1940 British PM Neville Chamberlain resigns. All Dutch Army leave suspended. 1941 British capture U110 and its Enigma machine. The Luftwaffe launches the first of two consecutive night raids against the British port of Hull. 1942 Dutch Jews are forced to wear the yellow ‘Star of David’ badge. Vichy French resistance ends in Madagascar. The […]
World War II Today: May 7 Read More »
1940 Hitler again delays X-Day, this time till the 10th May. Francis Sayre is sent to Tokyo for talks with Foreign Minister Arita. 1941 Bob Hope gives his first USO show at California’s March Field. US Secretary for War advocates US Navy protection for British supply convoys. Stalin declares himself ‘Chairman of the Council of
World War II Today: May 6 Read More »
1940 Germans advance north to Trondheim. Norwegian government-in-exile established in London. 1941 Major General Bernard Freyberg VC, is appointed by General Wavell to command approximately 40,000 British, New Zealand, Australian and Greek troops which are stationed on Crete. While a strong force on paper, these troops have virtually no artillery or tanks and are very
World War II Today: May 5 Read More »
1941 In a Luftwaffe raid on Liverpool, England, 32 ships and boats are sunk. 1942 The United States begins food rationing. Akyab on the Burmese coast is abandoned by the British. The Japanese Port Moresby invasion force leaves Rabaul, in New Britain. With its naval support stripped away, the Japanese invasion fleet at Tulagi is
World War II Today: May 4 Read More »
1940 War Office announces withdrawal from Namsos; Allies remain only in Narvik to stop the supply of iron ore to Germany. Allied forces south of Trondheim surrender to Germans. Destroyer Afridi sunk by German bombers off Norway. Hitler postpones X-Day to the 6th May due to bad weather. 1942 Off the northern coast of Norway,
World War II Today: May 3 Read More »
1940 Germans troops reach Aandalesnes. Allied forces are evacuated from Namsos. Chamberlain announces British forces are to withdraw from southern Norway. 1941 British Evacuation of Greece complete. Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction. Iraqis attack the British base at Habbaniya, but are repulsed. 1942 Admiral Chester J. Nimitz,
World War II Today: May 2 Read More »
1940 Amalgamated Engineering Union agrees to allow women workers in munitions factories. German mine-carrying bomber crashes on Clacton, Essex; two civilians and four Germans killed, 156 people injured. Norwegians surrender in Lillehammer. Rudolf Höss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz. 1941 The Luftwaffe begins a series of 8 consecutive night raids against Liverpool. Dissident
World War II Today: May 1 Read More »
1940 British and French troops make landings at Namsos. British troops are landed in the Faeroe Islands. 1941 London suffers through the heaviest blitz of the war. Parliament buildings and St. Paul’s Cathedral suffer damage, and more than 2,250 fires are touched off by incendiary bombs. First US Lend-Lease food arrives in Britain. British destroyers
World War II Today: April 16 Read More »
1940 British unemployment falls to 973,000, lowest figure since 1920. British troops land at Harstad in the Lofoten Islands, opposite Narvik. Quisling government resigns in Oslo and a ‘Administrative Council’ takes control. Germans appoint a council to run the Norwegian government. Off Narvik, British destroyers Brazen and Fearless sink U-49; documents about the Enigma machine float to the surface and
World War II Today: April 15 Read More »
1940 A fierce engagement between German and British naval forces in the second battle of Narvik at Jassing Fjord, which results in the sinking  of 8 German destroyers and a U-Boat whose surviving crews join Gebirgsjager units defending isolated Narvik. 1941 British Naval forces, this time supported by the Battleship HMS Warspite, again engage the
World War II Today: April 13 Read More »
