1940

1940
Ten thousand Japanese troops launched a counterattack in Eastern Shanxi Province in China in an attempt to relieve the nearly-surrounded Japanese Thirty Sixth Division. Luftwaffe aircraft raided the Shetlands with one bomber shot down. The Soviet attack in the Taipale sector of the Karelian Isthmus was repulsed. The British steamer Box Hill and the Norwegian steamer Luna were sunk.
The Soviet offensive in Finland was halted by several - unexpected - Finnish victories.
The pro-Nazi English socialite Unity Mitford, who was in Germany when the war began and shot herself in an unsuccessful suicide attempt on 3 September 1939, arrived at the English port of Folkestone under heavy police guard and was brought ashore on a stretcher. Her father, Lord Redesdale, told a reporter that his daughter was 'very ill.' Finnish aircraft raided the Soviet bases at Uhtua, Murmansk and Liinahamari. The Swedish steamer Svarton was torpedoed off northern Scotland.
Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe Hermann Göring was appointed head of the German war economy. Walther Funk was made Executive Vice President for the economy. The Polish government-in-exile reached an agreement with French authorities to establish Polish military units in France.
Leslie Hore-Belisha was replaced as War Minister by Oliver Stanley. A Henschel Hs 129 was destroyed during a test flight when it failed to pull out of a dive, the aircraft proving to be underpowered and overweight while offering poor visibility to the pilot.
Olga Georges-Picot born in Shanghai. John Patrick Byrne born in Paisley. Eight Soviet aircraft were lost during a raid on Utti. The British trawler Eta was mined.
Rationing of basic foodstuffs - including butter, bacon, ham and sugar - was established in the UK. Soviet aircraft bombed Turku and Kuopi. Churchill visited the British Expeditionary Force in France. British merchant ships Towneley and Cedrington sunk off the south east coast.
The first episode of Norman Edwards' Curiouser & Curiouser broadcast on The Home Service. The Finns defeated the Soviet Forty Fourth Division on the Raatte Road outside Suomussalmi.
German aircraft attacked British trawlers and a Trinity House vessel off the east coast. Five British merchant ships and one Dutch ships were sunk. The first Colonial troops from Cyprus landed in France to join the British Expeditionary Force. The creation of RAF Command in France was announced.
RAF bombers attacked the German seaplane base at Sylt. Finnish troops crossed the Soviet border close to Suomussalmi. The Norwegian steamer Manx was mined.
The Sergei Prokofiev ballet Romeo & Juliet made its Russian debut at the Korov Theatre in Leningrad amid wartime blackout conditions. German aircraft crossed the British coast at points from East Scotland to the Thames Estuary, without dropping any bombs. Coastal Command aircraft attacked three German destroyers off the coast of Jutland. British steamer Keynes was sunk by bombing and the tanker El Oso was mined. An operations research report on the RAF's 'Dowding System' concluded that the filter room had been intended to correlate RDF reports, but had developed into something 'much more complicated.' Too much control took place in the filter room, which was producing results with 'appallingly low standards.' Given the success of the FCHQ filter room, it remains unclear whether the report was inaccurate or if the problems it claimed to identify had been solved by the time of the Battle of Britain later in the year.
Joe May's The Invisible Man Returns - starring Sir Cedric Hardwicke and Vincent Price - premiered. Soviet aircraft damaged the Lahti radio station. British ships Granta and St Lucida and Norwegian vessel Fredville were sunk.
Clemence Dane's Will Shakespeare starring Robert Donat broadcast on The Home Service. Holland and Belgium moved to 'a state of readiness', but remained neutral.
John Michael Frederick Castle born in Croydon. Janine Catherine Glass born in Bombay. Heavy Soviet attacks took place on the Salla and Petsamo fronts.
Belgium refused to allow Allied troops to move through Belgian territory, deciding to remain neutral despite the increasingly obvious German threat. Jolly well done, Belgium, how'd that work out for you, then?
Captured Nazi documents revealed 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 would be more compatible for an invasion. The Admiralty announced that three British submarines, Seahorse, Undine and Starfish, had 'probably' been lost. The Finns destroyed two Soviet companies on the Salla front.
The Finns captured Kursu.
Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday - starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell - premiered. Anthony John Holland born in Shoeburyness. George Formby's 'The Lancashire Romeo'/'Imagine Me In The Maginot Line' released. Soviet troops retreated nearly thirty miles onthe Salla front. A Dutch Royal decree proclaimed a 'state of siege' in several coastal areas. One British, two Norwegian, two Swedish and one Danish ship were sunk.
Michael Reid born in Hackney. A Heinkel bomber was attacked over Aberdeen. The RAF carried out reconnaissance flights over North-West Germany. The Swedish steamer Pajala and British tanker Inverdargle were sunk.
The first episode of PG Wodehouse's Ukridge broadcast on The Home Service. Winston Churchill gave an address on BBC radio referred to as 'The House of Many Mansions' speech, with neutral nations its primary subject. Churchill explained that there was 'no chance of a speedy end' to the war 'except through united action' and asked listeners to consider what would happen if neutral nations 'were with one spontaneous impulse to do their duty in accordance with the Covenant of the League and were to stand together with the British and French Empires against aggression and wrong?' Churchill concluded: 'The day will come when the joybells will ring again throughout Europe and when victorious nations, masters not only of their foes but of themselves, will plan and build in justice, in tradition and in freedom a house of many mansions where there will be room for all.' London recorded a temperature of twelve degrees Fahrenheit - the city's coldest day since 1881.
John Vincent Hurt born in Chesterfield. The Pope condemned German actions in Poland - a mere four months after the invasion. Göring confiscated all Polish State property. That's junkies for you, always nicking other people's stuff so they can buy their next fix.
Henrik Ege's Hocus-Bogus broadcast on The Home Service. Britain lowered the speed limit at night in populated areas to twenty miles per hour due to the sharp increase in the rate of car accidents during blackouts. War Minister Oliver Stanley announced in the House of Commons that kilts would not be issued to members of Scottish regiments except to pipers and drummers, for reasons connected to the possible use of poison gas by the enemy. General Hertzog, the leader of the South African opposition, proposed a peace resolution which was defeated by eighty one votes to fifty nine, reflecting in part the pro-German elements in South Africa. Angered at being outmaneuvered, Hertzog retired from politics. He issued a press statement in October 1941 in which he attacked 'liberal capitalism' and the party system, while praising Nazism as 'in keeping with the traditions of the Afrikaners.' He claimed that Nazism was a system which simply had to be adapted to South African needs under a dictator.
Reinhard Heydrich was appointed by Göring for the 'solution' to 'the Jewish Question. Two German aircraft dropped four bombs over the Shetlands, causing no damage. British steamers Newhaven and Parkhill were sunk. John Ford's The Grapes Of Wrath premiered in New York.
A Soviet offensive north east of Lake Ladoga failed to make progress. Soviet aircraft sank the Finnish steamer Notung. The German freighter Albert Janus was scuttled and the Norwegian steamers Biarritz and Gudveig sunk.
The six day long Soviet offensive north east of Lake Ladoga ended in abject failure. The Latvian steamer Everine and Swedish steamer Sonja were sunk.
A Soviet submarine was sunk by a Finnish minefield. The German Ambassador to Rome protested to the Vatican about their broadcast on the German persecutions in Poland.
The Finnish steamer Onto was sunk and the Swedish steamer Sylvia was overdue and considered lost. This month is reported to be the coldest January in the UK since 1894.
Jill Esmond was granted a divorce from her husband, Laurence Olivier. Vivien Leigh was named as co-respondent and Olivier did not contest the proceedings. The Luftwaffe carried out an unusually large number of raids over Britain, attacking at least thirteen ships including two lightships. Soviet aircraft attacked Hango and Turku.
The German submarine U-15 was lost with all hands after a collision with the torpedo boat Iltis off Heligoland. U-55 was sunk south-west of the Scilly Isles.
The Finns claimed victory in a battle at Kuhmo. Soviet aircraft dropped at least one hundred and fifty bombs on Rovaniemi. The Admiralty announced that the U-boat which sank the tanker Vaclite has, itself, been destroyed.
The tanker British Councillor and two neutral ships were sunk.
The Carroll Levis film Discoveries - notable for the first performance of 'There'll Always Be An England' by boy-soprano Glyn Davies - released. David John White born in Edmonton, Middlesex. David Hargreaves born in New Mills, Derbyshire.
A German plane crashed on English soil for the first time when a Heinkel He 111 was shot down near Whitby. Flight Lieutenant Peter Townsend of Forty Three Squadron was credited with the crucial shot. HM minesweeper Sphinx, steamer Armanistan and Norwegian ship Tempo were sunk.
Oswald Mitchell's Jailbirds - starring Harry Terry, Albert Burdon and Shaun Glenville - premiered. The states of the Balkan Entente agree to stay neutral in the war. Until somebody decided to invade them, obviously.
U-41 sunk with all hands south of Ireland. The Allied War Council decided to send material aid to Finland, especially guns and aircraft. Very little effective aid reached the Finns before the end of the war, however.
The Careless Talk Costs Lives campaign began in Britain, aimed at preventing war gossip. A large Soviet tank attack at Summa is repulsed after sixteen hours. James Joseph Tarbuck born in Liverpool.
Disney's Pinocchio premiered in New York. Gary James Bond born in Liss, Hampshire. The Irish motorboat Munster sunk.
The third contingent of the Canadian Active Service Force arrived in Britain.
George Stevens's Vigil In The Night - starring Carole Lombard - premiered. US Under-Secretary of State, Sumner Welles, announced that he intended to visit the beliligerent states.
Tom and Jerry made their debut in Puss Gets The Boot, under their original names of Jasper and Jinx. The Admiralty announced the loss of HM Trawlers Robert Brown and Fort Royal. The Dutch steamer Burgerdijk was sunk.
The German-Soviet Economic Pact was signed. The Soviet Union then provided much economic aid to Germany, right up to the day of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Oh, the irony.
U-33 was sunk in the Firth of Clyde by the minesweeper Gleaner. Twenty five of the crew perished but seventeen survived, one of whom had three Enigma machine rotors in his pockets. These were sent to Alan Turing at the Government Code and Cyper School for study. Finnish defences on the Karelian Isthmus finally cracked. The majority of the Finnish cabinet was in now in favour of peace with the Soviets. Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Suez. Ralph Bates born in Bristol.
A German bomber is sighted over the Thames estuary. German steamers Wakama and Wolfsburg were reported to have been scuttled off the coast of Brazil.
The Manstein Plan was tested during a war game at Mayen. Heer Generalmajor Heinz Guderian concluded that the plan was viable, but Generaloberst Franz Halder did not share Guderian's confidence that panzers could cross the Meuse on their own without waiting for infantry support. U-54 lost with all hands in the North Sea. The decision to arm merchants ships sailing in the North Sea was taken. The British government said that it would allow volunteers to sign up to fight in Finland.

Oswald Mitchell's Pack Up Your Troubles - starring Reginald Purdell. Wylie Watson and Patricia Roc - premiered. Germany announced that all British merchant ships would, henceforth, be treated as warships, allowing U-boats to sink them without mercy.
The destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removed almost three hundred British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters off Bergen, sparking The Altmark Incident. In Egypt, the British Army created the Seventh Armoured Division, later to be famous as The Desert Rats. Alfred J Goulding's A Chump At Oxford - starring Laurel and Hardy and featuring an early role for Peter Cushing - premiered.
Gene Francis Alan Pitney born in Hartford, Connecticut. Josephine Mary Robinson born in Cleethorpes. James Laurenson born in Marton, New Zealand. Plans were put in place to evacuate four hundred thousand children from British towns and cities to less vulnerable rural locations. The diplomatic fallout of The Altmark Incident saw Norway, Germany and Britain exchange terse words.
The destroyer HMS Daring was sunk by the German submarine U-23 East of the Orkey Islands while escorting Allied convoy HN12. The Finns destroyed a pocket of Soviet troops North of Lake Ladoga. The BBC's Forces Programme began. Highlights of the opening day included commentary on a football game between Ther French Army and The British Army by Raymond Glendenning, from Lille and A Variety Concert - with Eric Barker, Rupert Hazell and Elsie Day and Jack Warner - from the Playhouse, Feltham. Barry Stanton born in Manchester. George Formby's 'Grandad's Flannelette Nightshirt'/'Mister Wu's A Window Cleaner Now' released. The Finns claimed a victory near Kuhmo.
William Robinson born in Detroit. The Finns routed the Soviet Eighteenth Division north of Lake Ladoga. The destroyer HMS Daring was reported sunk.
James Peter Greaves born in Manor Park, London. The Norwegian ship Hop was presumed sunk.
Concentration Camps Inspectorate head Richard Glücks recommended a location for a 'quarantine camp' in Poland. The site was a former Austro-Hungarian cavalry barracks near the town of Oświęcim, known in German as Auschwitz. Luftwaffe bombers attacked British trawlers in the North Sea. The trawlers were able to fire back using newly installed machine guns. The RAF aircraft carried out reconnaissance over Heligoland Bight. Peter Robert McEnery born in Walsall.
The Kriegsmarine launched Operation Wikinger, targeting British fishing vessels suspected of reporting the movements of German warships. En route, the destroyer flotilla was mistakenly bombed by a Heinkel, sinking the Leberecht Maass and the Max Schultz hit a naval mine attempting a rescue effort. The new five-year old Dalai Lama was enthroned in Tibet. Judy Valerie Cornwell born in Hammersmith.
The Lord Mayor of London gave a lunch at the Guildhall to officers and ratings of the Exeter and Ajax to celebrate their victory at the Battle of the River Plate. U-53, commanded by Harald Grosse, was sunk with all hands west of the Orkneys. Peter Henry Fonda born in New York. Doctor Ehrlich's Magic Bullet - starring Edward G Robinson - and King Vidor's Northwest Passage - starring Spencer Tracy - premiered.
Peter Ellstrom Deuel born in Rochester, New York. Denis Law born in Aberdeen. Adrian Brunel's The Girl Who Forgot - starring Elizabeth Allan, Ralph Michael, Enid Stamp-Taylor and Basil Radford - premiered. German plans for an offensive in France and the Low Countries were officially put in place. A Scandinavian Neutrality conference was held in Copenhagen.
U-63, commanded by Günther Lorentz, was sunk off the Shetlands by a mix of depth charges and torpedoes from HMS Escort, HMS Inglefield, HMS Imogen and the submarine HMS Narwhal. The twenty four survivors spent the remainder of the war as POWs.
Finnish troops defended the ruins of Viipuri and evacuated the fortress of Koivisto.
Churchill, inaccurately, announced that half of all German U-boats had been sunk, largely based on very optimistic battle reports.
Robin Phillips born in Haslemere, Surrey. German factories not specifically needed for the war effort were to be closed.
The Academy Awards were held in Los Angeles, hosted by Bob Hope. Gone With the Wind won eight Oscars including Best Picture. The Los Angeles Times published the names of the winners in its late edition, so most of the attendees already knew the results ahead of time. The Academy responded by starting a tradition the following year in which the winners were not revealed until the ceremony itself when sealed envelopes were opened. Victor De Kowa's Casanova Heiratet - starring Karl Schönböck, Lizzi Waldmüller, Fita Benkhoff, Irene von Meyendorff and Richard Romanowsky - premiered. Three Soviet attacks across the Taipale River were repulsed.
Hitler issued orders for the invasions of Denmark and Norway just as US Under-Secretary of State Sumner Welles was visiting Berlin.
The Finns claimed to have destroyed the Soviet Thirty Fourth Moscow Tank Brigade north of Lake Ladoga. RAF Bombers made a night visit to Berlin, dropping leaflets and flares. British-Indian cargo liner Domala was bombed in the Channel by a Heinkel He 111H of Kampfgeschwader Twenty Six, flown by Martin Harlinghausen. The Dutch steamship Jong Willem rescued fifty survivors, aided by the destroyer HMS Viscount and Avro Anson aircraft of Forty Eight Squadron. The German steamer Troja was scuttled off Aruba after an encounter the the Light Cruiser HMS Despatch.
George King's Crimes At The Dark House - starring Tod Slaughter and Sylvia Marriott - premiered.
Viiprui remainded in Finnish hands despite a Soviet attack across the ice on Viipuri Bight. Soviet troops also suffered defeats north east of Lake Ladoga and withdraw in the Petsamo sector.
The Finnish government accepts Soviet peace terms, ending The Winter War. In theory, at least. A three hundred million pound loan - at three per cent - is announced by the British government to to help pay for the war.
Bukka White recorded 'Parchman Farm Blues' and 'District Attorney Blues' in Chicago for Okeh Records. Richard Brooke born in London. Soviet troops made several attacks over the ice on Viipuri Bay as the Finnish government announced peace negotiations are under way. A Heinkel bomber was shot down east of Aberdeen.
Christopher John David Wray born in Scarborough. RAF aircraft attack German patrol ships off Borkum and Sylt and reconnaissance aircraft fly over Posen in the longest flight of the war so far. The German vessel Uruguay was scuttled.
Soviet troops gained a beachhead north west of the Bay of Viipuri. The steamers Borthwick and Thurston were sunk.
RAF reconnaissance flights visit Vienna and Prague. The German steamer Hannover was reported to have been scuttled.
Meat rationing began in Britain. Maurice Elvey's Sons Of The Sea - starring Leslie Banks, Kay Walsh, Mackenzie Ward and Cecil Parker - premiered. Chamberlain announced Allied plans to send aid to Finland, five days after peace negotiations had begun. Impeccable timing as always, Nev.
The Moscow Peace Treaty ending The Winter War was signed. Russia received sixteen thousand square miles of Finnish territory.
Christopher Michael Gable born in London. U-44 sunk with all hands after hitting a mine off Terschelling.
The Road to Singapore, starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released. The Finnish population began to evacuate the areas that had been ceded to the Soviet Union. It was estimated that half a million people were affected.
Norman Tauorg's Young Tom Edison - starring Mickey Rooney, Fay Bainter and George Bancroft - premiered. The Iron Guard, a pro-Nazi terrorist organisation, was revivied. HM Trawler Peridot was sunk.
RAF bombers attacked German auxiliary vessels east of Borkum. Meanwhile, German aircraft attacked the fleet anchorage at Scapa Flow. One hit was recorded, causing minor damage.
Hitler and Mussolini met at The Brenner Pass on the Austrian border to discuss the progress of the war and other areas of mutual interest. Benito Mussolini agreed with Hitler that Italy would enter the war 'at an opportune moment.' Lynette Rumble born in Townsville, Queensland.
British bombers attack German base at Hörnum.
Paul Reynaud became Prime Minister of France following Daladier's resignation the previous day. The Queen Mary left New York for 'a secret destination.' Woody Guthrie was recorded for the first time, in an interview with Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress during which he also performed some original and traditional songs.
Charles Vidor's My Son, My Son! - starring Madelaine Carroll, Brian Aherne and Louis Hayward and Gregory La Cava's Primrose Path - starring Ginger Rogers, Joel McCrea, Marjorie Rambeau and Joan Carroll - premiered. Soveit Union took control of Hangö.
A British submarine sank the German collier Edmund Hugo Stinnes IV off Denmark. HM Trawler Loch Assater was reported to have been mined.
James Edmund Caan born in New York.
Lieutenant Colonel Mad Jack Churchill of the Manchester Regiment and some of his men ambushed a German patrol at L'Épinette (near Richebourg, Pas-de-Calais). Churchill gave the signal to attack by raising his claymore which he always carried into battle as, without it, he felt 'improperly dressed.' A commonly told story is that Churchill - a skilled archer who had won second place at the previous year's World Archery Competition in Oslo - killed a German sergeant using a longbow during this action, in doing so becoming the last soldier known to have successfully downed an enemy in such a manner. However Churchill later said that, actually, his bows had been crushed by a lorry earlier in the campaign. After evacuation from Dunkirk, Churchill (no relation), subsequently volunteered for the Commandos, saw action in Norway, Italy, Yugoslavia and Burma and was captured an held as a prisoner of war in Sachsenhausen. The RAF shot down five Messerschmitt Bf 109s over the Maginot Line.
The Anglo-French Supreme War Council met in London and agreed that neither Britain nor France would make a separate peace with Germany. The Council also agreed upon Operation Wilfred, a plan to lay mines in Norwegian coastal waters in the hopes of provoking a German response that would legitimise Allied 'assistance' to Norway and to restrict the iron ore trade from Sweden to Germany. Sumner Welles reported back to President Roosevelt after his mission to Europe. Hopefully, this included 'jeez, Frank, that Hitler's a mental.'
Václav Binovec's Madla Zpívá Evropě - starring Zdenka Sulanová and Ladislav Bohác - premiered.
Britain undertook secret reconnaissance flights to photograph targeted areas inside the Soviet Union in preparation for Operation Pike, utilising high-altitude, high-speed stereoscopic photography pioneered by Sidney Cotton. France placed an order for one hundred and seventy Bell P-400 Airacobras, to be delivered in October 1940. The aircraft eventually reached the RAF instead. Churchill warned of 'a looming intensification' of the war. The Turkish government closed down a pro-Nazi newspaper.
The BBC broadcast what appeared to be a speech by Adolf Hitler, in which the Führer reminded the audience that Columbus had discovered America with the help of German science and technology and therefore Germany had a right 'to have some part in the achievement which this voyage of discovery was to result in.' This meant that all Americans of Czech and Polish descent were 'entitled to come under the protection of Germany' and that Hitler would 'enforce that right, not only theoretically but practically.' Once the German Protectorate was extended to the United States, the Statue of Liberty would be removed to alleviate traffic congestion and the White House would be renamed the Brown House. CBS contacted the BBC in something of a panic trying to learn more about the origin of the broadcast, not realising that it was April Fools' Day. The voice of Hitler had been impersonated by the actor Martin Miller. A Bristol Blenheim shot down a Junkers Ju 88 dive bomber over the North Sea. The South African House of Assembly passes General Jan Smut's War Measures Bill by seventy five votes to fifty five.
Penelope Anne Constance Hatfield born in Sutton, Surrey. Hitler ordered preparations to begin for the invasions of Norway and Denmark.
The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill as its chair, replaced Lord Chatfield's ministerial position of Minister for Coordination of Defence. The first Coastal Defence fighter was lost during an engagement with a Heinkel. Lord Athone was appointed Governor-General of Canada. Vickery Turner born in Sunbury-On-Thames.
Neville Chamberlain gave a speech to the Conservative Party in London stating he was confident of victory and that Hitler had 'missed the bus' by not taking advantage of Germany's military superiority over Britain at the beginning of the war. The British Government formed a company to maintain trade with the Balkans during the war.
Bogskar won the Grand National at Aintree. One Million BC starring Victor Mature was released.
U-50 was sunk with all hands off Terschelling. Allies forces sailed to Norway to lay mines.
The British destroyer HMS Glowworm was sunk by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper in the Norwegian Sea as the Royal Navy laid mines off Narvik. Despite being hopelessly outgunned, the Glowworm managed to ram the Admiral Hipper and inflict considerable damage before sinking. Captain Gerard Broadmead Roope earned the first Victoria Cross of the war for his conduct, but it was only bestowed after the war when the Admiral Hipper's log describing the battle was read by the Royal Navy. U-1 was lost with all hands after hitting a mine off Terschelling.
The British campaign in Norway commenced following Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of neutral Denmark and Norway. The German heavy cruiser Blücher was sunk at the Battle of Drøbak Sound.
Germans set up a puppet Norwegian government under Vidkun Quisling, former Minister of Defence. The British Purchasing Commission in the United States agreed that North American companies could design a new fighter instead of producing the P-40 Tomahawk under license. This decision led to the development of the P-51 Mustang.
The first Battle of Narvik. British destroyers and aircraft successfully made a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. Winston Churchill made a speech to the House of Commons announcing that the strategically important Faroe Islands belonging to Denmark were now being occupied by Britain. 'We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to the Crown and people of a Denmark liberated from the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression,' Churchill said. The musical revue New Faces - featuring Eric Maschwitz and Manning Sherwin's 'A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square' - opened at the Comedy Theatre in London. The cast including Judy Campbell, Bill Fraser and Charles Hawtrey. Sheila Mary Dunn born in Wolverhampton.
Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca - starring Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine - and Doctor Cyclops premiered. Herbert Jeffrey Hancock born in Chicago. The RAF attacked two German warships in Kristiansand.
RAF Bomber Command mounted aerial mine-laying operations for the first time when fifteen Handley Page Hampdens were deployed to lay sea mines off Denmark. U-64 was sunk off Narvik during the second battle of Narvik with British force sinking the remaining German destroyers in Narvik harbour.
Norway's King Haakon VII made a radio address telling his people that British soldiers were on their way and should be given any assistance possible to fight the invading Germans. Royal Marines landed at Namsos, the first British troops to land in Norway. Allied aircraft attacked Stavanger airfield and German seaplanes in Hafs Fjord. Julie Frances Christie born in Chabua, India.
James Caffrey born in Belfast. Maurice Elvey's The Spider - starring Diana Churchill, Derrick De Marney, Jean Gillie, Edward Lexy and Cecil Parker - premiered. U-49 sunk at Narvik.
British troops land on and occupy the Faeroe Islands.
Ronald William Wycherley born in Liverpool. The Fleet Air Arm aircraft bombed Stavanger airfield whilst the RAF bombed Trondheim. HM submarine Thistle was reported as overdue and presumed lost.
British troops landed at Andalsnes and Molde.
John Cromwell's Abe Lincolm In Illinois - starring Raymond Massey - premiered. British and German troops clashed around Trondheim.
French troops landed in Norway. The Danish army was officially demobilised.
RAF aircraft bombed airfields at Stavanger and Aalborg.
British and Norwegian troops fought Germans forces around Lillehammer.
The War Office announced fighting north of Trondheim. RAF aircraft attacked airfields at Fornebu, Kjeller and Aalborg.
Alfredo James Pacino born in Manhattan. Allied troops evacuate the Lillehammer area following the failure to reach Trondheim.
Giovanni Giorgio Moroder born in Urtijëi, Italy.
Germany finally declared war on Norway, their forces having been fighting in the country for over a week. Joachim von Ribbentrop took to the airwaves shortly after and claimed that the Germans had captured documents from the Lillehammer sector revealing a British and French plan to occupy Norway with Norwegian complicity. Lord Privy Seal Samuel Hoare then made a radio address of his own in which he called Ribbentrop's assertion (and, indeed, Ribbentrop himself) 'despicable.' Himmler ordered work to begin on the concentration camp at Auschwitz.
The War Office announced that a German attack at Gudbrandsdal has been repulsed. German aircraft attacked Aalesund and Molde.
Allied destroyers were dispatched from Scapa Flow to evacuate to the British troops from Namsos. The Royal Navy submarine Unity was sunk in an accidental collision with the Norwegian ship Atle Jarl off Tynemouth.
The Allies began evacuating Norwegian ports as German troops advancing North from Oslo met up with forces advancing South from Trondheim. Orson Welles' Citizen Kane premiered.
Maurice Elvey's For Freedom - starring Will Fyffe, Anthony Hulme and Guy Middleton - premiered. The Norwegian forces defending Lillehammer surrendered.
RAF aircraft bombed Stavanger, Fornebu and Ry. Colonel General Ewald von Kleist took command of First Panzer Army.
The Luftwaffe carried out two raids on the south east coast of England.
Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg born in New York. The US Government gave permission to export the Mustang to the United Kingdom. The Norwegian Government in Exile set up in London.
A massive German armoured motorised column was spotted driving west through the Ardennes, but the Belgian Army did not respond. Norwegian troops resisted the German advance north of Roeros. Three Allied destroyers - HMS Afridi, the French Bison and the Polish Grom were lost off Norway.
The House of Commons began a contentious debate on the conduct of the war. Sir Roger Keyes appeared dressed in full military uniform with six rows of medals and described, in detail, the government's mishandling of the Norwegian campaign. Leo Amery uttered the famous words: 'Somehow or other we must get into the Government men who can match our enemies in fighting spirit, in daring, in resolution and in thirst for victory.' He continued: 'I will quote certain other words. I do it with great reluctance, because I am speaking of those who are old friends and associates of mine, but they are words which, I think, are applicable to the present situation. This is what [Oliver] Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation: "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"' The collier Brighton was sunk.
The Norway Debate continued in Parliament. David Lloyd George said that since Chamberlain had asked the nation for sacrifice, 'I say solemnly that the Prime Minister should give an example of sacrifice, because there is nothing which can contribute more to victory in this war than that he should sacrifice the seals of office.' Chamberlain survived a motion of no confidence by a vote of two hundred and eighty one to two hundred, but the number of absentions from within his own party caused the level of support for his government to appear very weak. Marshal Timoshenko was appointed Soviet Defence Commissar.
Hitler issued orders for the offensive in the west to begin on the following day.
Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister, replaced by Winston Churchill and a coalition war ministry. At the outset, Churchill formed a five-man War Cabinet which included Chamberlain as Lord President of the Council, Clement Attlee as Lord Privy Seal, Viscount Halifax as Foreign Secretary and Arthur Greenwood as a minister without portfolio. The cabinet changed in size as the war progressed but there were significant additions later in 1940 when it was increased to eight after Churchill, Attlee and Greenwood were joined by Ernest Bevin as Minister of Labour and National Service, Anthony Eden as Foreign Secretary – replacing Halifax, who was sent to Washington DC as ambassador to the United States, Lord Beaverbrook as Minister of Aircraft Production, Sir Kingsley Wood as Chancellor and Sir John Anderson as Lord President of the Council – replacing Chamberlain who died in November. The massive German offensive against the Western Front began with the invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, The Netherlands and France. The Battle for The Hague became the first - failed - paratrooper attack in history as the Dutch quickly defeated the invaders. The first Allied bombs dropped on Germany, when Whitleys attacked targets near Münchengladbach. British troops occupied Iceland to prevent a German invasion that would have threatened transatlantic trade routes.

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressubrger's Contraband - starring Conrad Veidt and Valerie Hobson - premiered. German troops crossed the Albert Canal and Fort Eben-Emael taken by airborne troops. Allied troops landedd on Curacao and Aruba, Dutch possessions in the Caribbean.
Churchill made his 'I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears, and sweat' speech to the House of Commons. Queen Wilhelmina of The Netherlands and her government were evacuated to London using HMS Hereward following the German invasion of the Low Countries and German troops outflanked the main Dutch fortifications. German paratroops were dropped in North-Eastern France.
The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers (subsequently the Home Guard) was announced by the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden. Lord Beaverbrook became Minister of Aircraft Production in Chruchill's war cabinet and Ernest Bevin Minister of Labour. The Rotterdam Blitz led to German victory in the Battle for Rotterdam, causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. French artillery and anti-tank guns hit Erwin Rommel's tank near the Belgian village of Onhaye. The tank slid down a slope and rolled on its side, but Rommel escaped serious injury.
In a response to the Rotterdam Blitz, the first large-scale RAF strategic bombing targeted Gelsenkirchen, followed by Hamburg, Bremen, Cologne, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf and Hanover during the next days. The Battle of Sedan ended in German victory. All of the bridges across the Meuse were captured, allowing the Wehrmacht to pour across the river and advance toward the English Channel unimpeded. The capitulation of the Netherlands was completed.
Michael Curtiz's Virginia City - starring Errol Flynn, Miriam Hopkins, Randolph Scot and Humphrey Bogart - premiered. The BEF was forced back to the west of Brussels. Preisdent Roosevelt askrf the aircraft industry to produce fifty thousand aircraft per year. Mussolini reassured Greece and Yugoslavia that Italy will not invade. No one with a smidgen of sense believe him.
The Battle of Montcornet was fought when the 4e Division Cuirassée under Colonel Charles de Gaulle attacked the Germans at the strategic village. The French successfully drove off the Germans but were then counterattacked by Ju 87 Stukas and had to withdraw to avoid being encircled. The Germans enter Brussels, Louvain and Malines. A massive German attack devlopeed between the Sambre and the Meuse, with heavy fighting on the front from Sedan to Rethel. The Dutch islands of Walcheren and Beveland were evacuated. RAF Bomber Command continued to attack targets in western Germany All-American Comics issue sixteen was published, featuring the first appearance of The Green Lantern. My Favourite Wife - starring Irene Dunne, Cary Grant and Randolph Scott - and Mervyn LeRoy's Waterloo Bridge - starring Vivien Leigh and Robert Taylor - premiered.
Raymond Stanley Lonnen born in Bournemouth. German troops reached Antwerp and Amiens. Marshal Petain became Vice-Premier of France.
Amiens was besieged by German troops; General Rommel's Panza forces surrounded Arras and other German forces reached Noyelles on the Channel. British Expeditionary Force Commander General Lord Gort ordered a withdrawal toward port cities including Dunkirk. James McManus born in Bristol. General Weygand was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces.
Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, was extremely jailed for his naughty scallywag fascist ways; he and his wife, Diana, would spend the next three years banged up in The Slammer. Mosley and the MP Archibald Maule Ramsay were among a number of Britons arrested under Defence Regulation 18B, allowing for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers. The Right Club's Anna Wolkoff and US embassy cipher clerk Tyler Kent were also arrested and charged with violating the Official Secrets Act. Unbeknownst to Wolkoff, The Right Club had already been infiltrated by MI5, firstly by Marjorie Mackie and then by Helene De Muncke as well as by Joan Miller, who had worked as an office girl for Elizabeth Arden. Through those women, controlled by head of M Section Maxwell Knight, MI5 was kept fully informed of and was even able to influence the activities of the group. In February, Wolkoff met Kent, who revealed some of the documents that he had stolen from the embassy, most notably a series of sensitive communications between Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt. In April, Wolkoff borrowed some of the documents to have them copied. She then approached De Muncke and asked if she could pass a coded letter to William Joyce through a contact De Munke claimed to have at the Italian embassy. As Wolkoff was put into the police car, her arrest was witnessed by her neighbour, eleven-year-old Len Deighton. German troops reached the old Somme battlefield. Guderian's Panzer Corp, part of Kleist's armoured group, reached the Channel at Abbeville, cutting the Allied armies in two. Arthur Seyss-Inquart was appointed Reichskommissar for the Nazi-occupied Netherlands.
Anthony Esmond Sheridan McGinnity born in Norwich. Battle of Arras: British and French launched a counterattack which achieved some local success.
The Battle of Boulogne and the Siege of Calais began. German troops from II Panzer Division reach the outskirts of Boulogne but were repulsed by unexpected British and French resistance. The British contingent was made up of one battalion of the Irish Guards and one battalion of the Welsh Guards, both of which arrived at Boulogne by sea earlier in the day. Further British forces landed at Calais and prepared to link up with the BEF at Dunkirk. Britain passed The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act putting banks, munitions production, wages, profits and work conditions under the control of the state.
Keep It Dark - starring Joyce Grenfell and Dick Francis - broadcast.
In agreement with a request from Gerd von Rundstedt, Hitler ordered Paul von Kleist to halt his panzer advance only eighteen miles from Dunkirk, not wanting to risk the tanks getting bogged down in the Flanders marshes. This decision would prove to be a crucial mistake by the German leadership. The German II Panzer Division launches a determined attack on Boulogne. The defenders hold out, but the British decided to begin the evacuation of their troops from the city. Just over three thousand werere evacuated on this day. On Empire Day, King George VI addressed his subjects by radio, saying, 'The decisive struggle is now upon us ... Let no one be mistaken; it is not mere territorial conquest that our enemies are seeking. It is the overthrow, complete and final, of this Empire and of everything for which it stands, and after that the conquest of the world. And if their will prevails they will bring to its accomplishment all the hatred and cruelty which they have already displayed.' Sam Wood's adaptation of Our Town - starring William Holden - premiered.
Thirteen hundred British soldiers are rescued from Boulogne in the early hours, but three hundred men had to be left behind. German troops from II Panzer Division stormed the citadel, which was being stoutly defended by the French. Heavy fighting developed at Calais between the British and the Tenth Panzer Division. The British pulled back into the inner defences of Calais. Samuel Hoare was appointed the new British ambassador to Franco's Spain.
Introduced by his wife, Joan, to MI5 officer Captain Hubert Stringer, the novelist and First World War veteran Dennis Wheatley was asked to think up ideas for resistance to a Nazi invasion of Britain. Between May 1940 and August 1941 Wheatley was to write a total of twenty War Papers on a variety of subjects - from resistance to invasion to grand strategy, to maintaining the independence of Turkey, the possible creation of a Jewish army and the ideal shape of a post-war Europe - and reached a very select audience. As early as July 1940 Air Marshall Sir Lawrence Darvall told Whealtey that all three of the Chiefs-of-Staff had read his paper on Invasion. Their eyes had been caught by the fact that Wheatley had not come up with an idea to build a Maginot line around London, but with simple and practical solutions. In mid-1941 Wheatley learned that the King and the Prime Minister were also on his circulation list. The last French defenders of Boulogne surrendered. RAF Coastal Command bombed oil tanks at Rotterdam. Lord Gort, the commander of the BEF, decided to withdraw to the coast and attempt to evacuate his army (what would soon become Operation Dynamo). Heavy fighting continued at Calais. That evening Churchill decided not to withdraw the British force from the city. The Luftwaffe bombed strategic targets in the North Riding of Yorkshire and East Anglia.
The Dunkirk evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force, Operation Dynamo, began. Hitler ordered a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allowed Hermann Göring (who 'had two, but very small') to use the Luftwaffe to attack the beaches. The British and French garrison of Calais was overwhelmed by Tenth Panzer Division. The entire garrison was either killed or captured. Sir John Dill replaced Edmund Ironside as Chief of the General Staff. A special service attended by King George VI was held in Westminster Abbey, which was declared a national day of prayer.
The second day of Operation Dynamo. Over the first two days almost seven thousand seven hundred soldiers reached Britain. One cruiser, eight destroyers and twenty six other craft were active. Admiralty officers combed nearby boatyards for small craft which could ferry personnel from the beaches out to larger craft in the harbour, as well as larger vessels that could load from the docks. An emergency call was put out for additional help and by 31 May nearly four hundred small craft were voluntarily taking part in the effort. The RAF continued to inflict a heavy toll on the German bombers throughout the week. Soldiers being bombed and strafed while awaiting transport were for the most part unaware of the efforts of the RAF to protect them, as most of the dogfights took place far from the beaches. As a result, many British soldiers bitterly accused the airmen of doing nothing to help, reportedly leading to some army troops accosting and insulting RAF personnel once they returned to England. The Belgian Army capitulated at midnight with the support of the King but against the orders of their government. German troops captured Calais. Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers sank the troopship Cote d' Azur.
The evacuation from Dunkirk continued with over seventeen thousand men reaching Britain. In Norway, Allied troops finally capture Narvik, just in time to begin to evacute.
The British destroyers HMS Grafton, HMS Grenade and HMS Wakeful were sunk during the Dunkirk evacuation. Destroyers Jaguar and Verity were badly damaged but escaped the harbour. Two trawlers disintegrated in the attack. Later, the passenger steamer SS Fenella sank with six hundred men aboard at the pier but the men were able to disembark. The paddle steamer HMS Crested Eagle suffered a direct hit, caught fire and sank with severe casualties. Over forty seven thousand British troops were rescued on this day. The Germans captured Lille, Ostend and Ypres. Now-fascist Romania agreed an oil pact with Germany, becoming a major supplier of oil to the German war machine.
Almost fifty four thousand men reached Britain on the fifth day of Operation Dynamo. All British divisions were now behind the defensive lines, along with more than half of the French First Army. By this time, the perimeter ran along a series of canals about seven miles from the coast, in marshy country not suitable for tanks. With the docks in the harbour rendered unusable by German air attacks, senior naval officer Captain William Tennant initially ordered men to be evacuated from the beaches. When this proved too slow, he re-routed the evacuees to two long breakwaters, called the east and west moles, as well as via the beaches. The moles were not designed to dock ships but, despite this, the majority of troops rescued from Dunkirk were taken off this way. Almost two hundred thousand troops embarked on ships from the east mole (which stretched nearly a mile out to sea) over the next week. James Campbell Clouston, pier master on the east mole, organised and regulated the flow of men along the mole into the waiting ships.
Poor weather over Dunkirk allowed the British to conduct the day's evacuations with reduced fear of German air attacks. This day was the high point of the evacuation, with a total of over sixty eight thousand rescued, including this blogger's father, Bombadier Thomas Topping of the Field Artillery. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council had another meeting in Paris. Reynaud reportedly argued with Churchill over the disparity in numbers between the British and French troops being evacuated. U-13 was sunk close to Newcastle-upon-Tyne by depth charges from the British sloop HMS Weston. There were no casualties. President Roosevelt announced a 'million-dollar' defence programme for the US.
Over sixty four thousand further troops were evacuated from Dunkirk before the increasing air attacks prevented further daylight evacuation. The departure, the previous day, of Lord Gort has left Major-General Harold Alexander in command of the rearguard. Alexander would remain until the 2 June when he was near enough the last British serviceman to be evacuated from Dunkirk.
War Secretary Anthony Eden gave a radio address on the Dunkirk evacuation reporting that four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force had been saved. 'The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans,' Eden said. 'We have had great losses in equipment. But our men have gained immeasurably in experience of warfare and in self-confidence. The vital weapon of any army is its spirit. Ours has been tried and tempered in the furnace. It has not been found wanting. It is this refusal to accept defeat, that is the guarantee of final victory.' Over twenty six thousand troops were added to the total on this day.
The Luftwaffe bombed Paris for the first time.
The last of three hundred thousand British and Commonwealth troops were evacuated from France as Churchill made his 'We shall fight on the beaches' speech to the House of Commons. Before the operation was completed, the prognosis had been gloomy, with Churchill warning the House of Commons on 28 May to expect 'hard and heavy tidings.' Subsequently, Churchill referred to the outcome as 'a miracle' and the British press presented the evacuation as a 'disaster turned to triumph' so successfully that Churchill had to remind the country in his speech that 'we must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations.' An additional seventy five thousand French troops were retrieved over the nights of 2 to 4 June before the operation finally ended. The remainder of the rearguard, forty thousand French troops, surrendered. Of the total three hundred and thirty eight thousand two hundred soldiers, several hundred were Indian mule handlers on detachment from the Royal Indian Army Service Corps, forming four of the six units of Force K-6 transport. Cypriot muleteers were also present. Three units were successfully evacuated. Also present at Dunkirk were a small number of French Senegalese soldiers and Moroccans. Left-wing and liberal accounts at the time such as by JB Priestley and the journalist Hilda Marchant tended to focus exclusively upon Dunkirk, which was portrayed as the beginning of 'the people's war', where ordinary people rallied to save the BEF. David Collings born in Brighton.
JB Priestley broadcast his first Sunday evening Postscript, An Excursion To Hell, on The Home Service after the evening news, marking the role of 'the little ships' in the Dunkirk evacuation. A new German offensive began, starting the Battle of France. Daladier resigns as Defence Minister, Charles de Gaulle was appointed Under-Secretary of Defence.
The Germans attacked all points between the Chemin des Dames and the French coast; South west of the Lower Somme the German reached the Bresle. Allied aircraft attacked targets in the Rhineland.
Thomas Jones Woodward born in Treforest, Pontypridd. Ronald Alfred Pickup born in Chester.
HMS Glorious was sunk during the retreat from Narvik.
German tanks reached Rouen and Pont l'Arche and an offensive began between Chateau Porcien and Le Chesne. The German attack resumef at Soissons. Luftwaffe again raided Paris.
Italy declared war on France and Great Britain, crassly hoping to pick up some of the spoils after the fall of France. Canada declared war in Italy and Belgium 'breaks off relations'. Which, one imagines, devastaded Mussolini knowing Belgian waffles were off the menu. Norway surrendered. King Haakon VII and his cabinet escaped to London to form a government in exile.
The first British bombing raids on Italy was flown by Whitley bombers. The raids targeted industrial areas in Northern Italy, specifically the Fiat Mirafiori plant in Turin and the city of Genoa. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa unilaterally declare war on Italy. The French government (or, what was left of it by now) moved to Tours.
Churchill visited the French government at Tours, meeting Reynaud and Weygand before returning to London by plane. The Germans captured Reims. The Fifty First Hightland Division were trapped at St Valery. Spain declares herself a non'-belligerent, but not quite a neutral.' Lithuania accepted a Russian 'ultimatum.'
Paris was declared 'an open city' to prevent its destruction. HMS Calypso was sunk by an Italian submarine.
The Germans entered Paris unopposed. British troops launched an attack across the Egyptian border into Italian territory, capturing Forts Maddalena and Capuzzo. The Spanish occupied the International Zone at Tangier.
The French fortress at Verdun, which famously never surrendered in World War I, capitulated to the Germans.
Philippe Pétain became Premier of France upon the resignation of Reynaud's government. Only one hour after becoming the head of government, Pétain asked his Foreign Minister Paul Baudouin to pass a note to the Spanish ambassador asking Spain to request 'the conditions Chancellor Hitler would require to put a halt to military operations and sign an armistice.' The Battle of Nezuet Ghirba, a clash between a small British patrol and an Italian troop convoy, ends in an overwhelming British victory. Churchill suggested a formal Anglo-French Union for the course of the war but the idea is rejected by the French government. The Soviet Union issued ultimatums to Latvia and Estonia, acknowledged to be part of her sphere of influence by the pact with Germany JB Priestly'sPostscript included the memorable lines: 'I wish we could send all of our children out of this island, every boy and girl of them across the sea to the wide Dominions and turn Britain into the greatest fortress the world has know. This done, we could fight and fight these Nazis until we broke their black hearts.' Carole Ann Lillian Higgins born in Ilford.
The troopship RMS Lancastria was sunk by German air attack off the port of Saint-Nazaire during Operation Ariel with over four thousand fatalities. It was the greatest loss of life in the sinking of any British ship in history. Churchill ordered that news be kept secret from the British public. Soviet troops began the occupation of the Baltic States.
Churchill made his 'this was their finest hour' speech in the House of Commons and, subsequently, broadcast on the BBC on 15 July (when it was heard by an estimated sixty per cent of the UK population), declaring 'the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.' Perceptively, he also noted: 'Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.' General Charles de Gaulle, de facto leader of the Free French Forces, made his first broadcast on Radio Londres rallying French Resistance. Erwin Rommel's Seventh Panzer Division entered Cherbourg but found that most of the Allied personnel had already been evacuated. Half an hour later Rommel visited the Port Admiral's office and accepted the city's surrender. Hitler and Mussolini met in Munich.
German forces advanced towards Lyon. President Roosevelt signed the Two-Ocean Navy Expansion Act, preparing for a potential war with Japan and Germany.
The French agree to allow Japanese military mission into North Indo-China and request an armistice with Italy.
Peace negotiations between France and Germany began at the Glade of the Armistice in the Forest of Compiègne, using the same railway carriage in wich the Armistice of 11 November 1918 was signed. Adolf Hitler personally attended the negotiations, but left early as an apparent show of disrespect towards the French. A point of contention was the size of the zone that the Germans were to occupy, so fighting dragged on for another day. The Royal Navy shelled the Italian base at Bardia. The Italians attacked on a front between Mont Blanc and the sea but were held off by small French forces. The Polish government arrived, safely, in London.
The Armistice between France and Germany was signed at Compiègne, ending the fighting in the west. Until 1944.
Terence Nelhams-Wright born in Acton. The first episode of Music While You Work broadcast on The Forces Programme. Adolf Hitler took a train to Paris and visited sites including the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon's tomb at Les Invalides. Pierre Laval was appointed Vice-Premier of France. De Gaulle was officially cashiered by Weygand. HMS Ark Royal and HMS Hood arrived in Gibraltar to shore up defences against a threatened Spanish invasion and, also, to keep a close eye on the French fleet currently, divided between Toulon and Mers-El-Kebir in in French-owned ports in Algiers. Stuart Fergusson Victor Sutcliffe born in Edinburgh.
Operation Collar, the first British commando raid of the war, on the Northern French department of Pas-de-Calais began. Under Japanese pressure France closed the border between China and Indo-China.
Frank McDonald's Grand Old Opry - starring Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, June Weaver, Lois Ranson, Henry Kolker, Loretta Weaver, Purnell Pratt and Claire Carleton - premiered.
German troops reach the French-Spanish border. The French Commander-in-Chief in Syria recognised the armistice with Germany.
General de Gaulle was officially recognised as the leader of the Free French by the British government. The Channel Islands were demilitarised and partially evacuated as a German invasion was expected soon.
British authorities arrested Diana Mitford, wife of Oswald Mosley and banged her Nazi ass up in Holloway. The police had already arrested her husband under Defence Regulation 18B a month earlier, but they waited to arrest her as she had recently given birth to their son, Max. Bomber Command attacked Willemsoord, chemical factories at Frankfurt and the Dortmund-Ems Canal.
German forces landed in Guernsey marking the start of the five-year occupation of the Channel Islands.
Philippe Pétain's government moved to Vichy. The collaborationist state run from there came to be known as Vichy France. Further evacuations of British, French, Polish, Czech and other allied forces continued to take places from a number of still unoccupied French ports. U-26 was sunk in the North Atlantic and U-102 sank with all hands in the Bay of Biscay. The Germans invade Jersey. Hermann Göring ordered a 'general directive' for the operation of the Luftewaffe against the UK with plans for three Luftflotte; Luftflotte Two (under Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring) to be based in the Pas-de-Calais, closest to the British coast, Luftflotte Three (commanded by Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle) based in Normandy and Luftflotte Five (lead by Generaloberst Hans-Jürgen Stumpff) situated in Norway. Michael Curtiz's The Sea Hawk - starring Errol Flynn - premiered.
Hitler ordered Oberkommando des Heeres chief of staff Franz Halder to being preparation of plans for a German invasion of Britain, code-named Operation Lion (soon thereafter renamed Operation Sea Lion).
In Operation Catapult, the Royal Navy attacked and destroyed most of the French navy off Mers-el-Kébir and Oran in Algeria, fearing that the ships would fall into German hands. Those French warships in British ports were seized. U-Boat patrols in the Wetsern Approaches enjoy considerable success in sinking British merchant conveys, currently unprotected by navy support, in what would become known amongst the Kriegsmarine as 'the first happy time.' From July to the end of October, two hundred and eighty two Allied ships would be sunk off the north-west approaches to Ireland. The reason for this successful Axis period was that the British lack of RDF and huff-duff-equipped ships which meant that the U-boats were hard to detect when they made nighttime surface attacks – ASDIC (sonar) could only detect submerged U-boats. On this day convoy OA178 of fourteen ocean-going ships bound for Nova Scotia and local coasters, comprising fifty three ships sailed from Southend-on-Sea, via the English Channel, where local traffic dispersed to south coast ports.
The Duke of Windsor (tainted by suspicion of his pro-Nazism) was named governor of the Bahamas, in theory putting him some distance from any potential controversy. Although that only lasted until the murder of Sir Harry Oakes in very suspicious circumstances in 1943. Petain broke off diplomatic relations with Great Britain. Portland Harbour and convoy OA178 were attacked by Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers, followed by Schnellboote (E-boats). No support was forthcoming from RAF Fighter Command and in the aftermath, Churchill, was heavily critical of the lack of protection afforded to the convoy. Henceforth OA convoys were routed northwards to Scotland but local Coastal East and Coastal West coal convoys continued and suffered more attacks from the combination of Stukas and E-Boats. The Romanian cabinet resigned to be replaced more pro-Axis government. Constable Jack William Avery, a war reserve police officer, was murdered in Hyde Park. Avery was stabbed in the groin by Frank Stephen Cobbett, after Avery approached him having been advised by a member of the public that Cobbett was 'acting suspiciously.' Cobbett, of no fixed address, was originally sentenced to death, but after an appeal served fifteen years. Anatole Litvak's All This & Heaven Too - starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer and Pen Tennyson's Convoy - starring Clive Brook and John Clements - premiered.
Sweden said it would allow German to use her railways to transfer 'unarmed soldiers'. OA 178 was reinforced by the destroyer HMS Broke until the following day when the surviving ships dispersed in the Southwest Approaches and joined oceanic convoys.
Guilty Men was published by Victor Gollancz's Left Book Club which was heavily critical of the alleged policy of appeasement employed by successive British governments against Hitler's naughty Nazi ways. Officially credited to 'Cato', the book was actually the work of three authors, Evening Standard editor (and future Labour cabinet minister) Michael Foot, former Liberal MP Frank Owen and Conservative Peter Howard. Several major book wholesalers, WH Smith and Wyman's and the largest book distributor, Simpkin Marshall, refused to handle the book. It was sold on news-stands and street barrows and went through twelve editions in July 1940 alone selling two hundred thousand copies in just a few weeks. The authors earned no money from the book as their literary agent, Ralph Pinker, reportedly absconded with their royalties. The book, whilst highlighting many points of weakness in the British government's dealings with Germany over the previous years, nevertheless, created a rather unfair perception of Heville Chamberlain as an appeaser which lasted for decades afterwards, totally failing to take into account Britain's lack of readiness for a war in 1938. Hitler returned to Berlin by train for his triumphal entrance, driving through the city whilst Leni Riefenstahl's cameras captured him swanning about like the own ed the gaff. Which, to be fair, at that moment, he did.
Richard Starkey born in Dingle, Liverpool. Bomber Command attacked targets three hundred miles inside Germany, including Ludwigshaven, Frankfurt, the naval barracks at Wilhelmshaven and the canal basin at Duisburg-Ruhrort. Oil tanks at Bergen were attacked by the Fleet Air Arm.
The destroyer HMS Whirlwind was sunk by U-34. The French battleship Richelieu was put out of action by a British attack. The RAF attacked Ostend, targeting Rhine barges gathered in perparation for the invasion of Britain. Night bombers attacked Kiel, Wilhelmshaven, oil refineries at Hamburg and Luftwaffe airfields. Malta was hit by three air raids - sadly for the island, a sign of things to come.
British and Italian fleets met in the Mediterranean. The Italians quickly retreated but, nevertheless, claimed a victory. Well, they would, wouldn't they? The French ships at Alexandria were 'neutralised' by the Royal Navy. The first British night-bombing of Germany. Romania was placed under German 'protection'.
The day that Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding retrospectively considered to be the beginning of the first phase of Battle of Britain. The Luftwaffe carried out a series of raids on channel shipping. During the initial weeks of the campaign, losses were approximately one RAF fighters for every four Luftwaffe aircraft shot down. Membership of the British Union of Fascists was, officially, declared illegal. Hitler and Ribbentrop met diplomats from Italy and Hungary in Munich.
A German reconnaissance aircraft was tracked flying deep inland over Aldershot, Upper Heyford and onward toward Norfolk before turning back and escaping interception. Shortly afterward, a Heinkel He 59 seaplane, marked with Red Cross insignia, was observed operating over the Channel in company with a strong escort of twelve Messerschmitt Bf 109s. Spitfires of fifty four Squadron, operating from RAF Hornchurch, made contact with the formation and 'a sharp engagement' followed. The He 59 was eventually destroyed over the Goodwin Sands by Pilot Officer JL Allen, bringing the action to a close.
RAF Bomber Command attacked Emden and Kiel. The Luftwaffe attacked targets in south west England, Wales and Scotland. Eleven bombers were claimed as destroyed. A Dorneir Do 17 was intercepted off Cromer by Hurricanes of two four two Squadron, led by Squadron Leader Douglas Bader.
Patrick Stewart born in Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Italian forces crossed the border from Abyssinia into Kenya and attacked the British garrison of Moyale.
The Baltic States of Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania vote for union with the USSR. Of course, there wasn't a 'no' option on the ballot form. Thirty British and French ships were seized on the Danube by Romanian forces. An unsuccessful Commando raid was launched on Guernsey.
The Submarine HMS Shark was reported as lost. The RAF attacked airfields in France and the Low Countries, as well as oil refineries at Hanover and targets at Paderborn, Hamm and Osnabruck.
Hitler issued 'Directive Sixteen', calling for preparations to be made for Operation Sealion. Hitler demanded that 'the British Air Force must be eliminated to such an extent that it will be incapable of putting up any sustained opposition to the invading troops.' A close friend of Hermann Göring, Joseph Beppo Schmid commanded the Luftwaffe's Military Intelligence Branch (Abteilung 5). Fighter ace Adolf Galland later criticised Schmid for 'doing nothing' to upgrade the low quality of German air intelligence. On this day Schmid submitted to Göring the principal intelligence appreciation of the RAF, which became the basis for the Luftwaffe General Staff's plans. He underestimated the strength of squadrons, claiming they were eighteen aircraft strong, when in fact they had between twenty-two and twenty-four. He also stated that only a limited number of airfields could be considered operational with modern maintenance and supply installations, which was nonsense. He badly underestimated current aircraft production figures to the tune of around fifty per cent and claimed there was 'little strategic flexibility', when, in fact, Hugh Dowding's air defence system provided exactly the opposite - it was certainly far more flexible than the Luftwaffe's. The Me110, he claimed, was a superior fighter to the Hurricane. Even more glaring were the omissions. The Luftwaffe had no concept of how the air defence system worked, no concept of there being three different commands – Fighter, Coastal and Bomber – and no understanding of how repairs were organized. 'The Luftwaffe is clearly superior to the RAF,' he foolishly concluded, 'as regards strength, equipment, training, command and location of bases.' Even a broken clock is right twice per day and Schmid was correct in terms of strength only. The rest of his claims were 'utter twaddle' as many important historians have noted.
Timothy Julian Brooke-Taylor born in Buxton. The RAF attacked invasion barges, air bases at Merville and Hertogenbosch and oil depots at Ghent and in the Ruhr.
RAF Bomber Command conducted night raids on the Krupp armament works at Essen as well as Bremen, Harlingen, Willemsoord and Ghent and daylight raids on invasion barges near Rotterdam and Boulogne. Italian bases in Africa were attacked. The Boys From Syracuse premiered.
HMAS Sydney sank the Italian cruiser Bartolomeo Colleoni and damaged the Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. In a speech to the Reichstag, Hitler made a formal 'appeal to reason' to Great Britain. Following the unexpectedly rapid fall of France, Hitler sought to secure his western front so he could focus on his long-term goal of invading the Soviet Union. While sometimes characterised (by Nazi apologists) as a 'generous' offer, it was essentially a demand for British capitulation to German hegemony in Europe, presented as a choice between peace and allowing Britain to retain its overseas empire and total destruction. The British War Cabinet saw the offer for what it was and Lord Halifax made an official response during a routine broadcast on the BBC on 22 July, wmphatically rejecting Hitler's 'offer'. Seven out of nine one four one Squadron Boulton Paul Defiants sent to cover a convoy off Folkestone were shot down by Bf 109s of Jagdgeschwader Fifty One. The remaining two survived, one badly damaged, thanks only to the intervention of Hurricanes of One One One Squadron. General Sir Alan Brooke was appointed Commander-in-Chief of Home Forces.
The Fleet Air Arm attacked Tobruk harbour.
A new Czechoslovak Government in Exile was formed in London. Hitler ordered work to begin on a plan for the invasion of Russia something which, until German success in France, hadn't been envisioned until 1943 at the earliest. Göring held the first major planning conference for the Battle of Britain with his senior Luftwaffe commanders at Carinhall.
His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, the deposed Emperor of Abyssinia, reaches the Sudan in preparation for a possible return.
Twelve German aircraft were claimed shot down over Britain. Brooklands aerodrome and the Vickers aircraft works and the Wandsworth Gas Company installation at Walton-on-Thames were bombed. There was also an early morning Luftwaffe strike on Glasgow, a Heinkel He 111 released a mix of high-explosive and incendiary bombs over the Hillington Industrial Estate. The raid caused serious damage to a printing works and inflicted further harm on nearby sugar and oilcake processing facilities.
The French ship Meknes, returning thirteen hundred French naval officers to France from Britain is sunk off Portland by German MTBs. RAF Bomber Command carried out night raids over north western Germany and the Netherlands. German air attacks on channel convoys sank five ships. RAF aircraft raided Assab and Massawa.
Carol Reed's Night Train To Munich - starring Margaret Lockwood, Rex Harrison, Basil Radford and Naughton Wayne - and Pride & Prejudice - starring Greer Garson and Laurence Olivier - premiered. Linda Virginia Bathurst born in Sydney. Hamish Ian Mackintosh born in Inverness. The Anglo-Polish Alliance was reaffirmed in London. Polish pilots would, subsequently, play a major role in the Battle of Britain.
Billboard magazine began publishing a top ten list of the best-selling records in the United States. The first official number one single was 'I'll Never Smile Again' by Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra. Raoul Walsh's The Drive By Night - starring George Raft, Ann Sheridan, Ida Lupino and Humphrey Bogart - premiered. British subjects in Japan were arrested.
Brigit Forsyth born in Edinburgh. The RAF claimed four victories over the Luftwaffe in the skies above Malta. RAF Bomber Command carried out night raids on oil tanks at Cherbourg and seventeen German airfields.
The Luftwaffe attacked Dover Harbour.
Ever conscious of image, Churchill was photographed smoking a cigar and holding a Thompson submachine gun whislt visiting coastal defences near Hartlepool. A conference was held at the Berghof between Hitler, Keitel, Jodl, Raeder, Brauchitsch, Halder and Puttkamer. Raeder reported that the navy would not be ready for Operation Sea Lion until mid-September, if then, so discussion turned to attacking the Soviet Union instead. Hitler believed that defeating Russia would make Germany unbeatable and force Britain to come to terms, so an invasion of the Soviet Union was provisionally set for spring 1941. The British began Operation Hurry, with the goal of ferrying fourteen aircraft to Malta for the garrison's defence. HMS Alcantara damaged a German raider off Brazil. HMS Delight was reported as sunk. Louise Elizabeth Pajo born in Hastings, New Zealand.
June Palmer born in London. RAF Bomber Command attacked German airfields at Dortmund, Leeuwarden and Hamstede.
Max Beaverbrook was appointed to the War Cabinet. The Italians invaded British Somaliland.
Ramón Gerardo Antonio Estévez born in Dayton, Ohio.
Operation Hurry, the first of the Malta Convoys, was accomplished. Italian forces under General Guglielmo Nasi invaded and occupied British Somaliland during the East African Campaign. Air battles took place over Libya.
Michael Scheuer born in Paddington. Italian troops captured Oadwina in British Somaliland. HM Trawlers Drummer and Oswaldian were lost. A significant planning meeting took place at Karinhall. The Luftwaffe high command gathered to formalise the strategic implementation of Hitler's Directive Seventeen (issued on 3 August), which called for the destruction of the RAF in preparation for Operation Sea Lion. Generalfeldmarschall Hugo Sperrle (Luftflotte Three) argued for a port-targeting strategy, while Generalfeldmarschall Albert Kesselring (Luftflotte Two) advocated a direct blow to London. Göring overruled both, insisting that Fighter Command and its infrastructure be neutralised first - a belief rooted in his conviction that the RAF was already nearing collapse; he believed that the total defeat of the RAF would take a maximum of four days. With no start date yet set for Adlerangriff ('Eagle Attack'), the Luftwaffe maintained its Kanalkampf operations. Pilot Officer PW Horton, a New Zealander with two three four Squadron, crash-landed his Spitfire P9366 at RAF St Eval following a night patrol. Horton survived the crash without serious injury. One Ju 88 spotted by RAF patrols off Flamborough Head successfully evaded combat, using cloud for cover. Another raid ineffectually dropped bombs on shipping off Yarmouth, with no reported damage.
The British Government agrees to De Gaulle's organisation of the fledgling Free French forces.
Boom Town - starring Clark Gable, Spencer Tracy, Claudette Colbert and Hedy Lamarr - premiered. A channel convoy was attacked by German MTBs and aircraft, losing five ships. The submarine HMS Oswald was reported lost. Italian troops advanced north from Hargeisa and Oadwina, British Somaliland. An air battle took place over Sidi-Amar, Libya. RAF Bomber Command carried out night raids on targets in the Netherlands and northern Germany.
Bernard John Holley born in Eastcote, Middlesex. British troops withdrew from Shanghai and North China.
JB Priestley's Johnson Over Jordan starring Ralph Richardson and Celia Johnson broadcast. Italian troops attacked Tug Argan, British Somaliland. The Germans began probing heavy air attacks on Dover's balloon barrage and gasholder and Portland which resulted in the destruction of the signal box and railway lines, ending services to Weymouth.
The Luftwaffe expanded its targets to include British airfields. Messerschmitt Bf 110s and Stuka dive-bombers attacked RDF installations along the coastlines of Kent, Sussex and the Isle of Wight, damaging five stations and putting one (Ventor) out of action for eleven days. They also bombed Portsmouth's dockyards (HMS Victory reportedly 'disappeared under a cloud of dust for the first time since Trafalgar'). It became a crime in the United Kingdom to waste food.
'Eagle Day' (Adler Tag) marked the official start of the Battle of Britain from the German point of view. A heavy raid on Eastchurch and Farnborough was followed by afternoon raids on Portland, Southampton and airfields in Kent and Hampshire. The most destructive single attack of the afternoon occurred at RAF Detling, a Coastal Command station with limited defences. Twenty-two aircraft were destroyed on the ground, the operations block demolished and sixty-seven personnel killed—including Station Commander Group Captain EP Meggs-Davis. In a separate operation, RAF Bomber Command dispatched twelve Bristol Blenheims from eighty two Squadron to attack Luftwaffe airfields at Aalborg, Denmark. The mission ended in disaster.
A clash took place between the destroyers HMS Malcolm and HMS Verity and six German armed trawlers and three E-boats, ending with three German ships sunk. Luftwaffe assaults took place on RAF Manston and Dover. Luftwaffe formations crossed the Cherbourg Peninsula and attacked airfields in Hampshire and the West Country. RAF Middle Wallop was bombed four times. Around twenty high-explosive bombs were dropped, damaging two hangars and killing three airmen and a civilian. Spitfires of six zero nine Squadron intercepted near Boscombe Downs and downed both the Ju 88 and one of the Heinkels. Among those killed was Oberst Alois Stöckl, Kommodore of KG Fifty Five, whose Heinkel was destroyed by Flight-Lieutenant John Dundas in Spitfire R6961. Overall it was a catastrophic day for the Luftwaffe, losing thirty nine planbes to the RAF's fifteen.
Black Thursday. The Luftwaffe threw the bulk of their planes from all three air fleets at the UK over the course of the day. Luftflotten Five, operating from Scandinavia, met disaster. By sending some eight hundred planes in a massive attack on the South (including Croydon airfield), the Germans had expected to find the North East coast defenceless. But, a force of one hundred bombers, escorted by thirty Bf 110 fighters, was surprised by seven squadrons of Hurricanes and Spitfires from Seventy Two and Six Zero Five squadrons and as it approached Tyneside and was severely mauled off the Farne Uslands. Thirty four German planes, mostly bombers, were shot down without loss to the defenders. Despite interceptions, some bombers reached RAF Driffield. Seventeen Ju 88s dropped thirty-two high-explosive bombs, damaging four hangars and three buildings, destroying seven Whitley bombers and one Magister and damaging five more. A nearby farmhouse was partially demolished. Luftflotte Five never attempted a daylight attack on the UK mainland again. The Greek cruiser Helle was sunk at anchor, almost certainly by the Italians, who promptly blamed it on the British.
Alice In The Groove broadcast on The Forces Programme. Alfred Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent - starring Joel McCrea and George Sanders - premiered. Bruce Beresford born in Sydney. British bombers attacked Turin and Milan. President Roosevelt began to discuss the acquisition of British bases in the western hemisphere, part of the process that would lead to the Destroyer Deal. Pilot Officer Billy Fiske of Nsix zero one Squadron, an American volunteer, was mortally injured when his Hurricane's fuel tank was set ablaze by enemy fire. Though badly burned, he crash-landed at Tangmere and was pulled from the wreckage. He died the next day, aged twenty nine, becoming the first American combat fatality in RAF service. During the combat, Flight Lieutenant James Nicholson was hit by Bf 109s of JG fifty three led by Oberleutnant Heinz Bretnütz, who claimed two RAF fighters—matching Nicholson's section losses. Nicholson, wounded in the head and leg and with his cockpit ablaze, pressed home an attack on a Messerschmitt before finally bailing out. While descending, he was mistakenly shot in the leg by a Home Guard volunteer. He survived and was later awarded the Victoria Cross — the only member of Fighter Command to receive the decoration during the Second World War. Luftwaffe bombs fell on Wimbledon, Merton, Mitcham, Esher, Malden, and Coombe. At RAF Uxbridge, Churchill observed operations alongside Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park. As the fighting closed, the Prime Minister delivered the words that crystallised the struggle: 'Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.' Four days later, he repeated them in the House of Commons.
Preston Sturges's The Great McGinty - starring Brian Donlevy - premiered. Germany declared 'a total blockade' of Great Britain. How, exactly, they intended to achieve this against the world's largest navy and whilst their airforce were currently getting their collective arse kicked, daily, by the RAF, remains unclear to this day.
In the Battle of Britain, The Hardest Day was fought. The day saw attacks on Kenley, Biggin Hill, West Malling, Hornchurch, North Weald, Ford, Gosport and Thorney Island, with additional raids on the Chain Home RDF station at Poling. The Luftwaffe made an all-out effort to destroy RAF Fighter Command. The air battles which took place on this day were amongst the largest aerial engagements in history to that time. Both sides suffered heavy losses but, in the air, the British shot down twice as many Luftwaffe aircraft as they lost. The Me 109 of Julius Neumann, the fighter acc, was shot down over the Isle of Wight. Transported back to the mainland by ferry and to London by train (being memorably photographed under armed guard at Victoria Station) he spent rest of the war as a POW. It was the costliest day of the campaign for the Luftwaffe. Despite heavy attacks, they failed to put any RAF sector station out of action — a clear sign of Fighter Command's resilience and the strength of Britain's air defence system. The day marked a turning point, exposing the Ju 87's vulnerability in contested skies and revealed the limits of the Luftwaffe's ability to coordinate large, multi-phase assaults. When Archibald Sinclair, the Minister for Air, asked Hugh Dowding about the disparity of German claims on RAF losses, Dowding replied 'the truth will soon become apparent. If the German claims are accurate then they will be in London within a week. Oherwise, they will not!' Barry Justice born in Lucknow.
At Karinhall, Göring convened a critical conference with his air fleet commanders, frustrated by the Luftwaffe's failure to gain air superiority over Britain. Nightfall brought renewed Luftwaffe activity. While no mass raids occurred, dozens of single aircraft penetrated British airspace. By midnight, roughly sixty separate raids had been plotted. Most enemy aircraft dropped bombs at random or laid mines along the coast from the Thames Estuary to Northumberland. Several raids reached further inland. Bombs were dropped in Derby, Middle Wallop, Liverpool, Portsmouth, Hull, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. Anti-aircraft batteries near the Humber claimed to have destroyed an enemy aircraft.
Churchill paid tribute in Parliament to the Royal Air Force fighter crews currently battling the Luftwaffe in the skies over Britain. U-51 was sunk with all hands to the west of Nantes. Italy also announced a 'total blockade' of all British possessions in the Mediterranean and Africa. To the vast amusement of, pretty much, everyone. Leon Trotsky, living in exile in Mexico City, was stabbed with an ice axe by a Soviet agent. He died from his wounds the following day.
German aircraft bombed a church in Cripplegate, accidentally dictating the future shape of the Battle of Britain's air war. The Germans dropped bombs on the financial heart of London and Oxford Street as well as Millwall, Tottenham and Islington probably unintentionally as the bomber pilots had mistaken the Thames for the Medway and were trying to bomb RAF Rochester. Hitler and Göring had both, previously, ruled out bombing London, concerned about escalation. Which, ultimately, is exactly what happened. RAF Bomber Command attacked the Daimler Benz factory at Stuttgard, a nitrogen plant at Ludwigshaven, an oil plant at Frankfurt and targets in north west Italy. Dover was shelled from France. The Royal Navy carried out a raid on Bardia harbour. A team of pathologists at Oxford University including Howard Florey, Ernst Chain and Norman Heatley published laboratory results in The Lancet describing methods for the production of penicillin and the effects of its chemotherapeutic action on lab mice.
Churchill ordered the bombing of Berlin in retaliation for the previous night's bombing of London. Göring, in a speech to his Luftwaffe in September 1939, after France and Britain declared war and the industrial Ruhr district fell within range of their aircraft had claimed 'No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Göring. You can call me Meyer.' The fact that Allied bombers did pound the Ruhr, however, was reason enough for Germans to start calling air raid sirens 'Meyer's trumpets,' among numerous other sarcastic references, comments which increased after the first Berlin raid. John Carney born in London.
The Luftwaffe concentrate on bombing RAF airfields beginning the most dangerous phase of the Battle of Britain.
The submarine HMS Spearfish was presumed lost. RAF Bomber Command attacked the docks at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven and oil depots in Germany and France.
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini dictated the so-called Second Vienna Award which forced Romania to hand over the Northern Transylvania (including the entire Maramureș and part of Crișana) to Hungary. U-25 was lost with all hands near Terschelling after one of her own mines exploded.
The Luftwaffe attacked RAF bases in south eastern England and carried out night raids over north eastern towns. The RAF attacked tagets in Berlin, Cologne, Hanover and Emden. The attack on Berlin was completely ineffectual, with little damage and no casualties, however its symbolism was not lost on either Hitler or Göring. The Merchant cruiser Dunvegan Castle was reported sunk.
Judee Morton born in Detriot. Maurice Elvey's Under Your Hat - starring Jack Hulbert, Cicely Courtneidge, Austin Trevor, Leonora Corbett and Glynis Johns - premiered. RAF Bomber Command attacked German airfields in the Netherlands, the U-boat base at Lorient and, for the first time, Munich.
Having first set a provisional date of 21 September, Hitler then abruptly postponed the invasion of Britain as the Luftwaffe had singularly failed to break the British aerial defences and gain air superiority. However, fears of a forthcoming invasion continued to haunt the British population for the next year, at least. The Luftwaffe raided the Bristol Channel and South Wales. The 'Destroyer Deal' saw Britain cede a number of bases in the Western Hemisphere to the United States in return for fifty obsolescent destroyers. The real value of the deal was that it demonstrated American support for the United Kingdom. Pauline Collins born in Exmouth.
An enraged Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb British cities in revenge for the RAF raids on Berlin. The change of strategy relieved all pressure on the RAF.
Jo Raquel Tejada born in Chicago.
The Blitz began, the first of fifty seven consecutive nights of area bombing on London, particularly docklands and an 'Invasion Imminent' signal was sent out across the south coast.
The Luftwaffe carries out further night raids on London, hitting the docks heavily. The RAF attacked German occupied channel ports and German convoys in the North Sea.
During the Western Desert Campaign, Italian colonial forces in Libya under General Mario Berti launched the invasion of Egypt. Italian troops reached Sidi Barrani and then halted. The first of the recently receivedc fifty American destroyers join the Royal Navy.
A German bomb exploded at Buckingham Palace for the first time. The Queen, reportedly, expressed some satisfaction at this, noting that the Royal Family would be able to shared solidarity with the people of London's East End. French warships sailed for Dakar, where they later disrupted an Allied attack.
Brian Russell De Palma born in Newark, New Jersey. George Formby's 'I'm The Ukulele Man'/'On The Beat' released. Buckingham Palace and St Paul's Cathedral were both damaged by bombs.
Operation Ruthless, a plan aimed at obtaining details of the Enigma codes used by the German Navy, was instigated by a memo written by Ian Fleming to Rear Admiral Godfrey. The idea was to 'obtain' a Nazi bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms and crash it into the English Channel. The crew would then attack their German rescuers and bring their boat and Enigma machine back to England. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, the mission was never carried out. According to Fleming's niece, Lucy, an official of the Royal Air Force had pointed out that if they were to drop a Heinkel in the English Channel, it would probably sink rather quickly. The RAF attacks oil stores at Emden and Flushing and the Norderney seaplane base.
Gregory Ratoff's Public Deb Number One - starring George Murphy, Brenda Joyce and Ralph Bellamy - premiered. The Italians advanced into Egypt, occupying Sollum. The first service test Bell YP-39 Airacobra made its maiden flight. Bell receivef an order for two hundred and fifty four P-39Fs Airacobras, using a new Aeroproducts propeller. Previous P-39s used a Curtiss Electric propeller, but increased production of military aircraft had left that propeller in short supply.
The Luftwaffe carried out daylight raids over London and night raids over the Midlands.
The large-scale air battle known as Battle of Britain Day was fought. Believing the RAF was near breaking point (which it almost certainly wasn't), the Luftwaffe mounted an all-out offensive, sending two huge waves of about two hundred and fifty bombers each to bomb London and the surrounding areas. The RAF managed to scatter many of the German formations and shoot down sixty one planes while losing thirty one in return, inflicting a clear and decisive defeat on the Luftwaffe. Gandhi was asked to become the leader of the India Congress Party.
The Italian invasion of Egypt came to a halt when approximately five Italian divisions set up defensively in a series of armed camps after advancing sixty miles to Sidi Barrani. The Italians never approached the main British positions at Mersa Matruh. Fleet Air Arm planes from the carrier Illustrious attacked Benghazi and sank four Italian ships. The Conscription Bill was passed, introducing a peacetime draft in the United States.
SS-Brigadeführer Doctor Franz Six was designated to a position in London where he would implement the post-invasion arrests and actions against institutions following Operation Sea Lion. But, later the same day, Hitler postponed the invasion indefinitely.
Caroline Frances John born in York. The RAF attacked the Dortmund-Ems Canal, Ostend, Flushing and Dunkirk. The Luftwaffe carries out small scale raids over Britain and yet more night raids on London.
The Universal Horror movie The Mummy's Hand and William Wyler's The Westerner - starring Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan - premiered. The RAF attacked Axis airfields in the Western Desert.
The British government officially approved the use of the London Underground as an air-raid shelter, long after civilians had started using it as one. City For Conquest starring James Cagney, Ann Sheridan and Arthur Kennedy was released.
King George gave a radio address from an underground air-raid shelter at Buckingham Palace. The King declared that Britain would be victorious with the aid of 'our friends in the Americas.' He also announced the creation of the George Cross and George Medal, new civilian awards for heroism. A Free French landing at Dakar failed.
The Luftwaffe attacked targets in Kent, the Thames Estuary, London and Southampton. Coastal Command attacked Zeebrugge and Brest. The submarine HMS Thames was reported lost .
Quisling formed a German-backed government in Norway. The Finns allowed Germany to move troops across their lands. The Free French expedition to Dakar was officially abandoned after resistance was stronger than expected.
The Tripartite Pact was signed in Berlin by Germany, Italy and Japan, promising mutual aid. An informal name, 'Axis', soon emerged. Henry Koster's Spring Parade - starring Deanna Durban - premiered.
Busby Berkeley's Strike Up The Band - starring Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland - premiered. The Luftwaffe carries out daylight raids over south east England and Portsmouth and night attacks on London, the south east, Merseyside and the East Midlands, causing serious fires in London and Liverpool.
British warships shelled Italian possessions on the Dodecanese Islands.
Sheila Fearn born in Leicester. The Garrison of Malta was strengthened.
German troops entered Romania to protect their oil supplies.
Harry Alan Towers' 'gramophone biography' Paul Robeson broadcast on The Forces Programme. The Luftwaffe attackerd approximately twenty targets in the Home Counties. The RAf attacked Ostend, Calais and Boulogne.
John Ford's The Long Voyage Home - starring John Wayne, Thomas Mitchell and Ian Hunter - premiered. The Burma Road supply route into China was to be reopened. It had earlier been closed because of Japanese pressure.
John Winston Lennon born in Liverpool. Churchill was elected leader of the Conservative Party, replacing Chamberlain.
The Luftwaffe bombed south-eastern coastal towns during the day and hit thirty six London districts as well as Merseyside, Wales and the Midlands. The RAF carried out night raids on Hamburg, Hanover, Cologne, Wilhelmshaven, Kiel and Amsterdam and daylight raids on Calais. The Royal Navy carrief out a night bombardment of Cherbourg.
Down Argentine Way starring Carmen Miranda and Betty Grable released.

The Battle of Cape Passero was fought, resulting in British victory.
Fourteen-year old Princess Elizabeth made her first public speech, a radio address to the children of the British Commonwealth. Her ten-year-old sister Princess Margaret joined in at the end. The RAF bombed Kiel, Wilhelmshave, the Ruhr and the Zeebrugge Mole.
Harry Rodger Webb born in Lucknow, India. The Balham tube station disaster, a German bomb pierced thirty two feet underground killing sixty six civilians. Christopher Timothy born in Bala, Merionethshire.
Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator premiered. The Royal Navy bombarded Dunkirk.
Mitchell Leisen's Arise My Love - starring Claudette Colbert and Ray Milland - premiered.
Sándor Szlatinay's Sok Hühó Emmiért - starring Zita Szeleczky, Pál Jávor and Gyula Csortos - premiered. The Luftwaffe carried out their longest night raid on London yet and daylight sorties over south east England, hitting Canterbury. The RAF bombed the power-station at Brest. Vice-Admiral John Tovey was appointed commander-in-chief of the Home Fleet. The Royal Navy took part in an inconclusive action with four German destroyers west of Land's End.
Talitha Dina Pol born in Mojokerto, Java. Jack Hively's Laddie - starring Tim Holt, Virginia Gilmore, Martha O'Driscoll and Joan Carroll - premiered. The RAF carried out attacks on Italian bases in Libya and on Rhodes.
Michael John Gambon born in Dublin. Churchill made his Gather Strength For The Morning speech to the French people. 'Good night, then. Sleep to gather strength for the morning, for the morning will come. Brightly will it shine on the brave and true; kindly upon all who suffer for the cause; glorious upon the tombs of heroes - thus will shine the dawn. Vive la France!' Maurice Elvey's Room For Two - starring Frances Day, Vic Oliver, Greta Gynt and Basil Radford - premiered.
Geraldine Judith Schoenmann born in Staines.
Cecil B DeMille's North West Mounted Police - starring Gary Cooper, Madeleine Carroll, Paulette Goddard and Lynne Overman - premiered. Ernest Hemingway's For Whom The Bell Tolls& published. Geoffrey Boycott born in Fitzwilliam. Manfred Sepse Lubowitz born in Johannesburg. HMS Kimberley sank one of two Italian destroyers attacking a British convoy in the Red Sea.
The Jews of Alsace-Lorraine and the Rhineland were deported.
Hitler met Franco at Hendaye, near the Spanish-French border; little was accomplished, least of all Hitler's hopes to convince Franco to enter the war on the Axis side. The Second Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and Eighth King's Royal Irish Hussars launched a raid on the Italian fortified camp at Maktila. Due to poor security in Ciaro suprise was not achieved, but the British troops were able to retreat without suffering heavy loses. Edson Arantes do Nascimento born in Três Corações, Brazil.
The Royal Air Force bombed Hamburg, Breman and Amsterdam. The destroyer HMS Venetia was reported lost. A major battle developed around a convoy attempting to pass through the straits of Dover. They Knew What They Wanted - starring Carole Lombard and Charles Laughton - premiered.
Lewis Seiler's Tugboat Annie Sails Again - starring Marjorie Rambeau, Alan Hale, Jane Wyman and Ronald Reagan - premiered.
The RAF bombed the Skoda works at Pilsen.
The Italian invasion of Greece began as Hitler and Mussolini met in Florence.
The British occupied Crete and began to mine the waters around Greece. Angela McDonagh born in Gerrards Cross. Jack Shepherd born in Leeds.
The RAF carried out the first air raid on Naples.
Yvonne Daphne Antrobus born in Cheltenham. Raynor Alan Francis Barron born in London. Italian forces in Greece reached the Kalamas River. The royal navy laid mines in the Bay of Biscay, now being used by German U-boats to reach their bases in western France.
One of the most extraordinary aviation incidents of the war took place. Greek Air Force pilot Marinos Mitralexis, after running out of ammunition, rammed an Italian bomber. Mitralexis then landed his plane and captured the Italian crew who had parachuted to safety. U-31 was sunk north-west of Ireland. Walter Forde's Saloon Bar - starring Gordon Harker, Elizabeth Allan and Mervyn Johns - premiered.
The first British forces landed in Greece.
The Armed Merchant Cruisers Laurentic and Patroclus were reported to have been sunk by U-boats. The Greeks claimed to have cut off thirty thousand Italians near Janina.
The United States presidential election was held. Franklin Roosevelt won an unprecedented third term as President, carrying thirty eight of forty eight states. HMS Jervis Bay was sunk by the Admiral Scheer during an attack on an Atlantic convoy.
British troops occupied Gallabat on the border between Abyssinia and the Sudan.
German spy Anna Wolkoff was tried in camera at the Old Bailey, with Sir William Jowitt as prosecutor. Wolkoff was sentenced to ten years for 'attempting to assist the enemy.' Her co-conspirator, Tyler Kent, an American citizen, was sentenced to seven years. RAF Bomber Command attacked the Krupp works at Essen, one of the biggest German arms factories.
The Mark of Zorro - starring Tyrone Power and Basil Rathbone - premiered. RAF Bomber Command activity disrupted a speech being made by Hitler at Munich. An earthquake damaged the vital Romanian oilfields.
Humphrey Jennings and Harry Witt's documentary London Can Take It! premiered. The Italian Venezia Division of the Alpini was cut off in the Pindus area. The death of Neville Chamberlain occurred.
David Edward Sutch born in Hampstead. Libreville surrenderedto the Free French. Fleet Air Arm aircraft from the Ark Royal attacked Cagliari in Sardinia. The British submarine H49 was considered to have been lost.

Molotov met Hitler and Ribbentrop in Berlin. The main topic of discussion was defining the world spheres of influence between Germany, Italy, Japan and the Soviet Union. The Fleet Air Arm attacked the Italian fleet at Taranto, seizing the naval initiative in the Mediterranean. The Royal Navy attacked an Italian convoy as part of the same naval manoeuvre. Judith Anne Arthy born in Brisbane.
Disney's Fantasia premiered in New York. Sir Robert Brooke-Popham was appointed British Commander-in-Chief in the Far East.
The centre of Coventry was largely destroyed by five hundred Luftwaffe bombers in one of the most destructive raids of thew war so far. Greek forces pushed the Italians back across the border into Albania. The Petain government protested against mass deportations taking place in Lorraine.
Abbott and Costello made their screen debut in One Night In The Tropics.
Churchill ordered some British troops in North Africa to be sent to Greece, despite concerns by his military leaders that they were needed in the current campaign against the Italians in Libya. Meanwhile, the Italians retreated on the Pindus and Epirus fronts. The Luftwaffe appeared over the Hebrides for the first time Air Marshal Arthur Barratt weas appointed to command the newly created RAF Army Cooperation Command. Generaloberst Heinz Guderian took command of Second Panzer Army and Generaloberst General Hermann Hoth assumed command of Third Panzer Army. The RAF bombed Berlin, Hamburg, Bremen and other German cities in direct retaliation for the Coventry bombing. Robert Sherman born in Redwood City, California.
Clifford William Cumberbatch Simons born in Swansea. The Royal Navy announced that it had carried out a heavy bombardment of Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland.
Less than a week after the blitz of Coventry, further heavy air raids took place. Birmingham, West Bromwich, Dudley and Tipton were all bombed. Over the following five weeks, Southampton, Bristol, Plymouth, Sheffield, Hull, Newcastle, Sunderland, Liverpool, Manchester, Swansea, Belfast, Glasgow and many other British towns and cities would also suffered heavy bombing.
Malcolm John Rebennack born in New Orleans.
All Star Comics issue three was published, marking the debut of the first team of superheroes, the Justice Society of America. Terrence Vance Gilliam born in Minneapolis. William Wyler's The Letter - starring Bette Davis - premiered. The Italian Ninth Army was defeated as Greek troops captured Koritsa.
Alan Lake born in Stoke-On-Trent. The Luftwaffe bomb Bristol.
The de Havilland Mosquito and the Martin B-26 Marauder both made their first flights.
David Michael Gordon Graham born in Hinkley, Leicestershire.
ENSA Underground - featuring a live performance by George Formby - broadcast on The Forces Programme. Lee Jun-Fan born in San Francisco. John Alderton born in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. The Royal Navy and the Italian Navy clashed off Sardinia,
The Luftwaffe bombed Liverpool and killed one hundred and sixty six civilians when a parachute mine caused a blast of boiling water and gas in an underground shelter in Durning Road. Liverpool was probably the most heavily bombed area of the country outside London, due to the city having, along with Birkenhead, the largest port on the west coast and being of significant importance to the British war effort.
Joseph P Kennedy, the US Ambassador to the United Kingdom, was asked to resign by President Roosevelt after he gave a newspaper interview expressing the view that 'Democracy is finished in England.' Greek troops captured Pogradec.
Connie Booth born in Indianapolis.
Luftwaffe raids started fires in London and also hit Birmingham. The RAF carried out daylight raids on German airfields and night raids on Ludwigshaven, Mannheim and Dunkirk. The Greeks reported having captured heights overlooking Argyrokastro.
The Thief Of Bagdad - starring Conrad Veidt, Sabu and June Duprez - premiered. AMC Carnarvon Castle was damaged in a clash with a German raider in the South Atlantic.
The Home Services' The Writer In The Witness-Box featured 'a discussion between George Orwell and Desmond Hawkins on proletarian literature.' British and Indian troops of the Western Desert Force launched Operation Compass, an offensive against Italian forces. Field Marshal Pietro Badoglio was scapegoated for the Italian military reverses in Greece and made to resign as Chief of Staff of the Italian Army. He was replaced by Ugo Cavallero. Marcel Varnel's Neutral Port - starring Will Fyffe, Leslie Banks, Yyvonne Arnaud and Phyllis Calvert - premiered.
The RAF carried out a heavy attack on Dusseldorf.
Admiral Cavagnari resigned as Chief of the Italian Naval Staff. Churchill warned Roosevelt that Britain would soon run out of dollars to pay for 'cash and carry' arms. Genral Franco tells Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, German military intelligence, that Spain was not yet ready to enter the war.
The start of Operation Compass, the British offensive in the Western Desert under (Lieutenant-General Richard O'Connor. To obtain a measure of air superiority, eleven Vickers Wellington bombers from Malta attacked Castel Benito and destroyed twenty nine aircraft on the ground. Rodolfo Graziani's army was cut off at Sidi Barrani. It fell two days later with the capture of twenty thousand italian troops.
Anthony Stephen Adams born in Anglesey. George Formby's 'Letting The New Year In'/'Bless 'Em All (The Service Song)' released. The Luftwaffe raided Sheffield.
King Vidor's Comrade X - starring Clark Gable and Hedy Lamarr - premiered.
Plutonium was first isolated and produced at the University of California, Berkeley. British destroyers sank the Italian submarine Naiade. The liner Western Prince was torpedoed in the Atlantic.
British troops entered Libya, while the RAF bombed Italian airfields.
The first night area bombardment of a German city was conducted by the RAF when one hundred and thirty bombers attacked Mannheim, starting large fires on both banks of the Rhine. British troops reached Sollum and Fort Capuzzo. They would be taken the following day with the capture of thirty eight thousand Italians.
Hitler issued a secret directive to begin planning for Operation Barbarossa, the German invasion of the Soviet Union. And, in one single stroke of the pen, effectively decided the ultimate outcome of the war.
Two Spitfire fighters of sixty six Squadron attacked Le Touquet in France, strafing targets of opportunity such as power transformers. This tactic, codenamed Operation Rhubarb, marked a shift in RAF tactics to a more offensive role. The Royal Navy conducted a naval sweep in the Adriatic. Liverpool was bombed again. It and nearby Manchester would suffer several nights of attacks.
Frank Vincent Zappa born in Baltimore.
Dandy's Christmas Party and Blue Eyes broadcast on The Home Service. Having crossed the Chimara, Greek troops occupied Himarra. Lord Halifax was moved from the Foreign Office to serve as Ambassador to Washington. He was replaced as Foreign Secretary by Anthony Eden. Churchill made a broadcast to Italy putting the blame for Italy's poor situation squarely on Mussolini's broad shoulders.
Rutland Boughton's Bethlehem broadcast. The RAF attacked Valona.
Christmas Under Fire broadcast. A German surface raider attacked an Atlantic convoy, damaging HMS Berwick.
Radio Vaudville and Five Hundred Thousand Dogs Went To Town broadcast on The Home Service. Deanna broadcast on The Forces Programme. George Cukor's The Philadelphia Story - starring Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, James Stewart and Ruth Hussey - premiered.Southern Abyssinia was reported to be in open revolt against the Italians. The destroyer HMS Acheron was sunk after hitting a mine off the Isle of Wight some days earlier. The RAF attacked German airfields in Brittany and at Bordeaux.
The Invisible Woman - starring Virginia Bruce and John Barrymore - and Kitty Foyle - starring Ginger Rogers - premiered. An Axis raider, disguised as a Japanese ship, attacked the British island of Nauru in the Pacific.
Alistair Cooke's American Commentary broadcast. The Luftwaffe attacked Southampton. The RAF bombed oil targets at Rotterdam and Antwerp as well as the invasion ports.
Heavy bombing in London caused the Second Great Fire of London. Guildhall was among many buildings badly damaged or destroyed along with nine churches and Trinity House. There were one hundred and sixty deaths and hundreds of casualties. A famous photograph, St Paul's Survives, taken from the roof of the Daily Scum Mail building by Herbert Mason showed the dome of St Paul's Cathedral rising above clouds of smoke. President Roosevelt used the phrase 'Arsenal of Democracy' during a radio address promising to help the United Kingdom fight Nazi Germany by providing them with war supplies. He mentioned that 'Some of us like to believe that even if Britain falls, we are still safe, because of the broad expanse of the Atlantic and of the Pacific.' He refuted this by noting that modern technology had effectively reduced the distances across those oceans, allowing even for 'planes that could fly from the British Isles to New England and back again without refueling.' The central fact he felt Americans must grasp was the geopolitical Heartland theory: 'If Great Britain goes down, the Axis powers will control the continents of Europe, Asia, Africa, Australasia, and the high seas—and they will be in a position to bring enormous military and naval resources against this hemisphere.'
Arthur Watkyn's thriller Hawkmoor Farm broadcast. The RAF bombed targets in Libyia as well as Taranto, Naples and Palermo harbours. Christopher Clarkson became the first British pilot to fly the Bell P-400 Airacobra, Britain having inherited a French order for one hundred and seventy aircraft, later expanded to over six hundred.
An adaptation of PG Wodehouse's Pig-hoo-o-o-o-ey! and Helter-Shelter broadcast. RAF bombers attacked Vlorë on the Greco-Italian front, Rotterdam and IJmuiden in the Nazi-occupied Netherlands and the German cities of Emmerich am Rhein and Cologne.