Japanese forces landed on Hong Kong Island.

The Newfoundland Regiment was among the last to be evacuated (December 19-20) from Suvla Bay after the disastrous Battle of Gallipoli, Turkey.

The Royal Canadian Dragoons and the Royal Canadian Regiment were formed.

As Christmas approached, soldiers of the Canadian Corps suffered through a cold, wet winter in Flanders.

Britain's Constitutional Act created Upper and Lower Canada and set the stage for rebellion.

1943, About December 27th: The German 1st Parachute Division quietly left Ortona, Italy to the Canadians. Canadian battle losses for December exceeded 2,300, including 500 dead.

Germany dropped incendiary bombs on London, England.

The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was created.

The RCAF reached its peak strength with 215,000 personnel, including 15,000 members of the Women's Division.

French and Belgian troops began the occupation of the Ruhr following German failure to maintain reparation payments.

Japan withdrew from the Second London Naval Conference after its request that its fleet be granted parity with the fleets of Britaain and the U.S. was refused.

President Hindenburg appointed HItler as chancellor.

1943 Convoy SC-118, which sailed from Halifax, was attacked in mid-Atlantic (February 4 - 7) by 20 U-boats. 13 merchantmen were sunk.

1941 The RAF raided oil-storage facilities in Rotterdam.

The Nazi Party secured 44% of the national vote.

Hitler adopted "Plan Sickle" for the invasion west, with the main thrust made through Ardennes (Belgium. Luxembourg, France).

Germany reoccupied the Rhineland.

German troops marched into Austria and Anschluss (political union) was proclaimed.

Hitler came second to Hindenburg in presidential elections, having gained 30% of the vote.

Mussolini was among those who formed the Fascist Fighting Corps.

Italy, Austria, and Hungary signed the Rome Pact.

The German Workers' Party, with a program drafted by Hitler, was renamed the Nazi Party.

Germany invaded Denmark, and Norway. Copenhagen was occupied within 12 hours.

Germany and Russia signed the Treaty of Rapallo which enabled the Germans to establish arms factories in Russia.

U.S., Britain and Japan signed the London Naval Treaty in which they agreed to restrict tonnages of warships.

In the Battle of Cut Knife, Chief Poundmaker's Cree warriors dealt Canadian troops their last defeat of the Northwest Rebellion.

Nearly 500 Germans were captured as Canadians attacked at Fresnoy, east of Vimy Ridge.

The Royal Canadian Navy was established.

A U-boat sank HMCS Valleyfield in the Atlantic Ocean; 125 perished.

The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry helped prevent a German break-through in the Ypres Salient.

Maj.-Gen. Henry Procter and Tecumseh were forced to end a 10-day siege at Fort Meigs in Ohio.

1941 The British captured an Enigma cipher machine and codebooks after it boarded U-110 south of Iceland.

Germans launched the invasion of the Low Countries and France.

Canadian tanks supported the attack on German lines in Italy's Liri Valley.

The Battle of the St. Lawrence began with a U-boat sinking two streamers off the Gaspé coast.

Queen Victoria asked her subjects to remain neutral in the U.S. Civil War.

Trainee navigator Kenneth Spooner took over for an unconscious pilot, saving three lives, but crashed. He is posthumously awarded the George Cross.

1940 A German bombing raid caused massive damage in Rotterdam.

Canadian air force pilot training, in hiatus since 1918, resumed at Camp Borden, near Barrie, Ontario.

Canadians launched initial attacks at Festubert, France.

1944 May 18th: After 4 major assaults on the Monte Cassino abbey, the Germans were pushed out and forced back to the Hitler Line, by the Poles and 1st Canadian […]

John Franklin departed England in search of the Northwest Passage.

Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel which created a military alliance.

S.S. Komagata Maru arrived in Vancouver, but 352 Sikh, Muslim and Hindu refugees from India were turned away.

The first seven corvettes for the Newfoundland Escort Force arrived in St. John's.

Civilian barges, yachts, motorboats, fishing boats and ferries made possible the rescue (May 26 - June 4) of 340,000 mainly British soldiers being shelled on the beaches of Dunkirk, France.

The British retreated to Burlington Heights Ontario, abandoning Fort Erie on May 27th, 1813.

Operation Dynamo, which was the evacuation of British, French and Belgian troops from the beaches of Dunkirk. It was executed between May 26th and May 4th, 1940.

The Bismarck was hunted down and sunk on May 26th & 27th, 1941. This ended German warship operations in the Atlantic.

The Dionne quintuplets were born in Callander, Ontario on May 28th, 1934.

On May 31st the Boer War ended. Canada's contribution: $3 million and 7,368 troops.

June 3rd, 1940 was the last night of the evacuation from Dunkirk, bringing the total number of men rescued to 220,000 British and 120,000 French and Belgians.

On June 3rd, 1940, Germans launched a 300-bomber raid on Paris.

1944, June 6th: Allied paratroopers, including about 450 Canadians, parachuted from aircraft or landed in gliders behind German coastal defences on D-Day. Click on https://rememberourvets.ca/index.php/leblanc-leopold-paul-charles/

Allied paratroopers, including about 450 Canadians, parachuted from aircraft or landed in gliders behind German coastal defences on D-Day. Click on https://rememberourvets.ca/index.php/leblanc-leopold-paul-charles/

On June 22nd,1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. Did the same with Italy on June 24, 1940.

June 25th 1940  France signed an Armistice after its defeat by Germany. Germany had invaded France 6 weeks earlier.

On June 28th, 1919, Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles with the Allies, which officially ended World War I.

The Nazi Party won 230 of 609 seats in national elections, but Hitler refused to join a coalition.

Hitler merged the offices of president and chancellor to become Fuhrer and Supreme Commander.

1943, August 3rd.  Charles H. Kuhl, from Indiana, suffered from battle stress. Patton slapped him across the face with his folded gloves, dragged him across the hospital tent, and literally […]

1943, by August 17th: The Allied forces had no plan to keep Germans isolated on Sicily and over the month of August 40,000 Germans and 70,000 Italians crossed the Strait […]

The Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was signed.

Germany and the USSR signed a Non-Aggression Pact.

The Kellog-Briand Pact was drawn up, which renounced war as a means of settling international disputes. It was eventually signed by nearly all of the world's nations.

1944 The Gothic Line, Italy was finally pierced at 10 PM on August 31st, Involved were: the Perth Regiment, Cape Breton Highlanders, and 8th New Brunswick Hussars.

Nazi Germany invaded Poland.

1944 The 2nd Canadian Infantry Division took control of the town of Dieppe, France from its German occupiers. "On September 3, the Canadians held a ceremony to honour the memory […]

1944 The raid on Dieppe in August 1942 was a disaster. The Canadians reoccupied Dieppe on September 1, 1944 unopposed, "The Germangarrison troops had bugged out."

After a week of heavy fighting Canadian troops broke through the Drocourt-Quéant Line at Arras, France.

1944 The Canadian 1st Division broke through the German Gothic Line for an advance toward Rome.

Britain, France, Austria and New Zealand declared war on Germany.

1939 U-30 sank the British liner Athenia as it sailed from Glascow to Montreal.

HMCS Racoon was sunk by U-165 while on convoy duty near Pointe-au-Pere, Quebec, killing 37 crew on board.

1940 The London Blitz started. The Luftwaffe directed its bombing offensive at London and other major populated centres.

1944 The 4th Canadian Armoured Division took Bruges, Belgium, from its German occupiers.

Corporal Leo Clarke led an attack to clear the enemy at the Battle of Courcelette. A counterattack was repelled by his exceptional bravery. He was awarded the Victoria Cross for […]

The Americans gained control of the upper Great Lakes after they defeated the British at the Battle of Lake Erie.

U-517 torpedoed and sank HMCS Charlottetown in the St. Lawrence River near Cap Chat, Quebec. Six of her crew were lost that day, with four later dying of wounds sustained during […]

Allied forces attacked along the Western Front, regaining almost all the ground lost to the Germans during the spring and summer offensive.

General James Wolfe led the British in an attack against the French, led by General Louis-Joseph de Montcalm at the Plains of Abraham. Both generals died from their wounds sustained […]

The first overseas expedition by Canadians began as several hundred boatmen departed Canada en-route to Egypt to take part in the Nile Expedition.

With unemployment at 3 million, the Nazi Party made its first electoral breakthrough in the Reichstag elections, winning 107 seats.

The Nuremberg Laws were passed which deprived Jews of full German citizenship.

Operation Market Garden, a bold but unsuccessful Allied attempt to shorten the war, began.

Sir John Hamilton Gordon, 7th Earl of Aberdeen, was sworn in as Canada's 7th Governor-General.

The Newfoundland Regiment landed (September 19-20) at Sulva Bay, on the western side of the Gallipoli Peninsula.

1944 The last German defenders surrendered on August 20th to Le Régiment de la Chaudiere, the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, and the Nova […]

1944 Le Régiment de la Chaudiere, the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada, the Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry Highlanders, and the Nova Scotia Highlanders forced the German occupiers of Boulogne, France […]

William Lyon Mackenzie King was sworn in as Prime Minister for the second time.

The long process of loading men, animals and equipment into transport ships for overseas duty began at Quebec City.

The Hudson Strait Expedition began, which led the RCAF to explore the eastern Arctic and to establish radio stations.

The Munich Pact was signed in which Britain, France and Italy agreed to the transfer of Sudetenland (northern, southern, and western areas of former Czechoslovakia which were primarily Sudeten Germans) […]