1936 MARCH 5TH: The Spitfire, the iconic British fighter of World War Two, makes its maiden flight at Eastleigh Aerodrome. MARCH 7TH: German troops march into the demilitarized Rhineland in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. NOVEMBER 25TH: Germany and Japan sign the Anti-Comintern Pact allying them against the Soviet Union. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1938 FEBRUARY 12TH: The first Jewish refugee children from Germany arrive in Britain on the 'Kindertransport'. SEPTEMBER 29TH: The Munich Agreement between Britain, France and Germany cedes the Czech Sudetenland to Germany. OCTOBER 1ST: German troops march into the Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia, under the auspices of the Munich Agreement. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1939 MARCH 31ST: Britain and France issue guarantees that they will declare war if Poland is invaded by Germany. AUGUST 23RD: The German-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact is signed, containing a secret protocol for the partition of Poland. AUGUST 30TH: In anticipation of war with Germany, British children begin to be evacuated from cities. SEPTEMBER 1ST: Germany invades Poland, despite British and French guarantees, bringing Europe to the brink of war. SEPTEMBER 3RD: Britain and France declare war on Germany over the invasion of Poland - the start of World War Two. Just hours into the war the British liner 'Athenia' is sunk, beginning the Battle of the Atlantic. SEPTEMBER 17TH: The Soviet Union invades Poland without declaring war, having made a secret agreement Germany. DECEMBER 13TH: The Royal Navy attacks the German battleship 'Graf Spee' in the first major naval battle of the war. DECEMBER 17TH: The German battleship 'Graf Spee' is scuttled after being trapped by the Royal Navy off Montevideo in Uruguay. The Battle of the River Plate. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1940 JANUARY 8TH: Britain introduces food rationing with bacon, butter and sugar the first commodities affected. APRIL 9TH: Germany launches a surprise invasion of Norway and Denmark, marking the end of the 'Phoney War'. MAY 10TH: The German invasion of the Low Countries begins, using a new military doctrine called blitzkrieg. MAY 14TH: On the night of 14th May 1940, Anthony Eden made his first speech as Secretary of State for War via the BBC's Home Service. Part of this speech was asking for volunteers for the 'Local Defence Volunteers' , the LDV: 'We want large numbers of such men in Great Britain who are British subjects, between the ages of seventeen and sixty-five, to come forward now and offer their services in order to make assurance [that an invasion would be repelled] doubly sure. The name of the new force which is now to be raised will be the Local Defence Volunteers. This name describes its duties in three words. You will not be paid, but you will receive uniforms and will be armed. In order to volunteer, what you have to do is give your name at your local police station, and then, when we want you, we will let you know...' Before Eden's broadcast had ended, police stations in all regions of the nation found themselves deluged with eager volunteers. By the end of the first 24 hours, 250,000 men - equal in number to the peacetime Regular Army - had registered their names. MAY 27TH: Operation Dynamo, the mass evacuation of encircled British and French troops from Dunkirk, begins. JUNE 3RD: The last ship of Operation Dynamo leaves Dunkirk, completing the evacuation of 338,226 Allied troops. JUNE 17TH: More than 3,000 die as RMS Lancastria is sunk by German bombers in Britain's worst maritime disaster. JUNE 30TH: German troops land on British soil as they begin the invasion of the undefended Channel Islands. JULY 10TH: The Battle of Britain begins with German air raids on British ports and shipping. JULY 19TH: Germany makes a 'peace offer' to Britain, which Winston Churchill rejects outright. JULY 23RD: Britain's 'Local Defence Volunteers' become the Home Guard after Winston Churchill coins the name. AUGUST 25TH: The RAF bombs Berlin for the first time, in retaliation for a raid on London two nights earlier. SEPTEMBER 4TH: Germany switches air raids away from military targets, promising to raze British cities 'to the ground'. SEPTEMBER 7TH: Germany begins systematic heavy air raids on British cities - 'the Blitz' - as 900 bombers hit London. SEPTEMBER 15TH: The Royal Air Force claims victory over the Luftwaffe, commemorated as Battle of Britain Day. SEPTEMBER 27TH: Germany, Italy and Japan sign a 10 year military and economic aid pact, dubbed the 'Axis'. NOVEMBER 7TH: U.S. Roosevelt proposes a plan for renting US ships and equipment to Britain - the birth of Lend- Lease. NOVEMBER 11TH: The Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm cripples or sinks nine Italian warships in a surprise attack at Taranto. NOVEMBER 14TH: German bombers raid Coventry, destroying much of the city including the Gothic cathedral. DECEMBER 29TH: German bombers drop 10,000 incendiaries on London in the single most destructive night of the Blitz. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1941 MARCH 4TH: A daring British raid on the Lofoten Islands, Norway, captures a German Enigma machine and code books. MARCH 11TH: US congress passes the Lend-Lease Bill, authorising huge war loans to Britain and the Soviet Union. MAY 16TH: The Blitz ends with German air force (the Luftwaffe) re-assigned east for the imminent invasion of Russia. MAY 24TH: HMS Hood is sunk by the German battleship 'Bismarck', with just three survivors from the 1,419 crew. HMS Prince of Wales is damaged during the battle. MAY 27TH: The German battleship 'Bismarck' is sunk by the Royal Navy with only 110 survivors from its 2,192 crew. JUNE 22ND: Operation Barbarossa, the massive German invasion of the Soviet Union by three million troops, begins. AUGUST 21ST: The first Allied Arctic convoy carrying supplies for the USSR, codenamed 'Dervish', leaves from Iceland. NOVEMBER 13TH: Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed en route to Malta by a German U-boat, sinking the next day. TH DECEMBER 7 : Japan launches a surprise attack at 7.55am with 350 aircraft on the US Pacific Fleet Pearl Harbour, Hawaii. Within two hours, five battleships had been sunk, another 16 damaged, and 188 aircraft destroyed. Only chance saved three US aircraft carriers, usually stationed at Pearl Harbour but assigned elsewhere on the day. The attacks killed fewer than 100 Japanese but over 2,400 Americans, with another 1,178 injured. Singapore, Hong Kong and the Philippines are also bombed by the Japanese on this day. DECEMBER 8TH: The US and Britain declare war on Japan after the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour and Hong Kong. DECEMBER 10TH: HMS 'Prince of Wales' and HMS 'Repulse' (Force Z) are sunk off Malaya by Japanese aircraft, killing 840 men. DECEMBER 11TH: Germany declares war on the United States. This was not a requirement of the Axis Pact signed on September 27th 1940 in which Germany, Japan and Italy pledged to defend each other if one of them was attacked. DECEMBER 25TH: Hong Kong's British governor, Sir Mark Young, surrenders the island to Japan after 18 days of fighting. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1942 JANUARY 19TH: Japan invades Burma, igniting the longest World War Two campaign fought by British troops. FEBRUARY 15TH: Britain's colony of Singapore, impregnable from the sea, surrenders to Japanese forces attacking by land. FEBRUARY 19TH: Japanese bombers carry out their first attacks on mainland Australia, bombing Darwin. MAY 30TH: The RAF carries out its first thousand bomber raid, dropping 2,000 tons of bombs on Cologne, Germany. JUNE 6TH: The Battle of Midway ends in a huge victory for the US over Japan, reversing the tide of the Pacific War. AUGUST 19TH: An Allied raid on the German-held port of Dieppe, France (Operation Jubilee), ends in complete failure and heavy losses. SEPTEMBER 23RD: The Manhattan Project to deliver an atomic bomb begins, directed by US General Leslie R Groves. OCTOBER 23RD: Montgomery's Eighth Army launches the second Battle of El Alamein against Axis forces in North Africa. Operation Lightfoot. OCTOBER 25TH: Operation Supercharge, the breakthrough battle, begins at El Alamein. NOVEMBER 4TH: British forces achieve the first major Allied land victory over Germany, at El Alamein in Egypt. NOVEMBER 8TH: The Allies launch operation Torch, the massive amphibious landing of 400,000 troops in North Africa. NOVEMBER 13TH: US liberty ship production reaches its peak with a single 10,500 ton ship built in less than five days. DECEMBER 2ND: The first sustained nuclear chain reaction is achieved at the University of Chicago by Enrico Fermi. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 1943 JANUARY 14TH: Churchill and Roosevelt in Casablanca to draw up a blueprint for the defeat of the Axis powers. FEBRUARY 28TH: Commandoes in Norway (the 'heroes of Telemark') destroy heavy water vital to the German World War Two nuclear programme. MAY 13TH: The Allies secure victory in North Africa with the surrender of 250,000 German and Italian troops. MAY 16TH-17TH: The Dambusters Raid (Operation Chastise) by the RAF's elite 617 Squadron breaches the Mohne and Eder dams in Germany's Ruhr valley. MAY 24TH: Germany calls off the Battle of the Atlantic by withdrawing its U-boats from North Atlantic convoy