1939: In response to the invasion of Poland, the French Army advances into Germany. On this day they reach their furthest penetration-five miles.

1939: The battle of the Vistula bend flares up near Kutno, the last major engagement of the Polish campaign.

1939: Convoys for merchant shipping are established to counter the U-boats.

1940: Co-ordination of searchlights and AA guns improves protection of London from air attack. Germans claim that RAF are dropping Colorado beetles over German potato crops.

1940: Italian forces begin an offensive into Egypt from Libya.

1941: German U-boats sink twenty-two ships
in a U.S. convoy headed toward England. The
previous day, President Roosevelt ordered U.S. ships to shoot on sight any German subs.

1941: The first snow reported on Russian Front. German forces in the Kremenchug bridgehead across the Dnieper in the Ukraine and advance north to aid in the encirclement of Kiev.

Sept12-14 1942: Battle of Bloody Ridge on Guadalcanal.

1943: Mussolini, held prisoner by the Badoglio government on the Gran Sasso, is rescued by German paratroopers who land in gliders on top of the mountain. SS major Otto Skorzeny, leads a daring glider attack on the hotel where Mussolini is being held. The Duce is freed and taken to Germany.

1944: American troops fight their way into Germany.

1944: The German garrison at Le Havre surrenders after very heavy fighting.

1944: German troops evacuate Rhodes and other Greek islands in the eastern Mediterranean.

1944: A German-Hungarian counter-offensive grinds toward Arad and Temesvar in Hungary.

1945: Mountbatten accepts the surrender of all Japanese troops in Southeast Asia.

1945: French troops land in Indochina.