WWII History

1940 Germans enter Paris as Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division takes Le Havre. The French government leaves Tours for Bordeaux. Army Group C, with 24 divisions, prepares to cross the upper Rhine to attack the Maginot Line in Alsace. All remaining British troops in France are ordered to return to England. Spanish troops enter Tangier. British […]

1940 Germans troops advance on both sides of Paris. General Weygand declares the French capital an open city. Armed merchant-cruiser Scotstown is torpedoed by U-25 off Ireland, 6 crew lost. The first US arms ship, ‘Eastern Prince’, sets sail for Britain. Italian bombers attack the French naval base at Toulon. The British submarine Odin is

1940 General Sir Edmund Ironside, C-in-C of British Home Forces, completes plans for the defense of Britain against German invasion. On the orders from General Weygand, C-in-C of the French Army, the French forces opposing the advance of Army Group A withdraw to the South, offering little resistance. The Germans cross the River Marne, consolidate

1940 Householders in possession of Anderson shelters must by law have them up and earthed by today. The German forces capture Rheims. Paris prepares for siege as the Luftwaffe pounds the city. The RAF attacks Turin and Genoa with 36 Whitley bombers. RAF attack German ships in Trondheim harbour, Norway. Australia and New Zealand declare

1940 The remaining troops of the Norwegian Army (6th Division) surrender, after Norway surrenders unconditionally. Italy declares war on Britain and France, effective from the 11th June 1940. President Roosevelt condemns Germany and Italy and promises material aid to both Britain and France 1941 British advance breaks through Vichy opposition in Syria. The United States

1940 German forces advancing South from the Somme capture Rouen on the Seine. The British 51st Highland Division and part of the French 10th Army withdraw towards St-Valery-en-Caux, hoping to be evacuated to England. The French government evacuates from Paris to Tours. Norway officially surrenders to Germany. 1941 Fire Service Council established in Britain, with 1,400

1940 The British aircraft carrier Glorious is sunk by the German heavy battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, Southwest of Narvik. The evacuation of British and French troops (24,000 men) from Narvik and Harstad is completed. A Norwegian delegation negotiates with the Germans for a peace treaty. Off Norway, German battlecruisers Gneisenau & Scharnhorst sink British carrier HMS Glorious and British destroyers Ardent and Acasta (1537

1940 Allied troops fall back on Bresles front, 60 miles north of Paris. French bomb Berlin. King Haakon of Norway, his family and government, evacuate from Norway to Britain as Germans advance. 1941 The first of five heavy night raids by the RAF begins on Brest as Prinz Eugen shelters there. First US Lend-Lease planes