SOUTH CAROLINA MILITARY MUSEUM 
- WORLD WAR II 1939 AND 1940-
The German Invasion
1939 - 1940
1939 - When the Germans invaded Poland on 1 September 1939 the world went to war for the second time in 27 years. One country had simply invaded another, but tensions mount. Unbelievably, and so soon after World War I, nations and their leaders had allowed another conflict to threaten our planet. The scope of this new war was not yet apparent, this one would last six years, involve more than two hundred countries, cause millions of people to suffer, cost 55 million lives and material damage in excess of 3 billion dollars.
Within months of the German's move into Poland much of Europe had been occupied by the rampaging Blitzkrieg techniques of the Third Reich's military forces and everyone, even residents of far distant nations, were 'at war', their resources in men and material committed to the cause.
This war was fought on the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans, and in four major land campaigns: the Soviet Union, North Africa and the Mediterranean, Western Europe and the Far East. Approximately 56 countries were involved in countless conflicts. It was a war that was more cruel, more bitter and more extensive than any other war in history. The war against Japan was fought over two-thirds of the world's surface, with America and her allies taking part in vast air, land and sea battles. It turned WW II into global conflict and ended it with the dawning of the nuclear age.
1940
January 4, 1940 - Germany creates General Council for War Economy under Goering.
January 8, 1940 - Food rationing in England and France (at 11 January). Britain introduces ration cards for butter, sugar, bacon and ham.February 1-3, 1940 - Finnish troops, 6 div., successfully defended themselves against the 7th and 13th Russian Army at the "Mannerheimlinie".
February 16, 1940 - The British destroyer "Cossack" rescues 299 British seamen from German prison ship Altmark in the Norwegian "Josing-fjord". Sweden refuses to intervene on the side of Finland.
February 25, 1940 - Begin in the Northern Icesea of the blockade of transport from Etching out of Scandinavia to Germany from the Allied
March 8, 1940 - At the beginning of the war a gas attack was greatly feared; the government issued everyone with gas masks to be carried at all times. As the threat receded, the masks became a nuisance rather than a need, but nevertheless had to be carried throughout the war. Gas drill was a regular feature of air raid precaution training and practice.
March 11, 1940 - The first example of an aircraft sinking a U-boat, the U-31 is attacked and sunk off Wilhelmshaven by a RAF Blenheim. Atlantis, the first of a dozen German commerce raiders, puts to sea. These 'ghost' ships are to prey on merchantmen sailing without the protection of a convoy. Their 60.000 nautical miles range will see them in action in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans.
March 12, 1940 - Finland signs a treaty with Russia (Moskow) giving up a large amount of territory.
March 18, 1940 - Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini hold a conference at Brenner Pass; Italy joins the war with Germany.
April 8, 1940 - French and British navy troops mine Norwegian coastal waters and ports.
April 9-10, 1940 - Operation Weserübung": German troops invade Denmark and Norway, in lightning action.
April 15, 1940 - Allied caught by surprise try to help poor Norway troops. British troops occupy the port of Narvik, Norway, also Namsos, Trondheim and Andalsness. Germans fleet with great loses.
April 27, 1940 - Himmler order to built Concentration Camp Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss becomes Commandant.
May 3, 1940 - Pro-Nazi Norwegian Army Major Vidkun Quisling becomes leader of Norway, King Haakon fly away from Norway.
May 7, 1940 - Leopold Amery(MP) blasts the government of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. His bad statement concerning the German invasion of Norway and Chamberlain lead to Chamberlain's ouster as Prime Minister of Great Britain (England).
May 10 - June 4, 1940 - Operation "Gelb": German troops invade the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.
May 10, 1940 -British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns. Winston Churchill (65 years) formed a National Government and became Prime Minister of Great Britain (England).
- British troops land on Iceland.May 11, 1940 - The Capture of Eben Emael (Belgian) and Maastricht.
- The Fortress Eben Emael formed the northern most part of the French defence line running along the German border.
- Allied forces occupy Netherlands West Indies.May 13, 1940 - Queen Wilhelmina has a narrow escape from the Netherlands and arrives in England.It was feared that the Germans would attempt a raid to seize Queen Wilhelmina, infant crown princess Beatrix, and other members of the Dutch Royal Family. Netherlands government flees to England.
- First Speech of Winston Churchill: "Blood, Sweat and Tears," 13 May, 1940.May 14, 1940 - The bombing of Rotterdam; 617 killed.
- German troops, the 12th Army, invade France, forces the Front at Sedan.
May 15-19, 1940 - The Netherlands surrenders to Nazi Germany at Rijsoord. Seys-Inquart Government Commissioner of the Netherlands, numbers of losses after 4 days war: 2890 killed; 6889 wounded; 29 missing.
May 19, 1940 - British Royal Air Force planes bomb Bremen and Hamburg,in Germany.
May 27- June 4, 1940 - The admiralilty gives the start for Operation "Dynamo"; Nearly 350,000 British, French, and other allied troops are rescued from the beaches of Dunkirk.
May 28, 1940 - King Leopold of Belgium agreed to capitulate: Belgium surrenders to Germany. Allied capture Narvik, Norway and at 3 June evacuation from Narvik.
- The steamer "Mona's Isle" is the first ship which arrived in Dunkirk and came under fire from coastal batteries and leaved with more than 100 dead on board.
May 29, 1940 - Dunkirk is encircled by German artillery and fired by the Luftwaffe but the evacuation continues with French troops joining the theatre. Lost are the destroyers HMSS Wakeful, Grafton and Grenade. Even though the Germans had clear weather, the Stukas are less effective around Dunkirk than Gôring had expected. Their ability to hit land convoys and static targets is not matched when faced wîth the armada of vessels going to and from the French coast. While more than 860 vessels are going to and from the Dunkirk beaches, the German bombardment decreases and some units move back in preparation for action elsewhere in France.June 3, 1940 - Only 2 miles from the harbour away, the Germans still do not prevent Operation "Dynamo". A late arrival of various French forces and civilians leaved just 40.000 to be captured. The last vessel to depart Dunkirk, the destroyer HMS Shikari, sailed at 3.30 hours with 338 men. Just 6 hours later von Kluge's 4th Army entered the town. Elsewhere, Gôring has transferred his bombers inland and begins a programme of bombing airfields and industrial sites around Paris.
June 5 - 24, 1940 - Begin of the battle of France and Corsica, called "Operation Rot".
June 8, 1940 - German troops capture again Narvik, end of the evacuation of Allied troops from Narvik.
- Carrier Glorious sunk at Norway wad, German battleship Scharnhorst heavily damage.
June 10, 1940 - Norway troops surrenders. The Germans occupation of Norway is complete, but at some cost. The naval high command knows that the exercise has been a strategic failure and has depleted the resources.
- The Fascist Government of Italy declares war on England and France, bringing to the battlefield 1.500.000 men including colonials, more than 1.700 aircraft and a worthy naval fleet of 6 capital ships, 19 cruisers, 59 destroyers, 67 torpedo-boats and 116 submarines. Fuel is in short supply and many of the of the personnel poorly trained; the Italian High Command has no fixed strategy of its own and is not being included in substantial policy discussions with Germany. Mussolini has not planned his war in any way; he wants to emulate Hitler but has little idea of the strategy planning and vast military production that has brought the germans to their present pre-eminence.
- Italian troops invade France and bomb Malta for the first time. Malta is used as a bomber base for raids against Italy and Lybia, the aircraft used were Wellingtons.
June 11, 1940 - First RAF Air attack on Turin, Whitley bombers bomb the Fiat- factories, 1200 km.
- Italians' airplanes attack French bases in Tunisia and Corsica.
June 13, 1940 - Paul Reynaud, the Premier of France broadcasts a final appeal for American intervention.
June 14, 1940 - German troops, 6th German Army, enter Paris, France. General Frere (French 7th Army) leaves Paris without fighting and von Studnitz leads the 87th Infantry Division in ints triumphal entry march.
- The western allied forces completely lost control over the European continent.
- Spain declares not belligerents.
June 15, 1940 - French troops abandon the Maginot Line.
- Russia invade Litauen, Letland, Estland, Bessarabia and Northern Bucovina.
June 16, 1940 - Paul Reynaud resigns as Premier of France.
June 18, 1940 - From London Charles de Gaulle, become "Leader of the Free France", talks for the first time to the people of France; continue the War.
- Hitler and Mussolini meet in Munchen.
June 20, 1940 - France allows Japan to penetrate Japanese troops in North-Indo China.
June 22, 1940 - France (General Huntziger) signs an armistice with Germany at Compiegne (Rethondes), France. Fall of France; German troops occupy northern and western France. Collaborationist Vichy government set up in south-eastern France.
- To this point, the Blitzkrieg to the west has seen the Germans lose 27.000 dead more than 111.000 wounded and 18.000 missing.- The French have lost 92.000 dead and more than 200.000 wounded; the British Expeditionary Force has lost more than 68.000 men.
June 24, 1940 - Armistice sign at Rome between Italy and France, armistice 25 June at 1.35u in France.
June 27, 1940 - Romania, under the demands of Joseph Stalin, cedes Bessarabia and northern Bucovina to the Soviet Union.
June 29, 1940 - Italo Balbo shot down above Tobruk by his own anti-aircraft artillery.
June 30, 1940 - German forces land in the Channel Islands, the only part of the British Isles that they will occupy.
- Dônitz visits Brittany to view the U-boat bases which he believes will hugely increase the potential of his U-boat fleet.
- Now freed from having to make passage north of the British Isles to reach the Atlantic, the U-boats will surely be able to impose his will upon the all-important shipping lanes to and from the USA.
- With occupation of Norwegian, Danish, Belgian, Dutch, and French ports, the Kriegsmarine is in a position to control the seas of northern Furope in which Great Britain now seems ever more isolated.
- A surge of success has been seen in June, with Allied shipping of more than 350,000 tons being lost to the U-boats.
July 1, 1940 - Vice-Admiral Somerville takes command of Force H, a group consisting of the carrier HMS Ark Royal, battlecruiser HMS Hood, and two battleships plus cruisers and destroyers. Its first action will be against the French who, though claiming that none of their vessels will be allowed to faIl into German or Italian hands, are proving reluctant to take determined action to avoid this.
July 3, 1940 - Operation "Katapult": French War Fleet in the port Mers el Kébir near Oran (N.Africa) attack by British War-ships.
- Ships of the British Mediterranean Fleet destroyed units of the French Fleet to prevent them falling into German hands.
July 9, 1940 - By a vote of Parliament, the capital of France is moved to Vichy. First battle between Warships from Italy and England at Punta Stilo, Italian battleship Conti di Cavour heavily damage.
July 10 - August 25, 1940 - The Battle of Britain begins, maybe "Operation Seelowe", invasion in England, the first great air-attack on England on 10 July.
July 11, 1940 - Marshal Henri Philippe Petain (84 years), the old fighter from WW I, becomes Premier of France.
- "Der Kanalkampf": German air attacks on British convoys intensify.
July 19 , 1940 - Adolf Hitler broadcasts for peace to England, it is immediately rejected.
- "Street of Birma" closes for 3 month, China's supply stopped.
July 21 , 1940 - Estland, Letland and Litauen are annexed by the Soviet Union.
July 22, 1940 - The Special Operations Executive (S0E) is created in Great Britain to train and activate people to act subversively against the German forces in occupied Europe. The Americans will later establish the Office of Strategic Services (0SS) to perform a similar role and, on many occasions, to work in concert with S0E.
July 25, 1940 - A US decision to limit its exports of oil places an immediate and continuing problem with the Japanese who have come to rely on foreign supplies. Their stocks dwindle from this day and cause them to look to the Dutch East Indies and Malaysia.
August 1, 1940 - Hitler's Directive 17 updates the plan for the invasion of England. The new targett date is 19-26 September,though this assumes that the Luftwaffe will have gained air supremacy.
August 2, 1940 - The Chief of the German Ministry of Economics and Armament is requested to set a programme in train which will increase the army's strength to 180 divisions; this in preparation for the invasion of Russia. Hitler orders the 'destruction of the RAF and the British aircraft industry' and states that the necessary air offensive must start on 5 August. The significance of this is that it accords the Luftwaffe an independence of role and action that has not been permitted hitherto. Its 'offensive force', rapidly assembled in France, the Low Countries and Norway, will consist of almost 1,700 aircraft including bombers, fighters, Stuka dive-bomhers and fighter-destroyers. Field Marshal Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 will play the major role because its bases are the closest to England; in support will be Field Marshal Sperrle's Luftflotte 3; General Stumpffs Luftflotte 5 wil operate from Norwegian bases against sites in the English Midlands. At this point the Germans remain unaware that the fighters which will be ranged against them are controlled by ground radar, a crucial asset in the weeks to come.
August 3, 1940 - England lost Somalia to Italy, British evacuate Berbera. The Italian Air Force dominates to the offensive against British Somaliland. Within 10 days the British have to evacuate the capital Berbera because there is no aerial support in this region.
August 8, 1940 - "Adlerangriff": Göring orders the Luftwaffe to destroy the RAF defence-system (fighters and radar) within 4 days. The first large wave of German bombers assault England.
- The American Aircraft war production range: 900 planes pro month.
August 12, 1940 - Raids by Messerschmitt Bf 110s and Stukas on radar stations along the coasts of Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight fial to break the system. RAF HQ reports 5 German aircraft shot down and others damaged; the Germans report their air raid on Portland Harbour with vessels damaged and ground installations destroyed.
August 13, 1940 - "Adlertag": Intensification of the Battle of Britain; Airfight between Germany and Britain, nearly 1500 Luftwaffe flights above England. The fighters of Fighter Command, Hurricanes and especially Spitfires be equal to Messerschmitts Bf-109, Junkers Ju-87 (Stuka) and bombers Junkers Ju-88, Dornier Do-17Z and Heinkel He-111.
August 24, 1940 - The German battleship Bismarck enters service. Through an accidental loss of course, a German bomber offloads over the centre of London with some loss of civilian life.
August 25, 1940 - In a reprisal for the London bombing of the night before, the RAF attacks Berlin.
September 5, 1940 - Marshall Ion Antonescu, Fascist leader, is appointed Prime Minister of Romania. Antonescu sent out loyalty to Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
September 6, 1940 - King Carol of Romania abdicates in favor of his son Michael, at the urging of Marshall Antonescu and Hitler.
September 7 - October 1, 1940 - Begin of the "Blitzkrieg" of London, attacks from the air, marking the first air blitz of the city. More than 900 aircraft attack London. By this action the German effectively 'invade England from the air, but within another 10 days Hitler will have cancelled his plans for Operation 'Sealion', the full-scale invasion of England. Goering's Luftwaffe fails to bring Britain to her knees in month October.
September 13, 1940 - First Italian offensive in North-Africa; Italy invade Egypt, the objective is to lock the Suez Canal. Stop at Sidi Barrani; because they didn't become enough material to continue.
- The 10th Italian Army (Marchall Graziani): 6 inf. div. and 8 tankbatalions, total 250.000 soldiers in Lybia. The Britain troops (general Wavell): 3 batalions, 1 tankbatalion, 3 battery, 2 squadron armoured scout cars, total 36.000 soldiers in West-Egypt.
September 16, 1940 - U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Selective Service bill, which begins America's first peace-time draft.
September 17 1940 - Italian troops (Marshal Graziani) invade Egypt from Libya; Bardia till Sidi-Barrani because of supply problems.
September 19, 1940 - French landed troops at Naval port Dakar (West Africa), counter a possible landing of the "Free France" of Charles de Gaulle.
September 20, 1940 - The Allied convoy HX-72 is attacked by a U-boat wolfpack; 12 0f the 41 ships were sunk. Commander Schepke wasn't detected in his U100.
September 21, 1940 - Planned Operation "Seelöwe" today postponed.
September 23- 26, 1940 - Operation "Menace": Attack of English naval forces at Dakar, preperation to a landing of Gaullistic troops. Charles De Gaulle's troops failure to invade Dakar.
September 28, 1940 - Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact in Berlin. Aim is to discourage the United States for a more active involvement in the war.
October 7, 1940 - German troops invade Romania to "defend" its oil fields.
October 12, 1940 - Hitler postpones Operation 'Sealion' until the spring of 1941. His priorities are now elsewhere and Goring has been unable to achieve the vital air superiority.
- The operation will never receive the go-ahead.
October 16, 1940 - Over 16.000.000 men register for the draft in the United States.
October 23, 1940 - Hitler meets General Francisco Franco at Hendaye, in southern France, and offers him Gibraltar and territory in northern Africa to join the war.
- Franco is uncertain about the offer and comes to no agreement.
October 24, 1940 - French Chief of State Marshal Petain and Adolf Hitler meet to promote the "new order" of Europe.
October 26, 1940 - A Focke-Wulf Fw 200 bombed the luxury liner 'Empress of Britain' (42.000 ton) off the coast of Ireland. An attack by U32 will sink the liner, 2 days later finally.
October 28, 1940 - Italian troops invade Greece from Albania with 155.000 men. After becoming fully mobilised the Greeks can field 420.000 men.
November 1, 1940 - Italian aircraft bomb Athens and Salonika, Greece.
November 5, 1940 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected for the third time as President.
November 10, 1940 - Former British Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain dies at his home in Hampshire, England.
- Begin of transport from American warplanes from New Foundland to North-Ireland.
November 11 - 12, 1940 - Visit from Molotow to Berlin. Conference of Hitler and von Ribbentrop about Soviet Unions joining to the Pact of Three. British aircraft attack Taranto Harbor, Italy.
November 15, 1940 - A German blitz on Coventry and Birmingham, England destroys most of the cities.
- The Ghetto of Warsaw is closed.
November 19, 1940 - Greek troops defeat the invading Italians and mount a counter-attack against the Italians, I, II and III Corps, driving the greater part of Italian Ninth Army back into Albania.
November 20, 1940 - Hungary and some days later Rumania declares its support for Germany and Italy.
December 2, 1940 - Greek forces capture 5.000 Italian troops.
December 9 , 1940 - British offensive begins; Tobruk captured and the Italians collapse and retreat, 48.000 men are taken prisoner by the British.
December 15, 1940 - Operation " Compass": British troops (Wavell), 31.000 men and 225 tanks, defeat the Italian Army in Egypt, march from Sidi Barrani to El-Agheila.
- During this time, British troops destroys 8 Italian div., 130.000 Italian prisoners of war, 470 tanks and 1300 guns the prize. British losses: 500 dead, 1371 wounded, 55 missing.
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