Timeline of World War II (1940) - April 1940

April 1940

• Operation Hurry, the first British wartime convoy to Malta is accomplished.

1: Sometime between April and early May, Polish officers are massacred by the USSR at Katyn.

3: The Ministerial Defence Committee, with the First Lord of the Admiralty (Winston Churchill) as its chair, replaces Normandy after Hitler's invasion of Poland;

9: Germans land in several Norwegian ports and take Oslo; The Norwegian Campaign lasts 2 months. The British begin their Norwegian Campaign. Denmark surrenders.

10: Germans set up a Norwegian government under Vidkun Quisling, former minister of defence.

11: First Battle of Narvik, British destroyers and aircraft successfully make a surprise attack against a larger German naval force. A second attack on April 13 will also be a British success.

12: British troops occupy the Danish Faroe Islands.

14: British and French troops begin landing at Namsos, north of Trondheim in Norway.

14: The Enigma code is deciphered by the intelligence group at Bletchley Park in England for the first time.

15: British troops land at Harstad, near Narvik, Norway.

16: More British landings in Norway, notably north and south of Trondheim; the struggle for Trondheim continues until the 22nd.

27: British troops begin pull-out from central Norway, north and south of Trondheim.