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ROOSEVELT SPEECH TO CONGRESS :
Date : 6th January 1941.
In speech to Congress,
Franklin D. Roosevelt declares four freedoms : freedom of speech
and religion, freedom of want and fear -- that are essential to
democratic interests.
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ALLIES TAKE Tobruk :
Date : 22nd January 1941.
The Allies take the city
of Tobruk, Libya, in North Africa.
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GENERAL ERWIN ROMMEL :
Date : 2nd February 1941.
General Erwin Rommel became
the commander of the Afrika Korps in north Africa, and arrives
in Tripoli, Libya, to lead the German offensive in the desert.
Rommel will be nicknamed by the British as 'The Desert Fox'.
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LEND-LEASE BILL :
Date : 8th March 1941.
US Senate passes an act
of Congress called the 'Lend-Lease Bill'. Under the bill the United
States can supply war materials to a country in a state war, which
is deemed vital to the defence of the United States. Britain and
the Soviet Union would both be benefactors of the 'Lend-Lease
Bill'.
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BATTLE OF CAPE MATAPAN :
Date : 28th March 1941.
The British defeated the
Italian fleet in the Battle Of Cape Matapan.
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BRITAIN HELPS GREECE :
Date : 5th April 1941.
The British desperately
needed a foothold on mainland Europe, the last being the BEF who
were expelled from Dunkirk in 1940. The Italian invasion of Greece
in October 1940 had faltered due to strong Greek resistance, and
the invaders were repelled. Greece was seen as a opportunity to
establish that presence on mainland Europe.
Wavell, British Commander
in Chief of the Middle East, who successfully defended Egypt from
the Italians is ordered to send troops to Greece. The manoeuvre
seriously weakened the British force in the desert.
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NAZIS INVADE YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE :
Date : 6th April 1941.
Due to the failed Italian
invasion of Greece in October 1940, and continued engagements
against strong Greek resistance, the arrival of British troops
in Greece on 5th April caused Mussolini to approach Hitler for
assistance. Hitler obliged and Nazi troops invaded and overran
Yugoslavia and Greece, expelling the British force once again
off of mainland Europe.
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ROMMEL ENCIRCLES Tobruk :
Date : 13th April 1941.
General Rommel advances
and encircles the Allied garrison at Tobruk in Libya, north Africa.
At the same time the Soviet
Union signs neutrality pact with Japan.
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CHARLES LINDBERGH WARNS U.S. :
Date : 23rd April 1941.
Although President Roosevelt
was eager to enter World War II there was very strong opposition
in the United States to entering the war, especially from isolationist
forces. The famous US aviator Charles Lindbergh warns the US against
entering into a war it cannot win.
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NAZIS INVADE CRETE :
Date : 21st May 1941.
After the success of the
Greece invasion, Hitler looks to increase his influence in the
Mediterranean and the Nazis invade Crete. Nazis take Maleme airfield
in the first airborne invasion in history.
The islands in the Mediterranean
are strategically important on many levels, most immediately the
supplies to an army in the north African desert.
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H.M.S. HOOD IS SUNK :
Date : 24th May 1941.
The British battleship
H.M.S. Hood is Sunk by the Nazi battleship Bismarck. Only three
survivors.
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BISMARCK SUNK :
Date : 27th May 1941.
British warships engage
the German battleship Bismarck, the battle ends when the Bismarck
is Sunk.
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THE FIRST JET ENGINE :
Date : May.
British engineer Frank
Whittle flies the first aircraft with a jet engine, when the Gloster
E 28/29 flew with the Whittle jet engine.
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BRITISH INVADES SYRIA :
Date : 8th June 1941.
With a Nazi force in the
north African desert, and the occupation of Greece by Nazi Germany,
British supply links via the Seuz Canal and the Middle East oil
fields, are threatened on two fronts.
British forces invaded
Syria and removed the Vichy regime in Damascus. Syria was occupied
by the British and the Free French forces.
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GERMANY INVADES RUSSIA :
Date : 22nd June 1941.
Stalin had ignored warnings
from Winston Churchill about the impending invasion by Germany.
On the morning of 22nd June Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany implements
'Operation Barbarossa',
the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression
Pact is ignored, as Hitler opens an eastern front.
Date : 12th July 1941.
The British and the Soviet
Union sign the Anglo-Soviet Treaty of Mutual Assistance.
Russia
:
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JAPAN ADVANCES :
Date : 28th July 1941.
Japanese troops land in
Indochina (French name for their colonies in south east Asia which
included Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam).
Date : 5th August 1941.
Britain and America impose
trade ban on sale of raw materials to Japan.
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GERMAN TROOPS ADVANCE IN RUSSIA :
Date : 5th August 1941.
Russian resistance at Smolensk,
western Russia, is eliminated by advancing German troops.
Date : 12th August 1941.
German Army Group North
advances onto the city of Leningrad.
A meeting between British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill and US President Roosevelt, Great
Britain and the United States sign the Atlantic Charter.
Date : 19th August 1941.
German Army Group South
captures 650,00 Soviet soldiers at Kiev.
Date : 5th September 1941.
Germans occupy the Baltic
state of Estonia.
Date : 8th-9th September
1941.
The Nazi troops reach and
isolates the city of Leningrad. Leningrad
is cut off from the rest of Russia.
Date : 28th September 1941.
First Arctic convoy leaves
for Russia from Iceland.
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NEW JAPANESE PRIME MINISTER :
Date : 17th October 1941.
Japanese Minister of War
Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan, succeeding Fumimaro
Konoe.
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MORE GERMAN ADVANCES IN RUSSIA :
Date : 20th October 1941.
German troops take Bryansk.
Date : 30th October 1941.
Nazis advance through the
Crimea in the south and reach the outskirts of the Soviet capital
Moscow.
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BRITISH 2ND DESERT CAMPAIGN :
Date : 18th November 1941.
The British and Allied
forces launched the 2nd Allied Desert campaign in north Africa.
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RUSSIAN WINTER HALTS HITLER'S ADVANCE
IN RUSSIA :
Date : 5th December 1941.
Adolf Hitler abandoned
Moscow offensive for the winter, as temperatures drop and halt
the Nazis advance.
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JAPAN ATTACKS PEARL HARBOR :
Date : 7th December 1941.
The US naval base Pearl
Harbor in Oahu, Hawaii, was attacked by Japanese warplanes
while Japanese envoys talked peace in Washington. The attack killed
over 2,000 American servicemen, and destroyed or damaged a large
part of the US Pacific Fleet. Fortunately the period's most valuable
asset, the aircraft carrier, was untouched. The Fleet's carriers
were out of port on manoeuvres at the time of the attack.
Although Admiral Kimmel
and Lt-General Short were held responsible for the base being
unprepared for the attack, its believed that British Intelligence
had informed America of the impending attacks.
This 'bloody nose' was
enough to galvanize US public opinion about the United States
entering the war.
The
Pacific War begins as Japan attacks the Philippines, Hong
Kong and Malaya.
Pearl
Harbor : The
Pacific War :
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UNITED STATES DECLARES WAR ON JAPAN
:
Date : 8th December 1941.
In Congress President Franklin
D. Roosevelt declares a state of war against Japan for the unprovoked
attack on Pearl Harbor.
Declaration
of war speech in full :
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IMMEDIATE EVENTS AFTER AMERICA ENTERS
THE WAR :
Date : 9th December 1941.
China declares war on Nazi
Germany and Japan.
Date : 10th December 1941.
Japan captures Guam.
Date : 11th December 1941.
Germany and Italy declare
war on the United States of America. Japan
attacks Burma.
Date : 23rd December 1941.
Japan captures Wake Island.
Date : 24th December 1941.
British troops retake Benghazi,
Libya, north Africa.
Date : 25th December 1941.
Japan captures Hong Kong.
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