World war II timeline - January 1940

1 January 1940	The Finnish 9th Division begins attacks on the Soviet 44th Division, breaking it into small pieces.
3 January 1940	German submarine U-25 secretly moors next to German merchant ship Thalia in the Spanish port of Cadiz, for refuelling and restocking. (This is the first time for a German submarine to do so at a Spanish port during the war.)
6 January 1940	Finnish pilot Jorma Sarvanto shoots down six of seven attacking Russian DB-3F bombers. Russian commander General Vinogradov of the 44th Division in Finland authorizes his troops to escape back to Soviet territory.
8 January 1940	The Soviet 44th Division ends all attacks on Finnish forces. Since the fighting began, the two Soviet divisions lost about 22,000 men, compared to the Finns' loss of about 2,700.
9 January 1940	Repeated warning from Italian Foreign Minister to Belgian Princess of imminent German attack on Belgium. Finns destroy the remains of the Russian 44th Division at Lake Kianta, taking 1000 prisoners. Quote by British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain: "[Finland is] fighting against the forces of unscrupulous violence", referring to the Soviet Union.
10 January 1940	Adolf Hitler decides to implement invasion plans on the West on January 17. In Mechelen-sur-Meuse, Belgium, a small German transport crash-lands. Two officers (Major Erich Hoenmanns and Major Helmuth Reinberger) of a German airborne division carry with them a large part of the operations plan for the attack on the West. King Léopold chooses to ignore the matter, hoping the Germans will change plans and attack France.
12 January 1940	Japan notifies the Netherlands it is terminating their treaty in which each party agreed to settle disputes peacefully.
13 January 1940	Based on captured german plans and other information, Belgian army commanders are told a German attack on January 14 is "quasi-certain". Belgian radio current-affairs program announces a message from the Belgian chief of the general staff, telling all 80,000 Belgian soldiers on leave to return immediately to their units. The Belgian chief of the general staff orders all barriers on the southwest border with France removed immediately to allow quicker entry of English and Frenh troops.
14 January 1940	Belgian troops at the southwest border and in the Ardennes area are forbidden to fire on French or English troops. Due to weather, and due to the plans for an attack on the West accidentally falling into Belgian hands, Adolf Hitler delays the attack again. Charles de Gaulle sends a memorandum to about 80 people, foretelling a German attack on France through Holland and Belgium. He asks for the urgent formation of armored shock units. Finnish Commander-in-Chief Marshal Mannerheim makes an informal request for 30,000 volunteer troops of Britain and France to help resist an anticipated Soviet spring offensive. US President Franklin Roosevelt requests US$1.8 billion of Congress for national defence. The request is granted. France's first two armored divisions are created. In Canada, Sir Frederick Banting sends a 19-page memo to the National Research Council and the Canadian Military Headquarters. His document warns of bacterial warfare. (Some of his ideas are developed into weapons, and the ideas become the basis for research for decades to come.)
30 January 1940	Quote by Adolf Hitler in a speech: "For 300 years England pursued the aim of preventing a real consolidation of Europe, just as France sought for centuries to prevent a consolidation of Germany."