February

1941 Admiral Darlan becomes Vichy Vice-Premier. In a radio broadcast, Churchill warns Bulgaria against joining the Tripartite pact. U-boats and Fw 200 Condor bombers sink 5 of 16 ships in Allied Convoy HG-53 off the Azores (3 more will be lost in the coming days). British take El Agheila, Libya, but the advance halts. 1942 […]

1941 Laval declines Petain’s offer of Cabinet seat in the Vichy Government. The first convoy of the newly formed Afrika Korps under the command of Lieutenant General Rommel leaves Naples for Tripoli in Libya. Force H from Malta bombards Genoa, without hindrance from the Italian Navy or Air force. The House of Representatives passes H.R.

1940 British railroads are nationalized. 1941 The Italian troops stay between Agedabia and El-Agheila. In Libya, the British are victorious at Beda Fomm; 20,000 troops of the Italian Tenth Army surrender. General Graziani ask Mussolini for substitution as a commander of the Italian forces at North Africa, and as Libyan Governor. 1942 After just over

1940 The Finnish 9th Division finally manages to encircle the Russian 54th Division in Kuhmo. Finnish pilot Lt. Sarvanto, flying a Fokker, shoots down six out of seven Russian SB-2 bombers in just 5 minutes. The Russian 44th Division’s commander General Vinogradov, authorizes the remainder of his troops to try escape back to Russian lines.

1940 British and French governments agree to land an expeditionary force in northern Norway without regard for Norway’s neutrality in order to aide Finland, although it was never carried out. First sinking of a U-boat by a lone British destroyer: in convoy OA-84 off Land’s End, HMS Antelope sinks U-41. 1941 An advanced column of armoured

1941 The Battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sail from the Baltic to the Atlantic, causing absolute havoc to shipping routes and timetables. RAF reconnaissance planes report that the Italians are beginning to evacuate Benghazi in a withdrawal towards El Agheila. The 7th Armoured Division is given immediate instructions to advance from Mechili across the desert in

1941 33 Italian Fascist Party leaders are dispatched to bolster morale on the Albanian front. Hitler reviews the plans for Operation ‘Barbarossa’, as German intelligence estimates that 155 Red Army divisions are deployed in western Russia against just 116 German and Axis divisions. The starting date is again confirmed as the 15th May 1941. The

1939 Hungary breaks relations with the Soviet Union. 1940 Big Russian offensive continues on the Karelia front. Italian Jews banned from serving as engineers, professors, or journalists, and from serving Gentiles as doctors or lawyers. 1941 5th Indian Division captures Barentu, forcing the Italians to withdraw towards the mountain fortress at Keren. Indian & British

A mid-air collision on February 1, 1943, between a B-17 and a German fighter over the Tunis dock area, became the subject of one of the most famous photographs of World War II. An enemy fighter attacking a 97th Bomb Group formation went out of control, probably with a wounded pilot then continued its crashing

1940 General Timoshenko launches his big offensive across the iced up straits of Viipuri Bay, although Finnish aircraft raids disrupt these attacks. The battleship Alabama (BB-60) is laid down at the Norfolk, Virginia. In Japan, expenditure on the military accounts for half of the national budget for 1940. 1941 The Admiral Hipper slips out of