1940
Destroyer Exmouth torpedoed off Wick, Scotland by U-22; all hands killed.
British Ministry of Information begins censoring newsreels.
1941
The Destroyer HMS Hyperion sunk by mine off Cape Bon.
Tobruk surrenders to British and Australian troops who capture 25,000 Italians, along with 208 guns and 87 tanks. Combined British and Australian losses were about 450. The British government now orders Wavell’s XIII Corps to capture Benghazi.
1942
Rommel’s command is redesignated as Panzer Army Afrika. German panzers capture Agedabia and trap part of the British 1st Armored Division in the Antelat – Sannu area, destroying about 70 of its tanks.
General MacArthur orders the withdrawal of US and Filipino troops to the Bagac-Orion line, which is the final defensive position in Bataan. After dark the Japanese make two Battalion sized landings at Quinauan Point and Longoskawayan Point to the rear of the US-Filipino positions in Bataan. However, U.S. and Filipino reserves successfully contain these beachheads.
1943
Japanese forces are routed at Sanananda, putting paid to their resistance in Papua. On Guadalcanal, the Americans make important gains in the battle round Henderson field.
1944
The Battle of Anzio begins with an Allied amphibious landing in the region of Anzio and Nettuno, with the objective of outflanking German forces at the Winter Line and setting up a drive on Rome.
The Battle of Rapido River ends in German defensive victory.
Walter Model replaces Georg von Küchler as commander of Army Group North.
1945
The land route from India to China through Burma is declared free of Japanese and now open to convoys.
The Red Army captures Insterburg and Allenstein in East Prussia.
Four squadrons of RAF Spitfires destroy a factory in Alblasserdam that manufactured liquid oxygen for German rockets.
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