The Taste of War: World War II and the Battle for Food
Page 62
August: Ottawa Trade Agreement.
1932–33
Ukrainian famine.
1933
30 January: Hitler appointed Reich Chancellor.
March: National Socialists win a parliamentary majority. Japan leaves League of Nations.
June: Walther Darré appointed Minister of Food and Agriculture in Germany. The Reich Food Corporation is created and Germany launches Battle for Production.
1933–36
Roosevelt’s New Deal implemented in US.
1934
Famine in the northern provinces of Japan.
October: Communists in China begin the Long March to Yan an.
1935–36
October–May: Italy invades Ethiopia and founds colony of Italian East Africa.
1936
Naval Limitations Conference, London.
Soviet Union ends rationing.
June: Prince Konoe Fumimaro becomes Japanese Prime Minister and appoints Hirota Koki as Foreign Minister.
October: Herbert Backe appointed as agricultural representative on the German Council of the Four Year Plan.
December: Chinese Nationalists and communists form uneasy alliance.
1937
Japanese Ministry of Agriculture announces Plan for the Settlement of One Million Households in Manchuria.
7 July: Japan invades China.
1937–38
December–January: the Japanese sack Nanjing.
1938
Italy sends peasant families to Libya to found agricultural settlements.
1939
30 January: Hitler declares to the Reichstag his intention of ridding Europe of its Jewish population.
June: Britain sets up the Women’s Land Army.
August: Germany introduces food rationing.
23 August: Germany and Soviet Union sign Treaty of Non-Aggression.
1 September: Germany invades Poland.
3 September: Britain, India, Australia, New Zealand and France declare war on Germany.
September: British troops begin to land in France.
1939–1940
Germans evict Poles from their homes in the Warthegau and deport them to the General Government.
1940
8 January: Britain introduces food rationing (butter, sugar and bacon).
March: Britain rations meat.
April: Lord Woolton appointed British Minister of Food.
10 April: Denmark surrenders to Germany.
10 May: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigns and is replaced by Winston Churchill.
15 May: British butter ration reduced from 8 to 4 ounces a week. Holland surrenders to Germany.
27 May: British sugar ration reduced from 12 to 8 ounces a week.
28 May: Belgium surrenders to Germany.
30 May–3 June: evacuation of British and French soldiers from Dunkirk.
June: British government subsidizes milk for nursing mothers and children under 5. Japanese close Yunnan rail link between China and French Indo-China, capture Chinese town of Yichang and begin blockade of Nationalist China.
10 June: Italy enters the war and launches attack on British in North and East Africa. Norway surrenders to Germany.
25 June: France surrenders to Germany.
26 June: US imposes embargo on shipments of scrap metal to Japan.
30 June: German occupation of the Channel Islands begins.
July: British parliament passes Colonial Development and Welfare Act.
17 July: Germany announces total blockade of Britain by sea and air.
27 July: Japanese government announces plans for the creation of a Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
29 July: German weekly bread ration cut by 600 grams.
July–September: Battle of Britain.
10 August: Churchill announces total blockade of Germany and occupied countries.
29 August: Japan stations troops in northern Indo-China.
September: British launch counter-offensive against Italians in East Africa.
September–December: Germans begin Saybusch action as part of the General Plan for the East.
September–May 1941: the Blitz.
16 September: US brings in the draft.
27 September: Germany, Italy and Japan sign Tripartite Pact.
28 October: Italy invades Greece.
29 October: conscription begins in the US.
1941
British set up West African Cocoa Control Board.
January: co-operation between Chinese Nationalists and communists ends. Nationalists blockade communist China.
6 January: President Roosevelt makes his ‘four freedoms’ speech to Congress.
February: Rommel’s Afrika korps arrives in North Africa.
March: British meat ration cut to 1s. a week (about 1 lb). British set up Army Catering Corps. Churchill sets up the Battle of the Atlantic Committee.
11 March: US House of Representatives passes Lend-Lease Bill.
April: Japanese government introduces food rationing and military ration halved to 660 grams of rice a day.
16 April: first lend-lease food shipments arrive in Britain from America.
May: British withdraw from Burma. Germans, Italians and Bulgarians occupy Greece. Hunger Plan discussed at a meeting of German State Secretaries. German cereal ration cut by 125 grams. US Food and Nutrition Board publishes table of Recommended Daily Allowances.
18 May: Italy surrenders to British in East Africa.
Summer–April 1942: Greek famine.
June: German weekly meat ration cut by 400 grams.
1 June: Allied forces on Crete surrender to the Germans.
6 June: Hitler announces Barbarossa decree.
22 June: Germany invades the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
July: Oliver Lyttelton appointed as Minister of State in the Middle East.
23 July: Japan occupies the whole of Indo-China.
August: German campaign against the Soviet Jews intensifies and the Einsatzgruppen begin to murder women and children.
1 August: US places embargo on oil exports to Japan.
September: Averell Harriman visits Moscow to negotiate with Stalin over Allied assistance in the fight against Germany.
15 September: siege of Leningrad begins.
19 September: German forces capture Kiev.
29 and 30 September: German authorities claim the massacre of Jews in Kiev has eased the food and housing situation.
October: Germans impose a blockade on the city of Kiev.
16 October: Soviet government and diplomatic corps evacuate Moscow for Kuibyshev, Stalin stays in Moscow.
18 October: General Tojo replaces Prince Konoe as Japanese Prime Minister.
24 October: German forces capture Kharkov.
4 November: German civil administration introduces food rations for Soviet urban population.
6 November: lend-lease aid introduced for Soviet Union.
December: Robert Jackson appointed head of Middle East Supply Centre. British government introduces vitamin scheme. Japanese advance into Burma.
December–April 1943: Chelmno extermination camp functions.
7 December: Japanese attack Pearl Harbor and US bases in Hawaii, Wake Island, Midway and the Philippines. Japanese invade Malaya, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
8 December: the United States, Britain and the Dominions declare war on Japan.
11 December: Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.
12 December: Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels appeals for winter clothing for German troops on the eastern front.
14 December: Siam formally allies itself with Japan. German troops begin to withdraw from the area around Moscow.
15 December: Stalin orders Soviet government to return to Moscow.
16 December: Japanese land on Borneo.
22 December: Japanese land on the Philippines.
December–January 1942: Arcadia conference between Churchill and
Roosevelt in Washington – sets up the Combined Food Board and the Combined Shipping Adjustments Board.
1942
Famine in northern Nigeria and Tanganyika. British West African Cocoa Control Board becomes West African Produce Control Board.
January: Wannsee Conference. British allow shipments of wheat through the blockade into Greece.
5 January: American and Filipino troops withdraw to Bataan Peninsula.
12 January: Japan declares war on the Dutch East Indies. US introduces coffee rationing.
23 January: Japanese land at Rabaul, New Britain, and on Bougainville Island, the Solomons.
25 January: Japanese begin landing troops at Lae, New Guinea.
February: Oliver Lyttelton appointed British Minister of Production. Germans retreat from Kaluga.
February–December: Belzec extermination camp functions.
15 February: British garrison at Singapore surrenders to Japanese.
28 February: Japanese land on Java.
February–March: Japanese massacre Malayan Chinese community.
March: Hitler gives orders for soldiers coming home on leave from the occupied territories to bring food parcels. US interns Japanese-Americans.
8 March: Japanese capture Rangoon, Burma.
14 March: US troops begin arriving in Australia in force.
21 March: Fritz Sauckel appointed General Plenipotentiary for Labour Mobilization.
30 March: Allies divide Pacific theatre into the South-West Pacific (the Philippines, New Guinea, Bismarck Archipelago and Dutch East Indies) under General MacArthur and the South and Central Pacific Ocean Command under Admiral Nimitz.
April: German bread, meat and fat rations reduced. British make National Wholemeal Flour compulsory. Regular relief shipments begin arriving in Greece.
8 April: US delegation led by General George Marshall arrives in Britain to discuss US–British strategy on the opening of a Second Front against Germany.
9 April: US–Filipino forces on Bataan Peninsula, Philippines, surrender to the Japanese.
29 April: Japanese close Burma Road to China.
May: British withdraw from Burma. Battle of the Coral Sea.
10 May: all US–Filipino forces on the Philippines surrender to the Japanese.
15 May: US introduces petrol rationing.
21 May: Herbert Backe appointed Acting Minister of Food and Agriculture.
May–October 1943: Sobibor extermination camp functions.
June: Lord Swinton appointed British Resident Minister in West Africa. Maximum charge of 5s. imposed on restaurant meals in Britain.
July: Australia introduces tea rationing. First Battle of El Alamein.
21 July: Japanese force to attack Port Moresby lands at Buna, New Guinea.
23 July: transports begin taking Jews from Warsaw ghetto to Treblinka.
July–October 1943: Treblinka extermination camp functions.
August: Compulsory Native Labour Act passed in Southern Rhodesia. Quit India Movement. The Australians agree to divert meat from Britain to feed US troops in Pacific and in return US agrees to increase meat exports to Britain. Japanese Food Control Act.
5 August: Göring meets with the Gauleiters of the Reich, who complain about ration cuts.
6 August: Göring meets with the leaders of the occupied territories and demands more food for Germany.
7 August: US troops land on Guadalcanal.
8 August: US marines capture Henderson airfield on Guadalcanal.
26 August: Japanese begin to advance up the Kokoda Trail, New Guinea.
September: ten more gas chambers built at Treblinka, six more built at Sobibor.
September–July 1944: Auschwitz functions as an extermination camp.
1 September: Battle of Stalingrad begins.
11 September: Japanese advance up Kokoda Trail stops at Iorabaiwa, 51 kilo-metres from Port Moresby.
October: German bread and meat rations increased. Cyclone hits district of Midnapur in Bengal. Australia introduces sugar rationing.
2 October: US marines land on Ellice Islands (Tuvalu).
October–November: second battle of El Alamein.
October–July 1944: Majdanek functions as an extermination camp.
November: sinkings of British merchant fleet reach their peak. General Plan for the East put into practice in the Polish district of Lublin.
2 November: Australians recapture Kokoda.
8 November: Operation Torch begins with Allied landings in Morocco and Algeria.
13 November: Tydings amendment to the Selective Service Law allows for more farmers to be made exempt from the US draft.
16 November: US and Australian troops begin assault on Japanese at Buna-Gona bridgehead, New Guinea.
19 November: Red Army launches counter-attack to retake Stalingrad.
22 November: German 6th Army in Stalingrad is encircled by the Soviets.
December: German plans for the General Plan for the East calculate that 70 million people will be deported. Beveridge Report published in Britain.
10 December: Australians capture Gona area, New Guinea.
1942–43
Bengal famine, Henan famine.
1943
US intensifies submarine blockade of Japan.
January: Churchill announces 60 per cent reduction in British shipping in the Indian Ocean.
2 January: Allies capture Buna, New Guinea.
18 January: Red Army breaks through to relieve Leningrad from the east.
31 January: German 6th Army surrenders to the Soviets at Stalingrad.
8 February: Japanese complete the evacuation of their forces from Guadalcanal.
18 February: in Germany Goebbels announces the implementation of total war.
March: Australians set up Army Catering Corps.
29 March: US introduces meat rationing at 28 ounces a week.
1 April: US introduces rationing for canned goods, fats and cheese.
May: Basic (Food) Plan introduced in India. German meat and fat ration cut.
May–June: Hot Springs Food Conference.
29 June: Operation Cartwheel, the Allied offensive to retake the south-west Pacific, begins.
July: Battle of Kursk.
25 July: Italian coup, Mussolini arrested.
August: Japanese high command announce that troops on New Guinea will now be self-sustaining. Harlem Riot.
23 August: Soviets recapture Kharkov.
September: Allied landings in Italy.
3 September: Italy signs armistice with Allies.
12 September: Germans rescue Mussolini and set up puppet government in northern Italy.
13 September: Italy declares war on Germany.
15 September: Australians capture Lae, New Guinea.
27 September: Germans begin to evacuate the Ukraine.
2 October: Australians capture Finschhafen, New Guinea.
November: Allies set up UNRRA.
6 November: Soviets recapture Kiev.
15 December: US troops begin landing on New Britain.
1943–44
Tonkin famine in Indo-China.
1944
January–May: Battle of Monte Cassino.
26 January: British launch Arakan attack in Burma.
27 January: the siege of Leningrad ends.
8 February: Australians capture Huon Peninsula, New Guinea.
14 February: US announces that remaining Japanese forces in the Solomons are now trapped.
27 February: US reports about 60,000 Japanese troops now trapped in New Britain and New Ireland.
March: Soviets recapture the Ukraine.
7 March: Japanese launch Imphal–Kohima offensive in Burma.
April–December: Japanese Ichigo offensive in China.
April: Soviets enter Romania.
24 April: US troops secure Hollandia and Aitape, New Guinea, leaving 200,000 Japanese trapped in the area.
3 May: meat rationing lifted in US except on selec
ted cuts of meat.
27 May: MacArthur declares New Guinea campaign over.
3 June: Japanese retreat from Kohima.
20 June: Japanese retreat from Imphal.
6 June: D-Day, Allied landings in Normandy.
15 June: US forces land on Saipan.
18 July: Tojo resigns as Prime Minister of Japan, replaced by Koiso.
20 July: German officers attempt to assassinate Hitler.
September: Allied operation to retake Holland fails and the Dutch Hunger Winter begins. Viscount Wavell appointed Viceroy of India.
September–November: battle for Peleliu.
October: US Admiral King relegates German U-boats to threat rather than menace.
16 October: Secretary of State for India, Leo Amery, publicly acknowledges the Bengal famine in a speech in Birmingham. Soviet Red Army enters German territory.
20 October: US forces begin landing in the Philippines.
November: Lord Woolton appointed Minister of Reconstruction.
1945
28 January: Burma Road to China reopens.
February–March: Battle of Iwo Jima.
March: Allies begin air-dropping food into Holland.
9 March: US begins firebombing Japan’s major cities from the newly conquered Mariannas. Japanese seize control of Indo-China.
5 April: Koiso resigns as Japanese Prime Minister, replaced by Suzuki.
12 April: President Roosevelt dies and Harry Truman becomes President.
30 April: Hitler commits suicide.
April–June: battle of Okinawa.
8 May: Victory in Europe day.
May: first conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), John Boyd Orr elected Director-General.
18 June: US begins firebombing Japan’s smaller cities.
5 July: MacArthur announces the liberation of the Philippines.
17 July: Allied summit meeting at Potsdam.
26 July: Clement Atlee elected Prime Minister in Britain.
6 August: US drops first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima.
8 August: Soviet Union declares war on Japan and invades Manchuria.
9 August: US drop second atomic bomb, on Nagasaki.
15 August: Japan surrenders.
16 August: US ends food rationing.
30 August: US occupation of Japan begins.
September: Canada reintroduces meat rationing.
1945–46
Worldwide drought.
1946
Civil war in China.
Spring: Herbert Hoover conducts a worldwide Famine Survey.
July: British government introduces bread rationing.