July 1940

July

• 01

  • Key eventThe French government moves to VichyOn 1 July 1940 Pétain's government settled in Vichy. On 10 July parliament gave the marshal full powers by 569 votes to 80, ending the Third Republic.
  • Graziani takes command in LibyaOn 1 July 1940 Marshal Rodolfo Graziani arrived in Tripoli as Balbo's successor. Mussolini demanded a swift attack on Egypt; Graziani held back.
  • Italian air raids on PalestineIn July 1940 Italian bombers from Rhodes began attacking Haifa. The first raid, on 15 July, set oil tanks ablaze; the second, on 24 July, killed over forty.
• 03

  • Key eventThe attack on the French fleet at Mers-el-KébirOn 3 July 1940 the Royal Navy shelled the French squadron at Mers-el-Kébir near Oran. Nearly 1,300 sailors died, and Vichy broke off relations with London.
• 04

  • The Duke of Windsor becomes Governor of the BahamasOn 4 July 1940 the Duke of Windsor, stranded in Lisbon after the fall of France, learned he was to govern the Bahamas. Germany wanted to keep him in Europe.
  • Germany reveals Operation PikeOn 4 July 1940 the German news agency published extracts from captured French files on an Allied plan to bomb the Soviet oilfields in the Caucasus.
  • The Italians take KassalaOn 4 July 1940 Italian troops from Eritrea took Kassala and Fort Gallabat in the Sudan. A handful of Sudan Defence Force men withdrew after hours of fighting.
• 05

  • Huysmans and Jaspar in LondonOn 5 July 1940 Camille Huysmans and Marcel-Henri Jaspar set up a Belgian National Committee in London to fight on. The British did not recognise it.
• 09

  • The Battle of CalabriaOn 9 July 1940 the British and Italian fleets clashed off Calabria. Warspite hit Giulio Cesare at 24 km and the Italians withdrew. No ship was lost.
• 10

  • Key eventThe Battle of Britain beginsOn 10 July 1940 some hundred aircraft clashed over a convoy in the Strait of Dover. The British came to see the day as the start of the Battle of Britain.
  • Roosevelt calls for rearmamentOn 10 July 1940 Roosevelt asked Congress for $4.85 billion for defence. That summer the US voted for a two-ocean navy and prepared its first peacetime draft.
• 12

  • Air raids on Wales and ScotlandOn 12 July 1940 a German bomber killed dozens of people in Aberdeen, and at night bombs fell in Wales. The Luftwaffe was now striking almost all of Britain.
• 14

  • Rigged elections in the Baltic statesOn 14–15 July 1940 Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia voted for a single list watched by the Red Army. On 21 July the new parliaments proclaimed Soviet republics.
• 16

  • Key eventDirective No. 16: Operation Sea LionOn 16 July 1940 Hitler issued Directive No. 16 on preparing a landing in England, Operation Sea Lion. It required the defeat of the RAF and a mined Channel.
• 18

  • Vichy aircraft bomb GibraltarOn 18 July 1940 a night raid attributed to Vichy aircraft killed civilians in Gibraltar. On 25 July women and children were ordered to leave the fortress.
• 19

  • The Battle of Cape SpadaOn 19 July 1940 the Australian cruiser Sydney and five British destroyers beat two Italian cruisers off Crete. The Bartolomeo Colleoni was sunk.
• 21

  • The Czechoslovak government-in-exileOn 21 July 1940 London recognised the Provisional Czechoslovak Government. Beneš became president, Monsignor Jan Šrámek PM and Jan Masaryk foreign minister.
• 22

  • The Havana ConferenceOn 21–30 July 1940 American foreign ministers met in Havana and resolved that the colonies of defeated European states must not pass into German hands.
  • The second Konoe cabinetOn 22 July 1940 Fumimaro Konoe became Prime Minister of Japan again. His cabinet with Matsuoka and Tōjō turned Japan towards Germany and southward expansion.
• 23

  • The Local Defence Volunteers become the Home GuardOn 23 July 1940 Eden told the Commons that the Local Defence Volunteers would be renamed the Home Guard, as England’s coast became a barrier of mines and wire.
• 30

  • The deportation of Päts and LaidonerOn 30 July 1940 the NKVD took Estonian President Konstantin Päts to Ufa; on 19 July General Johan Laidoner was sent to Penza. Both died in Soviet captivity.