1939
King George VI gives assent to National Registration Bill, providing government control over labour and introducing identity cards.
Nine divisions of the French Army penetrate in to the Saarland, but their advance is very slow and no effort is made to attack the ‘Westwall’ itself.
Polish forces trying to hold the line at the Narew River, start to collapse. Krakow surrenders to German troops. The German 10th Army closes ever nearer to Warsaw. A deeper defensive line is prepared by the Poles at the Bug River, as their battered armies begin a withdrawal toward that line. The BBC commences daily radio broadcasts in Polish.
1940
The codeword “Cromwell” is passed nation-wide, and church bells ring out in warning that a German invasion may be underway.
Eastern and Southern England Commands are on full invasion alert, when at 16.56 London’s air-raid sirens announce the arrival of 375 German bombers and supporting fighters. They come up the Thames to London from the sea and set the London docks ablaze. The day-light raiders are gone by 18.00, but the fires are still burning when the night raiders arrive to inflict more damage at 20.10 during which 306 are killed and 1,337 seriously injured. The British make extravagant claims that 347 German aircraft have been lost in past week against just 128 British.
1941
The offensive of the German 20th Mountain Army in northern Finland to capture the vital Lend-Lease port of Murmansk, Russia, comes to a halt.
The German 6th Army achieves a breakthrough at Konotop in the Ukraine.
1942
Roosevelt threatens to override Congress unless they take action to curb inflation.
The Sixth Army begins a four-mile advance through Stalingrad to the Volga.
The Eighth Army stabilizes its line at Alam el Haifa, after Montgomery suspends the battle.
US Marines launch a surprise raid on the Japanese base at Talou, Guadalcanal.
1943
The RAF bomb V1 (flying bomb) launch sites on the North French coastline.
The German 17th Army begins the evacuation of the Kuban bridgehead across the Strait of Kerch to the Crimea. Himmler and Goring order an evacuation of their rear area forces from the eastern Ukraine.
Japanese aircraft bomb Nanumea, Ellice Is.
1944
Romania declares war on Hungary.
The British 11th Armoured Division crosses the Albert Canal, to the East of Antwerp. The U.S. Third Army crosses the Moselle. U.S. 9th Air Force fighters, supporting elements of the U.S. 7th Army in southern France, destroy an estimated 500 German vehicles along a 25km section of road. Germany’s armored forces have been shattered along the western front. German Army Group B has only about a hundred operational tanks.
U.S. Army forces supported by naval vessels land on Soepiori Island in the Schouten Is. off New Guinea.