Some significant events in this narrative, or relevant to it. I have of course selected them to reflect my biases and preoccupations. Not all are traditionally viewed as major in British accounts of the war. I have left out some events that are very well known, to give prominence to others which are less celebrated but in my view important.
6 February 1922
Washington Naval Treaty ends two centuries of British global naval supremacy.
17 August 1923
Anglo-Japanese Alliance (dating from 1902) cancelled on American insistence.
1 December 1925
Locarno Treaties open way for eventual renegotiation of borders between Weimar Germany, Czechoslovakia and Poland, as only recently agreed at Versailles. Józef Beck, Polish foreign minister, later says, ‘Germany was officially asked to attack the east, in return for peace in the west.’
1929
Construction of Maginot Line begins, also undermining French post-1918 pledges to fight future German aggression in concert with Poland.
25 July 1932
Polish–Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed.
25 October 1933
Recapture of Fulham East seat at by-election by Labour candidate John Wilmot (who campaigned, among other things, for ‘peace’). Wilmot persuades some Tories that rearmament is an electorally dangerous policy.
26 January 1934
German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact signed.
15 June 1934
Britain suspends repayment of its World War I debts to the USA, never subsequently resumed and worth about £40 billion by today’s values.
25 July 1934
Austrian Nazis murder Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss in an attempted putsch. Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sends troops to the Austrian border and aids Austrian government against the Nazi putschists. Putsch fails.
6 March 1935
British Defence White Paper greatly increases spending on armaments, decried by Labour-supporting Daily Herald on 7 March as ‘an affront to Germany’ and a threat to peace.
18 June 1935
Anglo-German Naval Agreement (like Locarno Treaties) undermines Versailles settlement, gives Germany effective naval supremacy in Baltic.
18 December 1935
Resignation of Sir Samuel Hoare as Foreign Secretary over moral outrage at Hoare–Laval Pact is followed a few days later by similar outrage in France. Any serious Franco-British attempts to detach Italy from Nazi Germany come to an end.
29 February 1936
US Congress retaliates against British suspension of war debt by passing amended version of 1935 Neutrality Act, forbidding all credits to belligerents (later modified in 1937 and 1939, partly circumvented by Destroyers for Bases Agreement of 2 September 1940, and superseded by Lend-Lease Act of 11 March 1941).
25 February 1936
Franco-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance ratified by French parliament. In fact, this pact will remain a dead letter.
7 March 1936
Germany (on pretext of France’s ratification of Franco-Soviet pact) reoccupies Rhineland.
23 October 1936
Belgium begins its withdrawal from military pact with France, nullifying Maginot Line by leaving France’s northern frontier exposed.
13 October 1937
Germany guarantees Belgian neutrality.
12 March 1938
Germany absorbs Austria after a Nazi putsch, successful rerun of the action first attempted in 1934 but prevented, partly by intervention of Mussolini. This time Mussolini, by now a German client, does nothing.
24 April 1938
Konrad Henlein, leader of Sudeten Germans, demands removal of ‘injustices’ imposed on German minority and seeks ‘autonomy’ for Sudetenland. Soon afterwards Henlein establishes paramilitary organisation. Britain (where sympathy for German minority has long been strong) and France urge Prague government to compromise with Sudeten demands.
21–23 May 1938
Rumours (possibly spread by Czech intelligence) become current that Germany is preparing an invasion of Czechoslovakia. They are untrue. Czechoslovakia mobilises, and impression is given that Hitler has backed down. Hitler is furious. Britain is exasperated and increasingly sympathetic to Sudeten grievances; France warns Prague it will not go to war for Czechoslovakia.
20 May 1938
Hitler, seething with humiliation, holds conference at Berlin Chancellery, outlining his plans to smash Czechoslovakia by October.
29 May 1938
Sudeten German Party (SdP) scores landslide victory in Czechoslovak local elections.
5 September 1938
Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš accepts almost all demands of Sudeten Germans. But Sudeten Germans break off negotiations after arrests of two SdP deputies in Moravská Ostrava.
12 September 1938
Hitler, at Nuremberg Rally, vows to ‘protect’ Sudeten Germans.
13 September 1938
Neville Chamberlain requests meeting with Hitler.
15 September 1938
Chamberlain meets Hitler at Berchtesgaden, concedes vital point that Sudeten Germans should be transferred to German rule.
22 September 1938
Chamberlain meets Hitler at Bad Godesberg. Hitler demands immediate occupation of Sudetenland by German troops.
29–30 September 1938
Munich Agreement dismantles Czechoslovakia.
2 October 1938
Polish Army (using tanks) enters formerly Czech Teschen, seizing more territory than originally agreed, but is indulgently allowed to do so by Germany, still hoping Poland will join Anti-Comintern Pact. Édouard Daladier, French prime minister, tells William Bullitt, US ambassador to France, that ‘he hopes to live long enough to pay Poland back’ for its behaviour. USSR also threatens Poland with cancellation of their non-aggression treaty, but backs down.
24 October 1938
Joachim von Ribbentrop invites Józef Lipski, Polish ambassador to Berlin, to lunch at Grand Hotel, Berchtesgaden. Proposes deal over Danzig and Polish corridor, offers Poland Ruthenia (part of former Czechoslovakia also claimed by Hungary) as reward.
27 October 1938
Quintin Hogg comfortably wins Oxford by-election against anti-Munich candidate of combined Left, the academic Sandy Lindsay. Lindsay’s supporters had used the slogan ‘Hitler wants Hogg’.
9–10 November 1938
Kristallnacht state-sponsored pogroms throughout Germany, while police look on, leave no room for doubt that homicidal anti-Semitism is German government policy.
17 November 1938
Anti-Munich campaigner Vernon Bartlett, a popular broadcaster, narrowly defeats Tory candidate at Bridgwater by-election.
5 January 1939
Polish foreign minister Józef Beck has tea with Hitler at Berchtesgaden. Hitler repeats and elaborates on Ribbentrop’s offer. Beck does not accept it.
10 January 1939
Soviet ambassador in Berlin, Alexei Merekalov, tells German Foreign Ministry that USSR desires ‘new era in German–Soviet economic relations’.
25 January 1939
Ribbentrop arrives in Warsaw for fifth anniversary of Polish–German pact. Urges Józef Beck to strengthen alliance, join the Anti-Comintern Pact. Beck shows interest in Ukraine, but rejects proposal, including offer of what remains of Slovakia. Also backs down from earlier interest in a deal over Danzig.
7 March 1939
Rump of Czechoslovakia begins to disintegrate. President Emil Hácha dismisses the Ruthenian government. Three days later Hácha uses force to remove Slovak premier Jozef (Father) Tiso, who flees to Vienna and seeks German ‘protection’.
13 March 1939
Father Tiso meets Hitler, who urges him to declare independence, which he does the following day. Hungary seizes Ruthenia.
14 March 1939
President Hácha requests meeting with Hitler (not, as often claimed, the other way round), travels to Berlin, is met with full honours (his daughter, accompanying him, receives a box of chocolates from Hitler). He is then threatened with military attack by Hitler, appears faint, is revived, agrees to German takeover of Bohemia and Moravia. His foreign minister, František Chvalkovský, remarks as they return home: ‘Our people will curse us, and yet we have saved their existence. We have preserved them from a horrible massacre.’
15 March 1939
At 6 a.m., German troops occupy Prague. German vehicles break down in snow. Pre-printed curfew posters have to be taken down because they are in Romanian.
17 March 1939
Neville Chamberlain, in Birmingham, denounces Hitler’s seizure of Prague.
31 March 1939
Britain and France guarantee the independence of Poland (though both know perfectly well they have no intention of defending Poland if attacked).
10 May 1939
Beginning of Operation Fish, as first loads of British gold bullion are secretly transferred to Canada aboard warships accompanying King George VI and Queen Elizabeth on their visit to Canada and the USA. About £26 billion in gold and more in negotiable securities will eventually be transferred, by mid-1941, in a series of fast convoys, undetected by German intelligence. Most will be used to pay for the war before Lend-Lease, and so become US property and be stored in Fort Knox, Kentucky, never to return.
23 May 1939
British Parliament approves Palestine White Paper, restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine to 75,000 over the next five years and restricting Jewish land purchases, as German persecution of Jews intensifies. Winston Churchill votes against it.
11 June 1939
King George VI eats hot dogs at Franklin Roosevelt’s private house in upstate New York. Soon afterwards, posters warning ‘Beware the British Serpent! Once more a boa constrictor – “Perfidious Albion” – is crawling across the American landscape, spewing forth its unctuous lies’ are observed on walls in Chicago.
5 August 1939
Admiral the Hon. Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax RN (Soviet foreign minister Molotov will later refer to him as ‘Admiral Nobody’) sails from Tilbury bound for Leningrad aboard elderly steamer City of Exeter at head of Anglo-French delegation to discuss military cooperation with USSR. The journey takes five days.
12 August 1939
Anglo-French delegation finally begin talks in Moscow with Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, People’s Commissar for Defence of the USSR. Admiral Drax reveals he has no formal powers to negotiate on behalf of British government.
15 August 1939
German ambassador in Moscow, Friedrich Werner von der Schulenburg, receives Ribbentrop’s proposals for Nazi–Soviet negotiations.
20 August 1939
Red Army forces, led by corps commander Georgi Zhukov, defeat Japanese at Khalkhyn Gol (Nomonhan).
22 August 1939
Anglo-French mission to Moscow fails to reach agreement and prepares to leave.
23 August 1939
Joachim von Ribbentrop arrives in Moscow. Film studios (engaged on an anti-Nazi propaganda film) plundered to provide German flags for his route into the city. At 10 p.m. Nazi–Soviet Pact is signed, and Stalin drinks a toast to Hitler.
29 August 1939
Germany, going through the motions of diplomacy but expecting and hoping to be rebuffed, makes final offer of negotiations to Poland. Poland, convinced it has Anglo-French support, spurns the offer.
1 September 1939
Germany invades Poland, which enters an era of mass murder, partition, ethnic cleansing and foreign domination that will continue for decades.
3 September 1939
Britain and France declare war on Germany, but do nothing, then or later, to help Poland.
3 September 1939
After the British and French declarations of war, US president Franklin Roosevelt proclaims, ‘I hope the United States will keep out of this war. I believe that it will. And I give you assurance and reassurance that every effort of your Government will be directed to that end.’
15 September 1939
Soviet Union and Japan agree ceasefire.
17 September 1939
Soviet Army invades Poland.
22 September 1939
German and Soviet armies hold joint victory parade in formerly Polish city of Brest-Litovsk. Shortly afterwards Soviet NKVD and German Gestapo exchange prisoners and begin series of friendly contacts.
5 October 1939
German U-boats granted permission to use secret Soviet port of Teriberka, east of Murmansk.
30 November 1939
USSR invades Finland. France and Britain contemplate intervening on the side of Finland, but do not, in the end, do so.
16 February 1940
British destroyer HMS Cossack stops and boards German freighter Altmark in violation of Norwegian neutrality. Frees large contingent of British prisoners.
9 April 1940
German invasion of Norway begins.
10 April 1940
Second destroyer flotilla of five ships under Bernard Warburton-Lee inflicts heavy damage on a German fleet twice its size. Warburton-Lee dies at his post, on bridge of HMS Hardy. His final signal is ‘Continue to engage the enemy.’
13 April 1940
A greatly reinforced British fleet returns to Narvik and annihilates the damaged German destroyer flotilla. Half of Germany’s destroyer fleet having been sunk, Germany will now effectively be unable to mount an invasion of Britain.
10 May 1940
Germany invades Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg.
11 May 1940
RAF bombers attack German city of Mönchengladbach, the first time they have deliberately bombed a city. Among the small number of casualties is a British woman living in Germany.
14 May 1940
German Luftwaffe bombs Rotterdam, destroying much of the ancient city.
26 May 1940
President Roosevelt, fearing British surrender to Germany after French collapse, discusses possibility of US takeover of British Royal Navy in secret talks with a Canadian envoy.
4 June 1940
Dunkirk evacuation ends. British troops will not be in contact with the main body of the German enemy for the next four years and two days, that is, more than two thirds of the duration of the war.
14 June 1940
USSR invades Baltic states Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia under secret protocol of Nazi–Soviet Pact.
3 July 1940
British Royal Navy opens fire on French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir. 1,297 French sailors are killed, but France’s modern battleship Strasbourg escapes owing to weakness of British forces.
16 July 1940
Hitler orders preparations for invasion of Great Britain ‘if necessary’. There are no landing craft. German Navy and Army quarrel incessantly about plans during subsequent weeks, and never agree on best approach.
2 September 1940
Destroyers for Bases Agreement requires first surrender of British imperial territory to USA since War of Independence. In return, Britain and Canada get 40 ancient US Navy destroyers, all of which must be renamed after towns and cities which have namesakes in the USA.
17 September 1940
Hitler postpones invasion of Great Britain ‘until further notice’.
14 November 1940
Roughly two months after supposed defeat of Luftwaffe in Battle of Britain, German bombers attack Coventry by night, killing an estimated 568 civilians.
23 November 1940
Lord Lothian, British ambassador to Washington, tells US newspaper reporters in New York: ‘Well, boys, Britain’s broke; it’s your money we want.’
11 March 1941
Lend-Lease Act (symbolically titled ‘H. R. 1776’) follows stripping of British assets with a carefully controlled flow of war aid. Initially consists of little more than dried milk.
24 May 1941
British battlecruiser HMS Hood, in appearance majestic, in truth far too lightly armoured and obsolete, sunk by German battleship Bismarck with the loss of almost every man aboard her. HMS Prince of Wales, new battleship accompanying Hood, breaks off engagement.
1 June 1941
Almost exactly a year after Dunkirk evacuation, those defeated British troops who could not be evacuated from Crete finally surrender to German forces. More than 12,000 go into captivity. Evelyn Waugh is among those who get away.
22 June 1941
Germany invades USSR.
10 August 1941
Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt (meeting for the first time) and hundreds of British and American sailors take part in joint divine service on quarterdeck of HMS Prince of Wales in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
14 August 1941
Official communiqué (later dubbed ‘the Atlantic Charter’ by the Daily Herald) reveals that USA will not join the war on Britain’s side, and contains several clauses threatening the future of the British empire.
18 August 1941
Butt Report reveals that RAF bombing of Germany is hopelessly inaccurate and ineffectual.
25 October 1941
HMS Prince of Wales leaves Greenock for the Far East on the insistence of Winston Churchill and against the advice of the Admiralty.
7 December 1941
Japan attacks the US fleet at anchor in Pearl Harbor.
10 December 1941
HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser HMS Repulse both sunk by Japanese land-based aircraft off Malaya.
11 December 1941
Hitler declares war on the USA.
19 December 1941
Commander ‘Johnnie’ Walker (passed over for promotion in peacetime and saved from early retirement by outbreak of war) sinks five U-boats in defence of convoy HG 76, first major victory in Battle of the Atlantic.
15 February 1942
British and Australian forces surrender to Japan at Singapore, 85,000 men go into captivity. Greatest single defeat of British arms in history.
30 March 1942
Frederick Lindemann first circulates his ‘dehousing’ paper, urging deliberate bombing by RAF of civilian housing in cities.
30 May 1942
RAF makes first ‘thousand-bomber raid’ on Cologne.
4 July 1942
British Admiralty orders Anglo-American convoy PQ 17, bound for Russia, to scatter, fearing an attack by German battleship Tirpitz (which never materialises). Two thirds of convoy’s ships are sunk. Worst British naval defeat of this or any war in modern times.
2 February 1943
German forces defeated by USSR at Battle of Stalingrad.
24 July 1943
RAF begins a week of heavy attacks on Hamburg in ‘Operation Gomorrah’. These create a firestorm in which at least 42,600 people die.
23 August 1943
Battle of Kursk ends with Soviet victory, in which Germany definitively loses initiative in war with Soviet Union.
28 November 1943
Tehran Conference opens. Churchill sidelined by Stalin and Roosevelt. Churchill presents Stalin with ‘Sword of Stalingrad’ made by British craftsmen as tribute to Soviet war effort. Marshal Kliment Voroshilov drops it on the floor.
9 February 1944
Bishop George Bell of Chichester attacks the policy of deliberately bombing German civilians, in a speech to the House of Lords.
6 June 1944
Operation Overlord brings British troops into direct contact with the main body of the German enemy for the first time in four years and two days.
4 February 1945
Yalta Conference convenes, effectively appeasing Stalin by handing him control over Eastern Europe. Churchill says afterwards, ‘Poor Neville Chamberlain believed he could trust Hitler. He was wrong. But I don’t think I am wrong about Stalin.’
9 March 1945
Tokyo hit by Operation Meetinghouse, the single most destructive bombing raid of this or any war. 16 square miles of central Tokyo annihilated, over 1 million made homeless, with an estimated 100,000 civilian deaths. (To put these figures into context, the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima some months later killed 70,000, and the one dropped on Nagasaki killed 35,000.)
2 August 1945
Stalin, Truman and Attlee sign Potsdam Agreement, which dishonestly promises an ‘orderly and humane’ transfer of Germans from central Europe. The agreement will in fact license untold suffering.
8 August 1945
USSR declares war on Japan.
15 August 1945
Japan surrenders. Historians differ on whether this is brought about by atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, or by USSR’s entry into war.
13 September 1945
Last surviving elements of Japanese Imperial Army surrender to British forces in Burma, after a war of great ferocity and bitterness. Britain grants Burma independence shortly afterwards, on 4 January 1948.
8 June 1946
Victory parade, for war originally begun to defend Poland, takes place in London. No Poles take part.