WW2 Chronology 1940
    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
    • Japan had invaded China in 1937.
    • Mussolini had invaded parts of NE Africa.
    • Hitler annexed Czechoslovakia, peace in our time.
    • Spanish Civil War had ended .
    • Hitler and Stalin agree to divide Europe between themselves and invaded Poland.
    • War in Europe was declared but had little activity, "the phony war".
    • USN in the name of aid broadcasts location of German ships.

    January 1940
    US Census shows 126,947 Japanese ; 60% of Issei (immigrants) and 30% of Nisei (children) hold Japanese citizenship.
    Jan 1 . British authorities detaining U.S. vessels at Gibraltar to search for contraband, taking from a few hours to several weeks. Continues into mid-March.
    Jan 3 . U.S. freighter Mormacsun is intercepted by British navy and diverted to Scotland, a combat area.
    Jan 5 . Transport of aid to Finland across Germany forbidden.
    Jan 12. RAdm Byrd, USN (Ret.) surveys the land and sea areas of Antarctica.
    Jan 26. Minesweeper Quail (AM-15) arrives at Palmyra Island with construction party to build a naval air station.
    Jan 26. United States-Japanese Trade Treaty of 1911 expires.
    February 1940
    February. Russia re-attacks Finland with 45 divisions.
    February. Australian, New Zealand, Indian troops arrive Egypt.
    March 1940
    March. Neutrality policy ends with the Lend-Lease Act.
    Russo-Finnish Treaty -- Finland gives up land Russian "needs" for her defense.
    Mar-Apr  . Katyn Forest Massacre, 20,000 Polish officers and others murdered by Soviets.
    Mar 12. Finland sign peace with USSR
    April 1940
    April . USN Fleet Problem XXI training for Pacific war.
    Apri 7 . April 1940, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau formed primary covering force for the invasions of Narvik and Trondheim in Norway.
    Apr 9 . Germany invades Norway with aid of Quisling.
    Apr 9 . Germany occupies Denmark.
    Apr 10-13. Returning German fleet mauled by British.
    Apr 16. Iceland declares its independence from occupied Demark and asks the United States for recognition.
    Apr 18. British landing in Norway.
    April .   US considers selective service (draft for one year).
    Apr 19. Japanese government informs U.S. they have no aggressive intentions toward the Netherlands East Indies.
    Apr 25. USS Wasp (CV-7) commissions.
    May 1940
    May 2 . British withdraw from Norway.
    May 3 . Greenland, a crown colony of Denmark, seeks U.S. protection, so that Danish sovereignty can be maintained during the German occupation of the homeland.
    May 7 . Chamberlain resigns, Churchill to form government.
    May 7 . Pacific fleet ordered to Pearl Harbor indefinitely as a warning to Japan
    May 10. German invades Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg
    May 12. Germany invades France
    May 14. Holland surrenders.
    May 27-Jun 4. Dunkirk evacuation.
    May 28. Belgium surrenders.
    June 1940
    June 7. British and French withdraw from Norway.
    June 8. German battleships Gneisenau and Scharnhorst sank British aircraft carrier Glorious and her two escorts, Acasta and Ardent.
    June 9. Norway armistice
    Jun 10. Italy declares war on Britain and France. "The hand that held the dagger has plunged it into the back of its neighbor." -- FDR
    Jun 10. USSR occupy Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia.
    Jun 11. British attack Italians in Libya
    Jun 14. Germany takes Paris.
    Jun 16. Curie laboratory (Fr) transfer 410 pounds of Norwegian heavy water to the British.
    Jun 17. French armistice.   Evacuation at St. Nazaire. Lancastria.
    Jun 22. USSR invades Romania which must join Axis
    July 1939
    July 3 . British attack French Fleet at Oran.
    July 4 . Italians take cities in Sudan.
    July 5 . US bans strategic materials to Japan.
    July 10. Aerial Battle of Britain starts.
    July 10. Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" fighter enters service in China.
    July 15. Italians take city in Kenya.
    July 19. "Two Ocean Navy" Act : to build 257 ships ; 7 BB, 11 CV, 50 CL, 100 DD,
    July 25. US embargoes scrap metal and petroleum to Japan.
    August 1940
    Aug'40-Aug'41. Labor strikes lose 19 million man-days of production.
    Aug 5 . Italians invade, occupy British Somaliland
    August. German merchant raider Komet, aided by Soviet icebreaker Lenin, transits Arctic Ocean to attack Allied shipping in the Pacific.
    Aug 24. German battleship Bismarck commissions.
    Aug 27. Compulsory military service established (the draft)
    Aug 29. British Tizard Mission shares radar information with US.
    September 1940
    Sep 3 . US trades Britain 50 destroyers from US WWI reserve fleet for leases on bases.
    Sep 6 . Contracts for prototypes of B-29 and B-32. (Upgraded B-17 and B-24).
    Sep 9 . US Navy awards contracts for 210 new ships including 12 aircraft carriers and 7 battleships.
    Sep 12. Peak day in Battle of Britain
    Sep 13. Italians invade Egypt.
    Sep 15. Bombing of London starts.
    Sep 16. US Selective Training and Service Act, first peacetime draft, men 21-35.
    Sep 17. Russian troops enter Poland.
    Sep 17. Invasion of England canceled.
    Sep 17. Carrier HMS Courageous sunk by U-29.
    Sep 25. Reduce oil exports to Japan.
    Sep 27. Japan joins German and Italian Axis in Tripartite Pact -- ten year military agreement to support each other's military aims ; forms Axis.
      And Japan complained because export shipments of oil and steel were then curtailed and used that as part of their explanation for going to war !

    October 1940
    October. 1,140 tons of Belgium Congo uranium ore shipped to Staten Island for safekeeping.
    Oct 8 . U.S. advises citizens leave Far East
    Oct 14. Three U.S. passenger liners to Japan and China to repatriate American citizens from that region in view of prevailing "abnormal conditions" there.
    Oct 25. USN mobilizes aviation squadrons at 1/3 per month.
    Oct 28. Italians invade Greece.
    Oct 28. Pilot armor and fuel protection begin to go into service and within a year all fleet aircraft would have it.
    Oct 31. British occupy Crete
    November 1940
    Nov 3 . RAF to southern Greece
    Nov 11. British Fleet Air Arm attack Italian fleet at Taranto
    November. Carrier version of Mitsubishi A6M2 "Zero" fighter enters service.
    Nov 14. Coventry bombed
    Nov 16. Destroyer McCormick (DD-223), on neutrality patrol off Tampico, Mexico, radios attempt of German freighter Orinoco to make for European waters. Destroyer Plunkett (DD-431), by her presence, thwarts German tanker Phrygia's bid for freedom; Phrygia's crew scuttles her.
    Nov 21. Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, light cruisers Köln and Leipzig. and several destroyers conducted a sweep between Iceland and the Faroe Islands; sink British cruiser Rawalpindi
    Nov 30. Russia attacks Finland in Winter War.
    December 1940
    Dec 8 . Destroyer Sturtevant (DD-240) stands by while British light cruiser HMS Diomede intercepts German freighter Idarwald.
    Dec 11. German freighter Rhein, having been tailed by destroyer Simpson (DD-221) and, later, MacLeish (DD-220), is intercepted by Dutch destroyer leader Van Kinsbergen near the Florida Straits, and is scuttled by her crew to avoid capture. MacLeish and McCormick (DD-223) are present as the German ship's bid to escape fails. US extends "neutral zone" to 300 miles.
    Dec 15. Italians expelled from Egypt.
    December. Grumman F4F-3 "Wildcat" naval fighter enters service.
    Dec 27. IJN light carrier Zuiho commissioned. - Philippines, DutchEastIndies, Midway, Santa Cruz, Philippine Sea, -> Leyte Gulf
    1938 , 1939   |   Chronology   |   1941 >
    Return to: WW2
    About this page: 1940 - Seventy years ago World War 2 started. This a chronology of interesting events leading to that war to help in understanding the period.
    Created July 10, 2009
    URL: http://www.ww2pacific.com/1940.html