1940
Budget Day raises taxes on beer by 1d, whiskey up 1/9d (9p) and postage up 1d. Estimates of the 1940 war expenditure as £2,000 million criticized by MPs for being too low.
1941
King George II of Greece and his government are flown to Crete by the RAF.
The German build up for Operation ‘Barbarossa’ continues with 59 divisions now deployed along the border with the Soviet Union.
1942
In a secret session of the House of Commons, Churchill delivers a speech declaring that the liberation of Europe was ‘the main war plan’ of Britain and the USA.
Churchill tells the House of Commons of disasters in Japanese war.
The RAF raids Rostok with 142 aircraft.
The Russian plan to hit the Germans with a powerful force of 640,000 men, 1,200 tanks, and 900 aircraft in the Kharkov area, while the Germans plan to hit the Russians with 636,000 men, 1,000 tanks, and 1,220 aircraft.
1944
The last Japanese attack on Garrison Hill, Kohima is repulsed as the British ‘left hook’ begins its advance to the North.
US Sixth Army secures Hollandia, New Guinea.
Helicopter used for air evacuation for first time—Sikorsky YR-4B helicopter of the US 1st Air Commando Group rescues 4 downed airmen in Burma.
1945
Dessau is reported as clear of German troops. The British Second Army reaches Harburg across the Elbe from Hamburg. Frankfurt is captured. Goring telegraphs Hitler saying that he will take over command as Hitler’s Deputy. Hitler says he must resign all his posts and orders Goring’s arrest. Reichsfuhrer-SS Himmler begins secret negotiations for a separate peace in the West with Count Bernadotte, head of the Swedish Red Cross.
The U.S. Fifth and British Eighth Armies reach the Po, to the North of Bologna.