Читать книгу Engineering Hitler's Downfall - Gwilym Roberts - Страница 44

1939

1 Sep Germany invades Poland.

3 Sep Britain and France declare war on Germany.

Phoney War (on land and in the air) begins.

Churchill appointed First Lord of the Admiralty.

Allies start naval blockade of Germany and mine approaches to English Channel and German ports.

German submarines (U-boats) and ocean raiders start attacking Allied shipping.

SS Athenia torpedoed off Ireland with loss of 112 lives (28 American).

Germans start laying magnetic mines off UK east coast resulting in many sinkings.

10 Sep Britain starts sending Army and RAF units to France.

17 Sep Aircraft carrier HMS Courageous torpedoed and sunk off Ireland.

15 Oct First World War battleship HMS Royal Oak torpedoed and sunk inside RN base at Scapa Flow; Britain then starts strengthening Scapa Flow’s defences.

22 Nov RN engineers recover and start to dismantle magnetic mine.

23 Nov HMS Rawalpimdi (armed merchant cruiser) sunk by German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau who then abort planned breakout into Atlantic.

13 Dec Battle of the River Plate when cruisers HMS Exeter and HMS Ajax and HMNZS Achilles engage the German pocket battleship Graf Spee. All four ships are damaged and Graf Spee retires to Montevideo harbour for repairs where it is eventually scuttled (a case where new German technology was outfought by superior tactics and traditional RN determination to engage the enemy more closely).

1940

8 Apr Britain lays mines off the Norwegian coast (to force shipping onto the high seas where it could be inspected by the RN).

9 Apr Germany invades Denmark and Norway.

Apr Naval engagements off Norway resulting in RN losing one carrier, two cruisers, seven destroyers, and four submarines and Germany losing three cruisers, ten destroyers, and three submarines.

11 Apr Allied troops land in Norway.

6 May Allied troops evacuated from central Norway.

9 June Last Allied troops evacuated from northern Norway.

10 May Germany invades Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg thus outflanking the French Maginot line and enabling them to attack France.

British and French troops enter Belgium to engage German forces.

Churchill succeeds Chamberlain as British Prime Minister.

26 May–3 June 338,000

British, French, and Belgian troops evacuated from Dunkirk – all their equipment destroyed or abandoned.

31 May British Cabinet decides to fight on, a decision supported by the British population.

22 June Franco-German Armistice signed.