1940
British declare Germans may not use Norwegian waters.
Norway & Sweden forbid Allied troops from crossing their territory to aid Finland.
1941
President Roosevelt makes his “Four Freedoms” speech in his State of the Union address to Congress and repeats his proposal for Lend-Lease program to send supplies to Britain.
The Luftwaffe launches its first attacks against British convoys bound for Malta in the Mediterranean.
Churchill demands that troops be released from Wavell’s offensive and sent to Greece..
1942
Roosevelt announces that US forces are to be based in UK.
Roosevelt’s State of the Union address calls for the production of 60,000 aircraft and 1.2 million tons of shipping in 1942.
Combined Chiefs of Staff (CCS) is formed, consisting of the British Chiefs of Staff & US Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Rommel’s battered forces reach the Tripolitanian frontier having evaded all British attempts to cut them off.
In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Minister denounces German atrocities in occupied Russia, where in Kiev alone 52,000 people have been massacred. ‘The Soviet Union will never forget or forgive’.
1943
British & Indian troops renew offensive on Arakan Peninsula in Burma.
Free French advancing north from Chad take Oum-el-Arameb in southern Libya.
1944
The Red Army crosses the 1939 Polish frontier after a 170-mile advance in just two weeks.
The allies announce that jet-propelled aircraft will soon to be in production. The Air Ministry says that Bomber Command dropped 157,000 tons of bombs on Germany in 1943, while the Luftwaffe dropped only 2,400 tons on Britain.
Major General James Doolittle assumes command of US Eighth Air Force in England.
1945
The ban on dancing is lifted in Finland, where it had been illegal to dance during wartime.
Boeing B-29 bombers in the Pacific strike new blows on Tokyo and Nanking.
Edith Frank, mother of Anne, dies in Auschwitz.
Future president Lt. (j.g.) George H.W. Bush marries Barbara Pierce in Rye, NY, just a few weeks after his return from the Pacific.