This page presents World War II Timeline events for the year 1941.
Links are provided in the timeline with additional information from Olive-Drab.com pages or relevant books on the event or subject. For additional compilations of the events of World War II, go to one of the recommended time line web sites listed at the bottom of the main WWII Timeline page. If you have other events to suggest, or spot any errors, please contact Olive-Drab.com.
| 5 January |
British 8th Army [Wavell] captures Bardia in Cyrenaica, Libya taking 45,000 Italian prisoners.
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| 6 January |
President Franklin Roosevelt gives Four Freedoms address to Congress.
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| 6 January |
German Luftwaffe launches the first attacks against British convoys bound for Malta in the Mediterranean Sea.
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| 10 January |
Lend-Lease Act introduced in US Congress.
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| 10 January |
Soviet-German trade pact signed. |
| 22 January |
British and Australians capture Tobruk, Libya from the Italians.
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| 29 January |
American, British & Canadian (ABC) military staffs begin meetings in Washington, DC to coordinate expected US entry into WW II, resulting in the ABC-1 plan [29 Jan - 27 March].
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| 1 February |
German Navy adds a fourth rotor to the Enigma encryption machine, making it much more difficult to break the code.
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| 1 February |
USMC Second Marine Division formally activated at San Diego, CA.
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| 1 February |
United States Navy reorganizes into separate Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, with the Pacific Fleet HQ at Pearl Harbor, HI.
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| 4 February |
The United Service Organization [USO], a nonprofit, charitable corporation chartered by Congress, is created to entertain American servicemen and women.
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| 6 February |
Benghazi, Libya falls to the British Western Desert Force.
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| 6 February |
German Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed commander of the Afrika Korps.
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| 8 February |
US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease Act [265 to 165].
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| 9 February |
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill appeals for arms shipments from the US: "Give us the tools, and we will finish the job".
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| 12 February |
German Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel arrives in North Africa to lead the soon to arrive Afrika Korps.
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| 14 February |
5th Leichte (Panzer) Division arrived in Tripoli, the first elements of the Afrika Korps.
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| 19 February |
Luftwaffe's Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales devestates the town as incendiary and high explosive bombs cause up to 270 deaths [19-21 Feb].
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| 25 February |
President Franklin Roosevelt places bans on export of certain materials essential to war production, including beryllium, graphite electrodes, atropine, belladonna, sole and belting leather.
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| 1 March |
Bulgaria joins the Axis Tripartite Pact.
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| 8 March |
US Senate passes the Lend-Lease Act [60-31].
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| 11 March |
The Lend-Lease Act signed by President Roosevelt, opening the way for ever increasing shipments of defense materiel that allies [primarily Britain and Russia] were unable to pay for.
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| 19 March |
99th Pursuit Squadron activated at Chanute Field in Rantoul, IL, the unit that became the Tuskegee Airmen.
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| 24 March |
German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica, Libya.
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| 25 March |
Kingdom of Yugoslavia signs the Tripartite Pact, joining the Axis powers.
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| 27 March |
Anti-Axis coup d'etat in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, with British support, forces Prince Paul into exile.
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| 27 March |
Battle of Cape Matapan began, on Greece's Peloponnesian peninsula. British Commonwealth fleet intercepted and damaged/sank ships of the Italian Navy [March 27-29].
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| 27 March |
Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, HI, and begins to study the US Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor.
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| 30 March |
German Afrika Korps under Field Marshal Erwin Rommel begins offensive in N. Africa, recaptures lost territory.
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| 1 April |
Following a coup by pro-German Iraqi army officers, a pro-Axis regime is set up in Iraq.
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| 2 April |
German Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel starts a successful nine day battle to recapture Libya.
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| 4 April |
Axis forces capture Benghazi, Libya.
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| 6 April |
Operation Marita: Germans invade Greece.
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| 6 April |
Axis armies from Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria invade Yugoslavia; Luftwaffe bombs Belgrade.
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| 9 April |
In agreement with Denmark, US acquires military defense rights in Greenland, repudiated by Denmark on 12 April.
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| 10 April |
Destroyer USS Niblack [DD-424] drops depth charges on a German U-Boat, the first American combat action against Germany in WWII.
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| 13 April |
Belgrade, Yugoslavia's capital, falls to German forces.
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| 13 April |
Soviets and Japanese sign neutrality pact.
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| 15 April |
Axis forces reach Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian frontier.
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| 16 April |
Britain receives 1st American Lend-Lease aid shipment across the German submarine-infested Atlantic.
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| 17 April |
Yugoslav Royal Army surrenders to Nazi Germany.
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| 18 April |
As German troops approach Athens, the Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide.
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| 19 April |
British troops sent to Iraq.
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| 22 April |
American reinforcements arrive in Philippines, 2000 US Army troops.
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| 23 April |
Greece surrenders to Germany and Italy. British Commonwealth troops along with elements of the Greek Army withdraw to Crete.
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| 27 April |
German troops enter Athens, Greece.
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| 1 May |
To fund War Production, Defense Bonds and Defense Savings Stamps go on sale in the United States.
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| 2 May |
Revolution in Iraq suppressed by British [May 2-31].
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| 5 May |
Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, sfter liberation from the Italians.
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| 6 May |
Bob Hope performs his first USO show, at March Field, Riverside, CA, near Los Angeles.
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| 9 May |
British Royal Navy captures German submarine U-110, with Enigma cryptography machine onboard.
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| 10 May |
Savage climax to the Blitz as 507 German aircraft drop 711 tons of bombs on London [10-11 May].
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| 10 May |
Rudolf Hess files to Scotland [10-11 May].
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| 12 May |
Konrad Zuse, a German engineer working alone, completed the Z3, later determined to be the first fully operational electromechanical computer. Isolated by WW II, Zuse's work was unknown in the US and UK until after the war.
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| 20 May |
Germans launch Operation Mercury, the Battle of Crete, the first airborne invasion in history.
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| 24 May |
Battle of the Denmark Strait: German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, flagship of the Home Fleet, killing all but 3 of the 1418 crew.
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| 25 May |
King George of Greece abandons Crete, relocating to Cairo in a narrow escape from German forces.
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| 27 May |
After a relentless pursuit by the Royal Navy, German battleship Bismarck sunk.
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| 28 May |
Blacked out destroyers make daring midnight trips to southern Crete ports, rescuing about 16,000 of the 50,000 British troops who had reached Crete from Greece [28-30 May].
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| 1 June |
British withdraw from Crete, surrendered to the Germans.
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| 2 June |
Hitler and Mussolini conferred for five hours at the Brenner pass on axis military and political moves.
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| 5 June |
During the Bombing of Chongqing, 4000 residents hidden in a bomb shelter tunnel are asphyxiated.
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| 5 June |
German ammunition depot explodes at Smederevo on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, killing 2,500 and injuring more than 4,500. |
| 8 June |
British and Free French forces enter Syria in Anglo-French effort to remove the pro-Hitler regime of General Dentz.
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| 14 June |
Axis financial assets in the US frozen.
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| 14 June |
Soviet Union conducts mass deportations from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, sending deportees to Siberia.
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| 15 June |
British launch Battleaxe counteroffensive against Rommel in North Africa [15-17 June] but fail to overcome the Afrika Korps.
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| 16 June |
On orders from the US Department of State, all consulates, travel and other agencies of Nazi Germany in the US are closed.
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| 18 June |
Nazi Germany and Turkey sign treaty of friendship.
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| 22 June |
Croations form the First Sisak Partisan Brigade, the first anti-fascist resistance group in occupied Europe.
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| 22 June |
Operation Barbarossa, German invasion of the Soviet Union, ends the 1939 'nonaggression' pact.
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| 22 June |
As the Germans invade the USSR, Germany's allies declare war on the Soviet Union: Italy, Romania, Hungary and Slovakia.
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| 22 June |
Britain promises all possible aid to the Soviet Union as the Germans invade.
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| 25 June |
Finland attacks the Soviet Union in revenge for earlier Soviet military actions.
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| 28 June |
As the Germans invade, German ally Albania declares war on the Soviet Union. |
| 2 July |
Empire of Japan mobilizes, calling 1 million men for military service.
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| 7 July |
Britain turns over the defense of Iceland to the United States.
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| 8 July |
Jews living under German occupation in Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania ordered to wear a Jewish Star.
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| 11 July |
Establishing the first US foreign intelligence organization, Wm. J. Donovan becomes Coordinator of Information, head of the organization renamed OSS in 1942, the predecessor of the post-war CIA.
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| 13 July |
British-USSR mutual aid pact signed.
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| 14 July |
Armistice signed by Vichy France government ends fighting in Syria and Lebanon.
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| 15 July |
Double agent spy Juan Pujol Garcia [nicknamed 'Garbo'] sends his first communique to Germany from Britain.
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| 23 July |
Original World War II contract for jeeps awarded to Willys with Ford added Nov 1941 to increase production.
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| 26 July |
Major Gen. Douglas MacArthur, retired US Army Chief of Staff, recalled to active duty, assigned to mobilize the Philippine Army and strengthen the US garrison in the Philippine Islands.
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| 28 July |
Oil agreement between Japan and Dutch East Indies suspended, part of a general order freezing all Japanese assets, pushing Japan toward war.
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| 28 July |
Soviet Union agreement with London-based Polish Government-in-exile invalidates the border negotiated with Germany and enlists Poles detained in the USSR for Allied armies.
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| 31 July |
SS Major General Reinhard Heydrich ordered by Göring to prepare "...a total solution of the Jewish question [Gesamtlösung der Judenfrage]..." in European areas controlled by Germany.
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| 3 August |
Homefront: Thirteen states on the US eastern seaboard start voluntary gasoline sales curfew from 7PM to 7AM; gasoline consumption did not decrease.
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| 14 August |
Roosevelt and Churchill meet at sea to agree on war aims, codified in the Atlantic Charter.
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| 21 August |
President Franklin Roosevelt informs the US Congress on the content of the Atlantic Charter.
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| 25 August |
British and Russian troops enter Iran [Operation Countenance].
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| 28 August |
Massive concrete Dneproges Dam and electric plant at Zaporozhyee on the Dnieper River [Dneprostroi Dam] are partially destroyed by retreating Soviet troops to prevent German capture [Operation Barbarossa].
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| 30 August |
German Lorenz SZ40 teleprinter operator sent a 4,000 character message twice, allowing British mathematician Bill Tutte and others at Bletchley Park to decipher the machine's coding mechanism.
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| 8 September |
After string of German victories in Russian cities, the 900 day Seige of Leningrad begins [8 Sep 1941 - 27 Jan 1944].
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| 16 September |
German encirclement of Soviet forces in Kiev completed, to be followed by ruthless German attacks to annihilate the trapped Red Army troops.
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| 19 September |
Encircled Soviet armies at Kiev finally fall to German attacks after a savage battle; pockets of resistence continue.
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| 26 September |
Last remnants of Red Army troops from encircled Kiev surrender to German Wehrmacht forces.
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| 27 September |
SS Patrick Henry, the first Liberty Ship, launched by Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard in Baltimore, MD.
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| 29 September |
First Moscow Conference: US and Britain reassure Stalin of support against Nazi Germany [29 Sep-1 Oct].
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| 2 October |
Operation Typhoon begins, Germany's all-out offensive against Moscow, leading to Hitler's first important loss.
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| 8 October |
German Army in southeastern Ukraine, Soviet Union, captures Mariupol, a port city on the Sea of Azov.
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| 12 October |
Royal Air Force [RAF] mounts large scale overnight raid against Nuremberg, Germany [12-13 Oct].
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| 15 October |
After stalling at fortifications protecting Moscow from the west, and fighting off Red Army counterattacks, Wehrmacht resumes offensive against the defensive perimeter of Moscow.
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| 16 October |
Germans and Romanians march into Odessa, following the Soviet evacuation.
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| 16 October |
Although Stalin remains in Moscow, Soviet government moves east to Kuybyshev [Samara] on the Volga River, where they remain until summer of 1943.
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| 17 October |
USS Kearny [DD-432] torpedoed but not sunk by German submarine U-568, near Iceland, killing 11 sailors, the first American military casualties of WW II.
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| 18 October |
General Hideki Tojo becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan, serving until 22 July 1944 when he was forced out by the loss of Saipan.
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| 20 October |
In reprisals for losses to Yugoslavian partisians, Germans troops kill thousands of civilians in Kragujevac and Kraljevo [20-21 Oct].
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| 22 October |
Delayed bomb set by the Soviets detonates in Romanian headquarters, killing 67 people including the Romanian commander and other Romanian and German officers.
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| 23 October |
Romanian troops slaughter over 20,000 Jews in the Odessa area, in reprisal for bomb set by Soviets.
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| 29 October |
Known as the "Great Action" by German troops, over 10,000 Jews are liquidated in the Kovno [Kaunas] Ghetto at the Ninth Fort, Lithuania.
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| 30 October |
US Pres. Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
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| 31 October |
Destroyer USS Reuben James [DD-245] on Lend-Lease convoy escort duty sunk by German submarine U-552 with the loss of 100 of her crew, the first US naval casualty in the yet undeclared war.
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| 10 November |
To increase production, US Army gives Ford Motor Co. a contract to manufacture the Willys designed jeep.
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| 13 November |
British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal torpedoed by German submarine U-81 30 nautical miles [56 km] from Gibraltar.
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| 17 November |
Germans begin assault on Rostov, gateway to the Caucasus; city taken on 21 Nov.
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| 18 November |
British Eighth Army offensive in Libya, Operation Crusader.
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| 25 November |
Germans reach outskirts of Moscow but cannot sustain attack; Germans hold positions until Dec 5.
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| 28 November |
Russians retake Rostov as their counter-attacks force German withdrawal.
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| 4 December |
German Gen. Rommel abandons the siege of Tobruk, Lybia .
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| 5 December |
After stubbornly resisting Wehrmacht attacks since 24 Oct 1941, Soviets counterattack at Tula, 120 miles south of Moscow.
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| 5 December |
Marshal Zhukov launches a major counteroffensive against the Germans, at Kalinin, northwest of Moscow.
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| 7 December |
Japanese attack US Navy at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, sinking or severely damaging 18 ships: 8 battleships, 3 light cruisers, and 3 destroyers .
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| 7 December |
Japanese declare war on Britain and United States.
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| 7 December |
In North Africa, the Afrika Korps fell back to El Agheila, halting their retreat and the British Operation Crusader advance there.
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| 8 December |
Allies declare war on Japan, without Soviets.
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| 8 December |
Japanese attack US military in Philippines.
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| 8 December |
Japanese landings and invasion in Thailand and Malaya.
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| 9 December |
HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse sunk by Japanese air attacks of Malayan coast.
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| 10 December |
General Masaharu Homma lands Japanese forces on the Philippine Islands.
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| 11 December |
Germany and Italy declare war on the United States and US reciprocates.
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| 13 December |
Hungary and Bulgaria declare war on United States.
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| 16 December |
Japanese merchant ship Atsutasan Maru sunk by USS Swordfish [SS-193], the first US Navy submarine to sink a Japanese ship in WW II.
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| 16 December |
Japanese troops land on the island of Borneo, Southeast Asia.
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| 18 December |
American Volunteer Group starts the Flying Tigers in China.
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| 19 December |
Adolf Hitler becomes commander-in-chief of the Nazi German army, replacing Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch.
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| 19 December |
The Selective Service Act is amended to require all American men ages 18 to 64 to register with men 20 to 44 eligible for military service.
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| 20 December |
Flying Tigers engage in their first air combat, dominating their Japanese counterparts in a battle over Kunming, China.
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| 20 December |
German Army Group Centre, retreating westward from Moscow, establishes a last ditch defensive line after being pushed back over 100 miles.
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| 21 December |
Following Japanese invasion on 8 Dec, Thailand signs a military alliance and mutual security pact with Japan.
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| 22 December |
Japanese land major attack force in Philippines.
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| 22 December |
Churchill and Roosevelt hold First Washington Conference, the 23-day Arcadia Conference.
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| 23 December |
1st American-British war council authorizes Combined Chiefs of Staff, led by Gen. Geo. Marshall, US Army Chief of Staff, and Gen. Brooke, Chief of the British Imperial General Staff.
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| 23 December |
Under Japanese attack, American and Filipino officials evacuate Manila, Philippines.
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| 24 December |
After a 16 day battle, Wake Island surrenders to the Japanese, the last American Pacific base between Hawaii and the Philippines.
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| 25 December |
Japanese capture Hong Kong from British and Canadian forces.
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| 25 December |
In North Africa, the Allied advance reaches Benghazi and Agebadia. |
| 25 December |
In the Philippines. the Japanese attacks push US forces back to the Agno River defense line.
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| 25 December |
Gen. Douglas MacArthur establishes new Headquarters on Corregidor, an island at the entrance to Philippines' Manila Bay.
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| 26 December |
Winston Churchill becomes the first British Prime Minister to address a joint session of the US Congress.
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| 27 December |
British Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vaagso.
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| 30 December |
Speaking to Parliment in Ottawa, Winston Churchill galvanizes the Canadian population and government toward support of England in the war.
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| 31 December |
Adm. Chester W. Nimitz took over command of the US Pacific Fleet, part of a post-Pearl Harbor shakeup.
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