February 1940
- 1: The Japanese Diet announces a record high budget with over half its expenditures being military.
- 5: Britain and France decide to intervene in Norway to cut off the iron ore trade in anticipation of an expected German occupation and ostensibly to open a route to assist Finland. The operation is scheduled to start about March 20.
- 9: Erich von Manstein is placed in command of German XXXIII Armour Corps, removing him from planning the French invasion.
- 10: USSR agrees to supply grain and raw materials to Germany in a new trade treaty.
- 14: British government calls for volunteers to fight in Finland.
- 15: The Soviet army captures Summa, an important defence point in Finland, thereby breaking through the Mannerheim Line.
Hitler orders unrestricted submarine warfare. - 16: British destroyer HMS Cossack forcibly removes 303 British POWs from the German transport Altmark in neutral Norwegian territorial waters.
- 17: The Finns continue retreat from the Mannerheim line.
Manstein presents to Hitler his plans for invading France via the Ardennes forest. - 21: General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst is placed in command of the upcoming German invasion of Norway.
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of World War II (1940)