1938 In a move that increases tensions between the United States and Japan, the USS President Coolidge is forced to unload nearly $3 million worth of gold and silver before it is allowed to leave the Japanese controlled port of Shanghai. 1940 British Summer Time to be continued throughout winter. Hitler meets Petain at Montoire, […]

1940 Hitler meets Franco, the Spanish head of state at Hendaye near the French-Spanish border. Franco declares ‘Spain will gladly fight at Germany’s side’, but remains non-committal regarding Spain’s entry into the war. The RAF continue its attacks on Berlin. 1941 De Gaulle meets French Resistance and asks to spare the innocent and bide their

1939 “Elections” are held in Soviet-occupied Poland now called “Western Byelorussia” and “Western Ukraine.” The USSR confiscates all property including bank accounts, and replaces Polish currency with the ruble. Poles are fired from their jobs and thrown into jail as the NKVD compiles lists for deportation. Factories, hospitals, schools, are dismantled and shipped to the USSR.

1939 The Luftwaffe starts attacks against North Atlantic convoys. As war heats up with Germany, the British war cabinet holds its first meeting in the underground war room in London. The Germans start deporting Poles from Posen (Poznan), largest city of western Poland (250,000 people), in their attempt at establishing “pure and Germanic provinces” in

1939 Pope Pius XII publishes his first encyclical, Summi pontificatus,decrying racism, dictators, and treaty violations. 1940 Italian planes bomb Cairo for the first time, also bomb US-run oil facilities in Bahrain. 1941 The Aircraft Carrier USS Hornet (CV-8) commissioned under Capt. Marc Mitscher. Germans massacre 2300 Serbians in Kragujevac in response to partisan killing of 10

1939 Germany officially incorporates western Poland into the Reich. 1940 Convoy HX-79 (49 ships), sailing from Halifax in Canada to Britain, is attacked by 5 U-boats between the 19th and 20th October in the North Atlantic. The British lost 12 ships for 75,063 gross tons, while not a single U-boat was lost. The destroyer Venetia sinks