The Plague is in part a historical allegory, in which the plague signifies the German occupation of France from 1940 to 1944 during World War II.

* 1874 – Carl Bosch, German chemist and engineer, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1940 )

* 1881 – Otto Toeplitz, German mathematician ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Gudrun Ensslin, German militant leader, founded Red Army Faction ( d. 1977 )

* 1868 – Peter Behrens, German architect and designer ( d. 1940 )

* 1940 – Anja Silja, German soprano

In 1940, shortly after the German occupation of Denmark, Bohr began his physics degree at the University of Copenhagen.

The StuG III was the most-produced German armored fighting vehicle of any type built during the war years, with some 9, 400 examples built from January 1940 through March 1945.

* 1940 – Jochen Borchert, German politician

While previously held elsewhere within or near the capital city, since 1918 it has been held on the Champs-Élysées, with the evident agreement of the Allies as represented in the Versailles Peace Conference, and with the exception of the period of German occupation from 1940 to 1944.

* Bristol Blitz, the German bombing raids on Bristol, England in 1940 and 1941

During the Battle of France in 1940, De Gaulle's 4th Armoured Division and elements of the British Expeditionary Force's 1st Army Tank Brigade both made probing attacks on the German flank, actually pushing into the rear of the advancing armoured columns at times.

It was only after the hastily improvised plan for the invasion of Western Europe in 1940 and its successful conclusion, which led the German General Staff to believe that decisive battles were not obsolete.

Half of the German divisions available in 1940 were combat ready, often being more poorly equipped than the British and French Armies, as well as the German Army of 1914.

In the spring, 1940, the German army was semi-modern.

It has been argued by John Mosier that, while the French soldiers in 1940 were better trained than German soldiers, as were the Americans later, and the German army was the least mechanised of the major armies, its leadership cadres were both larger and superior and their high standards of leadership were the primary reason for the successes of the German army in World War Two as it had been in World War One.

* Sinesi, Michael Patrick ( 2001 ) Modern Bewegungskrieg: German Battle Doctrine, 1920 – 1940.

Again an Expeditionary Force was sent to France, only to be hastily evacuated as the German forces swept through the Low Countries and across France in 1940.

A German cavalry patrol in May 1940, during the Battle of France.

* 1940 – Tasso Wild, German footballer

Dragoons fought on horses, bicycles and skis against the German invasion in 1940.

On the night 9 May / 10 May 1940, Kelly was torpedoed amidships by a German E-boat S 31 of the Dutch coast and Mountbatten subsequently commanded the 5th Destroyer Flotilla from the destroyer HMS Javelin.

During World War II a Norwegian naval unit nicknamed the " Shetland Bus " was established by the Special Operations Executive in the autumn of 1940 with a base first at Lunna and later in Scalloway to conduct operations around the coast of Norway.

As 1944 began the frontrunners for the Republican nomination appeared to be Wendell Willkie, the party's 1940 candidate, Senator Robert Taft of Ohio, the leader of the party's conservatives, New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, the leader of the party's powerful, moderate eastern establishment, General Douglas MacArthur, then serving as an Allied commander in the Pacific theater of the war, and former Minnesota Governor Harold Stassen, then serving as a U. S. naval officer in the Pacific.

The desire to use Norway as a base for naval attacks on Britain was the primary reason that motivated Raeder to advocate attacking Norway, and only in early 1940 did Raeder first mention protecting the sea lanes that allowed Swedish iron ore to reach Germany as a secondary reason for occupying Norway.

In a series of reports Raeder submitted to Hitler starting in June 1940, he called for Germany to permanently occupy France and to annex Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and all of the British, French and Belgian colonies in sub-Saharan Africa plus South Africa in order that Germany would become the dominant naval power in both the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

During World War II, Taranto became famous as a consequence of the November 1940 British air attack on the Regia Marina naval base stationed here, which today called the Battle of Taranto.

Norway was invaded by the naval and air forces of Nazi Germany during the early hours of 9 April 1940.

But by 1940, the Torrin is taking part in a naval battle off the coast of Norway.

After France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Vichy French naval troops were blockaded on Martinique.

In his general order № 2 of 3 July 1940, Vice Admiral Émile Muselier, two days after assuming the post of chief of the naval and air forces of the Free French, created the bow flag displaying the French colors with a red cross of Lorraine, and a cockade, which also featured the cross of Lorraine.

In 1940, Tōgō Jinja was built in Harajuku, Tokyo, as the naval rival to the Nogi Shrine erected in the honor of Imperial Japanese Army General Nogi Maresuke.

In July 1940, the U. S. banned the shipment of aviation gasoline to Japan, while Imperial Japanese Army invaded French Indochina and occupied its naval and air bases in September 1940.

For instance, from July to November 1940, the British cruisers and maintained a watch to ensure that the French aircraft carrier Béarn and the other French naval vessels in Martinique did not slip away to Europe.

When Butch finished his naval aviation training on May 2, 1940, he was assigned to Fighter Squadron Three ( VF-3 ).

Dieppe was occupied by German naval and army forces after the fall of France in 1940.

On 10 May 1940, the Royal Navy occupied Iceland to install naval and air bases on this Atlantic island.

As early as June 1940, before the armistice with France had been signed, General Heinz Guderian also argued for seizing Britain's strategically important naval base of Gibraltar.

Porkkala thus replaced the peninsula of Hanko, which had been leased to the Soviets as a naval base in 1940 – 41.

All Her Majesty's Ships and naval bases are given names and Abbotsinch's was known as HMS Sanderling since June 1940.

After the collapse of France in June 1940, Spain adopted a pro-Axis non-belligerency stance ( for example, it offered Spanish naval facilities to German ships ), and returned escaping Allied servicemen and fleeing resistance fighters to the Nazis, returning the favour paid by the Nazis when they had contributed forces including the Stuka dive bombers to support Franco and the Nationalists during the Civil War.

The naval Battle of Taranto took place on the night of 11 – 12 November 1940 during the Second World War.

The Regia Marina could conceivably have gone to sea in search of any British naval force, but this was distinctly against the naval philosophy of the Italians between January 1940 and September 1943.

Butlins Ayr was built by Billy Butlin as a naval training camp in 1940.

Butlins Pwllheli was built by Billy Butlin as a naval training camp in 1940.