- August 3
- The Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic is officially incorporated into the Soviet Union. [628.A5]
- August 4
- In convoy HX-60 in the North Atlantic, a submarine torpedoes Newfoundland merchant ship Geraldine Mary. [27.17]
- August 5
- In Canada, Montreal mayor Camillien Houde is arrested, and charged under the Defence of Canada Regulations. (He is imprisoned at Camp Petawawa in Ontario until the end of the war.) [5.50]
- August 8
- The German air force begins an intensive attack on British shipping in the English Channel. [416.E5] [503.1737]
- August 9
- The German High Command issues a directive for "Otto", the preliminary plan for an attack on the Soviet Union set for Spring 1941. [376.51]
- August 12
- German Stuka plane strikes knock out one British radar station. [277.40]
- German orders are given for a full-scale offensive against Great Britain in air attacks. [503.1755]
- August 13
- Adolf Hitler's "Eagle Day" commences, with 1485 plane sorties against British ports and airfields, attempting to eliminate British air forces as an obstacle to invasion. [9.14,16] [81.54] [84.62] [277.40] [518.1905] [719.17] (August 12 [1.3])
- In Canada, Colonel E.L.M. Burns proposes developing a Canadian parachute force. The idea is rejected by the Director of Military Operations in headquarters. [99.31]
- (very early) Five British Hampden bombers attack a crucial aqueduct over the River Ems in Germany. Three planes return in bad shape, but with their mission accomplished. (The Dortmund-Ems Canal is unusable for ten days, delaying German plans for invasion of England.) [84.61,341]
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- Twelve British Blenheim bombers attack Hemsteds airfield in Holland. Only one plane returns. [84.58]
- August 15
- Twenty German JU88 aircraft from Denmark attack Driffield, Yorkshire, destroying ten Whitley aircraft on the ground. [84.62]
- One hundred German bombers from Air Fleet 5 in Scandinavia, with Me-110 escort fighter planes, approach Tyneside, England. British Hurricane and Spitfire fighters are there to meet them, knocking down thirty planes with no loss to the British. (Air Fleet 5 does not attack again during the Battle of Britain.) [277.40]
- 1800 German aircraft make a widespread attack on Great Britain against various objectives. [503.1766]
- Spain's General Francisco Franco writes to Italy's Benito Mussolini, telling him of his intent to enter the war, now closer to ready, once provisions are made available. [661.12]
- British planes shoot down 90 German planes during the day's aerial fights, with a loss of 42 planes. [118.17]
- (evening) German Air Minister Hermann Göring orders all further Luftwaffe attacks to be directed solely against British air force bases and communications. [277.40] [503.1737,1755]
- August
- Adolf Hitler approves a Spanish-German plan to attack Gibraltar. [38.82]
- The Canadian Armoured Corps is formed. [72.21]
- In Dumfries, Scotland, about 1000 Norwegian men begin training, preparing for reconquest of Norway. [404.246]
- In Canada, in a lecture to the Vancouver Institute, University of British Columbia professor Henry Angus says Japan's entry to the war is certain, and will probably be a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor or some other American base. [7.63]
- American army and navy cryptanalysts discover the secrets of the Japanese message encoding machine. [277.101]
- August 17
- Canada's Prime Minister William King and American President Franklin Roosevelt meet at Ogdensburg, New York, and sign a formal document establishing a Canadian- U.S. permanent joint defence board. [5.53] [449.12] [714.7] [747.4]
- Adolf Hitler declares a total blockade of the British Isles. [173.13]
- August 20
- British Prime Minister Winston Churchill announces an agreement to lease bases to the United States in exchange for fifty American destroyers. [416.E5]
- August 22
- In the South Irish Sea off Milford Haven, Wales, German aircraft bomb Canadian merchant ship Thorold. [27.17]
- August 24
- The German battleship Bismarck is commissioned. [112.629]
- The Luftwaffe resumes bombing British fighter bases near London. [84.62]
- (evening) Ten German aircraft inadvertantly bomb London, in contravention of Adolf Hitler's order forbidding attacks on the city. (The bombing is thought to be intentional, and leads to a retaliatory bombing of Berlin, Germany. This causes a shift in German bombing from British airfields to London. This allows British air forces to rebuild, which were near collapse.) [9.15,16] [84.341] [277.41] (August 23 [166.295])
- August 25
- (evening) Eighty British bombers attack Berlin, in retaliation for the previous night's bombing of London. [84.63,341] [173.13] [277.41] [840.84]
- August 26
- No. 1 Fighter Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force, first engages German planes in battle, shooting down three bombers and damaging four others, losing just one Canadian plane and pilot. [1.4]
- August 27
- In Canada, Order-in-Council PC 4185 passes, making all single or widowed men aged 21-45 eligible to be called for military training. [115.60]
- August
- In Canada, Colonel Burns again proposes a parachute force. General Harry Crerar rejects it as being unimportant at the present. [99.32]
- August 30
- Romania cedes part of Transylvania to Hungary, in exchange for German and Italian guarantees of the integrity of the rest of Romania. [517.1793]
- Adolf Hitler withdraws his ban on bombing London, and encourages Hermann Göring to proceed. [84.63] [166.295]
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