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1945.
|
The Allies invasion and defeat of Germany.
The Allies Defeat of Japan.
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|
May 1945.
|
Goebbels kills his 6 children and leaves his bunker and
orders his SS orderly to shoot him and his wife.
Field Marshal von Rundstedt captured.
1,000,000 German troops in Italy and Austria surrender.
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2nd
|
British 14th Army captures Rangoon
|
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Starved to death.
German people forced to view death camp horrors.
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Germans surrender in Holland, North Germany, and Denmark.
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4th
|
17 US ships sunk at Okinawa by Kamikaze Japanese bombers.
Germans surrender in Norway.
|
|
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Germans surrender to the
Allies at Luneberg Heath.
|
|
|
VICTORY IN EUROPE
House of
Commons
8th May 1945
THE WAR IN EUROPE IS
OVER.
VICTORY IN
EUROPE
From the balcony in
Whitehall to the vast throngs
8th May 1945
|
|
8th
|
London celebrates the
end of the
war.
VE Day at the
Palace.
There was dancing in the
streets of London on VE Day.
|
|
|
Europe starving with millions of people homeless and
millions of refugees fleeing to the West.
Goering gives himself up to the Americans.
Field Marshall Keital signs German surrender in Berlin.
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5th
|
Patriots in Prague rise against Germans still in
occupation.
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8th
|
USAF attack Japanese air
bases.
Prague liberated.
Churchill
Speaks
FORWARD, TILL THE WHOLE
TASK IS DONE
13th May 1945
|
|
14th
|
2,500 tons of incendiary
bombs dropped on Nagoya by 472 B29 bombers. 20 Japanese
fighter planes shot down.
|
|
15th
|
US Forces launch attacks in Philippines.
Royal Navy in battle with Japanese in Malacca Straits.
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|
22nd
|
Okinawa US Troops capture Conocal Hill and enter
Yonabaru.
|
|
|
Himmler captured near Hamburg. Took cyanide.
|
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23rd
|
UK coalition government ceases to exist. Socialists who
have worked so well in the coalition during the war refuse
Churchill's plea to extend it until the war against Japan is
finished. Elections arranged for July 5th.
US attacks brings shipping at Yokohama to a standstill.
Russian Troops making a
fuss of Churchill.
Himmler kills himself whilst in British custody.
|
|
|
Churchill resigns as Prime Minister after the Labour
Party demands elections. Thus ending the highly successful
war time coalition Government.
Churchill always considered himself the servant of the
House of Commons - never its master.
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|
27th
|
US Forces capture Santa Fe.
|
|
|
US Soldier removing a street sign named Adolf
Hitler Strasse.
|
|
June 1945
|
Churchill Truman and Stalin
at Potsdam.
|
|
10th
|
Australian Troops land on mainland at Brunei Bay.
German civilians forced to view death camps.
700 U boats were sunk by the Allies during the war.
|
|
12th
|
Eisenhower awarded Order of Merit and given Freedom of
London.
|
|
13th
|
Russia Invades Japanese
held Manchuria as agreed with the Allies.
Okinawa resistance at Oruku ends.
Ribbentrop captured by the British.
|
|
15th
|
Ban on troops fraternising is lifted.
|
|
16th
|
|
|
17th
|
China. Japanese troops withdraw from between Yellow and
Yangstze Rivers.
|
|
18th
|
30,000 British troops demobilised a week.
|
|
21st
|
Philippines Aparri, the last Japanese port on Luzon falls
to the US.
Belgium asks Leopold III to abdicate for his "grave and
unpardonable errors".
After 85 days of fearful fighting Okinawa falls to US
forces. 12,000 Americans and 110,000 Japanese lost their
lives.
Allies decide on Nuremburg for war crimes trials.
|
|
22nd
|
Japanese surrender Tarakan.
|
|
|
The appalling plight that
Allied Prisoners of War were discovered in.
|
|
July 1945
|
|
|
2nd
|
Admiral Mountbatten and
General MacArthur.
Mountbatten ordered to launch operation Zipper - the
liberation of Malaya in August.
|
|
4th
|
General MacArthur announces the liberation of the
Philippines.
|
|
6th
|
Victory parade in
Berlin.
|
|
14th
|
Italy declares war on Japan.
|
|
18th
|
Churchill and Truman arrive for Big Three talks at
Potsdam.
Truman informs Churchill about the 16th July atomic bomb
explosion in New Mexico.
|
|
21st
|
Truman and Churchill agree to drop atomic bomb on Japan
if they do not surrender.
|
|
28th
|
Japanese reject demand for unconditional surrender.
|
|
|
Leaflets dropped on Japan demanding its surrender and
warning the people to 'Flee or
perish' if their leaders refused.
|
|
|
Truman orders A bomb to be dropped on Japan as soon as
possible after the 3rd August.
|
|
26th
|
Churchill loses the election. Labour wins a landslide
election victory and Attlee becomes Prime Minister.
|
|
|
In the hour of his defeat Churchill - though greatly
upset - he nonetheless accepted the verdict of the
electorate with grace.
|
|
31st
|
Big Three at Potsdam fall out over Russian and Polish
plans.
|
|
August 1945
|
The invasion and defeat of Japan - which was thousands of
miles from the Allies sources of supply - presented
phenomenal logistical problems. There could be no guarantee
of success and the loss of life on both sides would have
been incredible - far far greater than those lives
sacrificed by the
Japanese in failing to surrender before the atom
bombs were dropped.
The Japanese were warned
in many leaflet raids what would happen if they did not
surrender - they have only themselves to blame for being
atom bombed.
|
|
|
Hirshoshima
|
|
6th
|
Atomic bomb devastates Hiroshima.
|
|
8th
|
Russia declares war on Japan.
|
|
10th
|
Russian troops advance 120 miles in two days in
Manchuria.
|
|
9th
|
Nagasaki destroyed by second A Bomb.
|
|
14th
|
Japan surrenders.
General Hideki Tojo was hanged in 1948 for war crimes. He
ordered the attack on Pearl Harbour in 1941 when 1,177
servicemen were killed.
|
|
|
Churchill speaks in House of Commons about an "iron
curtain" descending across Europe.
|
|
|
End of the War in the
Pacific.
PEACE COMES TO THE
WORLD
AFTER
THE MOST TERRIBLE
WAR
IN THE HISTORY OF
MANKIND.
|
|
|
************************
FINAL REVIEW
Mr
Churchill
Speaks to
the
HOUSE OF COMMONS
16th August 1945
Back home at
last!
The price of Victory is
55 million dead
Millions homeless and
starving
and every country
bankrupted and in ruins
FOR WHAT?
|
The purpose of these pages is to tell the story of Churchill's
life - not to give a detailed account of the wars he was involved in,
for that is a vast subject.
To obtain an idea of the cause and magnitude of the war, examine the
monthly calendar for each year - they include many photographs.
It is important to remember that heavy censorship of news took
place throughout them, and therefore knowledge of many of these
events was not available until long after they happened - or until
after the wars had ended.
.
.SCHOOL INDEX
. 
