The War in the Pacific
 
Contents
Aims

Chuuk Historic Preservation Office

Chuuk Geography

World War II in Chuuk

World War II Time line

Tonoas

Sapuk Lighthouse

Truk Lagoon shipwrecks and aircraft

Contacts, web address and acknowledgments

War in Paradise
World War II sites in Truk Lagoon, Chuuk, Federated States of Micronesia

World War II Time line


1931
September 18:Japan invades Manchuria, China

1939
September 1:Germany invades Poland
September 3:Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany

1941
December 7:Japan attacks Pearl Harbor
December 8:USA and Britain declare war on Japan
December 11:Germany and Italy declare war on USA
December 25:Japanese troops capture Hong Kong

1942
January 2:Japanese troops capture Manila, Philippines
January 8:Australian aircraft photograph Truk Lagoon
January 15:Australian aircraft bombs Truk Lagoon
January 23:Japanese troops take Rabaul
January 25:Japanese troops land on the Solomon Islands
February 1:USA aircraft bomb Japanese bases in Marshall and Gilbert Islands
February 15:Japanese troops capture Singapore
May 4:Japanese troops land on Corregidor, Philippines
May 8:Battle of the Coral Sea ends. Japan loses aircraft carrier Shoho and USA loses USS Lexington
June 7:Battle of Midway ends. One USA aircraft carrier (USS Yorktown) and four Japanese (Akagi, Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu) aircraft carriers sunk
July 3:Japanese troops land at Guadalcanal
September 26:Australians repel Japanese troops near Port Moresby, New Guinea

1943
January 1-31:USA decodes Japanese radio traffic out of Truk Lagoon
February 9:Japanese surrender Guadalcanal
April 18:Admiral Yamamoto, Commander in Chief of the Japanese Combined Fleet killed
November 1:USA invades Bougainville in the Solomon Islands

1944
January 31:Majuro Atoll, Marshall Islands occupied by USA troops
February 17&18:Operation Hailstone, first bombing of Truk Lagoon by USA Carrier Fleet
February 20:Japanese base at Rabaul destroyed by USA Carrier Fleet
March 23—April 6:USA raids on Yap, Palau and Woleai
April 30—May 1:Second USA Carrier Fleet raid on Truk Lagoon
June 6:D-Day. The allies land in Normandy
July 21:American troops land on Guam.
September 11:Allied troops enter Germany
October 26:Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines won by USA
November 10:Japanese troops capture Liuzhou, China

1945
January 9:American troops land in the Philippines.
February 19:American troops land on Iwo Jima.
May 7:Unconditional surrender of German forces.
June 14:British Carrier Fleet raid on Truk Lagoon
July 16:USA test the first atomic bomb
July 22:American troops capture Okinawa
August 6:Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan
August 9:Atomic bomb is dropped on Nagasaki, Japan.
August 14:Japan surrenders
September 2:Japanese forces in Truk Lagoon surrender aboard USS Portland
October 24:United Nations is officially born


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