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Jan 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.

Jan 10 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.

Jan 14-24 - Casablanca conference between Churchill and Roosevelt. During the conference, Roosevelt announces the war can end only with an unconditional German surrender.

Jan 23 - Montgomery's Eighth Army takes Tripoli.

Jan 27 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).

Feb 2 - Germans surrender at Stalingrad in the first big defeat of Hitler's armies.

Feb 8 - Soviet troops take Kursk.

Feb 14-25 - Battle of Kasserine Pass between the U.S. 1st Armored Division and German Panzers in North Africa.

Feb 16 - Soviets re-take Kharkov.

Feb 18 - Nazis arrest White Rose resistance leaders in Munich.

March 2 - Germans begin a withdrawal from Tunisia, Africa.

March 15 - Germans re-capture Kharkov.

March 16-20 - Battle of Atlantic climaxes with 27 merchant ships sunk by German U-boats.

March 20-28 - Montgomery's Eighth Army breaks through the Mareth Line in Tunisia.

April 6/7 - Axis forces in Tunisia begin a withdrawal toward Enfidaville as American and British forces link.

April 19 - Waffen SS attacks Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto.

May 7 - Allies take Tunisia.

May 13 - German and Italian troops surrender in North Africa.

May 16 - Jewish resistance in the Warsaw ghetto ends.

May 16/17 - British air raid on the Ruhr.

May 22 - Dönitz suspends U-boat operations in the North Atlantic.

June 10 - Pointblank directive to improve Allied bombing strategy issued.

June 11 - Himmler orders the liquidation of all Jewish ghettos in Poland.

July 5 - Germans begin their last offensive against Kursk.

July 9/10 - Allies land in Sicily.

July 19 - Allies bomb Rome.

July 22 - Americans capture Palermo, Sicily.

July 24 - British bombing raid on Hamburg.

July 25/26 - Mussolini arrested and the Italian Fascist government falls; Marshal Pietro Badoglio takes over and negotiates with Allies.

July 27/28 - Allied air raid causes a firestorm in Hamburg.

Aug 12-17 - Germans evacuate Sicily.

Aug 17 - American daylight air raids on Regensburg and Schweinfurt in Germany; Allies reach Messina, Sicily.

Aug 23 - Soviet troops recapture Kharkov.

Sept 8 - Italian surrender is announced.

Sept 9 - Allied landings at Salerno and Taranto.

Sept 11 - Germans occupy Rome.

Sept 12 - Germans rescue Mussolini.

Sept 23 - Mussolini re-establishes a Fascist government.

Oct 1 - Allies enter Naples, Italy.

Oct 4 - SS Reichsführer Himmler gives speech at Posen.

Oct 13 - Italy declares war on Germany; Second American air raid on Schweinfurt.

Nov 6 - Russians recapture Kiev in the Ukraine.

Nov 18 - Large British air raid on Berlin.

Nov 28 - Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin meet at Teheran.

Dec 24-26 - Soviets launch offensives on the Ukrainian front.