1939
HMAS Hobart and five RAN destroyers leave Australia, bound for Britain.
60,000 Polish troops who are trapped in the Radom pocket surrender.
Germans resume offensive on Warsaw, Poland.
Stained glass in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris is removed for safekeeping.
1940
Buckingham Palace again bombed; Royal Chapel wrecked.
5 Italian divisions and 200 tanks in Cyrenaica under Marshal Graziani, cross the Libyan/Egyptian border and advance toward Sidi Barrani in Egypt. The 7th Armoured and 4th Indian Divisions have orders to withdraw as far as Mersa Matruh and then stand and fight.
1941
German High Command announces that Russian POWs will get less rations than other nationalities.
Japanese war games planning the Pearl Harbor raid conclude.
1942
Sixth Army begins its final effort to take Stalingrad.
British desert raids reach Benghazi and Barer. A combined forces attack on Tobruk is also made.
On Guadalcanal, Japanese try to seize Henderson Field, but fail.
In Arctic convoy PQ-18, German aircraft and U-boats sink nine Allied cargo ships.
Nazi-occupied France establishes National Work Service: men 18-50 & single women 21-35 may be conscripted for labor in Germany.
1943
Heavy German counter-attacks by six divisions round Salerno, forces the Fifth Army back to within five miles of beaches. The allies consider an evacuation. The battle for supremacy in the Aegean begins with an Allied raid on Rhodes. WATCH VIDEO
The Chinese Parliament at Kuomingtang, elects General Chiang Kai-shek as President of Chinese Republic.
1944
The U.S. Ninth Army is engaged in heavy fighting as the German garrison keeps up its resistance at Brest.
The Canadians take Coriano Ridge in the Gothic Line.
In Belgium, Canadians cross Leopold Canal and Canal de Derivation, while British cross Meuse-Escaut Canal.
The Russians reach the Polish-Czechoslovak border. The Romanians sign an Armistice with the Russians.
1945
Iran demands the withdrawal of Allied forces.