February

1940 Destroyer HMS Daring torpedoed, 157 are killed. 1941 Luftwaffe switches focus from attacking London to attacking shipping centers, such as Portsmouth, Plymouth, Bristol, and Cardiff. US Coast Guard Auxiliary (non-military) and Reserve (military) is established. 1942 Under increasing threat of being outflanked by the advancing Japanese, the 17th Indian Division is finally given permission […]

1940 Chinese forces drive Japanese out of Nanning, China. 1941 Parts of the Australian 8th Division arrive in Singapore. 1943 In the wake of the Stalingrad disaster, Dr. Goebbels, speaking before an enthusiastic audience of soldiers and civilians in Berlin, announces the implementation of “total war” which, for the first time, mandates the employment of

1940 Norway protests to Britain over violation of neutrality. 1941 Off Ireland, U-101 sinks British freighter Gairsoppa (85 killed) carrying 2800 bars of silver to fund war (110 tons  of silver were recovered in 2011). 1942 German vessel disguised as a British merchantman is reported sunk by a U-boat off Azores. First Seabees arrive in

1940 The British destroyer Cossack, enters a Norwegian fjord, captures the German freighter Altmark, former supply ship of the Graf Spee and frees 300 British merchant seamen who were captured from vessels sunk by the Graf Spee in the South Atlantic. 1942 Dönitz orders all available U-boats in the Atlantic to attack British and American

1940 Hitler orders that all British merchant ships will be considered warships. 1941 Great Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Romania as it is now clear that the Romanians are firmly allied to the Germans. Norwegian Lutheran bishops denounce Nazi brutality. 1942 Churchill broadcasts to the nation and says the Mediterranean will close to all

1939 Germany launches the battleship Bismarck. 1940 Britain announces that all merchant ships will be armed. 1941 Hitler starts to apply pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite pact. Kurmuk near the Ethiopian border in Sudan is recaptured by British forces. Leading elements of the German 5th Light Division arrive at Tripoli and are immediately

1940 Soviets break through Finnish defenses on the Karelian Isthmus. Britain cracks down on unauthorized slaughterhouses (“steakeasies”) trying to circumvent rationing. 1941 German authorities order all gentiles to leave Amsterdam’s Jewish Quarter. The British minister to Sofia says in a statement that “If the Germans occupy Bulgaria and make it a base against our ally,

1938 Japan refuses to reveal naval data requested by the U.S. and Britain. 1940 First deportation of German Jews into occupied Poland. Germany and Russia agree new trade pact, that provides for the delivery of vital war materials (grains, oil, strategic minerals) by the Russians, in return for German manufactured goods. Anthony Eden greets the

1940 Soviet troops finally breach the Mannerheim line, forcing the Finns to withdraw to a secondary defense line. The Soviet Union and Germany sign a treaty to exchange Soviet raw materials for German manufactured goods. 1941 Former GOP presidential candidate Wendell Willkie testifies in favor of Roosevelt’s Lend-Lease Bill in Congressional hearings. Hanover is bombed

1939 Japanese occupy island of Hainan in French Indochina. 1940 Over 4000 members of American Youth Congress march in Washington to protest US being drawn into imperialistic war; President Roosevelt angrily confronts them. 1941 London severs diplomatic relations with Romania. The RAF attacks the oil storage tanks at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The raid sees