10 Key Dates in World War Two

World War Two was the biggest war ever fought – lasting close to six years in Europe, 80 million people were killed in the conflict.

The most important dates are really about context, and these would be different depending which country you’re from. However, a number of dates are clearly pivotal moments over the course of the entire war, and we’ve collected five from each of the European and Eastern theatres to put into a graphic.

The date for the start of the war is 1-3 September 1939 – when Germany invaded Poland and then France and Britain declared war on Germany.

Dan Snow pays a visit to the Churchill War Rooms, walking in the footsteps of the great man and his many colleagues during the Second World War.

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Dan talks to Peter Devitt from the RAF Museum about the the RAF pilots from the Caribbean who fought in the Second World War, and what some of them found when they came back to Britain later.

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