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Election and World War II:

August 1939: After long hours of discussion with his family, prayers, and meditation, President Roosevelt decides against running for a third term, and makes it known publicly that he intends to retire after his term expires.

September 1939: Nazi Germany invades Poland. The United Kingdom and the Republic of France declare war on Germany, war breaks out in Europe.

December 1939-June 1940: Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party nominations are wide open. Joseph Kennedy, ambassador to the United Kingdom resigns to seek the Democratic nomination, former Ohio Governor George White assumes Kennedy’s place as the American ambassador to London.

By the spring Vice President John Nance Garner is the clear favorite to win the Democratic nomination. For the GOP the three frontrunners were Arthur Vandenberg, Robert Taft and Thomas Dewey.

June 1940: Dark Horse candidate Wendell Willkie wins the Republican nomination and selects Styles Bridges as his running mate *(Bridges is selected as a result of butterflies in this ATL).

July 1940: At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Vice President Garner secures his parties nomination with Indiana Governor Clifford Townsend selected as his running mate.

July-November 1940: In a twist of irony, Garner is highly critical of President Roosevelt, and the New Deal, while Wendell Willkie is more supportive of the current administration and the New Deal, only going so far as saying some of Roosevelt’s efforts were misguided, but were in the right spirit and in the right direction the country needed to go. Where as Garner criticized Roosevelt for his support for the United Kingdom after the fall of France and desire to take the United States to war with Germany, Willkie voiced his support for the British war effort and for the US to take every step necessary to assure the British aren’t defeated.

November 1940: Wendell Willkie wins the election defeating Vice President Garner in a close victory. Garner begrudgingly concedes defeat and congratulates Willkie on winning the election. President elect Willkie meets with FDR in the White House and is again congratulated on a hard earned victory, Roosevelt privately tells Willkie he is glad that he won the election instead of Garner.

January 20, 1941: Wendell Willkie is sworn in as the 33rd President of the United States and promises to keep the country moving in the right direction and safe from its enemies, regardless of where they might be in the world.

February-April 1941: Willkie begins to break down and privatize the TVA, fulfilling a campaign pledge.

March 1941: President Willkie signs the Lend Lease Act, an initiative started by his predecessor and with the full support of the current administration.

June 1941: Germany declares war on the Soviet Union

October 1941: President Willkie declines to approve a $1 billion Lend Lease aid package to the Soviet Union, instead authorizing $500 million for the USSR and another $500 million to be given to the Free French.

December 1941: The Japanese Naval and Air Forces launch a surprise attack on the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor. The United States declares war on Japan the following morning. Several days’ later Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

February 1942: President Willkie controversially signs Executive Order 9066 desegregating the US military. His greatest vocal opposition comes from Southern Senators and those within his own party who believe the nation should not conduct such a move while at war.

April 1942: The United States gets some satisfaction with the Doolittle Raids over Japan

May 1942: In spite of the loss of the USS Yorktown, and the badly damaged USS Lexington (which is sent to Pearl Harbor for repairs) the United States Navy boasts a victory over the Japanese at the Battle of Coral Sea.

June 1942: The USS Lexington is sunk, but the United States claims another victory over Japan in the Battle of Midway, a turning point for the allies in the Pacific War. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrives in Washington to meet with President Willkie.

August 1942: Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy

November 1942: The United States sees its first major action on the western front with the launch of Operation Gymnast, the US led invasion of Vichy North Africa. Vichy Admiral Francois Darlan is killed in the attack. With the support of President Willkie, Charles de Gaulle departs from London to Algeria to assume command of the Free French Forces under allied control.

April 1943: Admiral Yamamoto is killed when his plane is shot down by US P-38s

May 1943: With the Americans pushing in from the West and the British from the East, the German Afrika Korps surrenders.

July 1943: The Allies invade Sicily; Mussolini is killed in a coup d’etat

August 1943: Sicily is completely under allied control

September 1943: The allies invade mainland Italy. The Italian Kingdom surrenders to the west, but a pro-German puppet government is installed to the North. Rodolfo Graziani is the de facto leader of the Italian Social Republic with its capital in Salo. German and Italian forces begin fighting each other in Greece.

October 1943: American troops begin landing in Albania and Greece. Italy declares war on Germany.

November 1943: US General Dwight Eisenhower becomes Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe.

February 1944: US Forces defeat the Germans at the Battle of Sparta, securing the Peloponnese Peninsula.

March 1944: Royal Marines invade Crete

May 1944: Kiev is finally liberated by the Red Army (six months behind OTL). Rome is liberated at months end by the allies.

June 1944: The allies launch Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. Although losses are high on the beaches, and the airborne paratroopers are scattered throughout the countryside, the invasions are successful. Nine days after the invasion, President Willkie is found dead at his desk in the White House, Vice President Bridges is sworn in that afternoon as President of the 34th President of the United States.

Later in June President Bridges is easily nominated as the GOP candidate for election, Senator Arthur Vandenberg is selected as his running mate. Athens is liberated, the Germans are in retreat to Macedonia, leaving Western Greece and Albania in the hands of the allies.

July 1944: At the National Democratic Convention in Chicago Senator Harry F. Byrd of Virginia is nominated as the Democratic candidate; James Farley is selected as his running mate.

Many in the Nazi Hierarchy are killed by a briefcase bomb on July 20, amongst the dead is Adolph Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, Hermann Göring lost a leg in the explosion but survived to take control of the Third Reich. The assassination leads to the subsequent arrest and deaths of over 5,000 anti-Nazi Germans.

August 1944: The German Army is withdrawn from Greece to bolster German defenses on the Soviet front. Paris is liberated by the Allies with the Free French forces leading the victory parade into the capital city. Soviet forces approach the Ukraine-Romanian border.

September 1944: American troops invade Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. Bulgaria breaks with Berlin and surrenders to the United States, immediately declaring war on Germany. American troops enter Sofia.
October 1944: Fuhrer Göring orders the abandoment of Italy to defend Greater Germania from the twin threats of the allies in the South and West and the Soviets from the East. Romania surrenders to the Soviet Union. American and Yugoslav partisan forces liberate Belgrade.

November 1944: President Bridges defeats Senator Byrd to win the Presidency in his own right. American troops invade Hungary from Yugoslavia, the Soviet Union invades Hungary from Romania both allied powers experience fierce German resistance and suffer from high casualties.

December 1944: The Battle of the Bulge begins, it is the last German offensive of the war. Hungary is now divided between the United States in the West and the Soviet Union in the East declares, with a cooperative provisional government declares war on Germany.

January 1945: The Soviet Union enters Warsaw. The Battle of the Bulge ends. President Bridges is sworn in as President and Arthur Vandenberg as Vice President.

February 1945: The Yalta Conference is held between Premeir Stalin, President Bridges and Prime Minister Churchill, the main topic of discussion is spheres of influence in post-war Europe. US Marines land on Iwo Jima. The US Army enters Austria, the Soviet Army enters Slovakia.

March 1945: The United States Army under the command of Mark Clark begins the Vienna Offensive. It will end two weeks later with an American victory, the US moves north toward Prague.

April 1945: Prague is liberated by the US Army, Denmark is liberated by the British and Commonwealth forces.

May 1945: The Red Army captures Berlin. Fuhrer Göring commits suicide leaving the command of the German Reich to Rommel. Rommel promplty surrenders unconditionally to the Allies, ending the war in Europe.

July 1945: The Labour Party wins the British elections by a landslide, Winston Churchill is replaced at the Postdam Conference by Clement Atlee.

August 1945: The United States drops nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan surrenders, World War II is finally over. Hostilities between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communists break open. The Iron Curtain decends across Europe with a Cold War between former allies engulfing the world.
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