World War Two was the biggest war ever fought – lasting close to six years in Europe, 80 million people were killed in the conflict.
The most important dates are really about context, and these would be different depending which country you’re from. However, a number of dates are clearly pivotal moments over the course of the entire war, and we’ve collected five from each of the European and Eastern theatres to put into a graphic.
The date for the start of the war is 1-3 September 1939 – when Germany invaded Poland and then France and Britain declared war on Germany.
When World War I broke out in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson proclaimed the United States would remain neutral. The U.S.A. only officially entered the conflict three years later. It took the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 to bring America into the Second World War. But why was America reluctant to enter both wars earlier? How did its involvement change the course of both wars? Rob Weinberg asks the big questions to Dr. Mitch Goodrum at Canterbury Christ Church University.
Learn who is considered the true father of the RAF, why a flag must be evacuated in the event of a fire and why there are two portraits of World War One German flying aces in the college library.
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