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.