| 1941 | |
| April 6 | Nazis invade Greece and Yugoslavia |
| April 17 | Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany |
| April 27 | Greece surrenders to Germany |
May 3 |
Dance at the San Jacinto Inn |
May 11 |
Mother's Day |
| May 24 | HMS Hood sunk by the Bismarck |
| May 27 | Bismarck sunk by British navy |
| June 22 | Germany attacks Soviet Union |
| August 14 | Roosevelt and Churchill announce the Atlantic Charter |
| September 1 | Nazis order Jews to wear yellow stars |
October 25 |
111th Observation Squadron passes through Houston |
| October 31 | U.S. destroyer Reuben James sunk by a U-boat in the Atlantic |
| December 5 | German attack on Moscow is abandoned |
| December 7 | Japanese attack Pearl Harbor (we visited here in 2006) |
| December 9 | British battleship Prince of Wales sunk by Japanese off Thailand |
| 1942 | |
| January 26 | First American forces arrive in Great Britain |
January 29 |
Billy signs up with the Army Air Force |
March 21 |
Billy reports to Ellington Field |
| August 17 | First all-American air attack in Europe |
| September 13 | Battle of Stalingrad begins |
October 17 |
Billy completes Aviation Cadet training, is commissioned as 2nd Lt. at Hondo, Texas |
| November 8 | Allied invasion of North Africa begins |
November 18 |
Billy's friend Waley Garrett is killed while in training in Alabama |
| 1943 | |
| February 2 | Germans surrender at Stalingrad; first major defeat for German forces |
| May 13 | Germans and Italians surrender in North Africa |
July 9 |
|
| July 9-10 | Allies land in Sicily |
July 10 |
Billy leaves Avon Park for England |
July 24 |
Billy leaves U.S. soil |
July 29 |
Billy lands in the U.K. |
| September 3 | Allies land on Italian mainland |
September 5 |
Billy makes first bombing mission from England |
| September 8 | Italian surrender is announced, but German troops remain in Italy |
November 13 |
Billy is promoted to 1st Lieutenant |
| November 28 | Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Teheran |
| 1944 | |
| January 27 | End of the siege of Leningrad |
| January 31 | U.S. forces land on the Marshall Islands in the Pacific |
February 5 |
Billy's worst mission; loss of Bryan, Mims and their crews |
February 15 |
Billy makes first mission with 391st Squadron |
April 9 |
"Easter in the E.T.O." |
April 23 |
Billy's first mission with 397th Squadron |
May 27 |
Billy transfers back to 323rd Squadron |
| June 5 | Allies enter Rome |
| June 6 | D-Day landings |
| June 13 | First German V-1 rocket attack on Great Britain |
| July 18 | American troops reach St. Lô |
| July 20 | German attempt to assassinate Hitler fails |
August 6 |
Last mission described in the journal (#62) |
August 19 |
Billy is promoted to Captain |
| August 25 | Liberation of Paris |
September 1 |
Billy's last mission (#66) as described in his notes |
October 22 |
Billy returns to the "zone of the interior" at Presque Isle, Maine; after shuttling to Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio and to Miami, he spends most of the rest of the year in Santa Ana, California |
| December 16-27 | Battle of the Bulge in the Ardennes |
| 1945 | |
| January 26 | Allied troops liberate Auschwitz |
| February 4-11 | Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin meet at Yalta |
| February 13-14 | Dresden fire-bombed by the Allies |
March 13 |
Billy arrives at Curtis Field in Brady, Texas, to begin pilot training |
March 29 |
Billy makes first solo flight |
| April 12 | Allies liberate Belsen and Buchenwald; Roosevelt dies, Truman becomes President |
April 13 |
Billy and June are married in Brady, Texas |
| April 21 | Soviets reach Berlin |
| April 30 | Hitler commits suicide |
| May 7 | Germany surrenders |
| July 16 | First U.S. atomic bomb test; Potsdam conference (we saw where this was held on a visit in 2008) |
| August 6 | First atomic bomb dropped, on |
| August 9 | Second atomic bomb dropped, on Nagasaki |
| September 2 | Japan surrenders |
October 1 |
Billy earns his pilot rating at Enid, Oklahoma |
| October 24 | United Nations officially born |
| November 20 | Nuremberg war crimes trials begin (we saw sights in Nuremberg, including where the trials happened, in 2017) |
| 1946 | |
July 9 |
Billy receives honorable discharge; he began classes at Sul Ross College in June |
A much more detailed, interactive timeline has been developed by a history professor at the University of San Diego. Consult it if you want more information on World War II dates.
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