WWII History

1940 Hitler orders the postponement of his attack in the west until the Spring. Likely reasons for this are the compromise of ‘Fall Gelb’ and increasing criticism from some commanders that the plan was too predictable. Led by Gerd von Rundstedt, they proposed instead that the main blow should come through the wooded Ardennes region […]

1940 Britain announces nearly twice as many Britons have been killed on the roads since blackout started than by enemy action. Belgium denies British & French troops the right to cross its territory. 1941 US labor leader Philip Randolph calls for march on Washington to protest discrimination and segregation in the armed forces and defense

1940 Admiral Mitsumasa Yonai forms a new government in Japan, but he is opposed by the pro-war military. British chemists (pharmacists) granted an exemption to sugar rationing in order to coat pills. 1941 Off Antarctica, German auxiliary cruiser Pinguin captures 14 Norwegian whaling ships without firing a single shot or causing a single casualty. 1942 General Wavell

1940 Belgium orders military mobilization. Netherlands cancels all Army leaves. FBI arrests 17 members of pro-Nazi “Christian Front” for plotting to kill congressmen; later acquitted. 1941 Hitler demands that Bulgaria joins the Tripartite pact, but the Bulgarians play for time. The Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Plymouth. Author James Joyce dies at age 58

1940 Soviet bombers raid cities in Finland. 1941 Recruiting of Norwegians for the ‘Nordland’ Regiment of the 5th SS Motorized Division ‘Wiking’ begins. 1942 Hitler orders Admiral Otto Ciliax, who commands the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen at Brest, to prepare to return to Germany. The new German battleship Tirpitz, sister

1941 Hitler confirms in Directive No.22, his intentions to send military support to the Italians in Albania. The operation is to be named ‘Alpine Violets’. The Cruisers HMS Southampton and HMS Gloucester are attacked by German aircraft in the Sicilian channel. HMS Gloucester receives damage, while HMS Southampton is sunk. British submarines begin to make

1940 German planes attack 12 ships off the British coast; sinking 3 ships and killing 35 people. Hitler informs his commanders that the attack in the west will begin on the 17th January. On this same day a German light aircraft makes a forced landing at Malines in Belgium, near the German border. The planes

1940 German bombers sink three merchantmen in North Sea. Australian Comforts Fund reestablished, for women to send care packages to soldiers. The British submarine Starfish was sunk in the Heligoland Bight by German minesweeper trawlers. 1941 The Avro Manchester III makes its first flight equipped with four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines in place of the two

1940 In Britain, ration books are introduced as program expands—each person to receive 4 oz of bacon or ham, 8 oz of butter, and 12 oz of sugar weekly. Finnish troops capture 1,000 Russian soldiers near Suomussalmi. 1941 96,000 people now are sleeping in the Underground and Tube stations, 40,000 less than in October. President

1940 General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of all Soviet forces in Finland and begins to build up his forces for a decisive offensive. Battle of Raate Road ends in Finnish victory; over 10,000 Soviets killed. 1941 Tobruk is surrounded, but the British are unable to assault it immediately as supplies and reinforcements need to be