1941: The British offensive in Italian Somaliland under Lieutenant General Cunningham continued to make good progress, with the Gold Coast Regiment moving up the coast towards the port of Kismayu, whilst South African Air Force aircraft and the cruiser HMS Shropshire bombarded Mogadishu, and Fleet Air Arm Albacore bombers from HMS Formidable bombed Massawa in Eritrea.

1942: German Operation Sealion is formally cancelled. This is the plan for the cross channel invasion of England.

Admiral Erich Raeder, head of the German Navy, brings a new plan to Chancellor Adolf Hitler. Raeder proposes that the Germans drive through Libya, into Egypt, and keep on going through Iraq, Iran, and all the way to India, thus drying up Britain's oil supply, hooking up with the Japanese, and winning the war. To do so, the German will have to divert more resources to the Mediterranean, starting with massive supplies to North Africa. To do that, the Germans will have to invade Malta. Hitler orders the Luftwaffe's Air Fleet 2 to hammer Malta and knock out its airfields and will to resist.

In the United States, a Congressional subcommittee recommended the immediate evacuation of all Japanese-Americans from strategic areas on the West Coast. The US Army has already drawn up a plan to move the Japanese-Americans east of California's Sierra Nevada mountains

1943: 56 Ventura and Boston light bombers attacked targets along the enemy occupied coastline, including the steelworks at Ijmuiden, the docks at Boulogne and lock-gates at St Malo. All aircraft returned safely.

1945: 805 aircraft of RAF Bomber Command dropped 2,600 tons of bombs on Dresden, an important transport centre for the German army on the Eastern Front, generating a firestorm which left an estimated 50,000 dead.

On the western German borders, the Canadian First Army finally secured the 50 square miles of the Reichswald, a thickly forested ridge which formed the centrepiece of German defences in the area.

1965: 1st Australian SAS Squadron advance party departed for Borneo.