January: Australian & British forces capture Italian held Tobruk. The harbor is strategically important to supply a desert campaign.

February: Lothar von Arnauld de la Periere is killed in a plane crash. The World War I U-boat commander sank a record 194 ships.

March: President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill to supply materials to the Allies. This ends U.S. pretense of neutrality.

April: The America First Committee holds its first mass rally in New York City. It will shut down after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

May: After a solo flight, Rudolf Hess deputy chief of the Nazi Party parachutes into Scotland. He claims it is a peace mission.

June: Over 4 million Axis soldiers invade the USSR, code named Operation Barbarossa it is the largest invasion in warfare history.

July: The British Army form the Special Air Service (SAS). A commando force to operate behind enemy lines in North Africa.

August: Production starts on the Willys MB, a four-wheel drive utility vehicle. The U.S. Jeep will become an iconic symbol of WWII.

September: A decree signed by Reinhard Heydrich requires Jews aged 6 or over to wear the Star of David with 'Jew' inscribed.

October: Carving George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt & Abraham Lincoln on Mount Rushmore finally finishes.

November: The British aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by the German submarine U-81. She sinks the following day.

December: Japanese aircraft launch an attack on the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. America is now a combatant in World War II.