World War II Timeline: 1942

Original Caption from National Archives: Hayward, California. As Bataan fell, as recorded in these newspapers of 9 April 1942, evacuation of residents of Japanese ancestry was already under way in California. This newsstand was pictured at a corner drugstore in a neighborhood in which such residents lived. Evacuees will be housed in War Relocation Authority centers for the duration.

This page presents World War II Timeline events for the year 1942.

Links are provided in the timeline with additional information from Olive-Drab.com pages or relevant books on the event or subject. For additional compilations of the events of World War II, go to one of the recommended time line web sites listed at the bottom of the main WWII Timeline page. If you have other events to suggest, or spot any errors, please contact Olive-Drab.com.

Prelude | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945

1 January	Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied foes of the Axis, pledging to support the Atlantic Charter; first use of term United Nations.
2 January	Japanese capture Manila and Cavite, Philippines.
5 January	On the Kerch Peninsula, German forces in the Crimea defeat a surprise landing at Eupatoria by the Soviet Red Army.
5 January	Birth of the Seabees: Authority granted to recruit men from the construction trades for assignment to three Naval Construction Battalions [CBs => Seabees].
6 January	Facing overwhelming odds, Gen. MacArthur all US and Filipino troops withdrawn into the Bataan Peninsula for a final defense of the Philippines.
9 January	Japanese begin retreat across the Luoyang River, unable to defeat the Chinese in the Third Battle of Changsha, Hunan Province.
10 January	Japan declares war on Netherlands and Japanese troops invade the Dutch East Indies.
11 January	Japanese occupy Kuala Lumpur, on the Malayan Peninsula.
13 January	German U-boat offensive begins along the US east coast.
18 January	German-Japanese-Italian military alliance and cooperation agreement signed in Berlin.
18 January	US Marines arrive at Pago Pago, American Samoa, supported by aircraft from the USS Enterprise.
19 January	Japanese troops seize control of North Borneo.
20 January	Wannsee Conference: In a Berlin suburb, Nazi leaders meet to plan the Final Solution, the extermination of all Jews in German occupied territories, Reinhard Heydrich in charge.
21 January	Rommel's second offensive drives the British 8th Army back almost 300 miles, halting on 4 Feb between Gazala and Bir Hacheim, 30 miles west of Tobruk, Libya.
25 January	Thailand, independent but occupied by Japanese troops, declares war on the United States and England.
26 January	American forces arrive in Northern Ireland, the first landing in Europe.
31 January	End of Operation Barbarossa. German Wehrmacht casualties exceed 900 thousand out of 3 million soldiers in action on the Eastern Front.
8 February	Battle of Sarimbun Beach begins, the first stage of the Japanese assault on Singapore.
8 February	Japanese Offensive in Burma begins [8 Feb-2 May].
10 February	Japanese submarine shells Midway, the fourth attack since 7 Dec 1941, part of a campaign to break US resistance to Japanese capture of the atoll.
12 February	German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen make the 'Channel Dash' [Operation Cerberus] escape from Brest, France to Germany.
15 February	Singapore falls to Japanese under the command of Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita.
19 February	President Franklin Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066 directing the seizure of property belonging to Japanese Americans and their internment in War Relocation Camps.
19 February	Japanese warplanes attack Darwin, Australia with heavy damage and 243 people killed.
20 February	Navy Lt. Cdr. Edward 'Butch' O'Hare of Chicago becomes America's first World War II flying ace. Chicago expanded old Orchard field in 1946, renaming it for O'Hare.
22 February	President Roosevelt orders Gen. Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines to Australia as American defense of the Philippines fails.
23 February	Japanese submarine I-17 attacks a coastal oil refinery at Santa Barbara, CA. 17 high-explosive shells cause insignificant damage.
24 February	SS Struma, carrying Jewish refugees from Romania to British Palestine, is sunk by Soviet submarine, killing 768 men, women and children, the greatest civilian naval loss of WW II.
24 February	Beginning of broadcasts by The Voice of America, news programs directed at the Axis-occupied areas of the world.
24 February	Moving object in Los Angeles' night sky triggers false alarm panic; blackout ordered, thousands of airraid wardens deployed, over 1,400 AA shells fired, several deaths [24-25 Feb].
27 February	USS Houston [CA-30] sunk as Allied task force under Dutch command loses battle in the Java Sea with Japanese invasion force aimed at Dutch East Indies.
28 February	Japanese forces invaded Java, beginning the Battle of Java with defending Allied personnel [28 Feb-12 Mar].
3 March	Broome, Western Australia raided by Japanese planes with loss of more than 100 people.
4 March	Gen. Joseph Stilwell establishes his headquarters in Chungking as chief of staff for Allied armies in China.
8 March	Japanese enter Rangoon, Burma.
8 March	Island of Java falls to the Japanese.
8 March	Official start date of construction for the Alcan Highway.
12 March	Allied force surrenders to Japanese in the Battle of Java, signed at Bandung.
12 March	Gen. Douglas MacArthur evacuated from Philippines on orders of Pres. Roosevelt, by PT boats to Mindanao, then B-17 to Australia.
16 March	German V-2 rocket's first test launch fails as it explodes on launch.
17 March	Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia, evacuated from Philippines.
28 March	A force of 650 British Commandos stage a raid on the French coastal town of St. Nazaire aimed at its German U-Boat pens and other naval facilities.
29 March	RAF Bomber Command strikes Lübeck, their first major raid on a German city.
2 April	USS Hornet [CV-8] leaves San Francisco with Doolittle's Raiders and 16 B-25 Mitchell bombers destined to drop the first American bombs on Japan.
3 April	Japanese forces launch final assault on US and Filipino troops on the Bataan Peninsula, Philippines.
5 April	Japanese Navy attacks naval base at Colombo in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] sinking two Royal Navy ships, the auxiliary cruiser Hector and the destroyer Tenedos.
9 April	Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon [Sri Lanka] sinking a Royal Navy aircraft carrier and an Australian destroyer.
9 April	Bataan falls, US troops in Philippines surrender to Japanese.
10 April	Bataan Death March begins.
11 April	RAF Bomber Command drops the first 8,000-pound Blockbuster bomb [aka "cookie"] from a Halifax aircraft on Essen, Germany.
14 April	Destroyer USS Roper [DD-147] sinks German U-boat U-85 in the Atlantic Ocean off North Carolina, the first such sinking of the war.
18 April	Doolittle Raid takes American bombers to Tokyo.
27 April	As ordered in other Nazi occupied areas, Star of David is now required wearing for all Jews in the Netherlands and Belgium.
3 May	Japanese invasion of Tulagi, near Guadalcanal [3-4 May]. Invasion is successful and results in another Japanese military base.
4 May	The original 29 Navajo American Indian recruits begin basic training at Camp Elliot, CA, on their way to become the first Code Talkers.
5 May	United Kingdom forces invade the French colony of Madagascar [Operation Ironclad].
6 May	After heroic defense against a final Japanese assault, last US forces on Phillipines, at Corregidor, surrender to Japanese.
7 May	First day of the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought in waters southwest of the Solomon Islands, east of New Guinea [7-8 May].
12 May	Second Battle of Kharkov, eastern Ukraine: Red Army offensive captures Kharkov from Germans who later encircle and destroy the Soviet forces [12-28 May].
15 May	Gas rationing begins for the Eastern United States.
15 May	US Congress authorizes Women's Auxiliary Army Corps [WAAC].
20 May	First African-American seamen taken into the United States Navy.
21 May	Sinking of the Mexican tanker Faja de Oro by German submarine U-160, off Key West, precipitates Mexican declaration of war against Nazi Germany.
25 May	Japanese attack force leaves Hokkaido for invasion of the Aleutians Islands, Alaska.
26 May	German Afrika Korps counteroffensive in North Africa drives the British back to the Gazala line, just in front of Tobruk [26-27 May].
26 May	At remote oasis in the Libyan desert, Free French and British troops slow the German advance [Battle of Bir Hakeim].
27 May	British-trained Czech paratroopers attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich in Prague [Operation Anthropoid].
30 May	Operation Millennium: Raid on Cologne, Germany, the first RAF attack by 1,000-plus bombers.
31 May	Japanese submarines infiltrate harbor at Sydney, Australia attempting to attack Allied warships [31 May-June 1]. One Australian vessel sunk killing 21 sailors.
1 June	Mexico declares war on Axis countries: Germany, Italy and Japan.
2 June	German air and land bombardment of Sevastopol resumes at the Siege of Sevastopol.
3 June	Japanese bomb Dutch Harbor, opening attack on the Aleutians Islands, Alaska followed with amphibious attack on Adak Island.
3 June	Battle of Midway ends Japanese naval superiority in the Pacific [3-6 June].
4 June	Reinhard Heydrich dies from wounds sustained from 27 May assassination attempt [Operation Anthropoid].
7 June	Japanese forces invade the Aleutian Islands, the first invasion of American soil since the War of 1812, 128 years earlier.
8 June	Sydney and Newcastle, Australia, are shelled by Japanese submarines causing damage to suburbs and a blackout.
9 June	Nazis destroy the Czech village of Lidice and kill about 340 residents in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich [9-10 June].
10 June	Operation Blue: German Summer Offensive in the Ukraine begins, with Soviet oil reserves in the Caucasus region as the objective [10 June-14 Sep].
12 June	Anne Frank's 13th birthday is recorded in the first entry in her diary.
13 June	US Government establishes the Office of War Information [OWI] to promote favorable news about the war, best known for their series of memorable and effective posters.
13 June	US government establishes the Office of Strategic Services [OSS] by Executive Order 9182.
16 June	RAF and US planes sink Italian cruiser and 2 destroyers that attacked Allied convoys in Mediterranean.
21 June	With a surprise attack, Rommel captures Tobruk, Libya.
21 June	Japanese submarine fires 17 deck gun shells attacking Fort Stevens, OR, at the Columbia River's entrance to the Pacific [night of 21-22 June]. No significant damage.
25 June	Second Washington Conference between Roosevelt and Churchill [June 25-27].
1 July	First Battle of El Alamein began, stopping Rommel's advance to Cairo [1-27 July].
3 July	Germans prevail in the Siege of Sevastopol, after an eight month struggle, seizing the site of the Soviets' main naval base on the Black Sea.
4 July	German bombers and submarines sink 24 ships of Convoy PQ 17 to the Soviet Union after the convoy spread out in the Arctic Ocean to evade the German battleship Tirpitz.
4 July	US Eighth Air Force flies its first mission in Europe using six borrowed British planes; only three aircraft returned.
6 July	Anne Frank's Jewish family goes into hiding in an attic above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.
6 July	Flying Tigers in Burma and China integrated into the US Army Air Forces as the China Air Task Force with Gen. Claire Chennault commanding the new unit.
8 July	US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Chester Nimitz orders invasion of Guadalcanal, Solomon islands, to seize a strategic Japanese airfield.
16 July	Under orders of the Vichy government, 13,000 French Jews were arrested in Paris then sent to Velodrome d'Hiver sports stadium, Auschwitz, and other camps.
22 July	Japanese invade Papua, New Guinea at Basabua then move along the northeast coast of New Guinea to Buna, beginning a long campaign.
22 July	Daily gassing of Jews from Warsaw begins at Treblinka; 4000 men, women, children killed daily, the largest slaughter of any single community during the Holocaust [22 Jul-12 Sep].
27 July	After vicious battle to defeat the Soviet defenders, Rostov once again captured by German troops.
28 July	6000 Jews brought to pits by German SS and shot dead in Minsk, Belarus, a total of 30,000 slaughtered over four days of the Great Pogrom [28-31 Jul].
7 August	US Marines invade Guadalcanal, the first major American offensive operation of WW II.
8 August	Six German saboteurs executed in Washington, DC and two other sentenced to life in prison. The Germans landed on Long Island, NY and Florida beaches.but were quickly captured.
10 August	German forces enter the Caucasus Mountains, taking Pyatigorsk.
12 August	Second Moscow Conference: Churchill, Stalin and US representative planned the North Africa Campaign and future Second Front in France [12-17 Aug].
12 August	Winston Churchill appoints Lt. General Bernard L. Montgomery to command the British Eighth Army in N. Africa.
15 August	Operation Pedestal, a last ditch attempt to re-supply Malta and avoid surrender to a German blockade, succeeds as tanker SS Ohio and other convoy ships reach Grand Harbour port.
17 August	Raid on Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands, led by Lt. Colonel Evans F. Carlson, USMC.
19 August	Ill-fated Allied commando raid on French city of Dieppe; of 5100 troops landed in the raid, 3648 did not return.
19 August	Battle of Stalingrad begins [19 Aug 1942 - 2 Feb 1943].
22 August	Brazil joins the Allies, declares war on Germany and Italy; Brazilian Expeditionary Force [FEB] sent to fight in Italy from mid-1944 until the end of the war.
24 August	Battle of the Eastern Solomons: US and Japanese aircraft carrires clash during the Guadalcanal Campaign, the 3rd such battle after Coral Sea and Midway [24-25 Aug].
25 August	Japanese land on the north shore of Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea [25-26 Aug].
30 August	Germany formally annexes Luxembourg to the German Reich, triggering a general strike the next day protesting German Army conscription.
30 August	Battle of Alam el Halfa, between Rommel's German force and British Commenwealth troops under Montgomery, south of El Alamein, the end of last major Axis offensive of their Western Desert campaign [30 Aug-5 Sep].
3 September	Japanese attack at Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, repulsed; they evacuate their force by sea [3-6 Sep].
6 September	Germans capture Novorossiysk, key Soviet port on Black Sea. Soviet sailors in a small enclave called Malaya Zemlya hold out for 225 days, denying German military use of the port.
14 September	Battle of Edson's Ridge: Japanese assault US Marines' perimeter line of Henderson Field Guadalcanal, a Japanese defeat with heavy losses [12-14 Sep].
25 September	Due to failure at Milne Bay and Guadalcanal's drain on resources, Japanese Gen. Horii ordered to withdraw his troops from the Kokoda Track to beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda.
3 October	First German V-2 rocket [then called the A-4] successfully launched from Peenemünde by team led by Wernher von Braun.
4 October	Hermann Göring declares that World War II is "the War of the Races".
7 October	Japanese quietly abandon some of their positions in the Aleutian Islands, on Attu and Agattu.
11 October	Battle of Cape Esperance: US and Japanese naval forces clash off northwest coast of Guadalcanal. US victory opens supply lines for Allies, prevents Japanese reinforcement.
11 October	Wave of relentless Luftwaffe air attacks against Malta begins, continuing for 17 days with heavy losses of British and German planes and pilots.
23 October	2nd Battle of El Alamein, Egypt begins; British successfully driving the German Afrika Korps out of Egypt [23 Oct-4 Nov].
26 October	Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands: US and Japanese naval forces clash in southern Solomons as Japanese try to prevent US forces from responding to ground offensive on Guadalcanal.
27 October	Wierzbnik ghetto in Poland liquidated by Germans, with mass killings in the square and about 4,000 deported to concentration camp.
27 October	Aircraft carrier USS Hornet [CV-8], who carried the Doolittle Raiders to bomb Tokyo, damaged by Japanese attacks and sunk dufing Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, Solomons.
28 October	Construction of the Alaska-Canada [ALCAN] Highway is completed.
29 October	Coffee rationing begins in the United States.
1 November	First LORAN-A navigation system placed in operation with four stations between the Chesapeake Capes and Nova Scotia.
3 November	End of the Second Battle of El Alamein, Egypt between British Commonwealth forces and Gen. Erwin Rommel's German Afrika Korps.
3 November	US Army and Marine Corps fight in Koli Point action on Guadalcanal [Nov 3-12].
4 November	Start of a 5 month retreat from El Alamein across North Africa by German Gen. Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps.
5 November	At Gibraltar, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower opens Allied operational HQ for the invasion of North Africa.
5 November	British Lt. Gen. Montgomery announces complete British victory in Egypt with Rommel's Afrika Korps in full retreat.
6 November	Gen. Douglas MacArthur arrives in Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea) to supervise operations in the Southwest Pacific Theater.
8 November	Operation Torch begins, 125,000 US-British troops land at Casablanca, Oran and Algiers.
8 November	French Resistance in Algiers neutralizes the Vichy-supporting French Army command, preventing interference with Operation Torch.
9 November	German and Italian army units occupy Tunisia, unopposed by the French colonial forces.
11 November	Triggered by Operation Torch in N. Africa, Germans take control of all of Vichy France north of the Riviera.
11 November	Allies capture Casablanca, Morocco during Operation Torch.
11 November	In the aftermath of Operation Torch, Germany and Vichy France begin negotiations on the fate of the French fleet at Touson.
12 November	British Eighth Army enters Tobruk, Libya as German General Rommerl's troops are pushed westward following El Alamein.
12 November	American and Japanese naval forces fight a classic naval battle, the First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal [12-13 Nov].
13 November	Five Sullivan Brothers lost in naval battle in the Solomons as their ship, light cruiser USS Juneau [CL-52], was heavily damaged then sunk.
14 November	Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal pits aircraft from US carrier Enterprise and Henderson Field against large Japanese force trying to reinforce Guadalcanal by sea.
16 November	Australians assault Gona, Papua New Guinea, but retreat in failure after heavy losses.
19 November	Russian counteroffensive at Stalingrad [November 19-22].
19 November	Rabbi Stephen Wise, President of the World Jewish Congress, exposes reports of the German implementation of the 'Final Solution' [Die Endlösung], confirmed by US State Dept.
20 November	British forces capture Benghazi, Libya.
20 November	Alaska-Canadian [ALCAN] Highway dedicated at Soldiers Summit and officially opened, although not generally usable until 1943.
21 November	ALCAN Highway opened for its first full day of traffic.
23 November	SS Ben Lomond sunk by German U-boat off the coast of Brazil.
25 November	British SOE team and anti-Nazi Greeks blow up the Gorgopotamos railway viaduct, the first significant sabotage in occupied Europe [Operation Harling, Nov 25-26].
26 November	Battle of Brisbane: American and Australian soldiers fight in Brisbane, Australia with multiple fatalities [26-27 Nov].
27 November	Operation Lila: German Army units reach Toulon, on the Mediterranean coast, to capture the Vichy French fleet based there.
27 November	French Navy at Toulon scuttles its ships and submarines to prevent German confiscation.
2 December	First controlled, self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction is realized by the Manhattan Project, first step toward the atomic bomb.
9 December	Renewed attacks by Australian forces break through and take Gona Village, Papua New Guinea.
14 December	US 3d Battalion overruns Buna Village, Papua New Guinea after heavy fighting.
14 December	Manpower shortages in Germany motivate a statement from Heinrich Himmler, Reichsführer of the SS, asking police forces under German control to send 35,000 'detainees fit for work' to labor camps.
16 December	Adolf Hitler directs that anyone with any amount of Gypsy blood is to be sent to 'resettlement' camps in the East.
24 December	Admiral Darlan, de facto head of the French Government in North Africa, assasinated in Algiers.
25 December	Flying from Guadalcanal, US planes bombed and strafed Japanese airfield and installations at Munda, New Georgia Island, overcoming AAA and intercepting planes.
31 December	Battle of the Barents Sea between German surface raiders and British conboy escort ships on way to USSR.

Prelude | 1939 | 1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944 | 1945