1939
Germany officially incorporates western Poland into the Reich.
1940
Convoy HX-79 (49 ships), sailing from Halifax in Canada to Britain, is attacked by 5 U-boats between the 19th and 20th October in the North Atlantic. The British lost 12 ships for 75,063 gross tons, while not a single U-boat was lost. The destroyer Venetia sinks after hitting mine in Thames Estuary.
The Australian 7th Division sets sail for the Middle East.
1941
Army Group Centre finally clears the Vyazma pocket capturing 670,000 Russians, 1,000 tanks and 4,000 guns. Stalin announces he will stay in Moscow and declares state of siege in Moscow and orders its defense to the last.
U.S. freighter “Lehigh” sunk in South Atlantic.
1942
General Friedrich von Paulus pleads with the Fuhrer and the German High Command for supplies and reinforcements for his army, under seige at Stalingrad. He receives nothing but the order to fight to the last man.
The Japanese submarine I-36 launches a floatplane for a reconnaissance flight over Pearl Harbor. The pilot and crew report on the ships in the harbor, after which the aircraft is lost at sea.
German Jews no longer allowed meat, wheat products, milk, or eggs.
US War Production Board mandates tin can collection in cities with a population greater than 25,000.
1943
The offensive by the US 5th Army along the Volturno river bogs down due to bad weather and a skillful German defense.
1944
Field Marshal Model gives up the attempts to relieve Aachen.
The Germans evacuate Belgrade.
Hitler orders the total destruction of Warsaw. The German 4th Army withdraws from the Tilsit area.
The British capture an important Japanese supply depot at Mohnyin in Burma.
The U.S. Navy announced that black women would be allowed into the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES).
The first two black WAVES officers, Harriet Ida Pikens and Frances Wills, were sworn in December 22 of that year. Of the 80,000 WAVES in the World War II, 72 Black women served, normally under integrated conditions.
Japanese Vice-Admiral Onishi Takijino orders the formation of Special Attack Group of kamikazes to attack Allied ships around the Philippines.