Timeline of World War II (1940) - May 1940

May 1940

1: Allies begin evacuating Norwegian ports; the efforts will continue until June.

5: Norwegian government in exile established in London.

8: Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain barely survives Norway Debate vote in the House of Commons.

9: Conscription in Britain extended to age 36.

10: Germany invades Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands; Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister of the United Kingdom upon the resignation of Neville Chamberlain. The United Kingdom invades Iceland.
Belgium declares a state of emergency. Churchill is called on to form a wartime coalition government.
The massive German offensive against the Western front: The invasion of Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands, and France begins. In a bold stroke, German paratroops capture the Belgian fort Eben Emael.

10: The Battle for The Hague become the first failed paratrooper attack in history as the Dutch quickly defeat the invaders.

11: Luxembourg is occupied.
Churchill offers the former Kaiser Wilhelm II, who is now living in the Netherlands, asylum in the United Kingdom; he declines.

12: The Belgians blow up all the bridges over the Meuse River to halt the German advance.

12: Battle of Hannut begins in Belgium.

13: Dutch government in exile established in London.
General Heinz Guderian's Panzer corps breaks through at Sedan, France.
Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands flees to asylum in the United Kingdom.
Churchill's "blood, toil, tears, and sweat" speech in Commons.

13: The Dutch fall to the Germans at the Battle of the Grebbeberg.

14: The creation of the Local Defence Volunteers; (the Home Guard) is announced by the new Secretary of State for War Anthony Eden. It is mostly composed of the elderly and retired.
Rotterdam is carpet-bombed by the Luftwaffe, causing many civilian deaths and tremendous damage. The Netherlands decide to surrender with the exception of Zealand.
Churchill asks President Roosevelt and Canada for aid in these dark days. Outlines of the new British coalition, which includes Labour, Liberal, and Conservative members, is made public.

14: The Dutch defeat the Germans at the Battle of the Afsluitdijk.

14: The Rotterdam Blitz successfully brings an end to the Battle of Rotterdam.

15: The capitulation of the Dutch army is signed.
German forces cross over the Meuse River.

16: Churchill visits Paris and hears that the French war is as good as over; The United Kingdom stands alone in Europe.

17: Germans enter Brussels and also take Antwerp.
Paul Reynaud forms new French government, including 84-year old Marshal Pétain, the French hero of World War I.

18: Maxime Weygand replaces Maurice Gamelin as commander of the French armed forces
Antwerp captured.

18: Germans win the Battle of Zeeland.

19: Amiens, France is besieged by German troops; Rommel's forces surround Arras; other German forces reach Noyelles on the Channel.

19: The British complete their invasion of Iceland.

20: General Guderian's Panzer groups take Abbeville, threatening Allied forces in the area.

23: Oswald Mosley, leader of the pre-war British fascists, is jailed; he and his wife will spend the duration in prison.

24: The British make a final decision to cease operations in Norway.

25: The Allied forces, British and French alike, retreat to Dunkirk. Hitler orders a halt to the advance of Germans toward the Allied beachhead and allows Hermann Göring to use the Luftwaffe to attack. British R.A.F. defends the beachhead.
Sporadic Luftwaffe bombings in England.
Boulogne-sur-Mer surrenders to the Germans.

25: Soviet Union is preparing a total takeover in the Baltic States organizing and staging conflicts between the Baltic States and the USSR. Soviet government accuses Lithuania of kidnapping Soviet soldiers.

26: Calais surrenders to the Germans.
Operation Dynamo, the Allied evacuation of 340,000 troops from Dunkirk, begins. The move will last until June 3 under ferocious bombardment by the Luftwaffe.

28: Belgium surrenders to the Germans; King Leopold III of Belgium surrenders and is interned.

30: Crucial British Cabinet meeting: Churchill wins a vote on continuing the war, in spite of vigorous arguments by Lord Halifax and Chamberlain.

31: The Japanese heavily bomb Nationalist capital Chungking, on the upper Yangtse.