1930s
1940s
1940
- April 9th: Nazi Germany invades and occupies Denmark and Norway.
- May 10th–June 25th: Nazi Germany invades and occupies the Low Countries and France.
1941
- June 22nd: Nazi Germany and its European allies invade the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa.
- August 16th–24th: While removing dirt for the construction of a new home, a Svalbardian family accidentally unearths permafrost containing the Slime. Within a day, its members show symptoms of a mild pneumonia. As more time passes, they begin to lose their senses as well as their sanity. The extreme cold, coupled with a lack of food, weakens their immune protections and allows the extraterrestrial pathogen to take hold far more easily.
- August 25th: The Canadian Army, Royal Navy, and Royal Norwegian Navy launch Operation Gauntlet. The discovery of zombified locals forces them to leave the island, with only their evacuations haphazardly accomplished. Trapped alongside the undead, the archipelago's living population requests the Allies to return. They answer no.
- August 26th–27th: The Royal Navy quarantines Svalbard and the archipelago's remaining inhabitants fall to the Slime.
- September 5th–7th: In Operation Sphynx, the Royal Marines, Royal Army Medical Corps, and a team of scientists land on Svalbard to investigate yellow lung. A sample of the Slime is collected and its effects on the human body are studied from up close. Before leaving, the Royal Marines shoot the undead, pile their bodies, and cremate them. In case there were any left, the Royal Navy bombs Svalbardian settlements to the ground.
- September 8th: Deeming Svalbard to be no longer useful nor threatening, the Royal Navy ends withdraws from the archipelago's waters.
- September 13th: The Luftwaffe conducts an aerial reconnaissance of Svalbard, finding its settlements completely destroyed.
- September 25th: Nazi Germany builds an airstrip and weather station codenamed Bansö in Adventfjorden, Svalbard. The soldiers stationed there unknowingly contract the Slime's spores, which had laid dormant on the soil.
- October 2nd–9th:
- Yellow lung breaks out in Arkhangelsk and other cities in the northern half of European Russia. The government announces the pathogen's presence in Soviet territory and issues two orders: civilians must stay home if the undead are reported near their area and they must head to a hospital immediately if they exhibit symptoms of pneumonia. The inner circle of Stalin discusses implementing martial law, but due to Operation Barbarossa, the Red Army cannot leave the front lines. Instead, the Militsya reinforces daily patrols in infected cities.
- 19 of Bansö's 30 crewmen die of yellow lung. The Luftwaffe evacuates the 11 survivors, but they are zombified upon landing on Norway. The Lakselv airfield, site of the landing, is evacuated. Meanwhile, the population of its host municipality, Porsanger, is left to their own devices.
- October 13: Zombies enter Karasjok, a Norwegian municipality just south of Porsanger. The whole population is infected, and the Slime crosses into the Finnish village of Karigasniemi.
1942
- June 23rd: German scientists test the effects of yellow lung on the prisoners of Auschwitz. The disease quickly spreads into the entire concentration camp, with even a few guards showing symptoms. All German personnel are subsequently ordered to use gas masks, the already infected ones being sent to distant military hospitals.
- July 1st–3rd: Zombies appear for the first time among Auschwitz's prisoners. The German guards close the entrances of the concentration camp, letting the pathogen kill everyone inside. Once the undead number in the thousands, Auschwitz is set ablaze, the fire producing thick, intoxicating smokestacks.
- July 15th: Despite receiving intense medical treatment, the German guards who contracted yellow lung from Auschwitz turn into zombies. They infect patients, medics, secretaries, and other guards in the hospitals they are held in. Overran hospitals are burned while their surrounding cities, if mostly inhabited by Germans, are evacuated.