|
|
UNITED NATIONS DECLARATION :
Date : 1st January 1942.
United Nations declaration
signed by 26 countries. The United Nations would replace the League
of Nations. The League of Nations will be dissolved in 1946, and
the new United Nations will become the new international organization.
|
|
|
|
JAPANESE ADVANCES :
Date : 2nd January 1942.
Japanese troops invade
and captures the capital of the Philippines, Manila, on the island
of Luzon.
Date : 11th January 1942.
The British retake Sollum,
eastern Libya in north Africa.
Japan attacked Thailand,
Malaya, Dutch East Indies, and New Guinea.
|
|
|
|
NAZI ADVANCES IN NORTH AFRICA :
Date : 28th January 1942.
Rommel's Afrika Korps retakes
Benghazi in Libya, north Africa from the Allies.
|
|
|
|
JAPANESE TROOPS CONTINUED ADVANCE :
Date : 28th January 1942.
After recent territorial
gains in New Guinea by Japan it puts the Australian mainland in
direct threat from Japanese attacks and possible invasion. The
Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) bomb the port Rabaul in New
Guinea. The port was on the north-east of the island of New Britain,
which was held by the Japanese.
Date : 8th February 1942.
Japan captures Rangoon
the capital of Burma. The invasion of Burma directly threatens
the possibility of attacks and invasion of India.
Date : 15th February 1942.
The British expecting an
attack by sea on Singapore by the Japanese, was taken totally
by surprise when the Japanese opted to approach Singapore across
rugged terrain. The Japanese captured Singapore, and the British
surrender became the largest British army capitulation, when a
total of 130,000 British troops became Prisoners of war.
Date : 19th February 1942.
Japan launches attacks
on mainland Australia. Japanese warplanes bomb the Australian
city of Darwin. The attack marked the most southerly point of
the Japanese advance.
Date : 26th - 28th February
1942.
Japanese troops prepare
for the invasion of the Dutch East Indies and the island of Java.
An Allied naval force consisting of British, America, Australian
and Dutch vessels clashed with a Japanese force. The clash is
known as the Battle of the Java Sea. Allied attempts to stop the
Japanese failed, and the Allied naval presence was destroyed.
Date : 2nd March 1942.
Japan captures Jakarta
(known as Batavia by the Dutch) the then capital of the Dutch
East Indies.
Date : 8th April 1942.
The United States surrenders
Bataan, defended by US and Filipino troops against Japanese forces.
Date : 12th April 1942.
General MacArthur is ordered
to evacuate from the Philippines by President Roosevelt, and promises
to return. Over 60,000 Allied prisoners died on the infamous Bataan
Death March, as the captured POWs were marched to Japanese camps.
|
|
|
|
MALTA HONOURED FOR BRAVERY :
Date : 16th April 1942.
The George Cross is awarded
to the island of Malta for its valour for resisting severe Axis
aerial attacks. Malta's position in the Mediterranean was vital
for Allied dominance in the Mediterranean sea, maintaining links
with Allied armies in north Africa and protecting the convoys
carrying supplies via Suez Canal Zone.
|
|
|
|
BRITISH SURRENDER THE PHILIPPINES :
Date : 6th - 8th May 1942.
General Wainwright surrenders
all British forces to the Japanese in the Philippines.
|
|
|
|
BATTLE OF THE CORAL SEA :
Date : 15th May 1942.
Japanese confidence was
well founded, as victory followed victory over the four month
period since the attack on Pearl Harbor. But at the Battle of
the Coral Sea Japanese expansion would be thwarted for the very
first time, as the Japanese fleet clashed with an Allied fleet
commanded by US Rear-Admiral Fletcher.
It was the first Japanese
defeat of the campaign, and America's first success in the Pacific.
The planned expansion by the Japanese, the invasion of Port Moresby,
New Guinea, was blocked.
|
|
|
|
ROMMEL LAUNCHES DESERT OFFENSIVE :
Date : 27th May 1942.
General Rommel launched
an offensive against General Auchinleck's British Army in Libya,
north Africa. Rommel's intent was to remove the British from the
Cyrenaica area of eastern Libya.
|
|
|
|
1000 BOMBER RAID ON COLOGNE :
Date : 30th May 1942.
First British RAF '1000
Bomber' raid on Cologne, Germany. The attack on Cologne was devastating,
and it proved that a concentrated air attack could be mustered
and strike deep inside the Third Reich.
Allied
Air Offensive :
|
|
|
|
BATTLE OF MIDWAY :
Date : 3rd - 4th June 1942.
US and Japanese battle
fleets meet at the Battle of Midway. It's a turning point in the
Pacific war as the US fleet wins the battle, defeating the Japanese
fleet. The each fleet is attacked by opposing aircraft launched
from carriers.
|
|
|
|
SEBASTOPOL UNDER SIEGE :
Date : 5th June 1942.
The Nazis advanced and
besieged the Ukrainian port of Sebastopol, in the region of Crimea
in the Soviet Union.
|
|
|
|
NAZIS ADVANCE IN NORTH AFRICA :
Date : 21st June 1942.
Rommel's Afrika Korps had
advanced successfully and finally took Tobruk. Commander of the
Tobruk garrison, General Klopper, surrendered Tobruk on the 21st
June 1942.
The Axis had taken over
30,000 Allied prisoners, and the Allied forces were in retreat
east out of Libya, and towards Egypt.
The capture of the Cyrenaica
region of eastern Libya, which included the cities of Benghazi,
Derna and Tobruk, was a major success for Rommel, and earned him
a promotion from General to the rank of Field Marshal.
Date : 24th June 1942.
Rommel's Afrika Korps advances
to Sidi Barrani, and forced the British Army to retreat to Mersa
Matruh.
|
|
|
|
EISENHOWER HEADS ALLIED FORCES IN EUROPE
:
Date : 25th June 1942.
General Eisenhower
is appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied forces in Europe.
|
|
|
|
SEBASTOPOL FALLS :
Date : 3rd July 1942.
The Soviet city of Sebastopol
falls to the Nazis after being under siege for a month.
|
|
|
|
US TROOPS INVADE THE SOLOMON ISLANDS
:
Date : 7th August 1942.
US troops land on the Solomon
Islands.
|
|
|
|
CHURCHILL MEETS STALIN :
Date : 12th August 1942.
British Prime Minister
Winston Churchill meets Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in Moscow,
Soviet Union.
|
|
|
|
ALLIED COMMANDER RESHUFFLE IN NORTH
AFRICA :
Date 15th August 1942.
After the series of defeats
in north Africa, and with Allied forces retreated to Egypt, British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill reshuffled his commanders in
the desert.
General Auchinleck is replaced
by General Alexander as Commander-in-Chief for Allied forces in
the Middle East. General Montgomery became commander of the Allied
forces in the field, which is called the 8th Army.
|
|
|
|
STALINGRAD :
Date : 13th September 1942.
Nazi troops clash with
Soviet troops at the city of Stalingrad, Soviet Union. The battle
for Stalingrad will be a brutal and bloody clash.
|
|
|
|
BATTLE OF EL ALAMEIN :
Date : 23rd October 1942.
A turning point in the
desert campaign as Field Marshal Rommel clashed with General Montgomery
at the Battle of El Alamein. The battle ends in defeat for the
German and Italian armies, against the British and Allied forces
under General Montgomery's command.
|
|
|
|
GUADALCANAL :
Date : 1st November 1942.
US Marines launch an attack
in the Guadalcanal. Allied forces push the Japanese into retreat
on the Island of Papua, New Guinea and besiege the town of Buna.
|
|
|
|
AXIS FORCES IN RETREAT :
Date : 3rd-5th November
1942.
Field Marshal Rommel and
his Axis troops under his command, retreat from the British at
El Alamein. The British followed in pursuit.
|
|
|
|
ALLIED INVASION OF NORTH AFRICA :
Date : 8th November 1942.
US troops face Hitler's
Nazi troops for the first time when an Anglo-American force under
General Eisenhower landed in Morocco, North Africa.
The invasion was named
Operation Torch. This Allied force in the west would meet with
Monty's force in the east, and force Rommel out of north Africa,
and end Nazi influence on the African continent.
|
|
|
|
AXIS FORCES IN NORTH AFRICA IN RETREAT
:
Date : 11th November 1942.
Rommel's Afrika Korps retreated
and occupied Tunisia, as the British 8th Army still in pursuit,
takes Bardia in eastern Libya, north Africa.
Eisenhower's Anglo-American
force quickly captures Casablanca, Algiers and Oran, and swiftly
moving to link up with Allied forces under Monty moving east.
Admiral Darlan commander
of Vichy forces in north Africa surrendered to the Allies.
Date : 11th November 1942.
The result of Darlan's
surrender of Vichy forces in north Africa was for the Nazis to
occupy Southern France, which was under Vichy control. At Toulon
the French had scuttled their ships.
Date : 13th November 1942.
Further Allied advances
in north Africa as the Allies take Tobruk.
|
|
|
|
STALINGRAD SOVIET OFFENSIVE :
Date : 19th November 1942.
Soviet troops attack Romanians
north of Stalingrad.
|
|
|
|
ALLIED ADVANCES IN NORTH AFRICA :
Date : 20th November 1942.
The Allied forces continued
westward in the north African desert in pursuit of 'The Desert
Fox', Rommel, and take Benghazi.
|
|
|
|
In 1942 Italian born,
US physicist Enrico Fermi builds the first nuclear reactor at
the University of Chicago, USA. He was part of the Manhattan Project
and his research would lead to the development of the atomic bomb.
Also in 1942 Mexico and
Brazil declared war on Germany and Japan, aligning themselves
with the United Nations that opposed the Axis powers.
|
|
Return To : World
War II 1940 -1942
Return To : Historical
Menu
| 1930-37
| 1938 | 1939
| 1940 | 1941
| 1942 | 1943
| 1944 | 1945
|
|
Return
To : Top |
