June
22 - Germany invades the Soviet Union
September
8 - Seige of Leningrad begins
December
11 - Germany and Italy declare war on USA

January
3-5  - Australian troops capture Bardia, Libya, from the Italians
21-22 Tobruk captured by the Allies
February 
6 - Australian troops enter Benghazi
March
28 - Italian Navy defeated and Royal Navy gains control of the Mediterranean
April
6 - Germany invades Greece and Yugoslavia
11 - Siege of Tobruk begins
13 - Corporal J H Edmondson awarded posthumously the first Australian VC at Tobruk
24 - Fighting in Greece - many Australians taken prisoner
May
20 - Germans invade Crete
27 - Royal Navy sinks German battleship Bismark
June
1- Fighting in Crete - many Australians taken prisoner
21 - Damascus falls to the Allies
July 
8-12 - Australians defeat Vichy forces in Syria and Lebanon
August
19 - Relief of Tobruk begins
November
27 - HMAS Parramatta sunk off Tobruk
December
24 - British 8th Army captures Benghazi

February
18 - 8th Division AIF arrives in Singapore
August
3 - Australian and British forces arrive in Burma
November
19 - HMAS Sydney sunk in Indian Ocean
December
7-8  Japanese land in Thailand and Malaya;
Japanese attack Pearl Harbour; USA declares war on Japan;  
9 - Australia declares war on Japan
10 - HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse sunk by Japanese off Malayan coast

January - March
Massive raids on Berlin and other German cities
March
20 - Germans invade Hungary
June
4 - Allies enter Rome
6 - D Day  - invasion of Europe. RAAF fighter and bomber crews participate in many pre-dawn operations
July
20 - Plot to assassinate Hitler fails
25 - Paris liberated by Allies
August
11 - Allies take Florence
September
3 - Brussells liberated by British forces
4 - Armistice in Finland
8 - German V-2 rockets land in London
9 - Armistice in Bulgaria
October
31 - RAAF pilots bomb Gestapo HQ in Denmark
December
16 - German counter attack in the Battle of the Bulge

January
Fighting in many parts of New Guinea - Markham and Ramu Valleys
23 - Shaggy Ridge captured by Australians
February
10 - New Britain and Huon Peninsula secured by Australian and US forces
April
24 - Australians capture Madang
April - January 1945 
Ships of the RAN support American landings along the north coast of New Guinea, at Morotai, and in naval actions at the invasion of the Philippines
26 - Australians take Alexishafen
June
21 - Okinawa falls to US forces
November - August 1945
Australian troops in action on New Britain and Rabaul
December - August 1945
Australian troops on Bougainville, and along north coast of New Guinea from Aitape to Wewak

January
17 - Soviet Army captures Warsaw
27 - Liberation of Auschwitz
February
14 - Devastating and controversial Allied bomb attack on Dresden,  Germany
March
7 - Cologne falls to Allies
April
29 - Italy surrenders
30 - Adolf Hitler commits suicide
May
7 - Germany agrees to surrender
8 - VE Day
Continued liberation of concentration and POW camps
24 - United Nations Charter drawn up
October
24 - UN Charter ratified
November
11 - Armistice Day
20 - Nuremberg War Crimes Trials begin.

January - August
Australian and British POWs in Borneo sent on notorious Sandakan Death Marches
February
3 - US forces enter Manila
19 - US forces land on Iwo Jima
March
10 - First major and devastating air raids on Japanese cities
20 - Australians land on Soraken Peninsula on Bougainville
April
1 - US forces land at Okinawa
May
1 - Australians land at Tarakan
3 - Rangoon taken by British forces
11 - Australians capture Wewak
June
8 - Australian troops land on Bonis Peninsula on Bougainville
13 - Australians capture Brunei
17 - North Borneo taken by Australian forces
July
1 - Australian troops land at Balikpapan
4 - Liberation of Philippines announced by General MacArthur
August
6 - Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima
8 - Soviet Union declares war on Japan
9 - Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki
15 - VP (or VJ) Day - Japan surrenders
September
2 - Japanese surrender signed - Australians and other Allied troops occupy Japan
Evidence being gathered for war crimes trials of Japanese leaders
12 - Japanese surrender their forces in SE Asia in Malaya