When the cruise liner SS Normandie caught fire in New York harbour on 9 February, Axis sabotage was suspected; in fact, it was an accident. The Royal Navy was humiliated on 11-13 February when German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and the cruiser Prinz Eugen escaped along the English Channel from Brest to their home ports…. Read more »Read more

In Russia this week Soviet forces continued their winter offensive, driving the Germans out of Kursk near the border with Ukraine. The Japanese bombed Java and New Guinea, and closed in on Singapore; in Bataan in the Philippines, American forces continued their fighting retreat against the Japanese invaders. And on 6 February the British and… Read more »Read more

With Japanese forces closing in on Singapore, the British withdrew all their troops into the city and prepared for a siege. Rommel continued his surprise offensive, reaching as far as the border between Libya and Egypt; but after this the fighting subsided again as the two sides rested and refitted. On 26 January the first… Read more »Read more

Japanese forces continued their advance across the Far East this week: on 19 January they captured large numbers of British troops north of Singapore, and they ended the week by invading the Solomon Islands. On 20 January the infamous Wannsee Conference was held in Berlin, where it was agreed that the “final solution of the… Read more »Read more

This week the Germans launched Operation Drum Roll, a U-boat offensive off the coast of America. US merchant ships were caught unprepared and were easy prey, leading the U-boat commanders to name this period “The Second Happy Time”. Also this week, the Soviet army launched new offensives against the Germans outside Moscow. And from this… Read more »Read more

The start of a new year saw the war hanging very much in the balance. Germany had conquered Western Europe and invaded Russia, but had just been thrown back from the gates of Moscow. Japan had stunned America by destroying its fleet at Pearl Harbor and sweeping through the Far East – this week they… Read more »Read more

As the old year ended with the German army on the defensive fighting off Soviet attacks in the Russian winter, it was clear that Operation Barbarossa had failed,; a new German campaign in Russia would have to wait for the summer of 1942. The Japanese army continued its rapid advance, however, occupying Manila in the… Read more »Read more

With both sides exhausted in freezing temperatures, various offensives by the Soviet army before Moscow ensured that the Russian capital was secure. Meanwhile the Japanese advance continued as their soldiers captured Wake Island, the last American base between Hawaii and the Philippines, and Britain surrendered Hong Kong. And at the Arcadia Conference in Washington, America… Read more »Read more

In Russia, the Soviet offensive against the German Army Group Centre continued to push the Germans back from Moscow as temperatures fell to -42°C. Hitler refused to allow a withdrawal and sacked any generals who disagreed, including Walther von Brauchitsch, his commander in chief, on 19 December; Hitler now became commander in chief of the… Read more »Read more

After destroying the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor last week Japanese forces invaded the Gilbert Islands, Burma and the Philippines, and sank the British ships HMS Repulse and HMS Prince of Wales. On 11 December Germany and Italy declared war on America, thus bringing America into the war in Europe. In Russia, German forces… Read more »Read more