WWII Today in History. On these pages you will find of some of the most important events that shaped World War 2.
1941 In a Luftwaffe raid on Liverpool, England, 32 ships and boats are sunk. 1942 The United States begins food rationing. Akyab on the Burmese coast is abandoned by the British. The Japanese Port Moresby invasion force leaves Rabaul, in New Britain. With its naval support stripped away, the Japanese invasion fleet at Tulagi is […]
World War II Today: May 4 Read More »
1940 War Office announces withdrawal from Namsos; Allies remain only in Narvik to stop the supply of iron ore to Germany. Allied forces south of Trondheim surrender to Germans. Destroyer Afridi sunk by German bombers off Norway. Hitler postpones X-Day to the 6th May due to bad weather. 1942 Off the northern coast of Norway,
World War II Today: May 3 Read More »
1940 Germans troops reach Aandalesnes. Allied forces are evacuated from Namsos. Chamberlain announces British forces are to withdraw from southern Norway. 1941 British Evacuation of Greece complete. Hostilities break out between British forces in Iraq and that country’s pro-German faction. Iraqis attack the British base at Habbaniya, but are repulsed. 1942 Admiral Chester J. Nimitz,
World War II Today: May 2 Read More »
1940 Amalgamated Engineering Union agrees to allow women workers in munitions factories. German mine-carrying bomber crashes on Clacton, Essex; two civilians and four Germans killed, 156 people injured. Norwegians surrender in Lillehammer. Rudolf Höss is chosen to be kommandant of Auschwitz. 1941 The Luftwaffe begins a series of 8 consecutive night raids against Liverpool. Dissident
World War II Today: May 1 Read More »
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
World War II Today: October 19 Read More »
1939 The Russians prepare to hand over 30,000 Polish soldiers and refugees to the Nazis who respond with their own prisoner exchange. The first Jewish ghetto is established in Lublin. 1940 Britain reopens the Burma road, which had been closed for three months on the condition of progress being made towards peace between Japan and
World War II Today: October 18 Read More »
1939 French troops are pushed back in the Saar region. President Roosevelt prepares to sign an executive order closing all U.S. ports to submarines from belligerent nations. 1941 Destroyer USS Kearny damaged by German torpedo off Iceland;11 Americans are killed. US House of Representatives allow merchantmen to be armed. Taganrog on the Sea of Azov
World War II Today: October 17 Read More »
1939 A German air attack damages the British cruisers HMS Southampton, HMS Edinburgh and the destroyer HMS Mohawk in the Firth of Forth, in Scotland. Heavy German attack on Western Front halted. German bombers attack Forth and Rosyth bridges. 1940 Benjamin O. Davis becomes the U.S. Army’s first African American Brigadier General. U-124 torpedoes and
World War II Today: October 16 Read More »
1940 Bomb holes roof of Balham tube station: 64 killed. Italian submarine Toti sinks British submarine Rainbow. 16 million Americans already registered for National Service. Heavy Luftwaffe raid on London, Birmingham, and Bristol starts 900 fires. Italy demobilizes 300,000 soldiers for the harvest, leaving only 100,000 for upcoming invasion of Greece. 1941 Odessa, a Russian
World War II Today: October 15 Read More »
1939 U47 (Kapitanleutnant Prien) sinks HMS Royal Oak at anchor in Scapa Flow, killing 883. U47 then escapes undetected and returns home to Germany. The press in Germany declare Prien a hero. Polish submarine Orzel arrives in Britain having escaped internment in Estonia. 1940 Luftwaffe bomb falls on Balham Tube station in London, killing 66.
World War II Today: October 14 Read More »
