July

1940 Luftwaffe night-fighters (Me 110s) first shoot down a British plane. President Roosevelt signs the ‘Two Ocean Navy Expansion Act’. This was the first step in preparing America for war against either Germany or Japan, or both. British claim 40 Luftwaffe planes down in a week; British civilian casualty figures for last month announced: 336 […]

1940 General Sir Alan Brooke takes over from Ironside as C-in-C, Home Forces. Ironside becomes a Field Marshal. Hitler makes triumphant speech to Reichstag: accuses Allies of war mongering and appeals ‘for the last time to reason’. The Italian Cruiser, Bartolomeo Colleoni is sunk off Cape Spada, near Crete by HMAS Sydney. 1941 BBC announces

1940 Prince Konoye forms new Japanese Cabinet with Army and Navy nominees. 1941 The Japanese foreign minister, Yosuke Matsuoka is replaced by a moderate. New Japanese Cabinet has four generals and three admirals. US Army Air Force opens bases in Iceland to patrol convoy routes in North Atlantic. US Secretary of Navy Frank Knox approves

1940 The German Army presents its plan for the invasion of Britain. Six divisions are to land between Ramsgate and Bexhill in the southeast corner of England, four will land between Brighton and the Isle of Wight and three on the Dorset coast. Two Airborne division’s will also be deployed, with follow up forces including

1940 Hitler issues Directive No.16, orders for the planning of ‘Operation Sealion‘, the invasion of Britain. Twenty divisions are earmarked for the invasion, but the Luftwaffe must gain air superiority first. All plans are to be ready by mid-August. Destroyer Imogen sinks in Pentland Firth after collision in fog by the British light cruiser HMS

1940 Unemployment in Britain up 60,431 in June to 827,266, but still down half a million on June 1939. Home Office bans fireworks, kite and balloon flying. RAF reduces pilot training from three months to one month. The rector of Old Bolingbroke, England, is sentenced to 4 weeks prison for ringing a church bell. Britain

1940 Bastille Day in France declared ‘day of meditation’, de Gaulle and Free French lay wreaths at Cenotaph in London. Churchill broadcasts that Hitler must recast his invasion plans. British commandos launch a raid against Guernsey in the Channel Islands, with negligible results. A force of German bombers attacks Suez, Egypt, from bases in Crete.

1940 Hitler issues Directive No. 15 outlining the details of ‘Operation Sea Lion’, the German invasion of the British Isles. In advance of the landings, the Luftwaffe is to begin operations against British defensive positions, airfields and radar installations along the southern coast of England on the 15th August 15 with 2.600 aircraft having been

1940 The Luftwaffe carries out raids on Aberdeen in Scotland and Cardiff in Wales. Britain and Russia sign mutual assistance agreement in Moscow, pledging ‘no separate peace’. Britain launches “Pots into Planes” campaign to collect aluminum for military use. The last Vichy French troops in Syria surrender to British and Free French forces. 1941 Britain

1940 Lord Beaverbrook, Minister for Aircraft Production, says ‘the sky is the limit’ for plane purchases from US, with spending running at £2.5 million per day on aircraft. Marshal Henri Pétain assumes position as Chief of State of Vichy France, with Pierre Laval as Prime Minister Admiral Raeder, C-in-C of the German Navy expresses his