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John Dennis Howard Harding

Male 1939 - 1944  (5 years)

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Timeline

1939
1940
1941
1942
1943
1944
1
2
3
4
5
6


 
 
 




   Date  Event(s)
1 1939 
  • 1939—1939:
    Germany annexes Czechoslovakia
  • 1939—1939:
    Start of evacuation of women and children from London
  • 1939—1939:
    Coldest winter in Britain since 1894, though this could not be publicised at the time
  • 1 Sep 1939—1 Sep 1939:
    Germany invades Poland
  • 3 Sep 1939—3 Sep 1939:
    Britain and France declare war on Germany
  • 6 Sep 1939—6 Sep 1939:
    First air-raid on Britain
  • 11 Sep 1939—11 Sep 1939:
    British Expeditionary Force (BEF) sent to France
  • 14 Oct 1939—14 Oct 1939:
    HMS Royal Oak sunk in Scapa Flow with loss of 810 lives
  • 7 Dec 1939—7 Dec 1939:
    'First flight' of Canadian troops sail for Britain - 7,400 men on 5 ships
  • 17 Dec 1939—17 Dec 1939:
    'Admiral Graf Spee' scuttled outside Montevideo
2 1940 
  • 1 Apr 1940—1 Apr 1940:
    BOAC starts operations, replacing Imperial and British Airways Ltd
  • 11 May 1940—11 May 1940:
    National Government formed under Churchill
  • 13 May 1940—13 May 1940:
    Germany invades France
  • 27 May 1940—27 May 1940:
    Start of the evacuation of the British Army at Dunkirk (27 May - 4 Jun)
  • 25 Jun 1940—25 Jun 1940:
    Fall of France to Germany
  • 7 Sep 1940—7 Sep 1940:
    Germany launches bombing blitz on Britain, the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing
  • 15 Sep 1940—15 Sep 1940:
    Battle of Britain: massive waves of German air attacks decisively repulsed by the RAF - Hitler postpones invasion of Britain
  • 14 Nov 1940—14 Nov 1940:
    Coventry heavily bombed and the Cathedral almost completely destroyed
3 1941 
  • 1941—1941:
    Britain introduces severe rationing
  • 1941—1941:
    First British jet aircraft flies, based on work of Whittle
  • 1941—1941:
    Bailey invents his portable military bridge
  • 1941—1941:
    First use of antibiotics
  • 1941—1941:
    SA - South African Forces take Mega in Southern Abyssinia. South African Forces arrive in Egypt in April.
  • 1941—1941:
    SA - Heroic stand by South African Forces at Sidi Resegh in November 1944. The black-out in Cape Town is suspended. 6th South African Armoured Division leads 8th Army offensive in Italy, South Africans were the first to enter Florence.
  • 10 May 1941—10 May 1941:
    Rudolf Hess flies to Scotland
  • 27 May 1941—27 May 1941:
    'Bismark' sunk
  • 22 Jun 1941—22 Jun 1941:
    Germany invades Russia (Operation Barbarossa)
  • 1 Jul 1941—1 Jul 1941:
    First Canadian armoured regiments arrive in Britain
  • Dec 1941—Dec 1941:
    Canadian forces given operation role in defending south coast of England
  • Dec 1941—Dec 1941:
    'Manhattan Project' of nuclear research begins in America
  • 7 Dec 1941—7 Dec 1941:
    Japan attackes US fleet at Pearl Harbour
  • 8 Dec 1941—8 Dec 1941:
    USA enters WWII
  • 24 Dec 1941—24 Dec 1941:
    Hong Kong falls to the Japanese
4 1942 
  • 1942—1942:
    Invention of world's first programmable computer by Alan Turing in co-operation with Max Neumann - used to crack German codes
  • 1942—1942:
    Gilbert Murray founds Oxfam
  • 30 May 1942—30 May 1942:
    Over 1,000 allied bombers raid Cologne
  • 4 Jun 1942—4 Jun 1942:
    Battle of Midway
  • 19 Aug 1942—19 Aug 1942:
    Abortive raid on Dieppe, largely by Canadian troops
  • 6 Sep 1942—6 Sep 1942:
    Germans defeated at Stalingrad
  • 3 Oct 1942—3 Oct 1942:
    First successful launch of V2 rocket in Germany - first man-made object to reach space
  • 23 Oct 1942—23 Oct 1942:
    Battle of El Alamein - Montgomery defeats Rommel
  • 2 Dec 1942—2 Dec 1942:
    'Manhattan Project' - a team led by Enrico Fermi initiates the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction
5 1943 
  • 1943—1943:
    Round-the-clock bombing of Germany begins
  • 16 May 1943—16 May 1943:
    'Dam Buster' raids on Ruhr dams by RAF
  • 24 Jul 1943—24 Jul 1943:
    Allies invade Italy - Benito Mussolini resigns as Italian Dictator, 24 July
6 1944 
  • 6 Apr 1944—6 Apr 1944:
    PAYE income tax begins
  • 4 Jun 1944—4 Jun 1944:
    Allies enter Rome
  • 6 Jun 1944—6 Jun 1944:
    D-Day invasion of Normandy
  • 12 Jun 1944—12 Jun 1944:
    First V1 flying bombs hit London
  • 8 Sep 1944—8 Sep 1944:
    First V2 rocket bombs hit London
  • 11 Sep 1944—11 Sep 1944:
    Allies enter Germany
  • 16 Dec 1944—16 Dec 1944:
    Battle of the Bulge: German counter-offensive

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