of course...there was a massive amount of stuff that happened from the outbreak of war up until the D-day landings
March 15/16 - Nazis take Czechoslovakia.
March 28, 1939 - Spanish Civil war ends.
May 22, 1939 - Nazis sign 'Pact of Steel' with Italy.
Aug 23, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets sign Pact.
Aug 25, 1939 - Britain and Poland sign a Mutual Assistance Treaty.
Aug 31, 1939 - British fleet mobilizes; Civilian evacuations begin from London.
Sept 1, 1939 - Nazis invade Poland.
Sept 3, 1939 - Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany.
Sept 4, 1939 - British Royal Air Force attacks the German Navy.
Sept 5, 1939 - United States proclaims neutrality; German troops cross the Vistula River in Poland.
Sept 10, 1939 - Canada declares war on Germany; Battle of the Atlantic begins.
Sept 17, 1939 - Soviets invade Poland.
Sept 27, 1939 - Warsaw surrenders to Nazis; Reinhard Heydrich becomes the leader of new Reich Main Security Office (RSHA).
Biography of SS Leader Reinhard Heydrich.
Sept 29, 1939 - Nazis and Soviets divide up Poland.
In Oct - Nazis begin euthanasia on sick and disabled in Germany.
Nov 8, 1939 - Assassination attempt on Hitler fails.
Nov 30, 1939 - Soviets attack Finland.
Dec 14, 1939 - Soviet Union expelled from the League of Nations.
Jan 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain.
March 16, 1940 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
April 9, 1940 - Nazis invade Denmark and Norway.
May 10, 1940 - Nazis invade France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes British Prime Minister.
May 15, 1940 - Holland surrenders to the Nazis.
May 26, 1940 - Evacuation of Allied troops from Dunkirk begins.
May 28, 1940 - Belgium surrenders to the Nazis.
June 3, 1940 - Germans bomb Paris; Dunkirk evacuation ends.
June 10, 1940 - Norway surrenders to the Nazis; Italy declares war on Britain and France.
June 14, 1940 - Germans enter Paris.
June 18, 1940 - Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munich; Soviets begin occupation of the Baltic States.
June 22, 1940 - France signs an armistice with the Nazis.
June 23, 1940 - Hitler tours Paris.
July 1, 1940 - German U-boats attack merchant ships in the Atlantic.
July 10, 1940 - Battle of Britain begins.
July 23, 1940 - Soviets take Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
Aug 3-19 - Italians occupy British Somaliland in East Africa.
Aug 13, 1940 - German bombing offensive against airfields and factories in England.
Aug 15, 1940 - Air battles and daylight raids over Britain.
Aug 17, 1940 - Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
Aug 23/24 - First German air raids on Central London
Aug 25/26 - First British air raid on Berlin.
Sept 3, 1940 - Hitler plans Operation Sealion (the invasion of Britain).
Sept 7, 1940 - German Blitz against England begins.
Sept 13, 1940 - Italians invade Egypt.
Sept 15, 1940 - Massive German air raids on London, Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester.
Sept 16, 1940 - United States military conscription bill passed.
Oct 7, 1940 - German troops enter Romania.
Oct 28, 1940 - Italy invades Greece.
Nov 5, 1940 - Roosevelt re-elected as U.S. president.
Nov 14/15 - Germans bomb Coventry, England.
Nov 22, 1940 - Greeks defeat the Italian 9th Army.
Nov 23, 1940 - Romania joins the Axis Powers.
Dec 9/10 - British begin a western desert offensive in North Africa against the Italians.
Dec 29/30 - Massive German air raid on London.
Feb 11, 1941 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
Feb 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
Feb 14, 1941 - First units of German 'Afrika Korps' arrive in North Africa.
March 7, 1941 - British forces arrive in Greece.
March 11, 1941 - President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act.
April 3, 1941 - Pro-Axis regime set up in Iraq.
April 6, 1941 - Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia.
April 14, 1941 - Rommel attacks Tobruk.
April 17, 1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to the Nazis.
April 27, 1941 - Greece surrenders to the Nazis.
May 1, 1941 - German attack on Tobruk is repulsed.
May 10, 1941 - Deputy Führer Rudolph Hess flies to Scotland.
Biography of Rudolph Hess
May 10/11 - Heavy German bombing of London; British bomb Hamburg.
May 24, 1941 - Sinking of the British ship Hood by the Bismarck.
May 27, 1941 - Sinking of the Bismarck by the British Navy.
June 22, 1941 - Germany attacks Soviet Union as Operation Barbarossa begins
In June - Nazi SS Einsatzgruppen begin mass murder.
July 3, 1941 - Stalin calls for a scorched earth policy.
July 10, 1941 - Germans cross the River Dnieper in the Ukraine.
July 31, 1941 - Göring instructs Heydrich to prepare for the Final Solution
Sept 1, 1941 - Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars.
Sept 3, 1941 - First experimental use of gas chambers at Auschwitz.
Sept 29, 1941 - Nazis murder 33,771 Jews at Kiev.
Oct 2, 1941 - Operation Typhoon begins (German advance on Moscow).
Nov 13, 1941 - British aircraft carrier Ark Royal is sunk off Gibraltar by a U-boat.
Nov 20, 1941 - Germans take Rostov.
Nov 27, 1941 - Soviet troops retake Rostov.
Dec 5, 1941 - German attack on Moscow is abandoned.
Dec 6, 1941 - Soviet Army launches a major counter-offensive around Moscow.
Dec 7, 1941 - Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor; Hitler issues the Night and Fog decree.
Dec 8, 1941 - United States and Britain declare war on Japan.
Dec 11, 1941 - Germany declares war on the United States.
Jan 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
Jan 20, 1942 - SS Leader Heydrich holds the Wannsee Conference to coordinate the "Final Solution of the Jewish Question."
Jan 26, 1942 - First American forces arrive in Great Britain.
In April - Japanese-Americans sent to relocation centers.
April 23, 1942 - German air raids begin against cathedral cities in Britain.
May 30, 1942 - First thousand bomber British air raid (against Cologne).
In June - Mass murder of Jews by gassing begins at Auschwitz.
June 10, 1942 - Nazis liquidate Lidice in reprisal for Heydrich's assassination
July 9, 1942 - Germans begin a drive toward Stalingrad in the USSR.
July 22, 1942 - First deportations from the Warsaw Ghetto to concentration camps; Treblinka extermination camp opened.
Aug 12, 1942 - Stalin and Churchill meet in Moscow.
Aug 17, 1942 - First all-American air attack in Europe.
Aug 23, 1942 - Massive German air raid on Stalingrad.
Sept 13, 1942 - Battle of Stalingrad begins.
Oct 5, 1942 - A German eyewitness observes SS mass murder.
Oct 18, 1942 - Hitler orders the execution of all captured British commandos.
Nov 8, 1942 - Operation Torch begins (U.S. invasion of North Africa).
Nov 11, 1942 - Germans and Italians invade unoccupied Vichy France.
Nov 19, 1942 - Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad begins.
Dec 17, 1942 - British Foreign Secretary Eden tells the British House of Commons of mass executions of Jews by Nazis; U.S. declares those crimes will be avenged.
Dec 31, 1942 - Battle of the Barents Sea between German and British ships.
Jan 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
Jan 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
Jan 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.
Jan 23, 1943 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.
Jan 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
Feb 2, 1943 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.
Feb 8, 1943 - Soviet troops take Kursk.
Feb 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.
Feb 16, 1943 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.
Feb 18, 1943 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.
March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.
March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.
April 19, 1943 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.
May 7, 1943 - Allies take Tunisia.
May 13, 1943 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.
May 16, 1943 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends.
May 22, 1943 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.
June 11, 1943 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.
July 24, 1943 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.
July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.
July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.
Aug 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.
Sept 8, 1943 - Italian surrender is announced.
Sept 9, 1943 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.
Sept 12, 1943 - Germans rescue Mussolini.
Sept 23, 1943 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.
Oct 1, 1943 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.
Nov 18, 1943 - Large British air raid on Berlin.
Nov 28, 1943 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.
Jan 6, 1944 - Soviet troops advance into Poland.
Jan 17, 1944 - First attack toward Cassino, Italy.
Jan 22, 1944 - Allies land at Anzio.
Jan 27, 1944 - Leningrad relieved after a 900-day siege.
Feb 15-18 - Allies bomb the monastery at Monte Cassino.
Feb 16, 1944 - Germans counter-attack against the Anzio beachhead.
March 15, 1944 - Second Allied attempt to capture Monte Cassino begins.
March 18, 1944 - British drop 3000 tons of bombs during an air raid on Hamburg, Germany.