1939
Germany warns all neutral shipping to stay clear of British and French coasts, or risk being sunk. This had already happened to a number of neutral ships, particularly at night when it was difficult to identify them. U-boat skippers were now given the go ahead to sink any ship not showing lights at night.
Gestapo execute 120 Czech students accused of participating in anti-Nazi conspiracy.
1940
Treasury cancels Boxing Day Bank Holiday.
Slovakian Prime Minister joins the Tripartite pact in Berlin.
The Luftwaffe bomb Bristol.
1941
Two Luftwaffe officers, make the war’s most audacious attempt to escape from a British POW camp. Lt. Heinz Schnabel and Oblt. Harry Wappler were prisoners in Camp No.15 near Penrith, Northumbria. Forging papers that identified them as Dutch officers serving in the RAF, they made their way to the RAF airfield at Kingstown near Carlisle and started the engine of a Miles Magister. Taking off, they soon realized they did not have the fuel to make it to Nazi-occupied Holland reluctantly they turned back, landing in a field about five miles north of Great Yarmouth. Recaptured, they were sent back to Camp No.15 again and sentenced to 28 days solitary confinement.
Theresienstadt Ghetto is established near Prague, Czechoslovakia. The Nazis will use it as a model ghetto for propaganda purposes.
Rommel gives orders for his tanks to cut off the British supply routes by thrusting towards the Egyptian frontier, or as it became known, the ‘dash for the wire’. By the end of the day Rommel’s tanks had reached the frontier and caused complete confusion in the rear of the Eighth Army.
US Army commanders across the Pacific are warned of the possible imminence of war.
The United States, while remaining neutral, expands the Lend-Lease program to include Charles de Gaulle’s Free French troops.
1942
Laval sets up Phalange Africaine, to fight allies in Africa.
1943
Berlin reported as a ‘sea of flames’ this morning with casualty estimates put at 8 to 10,000 killed.
Laval sets up Phalange Africaine, to fight allies in Africa.
1944
The allies cross the Saar near the Franco-German border. Troops of the French First Army capture Mühlhausen in Alsace, while the French 2nd Armored Division takes Strasbourg.
In controversial decision, Gen. Eisenhower orders 6th Army Group not to cross Rhine but to drive north and assist Patton’s Third Army.
Japanese capture Nanning, completing a land corridor between occupied China and Indo-China.
USAAF B29s from Saipan Island in Pacific, bomb Tokyo for first time, but to little effect.
