In 1970 Tonga became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.
In 1942 the Battle of Midway begins.
After the attack on Pearl harbour (on the 7th of December 1941) the Japanese fleet continued to dominate the Pacific Ocean and conquer resource rich islands in the region, including Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. They destroyed anything in their path including British Battleships.
Meanwhile the United States had been salvaging the ships damaged at Pearl Harbour. They had managed to repair all but one of the sunk Battleships and within six months the United States were ready to strike back.
Between the 4th and 8th of May 1942 the United States and Australian Naval vessels encountered the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea with equal damage on both sides they both retreated. During the Battle two of the Japanese Aircraft carriers, the Shokaku and the Zuikaku, were unable to continue fighting.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Naval fleet had planned to end the US Pacific Fleet once and for all. Yamamoto planned to attack the coast of Alaska which would draw the US Fleet north. Then he would attack the Island of Midway with a much larger force causing confusion to the US Fleet who would have to divide and move south into an ambush. But US intelligence had intercepted the plans and was ready to strike their own surprise attack on the Japanese.
On the 4th of June 1942 37 US Bombers, launched from the USS Enterprise, Yorktown and Hornet, attacked and destroyed two of the Japanese aircraft carriers. Within six hours the remaining Japanese Aircraft carriers were also destroyed. In this complete victory by the US Navy not only had they destroyed the seemingly invincible Japanese fleet that had dominated the Pacific Ocean, but they also destroyed 3 (the Kaga, Soryu and Hiryu) and damaged 1 (the Akagi) of the six aircraft carriers that had mercilessly struck at Pearl Harbour
In 1940 the Evacuation of Allied forces at Dunkirk came to an end.
On the 10th of May 1940 Hitler began his lightning invasion of the Low Countries on his journey towards taking France. This became known as the Battle of France and would continue until the 22nd of June when German forces would be triumphant and force France to sign an Armistice, to be carved up by the Axis Powers. In an attempt to aid French forces Great Britain sent in many troops including the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).
In his first public speech to the Nation (on the 19th of May 1940) Prime Minister Winston Churchill had to give the grim news that the Germans had broken through French defences were pushing forward. He also announced that he had formed a coalition government that would wage war on Germany until victory was won.
With the Germans pressing forward Churchill had a recognisance plane fly over Paris to assess the situation. To avoid the capture of the British Expeditionary Forces by the approaching German Army he ordered that they retreat to Dunkirk.
Between the 23rd and 26th of May 1940, 4,000 British and French troops held Calais in what became known as the siege or Battle of Calais. Despite being outnumbered by at least 3 to 1 and against superior artillery the 4,000 troops ignored offers to surrender and fought to the last, holding back German forces for three days. Of these 4,000 only 33 were recovered uninjured.
Hitler had been assured by Herman Goering that the Luftwaffe would be able to take out the allied forces at Dunkirk and therefore Hitler ordered his troops to pull back and continue the invasion of Belgium and France. On the 26th of May King Leopold III of Belgium surrendered and German troops once again began to attack Dunkirk.
With British and French forces being driven back and surrounded, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, addressed the nation and called upon all those that had boats to aid in the evacuation of the Allied forces. Hundreds of civilians came forward, some in fishing boats, to help the navy. The Evacuation effort was known as operation Dynamo and began on the 26th of May 1940 with the enormous task of evacuating almost half a million allied troops. The mission seemed impossible and it was assumed only a handful would survive.
By the 4th of June a total of 335,000 allied troops (198,000 British and 137,000 French) were rescued before the Germans finally broke through to Dunkirk and ended the evacuation.
