1939 Finnish ski troops fight Soviets with first use of homemade “Molotov Cocktails.”

1940 134 RAF bombers attack Mannheim in revenge for German attacks against British cities. This is the RAF’s largest attack on a single target thus far in the war. 115 German civilian’s were killed or injured and 1,266 made homeless. It is also the first reprisal raid, approved by the War Cabinet, for German attacks on British towns.

British troops carry out an air raid on Italian Somalia.The British begin winning battle after battle, Italian tanks were no match to the British Matilda’s and British naval bombardments. Within 2 weeks of combat, The Italians are forced back 200 miles to Tobruk and lose 139,000 Italian and African colonials who had surrendered or been captured.

1941 During a cabinet meeting, Hans Frank, Gauleiter of Poland, states – “Gentlemen, I must ask you to rid yourselves of all feeling of pity. We must annihilate the Jews wherever we find them and wherever it is possible in order to maintain the structure of the Reich as a whole…”

Japanese troops land on Penang Island off the eastern coast of of Malaya.

Japanese forces land in Sarawak and Brunei in Borneo.

1942 The Red Army begins another offensive in the direction of Rostov-on-Don to cut off the German forces in the Caucasus. The Italian 8th Army’s precarious position on the Don threatens Stalingrad relief attempt.

1943 A Further blitz of Berlin brings the allied total to 18,500 tons of explosive dropped on the city.

The chief surgeon at Auschwitz reports that 106 castration operations have been performed.

1944 The German Army in the West begins ‘Operation Wacht am Rhein’ (The Battle of the Bulge), with the objective of splitting the allied forces and capturing the strategic port of Antwerp. Under the control of Heeresgruppe B, the attacking forces pouring forth from the Ardennes forest comprise of the 6th SS Panzer Armee, 5th Panzer Armee and the 7th Armee providing flank support to the south of the line of advance. The German offensive manages to breakthrough the American front on a 70-mile front.As the center of the Allied line falls back, it creates a bulge, leading to the name–the Battle of the Bulge.

Betsie ten Boom, sister of Corrie ten Boom (author of The Hiding Place) dies at Ravensbrück concentration camp, age 59.

German V-2 rocket hits Rex Cinema in Antwerp, killing 567, including 296 Allied servicemen, the largest death toll ever from a V-weapon.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: February 16 WWII Today: August 16 Words at War: Silence of the Sea

1938 Washington sends its fourth note to Berlin demanding amnesty for Jews.

1939 A fifth British division arrives in France.

The Uruguayan government gives the Admiral of the Graf Spee 36 hours to leave harbour.

The Russians launch heavy attacks against Finnish forces at Taipale.

1940 The coffin of Napoleon II is moved from Vienna to Les Invalides in Paris.

1941 The American Federation of Labor adopts no-strike policy in war industries.

Many US universities agree to cut undergraduate programs to three years by going year-round.

British retreat in Malaya and Burma’s southern most tip. Artillery battle rages at Hong Kong.

US Secretary of the Navy tells Congress that 2,729 were killed during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

First Japanese merchant ship sunk by a U.S. submarine.

Stalin orders all functions of the Soviet state to relocate back to Moscow now that he is sure that the threat to the capital has been removed. Stalin also orders that the counter offensive should be extended along the whole of the eastern front. Klin is recaptured by the Red Army. Stalin orders that Army Group Centre should be destroyed by a double envelopment from the north and south.

The Eighth Army attacks the German and Italian positions at Gazala. Rommel, fearful that the British will outflank him, orders the retreat.

Japanese troops move into southern Burmese territory on the Kra Isthmus and seize Victoria Point, which had been vacated by the British two days earlier. Japanese artillery and aircraft pound Hong Kong in an attempt to soften it up.

1942 Convoy JW-51A sets sail from Lock Ewe in Scotland with 16 merchants bound for the Kola Inlet.

1943 Great Britain, the United States and the Soviet Union all break off diplomatic relations with the Yugoslav government in exile and recognize Tito’s Communist Popular Liberation Committee as the Yugoslav government to be.

The war crimes trial at Kharkov of the four captured Germans opens with all plead the defendants pleading guilty. One of the defendants says that more than 30,000 Russians were exterminated at Kiev.

TheUS Army lands on Arawe, New Britain near Cape Gloucester, to the South West of Rabaul.

US Navy approves commissioning first African American officers (22 men); 36 commissioned African American officers by end of war.

1944 Army Air Force Band leader and trombonist Glenn Miller boarded a single-engine C-64 Norseman in England for a flight to France, where he was to make arrangements for a Christmas broadcast. The plane never reached France and no trace of it or its occupants was ever found. Iowa-born Glenn Miller became a professional musician after graduating from high school. By the time he volunteered for military service in 1942, the Glenn Miller Orchestra was world famous and had appeared in two motion pictures. Miller persuaded the U.S. Army to accept his service to “put a little more spring into the feet of our marching men and a little more joy into their hearts.” For the next 18 months, Miller’s 50-member band stayed busy with morale-building concerts and radio broadcasts. No cause has ever been established for the loss of Miller’s aircraft, but the Norseman did not have de-icing equipment on board and it is likely that icy weather forced the plane down in the English Channel. Another theory is that his plane was lost due to RAF bombers dumping unused bombs from higher altitude returning aborted mission over Germany.

The Chinese finally take Bhamo itself in northern Burma after the Japanese evacuate at night.

The 19th Indian Division meets the British 36th Infantry Division at Indaw, making the first connected front in Burma.

The US 24th Army Division lands on Mindoro Island in the western Philippines without loss.

A third Japanese prison ship is mistakenly sunk by US planes off the Philippines, with less than half of POWs surviving, to be recaptured.

1945 The Permanent Headquarters for UN are to be established in the USA.

General Douglas MacArthur orders end of Shinto as Japanese state religion. .

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: September 22 WWII Today: June 21 WWII Today: November 8

1937 The Japanese change the name of Peiping to Peking. They also begin what will be known as the Rape of Nanking, during which they massacre an estimated quarter of a million Chinese.

1939 Because of its brutal aggression against Finland, the Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations.

1940 Australian troops relieve Indian troops in Egypt; Indian troops are sent to the Sudan

1941 German Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel orders the construction of defensive positions along the European coastline.

As German forces evacuate Kalinin, 100 miles to the Northwest of Moscow, Hitler furious at what he sees as weakness by his Generals, countermands Field Marshal von Brauchitsch’s plans for withdrawal.

Convoy HG76 (32 ships), sets sails from Gibraltar with heavy escort.

Royal Navy destroyers sink two Italian Light Cruisers off Cape Bon. Both Cruisers were carrying much needed fuel for Panzer Armee Afrika. U-557 sinks the British Cruiser Galatea outside of Alexandria harbor.

Thailand formally allies herself with Japan.

Japanese troops continue to land throughout the Philippines.

1942 A three day tank battle begins South of Stalingrad.

1943 German strength on Eastern Front is now only 2,086,000, with 188,000 allied and satellite troops. German casualties for 1943 were 900,000.

1944 Congress passes and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs into law an act authorizing the creation of the ranks of General of the Army and Fleet Admiral, so that the highest American officers can attain a rank equivalent to that of Field Marshal. Over the next week, George C. Marshall, Douglas MacArthur, Dwight D. Eisenhower and Henry “Hap” Arnold are promoted to the rank in the Army, while William D. Leahy, Ernest J. King and Chester Nimitz are made Fleet Admirals. Subsequent to the war, William F. “Bull” Halsey will be promoted Fleet Admiral and Omar N. Bradley will become the last General of the Army.

U.S. troops capture an important Japanese supply post on Leyte, at the southern tip of the “˜Yamashita defense line”.

1945 SS personnel convicted of atrocities at Belsen and other concentration camps, are hanged.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: May 4 WWII Today: November 18 Yank Magazine Pin Up: Ingrid Bergman

1937 The Japanese army occupies Nanking, China.

1939 In the south Atlantic, the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, fights an action against three British cruisers, HMS Achilles, HMS Ajax and HMS Exeter, which results in serious damage to both sides. HMS Exeter is rendered a blazing hulk and the Graf Spee withdraws to the neutral Uruguayan port of Montevideo for repairs.

1940 Petain dismisses his Vice-Premier, Laval.

British General Richard O’Conner decides his tank raid against Italian troops is going so well he will make it a full-fledged offensive. One of O’Conners officers reports having captured “five acres of officers, 200 acres of other ranks,” as the Italians surrender en masse.

Hitler issues Directive No. 20, the order for the preparation of Operation ‘Marita’, the plan for sending German forces to revive the bogged-down

Italian offensive in Albania.

Twenty four German divisions begin their redeployment to Romania, through Hungary as part of Directive No. 20, Hitler’s order for the preparation of Operation ‘Marita’, the attack on Greece.

1941 The Soviet press issues a triumphant statement on the repulse of the German Armies before Moscow. The Red Army launches a new counter-offensive using Timoshenko’s South West Front in an attack northwest against the juncture of Panzer Group 2 and the German 2nd Army between Yelets and Livny. This results in Panzer Group 2’s right flank being left open as the 2nd Army is forced to withdraw in order to save itself. Field Marshal von Brauchitsch meets Field Marshal von Bock, C-in-C of Army Group Centre and decide that Army Group Centre must withdraw some 90 miles west to take up a ‘winter line’. Secret orders are passed to this effect.

The British manage to turn back an Italian convoy, which is taking supplies to Libya, by making it believe that its under threat from the Mediterranean Fleet.

The British Governor of Hong Kong rejects a Japanese demand for his garrisons surrender. British troops in the southern tip of Burma begin to withdraw north towards Rangoon.

A US naval task force under Rear-Admiral Frank J. Fletcher sets sail from Pearl Harbor with orders to relieve Wake Island.

1942 Rommel begins to retreat from his positions El Agheila, as the Eighth Army continues advance in to Libya.

The Japanese make successful new landings North of Buna.

1943 54 Mustangs escorted B-17s 490 miles on a raid over Kiel, Germany, and for the first time in the war successfully defended the bombers for 40 minutes over the targets, shooting down enemy fighter planes.

A war criminals trial at Kharkov accuses four Germans of murdering thousands of Russians in specially equipped carbon-monoxide murder vans. Army Group Centre becomes engaged in a series of heavy defensive battles in the area of Vitebsk.

1944 The USAAF make the first damaging raid on Japanese industrial targets.

German forces of 7th Armee withdraw in to the fortified positions of the Westwall.

The U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze suicide attack that claimed 138 lives.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: December 18 WWII Today: July 2 WWII Today: Jun 9

1937 The Japanese fire on British and U.S. ships on the Yangtze River in China, sinking the American ship Panay. The Japanese apologize to the United States and pay reparations; the British refuse to accept any Japanese apology.

1939 Finnish have some success against Russian troops at Tolvajrvi, inflicting heavy casualties.

Two German cruisers which are accompanied by 5 destroyers are damaged by torpedoes from the British submarine HMS Salmon as they are return from a mine laying operation of the northeast coast of England. Later in the day, HMS Salmon also gives warning under the ‘rules of war’ to a German liner, although it reaches the port of Bremen safely.

1940 Sheffield is heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe.

Philip Kerr, Lord Lothian, British ambassador to the US, dies in Washington DC

1941 The ship “Struma” leaves Romania for Palestine carrying 769 Jews but is later denied permission by British authorities to allow the passengers to disembark. In Feb. 1942, it sails back into the Black Sea where it is intercepted by a Soviet submarine and sunk as an “enemy target.”

Britain declares war on Bulgaria.

Bulgaria declares war on both Britain and the United States.

Hungary  and Romania declare war on the United States.

The United States. declares war on Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria after receiving those country’s declarations of war.

1942 Manstein launches his counter attack with a hastily assembled force of 13 divisions, including three Panzer divisions with about 230 tanks to try and relieve Sixth Army at Stalingrad.

The 1,500 ton destroyer HMS Partridge is sunk off the coast of Algeria by U-565, commanded by Wilhelm Franken.

1943 Rommel becomes C in C of Army Group B, which covers the coastal defenses from Holland to Bay of Biscay.

A Czech-Soviet treaty of friendship is signed in Moscow.

1944 The underground V-weapon factory at Wittring is captured by the U.S. Third Army.

British launch Third Arakan Campaign toward Akyab, Burma

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: May 11 WWII Today: December 5 WWII Bell Telephone Ad, December 1942

1939 Finnish ski troops attack Soviet supply line on Raate Road.

1940 Sidi Barrani is captured along with over 20,000 Italians, bringing the total captured to nearly 38,000 in 2 days, along with 237 guns and 73 tanks. At this time, Wavell decides to withdraw the 4th Indian Division and send it to the Sudan. It will be replaced by the 6th Australian Division, although it will take some days for it to be ready.

Battleship HMS King George V is commissioned.

1941 The British garrison in Hong Kong begins to withdraw from the mainland to Hong Kong Island itself. As a result of command and control problems, rumors and many desertions, the 11th Indian Division withdraws from Jitra towards Alor Star in northern Malaya, even though the Japanese troops facing them were inferior in numbers. The US garrison in Peking is forced to surrender to the Japanese.

Japanese troops attempt to land on Wake Island, but US Marine gunners and airmen repulse the first landing attempt and sink two Japanese destroyers in the process. Further Japanese landings take place in the Philippines.

In a speech before the Reichstag, Hitler, after denouncing the un-neutral and warlike anti-German policies of President Roosevelt and citing Germany’s obligations under the Tri-Partite Pact with Japan and Italy, declares war on the United States. Italy follows suit some hours later.

In response to Germany and Italy’s declaration of war, the US reciprocates and declares war on both Germany and Italy.  Costa  Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua also declare war on  Germany and Italy.

In the last week the Royal Navy has lost the destroyers Pentlan, Porcupine and Blean, off Algeria.

1943 A heavy USAAF raid on Emden kills 1,000 and makes 12,000 homeless.

Moroccan troops successful in first combat against Germans in Italy.

Field Marshal Kesselring permits German troops to occupy Monte Cassino in Italy, excluding the abbey itself.

1944 US Eighth Air Force launches largest mission to date—1586 bombers hit rail targets in western Germany.

First Japanese balloon bomb found in US, in Montana.

1945 William Halsey promoted to fleet admiral.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: July 16 WWII Today: February 23 WWII Today: April 9

1939 France bans sale of meat on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Fridays.

1940 Sidi Barrani is surrounded. Italian troops from the camps at Sofafi and Rabia flee west as the 7th Armoured divisions thrust threaten to encircle them.

1941 Karel Richter, a German spy who parachuted into Hertfordshire is executed at Wandsworth Prison.

British forces that had pushed into southern Thailand begin to fall back along with those from northern Malaya after the Japanese capture Kota Bharu airfield.

Due to the RAF’s heavy losses, the British Battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse are attacked and sunk of the north eastern coast of Malaya by Japanese aircraft flying from occupied French Indo-China.

Japanese troops land on and capture Guam. Japanese troops make landings on the northern tip of Luzon and the island of Camiguin in the Philippines.

British enter Tobruk, Libya, relieving 242-day German siege.

First US bombing mission of the war, as B-17s of the 19th Bomb Group attack Japanese ships off Luzon in the Philippines.

1942 The first transport of Jews from Germany arrives at Auschwitz.

Australian troops capture Gona and now control the whole of the Gona area in New Guinea.

1943 Allied forces bomb Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria.

Franklin D. Roosevelt signs a bill that postpones a draft of pre-Pearl Harbor fathers.

In Italy, British Eighth Army takes Vino Ridge in drive for Ortona.

1944 The US Third Army captures Hagenau and Saargemand.

Norwegian paratroopers cut rails to prevent German retreat from northern Norway.

On Leyte in the Philippines,U.S. 77th Infantry Division captures Ormoc, the main supply base, and clears Buri Airfield.

Japanese make their last seaborne reinforcement of Leyte.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: April 22 WWII Today: November 14 WWII Today: May 27

1939 In friendly fire incident near Metz, France, Cpl. Thomas Priday becomes the first British soldier killed in WWII.

1940 The Western Desert Force which is 30,000 strong and under the command of Wavell takes to the offensive ‘Operation Compass’. The 4th Indian division captures the Italian camps at Nibeiwa, Tumar East and West, while the 7th Armoured drives south of the camps at Sofafi and Rabia and turns north towards Buq Buq on the coast road. As column also advances along the coast road from Mersa Matruh towards Maktila as British warships bombard both Maktila and Sidi Barrani. Italian troops eating breakfast at Nibeiwa in are interrupted by British and Indian tanks crashing through their camp. The Italian commander ignored a report of approaching tanks given earlier by a scout plane.

1941 Franklin D. Roosevelt tells Americans to plan for a long war.

The Red Army recaptures Tikhivin. Zhukov issues an order forbidding frontal attacks, in favor of envelopment and outflanking maneuvers, as he says frontal attacks merely allow the Germans to withdraw in good order.

China declares war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

Bangkok is occupied by Japanese troops as they to push through Thailand towards the Burmese border. The Japanese also continue to land troops along the Kra Isthmus in southern Thailand and at Kota Bharu in north eastern Malaya.

Japanese aircraft attack Alor Star airfield, Malaya. From the two squadron of Blenheims based there, only one aircraft survives; its pilot, Flt Lt A S K Scarf single-handedly overcame strong enemy defences to attack Singora airfield in the North. After recovering to Alor Star, Flt Lt Scarf died from his wounds, and was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross five years later when the full facts of his heroism were established.

Japanese troops land on Tarawa and Makin in the Gilbert islands.

 

New England and New York City have first air raid alert; schools and defense plants are evacuated.

1942 Fresh US troops relieve the besieged 1st Marine Division on Guadalcanal.

1943 The Establishment of the Council of Freedom in Denmark is announced in Britain.

The Chinese retake Changteh in Hunan.

1944 The Russians reach the Danube north of Budapest.

In Formosa Strait, US subs Redfish and Sea Devil damage Japanese carrier Junyo beyond repair.

Bulgar and Yugoslav armies drive last German forces from Serbia and Macedonia.

1945 General Patton is seriously injured in car crash in Germany.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: January 27 WWII Today: January 19 WWII Today: May 14

1939 Two more U-boats are reported to have been destroyed as the British campaign to destroy three a week continues.

1940 Franco says Spain is not prepared to enter war.

Italian Naval Chief resigns, to be replaced by Admiral Campioni.

The Western Desert Force is now fully concentrated for ‘Operation Compass’.

Greeks take Argyrokastro and Delvino.

1941 Congress declares war after personal address by Roosevelt. But the vote is not unanimous. The lone dissenting vote is cast by Representative Jeanette Rankin, who was a dissenter also when Congress approved U.S. entry into World War I.

Britain and dominions declare war on Japan.

The Soviet offensive against Army Group Centre succeeds in breaking through the German lines in many places, causing hasty withdrawals by ill-prepared and frost-bitten troops that are forced to abandon much heavy equipment that was immobilized by the below-zero weather.

In occupied Poland, near Lodz, Chelmno extermination camp becomes operational. Jews taken there are placed in mobile gas vans and driven to a burial place while carbon monoxide from the engine exhaust is fed into the sealed rear compartment, killing them. The first gassing victims include 5,000 Gypsies who had been deported from the Reich to Lodz.

The Eighth Army officially relieves the Tobruk garrison.

Japanese aircraft bomb Singapore, which as yet has not blacked out. The raid inflicts about 200 casualties, mostly civilians. Japanese troops land at Singora and Patani on the Kra peninsula in southern Thailand, which surrenders the same day. Japanese make landings at Kota Bharu on the north eastern coast of Malaya, although troops of the 8th Indian Brigade put up strong resistance against these Japanese landings. However, rumors that the Japanese had broken through the defenders, caused the RAF to evacuate Kota Bharu airfield and forced the 8th Indian Brigade to withdraw to the south after dark. Japanese troops launch an offensive against the new territories, a part of the British colony of Hong Kong. The Japanese overrun the US garrisons in Shanghai and Tientsin.

Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita begins his attack against the British army at Singapore. By nightfall, 60 of the 110 British and Australian aircraft defending Malaya and Singapore had been destroyed.

The British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse, set sail from Singapore in an attempt to intercept and destroy the Japanese landings that are taking place at Kota Bharu on the north eastern coast of Malaya, while the RAF manages to damage three of enemy’s transports.

Japanese aircraft attack Guam and Wake Islands in the central pacific. The Japanese bomb the US controlled Philippine islands of Luzon and Mindanao from their bases in Formosa.

1942 German troops occupy the port of Bizerte in Tunisia.

1943 Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz becomes the chief of U.S. strategic air forces in Europe.

Australians troops capture Wareo in New Guinea.

U.S. carrier-based planes sink two cruisers and down 72 planes in the Marshall Islands.

1944 German troops evacuate Jülich on the Roer river.

The Red Army begins an offensive aimed at encircling Budapest.

A second Japanese airborne counter-attack on Leyte achieves some success against US airfields.

The USAAF begins a 72-day bombardment of Iwo Jima Island 700 miles to the South of Japan.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: November 24 WWII Today: December 11 WWII Today: October 24

1939 Norway, Denmark and Sweden declare their neutrality. The Soviet Ninth Army launches an offensive in central Karelia. Britain and France agree to send troops and material to help Finland fight against the Soviet Union. However, there is virtually no way to get these forces to Finland and so the promises mean little.

Italy reaffirms her neutrality.

1940 The Admiral Hipper leaves Kiel for an anti-shipping sortie into the Atlantic.

1941 At 6:15 Honolulu time, the first wave of Japanese aircraft take of from their carriers which are located about 200 miles north of Hawaii. At 7:50, 43 fighters, 51 dive-bombers, 70 torpedo-bombers and 50 ordinary bombers arrive over Hawaii. They launch attacks against the airfields at Wheeler, Kaneohe, Ewa and Hickham and against the American warships anchored at ‘Battleship Row’. Surprise was complete and within a few minutes 5 battleships and 2 light cruisers had been sunk and a large number of aircraft (180) destroyed on the ground. Within an hour, the second wave of Japanese strike aircraft (36 fighters, 80 dive-bombers, 54 bombers) had arrived over the target, sinking a further 3 destroyers and damaging another battleship. By 10:00 the attack was over and the casualties could be accounted for. The Americans lost 2,729 killed and 1,178 wounded, while the Japanese losses amounted to just 29 aircraft (59 airmen) and five mini-submarines. The Japanese launch air attacks against Manila.

Japan declares war on Britain and the USA.

The US begins mobilization.

Field Marshal von Brauchitsch after suffering a recent heart attack tenders his resignation to Hitler, although this is not accepted immediately. Zhukov issues orders to the left flank armies of his West Front to begin offensive operations against Panzer Group 2, which is attempting to withdraw out of a salient near Tula. The aim of this offensive would be to cut off Panzer Group 2 and destroy it in the area of Stalinogorsk.

Panzer Army Afrika retreats westwards through Libya, completing its withdrawal to the Gazala line.

1942 The US Navy launches the Battleship New Jersey, one of the four “Iowa Class” battleships, the largest ever built for the US Navy, and 11 other ships on the anniversary of Pearl harbor.

British Commandos make daring raid on Bordeaux harbor, rowing 50 miles up the River Gironde and attaching limpet mines to German shipping.

US make a beachhead South of Buna, cutting off Japanese forces there.

1943 The Cairo conference ends.

1944 Nazi women’s leader Gertrud Scholtz-Klink asks all German women over 18 to volunteer to serve in army or Luftwaffe to release men to the front.

1945 Japanese Gen. Tomoyuki Yamashita is sentenced to death for his role in atrocities in the Philippines.

Take a look at these other WWII Posts:WWII Today: November 19 WWII Today: October 1 WWII Today: November 15