5 Dec 1940
  • Battleship Bismarck completed her trials in the Baltic Sea and set sail for Hamburg, Germany. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • German armed merchant cruiser Thor and British armed merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle exchange 6-inch shells 300 miles south of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. HMS Carnarvon Castle was hit 27 times (4 killed, 32 wounded) while Thor was able to disengage unharmed. HMS Carnarvon Castle would soon receive temporary repairs at Montevideo, Uruguay, using steel plates salvaged from the scuttled German pocket battleship Graf Spee. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
  • Scottish Independent Labour Party politician John McGovern's peace amendment was rejected by the British House of Commons, 341 votes against the amendment to 4 votes in favor. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British destroyer HMS Cameron was damaged by German aircraft while in drydock at Portsmouth, England, United Kingdom, killing 14. As the drydock flooded, she capsized, and would remain so until Feb 1941. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British submarine HMS Sunfish sank Finnish ship Oscar Midling off the Stadlandet peninsula, Norway, killing all aboard. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British motor torpedo boats MTB.32, MTB.29, and MTB.31 patrolled the coast of the Netherlands near the mouth of River Scheldt, sinking German ship Paranagua. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • Italian submarine Argo sank British ship Silverpine 250 miles west of Ireland, killing 35. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • Italian torpedo boat Calipso hit a mine and sank 6 miles off Cape Misurata, Libya. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • Hitler received the military plans for an invasion of the USSR. He duly approved them all, and proposed a timetable for invasion in May of the following year. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]
United Kingdom
  • The second Tornado prototype aircraft took flight. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]
Photo(s) dated 5 Dec 1940
Portrait of Lieutenant General Rikichi Ando, 5 Dec 1940

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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US Army Air Force B-17s overfly US Marine and US Navy F4F or FM-2 Wildcat aircraft at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands, 1942




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Famous WW2 Quote
"Among the men who fought on Iwo Jima, uncommon valor was a common virtue."

Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, 16 Mar 1945