1940

US puts economic pressure on Japan with the intent to stop its war against China. Nevertheless, Japan conquers more Chinese territory and occupies French Indo-China. Germany invades and conquers all countries to its west except UK. It also conquers Norway. Italy becomes a German ally. UK fights against Italy in North Africa and Free French forces occupy Vichy-France possessions in western and equatorial Africa. British navy destroys much of the French and Italian fleets in the Mediteranean Sea. US increases its defense expenditures and implements a draft of men into its armed forces.

January 17.   Poland:   Polish cryptanalysts break the first wartime Enigma enciphering machine settings and give them to the Allied cryptananalysts.^{Budiansky 340}

January 26.   Washington:   The Trade Treaty of 1911 between the U.S. and Japan expired and Secretary of State Cordell Hull informed Japan that trade would continue on a day-to-day basis.

March 12.   Moscow:   After 3 months of fighting, Soviet forces finally breached the Mannerheim Line, causing the collapse of Finnish defenses. Finland sues for peace and signed the Treaty of Moscow with the USSR, which gained the Karelian Isthmus, the city of Viipuri (Vyborg), the port of Hangoe on the Baltic Sea, and several islands. The Finnish territorial transfer totaled 16,173 square miles and a population of 450,000. Most of the Finns in the ceded territory will be resettled in Finland.^League

April 9.   Denmark & Faroe Islands:   Germany invades Denmark, which surrenders on the same day. UK invades and occupies the strategically important Danish Faroe Islands on the same day to pre-empt a German invasion. UK troops will remain there throughout the war.

April 9.   Norway:   Germany invades Norway and will occupy the country for the entire war. The Norwegian government flees to UK. Germany's control of Norway will allow its navy to base its ships and submarines on Norway's west coast, thereby having easy access to the Atlantic Ocean to support invasions of UK and France. Without those bases, its ships would have been restricted to the Baltic and North Seas by the British and French navies.

April 9.   Greenland:   The Danish envoy to US signs a treaty with US authorizing it to occupy and defend Greenland, a possession of Denmark. The US will use Greenland as a site for weather stations during the war.

April 13 - May3.   Norway:   On April 13, the British Navy attacks the Germans in Narvik, sinking all the German warships in the harbor. British forces occupy the city. On April 16, UK and France land forces in southern Norway at Andalsnes and Namsos. Superior German forces will force the Allies to withdraw from these cities on May 3.

May.   Washington:   Japanese naval code JN-39 used by its merchant ships is broken, enabling the US Navy to know the position of these ships for submarine attacks.

May.   Auschwitz, Poland:   The infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination and work camp complex receives its first prisoners, 30 German criminals from the Sachsenhausen camp. Soon, Polish dissidents and intelligentsia were incarcerated. Then Russian POWs and Jews were imprisoned and put to death with Zyklon B gas, a highly level cyanide-based insecticide. Ultimately, about 3 million inmates will die there during the war.

May 9.   Iceland:   UK invades and occupies strategically important Iceland, at that time independent, but governed by King Christian X of Denmark. (This arrangement is called a "personal union".) UK thus pre-empts a German invasion of Iceland. A US force will replace UK force in July 1941 to allow UK troops to fight elsewhere. (Iceland will become an independent republic during the war.)

May 10.   Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, France:   German begins its Western Offensive by invading Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France. Germany intends to quickly defeat the western democracies to secure this front before his attack on USSR; otherwise, they might combine to attack Germany while it was at war with USSR. Therefore, Germany will conquer and secure bases in these countries and then conquer UK from them, thus leaving it free to conquer USSR, its ultimate goal to provide more living room (Lebensraum) for German citizens.

May 10.   London:   The German invasion of France and the Low Countries results in the resignation of British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain. Winston Churchill forms a new coalition cabinet, which includes Conservative and Labour representatives to conduct the war. He will remain Prime Minister throughout the war.

May 11.   Belgium:   UK and France sent expeditionary forces to bolster the Belgian army.

May 13.   Netherlands:   After a devastating air attack, the Dutch city of Rotterdam surrenders to the Germans. Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government flee to UK to set up a government-in-exile. On May 14 the Dutch army surrenders to the German army as more Dutch officials flee to UK.

May 28.   Belgium:   Belgium surrenders to Germany. This exposes the British forces to German attack, so UK decides to evacuate its forces.. From May 28 to June 4, the British force was evacuated from the beaches at Dunkerque. The British navy, with the assistance of civilian boats, evacuate 215,000 British troops and 120,000 French troops. The Germans capture 30,000 British troops.

June 8.   Norway:   German reinforcements, supply problems, and the collapse of the Western Front in France forces UK and France to withdraw their forces in northern Norway, leaving Norway to the Germans and their puppet Norwegian government under President Vidkun Quisling. The legitimate Norwegian govnerment had fled to UK on June 7. All fighting ends on June 10 and King Haakon VII and his cabinet escape to London to form a government-in-exile where it will continue resistance against the German occupation..

June 10.   Rome:   Italy ends its neutrality and declares war on France and UK. Italian troops attack southern France from Savoy as German troops overrun northern France.

June 11.   Malta:   Italian airplanes bomb the strategic UK island of Malta to begin 3,000 air attacks that will continue to July 20, 1943, in what will be the most heavily bombed areas of WWII. Malta is important because British air and sea forces can attack Axis ships transporting Axis supplies and troops from Europe to North Africa. UK will ship airplanes, arms and ships to Malta that will be attacked by Axis airplanes in what will be known as the "Siege of Malta". The island is too heavily defended to be attacked by land forces.

June 15 - 17.   Baltic States:   Russian armies occupy Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to secure USSR eastern borders and control countries that had been Russian territories under the czars.

June 16.   Washington:   Seeking to bolster Western Hemisphere defenses, the U.S. Congress (Pittman Act) authorizes the sale of munitions to any American republic that wants them.

June 22.   Compiegne, France:   France under Prime Minster Henri-Philippe Pétain signs an armistice with Germany. Under the terms of this treaty, Germany occupies northern and eastern France that will provide it with submarine (U-boat) bases that will sink Allied ships in the Atlantic for most of the war. The remainder of France will be centered at Vichy will be totalitarian in nature and exercise a limited freedom of action. It will control the French navy and an army of 100,000 men. It will also control most French colonies in Africa except for those that will be under Free France. UK recognizes Gen. Charles de Gaulle as representing Free France, not Pétain, on June 23 and severs relations with Vichy France. The Vichy government will begin on July 2 and be totalitarian in nature.

June 24.   Vichy, France:   Italy and France sign anarmistice to end the fighting in southern France.

June 25.   French Indo-China:   Taking advantage of the French armistice, Japan demands the right to land military forces in French Indo-China. In support of this demand, the Japanese navy dispatches warships to ports in French Indo-China.

June 26.   Bessarabia & Bukovina:   With the Western powers focused on events in France and with Romania siding with Germany, USSR demands that Romania cede strategically important Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Two days later, the Red Army occupies these regions and Romania thereby loses 19,300 square miles and 3.5 million people. USSR will rename this region Moldavian SSR^League

July 3.   Oran & Mers el-Kabir:   Fearing that Vichy France will turn over the French fleet to the Germans (the French deployed most of their naval units to Oran in Algeria), the British government demand that French naval officers surrender their ships to the British navy. When the French refuse to surrender, the British sink or capture most of the French fleet. The British sink 3 French battleships and an aircraft carrier, an action which severely undermines Anglo-French relations. UK also will seize French ships in ports under British control. On July 5, Vichy France severs diplomatic relations with UK; thus, there are 2 French governments: Vichy France is pro-German and Free France is pro-Allies.^League

July 4.   Sudan:   Italy invades Anglo-Egyptian Sudan from Italian East Africa.

July 16.   Tokyo:   Japan elects a New Prime Minister, Prince Fumumaro Konoye, who will govern on totalitarian lines to implement a policy of national consolidation and war.

July 20.   Washington::   In response to German and Japanese aggression, President Roosevelt signs into law that wll establish a "two-ocean navy" at a cost of over $5.2 billion. The U.S. will expand the size of the U.S. Navy by 70%. American firms will build 201 new warships with some of these funds.

August 1.   Tokyo:   The idea of a "Co-Prosperity Shere" is announced in a press interview, although it had existed in various forms for many years. Although promulgated as a way for European colonies to shed their overlord imperialists and enjoy economic prosperity, it was intended to extend Japanese power and acquire an empire with available resources based on European models. This concept will lead to Japan's plans to conquer UK and Dutch colonies in Asia and the Pacific.

August 6.   British Somaliland   Italian forces invade British Somaliland and complete its conquest on August 19. British forces were withdrawn on August 17.

August 8.   UK:   The failure of Germany to negotiate an armistice with UK and British bombing of Ruhr factories and Berlin lead Germany to begin an air assault. The German air force (Luftwaffe) with more than 1,000 planes tries but fails to destroy the British air force and strategic industrial centers in preparation of an amphibious assault against Britain that will never come. This "Battle of Britain" ends on November 10.

September.   Washington:   Japanese Purple machine code broken by US Army, which enables the US to read Japanese diplomatic code. Japanese Navy radio JN-25 code is broken by US Navy signals intelligence command. This feat will enable the US to know of Japanese naval movements throughout the war, since the Japanese, thinking their enciphering system was unbreakable, will never change this system. ^{Budiansky 341}

September 2.   Washington:   US and UK sign an agreement in which US will transfer 50 old destroyers to the British navy in exchange for a 99-year lease of naval and air stations in Antigua, the Bahamas, Bermuda, British Guiana, Jamaica, Newfoundland, St. Lucia, and Trinidad. UK needed destroyers to protect convoys from German U-boats, but can no longer afford to pay for ships.

September 16.   Washington:   To prepare the country for war, Congress passes the U.S. Selective Training and Service Act, the first peacetime draft in American history by a majority of 1 vote in the House of Representatives, indicating continued strong opposition among Americans over becoming involved in foreign wars. In 1941 another will extend the length of service from 12 to 18 months by another 1 vote margin in the House. All men between the ages of 21 and 35 will have to register for the military draft. The act provides for the training of 1.2 million troops and 800,000 reservists for a period of one year together with the facilities to house and train them. The first draft lottery will be held on October 29.

September 22.   Hanoi, French Indo-China:   Japanese forces begin to move into French Indo-China when Vichy France agrees to the occupation. The Japanese army will soon cross the border and advance into China 120 miles from Hanoi to block rail transport into China and prepare for offensive operations.

September 26.   Washington:   In an effort to undermine the Japanese war economy, US places a ban on the exportation of scrap iron and steel from US to countries outside the Western Hemisphere with the exception of exports to Britain, effective October 16. The Japanese consider this policy an act of economic warfare and declare the policy an "unfriendly act" on October 8.

September 27.   Berlin:   Germany, Italy, and Japan sign a Three-Power Pact. The treaty calls for military and economic aid to the three members of the pact for 10 years. They will aid each other in the event that any of them become involved in a war with a power not then a belligerent, i.e., USSR and US. This Axis pact eventually will be extended to include Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia.

October 8.   Romania:   A German army occupies Romania to train the Romanian army, protect Romanian oil fields from British sabotage, and provide a base for eventual attack on USSR. Now Germany has military control of the country.

October 28.   Greece:   Italy invades Greece, but fail to conquer the country. UK will land forces on Crete and other Greek islands to assist the Greeks on October 30.

November 8.   Gabon:   After the failure to take Dakar (Senegal) in Vich-controlled French West Africa in October, Free French troops under Gen. Charles de Gaulle successfully occupy Libreville (Gabon) in French Southwest Africa (2). French forces included French Legionnaire, Senegalese, Chadian, and Cameroonian troops. Other parts of French Equatorial Africa joined the Free French. Free French will fight alongside UK in Egypt and Libya against German and Italian troops. French colonies in the Pacific Ocean will later join the Free French and Allies to provide important bases for the fight against Japan. Free French forces lalter will join British forces in liberating Italian East Africa and liberate the French mandates of Syria and Lebanon controlled by Vichy France and Madagascar. They will also fight alongside US and UK forces in the North African campaigns to liberate French North Africa. Free French troops will also fight along with the Allies in their invasions of Italy and France.

November 11.   Taranto, Italy:   British navy airplanes destroy and damage most of the 6 battleships, 7 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers and 8 destroyers in Italy's fleet. This raid hinders supply to Italian troops in North and East Africa and insures supply to British troops in Africa and the Middle East. This is the first all-aircraft naval attack in history and will be studied by the Japanese navy in preparation for its Decembre 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It will also be studied by US military, but not used to effectively defend Pearl Harbor against the raid. The Battle of Taranto demonstrates the superiority of naval air power over "big gun" ships.

November 20.   Washington:   U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stimson and British Minister of Supply Sir Walter Layton agree to a partial standardization of British and American military weapons and equipment. This Stimson-Layton Agreement establishes a general policy of pooling British and American technical knowledge, patents, and formulas for weapons production that will prevail throughout the war.

December 8.   Egypt:   The British army launches an offensive against the Italian army in Egypt. At Mersa Matruh the British capture 1,000 Italians. The British also enter Sidi Barrani in preparation for incursions in Italian-governed Libya. They are assisted by Free French troops. It is important for UK to keep Italy (and later, Germany) from capturing Egypt and the suez canal that supplies British forces in Africa. Also, defeat in North Africa would allow entry into the Middle East and the capture of oil resources.