WW2 Chronology 1938
    By the time the US entered WW2, the war had been going on for over two years and three months in Europe, five years in Africa, and ten years in China.
    Background
    • Mussolini had invaded Ethiopia in 1935.
    • Spanish Civil War had started in 1936.
    • Germans aid Spanish nationalists ; develop aerial attack at Guernica.
    • Soviet Great Purge, eventually 724,00 people killed.
    • Japan invades China starting Sino Japanese War of 1937
    • American river gunboat Panay sunk by Japanese while escorting evacuees from Nanking.
    • Japanese sack Nanking -- 300,000 murdered. Shocks the world.
    January 1938

    February 1938
    Feb 4 . Hitler takes direct control of the German military.
    Feb 12. Under threat of invasion, Austria yields to Nazi participation in the Austrian government.
    Feb 14. British naval base at Singapore begins operations.
    March 1938
    Mar 3 . Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia.
    Mar 6 . Japanese reach Yellow River in conquest of China.
    Mar 13. Hitler marches into Austria.
    Mar 14. French reassure the Czechoslovak government that France will honor its treaty in event of German invasion.
    March . Last biplane fighter aircraft delivered to USN, a Grumman F3F.
    April 1938
    Apr 10, Germany annexed Austria.
    Apr 19. Franco declared victory in the Spanish Civil War. (ends Apr'39)
    Apr 24. Hitler demands equality for Germans living in Sudetenland. (divided by WWI)
    Apr 30. Japanese take Xuzhou Prefecture.
    May 1938
    May 12. USS Enterprise (CV- 6) commissions.
    May .   Japanese link northern and eastern conquests of China.
    May 17. Congress authorizes 20% increase in naval strength to reach treaty limits.
    May 20. Czechoslovakia orders a partial mobilization of its armed forces along the German border.
    May 28. Hitler orders mobilization of 96 Wehrmacht divisions.
    June 1938
    June 12. Gypsies in Germany and Austria are rounded up.
    June 17. Japan declared war on China.
    July 1938
    July 11. USSR-Japan border clash.
    July 12. Turkish army carries out the Kurdish Genocide in Dersim.
    July 29. Battle of Lake Khasan - Japan attacks Russia at Nomonhan on China/Russia border.
    August 1938
    August. Chiang Kai-shek withdraws his government to Chungking from Japanese invasion.
    Aug 19. USSR repels Japanese near Vladivostok.
    Aug 23. Hitler offers part of Czechoslovakia to Hungary for aid in coming attack.
    Aug 31. Churchill suggests alliance with US and USSR over Sudeten.
    September 1938
    Sep 9 . Roosevelt states U.S. will not join a "stop-Hitler" movement and will be neutral over Czechoslovakia.
    Sep 14. Graf Zeppelin II, world's largest airship, made its maiden flight.
    Sep 23. Czechoslovak army mobilizes..
    Sep 27. Partial mobilization in England.
    Sep 30. Neville Chamberlain, "Peace In Our Time".
    October 1938
    Oct 1 . Appeasement gives Hitler Sudetenland, 11,000 sq miles of Czech territory.
    Oct 5 . Poland and Hungary seize Czech frontier areas.
    Oct 21. The Japanese Imperial Army largely overruns Canton.
    Oct 18. British retake Jerusalem from Arab revolt
    Oct 24. Hitler requests access to Danzig: Polish Corridor (now gdansk)
    Oct 27. Japanese captured Wuhan . Capital moved to Chungking.
    November 1938
    Nov .   Japanese advance up Yangtze River in east central China.
    Nov 2 . Germany gave southern Slovakia to Hungary.
    Nov 9 . Kristalnacht - anti-Jewish riot, 200 synagogues destroyed.
    Nov 16. HMS Ark Royal commissioned , stopped the Bismarck, sunk by U-81 Nov'41.
    Nov 20. IJN cruiser Tone completed, scout for carrier fleet at every battle.
    Nov 26. Poland renewed a non-aggression pact with the USSR to protect against a German invasion.
    December 1938
    December. President Roosevelt agrees to loan $25 million to Chiang Kai-shek.
    Dec 4 . Sudeten elections, 97.3% National Socialist German Workers' Party. (nazi)
    Dec 8 . Graf Zeppelin, Germany's only aircraft carrier was launched, never completed.
    Dec .   Great Britain has five radar stations along its coasts to warn of enemy aircraft and over a dozen more under construction.
    Dec 18. Otto Hahn of German splits the uranium atom, releasing energy.
    Dec 23. Franco's army begin campaign in Catalonia.
    Dec 31. Japan possesses richest portions and half the population of China.
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    About this page: 1938 -- World War 2 started seventy-five years ago. This a chronology of interesting events leading to that war to help in understanding the period.
    Created July 14, 2009
    URL: http://www.ww2pacific.com/1938.html