September 1940

September

• 02

  • The destroyers-for-bases agreementOn 2 September 1940 Hull and Lothian exchanged notes. The US gave Britain 50 old destroyers and got 99-year base leases, partly in exchange, partly as a gift.
• 06

  • The abdication of Carol IIOn 6 September 1940 Carol II handed the throne to 18-year-old Michael and fled. General Ion Antonescu took power in Romania in alliance with the Iron Guard.
• 07

  • Key eventThe Blitz beginsOn 7 September 1940 the Luftwaffe struck London's docks instead of RAF airfields. More than 400 people were dead by morning. So began the Blitz.
• 09

  • The Italian air raid on Tel AvivOn 9 September 1940 Italian bombers from the Dodecanese hit residential Tel Aviv. Between 107 and 137 died – the deadliest single air raid on Palestine.
• 10

  • The Corpo Aereo ItalianoOn 10 September 1940 Italy formed the Corpo Aereo Italiano to fight Britain alongside the Luftwaffe. Mussolini sought prestige; the results were negligible.
• 13

  • The Italians invade EgyptOn 13 September 1940 the Italian 10th Army crossed into Egypt and took Sollum. The thin British screen fell back east, harrying it with fire and air raids.
• 15

  • Key eventBattle of Britain DayOn 15 September 1940 the RAF beat off two great daylight Luftwaffe raids on London. The day became the symbol of British victory in the Battle of Britain.
• 16

  • The first peacetime draft in the United StatesOn 16 September 1940 Roosevelt signed the Burke–Wadsworth Act. The neutral United States introduced conscription in peacetime for the first time.
  • The Italians halt at Sidi BarraniOn 16 September 1940 the Italians took Sidi Barrani, some 95 km from the border, and stopped, building a chain of camps to wait for a road and water.
• 17

  • Hitler postpones Operation Sea LionOn 17 September 1940 Hitler postponed the landing in England indefinitely. The RAF was unbeaten and British bombers were wrecking barges in the Channel ports.
• 18

  • Radio BelgiqueIn September 1940 the BBC launched Radio Belgique and Radio België, broadcasts for occupied Belgium. Belgian sources date the first one to 28 September.
• 19

  • Witold Pilecki arrives at AuschwitzOn 19 September 1940 Witold Pilecki let himself be caught in a Żoliborz roundup to enter Auschwitz. As prisoner no. 4859 he built a camp resistance network.
• 22

  • The attack on convoy HX 72On 20–22 September 1940 the U-boats of Kretschmer, Prien and Schepke sank 11 ships of convoy HX 72 from Halifax without losing a single boat.
  • Japan enters French IndochinaOn 22 September 1940 Vichy France agreed to Japanese troops in Tonkin. Hours later the Japanese 5th Division attacked across the border near Lạng Sơn.
• 23

  • The expedition to DakarOn 23–25 September 1940 a British fleet and de Gaulle’s Free French tried to seize Dakar. Vichy’s defenders drove them off, a blow to de Gaulle’s prestige.
• 24

  • A major RAF raid on BerlinOn the night of 23/24 September 1940 over a hundred British bombers attacked Berlin for hours. It was the largest raid yet on the capital of the Reich.
  • Vichy reprisal raids on GibraltarOn 24 and 25 September 1940 Vichy aircraft bombed Gibraltar twice in reprisal for Dakar. The trawler Stella Sirius was sunk and 14 sailors were killed.
• 25

  • Terboven takes power in NorwayOn 25 September 1940 Reich Commissioner Terboven declared the King and government deposed, dissolved the Administrative Council and banned all parties but NS.
• 27

  • Key eventThe Tripartite PactOn 27 September 1940 in Berlin, Germany, Italy and Japan concluded a ten-year alliance aimed at the United States. It was meant to deter America from war.