1939
AUGUST
23 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact signed in Moscow.
24 British Govt passes Emergency Powers Act.
SEPTEMBER
1 German invasion of Poland.
Evacuation begins in Britain.
2 Ultimatums delivered to Germany by Britain and France.
3 Britain and France declare war on Germany, as do Australia, New Zealand, Canada and all British Dominions.
Chamberlain forms new War Cabinet with Churchill back as First Lord of the Admiralty and Eden as Sec. of State for Dominion Affairs.
5 USA declares neutrality.
6 South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts declares war on Germany.
9 British Expeditionary Force begins to land in France.160,000 men and 24,000 vehicles arrive throughout September.
17 Soviet invasion of Poland.
British aircraft carrier HMS Courageous sunk by U-29 off south-west Ireland.
18 Warsaw surrounded.
19 German and Soviet forces link up at Brest-Litovsk.
27 Hitler’s senior commanders are told to prepare for an offensive in the West as soon as possible.
OCTOBER
6 Last Polish resistance ceases.
9 Hitler issues order for attack on the West.
14 HMS Royal Oak sunk by U-47 at Scapa Flow.
NOVEMBER
4 USA – changes to the Neutrality Act allow belligerent states to purchase arms from private suppliers on a cash-and-carry basis, using own shipping to deliver arms.
30 Soviet forces invade Finland.
DECEMBER
13 RN heavy cruiser Exeter and light cruisers Ajax and Achilles engage pocket battleship Graf Spee at the mouth of the River Plate in Argentina.
17 Graf Spee scuttled.
1940
FEBRUARY
11 Soviet–German economic agreement.
16 Altmark incident.
MARCH
12 Soviet–Finnish peace treaty.
28 Britain and France agree not to make any separate peace. From 5 April, they also plan to mine Norwegian waters to force German ships carrying Swedish iron ore out into the open sea. This is delayed until 8 April.
APRIL
9 German invasion of Denmark and Norway. First use of airborne troops in assault on Oslo. German cruiser Blücher sunk by Norwegian shore guns with loss of over 300 lives.
Gneisenau badly damaged by HMS Renown. Cruiser Karlsruhe sunk in Kristiansand by a British submarine.
10 Royal Navy’s attack on German ships at Narvik.
11 First British contingent sails for Norway.
15 British landings near Narvik.
16 Allied landings at Namsos.
21 Lillehammer falls to Germans.
22 Allied landings at Åndalsnes.
26 Allied decision to evacuate southern Norway.
28 French chasseurs alpins reach Narvik.
MAY
6 3,000 French Foreign Legion reach Narvik.
9 Vote of Confidence in House of Commons. Polish Brigade reaches Narvik.
10 Germany launches attack on West.
Chamberlain resigns and Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
13 Guderian crosses Meuse at Sedan, and Reinhardt at Monthermé. Rommel crosses Meuse at Dinant.
Churchill’s ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ speech.
14 Luftwaffe bombs heart of Rotterdam.
British Govt (Eden) broadcasts message for Local Defence Volunteers.
15 French 1st Armoured Division destroyed by 5. Panzerdivision.
Beginning of RAF’s strategic air offensive against Germany.
Dutch capitulate and entire Meuse front collapses.
Reynaud tells Churchill, ‘We have lost the battle.’
Churchill appeals to Roosevelt for loan of destroyers.
16 Churchill flies to Paris for meeting with Reynaud and Général Gamelin.
17 Germans enter Brussels.
18 Gamelin sacked and replaced by Général Weygand.
19 General Gort begins to consider evacuation of BEF. Churchill orders that no more fighters should be sent to France.
20 Germans reach Amiens and Abbeville and then the Channel coast.
21 British counter-attack at Arras.
Hitler turns his thoughts towards England when he discusses invasion with Raeder.
23 King George VI broadcasts to the people and calls for National Day of Prayer on Sunday.
24 Hitler issues halt order to his panzer spearhead.
25 Churchill sacks General Ironside. General Brooke takes over as CIGS.
Boulogne falls to Germans.
26 National Day of Prayer in Britain.
Reynaud flies to London for meeting with British.
Churchill and Halifax clash.
Calais falls to Germans.
Operation DYNAMO begins.
First troops from Dunkirk brought back to UK.
27 King Leopold of Belgium decides to surrender.
Dunkirk receives heaviest day of bombing.
Halifax threatens to resign.
28 Churchill secures support of Cabinet to fight on at all costs.
Allies capture Narvik.
29 President Roosevelt invites Bill Knudsen to the White House.
31 OKM begins work on planning the invasion of Britain.
JUNE
3 Operation DYNAMO ends.
3–7 Evacuation of British troops from north Norway.
4 Churchill’s ‘never surrender’ speech.
5 Germans launch Case RED.
10 Mussolini declares war on Britain and France.
Churchill flies to France for talks with French Govt, now at Briare.
10–11 First Bomber Command raid on Italy (Turin).
12 Spain declares non-belligerency.
Général Weygand urges Reynaud to seek armistice.
13 Churchill flies to France again.
14 Germans enter Paris.
Keitel issues OKW directive for war against England and reduction of German Army to 120 divisions.
15 Operation AERIAL begins to bring back remaining BEF troops in France from Cherbourg, Saint-Malo, Brest, Saint-Nazaire and La Pallice.
16 Reynaud resigns and Pétain takes over.
17 French Govt asks Germany for an armistice.
18 De Gaulle’s first broadcast.
Churchill makes ‘finest hour’ speech.
18–20 Port of Brest destroyed and French Fleet sails – most to North Africa.
Hitler meets with Mussolini and Ciano – talks in private about land and air assault of England.
22 French sign surrender – French fleet to be demobilized and disarmed.
23 HMS Ark Royal and Hood arrive in Gibraltar.
24 OKH issues order for regrouping of Army and ‘preparations against England’.
France signs armistice with Italy.
25 Last fighting in France ends.
26 Turkey announces it will remain non-belligerent.
28 US National Defence Act passed.
De Gaulle recognized as leader of Free French.
30 Germans land on Channel Islands.
JULY
1 Halder enthusiastically embarks on planning of invasion – meeting with Admiral Schniewind.
2 Hitler orders appreciation and preparations to begin for Operation SEALION.
French government settles in Vichy.
3 Operation CATAPULT – destruction of French Fleet at Mers-el-Kébir.
4 Diplomatic relations between Britain and Vichy severed.
6 Hitler returns in triumph to Berlin.
9 Naval action off Calabria in the Mediterranean between British and Italian Fleets.
10 French National Assembly votes full powers to Pétain.
Hitler demands that coastal artillery should be trained on Britain.
11 Raeder reports to Hitler at the Berghof about preparations for invasion of England.
Pierre Laval becomes Prime Minister of France.
13 Halder and von Brauchitsch report to Hitler at the Berghof on invasion of England.
14 Russia incorporates Baltic states into Soviet Union.
17 Hitler’s Operation SEALION Directive cancelled.
19 Hitler’s peace offer to Britain.
21 Hitler’s first mention of attack on Russia.
22 Halifax gives speech rejecting Hitler’s peace offer.
Constitution of SOE.
25 Heavy and repeated attacks on shipping off Dover by Luftwaffe. RAF frequently outnumbered.
AUGUST
1 Halder receives Hitler’s Directive No.16 for air war against Britain.
2 Göring issues order for Adlertag.
3 Actual strength of Luftwaffe against Britain: single-engine fighters: 760; twin-engine fighters, 230; bombers 823 (inc. Norway); dive-bombers, 343.
4 Italians invade British Somaliland.
13 Adlertag. Co-ordinated attacks on airfields in southern England.
Britain decides to send tanks to Middle East.
14 Britain and USA agree in principle on Destroyers for Bases deal.
17 Hitler declares total blockade of British Isles.
18 The Hardest Day. Losses: RAF Fighter Command 33 / LW 67. Co-ordinated attacks on aerodromes in south and south-east England.
20 Churchill’s ‘Never in the field of human conflict . . .’ speech.
23 Local Defence Volunteers become the Home Guard.
25 Night: First RAF Bomber Command raid on Berlin.
SEPTEMBER
2 Destroyers for Bases agreement ratified between Britain and USA.
7 Black Saturday – Luftwaffe bomb London in afternoon and evening with more than 300 bombers.
Operation SEALION postponed until 24 September.
11 Luftwaffe raids over London and Southampton.
Italian invasion of Egypt.
15 More than 200 bombers raid London and 30 target Portland and Southampton. Losses: RAF 31 / LW 61.
16 USA – Congress passes Selective Service Act USA.
21 U-48 and four other U-boats join U-47 to make largest wolfpack ever concentrated against a convoy.
Cyril Thompson and British Shipbuilding Mission set sail for the United States.
23 British and Free French attack on Dakar.
27 Tripartite pact signed between Japan, Germany and Italy.
28 Admiral Forbes’s final appeal to be able to use his Home Fleet more offensively.
OCTOBER
12 Operation SEALION deferred until spring 1941.
17 Air Ministry meeting in which Dowding gets knifed in the back.
23–24 Hitler meets Franco and Pétain.
28 Italians invade Greece.
29 Bill Knudsen gathers US automobile executives in New York.
NOVEMBER
4 Greeks drive Italians back into Albania.
5 Roosevelt re-elected for third term.
11–12 British attack on Italian Fleet at Taranto.
12 Hitler orders German invasion of Greece.
14 Luftwaffe attack Coventry.
20–24 Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join Axis.
DECEMBER
9 British mount counter-offensive in Egypt – Operation COMPASS. Royal Navy bombards Maktila and Sidi Barrani.
11 Sidi Barrani captured.
13 Hitler issues directive for occupation of Balkans.
18 Hitler issues directive for invasion of Russia.
19 Mussolini asks for German help in North Africa.
1941
JANUARY
1 Western Desert Force renamed XXX Corps.
2 RN bombards Bardia.
5 Australians capture Bardia – General Bergonzoli surrenders 45,000 Italians, 130 tanks. Just 500 Australian casualties.
6 Churchill orders Wavell to release troops for Greece.
7 Tobruk surrounded.
20 Emperor Haile Selassie re-enters Abyssinia.
22 Tobruk surrenders – 25,000 Italians captured, plus 208 guns and 87 tanks. Combined British and Australian casualties 450. Wavell ordered to capture Benghazi.
24 General Cunningham’s Southern Force invades Italian Somaliland from Kenya.
FEBRUARY
3 British forces attack Keren in Eritrea.
12 Italians surrender 20,000 men, 200 guns and 120 tanks to just 3,000 British troops. Eden: ‘Never has so much been surrendered by so few.’
Generalmajor Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
25 Mogadishu taken by British Nigerian forces.
MARCH
1 Bulgaria joins Axis.
4 British Commando raid on Lofoten Islands.
7 British ground troops arrive in Greece.
Günther Prien and U-47 lost at sea.
11 Lend Lease becomes law in USA.
16 British troops from Aden land and strike towards Berbera in British Somaliland.
17 Joachim Schepke killed and U-100 sunk; Otto Kretschmer captured and U-99 sunk.
24 Rommel makes limited offensive to capture El Agheila.
British Somaliland cleared of Italians.
25 Yugoslavia joins Axis.
27 Coup in Yugoslavia and pact revoked.
ABC-1 Agreement between Britain and USA signed.
27–9 British Mediterranean Fleet takes on Italian Fleet at Battle of Cape Matapan.
APRIL
1 General Platt’s Northern Force captures Asmara, capital of Eritrea.
Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, in pro-Axis coup, seizes power in Iraq.
4 Rommel takes Benghazi unopposed.
6 Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
Haile Selassie’s forces capture Italian forts at Deba Markos.
9 Rommel takes Bardia.
12 Rommel’s forces complete encirclement of Tobruk.
17 Yugoslavia surrenders.
27 Germans enter Athens.
MAY
2 British attack Iraq from Palestine.
Haile Selassie returns to Addis Abbaba, five years after start of Italian occupation.
9 Fritz-Julius Lemp killed and U-110’s Enigma machine and code-book captured.
19 Fallujah in Iraq retaken.
18 Formal Italian surrender in East Africa.
20 German airborne forces land in Crete.
24 HMS Hood sunk by Bismarck.
27 Bismarck sunk.
30 Revolt in Iraq collapses.
JUNE
1 Germans secure Crete.
2 Greek Govt in Exile formed in Egypt.
8 British and Free French forces launch Operation EXPORTER, attacking Vichy Syria and Lebanon from Palestine.
15 Operation BATTLEAXE launched to relieve Tobruk.
17 BATTLEAXE called off – 91 tanks lost.
22 Operation BARBAROSSA launched.