Timeline of World War II (1940)


This is a timeline of World War II events that took place in 1940, the first full year of the second global war of the 20th century.

January

  • 1 January: 10,000 Japanese troops launch a counter-attack in eastern Shanxi Province in China in an attempt to relieve the nearly-surrounded Japanese 36th Division.
  • 2 January: The Soviet offensive in Finland is halted by several Finnish victories; numerous Soviet tanks are destroyed.
  • 7 January
  • * Rationing of basic foodstuffs is established in the UK.
  • * A major Finnish victory at Suomussalmi is reported; one whole Soviet division is eliminated, and again numbers of military vehicles are captured.
  • * General Semyon Timoshenko takes command of Soviet Army forces in Finland.
  • 10 January: Mechelen incident: a German plane, carrying plans for Fall Gelb, crashes in neutral Belgium.
  • 16 January: Captured documents reveal Hitler's plans for the invasion of Scandinavia and a postponement of the invasion of France and the Low Countries until the spring, when the weather is more compatible for an invasion.
  • 17 January: The Soviets are driven back in Finland and retaliate with heavy air attacks.
  • 20 January: German submarine U-44 torpedoes and sinks Greek steamer Ekatontarchos Dracoulis off Portugal at 04:15, killing 6. U-44 had been hunting for Ekatontarchos Dracoulis for the past 6 hours.
  • 21 January: A U-boat sinks British destroyer and its crew of 135 are all lost.
  • 24 January: Reinhard Heydrich is appointed by Göring for the solution to the "Jewish Question".
  • 27 January: Germany makes final plans for the invasion of Denmark and Norway.

February

  • 1 February: The Japanese Diet announces a record high budget with over half its expenditures being military.
  • 5 February: Britain and France decide to intervene in Norway to cut off the iron ore trade in anticipation of an expected German occupation and ostensibly to open a route to assist Finland. The operation is scheduled to start about March 20.
  • 9 February: Erich von Manstein is placed in command of German XXXVIII Armour Corps, removing him from planning the French invasion.
  • 10 February: USSR agrees to supply grain and raw materials to Germany in a new trade treaty.
  • 14 February: British government calls for volunteers to fight in Finland.
  • 15 February
  • * The Soviet army captures Summa, an important defence point in Finland, thereby breaking through the Mannerheim Line.
  • * Hitler orders unrestricted submarine warfare.
  • 16 February: British destroyer forcibly removes 303 British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters, sparking the Altmark Incident.
  • 17 February
  • * The Finns continue retreat from the Mannerheim Line.
  • * Manstein presents to Hitler his plans for invading France via the Ardennes forest.
  • 21 February: General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst is placed in command of the upcoming German invasion of Norway.

March

  • 1 March: Adolf Hitler directs his generals in planning the invasion of Denmark and Norway.
  • 3 March: Soviets begin attacks on Viipuri, Finland's second largest city.
  • 5 March: Finland tells the Soviets they will agree to their terms for ending the war. The next day they send emissaries to Moscow to negotiate a peace treaty.
  • 11 March: Meat rationing starts in Britain.
  • 12 March: In Moscow, Finland signs a peace treaty with the Soviet Union after 105 days of conflict. The Finns are forced to give up significant territory in exchange for peace.
  • 16 March: A German air raid on Scapa Flow causes the first British civilian casualties.
  • 18 March: Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner pass on the Austrian border; Mussolini agrees with Hitler that Italy will enter the war "at an opportune moment".
  • 21 March: Paul Reynaud becomes Prime Minister of France following Daladier's resignation the previous day.
  • 28 March: Britain and France make a formal agreement that neither country will seek a separate peace with Germany.
  • 29 March: The Soviets want new territories. Molotov speaks to the Supreme Soviet, about "an unsettled dispute", the question of Romanian Bessarabia.
  • 30 March
  • * Japan establishes a puppet regime at Nanking, China, under Wang Jingwei.
  • * Britain undertakes secret reconnaissance flights to photograph the targeted areas inside the Soviet Union in preparation for Operation Pike, utilising high-altitude, high-speed stereoscopic photography pioneered by Sidney Cotton.

April

May

  • 1 May: Allies begin evacuating Norwegian ports; the efforts will continue until June.
  • 5 May: Norwegian government in exile established in London.
  • 7 May: The Norway Debate begins in the House of Commons.
  • 8 May: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain barely survives a confidence vote in the House of Commons.
  • 9 May: Conscription in Britain extended to age 36.
  • 10 May
  • * Germany invades France and The Benelux; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom upon the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. The United Kingdom invades Iceland.
  • * Belgium declares a state of emergency. Churchill is called on to form a wartime coalition government.
  • * The massive German offensive against the Western front: The invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France begins. In a bold stroke, German paratroops capture the Belgian fort Eben Emael.
  • * The Battle for The Hague becomes the first failed paratrooper attack in history as the Dutch quickly defeat the invaders.
  • 11 May
  • *Luxembourg is occupied by the Germans.
  • *Churchill offers the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, who is now living in the Netherlands, asylum in the United Kingdom; he declines.
  • 12 May
  • * The Belgians blow up all the bridges over the Meuse River to halt the German advance.
  • * Battle of Hannut begins in Belgium.
  • 13 May
  • * Dutch government-in-exile established in London.
  • * General Heinz Guderian's Panzer corps breaks through at Sedan, France.
  • * Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to asylum in the United Kingdom.
  • * Churchill's "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech in Commons.
  • * The Dutch lose the Battle of the Grebbeberg to the Germans.
  • 14 May
  • * The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers is announced by the new Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden. It is mostly composed of the elderly and retired.
  • * Churchill asks President Roosevelt and Canada for aid in these dark days. Outlines of the new British coalition, which includes Labour, Liberal, and Conservative members, is made public.
  • * The Dutch defeat the Germans at the Battle of the Afsluitdijk.
  • * The Rotterdam Blitz led to German success in the Battle of Rotterdam, while causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. The Netherlands decides to surrender with the exception of Zeeland.
  • 15 May
  • * The capitulation of the Dutch army is signed.
  • * In a response to the Rotterdam Blitz, the first large-scale bombing during World War II#Allied response|strategic bombing of World War II] targets Gelsenkirchen, followed by Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Hanover during the next days.
  • * German forces cross over the Meuse River.
  • 16 May
  • * Churchill visits Paris and hears that the French war is as good as over.
  • * The Belgian government leaves Belgium for Bordeaux in France, as the Belgian army retreats. It later moves to London.
  • 17 May
  • * Germans enter Brussels and also take Antwerp.
  • * Paul Reynaud forms new French government, including 84-year-old Marshal Pétain, the French hero of World War I.
  • 18 May
  • * Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander of the French armed forces.
  • * Antwerp captured.
  • * The Germans win the Battle of Zeeland.
  • 19 May
  • * Amiens in France is besieged by German troops; Rommel's forces surround Arras; other German forces reach Noyelles on the Channel.
  • * The British complete their invasion of Iceland.
  • 20 May: General Guderian's Panzer groups take Abbeville, threatening Allied forces in the area.
  • 23 May: Oswald Mosley, leader of the pre-war British fascists, is jailed; he and his wife will spend the war’s duration in prison.
  • 24 May: The British make a final decision to cease operations in Norway.
  • 25 May
  • * The Allied forces, British and French alike, retreat to Dunkirk.
  • * Hitler orders a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allows Hermann Göring to use the Luftwaffe to attack. British R.A.F. defends the beachhead.
  • * Sporadic Luftwaffe bombings in England.
  • * Boulogne-sur-Mer surrenders to the Germans.
  • * Soviet Union is preparing a total takeover in the Baltic States organizing and staging conflicts between the Baltic States and the USSR. Soviet government accuses Lithuania of kidnapping Soviet soldiers.
  • 25-28 May: 86 Belgian civilians are murdered by German forces in the village of Vinkt.
  • 26 May
  • * The Patrol vessel A4 arrives in Plymouth, evacuating the final 40 tonnes of national gold reserves out of Belgium.
  • * Calais surrenders to the Germans.
  • * Operation Dynamo, the Allied evacuation of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk, begins. The move will last until June 3 under ferocious bombardment by the Luftwaffe.
  • 28 May: Belgium surrenders to the Germans; King Leopold III of Belgium surrenders and is interned.
  • 30 May: Crucial British Cabinet meeting: Churchill wins a vote on continuing the war, in spite of vigorous arguments by Lord Halifax and Chamberlain.
  • 31 May: The Japanese heavily bomb the Chinese Nationalist capital of Chongqing, on the upper Yangtze.

June

  • 3 June
  • * Last day of Operation Dynamo. 224,686 British and 121,445 French and Belgian troops have been evacuated.
  • * Germans bomb Paris.
  • 4 June: Winston Churchill delivers his, "We shall fight on the beaches...we shall never surrender" speech to the House of Commons.
  • 7 June: German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst sink the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious and two destroyers off Norway; the British ships have had no air cover.
  • 9 June: Red Army provokes conflicts on the Latvian border.
  • 10 June: Italy declares war on France and the United Kingdom. Norway surrenders after 2 months of combat, the longest of any nation that had been invaded by Germany. King Haakon and his government had evacuated to Britain three days previously. French government moves to Tours.
  • 11 June: The Siege of Malta begins.
  • 12 June: More than 10,000 British soldiers of the 51st (Highland) Division are captured at Saint-Valéry-en-Caux.
  • 13 June: The French government moves again, this time to Bordeaux.
  • 14 June
  • * Paris occupied by German troops; Elements of the French Navy based in Toulon carried out offensive operations against Italian targets along the Ligurian coast.
  • * A total military blockade on the Baltic States by the Soviet Baltic Fleet. Soviet troops along the Baltic borders are ready to organise communist coups in the Baltic States. Soviet bombers shoot down a Finnish passenger airplane Kaleva flying from Tallinn to Helsinki and carrying three diplomatic pouches from the U.S. legations in Tallinn, Riga and Helsinki.
  • 15 June
  • * Eight-hour ultimatum to surrender is given to Lithuania by the Soviets. President Smetona escapes from the country so the takeover is not possible to do in a formally legal way. Soviet troops enter Lithuania and attack Latvian border guards.
  • * Start of the evacuation of British troops from ports in western France in Operation Aerial.
  • 16 June
  • * Philippe Pétain becomes premier of France upon the resignation of Reynaud's government.
  • * The French sloop La Curieuse forces the Italian submarine Provano to surface and then sinks it by ramming.
  • * Soviet Union gives eight-hour ultimatum to Latvia and Estonia to surrender.
  • 17 June
  • * Sinking of liner RMS Lancastria off St Nazaire while being used as a British troopship— 5000-7000 are killed in Britain's worst maritime disaster.
  • * Soviet troops enter Latvia and Estonia.
  • 18 June
  • * General De Gaulle forms the Comité français de la Libération nationale, a French government in exile.
  • * Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are occupied by the Soviet Union.
  • 20 June: The French seek an armistice with the Italians.
  • 21 June
  • * Franco-German armistice negotiations begin at Compiègne.
  • * Elements of two Italian armies cross into France during Italian invasion of France.
  • * The French battleship Lorraine opened fire on the Italian port of Bardia in Italian North Africa. During some of the last actions of the French against the Italians, French naval aircraft attacked Taranto and Livorno in mainland Italy.
  • * Soviet-led coups in the Baltic States. In the only military resistance in Tallinn, 2 die on Estonian side and about 10 on the Soviet side.
  • 22 June: Franco-German armistice signed.
  • 24 June: Franco-Italian armistice signed.
  • 25 June
  • * France officially surrenders to Germany at 01:35.
  • * Last major evacuation of Operation Aerial; 191,870 Allied soldiers, airmen and some civilians had escaped from France.
  • 26 June: The Soviet Union sends an ultimatum demanding Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina from Romania.
  • 27 June: Romanians propose negotiations. Molotov replies that the demands are land concessions or war. New ultimatum from the Soviets to the Romanians.
  • 28 June
  • * General De Gaulle recognised by British as leader of Free French.
  • * Marshal Italo Balbo, Commander-in-Chief of Italian North Africa, is accidentally killed in a "friendly fire incident" by Italian anti-aircraft fire at Tobruk, Libya.
  • * The Red Army occupies Romanian Bessarabia and the northern part of Bukovina.
  • * The Luftwaffe bombs the demilitarised British Channel Islands, they had not been informed of the demilitarization. In Guernsey, 33 are killed and 67 injured, in Jersey, 9 are killed and many are injured.
  • * Axis and Allied convoys clash south-west of Crete.
  • 29 June: Japanese Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita announces Japans intention to establish a bloc of Asian nations led by the Japanese and free from western powers.
  • 30 June: Germany invades the Channel Islands.

July

August

  • 1-31 August: The so-called Spéngelskrich begins in occupied Luxembourg as civilians wear patriotic lapel badges prominently, in defiance of Nazi attempts to "Germanize" the territory.
  • 1 August
  • * Hitler sets 15 September as the date for Operation Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain.
  • * Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov reaffirms Molotov–Ribbentrop pact in the Supreme Soviet while verbally attacking both Britain and the USA. He also asserts that the boundaries of the Soviet Union are moved to the shores of the Baltic Sea.
  • * The Italian Royal Navy establishes its BETASOM submarine base in Bordeaux and joins the "Battle of the Atlantic."
  • 1-4 August: Operation Hurry, the first of the Malta Convoys, is accomplished.
  • 2 August
  • * General Charles de Gaulle sentenced to death in absentia by a French military court.
  • * The USSR annexes Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina.
  • 3 August: The USSR formally annexes Lithuania.
  • 4 August: Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi invade and occupy British Somaliland during the East African Campaign.
  • 5 August
  • * Failure to achieve air superiority and bad weather in the Channel results in a postponement of the invasion of Great Britain.
  • * The USSR formally annexes Latvia.
  • 6 August: The USSR formally annexes Estonia.
  • 11-15 August: Battle of Tug Argan fought in British Somaliland during the Italian invasion. To avoid encirclement, the British withdraw.
  • 13 August: This is "Adler Tag" or "Eagle Day". Hermann Göring starts a two-week assault on British airfields in preparation for invasion.
  • 14 August: British scientist Sir Henry Tizard leaves for the United States on the Tizard Mission, giving over to the Americans a number of top secret British technologies including the magnetron, the secret device at the heart of radar. Radar is already proving itself in the defence of Britain.
  • 15 August
  • * RAF victories over the Luftwaffe continue, in a wide-ranging fight along the East coast. British fighter aircraft production begins to accelerate.
  • * Sinking of the Greek cruiser Elli by an Italian submarine on 15 August 1940 at the harbour of Tinos.
  • 16 August
  • * The Battle of Britain continues; Germans are hampered by poor aircraft range and British extensive use of RADAR.
  • * A first draft of the Destroyers for Bases Agreement by the US and Britain is made public.
  • 17 August: Hitler declares a blockade of the British Isles.
  • 18 August: Heavy fighting in the Battle of Britain; Germans suffering severe losses on bomber formations. Göring declares cowardice among his fighter pilots and orders them to closely guard the bombers, further restricting their capabilities.
  • 19 August: Italian forces take Berbera, the capital of British Somaliland and the British defenders flee to Aden. The fall of Berbera completes the invasion of the British colony. By the end of the month, the Italians control British Somaliland and several towns and forts along the border with Sudan and Kenya including Kassala, Gallabat, and Moyale.
  • 20 August
  • * Italy announces a blockade of British ports in the Mediterranean area.
  • * Churchill's speech "Never was so much owed by so many to so few" speech delivered to the House of Commons.
  • * Chinese Communists launch the Hundred Regiments Offensive against the Japanese in North China.
  • 22 August: Germans are now shelling Dover and the nearby coastal area with long-range artillery.
  • 24 August: German aircraft mistakenly bomb a church in Cripplegate, accidentally dictating the future shape of the Battle of Britain.
  • 25 August: Churchill orders the bombing of Berlin in retaliation for the previous night's bombing of Cripplegate.
  • 26 August: Both London and Berlin are bombed, Berlin for the first time.
  • 27 August: Douala in French Cameroon is captured by Free France, and soon afterwards the entire colony is captured as well.
  • 30 August
  • * The bombing of England continues; London is now bombed in retaliation for the bombing of Berlin; thus, the beginning of "the London Blitz."
  • * Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini dictated the so-called Second Vienna Award which forced Romania to hand over the Northern Transylvania to Hungary.
  • 31 August
  • * Luftwaffe attacks on British airfields continue, as well as on London. Attacks on Radar installations prove ineffective.
  • * Two Royal Navy destroyers are sunk off the Dutch coast in the so-called "Texel Disaster".

September

October

  • 1-31 October: The United States separates the Corps Areas established in 1921 to perform the administrative tasks of the various regions of the US from the four Field Armies that had been established in 1932.
  • 1 October: Chinese Nationalist and Chinese Communists fight each other in southern China. Meanwhile, Japanese forces have a setback at Changsha.
  • 2 October: The bombing of London continues throughout the month.
  • 3 October: Warsaw's Jews are directed to move into the Warsaw Ghetto.
  • 4 October: Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass to discuss the prospects in the war.
  • 7 October: Responding to a Romanian request made on 7 September, Germany deploys a military mission to Romania to provide training for the Romanian Army and guard the Romanian oilfields.
  • 9 October: Neville Chamberlain resigns from the House of Commons for health reasons; Winston Churchill is elected head of the Conservative Party.
  • 12 October
  • * Any German invasion of Britain is postponed until spring 1941 at the earliest.
  • * The Royal Navy clash with and defeat several Italian ships which attacked them after a convoy mission to Malta.
  • 13 October: British civilians are still being killed by German bombs though the attacks have dropped off significantly.
  • 14 October: Balham station disaster. German bomb pierces 32 feet underground killing 66 people.
  • 15 October
  • * Clarence Addison Dykstra becomes Director of Selective Service in the United States.
  • * Mussolini and his closest advisers decide to invade Greece.
  • 16 October: Draft registration begins in the United States.
  • 19 October: The Italians bomb Bahrain.
  • 20 October: Italian aircraft bomb Cairo, Egypt and American-operated oil refineries in the British Protectorate of Bahrain.
  • 21 October: Liverpool is bombed for the 200th time.
  • 23 October: Adolf Hitler meets with Franco at Hendaye, near the Spanish-French border; little is accomplished, and least of all Hitler's hope to convince Franco to enter the war on the Axis side.
  • 24 October
  • * After meeting with Franco, Hitler goes to Montoire where a meeting with Philippe Pétain took place signifying the start of organised French collaboration with the Nazi regime.
  • * The Italian Air Corps sees its first action during the Battle of Britain.
  • 25 October: Berlin and Hamburg are bombed heavily.
  • 28 October: At about 03:00 am the Italian ambassador to Greece issues ultimatum to Greece and Greek Prime Minister Metaxas replies: "So it is war". The Italian Royal Army launches attacks into Greece from Italian-held Albania. Hitler is angered at the initiative of his ally.
  • 29 October
  • * Very heavy convoy losses during this period as numbers of U-boats increase.
  • * The first number drawings for US Selective Service Act draftees.
  • 30 October: President Roosevelt, in the middle of an election campaign, promises not to send "our boys" to war.
  • 31 October: The Warsaw District government moves all Jews living in Warsaw to the ghettos.

November

  • 1 November: Turkey declared neutrality in the Italo-Greek war.
  • 2 November: The Italian advance into Greece continues. Vovousa is captured and Italian aircraft bomb Salonika.
  • 5 November
  • * President Roosevelt wins a third term. The British see the event as promising of more help from the US.
  • * HMS Jervis Bay, a merchant cruiser, is sunk on convoy duty, but much of the convoy escapes. The loss becomes a media event.
  • 7 November: It becomes clear that Ireland will refuse to allow the United Kingdom to use its ports as naval bases.
  • 8 November: The Battle of Elaia–Kalamas ends and the Italians end their futile offensive in Greece.
  • 9 November: Neville Chamberlain dies.
  • 11 November: British naval forces launch attack against Italian navy at Taranto. Swordfish bombers from damage three battleships, two cruisers and multiple auxiliary craft. The event secures British supply lines in the Mediterranean. The British success will be studied by Japanese military already preparing for an attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • 12 November
  • * Molotov meets Hitler and Ribbentrop in Berlin. New World order is under discussion. Molotov expresses Soviet interest in Finland, Bulgaria, Romania, Dardanelles and Bosporus, but Hitler talks along broad lines about worldwide spheres of influence between Russia, Germany, Italy and Japan.
  • * In the Battle of Gabon, British forces finish wresting central Africa from the Vichy French.
  • 13 November
  • * Molotov meets Hitler again asking acceptance to liquidate Finland. Hitler now resists every attempt to expand Soviet influence in Europe. He sees Britain as defeated and offers India to the Soviet Union.
  • * The Battle of Pindus ends in a Greek victory.
  • 14 November
  • * A heavy night raid on Coventry. Coventry Cathedral is destroyed and the medieval centre of the city is levelled.
  • * The Greek counter-offensive against the Italians begins.
  • 15 November: The Soviet Union is invited to join Tripartite Pact and to share in the spoils of British Empire. Warsaw's Jewish ghetto is cordoned off from the rest of the city.
  • 16 November: Churchill orders some British troops in North Africa to be sent to Greece, despite concerns by his military leaders that they are needed in the current campaign against the Italians in North Africa.
  • 19 November: The Greeks continue to advance, and evict Italian troops from Greek soil.
  • 20 November: Hungary signs the Tripartite Pact.
  • 21 November: The Belgian government, in exile in Britain, declares war on Italy.
  • 22 November: Fall of Korytsa to the Greeks.
  • 23 November: Romania signs the Tripartite Pact.
  • 24 November: The Slovak Republic signs the Tripartite Pact.
  • 25 November: The Soviet Union gives her terms to join the Tripartite Pact including substantial new territorial gains for Russia.
  • 29 November: Liverpool Blitz: A massive overnight bombing raid results in the Durning Road tragedy
  • 30 November: A large bombing raid on Southampton in southern England; the city is hit again the next night, followed by Bristol on 2 December, and Birmingham on the 3rd.

December

  • 1-8 December: Greek forces continue to drive the Italian armies back, capturing the cities of Pogradec, Sarandë, and Gjirokastër.
  • 1 December: Bombing raids are exchanged throughout the month between Germany and Britain. First Germany bombs, then Britain.
  • 5 December: The RAF bombs Düsseldorf and Turin.
  • 6-9 December: British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launch Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces in Egypt. The Italians have seven infantry divisions and the Maletti Group in fortified defensive positions. Initial attacks are launched against the five Italian camps around and south of Sidi Barrani. The camps are overrun, Italian General Pietro Maletti is killed, and the Maletti Group, the 1st Libyan Division, the 2nd Libyan Division, and the 4th Blackshirt Division are all but destroyed. The remaining Italian units in Egypt are forced to withdraw towards Libya.
  • 8 December: Francisco Franco rules out Spanish entry into the war; the immediate result is that Hitler is forced to cancel an attack on Gibraltar.
  • 12 December: In North Africa, over 39,000 Italians lost or captured in Egypt.
  • 16 December
  • * The first RAF night raid--on Mannheim, Germany.
  • * In North Africa, the British are in command at Sollum in Egypt and take Fort Capuzzo in Libya.
  • 18 December: Hitler issues directive to begin planning for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union.
  • 22-24 December: Bombing raids on Manchester.
  • 28 December
  • * The Greco-Italian War continues to go badly for the Italians and the Greeks hold roughly one-quarter of Albania.
  • * Italy requests military assistance from Germany against the Greeks.
  • 29 December: Large German air-raids on London; St Paul's Cathedral is damaged.