1939
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The appalling activities of SS units followed close behind the front line troops wiping out whole villages and communities both Polish and Jewish.
The invasion of Soviet forces from the east extinguished any lingering hopes the Poles might have had. Under the terms of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, Poland was carved up between the two totalitarian states.
The declaration of war on Germany by Britain and France which followed the invasion of Poland could do nothing to alleviate the suffering in that country but battle lines were now drawn for the defence of civilisation against tyranny.
•3rd: Britain and France declare war on Germany in accordance with their treaty obligations with Poland.
•3rd: The British passenger liner Athenia is sunk by a German submarine. 112 lives are lost including 28 US citizens. Nevertheless, the USA remains neutral.
•6th: German forces enter Cracow.
•17th: Soviet troops invade Poland from the east in accordance with the Nazi-Soviet pact signed on 23rd August 1939.
•17th: The British aircraft carrier Courageous is sunk in the south-west approaches with the loss of over 500 crew by a German submarine.
•27th: Warsaw surrenders. 140,000 troops are taken prisoner.
•30th: Wladyslaw Sikorski establishes a Polish Government-in-Exile in Paris.
•10th: The deportation begins of Polish Jews to a special Jewish 'reserve' near Lublin.
•12th: The remaining Polish territory in German hands is designated as the General-Government. Hitler appoints Hans Frank as the Governor General.
•12th: The Soviet Union opens negotiations with Finland aimed at securing the sea approaches to Leningrad and exchanging territory in the Karelia region.
•14th: The British battleship Royal Oak is sunk while at anchor at Scarpa Flow by the German submarine U-47.
•17th: SS units operating in Poland are given immunity from military law.
•14th: The minelayer HMS Adventure becomes the first casualty of a magnetic mine - the new German weapons which have been laid in the Thames estuary.
•23rd: A magnetic mine is recovered intact and work starts on developing counteractive measures.
•23rd: Hans Frank decrees that all Jews in Poland must wear the Star of David sewn on all clothing.
•24th: The German cruiser Scharnhorst sinks a British armed merchant ship Rawalpindi.
•30th: The Red Army launches an attack on Finland. Twenty six Soviet divisions cross the border - they are confronted by only nine Finnish divisions.
•11th: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations as a result of its actions in Finland.
•13th: The German pocket battleship Graf Spee is badly damaged by three British cruisers in an engagement in the South Atlantic near the estuary of the of the river Plate.
•17th: The captain of the Graf Spee is refused sanctuary in Uruguay and decides to scuttle the ship.
•22nd: Finnish troops counter attack at Suomussalmi driving Soviet forces back across the frontier.
First Norway and Denmark were subdued. Then, 'Blitzkrieg', used with such devastating effect in Poland in 1939, was again used in the attack on The Netherlands, Belgium and France. After the fall of France, Britain was left facing the Nazi threat alone.
However, Hitler knew that he could not invade Britain in the face of British naval power unless he had overwhelming air superiority. In the 'Battle of Britain' he found that he was unable to gain that superiority and he was forced to cancel his plans for the invasion.
Bombers from Britain and Germany then crossed the channel every night intent on the destruction of both military and civilian targets.
In the far north the Soviet Union received a bloody nose when it invaded Finland, but in the end shear weight of numbers prevailed.
As the year waned, Britain had some success against the Italian Army in North Africa, but their mettle was to be tested later when Italy's ally entered the fray.
•6th: The British Foreign Secretary, Lord Halifax warns the Norwegian Government that mines will be laid in Norwegian waters if German merchant ships continue to use those waters to transports Swedish iron ore to Germany.
•17th: Hitler's planned attack in the west is postponed because of poor weather.
•25th: Hans Frank orders that planning should start for the removal of Polish forced labourers to Germany.
•2nd: Two German Army Generals (Ulex and Blaskowitz) make official protests at the behaviour of SS units in Poland.
•11th: A huge Soviet attack breaches the Mannerheim Line. Finnish forces fall back to a second defensive position.
•12th Three Enigma rotors are recovered from a sunken German submarine U33.
•13th: Red Army formations breach the second Finnish defensive line.
•16th: Crew from the British destroyer Cossack board the German vessel Altmark in Norwegian waters. Nearly 300 British seamen, captured originally in the South Atlantic, are released from the hold of the ship.
•5th: The Soviet government offer to open peace negotiations with Finland. The Finnish Prime Minister Risto Ryti has no choice but to accept.
•12th: Finland and the USSR sign a peace treaty. Finland cedes the Karelian isthmus and territory bordering Lake Lagoda and the Baltic coast.
•20th: Édouard Daladier is succeeded by Paul Reynaud as French prime minister.
•7th: A German invasion force destined for Norway leaves Baltic ports.
•9th: German warships appear off Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo. 2,000 troops disembark at Narvik.
•9th: German troops invade Denmark. The Danish King orders a cease fire, knowing his army does not have the capacity to resist.
•10th-13th: In naval actions at Narvik British destroyers sink ten German destroyers for the loss of two of their number.
•14th: British troops land at Namsos and at Andalsnes, near Trondheim. They are later joined by French and Polish forces.
•15th: British cryptanalysts break the Enigma key used by the German army and air force in Norway. However, little effective use is made of this intelligence.
•10th: At dawn, 136 German divisions attack Belgium and Holland.
•10th: Neville Chamberlain proposes the formation of a coalition government to deal with the new crisis. Labour members refuse to serve under him and he resigns. Winston Churchill succeeds as Prime Minister.
•13th: German units commanded by General Rommel cross the Meuse at Dinant. Further south General Guderian's troops push through the Ardennes, enter France and take Sedan.
•13th: Churchill tells the Commons that he has nothing to offer but 'blood, toil tears and sweat'.
•14th: Dutch forces capitulate.
•17th: The German 6th Army enters Brussels.
•18th: Antwerp falls.
• 21st: German units reach the English Channel near Abbeville, cutting off 400,000 allied troops in Flanders and Artois.
•23rd: Hitler and von Rundstedt order a halt to attacks on allied troops in the Dunkirk area.
•26th: Hitler orders resumption of attacks on Dunkirk as the evacuation of British troops from the beaches and from the port begins.
•28th: The Belgian Army surrenders.
•2nd: The last of nearly 340,000 Allied troops are evacuated from Dunkirk. French troops fight gallantly with the British on the perimeter to enable as many as possible to escape.
•5th: 143 German divisions advance towards Paris on a wide front.
•10th: Italy declares war on France and Britain.
•11th: The French government leaves Paris.
•12th: 46,000 Allied troops bottled up in St. Valery-en-Caux surrender to Gen. Rommel.
•12th: Gen. Weygand orders that Paris be declared an open city.
•14th: German troops enter Paris.
•16th: Deputy Prime Minister Pétain calls for an immediate armistice. Paul Reynaud resigns and Pétain forms a new French government.
•17th: As evacuations of allied troops continue from French ports, the British liner Lancastria is sunk with the loss of 3,000 men.
•18th: German troops enter Cherbourg
•18th: French ministers assure Britain that the French fleet will not be allowed to fall into German hands.
•22nd: The new French government signs an armistice with Germany.
•23rd: Hitler makes his only visit to Paris.
•30th: German troops occupy the Channel Islands.
•3rd: British naval forces in the Mediterranean give the French fleet anchored at Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria the option to either scuttle their ships, sail to Britain, or join the fight against Germany. The French commanders refuse and the British ships open fire sinking three battleships and killing over 1,000 sailors.
•5th: Marshal Pétain's Vichy government break off diplomatic relations with Britain.
•5th: Romania becomes an ally of Germany and Italy.
•19th: Hitler uses a speech in Berlin to make an offer of peace to Britain. It is rejected.
•21st: The Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
•22nd: Hitler instructs his chief of staff, General Halder to begin planning for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
•13th: The German Airforce launches 'The Day of the Eagle' against British airfields, radar stations and aircraft factories. Nearly 1,500 aircraft take part with the loss of 45 machines. The 'Battle of Britain' has begun.
•15th: Another huge Luftwaffe raid on Britain utilises nearly 1,800 aircraft. British air defences are stretched to breaking point.
•19th: After another massed air attack by the Luftwaffe on the 18th, Churchill, in a speech to the Commons, states that 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'.
•23rd: German bombers strike at aircraft factories and other military and industrial targets.
•30th: German air attacks concentrate on airfields and command centres in southern England. At night, German bombers drop incendiaries on London.
•6th: King Carol II of Romania abdicates and flees to Switzerland.
•7th: 300 German bombers with over 500 fighter escorts attack the London docks.
•8th: More German bomber attacks on London result in over 80 aircraft being shot down by defending fighters.
•12th: Liverpool and Bristol as well as London suffer night bombing raids.
•13th: Italian forces from Libya attack Egypt.
•15th: Over 1,000 German aircraft attack London and other British cities including Manchester, Bristol, Southampton and Cardiff.
•17th: The severe attrition of his airforce over Britain causes Hitler to call off the invasion of Britain.
•24th: The racist film Jud Süss is first shown in Germany. It becomes required viewing in Germany and occupied Europe.
•27th: The Tripartite Pact is signed. Germany, Italy and Japan agree to cooperate militarily and economically.
•3rd: Nazi occupation forces in Poland order the establishment of the Warsaw ghetto. 150,000 jews are forced to move into the designated area, already overcrowded, and are then walled in.
•4th: Mussolini and Hitler hold a meeting at the Brenner Pass.
•5th: Hitler orders the ending of day time air raids over Britain, because of heavy losses, switching to night raids.
•7th: German troops take control of the Romanian oilfields at Ploesti, unopposed by Romanian forces.
•16th: British bombers attack the german naval base at Kiel.
•16th: Nearly 1,400 deaths are recorded in one week as a result of the 'Blitz' on London.
•23rd: Hitler meets General Franco on the Spanish border at Hendaye. Franco refuses to enter the war.
•28th: Italian forces invade Greece from Albania following a Greek refusal to cede strategic territory to Italy.
•3rd: There is no night raid over London, signalling a reduction in the ferocity of the 'Blitz'. German losses in the previous three months had totalled 2,433 aircraft.
•4th: The Greek army counter-attacks, forcing invading Italian units back towards Albania.
•7th: British bombers attack the Krupp factory in Essen.
•9th: Neville Chamberlain dies.
•11th: A British attack on the Italian fleet at Taranto uses torpedoes dropped from aircraft causing very heavy damage.
•12th The Soveit Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov visits Germany for discussions with Hitler and Joachim von Ribbentrop, the Nazi Foreign Minister.
•14th: A German air raid on the English city of Coventry leaves the city devastated, killing over 500 civilians and severely disrupting industrial output.
•25th: Greek forces break through Italian defences and press on into Albania.
•16th: The RAF attack Hamburg in retaliation for the Coventry raid.
•20th: Hungary signs the Tripartite Pact formed in September between Germany, Italy and Japan.
•23rd: Romania endorses the Tripartite Pact.
•15th:British forces cross the Libyan border.
•22nd: Anthony Eden becomes British Foreign Secretary after Lord Halifax is made Ambassador to the USA.
•29th: A German air attack on London using incendiary bombs destroys many historic buildings in the City. Total British civilian deaths from air attacks in December reach nearly 3,800.
The first six months of the year saw the Nazi's strengthening their grip on mainland Europe, forcing a number of eastern European countries to ally themselves with the Axis powers and crushing those who refused. The invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece were characterised by the usual accompanying vicious terror which the Nazi's were so adept at institutionalising.
Early successes by British and Commonwealth troops in North Africa against the Italian army were reversed when Hitler sent German troops to the theatre commanded by General Rommel.
•16th: German dive bombers attack Malta.
•12th: General Erwin Rommel arrives in Libya to take command of German reinforcements and Italian forces in the region.
•5th: The British government, having detected signs of German troop concentrations on the Greek frontier, makes the decision to to give priority to the defence of Greece and launches Operation Lustre, transferring 60,000 troops from North Africa to Greece.
•24th: General Rommel launches an offensive against British Forces in Libya.
•25th: Yugoslavia joins the Axis powers by signing the Tripartite Pact.
•27th: Prince Paul of Yugoslavia is deposed in a coup led by officers opposed to the alliance with Germany concluded on the 25th.
•28th: At the Battle of Cape Matapan, off southern Greece, a British naval force sinks five Italian cruisers and one destroyer, effectively neutralising Italian naval power in the Mediterranean.
•6th: German, Italian and Bulgarian troops invade Yugoslavia and Greece. Many thousands of civilians die as German bombers pound Belgrade.
•10th: Zagreb falls to the Germans and Croatia declares independence from Yugoslavia.
•11th: Italian forces enter Ljubljana.
•12th: The centre of Bristol is devastated by a German bombing raid.
•13th: Belgrade is occupied.
•13th: Joseph Stalin signs a neutrality pact with Japan leaving the Soviet Union free to concentrate on the threat from the west.
•17th: The Yugoslav government surrenders.
•19th: In an echo down the centuries, British and ANZAC units fight a rearguard action at Thermopylae to enable Commonwealth forces to reach Greek evacuation ports .
•20th: German and Italian forces commanded by Rommel attack Tobruk in Libya.
•23rd: The Greek army surrenders to German invading forces.
•24th: The evacuation of Commonwealth and Polish troops from Greece begins.
•25th: Rommel's troops in North Africa reach the Egyptian border.
•27th: German troops enter Athens.
•10th: Rudolph Hess, deputy leader of the Nazi party, undertakes a mysterious flight to Scotland to try to broker a peace. He is taken prisoner.
•10th: In the heaviest bombing raid on London the chamber of the House of Commons is severely damaged.
•12th: At a meeting between the vice president of Vichy France, Admiral Darlan and Hitler, Darlan is forced to make concessions.
•14th: German and Italian aircraft attack Malta. Over 70 planes are shot down.
•18th: Bulgaria annexes both Greek and Yugoslav Macedonia.
•20th: German paratroops in nearly 500 air transport planes make an audacious attack on Crete. In the face of stiff resistance they capture Maleme airstrip and fly in reinforcements.
•24th: The German battleship Bismarck sinks the British cruiser HMS Hood in the north Atlantic.
•27th: General Freyburg, commanding British and New Zealand troops on Crete, orders the evacuation of the island.
•27th: A British naval force sinks the Bismarck in a battle off the western Atlantic coast of France.
•31st: British and Commonwealth forces complete their evacuation of Crete.
•25th: Finland declares war on the USSR and begins the process of recapturing territory lost during the 'Winter War'.
•26th: German forces capture road and rail bridges intact at Dvinsk on the River Dvina, 185 miles inside the Soviet Union.
•27th: Cryptographers at Bletchley Park in Britain break the German Enigma key used in the east. Churchill orders that Stalin be given the resultant intelligence.
•27th: German units from Army Group North and Army Group Centre complete the encirclement of 300,000 Soviet troops east of Minsk.
•29th: Lvov falls to the Germans.
•30th: German units force a croosing of the River Beresina.
•1st: German units enter Riga.
•2nd: The Romanian army attacks in the Ukraine.
•7th: German troops reach Tartu near Lake Peipus.
•7th: American marines take control of Danish Iceland. Roosevelt justifies this on grounds of defence of the western hemisphere.
•14th: The first use of Katyusha rockets by Soviet troops. They become one of the most feared weapons on the eastern front.
•16th: German forces begin to encircle Smolensk.
•23rd: The Soviet garrison of Brest-Litovsk, besieged for a month, finally surrenders.
•25th: Units of the German Army Group North occupy Tallinn in Estonia.
•27th: The Germans complete their encirclement of Smolensk taking 100,000 prisoners. Russian Partisan groups are left behind to sabotage German communications.
•28th: With the German army within 100 kms of Leningrad, huge numbers of civilians are mobilised to build defences around the city.
•29th: Romanian troops complete their recapture of Bessarabia and other territories ceded to the USSR in 1940.
•30th: German Army statistics reveal that since the beginning of the invasion of Russia 800,000 Soviet prisoners had been taken.
•11th: The Soviet air force makes its first bombing raid on Berlin.
•15th: All Jews in German occupied Russia are ordered to wear yellow badges and are forbidden to frequent any public areas.
•18th: In response to public anxiety in Germany, Hitler ends the euthenasia programme aimed at the mentally and physically handicapped, but not before an estimated 80,000 murders had resulted.
•20th: German troops cut the Leningrad to Moscow railway line.
•25th: Canadian, British and Norwegian commandoes raid Spitzbergen, destroying oil reserves and evacuating Russian and French prisoneres of war.
•29th: Over three days, 23,000 Hungarian Jews are murdered in the Ukraine where they had been dumped by the fascist Hungarian government.
•29th: North west of Leningrad, Finnish troops halt their advance at the 1939 border with Russia and despite German pressure they refuse to move further.
•8th: German forces reach the outskirts of Leningrad. To the north, the Finns cut the Leningrad to Murmansk line.
•9th: The epic siege of Leningrad begins when the commander of Army Group North, General von Leeb launches his attack on the city.
•10th: Air attacks on Leningrad destroy major food reserves.
•12th: Hitler orders a halt to the attack on Leningrad and withdraws units to reinforce Army Group Centre for the attack on Moscow.
•16th: Marshal Timoshenko authorises a withdrawal of Soviet units from the Kiev area but far too late to save an estimated half a million men who are trapped in a German encirclement.
•19th: German forces enter Kiev.
•20th: British Intelligence, reading German encrypted messages, warns Stalin of troop concentrations preparing for the assault on Moscow.
•26th: The first German reports are logged mentioning the appearance of a new Russian tank, more powerful than any German type then operating in Russia - the famous T34.
•27th: The Germans capture Perekop, isolating the Crimea.
•Late Sept: At Babi Yar, a ravine outside Kiev, 33,700 Jews are murdered.
•3rd: Orel, to the south of Moscow is captured by the Germans.
•4th: At Kovno, the ghetto hospital is locked and set on fire - all patients and staff perish.
•10th: General Zhukov is transferred from Leningrad to take command of the Moscow front.
•12th: The first convoy of supplies reaches Russia having left Britain and navigated around the North Cape to Archangel.
•12th: Bryansk and Vyazma are captured by the Germans. 650,000 Soviet troops are trapped and taken prisoner.
•13th: The RAF undertakes a devastating raid on Nuremberg, a city of special significance to the German regime.
•15th: With German forces only 100 kms to the west of Moscow, the Soviet government starts to relocate to Kuybyshev on the river Volga. However, Stalin makes the decision to stay in Moscow. The first heavy snowfalls of winter are recorded.
•16th: The Black Sea port of Odessa falls to the Germans.
•24th: Karkov falls to the Germans.
•14th: The British aircraft carrier Ark Royal sinks near Gibraltar after being torpedoed by a German submarine.
•18th: In North Africa British forces relieve Tobruk.
•27th: Marshal Timoshenko commands a Soviet counterattack against German forces in Rostov-on-Don.
•5th: British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden meets Stalin and Molotov in Moscow.
•8th: Britain joins the USA in declaring war on Japan.
•11th: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
•24th: British forces regain control of Benghazi in Libya.
•22nd: Prince Fumimaro Konoye forms a new Japanese government.
•23th: Free French and British forces attack Dakar in Senegal which is loyal to Vichy France but are forced to retire.
•7th: Roosevelt proposes the Lend-Lease scheme, effectively renting warships and merchantmen for British use.
•11th: The US Congress finally passes the Lend-Lease Bill.
•5th: British forces take Addis Ababa.
•6th: British troops enter Massawa, Eritrea.
•24th: The new Iraqi government falls.
•14th: President Roosevelt freezes all German and Italian assets in the USA.
•24th: Japanese forces move to occupy further territory in Indochina.
•16th: A German submarine torpedoes an American destroyer in the north atlantic.