Pre-U.S. Entry to World War II.            

    By the time the U.S. entered WW2, war had been going on for almost two years in Europe, four (or ten) years in China, and almost five years in Africa. The following is a summary of some of the activities the U.S. missed.

    Europe/Africa/Asia.

    1931
    Dec   . League appoints commission to investigate Japan in Manchuria.
    1932
  • Jan 7 . US protests Japanese aggression in Manchuria, puppet state of Manchukuo.
  • Jan 29. Japan raid and bomb Shanghais, profess "destiny".
    1933
  • Mar 24. Adolph Hitler made Chancellor of German.
  • Mar 27. Japan withdraws from League of Nations over Manchukuo.
    1934
  • Apr 18. Japan tells western powers to keep out of China.
  • mid .     Hitler voted Fuhrer
  •             Collapse of Disarmament Conference; authorize 100 ships, 1000 airplanes..
    1935
  • Mar 1 . Saar votes to return to Germany
  • Mar 16. Hitler institutes compulsory military service.
  • Oct 3 . Mussolini invades Ethiopia
  • Nov 15. League of Nations place economic sanctions on Italy
    1936
  • Mar 7 . Hitler reoccupies Rhineland.
  • May 9 . Italy annexation of Italian East Africa: Ethiopia, Eritrea, It. Somaliland
                Chiang Kai-shek declares Japan is making war on China.
  • July 17. Start of Spanish Civil War.  Nationalists seek  help from Italy, Germany. Loyalists seek help from France .
  • Aug 11. Japan's destiny to dominate eastern Asia
  • Aug . Neutrality Bill.  "Schools, not battleships."
  • Nov 1 . Rome-Berlin Axis speech.
  • Nov 6 . Siege of Madrid.
  • Nov 25. Japan joins Germany in Anti-Comintern Pact
    1937
  • Apr   . British aid to China
  • Apr 26. Guernica, Spain - Germans develop aerial attack.
  • June 7. Start of Sino Japanese War - staged attack on bridge, attack China proper.
  • Dec 13. Japanese sack Nanking - 300,000 murdered.  Shocks the world.
    1938
  • Mar 6 . Japanese reach Yellow River
  • Mar 13. Hitler annexes Austria
  • July 19. Japan attacks Russia at Nomonhan on China/Russia boarder
  • Aug 19 . USSR repels Japanese.
  • Sep 27. Partial mobilization in England
  • Oct 1 . Appeasement gives Hitler Sudetenland
  • Oct 18. British retake Jerusalem
  • Oct 24. Hitler requests access to Danzig: Polish Corridor
  • Nov 9 . Kristalnacht
  • Dec 31. Japan possesses richest portions and half the population of China.
    1939
  • Mar 15. Hitler annexes the rest of Czechoslovakia - Bohemia and Moravia
  • Mar 22. Hitler protects Slovakia, annexes Memel
  • Apr 4 . End of Spanish Civil War with Franco as head of state.
  • Apr 7 . Mussolini invades Albania
  • May   . Japanese thrust into Outer Mongolia rejected by USSR.
  • Sep 1 . Germany invades Poland
  • Sep 3 . War declared in Europe.
  • Sep 4 . USN to form Neutrality Patrol to extend about 300 miles off the eastern coastline of the United States and along the eastern boundary of the Caribbean to report foreign men-of-war and render prompt assistance. 
  • Sep 9 . FDR increases authorized strength of Navy and Marine Corps and recalls to active duty officers, men, and nurses on retired lists.
  • Sep 17. Russia invades Poland
  • Sep 19. Poland collapse
  • Oct 1 . The U.S. Navy consists of 396 commissioned ships.
  • Oct 14. German submarine U-47 penetrates defenses of British fleet base at Scapa Flow and torpedoes battleship HMS Royal Oak.
  • Twilight or Phony War lasts till Spring, 1940
  • Oct 11. U.S. sets up Uranium Advisory Committee.
  • Oct 20. Commander Atlantic Squadron informs his ships to use plain language radio reporting of contacts.
  • Nov 30. Soviets invade Finland - lose winter war, win in spring.
  • British cruisers engage Admiral Graf Spee in the Battle of the River Plate.
  • Dec 14. German freighter Arauca departs Vera Cruz, Mexico, followed subsequently by passenger liner Columbus, the third largest ship in Germany's merchant marine. Two US destroyers trail Columbus and Arauca. A succession of U.S. ships over ensuing days send out plain-language position reports.
  • Dec 17. Graf Spee scuttled.
  • Dec 19.  HMS Hyperion intercepts German passenger liner Columbus 450 miles east of Cape May, New Jersey; the liner is scuttled to prevent capture
    HMS Orion intercepts German freighter Arauca off Miami, Florida; the latter puts in to Port Everglades to avoid capture.  The U.S. Navy eventually commissions Arauca as refrigerated storeship Saturn (AF-40).
    1940
  • Jan 12. RAdm Byrd, USN (Ret.) surveys the land and sea areas of Antarctica.
  • Jan 26. United States-Japanese Trade Treaty of 1911 expires.
  • Feb   . Australian, New Zealand, Indian troops arrive Egypt.
  • Mar-Apr  . Katyn Forest Massacre, many thousand (20,000?) Polish officers and others murdered by Soviets.
  • Mar 12. Finland sign peace with USSR
  • Apr 9 . Germany invades Norway with aid of Quisling.
  • Apr 9 . Germany occupies Denmark
  • Apr 10-13. Returning German fleet mauled.
  • Apr 18. British landing in Norway.
  •             US considers selective service (draft, one year).
  • May 2 . British withdraw from Norway.
  • May 7 . Chamberlain resigns, Churchill to form government
  • May 7 . Pacific fleet ordered to Pearl Harbor
  • May 10. German invades Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
  • May 12. Germany invades France
  • May 14. Holland surrenders.
  • May 27-Jun 4. Dunkerque evacuation
  • May 28. Belgium surrenders.
  • Jun 9 . Norway armistice
  • Jun 10. Italy declares war on Britain and France
  • Jun 10. USSR occupy Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.
  • Jun 11. Brits attack Italian in Libya
  • Jun 14. Germany takes Paris
  • Jun 17. French armistice.   Evacuation at St. Nazaire. Lancastria.
  • Jun 22. USSR invades Romania
  • July 3 . British attack French Fleet at Oran.
  • July 4 . Italians take cities in Sudan.
  • July 10. Aerial Battle of Britain starts.
  • July 15. Italians take city in Kenya.
  • July 19. FDR authorizes two-ocean navy:  7 BB, 11 CV, 50 CL, 100 DD.
  • July 25. US embargos scrap  metal and petroleum to Japan.
  • Aug 5 . Italians invade, occupy British Somaliland
  • Sep 9 . US Navy awards contracts for 210 new ships including 12 aircraft carriers and 7 battleships.
  • Sep 12. Peak day in Battle of Britain
  • Sep 13. Italians invade Egypt
  • Sep 15. Bombing of London starts.
  • Sep 16. US Selective Training and Service Act, first peacetime draft.
  • Sep 17. Invasion of England canceled
  • Sep 27. Japan, German and Italy Tripartite Pact forms Axis.
  • Oct 28. Italians invade Greece
  • Oct 31. British occupy Crete
  • Nov 3 . RAF to southern Greece
  • Nov 11. British Fleet Air Arm attack Italian fleet at Taranto
  • Nov 14. Coventry bombed
  • Dec 15. Italians expelled from Egypt
    1941
  • Feb 7 . British capture Italian army in North Africa: 35,000 killed, captured 130,000.
  • Feb   .  British start offensive in East Africa
  • Feb 17. Rommel activates Africa Corp/
  • Mar 1 . Germans to Romania.  Bulgarians join Axis
  • Mar 5 . British enter Greece
  • Mar   . British occupy Baghdad.
  • Apr 6 . Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia
  • Apr 7 . Quarter of Pacific Fleet ordered to Atlantic : 3BB,1CV,4CL,18DD,3AO.
  • Apr 24. British withdraw from Greece to Crete
  • May 10. Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
  • May 16. Italian army of East Africa surrender with 289,000 casualties vs. 1,000 for Brits
  • May 20. German paratroops invade Crete. 
  • May 24. HMS Hood sunk by Bismarck.
  • May 27. "Sink the Bismarck"  Unlimited national emergency.
  • May 31. British take over Iraq; Syria; Lebanon
  • June 6. Lidice, Hungary, massacre
  • Jun 22. Hitler invades USSR.
  • Jun 24. Japan pressure Vichy for Indochina, needed to stop supplies to China
  • July 24. Japanese forces occupy French Indochina , start build-up of invasion troops
  • July 28. Japan freezes U.S. assets.
  • July 29. Japanese occupy southern French Indochina with French permission.
  • Aug 25. USSR and Britain invade Iran
  • Aug 31. Finnish army regains their boarder.
  • Sep 15. Army Group North surrounds Leningrad.
  • Oct 27. Army Group South enters Crimea.
  • Nov 10. First US-escorted troop convoy, transporting 20,000 British troops, sailed from Halifax for the Far East. See rest of story.
  • Dec 5 . Army Group Center stops outside Moscow.
  • Dec 6 . Russian counterattack until mid-Feb
  • Dec 7 . Japanese attack Pearl Harbor
  • Dec 7 . Two Japanese destroyers shell Midway
  • Dec 8 . Imperial Rescript declares a state of war between the Japanese Empire and the United States.
  • Dec 8 . U.S. declares a state of war to exist with the Empire of Japan.
  • Dec 9 . Japanese planes sink Repulse and Prince of Wales off Malaya.
  • Dec 11. German/Italian axis declares war on US.
  • Dec 11. US, others respond with war on Germany and Italy.
  • Dec 23. Wake Island falls.

    (See some details of Belligerent Acts taken before the US is drawn into World War II.)

    1942   - The First Year   ( See some details in the Pacific, 1942 )

    • German continues advance in USSR and North Africa throughout most of 1942.
    • Japanese reach peak expansion in Spring-Summer. Expansion is stopped at Coral Sea and the Japanese are bloodied at Midway, Guadalcanal, New Guinea in Summer-Fall.
  • Jan 2 . Japanese take Manila
  • Jan 10. Japs invade Dutch East Indies; US DD attack troopships sunk at Macassar Strait.
  • Feb 1 . USN raids Marshall and Gilbert Islands
  • Feb 15. Allies defeated in Battle of Java Sea; Singapore falls.
  • Apr 9 . Bataan falls.
  • Apr 21. Doolittle Raid on Tokyo
  • May 5 . Battle of Coral Sea, Jap invasion force withdraws.
  • May 8 . Corregidor falls.
  • May 10. RAF attacks Germany.
  • June 4 . Battle of Midway - 4:1 in favor of US
  • Jun 21. Tobruk falls - 25,000 captured
  • Jun 26. First US troops arrive in North Ireland.
  • July 2 . Rommel's advance stopped at El Alamein.
  • Aug 7 . US Marines land at Guadalcanal and Tulagi.
  • Aug 19. Dieppe Raid - practice landing on fortified coast; disaster.
  • Sep 6 . Start of Battle of Stalingrad - lasts 5 months, 1,100,000 soldiers to die
  • Oct 23. El Alamein offensive begins
  • Nov 4 . British push Rommel out of Egypt.
  • Nov 7 . Allies invade North Africa
  • Nov 11. Germany occupies the rest of France.
  • Nov 12. Navy battles Tokyo Express off Guadalcanal
  • Nov 27. French scuttle fleet at Toulon

    1943 - The "Roll-back" started at El Alamein, Stalingrad, and Guadalcanal continues.

    1944 - "The whirlwind" is reaped on the Axis.

    1945 - Victory! Germany surrenders, VE May 15. Japan surrender, VJ Aug 15.

    See these other pages:

  • WW2 Menu: - the Early Years, menu.
  • Little Known Facts: Attacks and Threats on the US in WW2
  • Belligerent Acts - before the US entered the war.
  • Chronology: Dec 1941--Aug 1945
    About this Page: PreWar.  Chronology of some of the activities before the United States entered World War Two.
    Last updated on December 7, 2000
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    URL: http://www.ww2pacific.com/prewar.html