WWII History

1939 The German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks the merchantman Africa Shell off Mozambique. 1940 67 RAF Wellington, Whitley, and Hampden bombers attack Hamburg, doing extensive damage to the city and shipyards, with no loss of aircraft. The prototype de Havilland Mosquito takes off for the first time; designed as a bomber fast enough to […]

1940 Coventry bombed.  The Luftwaffe launches 449 bombers in a heavy night attack against the major manufacturing city of Coventry, dropping around 400 tons of bombs causing severe damage to industrial and civilian installations. The city centre is badly damaged, with 21 factories being destroyed and the cathedral wrecked but for its spire. The raid

1939 HMS Blanche struck a mine and sank off the Thames Estuary. She was the first Royal Naval destroyer lost in the war. Two German supply ships are scuttled when cornered by the Royal Navy. German bombers attacked British territory for the first time, with a bombing raid on the Shetland Islands. No serious damage

1939 Negotiations between Russia and Finland over territorial dispute reach deadlock. 1940 Germany prepares to enter war in Greece. Colonel Burns again proposes a Canadian parachute force to the Chief of General Staff. The idea is shelved, and no action is taken. 1942 The British 8th Army retakes Sollum and Bardia, while Panzer Army Afrika

1885 General George S. Patton is born. 1918 At 11 a.m. World War I, the war to end all wars, ends. 1939 Queen Elizabeth broadcasts a message to the women of the Empire, calling them to join the war effort. 1940 On the anniversary of the end of World War I, several hundred Paris students

1940A torpedo bomber raid cripples the Italian fleet at Taranto, Italy. 1941Churchill’s Mansion House Speech: Tells Japan that war on US means war on Britain. The Japanese Foreign Minister says their aim is to make the US and UK retreat from East Asia. US Army updates uniform regulations: the Parsons field jacket and M1 steel

1937 Japanese troops invade Shanghai, China. 1938 Nazis kill 35 Jews, arrest thousands and destroy Jewish synagogues, homes and stores throughout Germany. The event becomes known as Kristallnacht, the night of the shattered glass. 1940 Start of a counter-offensive by the British Army against the Italian forces that have advanced into Egypt. Germany expels 180,000

1939 A bomb intended to kill Hitler explodes at the annual meeting of the veterans of the 1923 Nazi Putsch in Munich, but the Fuhrer had already left the beer cellar. The German media accused Britain of orchestrating the assassination attempt on Hitler. Two British SIS agents, Major Richard Stevens and Captain S. Payne Best,

1939 The Belgium and Dutch Monarch’s emphasize their country’s neutrality, but offer to act as peace negotiators. Hitler rejects the proposal, as do both Britain and France. Paul Thummel, a double agent, passes details of the German plans for the western offensive to the Czech government-in-exile. 1940 The Royal Air Force attacks the Krupp munition