . At last theBismarck– discredited , unable to point right , and off course – was relocated . On the 27th , it was encircled by Royal Navy battleships and cruisers . In the fight that followed , theBismarckwas sunk .
The next varlet contains a timeline detailing major World War II events from February 1941 .
World War II Timeline: 29 April 2025-19 May 2025
February of 1941 meet intense naval struggle in the Atlantic between the British and the Nazi navies . These and other World War II consequence are detailed in the timeline below .
World War II Timeline: February 19-March 2
February 19 : Nomura Kichisaburo , the Japanese ambassador to the U.S. , asserts that any state of war between Japan and the United States would pass only at America ’s discretion .
February 20 : El Agheila , Libya , is the web site of the first desert battle between the British and German armies .
February 22 : Some 400 Jews a calendar week perish of starvation in the Warsaw Ghetto , a disconsolate fig that will not meliorate with the enforcement of the young day-to-day boodle ration of three troy ounce per grownup .
February 24 : Adolf Hitler reports great winner in the Battle of the Atlantic , claim that in the retiring 48 hour alone , Nazi Germany has sunk British cargo weigh more than 200,000 wads .
Despite British pleas , the United States will not be send any ships to protect the territorial dominion of Singapore against Japanese aggression in the East .
February 25 : Advocates for the Netherlands ’s Jews are silenced by the SS , which order an end to public demonstration objecting to Jewish persecution .
February 26 : The Nazi occupation government in northern Holland declares martial law of nature in the wake of a series of attacks on Germans – attacks that the Nazis call were perpetrated by Jews .
February - March : British scout group take a heavy cost on Italian force at Cyrenaica , Ethiopia , and elsewhere in Africa .
March 1 : Auschwitz commanding officer Rudolf Höss is informed that he will receive 130,000 captive for his new refugee camp , 10,000 of whom will be forced into slave labor at the IG Farben company ’s synthetic synthetic rubber plant .
March 2 : One Clarence Day after Bulgaria ’s King Boris III is pressure into accept Adolf Hitler ’s terms and joins the Axis , the German regular army marches into Bulgaria .
Germans score victories in Libya : German general Rommel ’s pre-emptive strike into Cyrenaica , the easterly coastal region of Libya , in March 1941 was a strategical masterstroke . Although portion of hisAfrika Korpswere still forming , he had judged correctly that the British and Commonwealth force were exhaust after their successful movement against the Italians , and that they believed no German offensive was possible before May . Accordingly , within a workweek of arriving in North Africa in February , German troop ( pictured ) were reconnoiter their opponents ' situation . The Libyan Ithiel Town of El Agheila and Mersa Brega fell on March 24 and April 1 , respectively , and Tobruk , Libya , was besieged . Meanwhile , Italian team spirit was restored and all the British successes of 1940 - 41 reversed .
Legendary uranium - gravy holder commander Otto Kretschmer : GermanU - boatcommander Otto Kretschmer perfect " silent running , " drop away his submarine into the midst of a convoy before attack . His refusal to radio his base chafe his Lake Superior , as did his disinclination to propagate Nazi propaganda . In 1940 Kretschmer and his U-99 famously needed just onetorpedofor each object . He sank 47 Allied merchandiser ships ( more than 270,000 gross ton ) . enchant by the British in March 1941 , Kretschmer spend seven years as a prisoner of war . After the warfare , he serve as a command officer in the newly shape German US Navy and as a chief of staff of aNATOcommand .
British commandos foray Norwegian islands : On March 4 , 1941 , a British commando foray on the Norwegian Lofoten Islands go out behind cauterise fish - crude manufacturing plant and smoulder fossil oil dumps , as regard here from the destroyer HMSLegion . set down in vivid low temperature , the invaders fill short resistance to their surprise attack , live as Operation Claymore . The commando accept some 200 German captive , recruited more than 300 Norwegian volunteers , captured encryption equipment and codebooks , and destroy several foe ships – and were quick to leave the island by high noon . The winner of this first major Special Forces operation raised the morale of the commandos and the British public alike .
Nazi propaganda picture Jews as beast : Adolf Hitler predicted genetic calamity if Jews were earmark to tie non - Jews . The claim of the children ’s book seen here , Der Pudelmopsdackelpinscher , describes the genetically absurd poodle - pug - daschsund - pinscher mutt that adorns the covering fire . The title can be usefully translated asThe Mongrel . As written by Ernst Hiemer ( No . 2 man toDer Stürmerpublisher Julius Streicher ) and illustrated by Willi Hofman , this assembling of 11 fable - like vignettes about lazy , bloodsucking hyena , serpent , locust , tapeworm , and others links each creature , via supposedly scientific epilogues , to the innately pernicious Jews , who must be destroyed .
see about World War II events from March 1941 , including the German encroachment of Yugoslavia , on the World War II timeline on the next page .
World War II Timeline: 31 March 2025-12 January 2025
In March 1941 Yugoslavia , under acute pressure from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Germany , joined the Axis powers . This and other important World War II events from March 1941 are summarize in the World War II timeline below .
World War II Timeline: March 5-March 27
March 5 : Britain break all diplomatic ties with Bulgaria .
March 6 : In his Battle of the Atlantic Directive , Winston Churchill underscores the importance of neutralizingU - boatsand aerial assaults on British transportation .
British merchant vessels in the Mediterranean faces a unexampled obstacle , as Nazi Germany begin to pelt the Suez Canal withaircraft - delivered acoustic magnetic mines .
March 12 : Franklin Roosevelt asks Congress for $ 7 billion in military credits to Britain under the new Lend - Lease law .
March 13 : Realizing that success in Greece is dependent on an ability to move troops through Yugoslavia , Adolf Hitler steps up pressure on the Yugoslav government to get together the Axis .
Glasgow , Scotland , is hit by its first important breeze raid of the war . More than 230Luftwaffeplanes pip the Scottish city with century of ton ofexplosivesand X of yard of instigative devices .
March 20 : U.S. Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles inform the Soviet ambassador of an intelligence operation report with the plan for the German attack on the Soviet Union .
March 23 : German U - boats are dominating the Battle of the Atlantic , sinking more than 59,000 tons of British shipping in the past hebdomad alone .
March 25 : In advance of any action in the Baltic States , some 60,000 ethnically German the great unwashed from Latvia , Estonia , and Lithuania have been resettled on German territorial dominion .
Facing German occupation , Yugoslavia officially joins the Axis and agrees to the preparation of the Tripartite Pact .
March 27 : Yugoslavia fox a wrench into Adolf Hitler ’s plans when military officers , demand a neutral Yugoslavia , reverse the government that capitulated to the Axis , and place a teenaged King Peter II on the throne .
Below are more simulacrum and newspaper headline picture World War II result and the Axis aggression of 1941 .
Britain win Battle of Cape Matapan : A Royal Navy Fairey Fulmar vanish melody cover over the British fleet at the Battle of Cape Matapan off Crete on March 27 - 29 , 1941 . The combined violence of British Royal Navy and Australian Navy ship protecting convoy bound for Greece engaged an Italian naval force . The heaviest fighting occurred after dark on March 28 . Aided by radiolocation , which the Italian ship lacked , British warships sent three enemy heavy cruisers and two ruiner to the bottom with impenetrable passing of life . Britain lost only a single torpedo hero sandwich . After the battle , the Italians temporarily yield the eastern Mediterranean to the British , who could now boil down more on the fighting in North Africa .
Clydebank , Scotland takes heavy hit from German bombers : Because Clydebank , Scotland , with its Brobdingnagian domain of dockland , lay so far north , its citizens dared to hope that they were safely beyond the range of German bombers . However , on the night of March 13 - 14 and 14 - 15 , they were disabused of any such hope when 400 bombers expend more than 500 long ton of high - explosive bombs and 2,400 incendiaries on Clydebank . In addition to scourge the dock , only eight of 12,000 house escaped impairment . some 35,000 people became homeless and more than 1,000 were killed . The resulting attack were visible 100 miles by .
Italy wins , loses Abyssinia : In 1936 Benito Mussolini ’s expansionist ambitions resulted in Italy ’s defeat of Abyssinia ( present - daytime Ethiopia ) and the exile of Emperor Haile Selassie . A repressive Italian government ensued , prompting increase civic unrest . Meanwhile , beginning in 1940 , Abyssinia provided a strategic base for Italy ’s successful surgical operation against Sudan , Kenya , and British Somaliland . consequently , although heavy outnumber , British and Commonwealth forces launched their East African Campaign in November 1940 , decisively defeating the Italian occupiers by April 1941 . Abyssinian troops played an important part in the campaign .
Keep register for a World War II timeline about major events of March 1941 , including the British victory in the Battle of Cape Matapan .
World War II Timeline: 6 March 2025-7 April 2025
In April 1941 Adolf Hitler assured Japan he would press the United States if Japan were to assault the U.S. , congeal the microscope stage for Pearl Harbor eight months later . The World War II timeline below summarizes this and other important effect of World War II .
World War II Timeline: March 28-April 5
March 28 : The Italian fleet is decimated and nearly 2,500 Panama hat die when the British sump three of its cruisers and two waster at the Battle of Cape Matapan .
The Eagle Squadron , comprised of American pilots operating under the British flag , is quick for battle .
Plutonium-239 , a uranium isotope that will prove decisive in the development ofnuclearweapons , is discovered by a team of American physicists .
March 29 : The Royal Navy traps Italian combat ship in Ethel Waters between Greece and Crete . Three Italian cruiser are sunk and an of import Italian battleship , Vittorio Veneto , is badly damage .
March 30 : TheU.S. Navycommandeers ships fly the fleur-de-lis of Axis Carry Nation stationed in ports across the United States .
April 2 - 3 : Count Teleki , the prime rector of Hungary , consider his own life because Hungary is join Germany in an invasion of Yugoslavia , with which he had signed a non - aggression accord .
April 3 : Stafford Cripps , the British embassador to Moscow , delivers a monition to Joseph Stalin from Winston Churchill that an onslaught on the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany could happen any day .
April 4 : Under press from the advancing Allies , the Italians abandon the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa . South African troops will occupy the city for the Allies on the 6th .
Adolf Hitler assures Japanese leadership that Germany will fight the United States if Japan assail the U.S. in the Pacific .
April 5 : The Soviet air force run - flies its newMiG-3 fighterfor the first clock time .
The gulf between Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin spring up when Yugoslavia signs a non - aggression treaty with the Soviet Union , drawing the ire of the Nazi Germans .
Below are more look-alike and newspaper headline about World War II events from April 1941 .
British unwished-for in Iraq : Indian troops ward an Iraqi oil refinery in 1941 . Iraq had been independent since 1932 , but Britain keep perquisite there . The British maintained strain bases at Habbaniya and Basra , had the rightfield to pass scout group through Iraq , and held commercial-grade involvement in oil refinery . The wartime government was ab initio pro - British , but on April 3 , 1941 , pro - Axis Rashid Ali El - Ghailani became prime minister following a coup . Britain dispatched a brigade to Basra , but Rashid Ali refused entry to further brigades until it left . Iraqi troop surrounded Habbaniya , but British aircraft and the fort defeated them by other May . British reinforcement go far , and Rashid Ali fled to Germany .
On the following Thomas Nelson Page is a World War II timeline summarize more important World War II events from April 1941 .
World War II Timeline: 10 December 2024-8 May 2025
The first of April 1941 saw Nazi Germany coming to Italy ’s rescue in north Africa and annihilating Yugoslavia . The World War II timeline below summarizes this and other crucial events from April 1941 .
World War II Timeline: April 5-April 12
April 5 : German General Erwin Rommel’sAfrika Korpsand Italian forces aim eastwards against Libya , squeeze a British retreat .
April 6 : A four - front attack overwhelms Yugoslavia , as the German army ramp the country from Bulgaria , Romania , Hungary , and Austria . Belgrade , the chapiter , is destroy and thousands are killed when the Germans start their encroachment with a Sunday attack .
Nazi Germany attacks Greece by way of Bulgaria .
April 7 : London severs all association to Budapest , as Hungary is now wholly under the influence of Nazi Germany .
Britain ’s plans to facilitate fight down Greece are complicated whenLuftwaffebombersblow up a ship packed withexplosivesin the port of Piraeus , damaging critical port substructure in the process .
April 9 : Concerned that Berlin has designs on base in Greenland , the United States obtains the rights to bring home the bacon military protection to the remote but strategically locate island .
In Croatia , a pro - German realm of Yugoslavia , Germany and Italy make a creature state as German troops approach the Croatian capital letter of Zagreb .
April 9 - 10 : Berlin is badly damaged and the State Opera House is gutted during a enceinte British Royal Air Force ( RAF ) attack on the city .
April 10 : Rommel start a siege of Allied positions at Tobruk , Libya .
The USSNiblack , a guided missile destroyer on a rescue mission off the coast of Iceland , drop profundity charges near a Germansubmarine . The incident is the first case of American hostile fire direct at a German ship .
April 12 : A German panzer corps take the Serbian Das Kapital of Belgrade , Yugoslavia , while the Croatian people of Zagreb welcome the German United States Army invasion .
Below are more images and headline detail events of World War II and the Axis campaign of 1941 .
German soldiery force Greece : Adolf Hitler had no desire to capture Greece in 1941 . However , after Benito Mussolini ’s imprudent invasion of the eastern Mediterranean nation fail betimes in 1941 , theFührerhad no pick but to add up to his married person ’s rescue . On April 6 , 1941 , the Germans launched their intrusion of Greece from Bulgaria , which had late joined the Axis . Pictured here are German troop crossing the Pineios River in the Greek neighborhood of Thessaly , using boat and a makeshift bridge circuit . By May 11 , mainland Greece and all of its besiege island except Crete were in full under Axis moving in . Some 50,000 British troop were forced to hastily evacuate Greece .
In April 1941 Rommel’sAfrika Korpsrolled across north Africa . learn about this and other World War II events on the timeline , next .
World War II Timeline: 12 March 2025-24 March 2025
In late April 1941 Greece surrendered to the Axis . This and other crucial events from this period are detailed in the World War II timeline below .
World War II Timeline: April 13-May 1
April 13 : sure-footed that there will be no German encroachment , Joseph Stalin shores up his easterly frontier with the signing of a Nipponese - Soviet disinterest pact .
April 14 : With supply lines stretched to the demarcation line , German General Erwin Rommel’sAfrika Korpsis drive to halt its arresting approach across Libya , just beyond Tobruk .
Egypt ’s King Farouk secretly tells Hitler that he would receive a German invasion force and ejection of the British .
April 16 : illustration of the United States and Japan take on in Washington to resolve their difference of opinion . President Franklin Roosevelt opens the talks by place out what he sees as four critical points in outside relations : territorial unity , noninterference , adequate opportunity for mercantilism , and stability in the Pacific .
April 20 : Greece surrenders to the Axis the day after Prime Minister Alexander Korizis perpetrate suicide in desperation .
April 22 : Germany ’s newly formedAfrika Korps , comprised of two army divisions , arrive in Tripoli , Libya , to help the foundering Italian ground forces in North Africa .
April 26 : Rommel’sAfrika Korpsadvances , forcing the British to back out of Libya and into Egypt .
April 30 : The Nazi Party ban the exhibit of the crucifix in schools across Bavaria , set off angriness through this profoundly Catholic region of southern Germany . The rood-tree will be restored .
May 1941 : SSReichsführerHeinrich Himmler decrees that writing one ’s name , simple arithmetic , and respect to Germans is all the education postulate for the non - German , easterly population of the conquered territories .
Below are more images and headlines detailing the events of World War II and the national socialist German march through easterly Europe .
Nazi Deputy Rudolf Hess crashes in Scotland : On May 10 , 1941 , German official Rudolf Hess made an unauthorised visit to Britain . He was arrest after he give out his ankle joint in a parachute startle from his Messerschmitt , which crashed just in the south of Glasgow , Scotland . Walter Rudolf Hess , whose German title of deputyFührerput him in commission of the Nazi Party apparatus , was on a solo commission . He said he want to negociate a peace in which Britain would be good from attack if it gave Nazi Germany a spare hand in Europe . discount as insane by the British and Adolf Hitler , Hess remained in Allied imprisonment until his last in 1987 .
German propaganda magazine woos Europeans : In March 1943,Lifemagazine declared , " The deadly weapon in the immense Axis propaganda arsenal isSignal … a German twice - a - month picture powder magazine patterned afterLIFE.“Signalwas a advanced , attractive , outsized cartridge clip that downplayed social and political differences among European nations , advertise their " mutual cause " against Bolshevism , and encouraged a novel order referred to asPax Germanica . publish from 1940 to 1945 in 25 languages , Signalreached a circulation of 2.5 million copies per effect – making it the most popular propaganda issue in wartime Europe .
Britain shoot control in Iraq : In May 1941 , British forces rolled into Baghdad to add about regime change . For the residue of the war , Iraqi officials cooperated with the British . However , many historian believe that the well-heeled British victory heightened both Arab patriotism and Muslim fundamentalism . Especially troubling to the British were the intrigues of Grand Mufti Muhammed Amin al - Husseini – a human beings of deceptively gentle manners and soothing voice . The grand mufti was a dearie of Adolf Hitler , for whom he enter Muslim soldiers .
In June 1941 Rudolf Hess made his renowned flight to Scotland . This event and others are summarize on the World War II timeline on the next Sir Frederick Handley Page .
World War II Timeline: 27 February 2025-26 December 2024
In May 1941 Rudolf Hess , one of Adolf Hitler ’s deputies , flewalone to Scotland in a bizarre attempt to broker a peace deal . The World War II timeline below detail this and other events of May 1941 .
World War II Timeline: May 2-May 14
May 2 : The pro - Axis government of Iraq calls for German assist as Britain take Basra and its surrounding oil color fields .
May 5 : Though apprise by Tokyo of the fact that Japan ’s secret Purple code is most probably compromised , the Nipponese ambassador to the United States find that is not the case , and makes no changes to the codification .
May 7 : Joseph Stalin is identify Soviet chancellor by the Politburo .
The German vesselMünchenis captured in the North Atlantic , with a complete zero ledger on board . Two days afterward , Royal Navy divers will get at a sunken GermanU - boatthat includes an Enigma machine complete with rotor configurations and another cipher book . These discoveries will lead the ally to break the Enigma code and deepen the grade of the Battle of the Atlantic for several months .
May 10 : In a bizarre incident , third - ranking Nazi Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland alone and parachutes into British hold , claiming that he is there to negotiate peace with Britain . Adolf Hitler suggests that Hess has take leave of absence of his sentiency .
May 10 - 11 : London is impinge on with its most intenseLuftwaffebombingraid of the war . virtually 1,500 animation are lost , and landmarks such as the British Museum , House of Commons , and Westminster Abbey are poorly damaged .
May 12 : The British Army in North Africa , desperately little on material , is render a new rental on life when a British convoy attain Alexandria , Egypt , with some 240 tanks and 40 hurricane .
May 14 : Some 3,600 Jews are arrested and detained in Paris by the occupying Nazi Gestapo .
The headline and images below detail more events of World War II and the fight between the Axis and the Allies .
Japanese air raids extend to panic in Chungking : remains litter the stairs to an breeze - maraud tax shelter in Chungking , China . The asleep were victims of a mass panic during a Japanese air raid in June 1941 ; more than 4,000 died after breathing machine in the shelter broke down . Despite this tragedy , the provisional chapiter of Chungking was substantially ready than most Chinese metropolis to come through foe air onslaught . civilian there could take refuge in a meshing of cave and tunnels . Most other cities offered no protection from air tone-beginning . With little opposition in the skies , the Japanese repeatedly fail Formosan city , killing tens of thousands of civilians and leaving untold numbers homeless .
The next section contains a timeline detailing major World War II events of mid - to belated May 1941 .
World War II Timeline: 21 March 2025-13 April 2025
May 1941 saw the spectacular naval engagement between the British and the Germans , ending in the sinking feeling of the British cruiserHood . This battle and other World War II events are detail in the World War II timeline below .
World War II Timeline: May 15-May 27
May 15 : Sigmund Rascher , a medico , Luftwaffecaptain , and fellow of Heinrich Himmler , quest permit to use Dachau prisoners as test subjects for his medical experiments . He will become known especially for his hypothermia experiments , which will take 300 lives .
President Franklin Roosevelt places 11 French ships in U.S. porthole under U.S. jurisdiction due to Vichy France ’s compliancy with the Nazis .
May 19 : In gratitude , and as an incentive to uphold its cooperation and coaction , Nazi Germany releases 100,000 French prisoners and reduces the mend defrayal it has call for from the Vichy government activity .
May 20 : In a spectacular but pricey airwave assault on Crete , Germans drop nearly 23,000paratroopersand sailplane soldiers onto its northwesterly sea-coast . While succeeding in taking the island , the German death toll will be intolerably high-pitched .
The Nazi central office ofimmigrationforbids any future emigration of French Jews .
May 22 : Fearing that Nazi Germany will attempt to seize the strategically critical Azores , President Roosevelt calls for U.S. military occupation of these Atlantic islands .
May 24 : The British battleshipPrince of Walesand the cruiserHoodencounter the German battleshipBismarckand cruiserPrinz Eugenin the Denmark Strait . A savage , 20 - minute gunman engagement ensues , end with the sinking of theHoodand the deaths of 1,416 crew member .
May 27 : President Roosevelt , mark that the struggle in Europe has become a " warfare for world supremacy , " suggests that any German line of either the Cape Verde Islands or the Azores would threaten U.S. security and quarter a commensurate reaction .
World War II Highlights
Below are more image and highlights detailing important World War II events .
U.S. sell arm to the British : gravid quantity of U.S.-made Thompson were purchased for the British Army in 1940 - 41 , chop-chop filling the serious capability gap reveal during the Blitzkrieg of 1940 . The Thompson M1 submachine ordnance – with a 20 - round box magazine and a charge per unit of fire of 700 rounds per minute – put up a utilitarian poor - chain assault weapon for many combat and medical specialist troops . The M1 would be supplant by much wanton and cheaper submachine guns , including the American M3 " Grease Gun " and the British Sten Gun .
U.S. breaks Japan ’s Purple computer code : This machine , build in 1940 by U.S. cryptographer , was used to read " Purple , " the Japanese diplomatic code ( not , it should be remark , the Nipponese naval code ) . Purple offered millions of cipher combination . The Japanese considered the system unbreakable , but they made the mistake of phasing it in gradually while still utilize the previous " ruby-red " code , which U.S. intelligence had been read for some clip . The overlap help U.S. cryptanalysts break the Purple computer code and reproduce the machine , which employed phone stepping switches rather than the more traditional rotor system . The cryptanalysts were hailed as " prestidigitator , " and the intelligence agency derived from take Purple was known as " Magic . "
Colonel William F. Friedman top U.S. codification - breaker : Colonel William F. Friedman was the U.S. War Department ’s chief cryptologist , heading the squad that broke the Nipponese diplomatic ( " Purple " ) code . Friedman was carry in Russia , but his father immigrate to the United States to lam uprise anti - Semitism when Friedman was still a child . A graduate of Cornell University , Friedman went to sour for a Chicago enquiry lab , where he became concerned in codes and nought . He entered the Army in 1918 and is credited with infix mathematical and scientific methodology to cryptology . His married woman , Elizabeth , was also a gifted code - breaker and is forget next to him at Arlington National Cemetery .
In June 1941 Britain evacuated Crete . con about this event and others on the World War II timeline on the next Thomas Nelson Page .
World War II Timeline: 2 December 2024-17 May 2025
June 1941 found Adolf Hitler plot to invade the Soviet Union . This and other events of June 1941 are discussed in the World War II timeline below .
World War II Timeline: May 27-June 14
May 27 : The battleshipBismarck , pridefulness of the Nazi fleet , is slide down by British warship with most of its 2,000 - man gang alongside .
May 31 : Britain once again bear control of Iraq trace the implosion of its pro - Axis government .
June 1941 : A series of flak by Croatians against their Serbian countrymen in the newly created pro - Axis state of Croatia leaves hundreds all in .
June 1 : Britain completes the evacuation of Crete .
June 2 : Perhaps reevaluating his alliance with the inept Benito Mussolini , Adolf Hitler declines to alarm Mussolini of his architectural plan to attack Russia when the two Fascist leaders conform to at the Brenner Pass .
June 3 : Hundreds of Jews are murdered , and their shop looted , in a series of wow in the streets of Baghdad .
June 6 : Adolf Hitler come forth his " guideline for the Conduct of the Troops in Russia . " One preparation , get it on as theKommissarbefehl , calls for the execution of any beguile Soviet commissars .
June 8 - 9 : Free Gallic and British force aim deep into Syria .
June 11 : President Franklin Roosevelt agree to send U.S. troops to man a British garrison in Iceland . The move will free a British variance to be transfer to a more decisive war geographical zone , without expose U.S. troop to a combat situation .
June 12 : In an concord designed to strengthen the bond , 14 Allied country make a accord in which they agree to neither make nor abide by separate treaties with any of the Axis nation .
June 14 : Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov shrug off intelligence information point that Germany has Russia in its crosshairs , famously claiming that " only a patsy would attack Russia . "
Below are more image and highlights from World War II detail the Nazi German drive of 1941 .
GermanWehrmachtoverwhelms Red Army in Russia : When Operation Barbarossa start , three freestanding German regular army group – comprised of tank , trucks , motorcycle troop , foot soldier , and several hundred thousand horses – raced into Russia , attacking in the north , Confederacy , and central areas . They surrounded and captured masses of Red Army soldier . Wehrmachtgeneral Blumentritt describe " expectant cloud of scandalmongering detritus recoil up by the Russian columns attempting to back away and by our foot hastening in pursuit . " However , the general also commented , " The foot had a intemperate time hold on up . " A marchland of 25 miles a day was not unusual , and when panzer play rough or wooded terrain and superior Russian tanks , they had to cease and wait for the infantry to get up to avail empty the path .
Next is a World War II timeline outline the major events of June 1940 .
World War II Timeline: 25 March 2025-21 May 2025
June 1941 saw the launching of Operation Barbarossa – the national socialist invasion of the Soviet Union – which was the largest attack in world history . This and other major events are described in the World War II timeline below .
World War II Timeline: June 15-June 30
June 15 : German high control instruct its war vessel to destroysubmarinesbelonging to Russia . If caught , the Germans are told to claim to have mistaken the Soviets for Brits .
June 16 : Rudolf Hess , still in British hands after his solo parachute trip to Scotland , reveal his stage attempting suicide on a escape of step .
The U.S. announces the expulsion of all Italian and German tourer and consular personnel , in force July 10 .
June 17 : Operation Battleaxe , a major Allied push to relieve besieged scout group at Tobruk , Libya , go .
June 19 : Nazi Germany and Italy shutter U.S. consulates and expel diplomats .
June 22 : German sentries murder their counterparts at the Russian border at Brest - Litovsk , bear on off Operation Barbarossa , the largest army attack in globe story . Three million German troops butt against into Russia along the entire 1,800 - international mile frontier . Though outnumber by the Soviets , the Germans have the element of surprise .
June 23 : The commander of the Russianbombergroup takes his own life when the Soviets come out on the losing destruction of a wildly unbalanced hassle , lose 500 planes while downing about 10Luftwaffeaircraft . By the end of the workweek , the Soviet melodic phrase force , the world ’s tumid , will be down 2,000 plane and all but destroyed .
June 25 : Franklin Roosevelt authorizes arms shipments to the Soviet easterly larboard of Vladivostok .
June 26 - 28 : Finland , Hungary , Croatia , and Slovakia declare state of war on the Soviet Union .
June 30 : After a serial publication of catastrophic unsuccessful person , Joseph Stalin orders the execution of the military leaders on the Soviet Union ’s western front .
Flamethrowers effective against tanks : All sides use flame - throwing weapon , including those mounted on vehicles , such as the British Army ’s " Crocodile " Churchill storage tank . Other flame - throw weapons were man - packed and operate by assault engineers or footslogger , such as theWehrmacht ’s FlammenwerferModel 35 . The weapon system ’s principal component included a pressurized fuel container , a tube projector and nozzle , and a system of rules to ignite the jet of inflammable fuel . flamethrower were particularly utilitarian against strongly constructed bunker , pillboxes , oceanic abyss system , and alike fortification , where extraneous memory access was often extremely modified – sometimes only through a single weapon cunt or windowpane . At tight range , flamethrower were also efficient against tanks .
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:
John S. D. Eisenhower , Senator Daniel K. Inouye , Richard Overy Ph.D. , David J. A. Stone , Wim Coleman , Martin F. Graham , James H. Hallas , Mark Johnston Ph.D. , Christy Nadalin M.A. , Pat Perrin , Peter Stanley PhD
