1941 – Nineteen-Forty-One

22 January – The Italian garrison at Tobruk surrenders

3 February – The battle of Keren starts in the East African campaign

6 February – Erwin Rommel takes command of the Afrika corps

4 March – British commandos raid the Norwegian Lofoten Islands

8 March – US Senate passes the Lend-Lease Bill by 60 votes to 31

28 March – Naval battle off Cape Mutapan, Greece

6 April – Germany invades Yugoslavia and declares war on Greece

27 April – German forces enter Athens, Greece

10 May – Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of the Nazi Party, is captured in Great Britain after he drops by parachute from his Messerschmitt Me110

27 May – The Bismarck is sunk

22 June – Operation Barbarossa is initiated

7 August – Stalin takes over as Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet military

8 September – German and Finnish forces begin siege of Leningrad

23 September – The comité National François is set up in Britain and General de Gaulle is put at its head

2 October – Operation Typhoon, the main German advance to Masco is initiated

7 November – The Lend-Lease Act is extended to the Russians

7 December – At 7:55 a.m. the Japanese conduct a surprise attach on Pearl Harbor and other US Navy positions

8 December – U.S. and Great Britain declare war on Japan

11 December – Italy and Germany declare war on United States

1941