World War II Chronology 1940

February
12. First Australian troops land in Egypt.
		



March
2. Soviets crack Mannerheim Line, seize Vyborg (Viipuri).
12. Finland signs peace treaty with Soviet Union.



April
9. Germany occupies Denmark, invades Norway.
14. First of 12,000 Allied troops land in Namsos, Norway.



May
1-3. Allies evacuate all Norway but Narvik. King Haakon escapes to London.
10. British troops land in Iceland. Germany invades Belgium, The Netherlands, Luxemburg. 
Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as British prime minister.
11. Nazi paratroops seize "impregnable" Eben Emael fortress.
14. The Netherlands government surrenders. Queen Wilhelmina of Netherlands escapes to London. 
Dutch casualties, about 10,000. Rotterdam bombed. Nazis take Sedan, opening the battle of the Meuse.
17. Germans take Louvain and Brussels.
19. Gen. Gamelin succeeded by Gen. Weygand as Allied commander in chief.
20. British begin retreat through Belgian ports.
21. Germans reach French coast at Abbeville.
28. King Leopold surrenders Belgium's army of 500,000.
29-June 4. British Expeditionary Force plus thousands of French troops evacuated from Dunkirk.



June
5. Battle of France begins at the Somme.
9. Norway surrenders, British withdraw from Narvik.
10. Italy declares war on France and Britain.
14. Germans enter Paris. Spain occupies Tangier.
16. Marshal Petain succeeds Paul Reynaud as French premier.
17. Petain asks Germany for armistice terms for France.
22. France signs armistice with Germany.
24. France signs armistice with Italy.
27. Romania cedes Bessarabia, northern Bucovina to Soviet Union.



July
3. British attack French fleet at Oran, Algeria.
11. Petain becomes dictator of France.



August
3. Lithuania annexed as Soviet republic by Soviet Union.
5. Latvia annexed as Soviet republic by Soviet Union.
6. Estonia annexed as Soviet republic by Soviet Union.
8. Germany launches all-out air blitz on England.
9. Britain recalls troops from Shanghai and North China.
19. Italy occupies British Somaliland.
21. Romania cedes southern Dobruja to Bulgaria.
22. United States, Canada name joint defense board.
25. British planes first bomb Berlin.
30. Romania cedes northern Transylvania to Hungary.



September
3. United States trades Britain 50 destroyers for Atlantic bases.
12. Italy begins invasion of Egypt.
16. Roosevelt signs Burke-Wadsworth Compulsory Military Service Act. First increment of 
National Guard called to active duty.
22. France grants Indochina bases to Japan.
25. Germany installs Vidkun Quisling as Norwegian premier.
26. United States limits scrap iron and steel exports to Western Hemisphere and Britain only.
27. Japan joins Rome-Berlin Axis.



October
6. Germany abandons large-scale daylight raids on England; turns to night bombing.
10. Germany occupies Romania.
16. United States men register in first peacetime draft.
27. De Gaulle establishes Free French government.
28. Italy invades Greece.
29. Selection of American draftees begins.



November
11-12. British planes cripple Italian fleet at Taranto.
20. Hungary joins Axis.
23. Romania joins Axis.



December
6. Greeks rout Italians from Porto Edda, Albania.
9. British strike back at Italians in Egypt.