10 Key Dates in World War Two

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.

During World War Two, in the town of Cowra in central New South Wales, thousands of Japanese prisoners of war were held in a POW camp. They staged one of the largest prison breakouts in history, launching the only land battle of World War Two to be fought on Australian soil during what became known as The Cowra Breakout. Historian and podcaster Mat McLachlan joins Dan to tell him this extraordinary story of negligence and complacency.

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A definitive account of the hunt, in 1941, for the pride of the German Kriegsmarine, Bismarck.

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