Britain Fights Back 1940-42
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 from ILN 1944/08/12 |
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Battle of the Atlantic
- 1940 Sept. 17 - City of Benares passenger ship sunk by U-48, the most successful u-boat in the war, with the loss of 77 children and 72 adults being evacuated to Canada
- 1940 Oct. 21 - Britain lost its 500th merchant ship, for a total of 2 million tons, to Germans submarines in the Battle of the Atlantic
Strategic Bombing
- 1940 May 20 - Bomber Command began limited night raids on German industrial targets in the Ruhr.
- 1940 Aug. 25 - British bombers began daily bombing of Berlin for the next 12 days, in retaliation for the German bombing of London that began Aug. 24. Churchill told his Air Ministry, "Now that they have begun to molest the capital, I want you to hit them hard, and Berlin is the place to hit them."
- 1940 Nov. 16 - Berlin and Hamburg were bombed in retaliation for the raid on Coventry Nov. 14 that began a renewed German offensive on London and Birmingham, resulting in the destruction of part of the House of Commons Dec. 8.
Special Operations
- 1940 July 15 - Churchill appointed Hugh Dalton to lead the Special Operations Executive (SOE), "a new instrument of war" to "set Europe ablaze." Dalton sent over 1000 agents into occupied Europe and Asia to fight a clandestine war of sabotage and espionage, and to help local resistance movements.
Mediterranean
- 1940 Sept. 5 - A British squadron of 4 warships from Gibraltar made a secret convoy to Malta with anti-aircraft guns and supplies to resist the siege and daily bombing by Italian and German aircraft. Malta had been under siege since the surrender of France in June 22. Premier Henri-Philippe Petain and President Albert Lebrun wanted to defend the French colonies in North Africa. Mussolini sought to expand his control over the Mediterranean and began his Greek venture Oct. 28
- 1940 Nov. 3 - British troops arrived in Greece to defend against Mussolini's invasion, and the RAF established bases in the Peloponnese (but not at Salonika).
- 1940 Nov. 7 - British convoy of 5 military ships reached Egypt with supplies
- 1940 Nov. 11 - British naval airplanes sunk 3 Italian battleships at Taranto
- 1940 Nov. 14 - Greek army of Metaxas with British aid counterattacked and by Nov. 30 drove the Italians back to Albania.
North Africa
- 1940 July 3 - British fleet Force H, with the carrier Ark Royal and the battlecruiser Hood, commanded by James Sommerville, bombarded Vichy warships in port of Mers-el-Kebir near Oran, Algeria, and in five minutes sunk the French battleship Bretagne and damaged 4 other ships, killed 1147 French sailors, prevented Germany from gaining control of the French Navy. Some ships escaped to Toulon, but on Nov. 27 the French fleet was scuttled to prevent falling into the hands of the Nazis. The French squadron at Alexandria surrendered to the British, but the French, including de Gaulle, were outraged at the brutal killings of French sailors. On July 4, Churchill told a cheering House of Commons, that Oran was "the turning point in our fortunes, it made the world realize that we were in earnest in our intentions to carry on."
- 1940 Sept. 13 - Italy advanced East: the Italian invasion of Egypt began Sept. 13, but was stopped by the British at Sidi Barrani Nov. 20.
- 1940 Sept. 23 - British fleet helped de Gaulle's Free French attack Dakar in French West Africa, but failed. The Free French were successful in occupying French Equatorial Africa after Aug. 26 from the border with the Belgian Congo in the south to the border with Libya in the north.
- 1940 Dec. 9 - Britain's 1st advance West: Wavell in Egypt began his desert campaign, sent Gen. Richard O'Connor with Matilda tanks and the Army of the Nile from Mersa Matruth to the Italian defense line at the Egyptian border. O'Connor defeated Italians and entered Libya.
- 1941 Jan. - O'Connor took Bardia Jan. 3, Tobruk Jan. 21, Derna Jan. 30.
- 1941 Feb. - Benghazi fell Feb. 5, British took 250,000 Italian prisoners by Feb. 7 and O'Connor signalled "Fox killed in the open." But the British were stopped by Rommel and his new Africa Korps at El Aghelia.
- 1941 Apr. - Germany's 1st advance East: Rommel's counterattack drove the British east, captured Gen. O'Connor Apr. 6, besieged Tobruk and established the German front line at Bardia.
- 1941 July - Britain's 2nd advance West: Auchinleck replaced Wavell July 5, launched Operation Crusader Nov. 28 that drove the Germans back to El Agheila by Dec. 31.
- 1942 Jan. - Germany's 2nd advance East: Rommel was resupplied at Tripoli by a large convoy, and began his offensive against Auchinleck Jan. 21.
- 1942 June 21 - Tobruk surrendered to Rommel June 21, and the British retreated to Alamein by July 7.
- 1942 Oct. 23 - Britain's 3rd advance West: Montgomery defeated Rommel at Battle of El Alamein.
- 1942 Nov. 13 - British took Tobruk.
East Africa
- 1941 Jan. 19 - British captured Kassala and retook Eritrea in East Africa from Mussolini.
- 1941 Feb. 22 - British colonial troops from Kenya captured Mogadishu and took Italian Somaliland, and retook British Somaliland by Feb. 25.
- 1941 Apr. 6 - British captured Addis Ababa and retook Ethiopia and put Hailie Selassie back on the throne.
- 1941 May 16 - The last Italian troops surrendered, after losing 420,000 killed or captured, to the British losses of 3,100
Middle East
- 1941 May - The British Habforce left Transjordan May 13 and took Baghdad by May 31
- 1941 June - Churchill launched a 4-prong attack, sent one force from Palestine to Damascus, a second force to Beirut, a third force from Baghdad up the Euphrates to Raqqa and Aleppo, and a fourth force from the Euphrates to Palmyra in Syria
After Pearl Harbor, Churchill flew the America for ARCADIA, the 3rd summit conference of the war, and planned the strategy for 1942
Sources
- Gilbert, Martin. Churchill: a Life. London: Heinemann, 1991, quotes from pp. 667-9, 674.
- Heckmann, Wolf. Rommel's War in Africa. Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1981.
- Bierman, John and Colin Smith. The Battle of Alamein: Turning Point, World War II. New York : Viking, 2002.
- Battle of the Atlantic from Mariners' Museum and Merseyside Museum and IWM
- SOE from BBC
- Mers el Kebir
- Illustrated London News 1940 and 1941 and 1942
- Vichy French were one of the enemies of Australia
Films:
- "Desert--The War in North Africa," episode 8 from The World at War
- "Big News of 1941," Universal Newsreel 14-44 (12/24/1941) on DVD52
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