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Timeline: 1940

Jan 8 A Finnish force destroys the Russian 44th Assault Division, ending the Battle of Suomussalami. The Soviet force was larger but poorly equipped and lacked winter camouflage clothing. Finnish troops often intercepted Soviet communications, which relied on standard phone lines.

Feb 3 In the Soviet Union, Nicholai Yezhov, former head of the NKVD, is tried in the office of the present head of the NKVD, Navrenty Beria. Beria advises Yezhov to confess to a plot to kill Stalin. Yezhov refuses as a matter of honor.

Feb 4 Yeshov is shot.

Mar 12 The Soviet Union and Finland sign a peace treaty in Moscow, ending the Winter War.

Apr 5 Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels says in private, "Till now we have succeeded in leaving the enemy in the dark concerning Germany's real goals, just as before 1932 our domestic foes never saw where we were going or that our oath of legality was just a trick... They could have suppressed us. They could have arrested a couple of us in 1925 and that would have been that, the end. No, they let us through the danger zone. That's exactly how it was in foreign policy, too... In 1933 a French premier ought to have said (and if I had been the French premier I would have said it): 'The new Reich Chancellor [Hitler] is the man who wrote Mein Kampf, which says this and that. This man cannot be tolerated in our vicinity. Either he disappears or we march!' But they didn't do it. They left us alone and let us slip through the risky zone, and we were able to sail around all dangerous reefs. And when we were done, and well armed, better than they, then they started the war!"

Apr 9 Britain has started laying mines along Norway's coastal waters. Germany invades Norway, as planned, to keep the British from disrupting the coastal supply line from Sweden. Germany takes control also of the land between it and Norway: Denmark.

Apr 17 Germany begins the first transport of "gypsies" in Poland to concentration camps there. Some are sterilized and will be forced to work in Germany's arms industry.

Apr 22 The British bomb German-occupied Oslo, Norway.

Apr 25 The German high command issues its "third and final warning:" either Britain will stop its "aerial warfare against undefended places" or Germany will retaliate.

May 1 The U.S. Navy has moved the base of its Pacific Ocean fleet from San Diego to its naval base at Pearl Harbor, in the Hawaiian Islands. Admiral Yamamoto Isoruku, commander of Japan's Combined Fleet, describes the move as "tantamount to a dagger pointed at our throat."

May 10 Winston Churchill replaces Nivelle Chamberlain as prime minister. Britain invades Iceland. Hitler sends his armies into Belgium and Holland.

May 15 One hundred British bombers fly night-time raids against various German cities. The German high command describes the bombers as killing civilians and damaging nothing of military significance. (Human Smoke, p. 182.)

May 26 The British begin evacuating troops from Dunkirk, in Belgium.

May 27 The New York Times reports that Britain has rounded up several thousand German and Austrian women, many of whom have been working as servants. (Human Smoke, p. 189.)

Jun 5 Hitler sends his armies into France.

Jun 10 German forces have driven British forces from Norway. Norway's government gives up the struggle against the German invasion. It capitulates. But Norway's armed forces will continue to fight the German occupation.

Jun 10 Italy declares war on France and Britain. Norway surrenders to German forces. In England, authorities begin rounding up Italians and Germans, including recently arrived Jews from Dachau prison. (Human Smoke, p. 195-96.)

Jun 14 German troops march into Paris.

Jun 17 Philippe Petain becomes Prime Minister of France and asks Germany for peace terms.

Jun 22 Germany and France agree to peace and friendship. German forces are to remain in France along the coast of the English channel.

Jun 24 Italy signs a peace agreement with France.

Jul 3 The French fleet, anchored in the Algerian ports of Oran and Mers-el-Kebir, refuse an offer by the British to join the British navy. The British sink the fleet.

Jul 4 France breaks diplomatic relations with Britain.

Jul 19 In a public address, Hitler outlines his peace offer to Britain. He says he sees "no reason why the war must go on." He adds that, "A great empire will be destroyed, a world empire which it was never my intention to destroy or damage." He says that the "continuation of this war will only end with the complete destruction of one of the two warring parties. Mr. Churchill may believe that this will be Germany. I know it will be England."

Jul 21 The Soviet Union annexes Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, proclaiming them to be Soviet Socialist Republics.

Jul 25 President Roosevelt orders a partial trade embargo on aviation fuel, lubricants, and high-grade scrap metal to Japan

Aug 8 The Germans begin sending an armada of airplanes against Britain. Their targets are radar stations and forward fighter-plane air bases.

Aug 11 In a conversation at a rifle range, Prime Minister Churchill talks of the best method of killing Germans. He says that soft-nose bullets are best. Churchill's son, Randolph, points out that such bullets are not legal in war. Churchill responds that he does not see why he should have mercy on Germans when they would have none for him. (Human Smoke, p. 219)

Aug 21 Leon Trotsky has been living in Mexico. He is murdered by a Soviet agent.

Sep 4 Hitler threatens to obliterate (ausradieren) British cities if British bombing runs against Germany do not stop.

Sep 16 Because Germany has failed to destroy Britain's ability to strike with fighter airplanes, Hitler drops his plan for a cross-channel invasion of Britain.

Sep 26 Japan's parliament has declared a holy war against China, and Japan has launched a new offensive in China. Hostility toward Japan has increased in the United States. The U.S. imposes a total embargo on all shipments of scrap metal to Japan.

Sep 27 Germany, Italy and Japan sign Tripartite Pact.

Oct 16 President Roosevelt announces the opening of registration for the draft.

Oct 28 Mussolini invades Greece without warning Hitler, retaliating for Hitler not warning him of his invasions. Britain sends a naval force against the Italians.

Oct 31 In Germany, the government has decreed that Jews and Aryans must be segregated in air-raid shelters.

Nov 7 The New York Times reports that 10,000 Jews have been deported from Germany to France. It is part of Germany's plan to send Jews from Germany to Madagascar. French authorities express their intention to send the deportees there as soon as the sea routes reopen.

Nov 14 Around 500 German aircraft attack the English city of Coventry, a raid that lasts more than 10 hours. Reports describe 4,330 homes destroyed and three-quarters of Coventry's factories damaged.

Nov 16 The British are responding to the bombing of Coventry. More than 200 British aircraft are bombing Hamburg on two successive nights.

Nov 20 Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join an alliance with Germany and Italy.

Nov 25 The British put "illegal" Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria onto a ship, the Patria, in port at Haifa, Palestine. The Jewish paramilitary group, Haganah, blows a hole in the hull of the ship to keep it from leaving. The Patria sinks and more than 250 people die. The survivors are take to a British prison. (Human Smoke, p. 257.)

Nov 29 In a radio address, President Roosevelt declares that the United States must become "the great arsenal of democracy."

Nov 30 By now, the Greeks have pushed the Italians back to Albania.

Nov 30 In Britain, a poll by the British Institute of Public Opinion describes 46 percent approving and 46 percent disapproving of bombing civilians in Germany. Eight percent were not sure. (Human Smoke, p. 249.)

Dec 9 The British launch an offensive against Italy in North Africa.

Dec 13 British forces enter Italy's colony, Libya.

Dec 20 China's government charges Japan with having released plague germs over three cities. Japan denies the charges and accuses China of putting cholera germs in wells to infect Japanese forces.

Dec 21 The Roosevelt administration refuses a French request for help with Jewish emigration.

Dec 30 The German air force (Luftwaffe) has just bombed London, creating 1,500 fires. Britain's government lifts censorship for U.S. reporters in hope of encouraging a U.S. entry into the war. Prime Minister Churchill approves retaliatory bombing.

Dec 31 Spending is lifting the United States out of the depression. Millions are going to work in what is called the defense industry.