Selected Timelines & Maps on the Second World War
Websites with Timelines and Maps
Websites with Timelines
Institution: OmniAtlas, free Interactive Historical Atlas
OmniAtlas provides interactive timelines with accompanying maps portraying World War I. The timelines and maps show the main events of the conflict on a global scale with a short description of each event.
Website: World War II in Africa
Website: The Great Patriotic War
Website: The Greater East Asia War
Website: South America in World War II
Institution: PBS and Florentine Films
PBS and Florentine Films have partnered with the Veterans History Project in a massive effort to capture the stories of men and women who experienced the Second World War first-hand. The website for the PBS documentary series The War, directed by Ken Burns and Lyn Novick, which is the result of this cooperation, provides an informative timeline for the Second World War.
Institution: American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA
This interactive timeline, provided by the American Battle Monuments Commission, Arlington, VA, offers a changing global map on World War II from the prewar to the postwar period is provided by the American Battle Monuments Commission. The site has a strong focus on the United States involvement in the conflict and central battles of the US Armed Forces.
Institution: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.
This timeline by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C. provides a short overview of the development from before 1933 until after 1945, divided in five periods: “Before 1933,” “1933–1939,” “1939–1941,” “1942–1945” and “After 1945.”
Websites with Maps
Institution: United States Military Academy, Westpoint, NY
These two collections of several maps of the major battles on the European and Asia-Pacific Theater of World War II, in which the United States Armed Forces were involved, can be downloaded as PDFs. The maps are provided on a website created by the United States Military Academy at Westpoint, NY.
Website: Asia-Pacific War Theater
Institution: Vox, by Timothy B. Lee
This website on World War II includes 42 often interactive maps that explain the conflict — how it started, why the Allies won, and how it has shaped the modern world. It was developed by Timothy B. Lee for Vox.
Institution: The Map as History, Images et Savoirs
The Map as History, provided by a team of French historians, is committed to innovate the way of learning about history. The team uses a series of animated maps to bring history to life, often focusing on a single region to illustrate developments over time. They also create timelines to further clarify and contextualize historical progress. To date, they have published over 230 animated maps. The varied series permits users to learn about many regions—from the Americas, to India, to Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The Fifteen maps on the Second World War provided in English and French start with Hitler's invasion of Poland in September 1939, which led to the outbreak of the Second World War, and end with the fall of Berlin to the Red Army in May 1945 and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945. The site on the Second World War includes a free preview of two animated maps, the first on “The War Goes Global, June 1941 - end 1942,” the second on “The Final Solution (The Holocaust, The Shoah).”
Institution: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.
This website by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum provides thirty maps of different aspects on the Holocaust and the camp system of Nazi Germany.
Institution: German History in Documents and Images (GHDI), German Historical Institute Washington, D.C.
1. Germany: Territorial Expansion (1935-1939)
This map shows the territorial expansion of Germany before the beginning of the Second World War, between 1935 and 1939.
2. Administrative Structure under National Socialism (1941)
The National Socialists began using the term Gau in 1926. At first, it was used to designate supra-regional administrative units of the NSDAP. This map shows how the term was applied to the whole state after 1933.
3. Europe at the Beginning of December 1941
This map shows the territorial and political situation of Europe in December 1941, more than two years after the beginning of the Second World War.
4. Concentration and Extermination Camps and Major “Euthanasia” Centers
Between 1933 and 1945, the Nazi regime set up about 20,000 camps to imprison, exploit, and annihilate its declared enemies. This map shows major camps, grouped according to function.
5. Europe in April 1944
This map shows the course of the Eastern Front at the beginning of April 1944. The front was approximately 1,000 miles (1,600 km) long and stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea.