#e <t>massacre<d>1940 Apr 30(10)<c>Smolensk<n>Katyn massacre<info>The Katyn Forest, west of the Russian city of Smolensk, was the site of the extermination in late April or early May 1940 of more than 4,000 Polish army officers by Soviet security forces. After the signing of the Nazi-Soviet Pact on August 23, 1939, German forces occupied western Poland while Soviet troops simultaneously occupied the eastern half. Soviet forces captured and interned approximately 250,000 Polish soldiers and officers. After Hitler abrogated the pact and invaded the Soviet Union in May 1941, the Polish government-in-exile in London made an agreement with the USSR to form a Polish army in the Soviet Union to fight the Nazis. After Polish prisoners were released from detention and mustered into military units, however, it was found that there were few officers among them. An estimated 15,000 officers were missing. German troops advancing into the Smolensk region in April 1943 discovered mass graves of 4,443 victims in the Katyn Forest. When the discoveries were publicized internationally, the Soviet government declared that the Polish victims had been murdered by the Nazis. As evidence mounted, however, that the massacre had been carried out by Soviet rather than German units, the Polish government-in-exile broke relations with the USSR. The fate of the remaining 10,000 Polish officers is still unclear, though it is believed that many of them perished in Siberian labor camps during and after World War II. The facts about the Katyn massacre were a source of continuing bitterness after World War II, although the Communist government in Warsaw gave its official acceptance to the Soviet version of events. In 1987, however, Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to the establishment of a joint Soviet-Polish commission to investigate the matter. In March 1989 the new non-Communist government of Poland announced that the NKVD, the Soviet secret police, had been responsible for the massacre. In April 1990 the Soviet Union finally acknowledged that its own security forces had indeed been responsible.<ref>Grolier
#e <t>battle<n>Germans invade Holland<d>1940 May 10<c>Netherlands
#e <t>bombardment<d>1940 May<n>Rotterdam bombed<c>Rotterdam<info>The city of Rotterdam was bombed by the Germans during their invasion of the Netherlands.
#e <t>battle<n>French & Norwegian troops capture Narvik<d>1940 May 28<c>Narvik<vic>Norway
#e <t>battle<n>Germans capture Narvik<d>1940 Jun 8<c>Narvik<vic>German
#e <t>bombardment<d>1942 Apr 18<n>Doolittle bombs Tokyo<c>Tokyo<info>The first bombing raid over Tokyo was led by U.S. airman Doolittle.
#e <t>battle<d>1942 Jun 4<n>Midway<c>Midway<info>A U.S. naval force under Adm. Chester W. Nimitz defeated a Japanese force under Adm. Yamamoto Isoroku off Midway. Four Japanese aircraft carriers were sunk, and the U.S. lost one carrier, the Yorktown.
#e <t>battle<n>First Battle of El Alamein<d>1942 Jul<c>El Alamein
#e <t>battle<n>Final Battle of El Alamein<d>1942 Oct<c>El Alamein
#e <t>battle<d>1944 Dec<e>1945 Jan<n>Battle of the Bulge<c>Belgium<info>The Battle of the Bulge was the last major German counter-offensive of World War II.
// 1945
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Mar 10<n>Tokyo firebombed<c>Tokyo
#e <t><d>1945 Apr 30<n>82nd crosses Elbe<c>Germany<info>The U.S. 82nd (Abn) Division crossed the Elbe River on the last day on April in 1945.
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Aug 6<n>Hiroshima<c>Hiroshima<info>
#e <t>bombardment<d>1945 Aug 9<n>Nagasaki<c>Nagasaki<info>
#e <t>surrender<d>1945 Sep 2<n>Japanese surrender<c>Tokyo<info>The surrender ceremony took place on the USS Missouri in Tokyo bay.