World war II timeline - February 1940

5 February 1940	Canadian Pacific steamer Beaverburn is torpedoed and sunk of the south-west coast of England. 26 of 27 crew survive. [ The Supreme Allied War Council meets in Paris, France, making a secret plan to send an Anglo-French force to Finland. The force would first secure a port on the coast of Norway, then seize control of the iron-ore fields around Kiruna and Gellivare in Northern Sweden. The plan is subject to Finland officially requesting assistance, and for Norway and Sweden to grant permission to cross their territories.
7 February 1940	Irish steamship Munster strikes a mine in the Irish Sea and sinks. All 300 passengers and crew survive. At General Gerd von Rundstedt's headquarters in Koblenz, Germany, a war game is held to consider a German armored assault through the Ardennes Forest of Belgium toward France. (This plan becomes the accepted approach.)
10 February 1940	The German Government warns Sweden and Norway that while sending aid to Finland was acceptable, the presense of English or French troops in transit to Finland would not be.
11 February 1940	Russian forces breach the main finnish defensive line.
12 February 1940	The Australian 2nd Imperial Force and the New Zealand Expeditionary Force arrive at Suez, Egypt.
13 February 1940	German General Alfred Jodl records in his diary that due to the loss of plans, Adolf Hitler changed the main invasion point farther south, in the direction of Sedan, to capture a large group of allies in Belgium.
14 February 1940	A German submarine torpedoes and sinks Blue Star liner Sultan Star 200 miles west-south-west of Land's End. British destroyers then sink the submarine. Winston Churchill announces an Admiralty policy of arming trawlers, to protect them from enemy attacks. Sweden rejects a Finnish appeal for intervention in their war with the Soviet Union. Finland requests peace with the Soviet Union.
15 February 1940	Germany announces that all British merchant ships will be treated as warships.
16 February 1940	In Norwegian territorial waters off Jössing Fjord, British destroyer Cossack pulls alongside and boards the German supply ship Altmark, freeing 303 British prisoners. Two Norwegian torpedo boat captains protest, but do nothing. (This incident convinces German planners that urgent action in Norway is required.)
17 February 1940	Erich von Manstein meets with Adolf Hitler in Berlin, and convinces him to change the attack on the West to be a main thrust through the Ardennes.
18 February 1940	Adolf Hitler issues Directive No. 10. For the attack on the West, the forces will be divided by the line Liège to Charleroi across Belgium and Luxembourg. Forces north of this line will break through Belgian defences, counter any threats to the Ruhr, and take on the strongest Anglo-French forces. Forces south of the line will cross the Meuse river between Dinant and Sedan, and advance towards the Somme estuary.
19 February 1940	Finns defeat and disperse the Soviet 18th Division northeast of Lake Ladoga.
22 February 1940	Australian Prime Minister Menzies writes to High Commissioner Stanley Bruce in London, England, suggesting it is vital that a German defeat include "soft" peace terms, foreseeing a possible new alignment of nations including Britain, France, Germany, and Italy against Russia.
25 February 1940	The first squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force lands in England.