WWII History

1939 Joseph Stalin and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop sign a non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Germany, freeing Hitler to invade Poland and Stalin to invade Finland. 1940 RAF cuts pilot training period from 1 month to 2 weeks. 1942 Hitlers orders that Leningrad should finally be captured after a siege which […]

1940 Churchill dispatches a heavily armed convoy with 150 tanks to reinforce the middle east. The first cross-Channel artillery duel—Germans bombard Dover and British reply. 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy after 16 ships lost to German U-boats, opening airbases to cover Allied shipping and opening the South Atlantic air route; Brazil will

1940 Commons allows nationalist forces of Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland, France and Czechoslovakia to train in Britain under their own flags. Leon Trotsky is assassinated by a Stalinist agent while in exile in Mexico City. 1941 French resistance member Pierre “Fabien” Georges commits the first violent act of resistance against the Germans in Paris when

1940 Churchill reviews the progress of air war in Commons and says ‘Never in the field of human conflict, was so much owed by so many, to so few’. The Luftwaffe withdraws the Ju-87 Stuka dive bomber from strategic operations against England after losing 20 per cent of their Stuka force to the RAF. Mao

1940 Whole of Britain declared a defense area. Bad weather and a reorganization of fighter strength by the Luftwaffe causes a lull in operations. Mussolini orders Marshal Graziani to invade Egypt. Italian troops enter the Port of Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland, where they are welcomed by strafing RAF Blenheims. British transport 5,300-5,700 combat

1940 Further heavy raids by Luftwaffe on southeast England and southern London. Major damage is done to RAF airfields and fighter commands control system. British claim 144 Germans shot down, later revised to 67 with RAF losses of 33 planes lost but eight pilots safe. The last of the British rearguard in British Somaliland slip

1940 Hitler announces that a total maritime blockade is to be placed around Britain, with any neutral ships transporting cargo to Britain to be sunk without warning. Axis financial meeting decides Berlin will replace London as European financial centre after victory. Duke of Windsor sworn in as governor-general of Bermuda. British warships bombard Italian ports

1940 Test platoon of 48 volunteers from 29thInfantry Regiment makes first US Army parachute jump from an aircraft. Luftwaffe again raids southern England. Death of Hector Bywater, author of 1925 Great Pacific War. 1941 Stalin acknowledges UK and US aid plan and agrees to the ‘apportionment of our joint resources’. Anglo-Soviet exchange agreement signed. 56th

1940 Although ‘Eagle Day’ was the 13th August, due to poor results, Goering decides that the 15th August with instead be known as ‘Eagle Day’. The Luftwaffe launches its greatest attacks so far against the RAF’s airfields, involving more than 1,000 German planes and 1,786 sorties. The Luftwaffe lost 76 aircraft, although these were mainly

1940 Air activity less pronounced, but Germans attack Southampton and Hastings; reported losses Germans 31, RAF 7. Ministry of Home Security announces that parachutes had been found in Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Scotland, but no evidence of Germans discovered. As Italians advance in British Somaliland, British evacuate Berbera, the capital. A plane crash in Canberra, Australia