World war ii chronology--1940
JANUARY:
2: Fighting rages in bitter cold along Mannerheim Line.
8: Food rationing begins in Great Britain.
11: Finns announce destruction of entire Soviet division.
20: Russians attack Finnish units in the region of Lake Ladoga.
26: U.S. commercial treaty with Japan expires, Hull notifies Tokyo that trade will continue on day-today basis. Russian drive near Lake Ladoga collapses.
FEBRUARY:
9: Roosevelt announces that Sumner Welles will tour capitals at war in search of practical peace terms.
12: Expeditionary forces from Australia arrive at Suez.
17: British destroyer Cossack invades Norwegian waters to rescue 299 British POWs from German prison ship DKM Altmark. Norwegian Government lodges formal protest.
25: Sumner Welles arrives in Rome .
26: Russians push Finns back in drive along Mannerheirn Line.
MARCH:
2: Sumner Welles arrives in Berlin to talk peace with Adolf Hitler.
11: Sumner Welles arrives in London .
12: Finns agree to Stalin’s terms after Russians breach Mannerheim Line. Soviet Union takes 16,000 square miles, including Viipuri and the Karelian Isthmus . Finns living in ceded areas are advised that they will be allowed to resettle themselves in Finland .
18: Hitler and Mussolini hold much-publicized meeting at BrennerPass.
20: Daladier falls, and Reynaud becomes Premier of France with flat commitment to win the war.
30: Japanese set up new puppet Chinese regime at Nanking .
APRIL:
4: Chamberlain allots Churchill direction of British defense.
8: Allies announce that they have mined Norwegian coast to stop shipments of iron ore to Germany .
9: German forces invade Norway by sea and air at key points from Oslo to Narvik. Norwegians fight back, but Germans quickly take key airfields and harbors. Denmark is invaded at the same time, gives up without resistance.
10-19: British warships sink ten German destroyers in Battle of Narvik. British and French units land in Norway but are vastly outnumbered in almost every sector of the fighting.
17: U.S. , concerned about Japanese movements in western Pacific, warns Tokyo not to use European war as a cover for aggression.
30: In Norway Allies pull back after decisive defeat near Trondheim .
MAY:
1-3: Allies evacuate Namsos, and Norwegian army on Trondheim front gives up.
10: One of the most decisive days of the war. Hitler unleashes a shattering Offensive in the west. 75 divisions (10 armored and 6 motorized) and hundreds of planes support two major drives. While one force invades the Low Countries, the other strikes at France through the rugged hills of the Ardennes region, considered by the French high command to be impassable. German strategy is to flank the Maginot Line. Blitzkrieg moves so fast that the Germans break through Belgian fortifications along the MeuseRiver and the AlbertCanal on this first day. In London , Chamberlain resigns, and Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
11: Allied troops move into Belgium . German commandos take Fort Eben Emael, key to Belgian defenses.
13: German armor smash through thinly defended Ardennes . Churchill delivers his celebrated “blood, sweat and tears” speech.
14: Germans exploit their Ardennes break-through and cross the Meuse in force. Dutch surrender, and the German Air Force bombs Rotterdam, previously declared an open city. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people are killed during the attack. Queen Wilhelmina escapes to London. British Home Guard prepares for Nazi invasion.
17: Germans take Brussels and Antwerp. British begin to pull units back from their line in Belgium.
19: Germans drive deep into northern France. Weygand replaces Gamelin as supreme commander of Allied armies. Churchill tells Commons that French have pledged to “fight to the end.”
20: Germans armor reach Channel.
21: Germans take Abbeville and split the Allied forces.
23: Germans take Boulogne.
24: Germans take Calais.
26: British begin evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from beach at French port of Dunkirk.
28: King Leopold of Belgium orders his army to surrender.
31: Allied troops are ordered to leave Narvik in Norway as the disaster in France grows by the hour.
JUNE:
3: German planes bomb Paris.
4: Dunkirk evacuation ends as the last of the small boats from England leave the French coast under heavy fire. The operation has saved more than 300,000 British and French troops. Churchill tells the Commons and the world: “We shall never surrender.”
5: Battle of France begins.
10: Germans break through the Weygand Line. Mass exodus from Paris jams the roads leading south. Among the refugees are members of the French Government, which transfers its headquarters to Orleans. Italy declares war on France and Britain. In an address delivered at the University of Virginia, Roosevelt declares: “The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.”
11: Churchill confers with Reynaud at Briare and finds an atmosphere of defeatism. Weygand and Pétain are especially pessimistic.
12: Paris is declared an open city. Germans take Rouen and Rheims.
13: Germans cross Marne at Chiteau-Thierry, famous American sector in World War I. Reynaud asks Roosevelt to send “clouds of planes,” only to be told that the US does not have them. At a meeting in Tours, the French Premier informs Churchill that France may be forced to conclude a separate peace with Germany.
14: German troops enter Paris and parade triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées.
15: Germans capture Verdun. FDR sets up National Defense Research Committee and appoints Dr. Vannevar Bush as its chairman.
16: French resistance crumbles as Germans reach Loire. Reynaud rejects Churchill’s offer of common Franco-British citizenship and resigns in favor of Marshal Pétain.
17: Pétain asks Hitler for an armistice and tells the French people, “We must stop the fight.”
18: Churchill asks the British to rise to “their finest hour.” De Gaulle uses the BBC to appeal to the French to continue the fight. In Munich, Hitler and Mussolini confer on strategy. Molotov congratulates Hitler.
21: A triumphant Hitler presents surrender terms to French in historic railway carriage near Compiègne. France is to be divided into an occupied zone, including Paris and the Atlantic coastline, and an unoccupied zone over which Marshal Pétain will preside. French sign surrender the following day.
24: French sign armistice with Italy. Hitler declares that “the war in the West is won.”
25: Japan, emboldened by French collapse, demands right to send troops into French Indochina.
28: British recognize de Gaulle as “leader of the Free French.” Republican convention in Philadelphia nominates Wendell Willkie as 1940 candidate for President. Smith Act checks subversive activity in US.
30: Germans seize Channel Islands, the only British soil they will occupy in the course of the war.
JULY:
2 Pétain sets up headquarters of his regime at Vichy, famous spa.
3 British warships sink or damage elements of French Navy at Oran, Algeria, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans. 3 battleships and 1 carrier are destroyed during the attack, which embitters future Anglo-French relations.
4 British seize all French ships in British ports to keep them from joining Vichy. Italians start drive against British in Sudan.
5 Vichy regime breaks off diplomatic relations with London.
10 Battle of Britain begins as the German air force ranges over England's southern coast, hitting port facilities.
16 Hitler orders planning for Operations Sea Lion-invasion of Britain. Prince Fumimaro Konoye becomes Premier of Japan with a program of economy and peace.
18 Democratic convention in Chicago nominates FDR as candidate for an unprecedented third term. British close Burma Road, main supply route to China, as peace gesture to Japan.
19 Hitler, in wildly applauded speech in Reichstag, appeals to the British to realize that they cannot win the war and predicts that Churchill will seek refuge in Canada.
20 Roosevelt signs bill calling for two-ocean navy. $4 billion are earmarked for 200, including 7 new battleships.
21 Soviet Union absorbs Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
30 Harry Hopkins, special assistant to the President, arrives in Moscow for talks with Stalin.
AUGUST:
3 Italian forces invade British Somaliland from East Africa.
9 British garrison is withdrawn from Shanghai as Japanese moves in Far East become more menacing.
15 2,000 German planes open Operation Eagle, to drive RAF from the sky and prepare for invasion of Britain. Göring has some 2,500 planes for the battle, both bombers and fighters, while for defense the RAF can muster only 700 to 800 fighters.
17 Hitler declares Britain subject to total blockade. Battle of the Atlantic grows increasingly intense as convoys duel with U-boats.
18 FDR and Mackenzie King of Canada agree to set up a board for joint defense policy.
20 Battle of Britain rages on. Churchill salutes RAF with the words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
25 RAF raids Berlin for the first time.
29 French Equatorial Africa declares allegiance to de Gaulle and his "Free French" movement.
30 Hitler forces Rumania to cede territory to Hungary and Bulgaria.
SEPTEMBER:
3: Britain receives 50 overage destroyers from US in return for bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies.
4: Hull warns Japanese against aggression in Indochina. General Antonescu becomes the head of the Rumanian Government.
6: Congress appropriates funds for two-ocean navy. King Carol of Rumania abdicates throne, under pressure, in favor of his son Michael.
7: German Air Force opens "London Blitz.” Indiscriminate nighttime bombing kills over 400, injures over 1,600.
12: Ambassador Grew warns Hull of possible Japanese retaliation in case of U.S. oil embargo.
13: Italian forces invade Egypt from Libya under orders from Mussolini to drive British out and secure Suez Canal.
15: RAF attacks Continental ports and shipping from Boulogne to Antwerp, blasting “invasion coast” that Germans plan to use for Operation Sea Lion. German Air Force suffers prohibitive losses in the Battle of Britain. Churchill calls this “the culminating date” in the struggle for control of the air.
16: Selective Service is adopted in US. Men aged 21 to 26 are required to register for military training.
17: Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion. RAF victory over the German Air Force has made impossible any cross-Channel invasion of Britain.
23: De Gaulle, supported by ships of the Royal Navy, tries to take Dakar, French West Africa, but troops loyal to Vichy drive him off after brief fighting. British warships cripple the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar.
26: FDR proclaims embargo on export of scrap iron and steel to all nations outside the Western Hemisphere except Britain. Japanese, after extorting agreement from Vichy, send their troops into Indochina.
27: Japan, Germany, and Italy sign Tripartite Pact pledging joint action if any member goes to war with US.
29: US Marine detachment lands on Midway Island and begins erecting new defenses.
OCTOBER:
4: Hitler and Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass amid talk of a fundamental change in Axis strategy. With Britain undefeated but on the defensive, Axis attention shifts to the Mediterranean and the Balkans.
7: Germans seize Rumanian oil fields to ensure enough fuel to keep their war machine going.
8: Japanese ambassador to U.S., Nomura, calls embargo on iron and steel is an “unfriendly act.”
10: German Air Force resumes heavy attacks on London but is hampered by fall weather.
15: US embargo goes into effect.
16: Over 16 million Americans register under Selective Service.
18: British reopen Burma Road as Japanese become more menacing.
21: Churchill addresses French people over BBC and promises that they will be liberated one day.
24: Hitler confers with Pétain, who agrees to promote Nazi concept of New Order for Europe. Germany is to be dominant, France is to be a favored satellite of the Nazi state.
28: Hitler meets Mussolini in Florence. Italian troops in Albania cross the border into Greece.
29: First Selective Service numbers are drawn from goldfish bowl used for same purpose during World War I. British troops land in Greece.
31: RAF bombs oil tanks in Naples.
NOVEMBER:
1: Italian planes bomb Athens and Salonika and push their drive from Albania into Greece.
5: FDR wins a third term in a landslide victory over Willkie, who carries only 10 states.
8: RAF bombs Munich beer hall, scene of Nazi celebrations.
10: Chamberlain dies at his home in Hampshire. He had been “deceived and cheated by a wicked man,” Churchill says in reference to Chamberlain’s diplomatic dealings with Hitler.
11: Latin Quarter students begin organizing first resistance cells in occupied Paris. British planes blast Italian fleet anchored in Taranto harbor, and the Royal Navy gains almost complete domination of Mediterranean.
12: Molotov meets Hitler in Berlin. They fail to reach an agreement on stabilizing eastern Europe.
14: German bombers hit Coventry with terror bombing that destroys most of city.
19: Greek counterattack routs Italian invaders and forces them into disorganized retreat.
20: Hungary joins Axis.
23: Rumania joins Axis.
DECEMBER:
2: Greeks announce they have taken 5,000 prisoners on Albanian front.
3: Greeks capture Porto Edda in Albania and claim to have taken 28,000 prisoners.
6: Greek victories cause resignation of Marshal Badoglio as chief of staff of the Italian Army.
9: British Army of the Nile under Wavell counterattacks against Italian troops in North Africa.
11: Army of the Nile takes Sidi Barrani, capturing entire Italian garrison.
18: Hitler issues “Barbarossa” directive to his top military men. He says: “The German armed forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign before the end of the war against England.” He orders absolute secrecy in military preparations.
20: US sets up Office of Production Management under William S. Knudsen to expedite shipments of material aid to Britain.
21: Hitler denounces US policy and calls it “moral aggression.”
23: Anthony Eden, who resigned from the Chamberlain Government because he could not accept appeasement, returns to Foreign Office under Churchill. Germans execute first Parisian for anti-German activity.
29: FDR delivers a fireside chat in which he terms the Axis a real threat to America and calls upon Americans to turn their country into an “arsenal of democracy.”
2: Fighting rages in bitter cold along Mannerheim Line.
8: Food rationing begins in Great Britain.
11: Finns announce destruction of entire Soviet division.
20: Russians attack Finnish units in the region of Lake Ladoga.
26: U.S. commercial treaty with Japan expires, Hull notifies Tokyo that trade will continue on day-today basis. Russian drive near Lake Ladoga collapses.
FEBRUARY:
9: Roosevelt announces that Sumner Welles will tour capitals at war in search of practical peace terms.
12: Expeditionary forces from Australia arrive at Suez.
17: British destroyer Cossack invades Norwegian waters to rescue 299 British POWs from German prison ship DKM Altmark. Norwegian Government lodges formal protest.
25: Sumner Welles arrives in Rome .
26: Russians push Finns back in drive along Mannerheirn Line.
MARCH:
2: Sumner Welles arrives in Berlin to talk peace with Adolf Hitler.
11: Sumner Welles arrives in London .
12: Finns agree to Stalin’s terms after Russians breach Mannerheim Line. Soviet Union takes 16,000 square miles, including Viipuri and the Karelian Isthmus . Finns living in ceded areas are advised that they will be allowed to resettle themselves in Finland .
18: Hitler and Mussolini hold much-publicized meeting at BrennerPass.
20: Daladier falls, and Reynaud becomes Premier of France with flat commitment to win the war.
30: Japanese set up new puppet Chinese regime at Nanking .
APRIL:
4: Chamberlain allots Churchill direction of British defense.
8: Allies announce that they have mined Norwegian coast to stop shipments of iron ore to Germany .
9: German forces invade Norway by sea and air at key points from Oslo to Narvik. Norwegians fight back, but Germans quickly take key airfields and harbors. Denmark is invaded at the same time, gives up without resistance.
10-19: British warships sink ten German destroyers in Battle of Narvik. British and French units land in Norway but are vastly outnumbered in almost every sector of the fighting.
17: U.S. , concerned about Japanese movements in western Pacific, warns Tokyo not to use European war as a cover for aggression.
30: In Norway Allies pull back after decisive defeat near Trondheim .
MAY:
1-3: Allies evacuate Namsos, and Norwegian army on Trondheim front gives up.
10: One of the most decisive days of the war. Hitler unleashes a shattering Offensive in the west. 75 divisions (10 armored and 6 motorized) and hundreds of planes support two major drives. While one force invades the Low Countries, the other strikes at France through the rugged hills of the Ardennes region, considered by the French high command to be impassable. German strategy is to flank the Maginot Line. Blitzkrieg moves so fast that the Germans break through Belgian fortifications along the MeuseRiver and the AlbertCanal on this first day. In London , Chamberlain resigns, and Churchill becomes Prime Minister.
11: Allied troops move into Belgium . German commandos take Fort Eben Emael, key to Belgian defenses.
13: German armor smash through thinly defended Ardennes . Churchill delivers his celebrated “blood, sweat and tears” speech.
14: Germans exploit their Ardennes break-through and cross the Meuse in force. Dutch surrender, and the German Air Force bombs Rotterdam, previously declared an open city. Between 30,000 and 40,000 people are killed during the attack. Queen Wilhelmina escapes to London. British Home Guard prepares for Nazi invasion.
17: Germans take Brussels and Antwerp. British begin to pull units back from their line in Belgium.
19: Germans drive deep into northern France. Weygand replaces Gamelin as supreme commander of Allied armies. Churchill tells Commons that French have pledged to “fight to the end.”
20: Germans armor reach Channel.
21: Germans take Abbeville and split the Allied forces.
23: Germans take Boulogne.
24: Germans take Calais.
26: British begin evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from beach at French port of Dunkirk.
28: King Leopold of Belgium orders his army to surrender.
31: Allied troops are ordered to leave Narvik in Norway as the disaster in France grows by the hour.
JUNE:
3: German planes bomb Paris.
4: Dunkirk evacuation ends as the last of the small boats from England leave the French coast under heavy fire. The operation has saved more than 300,000 British and French troops. Churchill tells the Commons and the world: “We shall never surrender.”
5: Battle of France begins.
10: Germans break through the Weygand Line. Mass exodus from Paris jams the roads leading south. Among the refugees are members of the French Government, which transfers its headquarters to Orleans. Italy declares war on France and Britain. In an address delivered at the University of Virginia, Roosevelt declares: “The hand that held the dagger has struck it into the back of its neighbor.”
11: Churchill confers with Reynaud at Briare and finds an atmosphere of defeatism. Weygand and Pétain are especially pessimistic.
12: Paris is declared an open city. Germans take Rouen and Rheims.
13: Germans cross Marne at Chiteau-Thierry, famous American sector in World War I. Reynaud asks Roosevelt to send “clouds of planes,” only to be told that the US does not have them. At a meeting in Tours, the French Premier informs Churchill that France may be forced to conclude a separate peace with Germany.
14: German troops enter Paris and parade triumphantly down the Champs-Élysées.
15: Germans capture Verdun. FDR sets up National Defense Research Committee and appoints Dr. Vannevar Bush as its chairman.
16: French resistance crumbles as Germans reach Loire. Reynaud rejects Churchill’s offer of common Franco-British citizenship and resigns in favor of Marshal Pétain.
17: Pétain asks Hitler for an armistice and tells the French people, “We must stop the fight.”
18: Churchill asks the British to rise to “their finest hour.” De Gaulle uses the BBC to appeal to the French to continue the fight. In Munich, Hitler and Mussolini confer on strategy. Molotov congratulates Hitler.
21: A triumphant Hitler presents surrender terms to French in historic railway carriage near Compiègne. France is to be divided into an occupied zone, including Paris and the Atlantic coastline, and an unoccupied zone over which Marshal Pétain will preside. French sign surrender the following day.
24: French sign armistice with Italy. Hitler declares that “the war in the West is won.”
25: Japan, emboldened by French collapse, demands right to send troops into French Indochina.
28: British recognize de Gaulle as “leader of the Free French.” Republican convention in Philadelphia nominates Wendell Willkie as 1940 candidate for President. Smith Act checks subversive activity in US.
30: Germans seize Channel Islands, the only British soil they will occupy in the course of the war.
JULY:
2 Pétain sets up headquarters of his regime at Vichy, famous spa.
3 British warships sink or damage elements of French Navy at Oran, Algeria, to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Germans. 3 battleships and 1 carrier are destroyed during the attack, which embitters future Anglo-French relations.
4 British seize all French ships in British ports to keep them from joining Vichy. Italians start drive against British in Sudan.
5 Vichy regime breaks off diplomatic relations with London.
10 Battle of Britain begins as the German air force ranges over England's southern coast, hitting port facilities.
16 Hitler orders planning for Operations Sea Lion-invasion of Britain. Prince Fumimaro Konoye becomes Premier of Japan with a program of economy and peace.
18 Democratic convention in Chicago nominates FDR as candidate for an unprecedented third term. British close Burma Road, main supply route to China, as peace gesture to Japan.
19 Hitler, in wildly applauded speech in Reichstag, appeals to the British to realize that they cannot win the war and predicts that Churchill will seek refuge in Canada.
20 Roosevelt signs bill calling for two-ocean navy. $4 billion are earmarked for 200, including 7 new battleships.
21 Soviet Union absorbs Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.
30 Harry Hopkins, special assistant to the President, arrives in Moscow for talks with Stalin.
AUGUST:
3 Italian forces invade British Somaliland from East Africa.
9 British garrison is withdrawn from Shanghai as Japanese moves in Far East become more menacing.
15 2,000 German planes open Operation Eagle, to drive RAF from the sky and prepare for invasion of Britain. Göring has some 2,500 planes for the battle, both bombers and fighters, while for defense the RAF can muster only 700 to 800 fighters.
17 Hitler declares Britain subject to total blockade. Battle of the Atlantic grows increasingly intense as convoys duel with U-boats.
18 FDR and Mackenzie King of Canada agree to set up a board for joint defense policy.
20 Battle of Britain rages on. Churchill salutes RAF with the words: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
25 RAF raids Berlin for the first time.
29 French Equatorial Africa declares allegiance to de Gaulle and his "Free French" movement.
30 Hitler forces Rumania to cede territory to Hungary and Bulgaria.
SEPTEMBER:
3: Britain receives 50 overage destroyers from US in return for bases in Newfoundland and the West Indies.
4: Hull warns Japanese against aggression in Indochina. General Antonescu becomes the head of the Rumanian Government.
6: Congress appropriates funds for two-ocean navy. King Carol of Rumania abdicates throne, under pressure, in favor of his son Michael.
7: German Air Force opens "London Blitz.” Indiscriminate nighttime bombing kills over 400, injures over 1,600.
12: Ambassador Grew warns Hull of possible Japanese retaliation in case of U.S. oil embargo.
13: Italian forces invade Egypt from Libya under orders from Mussolini to drive British out and secure Suez Canal.
15: RAF attacks Continental ports and shipping from Boulogne to Antwerp, blasting “invasion coast” that Germans plan to use for Operation Sea Lion. German Air Force suffers prohibitive losses in the Battle of Britain. Churchill calls this “the culminating date” in the struggle for control of the air.
16: Selective Service is adopted in US. Men aged 21 to 26 are required to register for military training.
17: Hitler postpones Operation Sea Lion. RAF victory over the German Air Force has made impossible any cross-Channel invasion of Britain.
23: De Gaulle, supported by ships of the Royal Navy, tries to take Dakar, French West Africa, but troops loyal to Vichy drive him off after brief fighting. British warships cripple the French battleship Richelieu at Dakar.
26: FDR proclaims embargo on export of scrap iron and steel to all nations outside the Western Hemisphere except Britain. Japanese, after extorting agreement from Vichy, send their troops into Indochina.
27: Japan, Germany, and Italy sign Tripartite Pact pledging joint action if any member goes to war with US.
29: US Marine detachment lands on Midway Island and begins erecting new defenses.
OCTOBER:
4: Hitler and Mussolini meet at Brenner Pass amid talk of a fundamental change in Axis strategy. With Britain undefeated but on the defensive, Axis attention shifts to the Mediterranean and the Balkans.
7: Germans seize Rumanian oil fields to ensure enough fuel to keep their war machine going.
8: Japanese ambassador to U.S., Nomura, calls embargo on iron and steel is an “unfriendly act.”
10: German Air Force resumes heavy attacks on London but is hampered by fall weather.
15: US embargo goes into effect.
16: Over 16 million Americans register under Selective Service.
18: British reopen Burma Road as Japanese become more menacing.
21: Churchill addresses French people over BBC and promises that they will be liberated one day.
24: Hitler confers with Pétain, who agrees to promote Nazi concept of New Order for Europe. Germany is to be dominant, France is to be a favored satellite of the Nazi state.
28: Hitler meets Mussolini in Florence. Italian troops in Albania cross the border into Greece.
29: First Selective Service numbers are drawn from goldfish bowl used for same purpose during World War I. British troops land in Greece.
31: RAF bombs oil tanks in Naples.
NOVEMBER:
1: Italian planes bomb Athens and Salonika and push their drive from Albania into Greece.
5: FDR wins a third term in a landslide victory over Willkie, who carries only 10 states.
8: RAF bombs Munich beer hall, scene of Nazi celebrations.
10: Chamberlain dies at his home in Hampshire. He had been “deceived and cheated by a wicked man,” Churchill says in reference to Chamberlain’s diplomatic dealings with Hitler.
11: Latin Quarter students begin organizing first resistance cells in occupied Paris. British planes blast Italian fleet anchored in Taranto harbor, and the Royal Navy gains almost complete domination of Mediterranean.
12: Molotov meets Hitler in Berlin. They fail to reach an agreement on stabilizing eastern Europe.
14: German bombers hit Coventry with terror bombing that destroys most of city.
19: Greek counterattack routs Italian invaders and forces them into disorganized retreat.
20: Hungary joins Axis.
23: Rumania joins Axis.
DECEMBER:
2: Greeks announce they have taken 5,000 prisoners on Albanian front.
3: Greeks capture Porto Edda in Albania and claim to have taken 28,000 prisoners.
6: Greek victories cause resignation of Marshal Badoglio as chief of staff of the Italian Army.
9: British Army of the Nile under Wavell counterattacks against Italian troops in North Africa.
11: Army of the Nile takes Sidi Barrani, capturing entire Italian garrison.
18: Hitler issues “Barbarossa” directive to his top military men. He says: “The German armed forces must be prepared to crush Soviet Russia in a quick campaign before the end of the war against England.” He orders absolute secrecy in military preparations.
20: US sets up Office of Production Management under William S. Knudsen to expedite shipments of material aid to Britain.
21: Hitler denounces US policy and calls it “moral aggression.”
23: Anthony Eden, who resigned from the Chamberlain Government because he could not accept appeasement, returns to Foreign Office under Churchill. Germans execute first Parisian for anti-German activity.
29: FDR delivers a fireside chat in which he terms the Axis a real threat to America and calls upon Americans to turn their country into an “arsenal of democracy.”
