World War II Diaries:The Complete War Report
The chaos, sacrifice and heroism of WWII are presented through a day-by-day profile of the significant milestones that propelled and diminished the most terrifying regime of the 20th Century! This compelling series highlights the details and daily headlines of September 1939 through September 1945, showcasing the conflicts between the Axis and the Allies. Comprehensive and insightful, these chronicles unravel the epic struggles and unimaginable horror that plagued the vast majority of the world s nations. From the front lines to the home front this exceptional series contains hours of wartime video footage, newsreels, photographs and much more!
20171 season
HDCC
Season 1
73 episodes
- 1. 1939 SeptemberLondon begins to prepare for enemy air attacks while the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, reshuffles his cabinet, bringing in people who have criticized his policy of appeasement. One of these is Winston Churchill, who is named First Lord of the Admiralty.CCFeb 5, 2017
- 2. 1939 OctoberRoosevelt, watching events in Europe with alarm, takes the decision to end American diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany to desist from aggression.CCFeb 12, 2017
- 3. 1939 NovemberThe Nazis and Soviets continue to commit atrocities in Poland. The Gestapo arrest 167 professors from the University of Cracow and send them to the concentration camp at Sachsenhausen, to the north of Berlin. Seventeen of them are tortured to death, including the leading Polish literary critic Ignatius Chrzanowski.CCFeb 19, 2017
- 4. 1939 DecemberIn Poland there is no letup in the public executions carried out by the Soviets and the Germans. The objective is to terrorize the population and dissuade them from any action against the occupiers.CCFeb 26, 2017
- 5. 1940 JanuaryNazi terror is enforced by a curfew, forcing all inhabitants to be inside their houses from eight at night onwards. Despite the fact that the mass executions and the transport of prisoners in cattle wagons is a daily occurrence, the Polish people are not easily intimidated and throughout the country posters and graffiti denounce the atrocities committed by the invaders.CCMar 5, 2017
- 6. 1940 FebruaryFor Churchill one of the biggest problems of the war is the threat posed by the German submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic. The repeated successes of the U-boats have surprised the British navy, which underestimated the danger of submarines and now orders a news blackout on radio broadcasts.CCMar 12, 2017
- 7. 1940 MarchIn London the British Secret Service warns the government of the build up of German troops and ships on the Dutch and Belgian coasts. In the House of Commons secret meetings continue, despite criticism from the press. Meanwhile, a group of pilots from Southern Rhodesia arrives at the country. The Italians continue their bombardment of Gibraltar in the Mediterranean.CCMar 19, 2017
- 8. 1940 AprilIn London, the Allied supreme war council decides that if Hitler's troops invade Belgium and the Netherlands the British and French armies will enter both countries in order to stop the offensive. At the same time, both Britain and France promise not to sign peace unilaterally with any enemy country.CCMar 26, 2017
- 9. 1940 MayIn London Prime Minister Chamberlain confirms in the House of Commons the evacuation of the British and French troops from Norway and the withdrawal of a division from France, due to the threat of a German airborne offensive and landings in Britain itself.CCApr 2, 2017
- 10. 1940 JuneFrom Italy Mussolini offers Hitler his help in the occupation of France. The Nazi leader declines his offer, saying to General Wilhelm Keitel “This fool said that his country wasn’t prepared for war and now he is in a rush to share the spoils”.CCApr 9, 2017
- 11. 1940 JulyHitler’s troops have taken over the Channel Islands, adding to the pressure on Churchill’s government. The British also have to face up to the possibility that both Syria and Lebanon, controlled by the French, might become German bases from which attacks may be launched against other countries in the Middle East with which Britain has defense agreements.CCApr 16, 2017
- 12. 1940 AugustIn London the British Secret Service warns the government of the build up of German troops and ships on the Dutch and Belgian coasts. In the House of Commons secret meetings continue, despite criticism from the press. Meanwhile, a group of pilots from Southern Rhodesia arrives at the country. The Italians continue their bombardment of Gibraltar in the Mediterranean.CCApr 23, 2017
- 13. 1940 SeptemberFor the German press there is no doubt that America fully supports Britain. With the American signing of a defensive agreement with Canada, which is part of the British Commonwealth, the USA is no longer neutral, as far as the Germans are concerned, but only a non-belligerent power. In Germany the government orders all Jews in the country to wear a yellow star sewn onto their clothes at all times.CCApr 30, 2017
- 14. 1940 OctoberWaves of Luftwaffe planes bomb London without letup. The city is enveloped by thick clouds of smoke and flames and its inhabitants are forced to take refuge in precarious shelters with no water or electricity. Crowded hospitals are hit in the merciless bombing. The British authorities desperately try to organize a sufficiently large fire service to cover the whole city. Meanwhile, Liverpool and Manchester are also bombed.Tension increases between Britain and Japan with the announcement by the British government that the road to Burma will be opened to help supply China. Rudolf Höss, commander of Auschwitz concentration camp, begins the process of mechanized mass murder that will eventually take the lives of more than two million people.CCMay 7, 2017
- 15. 1940 NovemberAfter 57 consecutive days of heavy bombing, the city of London has a quiet night. It is now evident that the Germans have been unable to break British air defences and their hopes that the Battle of Britain would only last a couple of weeks have faded. In Germany there is widespread anger among the citizens of Berlin who are forced to spend many hours during the night in air raid shelters.CCMay 14, 2017
- 16. 1940 DecemberIn the Battle of Britain, Southampton, London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Plymouth and Bristol endure Luftwaffe attacks. The German pilots are unaware of the effectiveness of the British use of radar and after suffering heavy losses in bombers shot down by RAF Spitfires they are forced to fly in small squadrons and to constantly change their flying altitude. For its part, the RAF keeps on hammering strategic targets within Germany, on this occasion the Wilhelmshaven shipyards are targeted. In the Greek-Italian war, the Greek armies continue their advance on all fronts. They take Pogradec, in southeast Albania on the shores of Lake Ohrid, while the Duce's armies fail in their attempts to counterattack. In the Far East, the tension builds up between Siam, recently renamed Thailand, and neighboring Indochina, occupied by the French but with Japanese bases on its territory.CCMay 21, 2017
- 17. 1941 JanuaryIn Washington President Roosevelt tells members of the 77th American Congress that the United States is at a moment unprecedented in its history. He announces that he looks forward to a world founded on four essential human freedoms: freedom of speech and expression, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. And he declares that countries must reduce their levels of armaments so as to prevent future armed aggression in the world. In London Winston Churchill, free from his ‘Black Dog', as he calls his depression, examines strategy in the Mediterranean. It is essential to aid Greece even if that means slowing down the advance in North Africa. The government is afraid for the life of famous female flyer Amy Johnson, whose plane came down over the Thames Estuary and has not been found.CCMay 28, 2017
- 18. 1941 FebruaryWinston Churchill declares in a speech on the radio that the American people and government are resolved to provide Britain with everything it needs for victory. Give us the means and we will finish the job, he says. Even though Hitler will do everything he can to prevent it.CCJun 4, 2017
- 19. 1941 MarchBritish Prime Minister Winston Churchill, in a meeting with the War Cabinet, analyzes the German occupation of Bulgaria. With this action Hitler's troops have within reach all the strategic points of the Balkans, as well as the Bosporus Strait, which divides the city of Istanbul, the Dardanelles, which separate Europe and Asia, and Salonika, which is one of the major ports of the Aegean. Strategically, this represents a significant achievement for Hitler in the region.CCJun 11, 2017
- 20. 1941 AprilIn Berlin, Hitler again meets with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, who is returning from his visit to Italy. They study the possibility of an attack against Singapore and the consequences of a possible American intervention in the war.CCJun 18, 2017
- 21. 1941 MayIn Berlin, Hitler again meets with the Japanese Foreign Minister, Yosuke Matsuoka, who is returning from his visit to Italy. They study the possibility of an attack against Singapore and the consequences of a possible American intervention in the war.CCJun 25, 2017
- 22. 1941 JuneWinston Churchill speaks with President Roosevelt on the telephone and appeals for more help as Britain is in a desperate situation. The American Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, a passionate defender of Allied unity against the dictatorships, declares that the US government is deeply concerned about the situation in Europe. He says that both he and the president have warned the Vichy French government that they will continue to aid Britain to defend itself against Nazi aggression. And he affirms that the collaboration with Germany of Marshal Petain's government is seen as hostile to the US.CCJul 2, 2017
- 23. 1941 JulyIn London, Winston Churchill declares on the radio that in recent weeks British planes have dropped on Germany half the number of bombs that the Germans have dropped during the whole war. But this is only the beginning, and there will be no letup until Hitler is destroyed. According to the British Prime Minister, some Germans can be forgiven, but others deserve to die. Heinrich Himmler orders the execution of all gypsies detained in German concentration camps in the occupied territories. Seventeen thousand men, women and children are assassinated. The official dissolution of Yugoslavia is announced. Part of the former country becomes the Independent State of Croatia, while another part is annexed by the Third Reich, and the rest is taken by Italy, Albania, Bulgaria and Hungary.CCJul 9, 2017
- 24. 1941 AugustThe American government announces a new oil embargo on all countries outside the Western Hemisphere except those belonging to the British Empire. Japan is hit the hardest by the measure. Up to now Soviet losses amount to a million men killed, taken prisoner or missing in action. In the Middle East, the British army deploys troops on the border between Iran and Afghanistan. In the Far East, the Burmese government suspends trade with Japan.CCJul 16, 2017
- 25. 1941 SeptemberIn Berlin, a decree is introduced ordering all Jews older than six years of age and living in German territory to wear a Star of David sewed onto their clothes over the chest. The gay and gipsy communities are forced to wear a triangular shape. In the US, President Roosevelt delivers a bellicose speech aimed at placating the impatience of the British people. In it, he warns: “Hitler has unleashed violence on the Earth. We, the Americans, must do everything we can, absolutely everything, to stop him and his Nazi forces. In Auschwitz (Poland), the SS carry out tests with gas Zyklon B (hydrogen cyanide) in chambers with 600 Soviet prisoners of war. After the deadly results, the decision is taken to use this gas in the future camp of extermination of Auschwitz-Birkenau.CCJul 23, 2017
- 26. 1941 OctoberThe government of the Third Reich decrees that no Jews will be allowed to leave Germany or the occupied territories. The Battle of Moscow begins. The third and fourth Panzer groups of Marshal Von Bock launch the first attack of Operation Typhoon (Taifun). As Hitler put it, “Today begins the last great battle that will be decisive in the war. The Germans intensify their attacks all along the Russian front. In the US, British and American scientists inform President Roosevelt that it would be possible to make an atom bomb of a weight of less than eleven kilos, with an explosive force equivalent to that of eight thousand tons of TNT (Trinitoluene). The news reach Stalin through Doctor Klaus Fuchs, who is working as a Soviet spy.CCJul 30, 2017
- 27. 1941 NovemberThe American public is shocked by the deaths of some of the crew members of the destroyer Reuben James. Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy declares that the sinking of the vessel was a cowardly action even worse than piracy. President Roosevelt accuses Hitler of ordering unprovoked attacks against American vessels. In Tokyo, the Japanese government secretly approves Plan Z, the attack against Pearl Harbour, planned by the Imperial Navy Captain Minoru Genda and overseen by Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. The latter had initially opposed a war against the US fearing its potential. As an alumnus of the University of Harvard he knows America well. In the London press, Winston Churchill publishes an article in which, among other things, he affirms that no one is suffering more than the Jews the evils brought by Hitler and his sickening regime which repudiates human beings.CCAug 6, 2017
- 28. 1941 DecemberThe radar station at Opana Point detects the presence of aircraft but believes them to be B-17s. At 7h 50 local time, the Japanese naval air forces commanded by Vice Admiral Nagumo launch their attack against the American military base.CCAug 13, 2017
- 29. 1942 JanuaryPresident Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill meet in the White House. They agree that American arms production should be doubled. During a press conference, Roosevelt declares that the government is considering the possibility of transferring the war industries, especially the aeronautic sector on the Pacific coast, to the interior, due to fears of a Japanese attack on the West Coast of the United States. In Russian winter is the harshest of the century. In response to Stalin's exhortations, Soviet industries are making a huge effort to manufacture thousands of T-34 tanks and Ilyuchin-II planes. Furthermore, aid is arriving from the US and the United Kingdom through Persia, Vladivostok and Arkhangelsk.CCAug 20, 2017
- 30. 1942 FebruaryJapanese are stretched to the limits of their capacities. They have suffered ten thousand casualties in Malaysia and their supply system is broken down. In London, RAF Air Marshal Arthur Travers Harris, the Commander-in-Chief of Bomber Command known by the press as Bomber Harris and renowned for his strong character, who promised Churchill that he would bring Germany to its knees, issues the order of selective area bombing. From now on, the air force's objective will be to destroy the morale of the German people, using saturation bombing against civilians and industrial sectors.CCAug 27, 2017
- 31. 1942 MarchIn London a depressed Winston Churchill passes through one of his worst moments in office, under fire from his critics. Along with the problems in Southeast Asia, North Africa and the delicate situation in Malta, the country is facing shortages of foodstuffs and coal. The Prime Minister wants the American President to take determined action as time is running out for the United Kingdom. In a speech Prime Minister Hideki Tojo declares that “the Japanese army has no equal anywhere in the world.CCSep 3, 2017
- 32. 1942 AprilAt his headquarters in Rastenburg, Hitler meets with Himmler. The head of the SS presents his project for German schools. Children considered to be of Aryan race living in the occupied territories will be separated from their parents and educated in Nazi schools. The Fuhrer signs Directive Number 41 relating to Fall Blau (Case Blue), the German offensive with the objective of putting an end to the Soviet war economy. In Europe British planes carry out one of the most daring missions of the war. Twelve heavy Avro Lancaster bombers flying at low altitude enter German airspace and attack a diesel engine factory in Augsburg. Seven planes are shot down and the other five suffer damage but manage to get back to base.CCSep 10, 2017
- 33. 1942 MayIn the Philippines, General Jonathan Wainwright informs President Roosevelt and General MacArthur that it is useless to keep defending their positions on the island of Corregidor. A deathly silence takes hold as white flags are hoisted over the Allied positions. Colonel Motoo Nakayama takes Wainright to Bataan to speak with General Masaharu Homma. The American General explains that it has been impossible to communicate his decision to General Sharp on the island of Mindanao. After lengthy and difficult negotiations he surrenders his troops unconditionally. In the Philippines, an emotional General Jonathan Wainright reads out a message announcing the surrender of all the Allied forces on the islands from a Manila radio station.CCSep 17, 2017
- 34. 1942 JuneA decree is issued in France and the Netherlands making compulsory the use of the Jewish star on clothes. The SS states on the last report sent to Himmler that up to date 977,000 Jews have been eliminated using gas.CCSep 24, 2017
- 35. 1942 JulyIn Berlin, Heinrich Himmler presides over a secret meeting along with his personal doctor, Karl Gebhardt, and the SS general, Richard Glueks, General Inspector of concentration camps, and the leading German gynaecologist, Karl Clauberg. With Hitler's consent, they agree to carry out medical experiments on the prisoners of the Auschwitz and Ravensbruck camps. The offensive in the south of the Eastern Front continues to unfold. Army Group B, with a smaller number of forces, moves forward towards Stalingrad. Army Group A does so in the direction of Voroshilovgrad to later reach Rostov. In the United States, the government demands the immediate closure of Finnish consulates.CCOct 1, 2017
- 36. 1942 AugustGeneral Dwight Eisenhower is officially named Commander in Chief of the Allied forces in Europe. Roosevelt and Churchill also agree to put him in charge of Operation Torch, the Allied landings on the French colonies of North Africa.CCOct 8, 2017
- 37. 1942 SeptemberThe Fuhrer, distanced from direct contact with his High Command, and as he had vowed, eats alone and refuses to shake hands with some of his commanders. His obsession has become the rapid conquest of Stalingrad. He wishes to take and display the city as trophy to disguise the failure in the Caucasus. However, the battle in the city is becoming harsher by the second. The industrial zone is now the main focus of Soviet resistance, and in the streets snipers are making their presence felt. Eight of the twenty German divisions are fighting within the city of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, the Red Army continues to throw in reinforcements from Siberia and Mongolia. On to this infernal stage General Chuikov pushes thousands of raw recruits to certain death in attacks on German trenches.CCOct 15, 2017
- 38. 1942 OctoberHitler is obsessed with the conquest of Stalingrad, although General Kurt Zeitzler, the new Chief of the Army General Staff, warns him that it would be wise to reconsider their strategy after the success of the Soviets to resist the second German offensive. The Fuhrer, however, thinks that the battle will be decided with yet another attack. In Poland, in the Warsaw Ghetto, out of the four hundred thousand Jews that were enclosed in this part of the city, after the successive roundups by the Nazi security forces, only seventy thousand remain. Their prison has shrunk to a couple of blocks and most of them are in favour of the armed struggle.CCOct 22, 2017
- 39. 1942 NovemberField Marshal Erwin Rommel, after analyzing the situation orders part of the Italian forces to withdraw to positions behind the Afrika Korps. He later tells the Wehrmacht High Command that, due to lack of reinforcements and supplies, his only option is to retreat. An infuriated Hitler sends him a telegram stating: It would not the first time in history that a strong will triumphs over bigger battalions. His only alternative is to hold out. He can only offer his troops victory or death. In the U.S., President Roosevelt announces the severance of relations with the Vichy French government. According to the American president the decision has been taken due to the ongoing collaboration by the French authorities with Nazi Germany. Additionally, he guarantees Spain's General Franco that his nation's territorial integrity will be respected, provided that it stays neutral.CCOct 29, 2017
- 40. 1942 DecemberIn Stalingrad, two hundred and fifty thousand German soldiers from the Sixth Army have been trapped in the Cauldron (Der Kessel), where rotting corpses are piling up. They have the vain hope that Marshal Erich Von Manstein will come to help them. The Fuhrer will not abandon us is the most common phrase among the Wehrmacht men. Mussolini, in view of the situation, advises Hitler to put an end to the war against Russia through diplomatic means, as advocates Joachim Von Ribbentrop. In London, Labour MP Sydney Silvermann informs in the House of Commons that the Nazis have exterminated more than two million Jews since the end of September.CCNov 5, 2017
- 41. 1943 JanuaryIn the Pacific, the Japanese High Command decides to evacuate the island of Guadalcanal. This means giving up complete control of the Solomon Islands and mastery of their northwest shipping routes to Australia and New Zealand. In Stalingrad, General Paulus and his men continue to endure the pressure of the Russian siege; meanwhile Luftwaffe losses increase as it attempts to maintain the feeble airlift of supplies.CCNov 12, 2017
- 42. 1943 FebruaryIn Stalingrad, the men of General Shumilov capture Marshal Friedrich Paulus. The remainders of the Sixth Army and the Fourth Panzerarmee have surrendered to the Red Army. Twenty-three generals, two thousand officers, and around 90,000 soldiers are estimated to have been taken prisoner along with Paulus. 130,000 still lie among the ruins of the city. Additionally, over thirty thousand wounded men have been previously evacuated.CCNov 19, 2017
- 43. 1943 MarchAt Madison Square Garden's in New York, more than 20,000 Jews gather under the banner of the American Jewish Congress, whose aim is to pressurise the U.S. government and its allies into providing refuge for European Jews and to abolish restrictions on immigration to Palestine. RAF planes bomb Berlin in the most devastating attack of the war to date. Goebbels writes in his diary ... Gaering is not fooling himself in the event of our having to lose the war. He is under no illusions, especially as regards the Jewish question; we are so committed that we have no escape route...CCNov 26, 2017
- 44. 1943 AprilMany among the Nazi leadership are convinced that Germany will eventually be defeated. Heinrich Himmler, in anticipation of this possibility, orders that in the reports on the Jewish Question, the term special treatment be omitted so as to conceal the genocide. His aim is to eliminate as much evidence about the Holocaust as possible to avoid being charged for this after the war. In the meantime, the commands of the Third Reich continue despoiling the occupied countries. The works of art taken to Germany comprise thousands of paintings of famous artists, furniture, statues, and tapestries. A large portion of the stolen objects comes from France.CCDec 3, 2017
- 45. 1943 MayIn Poland, over two thousand Jews are transferred from Wlodawa to the Sobibor death camp, directed by the SS general Franz Reichleitner. When they reach the arrivals platform and realise the tragic fate that awaits them, they desperately rebel against the SS guards watching over them, attacking them with sticks and stones. The rioters are gunned down. New Zealander pilot Leonard Henry Trent heads a squadron of 12 aircraft with the mission of bombing the Amsterdam power station in Holland. Before reaching the target, nine of the planes are shot down and only two make it back to base. Captain Trent, going solo, manages to attack the station, but is subsequently brought down and captured by the Germans along with his co-pilot. After the war he was liberated and decorated with the Victoria Cross.CCDec 10, 2017
- 46. 1943 JuneGerman and Ukrainian soldiers encircle the Lvov ghetto (eastern Poland) to prevent its inhabitants from fleeing. When Nazi units penetrate it to carry out genocide, they encounter strong resistance, so they torch buildings to flush out the inhabitants. More than three thousand Jews are killed and another seven thousand arre captured and sent to Janowska camp, where they will be killed. This action will last until the end of July. Jack Chalder, a British artilleryman captured by the Japanese in 1942 during the fall of Singapore finds himself at the prison camp in Konyu river in Thailand. He secretly draws the hard life of prisoners doing forced labor on the construction of a railway linking the country to Burma. His drawings end up having a massive impact over time. In Berlin, Heinrich Himmler receives the first reports from Professor Carl Clauberg concerning his female sterilization experiments conducted in Block 10 of the extermination camp of Auschwitz.CCDec 17, 2017
- 47. 1943 JulyThe losses on both camps are rocketing. The intensity of the fighting is draining the morale out of men who are fighting among rotting corpses and tanks that have been turned into scrap. In the Battle of Kursk, in the course of the Soviet counteroffensive around Prokhorovka the Fourth Panzer Army of Marshal Von Manstein loses over ten thousand men and 350 tanks. In addition, the Germans face the thrust of the Western and Bryansk fronts near Orel. Hitler, summons to his headquarters the generals in charge of Operation Zitadelle. Von Manstein suggests that the offensive be continued with the help of fresh troops, while Von Kluge is in favour of aborting it, in view of the deplorable state of the ninth army. The Fuhrer, to his regret, and in light of the Allied landings in Sicily, decides to temporarily halt Operation Zitadelle. The last major German offensive on the Eastern Front has represented a costly failure.CCDec 24, 2017
- 48. 1943 AugustThe American planes take off near Benghazi (Libya) and, after flying 2,400 miles to reach the target, find it are heavily defended by German fighters and anti aircraft batteries. Subjected to incessant artillery fire and attacks by Luftwaffe aircraft, the B-24s launch their explosives on the huge Romanian oil installations, which represent one of the lifelines of the Third Reich. Following the operation, the result was far from what was desired: the Americans have lost 53 aircraft and their crews. The Germans repair the damage and production reaches its highest level within a week. Witold Pilecki, cofounder of Tajna Armia Polska (Polish Secret Army), reaches Warsaw and joins the Polish resistance. After scouting near the death camp of Auschwitz, Pilecki sends a report to London recounting the atrocities by the Nazis who have, according to his data, murdered in the death camps more than 3 million people and he calls for an operation to end the suffering of the inmates.CCDec 31, 2017
- 49. 1943 SeptemberThe American carrier-based fighter plane Grumman F6F “Hellcat sees action for the first time. Protected by a heavy fuselage and armed with six 12.7mm machineguns, it will attain air supremacy. In many ways, it can be considered to be the best naval single-seater fighter of the Second World War. Over 12,000 units of its different models were produced. By the end of the conflict it will have shot down some 6,000 enemy aircraft. Hitler believes that Germany will recoup the initiative thanks to the fighting spirit of the Wehrmacht soldiers, the lack of unity among the Allies, and his new weapons of mass destruction. In order to accelerate the production of war materials, he gives more power to Albert Speer, Minister of Armaments and War Production. Walter Funk, the Minister of Economic Affairs, who up to present had been in charge of raw materials, will be subordinated to him.CCJan 7, 2018
- 50. 1943 OctoberHitler orders the Marshal Kesselring to maintain defensive lines south of Rome and use any means necessary to avoid the Allies' advancing north. In Poland, 1196 children arrive at Auschwitz death camp from the Bialystok ghetto. They are sent straight to the gas chambers. In Poznan, Himmler meets again with the main commanders, whom he encourages to murder not only parents, but also Jewish children: to avoid avengers growing up among our own children and grandchildren.CCJan 14, 2018
- 51. 1943 NovemberIn Europe, Heinrich Himmler has decided to annihilate outright the Jews of the Polish labour camps. He orders Friedrich Wilhelm Kruger, head of the SS and the police in occupied Poland, to direct the extermination. He subsequently passes down the orders to Jakob Sporrenberg, who organizes the Akton Erntefest (Operation Harvest Festival), the killing of all the Jews from the Lublin district. In Moscow, Stalin delivers a radio speech praising the bravery of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. For Hitler, the loss of Kiev has been a heavy blow.CCJan 21, 2018
- 52. 1943 DecemberSeveral squadrons of the RAF bomb Berlin, dropping more than 1,500 tons of bombs that destroy two factories owned by Siemens and several railway centers located around the city. Flak and German fighters shoot down 40 Allied aircraft and 228 crew members die. So far 2700 Berliners have been killed and another 250,000 have lost their homes. Nazi Party leaders have ordered swastika pennants to be flown on the piles of rubble to lift the morale of a bewildered population that had believed itself safe from such acts of war. In Warsaw (Poland) German security forces execute a hundred employees of the municipal tram lines in retaliation for the recent acts of sabotage. After the fall of Mussolini, Hitler has strengthened his own security measures to the maximum, to the extent of not revealing to his closest confidantes the dates of his trips. During his stay at headquarters he covers his head with a heavy armoured cap.CCJan 28, 2018
- 53. 1944 JanuaryIn Germany, Hitler, in his New Year's address to the German people, reasserts his will to keep fighting: “No matter how long the war may last, it's better to continue in it than to condemn our homeland to the humiliation of defeat, he says. In Plaszow, a suburb of Cracow (Poland), the Germans set up a new concentration camp. Its commander, the sadistic Ammon Goeth, with the collaboration of SS groups headed by Alice Orlowski, will end up murdering over 80,000 people. In Washington, Treasure Secretary Henry Morgenthau urges President Roosevelt to modify the stringent immigration laws of the State Department to counteract the Nazi plans to exterminate the Jews.CCFeb 4, 2018
- 54. 1944 FebruaryOver 800 RAF bombers launch a night-time attack against the German city of Leipzig, which is followed in the morning by an air raid by the Eight US Air Force in what comes to be known as the Big Week, the carpet bombing of the major industrial centers of the Third Reich. The Big Week reaches its peak during an air raid by American bombers. Escorted by fighters, they carry out a day-time incursion against the Messerschmitt plants in Regensburg and Augsburg in Bavaria (Germany). During the operation 35 bombers and 8 Allied fighters are lost, but they shoot down 142 German fighters in the sky and a thousand more in the assembly line. At night two waves of RAF bombers wreck havoc yet again over Augsburg.CCFeb 11, 2018
- 55. 1944 MarchAllied commanders estimate that German troops need an average of four thousand tons of supplies daily to supply the forces that are in position on the Gustav Line and surrounding the Anzio beachhead. Their goal is to cut off the supply lines to the rearguard. General Alexander increases the number of U.S. aircraft involved in Operation Strangle, aimed at railway hubs, bridges, roads and supply stores in a broad sweep of the Italian peninsula stretching from the Gustav Line to the Swiss border. In U.S. it is a presidential election year. Voting will take place in November and both Wendel Willkie for the Republicans and Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt are immersed in the primaries organized by their respective parties. Roosevelt is running for a third term, breaking the tradition established by George Washington.CCFeb 18, 2018
- 56. 1944 April"Hitler issues an order to the commanders on the Eastern Front encouraging them to achieve victory and saying the Russians have exhausted their strength and it's time to finally stop their advance. The German generals cannot believe what they read and consider the Fuhrer has lost his mind. In London, Churchill delivers in the House of Commons casualty figures suffered in the war so far. As regards the United Kingdom, 120,958 soldiers have been killed on the various fronts; 49,730 civilians by German bombing; and 26,317 crew members of merchant ships. With respect to the British Commonwealth, 12,298 Australian soldiers have died, 9209 Canadian, 5912 Indians, 5622 New Zealand troops and 3107 South Africans. In total, the death toll exceeds 233,000 in a period of just over four years.CCFeb 25, 2018
- 57. 1944 MayStalin claims that Germany has been defeated during a speech delivered during the May Day celebrations. He calls for Romanians, Bulgarians, and Hungarians to rise against Hitler and his occupation forces. He ends by saying: “the Nazi beast is wounded; we must now chase to its lair and destroy it. German journalist Erich Knauf is decapitated in the Brandenburg prison after having been sentenced to death by judge Roland Freisler under the accusation of defeatism. While hiding in a bomb shelter during an air raid with his friend Doctor Erich Ohser, he had commented that “the greatest catastrophe would be a German victory. The work of the British secret services and their team of cryptographers continues to intercept and decode the German encrypted communications system called “Ultra. The Allied strategists are aware of the enemy troops movements and can plan the landings in northern France with greater precision.CCMar 4, 2018
- 58. 1944 JuneIn the early hours of the morning, 180 men of the Oxford and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry Battalion of the Sixth Airborne Division, known as The Red Devils, parachute into their sector of Normandy and, to the tremendous surprise of the Germans, capture Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal in Bénouville, a strategic point for the success of the landing operations. Minutes later, the crossing over the Orne River at Ranville is also captured.CCMar 11, 2018
- 59. 1944 JulyTo date, the Allies have landed to date more than one million soldiers and one hundred and seventy thousand vehicles in northern France. The number of captured German prisoners has risen to forty thousand. General George S. Patton lands near Omaha Beach in Normandy (France) aboard a Douglas C-47 plane. He had been in England for months heading Operation Fortitude, one of the major strategies designed to deceive the Germans about the Overlord landings. Having not taken part in D-Day, Patton now has the opportunity to join the fight by commanding the Third Army. But things have greatly changed in recent months, and his subordinate in Sicily - General Omar Bradley, - is now his boss.CCMar 18, 2018
- 60. 1944 AugustUnder Hitler's instructions, Heinrich Himmler orders that all family members of Von Stauffenberg be persecuted. His wife Nina, a few months pregnant, is arrested by security forces and sent to prison and then to the Ravensbrück Concentration Camp. Their four children are sent to an internment camp. In Warsaw, Polish and German forces continue to violently clash. SS reinforcement troops begin to the arrive in the city, under General von dem Bach Zelewski of the Kaminski Brigade, composed of Soviet POWs, along with the Dirlewanger Brigade, made up of former German prisoners. Japanese forces in China keep the up various offensives of Operation Ichi-Go against the National Revolutionary Army. After the Battle of Central Henan, they are now involved in the Battle of Changheng in Hunan Province. For the Japanese, the two main objectives in this long and costly operation are to open a land route to French Indochina, and occupy air bases in Chinese territory.CCMar 25, 2018
- 61. 1944 SeptemberOn the Western Front in northern France, General Eisenhower sets up his headquarters in the city of Reims. A great student of history, he is trying to emulate Hannibal, the Carthaginian general who defeated the Romans at Cannae in south eastern Italy, in a battle considered as one of the greatest tactical displays in military history. Hitler has lost all trust in his Commanders and so he exerts very tight control over all military operations. He orders the troops defending the French cities of Dunkirk and Calais to fight to the last man, and repeats this to his men in Holland holding positions on Walcheren Island, strategically located at the mouth of the Scheldt River, the entrance to the deep water Belgian port of Antwerp. Certain officers have tried repeatedly to assassinate Hitler, as part of a conspiracy that now spreads across the nation. Some important German generals have even deserted the front lines.CCApr 1, 2018
- 62. 1944 OctoberHitler orders that all women born in 1928, in other words, all 16 year-olds are to be mobilized for the war effort. In Washington, the Dumbarton Oaks conference, which started in August, draws to a close. It had gathered representatives from the United States, the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the Republic of China. It lays the foundations for the creation of the United Nations, as well as its Security Council, providing its permanent members the right to veto. On the Eastern Front in Europe, four hundred Jews held in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp stage an uprising. Members of a sonderkommando responsible for taking corpses from the gas chambers to the crematoriums desperately attack their guards using explosives stolen from a nearby factory. They manage to destroy one of the crematoriums before SS soldiers kill them all.CCApr 8, 2018
- 63. 1944 NovemberThe Japanese launch the strategy of sending fire balloons over the Pacific Ocean with the hope that they will reach the United States and produce massive wildfires in the West Coast woodlands. The operation will take place over five months, in the course of which more than nine thousand balloons will be sent off. Three hundred of them will reach American territory, producing hardly any damage. In Hungary, the Soviets are approaching the outskirts of Budapest. The Germans hastily transfer more than fifty thousand Jews from the capital to Austria. In the long march, which will last over a week, more than ten thousand of them are killed.CCApr 15, 2018
- 64. 1944 DecemberCharles De Gaulle travels to Moscow to meet with Josef Stalin. After a number of meetings over several days, they will sign a military alliance against Germany. In the Pacific, today marks the third anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and U.S. entry in the war. The Americans have recovered much of the lost ground, though this has been at the cost of thousands of deaths.CCApr 22, 2018
- 65. 1945 JanuaryBoth for Germany and for Japan, the outcome of the year 1944 has been catastrophic. Hitler's secret weapons have not had the desired effect, and they are proving inconsequential in the development of the war. In Washington, the government makes public the casualties suffered in the war up to December 21 1944: 135,323 soldiers have died, 362,824 wounded, 75,844 have disappeared, and 64,148 have been taken prisoner.CCApr 29, 2018
- 66. 1945 FebruaryField Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, General Alfred Jodl and Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, are still loyal to Hitler. However, Reich Marshal Goring, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Martin Bormann, among others, although also maintaining absolute loyalty to the Fuhrer, inspire only contempt in the majority of political and military leaders. On German soil, Soviet forces are less than one hundred kilometers from Berlin, which is a declared a "fortress city". Children, women and old people throw up barricades while the city is plastered with posters proclaiming ""Victory or Siberia." The U.S. First Army captures the town of Remscheid, to the east of Dusseldorf. On the Eastern Front, the forces under the command of Marshal Zhukov that have reached the Oder River, stop to regroup and wipe out the numerous pockets of enemy soldiers still holding out in their rear areas.CCMay 6, 2018
- 67. 1945 MarchOn the Eastern Front, the Germans fight a cutthroat battle, roused by National Socialist fanaticism and radical anti-communism. The greatest fear of the Wehrmacht soldiers is to fall into the hands of the Red Army. Stalin intends to make the Allies believe that his objective is to take Dresden. However, Marshal Zhukov has orders of taking the German capital and capturing Hitler as soon as possible."CCMay 13, 2018
- 68. 1945 AprilFifty thousand U.S. troops land unopposed along thirteen kilometers of beach of the southwest coast near Hagushi. Casualties are so scarce that the Marines call today the day of love. Hitler has included Vienna in the category of an "especially important defensive zone," which means fighting with all available means until the last man alive. Also, according to the NERO decree, all infrastructures should be destroyed to prevent them from falling into enemy hands. Soldiers of the 89th U.S. Infantry Division arrive at Ohrdruf Concentration Camp, one of the sub-camps of Buchenwald. At the entrance they find thousands of corpses stacked one on top of another, each with a bullet in the neck. When he visits, General Eisenhower, is so affected that he sends photographs to Churchill with copies of movies that have been filmed. The British Prime Minister is so horrified that he circulates the material among members of the War Cabinet.CCMay 20, 2018
- 69. 1945 MayIn Germany, Hamburg radio announces Hitler's death: “fallen at his command in the Reich Chancery fighting to the last breath against Bolshevism. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz becomes the new head of state. In Germany, General Helmuth Weidling, commander of the Berlin Defense Area, surrenders the city and his troops to General Vasily Chuikov. In Czechoslovakia, the Czech resistance stages the Prague uprising. In the course of the day, two thousand barricades are built throughout the city, and the main bridges over the Vltava River are taken over by the insurgents. Field Marshal Ferdinand Scharner, Commander of Army Group Centre, orders the city garrisons to suppress the rebellion. The SS soldiers that are captured by the partisans are hung from lampposts and burned alive.CCMay 27, 2018
- 70. 1945 JuneAmerican bombers attack the Japanese city of Osaka. In Germany, the Soviets have carefully studied the remains of Hitler, Eva Braun, and Joseph Goebbels, who have been buried temporarily in Rathenow. In March 1970, the then president of the KGB, Yuri Andropov, asks the Politburo to authorize the destruction of the remains of Hitler found buried, beginning in February 21, 1946, in a military base within the Soviet sector of Germany. The destruction of the remains was carried out on April 4, 1970 by means of incineration in the city of Schoenebeck and the ashes thrown into the Biederitz River. There are parts of the jaw and skull fragments of Hitler, stored at the Central Archive of the FSB (Russian National Security Service). At the Vatican, Pope Pius XII, in a radio message, calls on the German people to abandon Nazism and rebuild their country. In the Middle East, French forces vacate Syria and Lebanon, leaving the British in control.CCJun 3, 2018
- 71. 1945 JulyIn Europe, the power of Stalin and his armies has penetrated into the heart of Europe. American and British troops begin to withdraw from the areas assigned to the Soviets, accompanied by many refugees. For Churchill, who is involved in general elections; the presence of the Soviets is a disaster for humanity. However, he was one of those responsible for having allowed it in the first place. The U.S. Second Armored Division has moved into Berlin to take over the area of the capital which is the responsibility of the American government. U.S. warplanes bomb Tokyo and other Japanese cities. Japanese government sources claim that there are no more than 200,000 people left in the Japanese capital, because the rest have fled to safer areas. They add that about five million civilians have died as a result of the incendiary bombs dropped by the Americans.CCJun 10, 2018
- 72. 1945 AugustOn the Pacific front, American Secret Services, after intercepting Japanese government messages, are convinced they will not accept unconditional surrender. The Secretary of the Navy, James R. Forrestal, says that, in his opinion, despite the circumstances in which they find themselves, the Japanese are determined to continue the war.CCJun 17, 2018
- 73. 1945 SeptemberThe various delegations that will participate in the formal Japanese surrender aboard the USS Missouri continue to arrive.CCJun 24, 2018
World War II Diaries:The Complete War Report
20171 season73 episodesReturning Series
The chaos, sacrifice and heroism of WWII are presented through a day-by-day profile of the significant milestones that propelled and diminished the most terrifying regime of the 20th Century! This compelling series highlights the details and daily headlines of September 1939 through September 1945, showcasing the conflicts between the Axis and the Allies. Comprehensive and insightful, these chronicles unravel the epic struggles and unimaginable horror that plagued the vast majority of the world s nations. From the front lines to the home front this exceptional series contains hours of wartime video footage, newsreels, photographs and much more!
