1940
Liner Lancastria, with 3,000 British troops aboard, bombed and sunk at St. Nazaire, in North West France.
German troops cross the Loire near Orleans. Petain orders French to stop fighting and sues for ‘honourable’ peace terms.
Churchill broadcasts to the nation, saying the British will defend their island home and fight on until the curse of Hitler is removed. Unemployment in Britain falls 114,000 in May to new low of 767,000.
The USSR announces that Estonia and Latvia have agreed to the free passage of troops and to the formation of new governments.
1941
Rommel beats back the British attack at Sollum. ‘Operation Battleaxe’ fails with 1,000 British casualties and 100 tanks lost.
1942
The Eighth Army’s withdrawal reaches the Egyptian frontier, leaving behind a garrison of some 30,000 troops at Tobruk, which is now again under siege.
Yank a weekly magazine for the U.S. armed services, begins publication.
Four German saboteurs are landed by U-584 at Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville, Florida.
1943
The British battleships Valiant and Warspite are transferred from Scapa Flow to Oran and Alexandria in North Africa in preparation for Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily.
The light aircraft carrier USS Monterey commissioned, Camden NJ.
1944
General de Lattre de Tassigny’s Free French land on Elba and complete its capture in just two days.
German troops evacuate the island of Elba off the west coast of Italy.
In Normandy, US First Army cuts off Cotentin Peninsula, trapping Germans in Cherbourg.
Free French troops land on Elba off coast of Italy. Iceland becomes independent republic with Svenn Björnsson as first president.
1945
The United States begins B-29 incendiary raids on medium-sized Japanese cities; missions carried out using radar-bombing.