2003
The British ambassador addresses sixtieth anniversary commemoration expressing regret at events of 1943.
Appendix B
Chronology of the Second World War
Before the war
5 March 1933
The Nazis win the German elections.
October 1933
Hitler withdraws from the World
Disarmament Conference and the League of
Nations.
16 March 1935
Germany denounces the Treaty of Versailles.
June 1935
The Luftwaffe is re-created, with Hermann
Goering at its head.
7 March 1936
Germany reoccupies the Rhineland, taken
from it by the Treaty of Versailles.
July 1936 – March 1939
The Spanish Civil War.
26 April 1937
The Basque town of Guernica is destroyed by German bombers.
12 March 1938
German Army marches into Austria, a day
ahead of the Anschluss.
1 October 1938
With French and British agreement, German
troops march into the Sudetenland in
Czechoslovakia.
10–16 March 1936
Germany annexes Bohemia and Moravia.
23 August 1939
Germany and Russia sign a ‘non-aggression’
pact.
1939
1 September
Germany begins the invasion of Poland.
3 September
Britain and France declare war.
17 September
Soviets invade Poland from the east.
13–26 September
Warsaw is bombed.
29 November
Soviets attack Finland.
1940
9 April
Germans begin the invasion of Denmark and
Norway.
10 May
Winston Churchill becomes Britain’s Prime
Minister.
German invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg,
Holland and France begins.
14 May
Rotterdam is bombed.
15 May
RAF begins strategic bombing offensive with
attacks on oil and transport targets in the
Ruhr.
18 May
Hamburg bombed for the first time.
26 May
The evacuation of British forces at Dunkirk
begins.
31 May
Roosevelt introduces a massive rearmament
programme for the USA.
8 August
Battle of Britain begins.
24 August
Luftwaffe accidentally bombs central London.
25 August
In retaliation, Churchill orders bombing raid
against Berlin.
17 September
After failing to win air supremacy, Hitler is
forced to postpone the invasion of Britain
indefinitely: the RAF has effectively won the
battle of Britain.
30 September
Germany switches tactics to night bombing.
14/15 November
Bombing of Coventry devastates the city.
1941
24 March
Rommel begins advance in North Africa.
5–6 April
Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
10/11 May
The final heavy bombing raid on London
marks the end of the battle of Britain.
22 June
Germany begins Operation ‘Barbarossa’: the
invasion of Russia.
7 December
Pearl Harbor is bombed by the Japanese.
11 December
Hitler declares war against the USA.
December – May 1942
Japanese army sweeps across South East Asia,
taking Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya,
Singapore, Burma and the East Indies.
1942
January – May
The Japanese army sweeps across South East
Asia.
22 February
Sir Arthur Harris becomes C-in-C RAF
Bomber Command.
23–26 March
RAF devastate Rostock.
28/29 March
RAF firebomb Lübeck, destroying 60 percent
of the old city.
30/31 May
RAF attack Cologne with their first
1,000-bomber raid.
4 July
USAAF fly their first mission in Europe,
against German airfields in Holland.
4 November
The ‘end of the beginning’ of the war: the
British win their first major land victory
against the Germans at El Alamein.
1943
14–26 January
The Casablanca Conference, where Churchill
and Roosevelt outline their bombing strategy.
They agree on a policy of accepting nothing
less than unconditional surrender from the
Axis powers.
27 January
First USAAF raid against a German target: Wilhelmshaven.
2 February
The surrounded German army at Stalingrad finally surrenders.
18 February
Reichspropagandaminister Goebbels declares ‘total war’.
20 April
Hamburg leaders draw up a disaster plan in case of heavy air raids.
27 May
Sir Arthur Harris unveils plans to destroy Hamburg.
10 June
Pointblank Directive is issued, and the
‘Combined Bomber Offensive’ against
Germany begins: the USAAF bombing by
day, the RAF by night.
19/20 June
Hamburg defences carry out rehearsal for their
disaster plan in Altona. Their worst-case
scenario involves some 3,000 dead, 1,000
wounded and 110,000 homeless.
25 June
USAAF fly on Hamburg, but never reach the
city; eighteen planes are shot down.
5–13 July
The last German counter-offensive in the east
fails at Kursk.
6–12 July
A week of consultation by Hamburg’s leaders
over the city’s disaster plan, concluding in
another rehearsal.
10 July
British and American troops land in Sicily.
24 July – 2 August
Operation Gomorrah destroys Hamburg (see
Appendix C).
25 July
Mussolini is deposed.
1 August
Goebbels orders the evacuation of women and
children from Berlin.
6 August
Goering visits the ruins of Hamburg.
17 August
Goebbels, Interior Minister Frick and half a
dozen gauleiters visit Hamburg.
Disastrous USAAF attack on Schweinfurt and
Regensburg, in which they lose sixty aircraft.
Hans Jeschonnek, Luftwaffe Chief of Staff,
commits suicide.