World war II timeline - December 1939

2 December 1939	German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks Doric Star southeast of St. Helena.
3 December 1939	German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks Taiora southeast of St. Helena. Finns evacuate Helsinki. British Bomber Command initiates anti-mining patrols. 24 British Wellington bombers attack two cruisers and other ships off Heligoland, sinking a minesweeper and downing a German fighter plane. No British planes are shot down. British Bomber Command planes attack German seaplane bases at Hornum and Sylt.
7 December 1939	In Finland, the Soviet Union's 163rd Rifle Division reaches Suomussalmi. German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee sinks the Streonhaln.
9 December 1939	In France, Corporal Thomas William Priday becomes the first British soldier killed in action aginst Germany.
10 December 1939	The first Canadian troop convoy leaves Halifax destined for Britain. 7400 men of the 1st Canadian Infantry Division leave on five ocean liners, escorted by Royal Canadian Navy destroyers Ottawa, Restigouche, Fraser, and St. Laurent. Vidkun Quisling of Norway meets with Adolf Hitler and many others in Berlin, over eleven days. They agree that Germany should aid Quisling and his Nazi party to seize control of Norway at a favorable moment. Finland asks "all civilized nations for help".
11 December 1939	Finnish forces counterattack Soviet forces at Suomussalmi.
12 December 1939	Soviet forces capture Salla, Finland.
13 December 1939	British cruisers Exeter and Ajax, and New Zealand Achilles attack German pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee in the south Atlantic off South America.
14 December 1939	The League of Nations expels the Soviet Union for aggression. British submarine Ursula sinks a German cruiser in the mouth of the Elbe River. Norwegian politician Vidkun Quisling meets with Adolf Hitler in Germany. He suggests Germany launch a pre-enptive strike on Norway. Quisling says he would take control of the Norwegian government through a coup. Adolf Hitler issues an order that Denmark and Norway be seized and occupied during the upcoming attack on the West, to gain control of Norwegian territorial waters. 12 British Wellington bombers attack a German warship near the mouth of the Elbe River. Six planes are lost, with no damage inflicted to the ship.
15 December 1939	Finns wreck metal mines and withdraw from Salmijärvi.
17 December 1939	Germany begins unrestricted air warfare on shipping. Canada's Prime Minister William King signs the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, providing facilities for airmen in the Commonwealth to train. Price of the plan is $1.281 billion. Off the coast of Montevideo, Uruguay, German sailors open seacocks on the pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, and set off a series of explosions, scuttling the ship. SS Tacoma and two other vessels take 1055 of crew to Buenos Aires.
18 December 1939	22 British Wellington bombers approach several warships at Wilhelmshaven. German forces intercept radio messages and tracked the incoming planes, launching fighters to intercept them. 12 of the bombers are shot down in about an hour.
19 December 1939	Argentine government issues a decree saying Germans from the Graf Spee are to be interned in Buenos Aires.
20 December 1939	Captain Langsdorff of the pocket-battleship Admiral Graf Spee kills himself.
24 December 1939	In Finland, the Soviet 163rd division begins an all-out attempt to break free of the Finnish troops, with the Soviet 44th Motorized Rifle Division attempting to reach them.
26 December 1939	The first squadron of Royal Australian Air Force on active service lands in England.
27 December 1939	The Finnish 9th Division launches several attacks against remains of the Soviet 163rd Division. Finns are victorious at Suomosalmi, scattering the Russian 163rd Division.
30 December 1939	Count Ciano, Italian Foreign Minister, tells Belgian Princess Marie-José to warn her brother King Léopold that Adolf Hitler would soon invade Belgium.