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January 8, 1940 - Rationing begins in Britain.
On the 8th of January 1940 rationing was introduced in Britain. With over 70% of the food supply imported before WWII, the government decided to safeguard against any plots to starve Britain into submission by introducing the rationing scheme. The new scheme was well documented across the newspapers. -
March 12, 1940 - Finland signs a peace treaty with Soviets.
The Moscow Peace Treaty was signed by Finland and the Soviet Union on 12 March 1940, and the ratifications were exchanged on 21 March. It marked the end of the 105-day Winter War, upon which Finland ceded border areas to the Soviet Union. -
March 16, 1940 - Germans bomb Scapa Flow naval base near Scotland.
German aircraft attacked the British naval base at Scapa Flow, Scotland, United Kingdom, damaging the training ship HMS Iron Duke. 32 German Ju 88 dive bombers bombed the Royal Navy Home Fleet base at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands. HMS Norfolk was hit with one bomb, blowing a hole below the water line and killing 6. -
January 22, 1941 - Tobruk in North Africa falls to the British and Australians.
When British and Commonwealth forces advanced out of Egypt and into Libya in January 1941, Tobruk was their second objective. The Italian defence perimeter was attacked by the 6th Australian Division on the morning of 22 January and the town fell the next morning. -
February 11, 1941 - British forces advance into Italian Somaliland in East Africa.
The Italian invasion of British Somaliland (3–19 August 1940) was part of the East African campaign (1940–1941) in which Italian, Eritrean and Somali forces ... The rainy weather continued to slow the Italian advance and when the ... -
February 12, 1941 - German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, North Africa.
Today on February 12th 1941, German General Erwin Rommel arrives in North Africa to support his beleaguered Italian allies. Erwin Rommel, nicknamed the Desert Fox, was one of Germany's most decorated field commanders during World War II -
January 1, 1942 - Declaration of the United Nations signed by 26 Allied nations.
On 1 January 1942, twenty-six States at war with the Axis Powers, including the United States, the United Kingdom, China and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), subscribed to the common programme of purposes and principles embodied in the Atlantic Charter in a document, which became known as the ' ... -
January 13, 1942 - Germans begin a U-boat offensive along east coast of USA.
It was January 13, 1942, the dawn of Nazi Germany's campaign to defeat America on its own shores. Eighteen of Hitler's U-boats -- or submarines -- sank nearly 500 Allied freighters and tankers along the U.S. Atlantic coast, killing around 5,000 merchant seamen and U.S. Navy sailors. -
January 21, 1942 - Rommel's counter-offensive from El Agheila begins.
Soldiers of the US Army's 34th Infantry Division, the “Red Bull” Division, landed in Belfast, Northern Ireland on January 26, 1942. On January 26, the first influx of American troops arrived in the British Isles during World War II.Jan 28, 2022 -
January 2/3 - Germans begin a withdrawal from the Caucasus.
German forces were compelled to withdraw from the area that winter as Operation Little Saturn threatened to cut them off. -
January 10, 1943 - Soviets begin an offensive against the Germans in Stalingrad.
Operation Ring, the final Soviet assault on the German 6th Army in Stalingrad, began at 8:05 a.m. local time under the command of General Konstantin Rokossovsky. -
January 27, 1943 - First bombing raid by Americans on Germany (at Wilhelmshaven).
On 27 January 1943, the US Air Force bombed the harbour of Wilhelmshaven in the north of Germany. It was the United States' first attack on German territory. The action was a success. A large number of warehouses and factories were destroyed.