Pacific War Timeline
Timeline of events in the Pacific War
1939
14 June: Japanese blockade British concession at Tientsin,
China
22 August: Soviet Union and Germany sign non-aggression pact
1 September: Germany invades Poland
3 September: Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia declare war
on Germany
12 September: Enlistment for 2 New Zealand Expeditionary Force (2
NZEF) begins
3 October: First Echelon, 2 NZEF training begins at Burnham,
Trentham, Hopuhopu and Papakura
23 November: Major-General Bernard Freyberg is appointed to command
2 NZEF
13 December: Battle of the River Plate - New Zealand cruiser HMS
Achilles involved in battle with German pocket battleship Admiral
Graf Spee
1940
5 January: First Echelon embarks for the Middle
East
5 June: New Zealand begins raising an infantry brigade group for
Fiji
10 June: Italy declares war on Great Britain and France
11 June: Australia, New Zealand and South Africa declare war on
Italy
20 August: German raider Orion sinks the steamer Turakina off Cape
Egmont
10 September: Advance party of 8 Infantry Battalion leave for
Fiji
27 September: Tripartite (Axis) Pact signed by Germany, Italy and
Japan
3 November: HQ 8 Infantry Brigade established in Fiji
25 November: Steamer Holmwood sunk by German raiders off Chatham
Islands
27 November: Rangitane sunk by German raiders 480km from East
Cape
8 December: New Zealand steamer Komata sunk by German raiders off
Nauru Island
1941
3 March: Bulk of 2 NZEF now in the Middle East
25-27 July: Britain, Australia, New Zealand and United States
freeze Japanese assets
28 July: Japanese troops move into southern Indo-China
18 October: General Tojo Hideki forms Cabinet in Japan
7 December: Japanese attack Pearl Harbour
7-8 December: Japanese troops land in Thailand and north-eastern
Malaya
8 December: Britain, USA, and New Zealand declare war on
Japan
18 December: Japanese land in Hong Kong
22 December: Japanese land in the Philippines
23 December: New Zealanders serving with 67 Squadron RAF have first
encounter with enemy during Japanese air raid on Rangoon,
Burma
25 December: Hong Kong falls to Japanese troops
31 December: Martial law declared in Singapore
1942
2 January: Japanese occupy Manila
3 January: 488 Sqn RNZAF in action at Singapore
10 January: More New Zealand reinforcements to Fiji
30 January: Japanese within 25 km of Singapore
8 February: Japanese invade Burma
10 February: US naval vanguard arrives in Wellington
15 February: Fall of Singapore
19 February: Japanese attack Indonesia; Darwin, Australia, raided
for the first time
March: Japanese air raids over Australia
8 March: Japanese submarine I-25 sends reconnaissance plane over
Wellington
13 March: Reconnaissance flight from I-25 over Auckland
18 April: US General Douglas MacArthur assumes command of the South
West Pacific Area; New Zealand in South Pacific Area a US Navy
responsibility under Admiral Chester Nimitz
7-8 May: Battle of Coral Sea; Japanese forces heading for Port
Moresby turn back
31 May: Japanese midget submarine raid on Sydney Harbour
3-6 June: US victory at Battle of Midway effectively ends the
danger of invasion of New Zealand
12 July: New Zealand steamer Hauraki captured by a Japanese
raider
24 July: US assume control in Fiji; 2 NZEF troops in Fiji return to
New Zealand
July: 9 Sqn RNZAF deployed to New Caledonia
7 August: First US land offensive against Japan at Guadalcanal in
the Solomon Islands
September: HMNZS Leander involved in Solomons campaign
5-13 October: US forces continue attacks against Japanese at
Guadalcanal
October: 3 Sqn RNZAF deploys in South Pacific theatre
2 December: Professor Enrico Fermi sets up an atomic reactor in
Chicago
3 December: 3 NZ Div HQ temporarily established in New Zealand;
throughout December troops NZ troops sent to New Caledonia
1943
5 January: HMNZS Achilles badly damaged by bomb off
Guadalcanal
22 January: Australian and US forces defeat Japan in the Papua
campaign
29 January: Japan withdrawing land forces from Guadalcanal
29-30 January: RNZN corvettes Kiwi and Moa sink Japanese submarine
I-1 off Guadalcanal
18 May: Japan begins an offensive along Yangtze River
20 May: New Zealand government agrees to keep 2 NZEF in the Middle
East to be available for operations in Europe; 3 Division in the
Pacific to be reduced
12-13 July: HMNZS Leander suffers heavy damage when torpedoed off
New Georgia
15 August: US troops land at Vella Lavella in the Solomon
Islands
16 August: Heavy Allied air attacks on Japanese at Wewak, Papua New
Guinea
3 October: 3 NZ Division secures Vella Lavella
5 October: US force attacks Wake Island
27 October: 3 NZ Division lands on Mono in the Treasury
Islands
1 November: US invades Bougainville
1944
January: US invades Marshall Islands
15-18 February: 3 NZ Division lands on Nissan Island; organised
Japanese resistance ceases by 20 February
29 February: US General Douglas MacArthur's force invades Admiralty
Island
7 March: 20 New Zealand aircraft take part in attack on
Rabaul
8 May: Japanese launch offensive against British troops in
Burma
15 June: Main body of 3 NZ Division HQ returns to New
Caledonia
16 June: China-based B-29s bomb southern Japan
21 July: US troops land in Guam
10 August: Japanese resistance in Guam ends
20 October: Philippines campaign begins
5 November: Allied planes bomb Singapore
24 November: B-29s bomb Tokyo
24 December: Last Japanese attack on Calcutta
1945
22 January: Burma Road is reopened
19 February: US troops land on Iwo Jima, Japan
21 March: British forces take Mandalay, Burma
1 April: US troops invade Okinawa
3 May: Rangoon recaptured
13 May: Australian troops occupy Wewak
26 May: 700,000 incendiary bombs fall on Tokyo
8 May: VE Day (Victory in Europe)
1 June: First landing of US troops on Okinawa
20 June: Australian troops land in Sarawak
21 June: US forces capture Okinawa
5 July: Liberation of the Philippines completed
14 July: US Navy bombards Honshu and Hokkaido
16 July: First atomic bomb test in New Mexico
3 August: Japanese home islands blockaded
6 August: Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
8 August: Russia declares war on Japan
9 August: Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan
Soviet troops enter Manchuria
12 August: Soviet troops enter Korea
14 August: Japan accepts Allied surrender terms
15 August: VJ Day (Victory in Japan)
28 August: US troops enter Japanese main islands
30 August: British troops re-occupy Hong Kong
2 September: Formal Japanese surrender on deck of USS
Missouri
For more information about the war in the Pacific, please
visit
www.nzhistory.net.nz
