Year 1940

Diary for Tuesday, February 13, 1940: Sea War Atlantic: British cruiser HMS Dorsetshire intercepts German blockade-runner Wakama (scuttled) near Rio de Janeiro. Brazil makes vigorous protest.

Diary for Monday, February 12, 1940: North Africa Australian Imperial Force and detachment of NZ troops arrive at Suez. Sea War Atlantic: U-boat U-33 sunk in the Clyde by minesweeper

Diary for Sunday, February 11, 1940: Finland Winter War: Russians break through Mannerheim Line in Summa sector. 123rd Division overwhelms defending Finnish battalion. Finns launch desperate counter-attacks. Politics Russian-German Trade

Diary for Saturday, February 10, 1940: Western Front French communiqué reads: Rien a signaler (‘Nothing to report’). Sea War Atlantic: Six German merchant ships leave Vigo, Spain to run the

Diary for Friday, February 9, 1940: Sea War North Sea: German destroyers lay mines in ‘The Wash‘, on British East coast (night February 9-10). Finland Winter War: Finns hold Russian

Diary for Thursday, February 8, 1940: Western Front Two French soldiers capture German patrol in Forbach Woods. Secret War USA: ‘Harry Sawyer’ (Sebold) arrives in New York to head German

Diary for Wednesday, February 7, 1940: Sea War Atlantic: Irish passenger-mail ship Munster sunk by mine in Irish Sea. Home Fronts Britain: IRA men, Barnes and Richards, executed at Winson

Diary for Tuesday, February 6, 1940: Home Front Britain: four people injured by IRA parcel bombs at Euston Station, London.

Diary for Monday, February 5, 1940: Neutrals Holland: C-in-C General Reynders resigns over question of Dutch military preparedness. Sea War US Maritime Commission announces that Britain and France are buying

Diary for Sunday, February 4, 1940: Air War Finland: Russian bombers attacking 141 targets (towns, rail junctions, harbors) over weekend February 3-4, dropping approx. 6,800 bombs. Finnish casualties 193 (14

Diary for Friday, February 3, 1940: Air War 20 Heinkel He 111‘s (3 lost) attack ships (2 sunk) off British East Coast.

Diary for Friday, February 2, 1940: Politics Balkan Entente Conference at Belgrade: Neutrals Yugoslavia, Greece, Romania and Turkey proclaim common interests in maintenance of peace in southeast Europe and renew

Diary Thursday, February 1, 1940 Finland Winter War – Second battle of Summa: Russian 7th Army batters key sector of Mannerheim Line near village of Summa, with waves of tanks

Diary for Wednesday, January 31, 1940 Secret War Italy: Secret British military mission to Italy orders 300 Caproni Re 2000 fighters. Germany vetoes deal in April. British attempts to obtain

Diary for Tuesday, January 30, 1940 Sea War Heinkel He 111 bombers again attack shipping off British coast. German U-boat U-55 attacks convoy off Land’s End, sinking 2 ships; but

Monday, January 29, 1940 Finland Winter War: Battle of Kuhmo begins. Finns encircle Russian 54th Division at Kuhmo, in the ‘Waist’. Heavy Russian air raids on Finnish ports. Politics Russia

Sunday, January 28, 1940 Home Fronts Britain: Director of Censorship permits newspapers belatedly to reveal details of Britain’s (MAIN EVENT) the coldest winter since 1894: River Thames and Southampton Docks

Saturday, January 27, 1940 Home Fronts Britain: Winston Churchill (uneasy at slow increase in war production) speaks at Free Trade Hall, Manchester: ‘each to our station … there is not

Friday, January 26, 1940 Home Fronts France: Paul Ferdonnet, the ‘Radio Traitor’ – notorious for his pro-Nazi broadcasts in French language from Stuttgart – is tried in absentia by a

Thursday, January 25, 1940 Occupied countries Poland – ‘Goring-Frank Circular’: all material resources and manpower to be ruthlessly exploited for the immediate benefit of the Reich (copies of this top-secret