James V. Koch

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WWII TIMELINE»1918-1939

11 November 1918	World War I ends
June 1919	Treaty of Versailles concluded. Germany loses territory its eastern and western borders, must submit to some military occupation, demilitarize portions of Germany, must pay large financial reparations to the winners, and is limited to a 100,000 man army.
September 1919	A young German military non-com named Adolf Hitler is ordered to investigate a small right wing political party, the German Workers Party in Munich.
February 1922	Washington Naval Treaty signed that gives U.S. and U.K. naval parity, Japan about two-third of this amount, France and Italy about one-sixth of this amount.
October 1922	Mussolini’s fascists march on Rome and take control of the Italian government.
January 1923	France and Belgium occupy the Ruhr area of Germany (which contains much of Germany’s heavy industry) because Germany has not kept up its reparations payments.
November 1923	Adolf Hitler stages an unsuccessful putsch in Munich. It is badly planned and fails. He is put on trial, convicted, and serves two years in jail, where he writes Mein Kampf.
January 1924	First national congress of the Chinese Kuomintang is held. Its leader is Sun Yat-sen, but General Chiang Kai-shek has increasing influence.
April 1924	The Dawes Plan reschedules German reparations payments.
April 1925	Field Marshall von Hindenburg becomes President of Germany.
April 1927	Shanghai falls to the Kuomintang.
August 1928	The Kellogg-Briand anti-war treaty is signed. Major powers renounce war as a means of policy.
June 1929	Young Plan again reschedules German reparations payments.
23 October 1929	New York Stock Exchange collapses.
April 1930	London Naval Treaty signed. No new battleships may be built prior to 1937 and limits are placed on the construction of submarines, destroyers, and cruisers.
May 1930	Japanese Prime Minister Inuki is assassinated by a group of highly nationalistic young army officers who, inter alia, object to the London Naval Treaty.
September 1930	German elections make the National Socialist German Workers Party (NSDAP) the second largest party in Germany with 20 percent of the vote. The communists also do well.
May 1931	The principle Austrian bank, Credit Anstalt, fails.
September 1931	The Japanese army sends troops to occupy south and central Manchuria. The Chinese resist, but by early 1932, Japanese control is complete. League of Nations calls on Japan to withdraw. It ignores the League.
January 1932	After unrest and rioting, Japanese occupy Shanghai.
February 1932	Japan declares the independence of Manchuria, which it calls Manchukuo. Installs a puppet government.
May 1932	Conservative leader Franz von Papen becomes Chancellor of Germany.
July 1932	German election makes the Nazis the largest party in the Reichstag. They hold 230 of 608 seats. They receive 37 percent of the vote.
November 1932	New German election reduces Nazi share of vote to 33 percent. Communist vote increases. Von Papen has difficulty holding a parliamentary majority and he resigns. German army indicates it has no confidence in him.
20 January 1933	Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany after appointment by President von Hindenburg. Von Papen is Vice Chancellor. He and others members of the new cabinet believe that they can control Hitler.
27 February 1933	German Reichstag burns. Hitler blames communists and uses this to justify crack down, arrests. A von Hindenburg decree grants Hitler additional powers.
March 1933	New German elections gives the Nazis 43 percent of vote. Most communist deputies are arrested.
23 March 1933	With some deputies such as the communists absent, the Reichstag votes an Enabling Act that gives Hitler extraordinary police powers. First concentration camps appear. Newspapers censored.
October 1933	Germany leaves the League of Nations.
January 1934	Germany and Poland conclude a non-aggression pact.
30 June 1934	“Night of the Long Knives” when Hitler executes a large number of leaders of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) plus other miscellaneous individuals. The Schutz Staffel (SS) carries out these deeds. Heinrich Himmler, leader of the SS, becomes more prominent.
July 1934	Austrian Nazis stage a coup and assassinate Chancellor Dollfuss. Hitler sends troops to border, but does not intervene. Schuschnigg becomes Austrian Chancellor.
August 1934	German President von Hindenburg dies. Adolf Hitler proclaims himself President, Chancellor, and Führer. All members of the German armed forces take a personal oath of allegiance to Adolf Hitler.
October 1934 to November 1935	Chinese communists take “Long March” from Kiangsi to Shensi in the interior. 6000 miles. New power base.
December 1934	Japan abrogates its participation in the Washington Naval Treaty.
December 1934	Italian and Abyssiania troops clash on border between Italian Somaliland and Abyssinia.
January 1935	Referendum in the Saar area of Germany (west of Rhine) overwhelmingly endorses continued union with Germany.
March 1935	Hitler introduces compulsory military service. Nuremberg racial decrees against Jews are promulgated.
April 1935	United State passes a Neutrality Act that prevents it from giving financial assistance to any country involved in a war.
May 1935	France and USSR signs a mutual assistance pact. USSR and Czechoslovakia do same.
June 1935	British-German Naval Agreement is signed. Germany allowed to build fleet up to 35 percent of British tonnage. U-boats permitted. This legalizes construction already underway in Germany.
October 1935	Italy moves against Abyssinia in force. Half hearted sanctions voted against Italy by League of Nations. Annexed by Italy in May 1936.
February 1936	Plot by young army officers to impose a new, more nationalistic cabinet fails. Many assassinations. Trials follow that appear to make plotters the heroes.
March 1936	Hitler sends German troops into the Rhineland (Germany west of Rhine River) that previously had been demilitarized. France, Britain does nothing.
July 1936	Spanish Civil War begins. USSR sends support and troops to Loyalists, Germany does same for fascists led by Francisco Franco. Fascists ultimately triumph.
November 1936	Germany, Japan sign anti-Cominterm Pact. Italy joins later. Aim is to threaten USSR.
January 1937	Hitler formally abrogates the Treaty of Versailles.
May 1937	Neville Chamberlain becomes Prime Minister of Britain.
Summer 1937	Purges in USSR hit peak. Millions executed or sent to concentration camps. 35,000 army officers executed, including more than one-half of all generals. Most prominent casualty is Marshall Tukhachevsky, who had been strong proponent of modernizing the Soviet armed forces.
July 1937	Fighting breaks out near Marco Polo Bridge near Peking in China. This provides Japan with a pretext to advance its troops. It soon occupies and controls Peking and Tientsin.
Fall 1937	Heavy fighting between Japanese and Chinese around Shanghai, other sites. Communists also fight Japanese.
November 1937	“Hossbach Conference” occurs in which Hitler outlines plans for expansion and Germany’s need for Lebensraum (living room).
December 1937	Advancing Japanese forces capture Nanking and in the process kill, rape, and brutalize hundreds of thousands of Chinese.
12 December 1937	U.S. gunboat Panay is sunk by Japanese.
12 March 1938	Germany annexes Austria in the Anschluss. European powers do nothing. Tens of thousands of arrests follow in Austria, which becomes a province of Germany.
March 1938	Partial Czechoslovakia mobilization of its military forces because of German military preparations, provocations.
July 1938	Japan, USSR clash in Nomohan battles near Manchurian border. USSR clear victor.
September 1938	Hitler provokes crisis over Czechoslovakia, which has 14,000,000 people, 3,000,000 of which are German. Series of diplomatic meetings, threats, conferences result in Treaty of Munich that gives Hitler the Sudetenland area, which contains strong Czech defensive positions. PM Chamberlain proclaims “peace in our time.”
November 1938	Japan proclaims the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
15 March 1939	Germans occupy remainder of Czechoslovakia. Major powers do nothing, but their attitudes begin to change.
April 1939	Italy attacks Albania.
May 1939	Germany, Italy sign formal alliance.
Summer 1939	More fighting between Japan, USSR near Manchurian border. Led by General Georgi Zhukov, USSR defeats Japanese. Little noticed.
Summer 1939	USSR carries out treaty discussions with Britain, France. These go slowly. Stalin wants free hand in Eastern Europe if he opposes Hitler. Britain dallies.
23 August 1939	Germany, USSR conclude non-aggression pact that includes public economic aid, trade, etc. Privately, gives USSR Baltic states and arranges for the partition of Poland between Germany, USSR.
1 September 1939	Germany invades Poland.
3 September 1939	Britain, France declare war on Germany. Ocean liner Athenia torpedoed by U-30. 112 dead, including 28 Americans.
10 September 1939	British military forces begin to land in France.
17 September 1939	Soviet troops invade Poland from east.
27 September 1939	Warsaw surrenders and Polish resistance nearly at an end. Polish government in exile formed shortly thereafter. Germans take 700,000 Poles prisoner; USSR takes 200,000. Germans lose 10,000 dead.
9 October 1939	Hitler orders planning to begin for an invasion of WesternEurope.
November 1939	Britain begins to read some key German military messages via process labeled Ultra.
30 November 1939	USSR invades Finland. Finns have 150,000 man army. USSR deploys 10-20 times as many. Finns defeat Russians in December, January battles on Finnish frontier.
17 December 1939	German pocket battleship Graf Spee scuttles itself in Montevideo, Uruguay.

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