WWII - The Call of Duty: A Complete Timeline

From the moment Adolf Hitler marched his troops into Poland on the 1st of September 1939, the Second World War was inevitable, and as the opening skirmishes are played out, see for yourself the events that shaped the escalating crisis.

As the New Year dawned and the people of Britain faced the introduction of rationing, all eyes turned northwards to Scandinavia, where Adolf Hitler was preparing for full-scale invasion. U-Boat attacks increased and at Scapa Flow a German Air Raid claimed the first British casualties.

When Winston Churchill became Prime Minister of the wartime coalition government in May 1940, he pledged his “blood, toil, tears, and sweat”, and within days of his appointment, he was called upon to honor his promise.

With mainland Europe under Hitler’s control, the German Fuhrer turned his attention to Operation Sealion, and the Battle of Britain, expecting an easy victory. However he’d underestimated the enormity of the task and the spirit of a nation inspired by Winston Churchill.

The Luftwaffe continued its attempts to bomb Britain into submission, while the German Afrika Korps strengthened its position as Rommel, Hitler’s “Desert Fox”, took charge. At sea the naval forces battle each other and the elements, as the Japanese embark upon a spy mission to gather information about the American Fleet at Pearl Harbour.

With Britain failing to fall at Hitler’s feet, the Blitz drew to a close, as the Fuhrer turned his attention eastwards. The sinking of the German battleship, the Bismarck, lifted the spirits of the British Navy, and as Hitler’s campaign for Russia, code named Operation Barbarossa, got underway, the course of World War II veered dramatically.

If Hitler had expected a decisive victory in Russia, at speed, he was thwarted at every turn and while the Luftwaffe bombed Moscow and the Siege of Leningrad began, the Soviet Red Army refused to capitulate as they watched and waited for the winter snows. Trouble was also brewing in the Pacific as America took diplomatic action against the Japanese.

As Hitler and the Germans focused on Russia, the situation in the Pacific developed to epic proportions when the Japanese air force attacked the American Naval Fleet, stationed at Pearl Harbour on the 7th of December. This immediately brought the USA into the fray, and back in the European Theatre of War, Hitler now had a great deal more than Russia to worry about.

With Britain no longer facing Hitler alone, the first GIs arrived in the UK, while the Japanese took the advantage afforded them by their surprise attack on Pearl Harbour. As Singapore fell, the Allies looked on in horror as Japan also had control of Java, Burma and New Guinea, as they edged ever closer towards Australia.

It was time for the American Navy to get back on course after Pearl Harbour, and in the four-day Battle for the Coral Sea, they claimed victory over the Japanese, before defeating them again in the decisive Battle of Midway. Elsewhere the Luftwaffe went back to targeting more British cities in the Baedeker Raids.

Hitler’s “Desert Fox”, Rommel pushed forward at El Alamein, but with the arrival of the maverick British General, Bernard Montgomery, to take charge of the Eighth Army in North Africa, the wind of change was about to blow. Meanwhile on the Russian Front Hitler’s troops advanced their Stalingrad campaign, with the Fuhrer boasting that this key city would soon be his.

After so many years of German supremacy, as 1942 drew to a close, the Allies were really beginning to make headway. The British made a crucial breakthrough in North Africa, and the Americans pushed the Japanese out of Burma and New Guinea, while in Russia the Germans found themselves surrounded, as the winter snow set in over Stalingrad.

The only option for the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad was surrender, while all across Russia the Red Army consolidated their advantage. Also, as German cities encountered the kind of bombing that Britain faced back in 1940, courtesy of the RAF, the Allied commanders planned a return to France at the Casablanca Conference.

Even when there seemed little hope of making an impact against the Germans, the fight for freedom continued. The Polish Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against their oppressors and although facing the horrors of the Nazi Concentration Camps, German army units were needed to deal with the situation. The French Resistance was also formed, and with the Dambuster Raids attacking the Industrial Ruhr, the Allied progress although still slow, was at least sure.

From their success in North Africa the Allies were ready to return to occupied Europe, first landing on Sicily before moving north onto mainland Italy under the command of Montgomery, known fondly by his men as Monty. But as the Italians surrendered, the Germans occupied Rome, making the battle for Italy a long, hard slog, while the plans for the invasion of Northern France steadily took shape.

While Hitler faced frustrations on all fronts and the Japanese were kept at bay by the Americans, despite heavy US casualties, the Allied leaders faced a new challenge. Although Churchill and Roosevelt had always been comfortable working together, the Russian leader Joseph Stalin had in the past been regarded more as a foe than a friend. With the invasion of France imminent, plans made at the Teheran Conference were a minefield of diplomatic negotiations.

While the Russians moved towards Germany from the East, and the Western allies attacked from the opposite direction, the Japanese continued their battle in the Pacific, fighting American Marines to the death on the island of Iwo Jima. As the endgame came into sight, there were desperate measures taken by both sides, and the casualties kept on rising.

As winter gave way to spring the world watched and waited as the Allied forces prepared for Operation Overlord. Brave and daring, risking all, US General Dwight D Eisenhower took charge of the campaign to deliver the fight for freedom directly to Adolf Hitler.

One of the main reasons for the success of the D-Day landings was the element of surprise, as the huge invasion force, congregating along the south coast of England, went undetected by German Intelligence. Hitler’s Generals believed the stormy weather meant it would be mission impossible, and it almost was.

As the liberation of France got underway, the citizens of a nation oppressed since 1940 celebrated the Allied arrival with rapture. But there was still much to be achieved, on both the Western and Eastern Fronts. For Hitler, the writing was on the wall, and when one of his own, Claus von Stauffenberg, attempted to assassinate the Fuhrer, he very nearly succeeded.