Darcy Press is a publisher of books, both Fiction and Non-fiction, featuring the history of the twentieth century. Please look at the rest of the website by clicking the Home tab above. Below is Mr Darcy's own timeline of his selection of events that interest him and is not intended to be completely comprehensive. He offers it here for information and for others to enjoy.   1900s  |  1910s  |  1920s  |  1930s  |  1940s  |  1950s  |  1960s  |  1970s  |  1980s  |  1990s   1940 HMS Cossack rescues 300 prisoners from the German supply ship Altmark 17 Feb 12 Mar Russian/ Finnish war ends – Finland capitulates Two seater Mosquito fighter bomber makes its maiden flight 25 Mar 9 Apl Germans attack Denmark and Norway Allies land in Namsos Norway 14 Apl 30 Apl British sink 10 German destroyers at Narvik in Norway Dutch send order sent to forces ‘very disturbing reports are coming from the border. Remain therefore on high alert 9 May 10 May Holland and Belgium Invaded Chamberlain resigns and Churchill becomes British Prime Minister 10 May 13 May Queen Wilhelmina and Dutch government flee to England Rotterdam bombed 14 May 15 May Holland surrenders Germans arrive in Amsterdam 16 May 27 May Germans reach Boulogne cutting off the British and French troops in the North Belgian King Leopold surrenders to the Germans 28 May 4 Jun 338000 British, French and Belgian troops evacuated from Dunkirk Italy declares war on Britain and France 10 Jun 14 Jun Germans capture Paris and parade along the Champs Elysees Russians march unopposed into Lithuania 17 Jun 22 Jun French sign armistice in the Railway coach at Compeigne used for the first world war German surrender Residual French government under Petain moves to Vichy 1 Jul 3 Jul Royal Navy sinks a large part of the French fleet at Mers-el Kabir in Algeria Laval takes over from Petain in Vichy 12 Jul 21 Jul Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia vote to become part of the USSR Germans invade the Channel Islands 1 Jul 18 Aug Germans switch their targets to cities in air 'Battle of Britain' British planes bomb Berlin in response to German bombing of London 26 Aug 7 Sep Heavy Bombing of the East End of London Japan signs pact with Germany and Italy 27 Sep 7 Oct German and Italian troops invade Romania Franklin D. Roosevelt re-elected for a record third term 5 Nov 14 Nov Coventry devastated by air raid RAF drops 2000 bombs on Hamburg 16 Nov 16 Nov In Netherlands All Jews dismissed from public offices Air attacks on Birmingham and other Midland towns 20 Nov 9 Dec British forces attack the Italians in the Western Desert 1941 British Bomb Taranto and Naples 1 Jan 22 Jan Commonwealth troops capture Tobruk British and Commonwealth troops take Benghazi 7 Feb 14 Feb Rommel's Africa Korps lands in Tripoli In Netherlands First anti-pogrom strike in Amsterdam 25 Feb 28 Mar British warships sink a large part of the Italian fleet off Crete Germans attack Yugoslavia and Greece 6 Apl 17 Apr Yugoslavian resistance crushed Germans enter Athens as British retreat 27 Apr 10 May Rudolf Hess, Hitler's Deputy, lands in Scotland Heavy Bombing raid on London. House of Commons destroyed 11 May 15 May Gloster E28/39 fitted with a Whittle jet engine makes its first flight Germans launch airborne invasion of Crete 20 May 24 May HMS Hood sunk by the Bismarck Bismarck Pocket Battleship sunk 27 May 22 Jun Germans attack the Russians – Operation Barberossa Fall of Smolensk 16 Aug 9 Sep Allied troops seize Spitzbergen to destroy coal stocks to prevent them falling into German hands Germans besiege Leningrad 12 Sep 19 Sep Fall of Kiev Germans take the town of Orel south of Moscow 8 Oct 13 Nov Sebastopol in the Crimea falls to the Germans Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks after attack by Italian Torpedo boat 13 Nov 7 Dec Japanese attack American fleet in Pearl Harbour The battleship Prince of Wales and Battlecruiser Repulse are sunk by Japanese aircraft 10 Dec 11 Dec Germans and Italians declare war on US Russians defeat German forces threatening Moscow 12 Dec 25 Dec Japanese take Hong Kong as part of their expansion in SE Asia 1942 Japan attacks Dutch East Indies 11 Jan 26 Jan First American troops land in Europe Japanese overrun Singapore 15 Feb 29 Feb Battle of the Java Sea – Allied force defeated by the Japanese British commando raid on Radio Location station at Bruneval in France removes important equipment 1 Mar 2 Mar Fall of Batavia (Jakarta in Modern Indonesia) Nazis begin deportation of Jews to Auschwitz in Poland 26 Mar 27 Mar The French port of St Nazaire, in German hands, is attacked and the dry dock destroyed RAF bombs Lubeck destroying half the town 28 Mar 16 Apl King George announces the award of the George Cross to the island fortress of Malta Germans begin the Baedeker air raids with one on Exeter 22 Apr 29 Apr Yellow Stars for Jews become compulsory in the Netherlands Japanese take Mandalay in Burma 2 May 8 May Japanese and American carrier borne aircraft fight the Battle of the Coral Sea 1000 Bomber raid on Cologne 30 May 4 Jun Reinhard Heydrich dies from wounds when Czech resistance blow up his car American aircraft sink Japanese carriers in the Battle of Midway 7 Jun 10 Jun Nazis shoot men of the Czech village of Lidice and send women to Ravensbruck concentration camp in reprisal for Heydrich's death Tobruck falls to Rommel's troops 21 Jun 29 Jun Germans announce deportation of all Jews in the Netherlands Germans take Sebastopol after 9 month siege 1 Jul 6 Jul German advance towards Egypt halted at El Alamein Americans land on Guadalcanal Island 7 Aug 19 Aug Allies suffer heavy casualties in the raid on Dieppe Nazis liquidate the Warsaw ghetto killing some 50000 Jews 2 Sep 8 Sep Germans attack Stalingrad Rommel's troops in full retreat after losing battle of El Alamein 4 Nov 7 Nov Allies, lead by the Americans, land troops in North Africa Russians break through German lines near Stalingrad surrounding General von Paulus' 6th Army 26 Nov 27 Nov French scuttle their fleet in Toulon to prevent it falling into the hands of the Germans 1943 Allies take Tripoli as the Germans retreat 23 Jan 31 Jan Von Paulus surrenders to the Russians by Stalingrad RAF begins daylight air raids on Berlin 31 Jan 8 Feb Russians recapture Kursk from the Germans Americans overcome the Japanese at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands 9 Feb 16 Feb Russians retake Kharkov Germans crush Jewish uprising in Warsaw Ghetto 19 Apr 26 Apr Mass grave of 4000 Polish officers found in a forest at Katyn All German and Italian troops in North Africa surrender at Cap Bon 12 May 17 May Ruhr devastated after the RAF destroys the Mohne and Eder dams with 'bouncing' bombs German U-boats withdrawn from the Atlantic after serious losses and to counter a suspected allied invasion 29 Jun 4 Jul Poland's prime Minister General Wladislaw Sikorski killed in an air crash Sicily invaded by the Allies 10 Jul 13 Jul Germans lose massive tank battle in the Kursk Salient Mussolini dismissed by King Victor Emanuel 25 Jul 3 Aug RAF and American bombers create a Firestorm obliterating the centre of Hamburg Allies overcome all resistance in Sicily 17 Aug 3 Sep Allies land on Italian mainland Italians sign armistice with the Allies 3 Sep 25 Sep Russians capture Smolensk in their drive westward Russians recover Kiev 6 Nov 28 Nov Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin meet in Tehran German battleship Scharnhorst sunk by the Royal Navy 26 Dec 1944 Russians break the German siege line around Leningrad 19 Jan 22 Jan Americans land at Anzio in Italy to try to outflank the German lines Allies bomb the monastery of Monte Cassino to try to break the German lines in Italy 16 Feb 17 Feb Russians trap 10 German divisions south of Kiev Americans go ashore at Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands 29 Feb 9 May Russians capture Sebastopol winning control of the Crimea British and Polish troops take Cassino breaking the German lines in Italy 18 May 4 Jun Americans enter Rome D Day – Allies land in Normandy 6 Jun 13 Jun First V1 pilotless plane lands in England Russians drive the Germans from Minsk 3 Jul 9 Jul Caen falls to the Allies Attempt on Hitler's life 20 Jul 25 Jul Breakout from Beachhead in Normandy Second invasion of France in the south around Marseilles 15 Aug 20 Aug Nazis crush Warsaw uprising and raze the city Falaise Pocket eliminated 22 Aug 25 Aug Paris is freed by American and Free French forces Russians capture the Ploesti oilfields and Bucharest 31 Aug 3 Sep British reach Brussels British capture Antwerp and its port almost intact 4 Sep 5 Sep Dolle Dinsdag, crazy Tuesday, brings strikes in the Netherlands as Germans and Dutch Nazis flee to Germany First V2 rocket lands in London 9 Sep 14 Sep In Netherlands Maastricht and a great part of southern provinces freed Start of Operation Market garden – to capture the Netherlands. Paratroops dropped on Eindhoven, Grave, Nijmegen and Arnhem 17 Sep 18 Sep In Netherlands 30000 railwaymen strike Paratroops withdrawn over the Lower Rhine after the failure to take Arnhem 25 Sep 20 Oct General MacArthur lands in the Philippines fulfilling his promise to return Allies take Aachen, the first German city 20 Oct 7 Nov Roosevelt wins a fourth term in office as American President The RAF using armour piercing bombs finally sinks the German Battleship the Tirpitz 12 Nov 28 Nov British commandos take the Island of Walcheren at the mouth of the Scheldt estuary allowing the port of Antwerp to be used Battle of the Bulge begins – Germans attack in the Ardennes 16 Dec 26 Dec Allies have the offensive under control 1945 Battle of the Bulge almost over as Allies planes devastate the German forces 9 Jan 13 Jan Budapest in the hands of the Russians Russians free the Auschwitz death camp 27 Jan 31 Jan Russians cross the Oder 40 miles from Berlin Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at Yalta 12 Feb 14 Feb The RAF and the American Air Force devastate Dresden American Marines land on the island of Iwo Jima 23 Feb 13 Mar In Netherlands Queen Wilhelmina lands in Zeeuws- Vlanderen Rhine Crossed by Americans and British 24 Mar 30 Mar Start of the freeing of eastern Netherlands Ruhr encircled by Allied forces 1 Apr 12 Apr President Roosevelt dies, Truman takes over Russians liberate Vienna 13 Apr 15 Apr Bergen Belsen concentration camp liberated by the British Nurnberg reached by the Americans, Russians attack Berlin 16 Apr 25 Apr Americans meet Russians near Torgau on the Elbe Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, shot by Italian partisans 28 Apr 29 Apr First food drops into the starving occupied Netherlands. Over next 10 days is nearly 11,000 tons is dropped Germans surrender in Italy 29 Apr 30 Apr Hitler kills himself as the Russians put the Red Flag on the Reichstag British troops capture Rangoon from the Japanese 3 May 5 May Germans surrender in Holland, Denmark and North Germany Act of surrender signed by Jodl in Reims 7 May 8 May Final act of surrender signed by Field Marshal Keitel in Berlin. VE day 50 states sign the World Security Charter to establish the United nations 26 Jun 15 Jul Churchill, Truman and Stalin begin talks at Potsdam First Atomic Bomb test in the New Mexico Desert 16 Jul 26 Jul British general election brings Churchill's downfall and the Labour party under Clement Atlee comes to power Japanese city of Hiroshima is destroyed by an Atomic Bomb 6 Aug 9 Aug Second Atomic Bomb destroys Nagasaki Japanese surrender unconditionally. VJ day 14 Aug 17 Sep The commandant of Bergen Belsen camp and 44 guards from there and Auschwitz go on trial at Luneburg Nationalists declare war on the Dutch in the Dutch East Indies 14 Oct 13 Nov General Charles de Gaulle elected French president Nuremburg Trials of Nazi leaders begins 20 Nov 1946 First flights take off from new airfield at Heath Row, west of London 1 Jan 6 Jan Ho Chi Minh wins North Vietnamese elections Churchill gives speech in Fulton Missouri warning of 'Iron Curtain' 5 Mar 4 Apr British delegation in India to discuss the future government British and Americans propose plan for the partition of Palestine 1 May 4 Jun General Juan Peron becomes President of Argentina Bomb planted by Zionist guerrillas destroys wing of the King David hotel, the British army HQ 22 Jul 19 Aug Hindu – Moslem riots break out in India – thousands die Civil War between the Nationalists and Communists breaks out in China 19 Aug 16 Oct Top Nazis executed after being sentenced to death at Nuremburg Jewish Terrorists kill 8 British Servicemen in wave of bombings and shootings 17 Nov 22 Nov First 'Biro' ball point pens go on sale 1947 British Labour Government nationalises the coal mines 1 Jan 12 Feb Heavy snowstorms and fuel shortages bring serious power cuts in Britain Lord Louis Mountbatten is appointed last Viceroy of India to preside over Independence 20 Feb 23 May British government agrees to the Partition of India American Secretary of State George Marshall proposes his Marshall Aid plan 5 Jun 30 Jun British food rations cut as economy drive Dutch and Indonesian governments agree a cease fire in the Dutch East Indies 3 Aug 15 Aug British rule in India ends as the two new Dominions of India and Pakistan are created Train full of Moslems massacred on the Punjab border 24 Sep 14 Oct American test Pilot Chuck Yeager breaks the sound barrier in the X1 rocket plane Benelux customs union comes into effect 1 Nov 20 Nov Princess Elizabeth, heir to the British throne, and Prince Philip marry in Westminster Abbey 1948 Railways in Britain are Nationalised 1 Jan 4 Jan Burma becomes independent country Mahatma Gandhi shot by assassin 30 Jan 27 Feb Klement Gottwald leads a Communist coup in Czechoslovakia Offices of the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem are blown up 11 Mar 22 Mar Jews blow up the Arab quarter in Haifa The British Electricity Industry is Nationalised 1 Apr 1 Apr Russians impose rigid checks on all traffic into Berlin Jews proclaim State of Israel as British Mandate ends 14 May 18 Jun The Western Allies unveil the Deutschmark in the Western Zones of Germany Western Allies carry out round the clock airlift to beat the Russian Blockade of Berlin 30 Jun 30 Jun Invention of the Transistor by Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain, announced – it had successfully worked 6 months earlier British National Health Service begins free medical treatment 5 Jul 29 Jul King George VI opens the London Olympic Games Juliana installed as queen of the Netherlands after her mother Queen Wilhelmina abdicates 6 Sep 3 Nov President Harry S. Truman wins a surprise victory to retain the Presidency Dutch airborne troops seize Jogjakarta and capture leading members of the Sukarno regime 19 Dec 1949 New seven inch microgroove records are launched in the US 10 Jan 22 Jan Chinese Communists take Peking Truce is signed between Egypt and the new state of Israel 24 Feb 15 Mar Clothes rationing in Britain ends Formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, NATO 18 Mar 24 Apr Chocolate and sweet rationing ends in the UK Britain's first Launderette opens in Bayswater, London 9 May 12 May Russians end Berlin blockade The Western Sectors of Germany come together as the Federal Republic 23 May 29 Jun Dutch troops withdraw from Jakarta Sterling crisis leads to reduction in sugar rationing and reintroduction of sweet rationing in the UK 14 Jul 27 Jul The Comet the world's first jet airliner makes a test flight The world's largest airliner, the 8 engined Bristol Brabazon makes its maiden flight 4 Sep 18 Sep The Pound Sterling is devalued by 30 percent, as is the Dutch Guilder Mao Tse-tung proclaims China a Communist state 1 Oct 12 Oct Stalin establishes the German Democratic Republic in the Russian sector of Germany Chinese Nationalists move to Taipei on the Island of Formosa leaving the Communists in control of the mainland 8 Dec 27 Dec Indonesia becomes independent as the Dutch Queen Juliana signs a treaty ending colonial rule   1900s  |  1910s  |  1920s  |  1930s  |  1940s  |  1950s  |  1960s  |  1970s  |  1980s  |  1990s