19 February - 22 February — Three Nights' Blitz over Swansea, South Wales: Over these 3 nights of intensive bombing, which last a total of 13 hours and 48 minutes, Swansea's town centre is almost completely obliterated by the 896 high explosive bombs employed by the Luftwaffe. 230 deaths and 397 casualties reported.
Marchedit
24 March — Rommel launches his first offensive in Cyrenaica.
7 July — German troops take over Estonia from the Soviets
25 July — The Postal Code system is introduced for the first time in Germany.
31 July — Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring orders S.S. General Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired Final Solution of the Jewish question", starting the Holocaust.
22 August — The German Occupation Authority in France announces that anyone found either working for or aiding the Free French will be sentenced to death.
23 August - Hitler orders the end of the Action T4 programme, which has seen the euthanasia of up to 100,000 people with physical and mental disabilities.[1]
24 August — A Luftwaffe bomb hits an Estonian steamer Eestirand with 3,500 Soviet-mobilized Estonian men on board, killing 598 of them.
Septemberedit
6 September — The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.
29 September - 30 September — Babi Yar massacre – German troops, assisted by Ukrainian police and local collaborators, killed 33,771 Jews of Kiev, Ukraine.
7 November — The Soviet hospital Ship Armenia is sunk by German planes while evacuating refugees, wounded military and the staff of several Crimean hospitals. It is estimated that at least 5,000 died in the sinking.
12 November — As Battle of Moscow begins, temperatures around Moscow drop to -12 °C, and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
19 November — Both commerce raidinghilfskreuzer Kormoran and Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney sink following a battle off the coast of Western Australia. There are no survivors from the 645 Australian sailors aboard Sydney.[2]
27 November — German troops get as close to Moscow as they ever will; they are subsequently frozen by cold weather and attacks by the Soviets.[citation needed]
Decemberedit
6 December — Soviet counterattacks begin against German troops encircling Moscow. Wehrmacht is subsequently pushed back over.
6 September: The requirement to wear the Star of David with the word "Jew" inscribed, is extended to all Jews over the age of 6 in German-occupied areas.