1939 A mutual assistance treaty is signed by Poland and Britain. Mussolini complains to Hitler that he is not yet ready for war. 1940 Luftwaffe attacks continue against the RAF’s airfields in southeast England. The first night-attack by RAF on Berlin’s industrial targets is made by 43 aircraft from RAF Bomber Command in retaliation for […]

1940 USS Constitution named symbolic flagship of US Fleet at Boston. Medical journalLancet publishes first study by Howard Florey and Ernest Chain about penicillin. The Luftwaffe begins a new phase in its offensive by sending over a higher proportion of fighters to bombers, in an effort to keep losses down. The unofficial start of the Blitz on London

1939 Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland. 1940 RAF cuts pilot training period from 1 month to 2 weeks. 1942 Hitlers orders that Leningrad should finally be captured after a siege which

1940 Churchill dispatches a heavily armed convoy with 150 tanks to reinforce the middle east. The first cross-Channel artillery duel—Germans bombard Dover and British reply. 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy after 16 ships lost to German U-boats, opening airbases to cover Allied shipping and opening the South Atlantic air route; Brazil will

1940 Commons allows nationalist forces of Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France and Czechoslovakia to train in Britain under their own flags. Leon Trotsky is assassinated by a Stalinist agent while in exile in Mexico City. 1941 French resistance member Pierre “Fabien” Georges commits the first violent act of resistance against the Germans in Paris when

1940 Churchill reviews the progress of air war in Commons and says ‘Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many, to so few’. The Luftwaffe withdraws the Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber from strategic operations against England after losing 20 per cent of their Stuka force to the RAF. Mao

1940 Whole of Britain declared a defense area. Bad weather and a reorganization of fighter strength by the Luftwaffe causes a lull in operations. Mussolini orders Marshal Graziani to invade Egypt. Italian troops enter the Port of Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland, where they are welcomed by strafing RAF Blenheims. British transport 5,300-5,700 combat

1940 Further heavy raids by Luftwaffe on southeast England and southern London. Major damage is done to RAF airfields and fighter commands control system. British claim 144 Germans shot down, later revised to 67 with RAF losses of 33 planes lost but eight pilots safe. The last of the British rearguard in British Somaliland slip

1940 Hitler announces that a total maritime blockade is to be placed around Britain, with any neutral ships transporting cargo to Britain to be sunk without warning. Axis financial meeting decides Berlin will replace London as European financial centre after victory. Duke of Windsor sworn in as governor-general of Bermuda. British warships bombard Italian ports