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08/01/1941 |
96,000 people now sleeping in the Underground and Tube stations, 40,000 less than in October. |
| 13/01/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Plymouth. |
| 20/01/1941 |
Compulsory fire watching duty introduced in Great Britain. |
| 31/01/1941 |
January’s civilian casualty figures are 1,500 killed and 2,012 injured. |
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10/02/1941 |
The RAF attacks the oil storage tanks at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. The raid sees the operational debut of the RAF's first 4-engine heavy bomber, the Stirling. |
| 11/02/1941 |
Hanover is bombed by the RAF. |
| 24/02/1941 |
The 2-engine Manchester bomber, is used for the first time during an RAF raid against Brest. |
| 28/02/1941 |
British monthly civilian casualty figures tally at 789 killed and 1068 injured. |
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02/03/1941 |
The RAF launches a heavy raid against Cologne. |
| 10/03/1941 |
The RAF attacks Le Havre and at the same time gives the new 4-engine Halifax bomber it debut, although one of the six Halifax's involved is shot down on its return flight by an RAF night fighter. |
| 13/03/1941 |
The Luftwaffe carries out a heavy raid against Clydebank, near Glasgow. 35,000 of the towns population of 47,000 are made homeless. |
| 24/03/1941 |
Berlin suffers its first raid of the year by the RAF. |
| 31/03/1941 |
British civilian casualties for March are 4,259 killed and 5,557 injured. |
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06/04/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches an air attack against the Greek port of Piraeus from bases in Bulgaria. During the raid, the British ammunition ship Clan Fraser is hit and explodes in a massive fireball, wrecking the harbour and port facilities. |
| 08/04/1941 |
After a temporary lull, the Luftwaffe launches a heavy attack against Coventry. |
| 09/04/1941 |
The RAF attack Kiel in an attempt to knock out the port facilities. |
| 11/04/1941 |
Bristol is bombed by the Luftwaffe. |
| 15/04/1941 |
The Luftwaffe keeps up its air offensive by attacking Belfast. |
| 16/04/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches a heavy raid against London. |
| 19/04/1941 |
London receives another heavy pounding by the Luftwaffe. |
| 30/04/1941 |
British air raid casualty figures in April are 6,065 killed, 6,926 injured. |
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01/05/1941 |
The Luftwaffe begins a series of 8 consecutive night raids against Liverpool. |
| 07/05/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches the first of two consecutive night raids against the British port of Hull. |
| 09/05/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches a massive night raid (507 bombers) against London which causes many fires and cripples the rail system in the city. Liverpool has its 7th consecutive night air raid. Belfast, Clydeside and Humberside also suffer in a heavy week of raids. The RAF attacks Bremen and Hamburg, but with little effect. |
| 10/05/1941 |
The Luftwaffe launches a massive attack against London, the heaviest so far received by the capital. One third of all streets within Greater London are rendered impassible and 155,000 family's are left without gas, water and electricity. Westminster Abbey, House of Commons, Tower of London and the Royal Mint are all hit. A record 1,436 people are killed and 1,792 are seriously injured. |
| 11/05/1941 |
The RAF launches a heavy raid against Hamburg. |
| 15/05/1941 |
RAF night raids on Hanover, Berlin and Cuxhaven. |
| 16/05/1941 |
With a raid by 111 German aircraft on Birmingham, the Night Blitz campaign against England comes to an end. Most Luftwaffe bomber formations in France and Belgium are being transferred to airfields in eastern Germany and occupied Poland. The RAF launch a night raid on Cologne. |
| 18/05/1941 |
British air raids on Germany continue. |
| 31/05/1941 |
German bombers attack Dublin by mistake. The Eire government protests, Germans later offer compensation. British civilian casualties for May announced as 5,394 killed and 5,181 injured. |
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01/06/1941 |
The Luftwaffe carries out a night raid (110 bombers) on Manchester. |
| 02/06/1941 |
Goring tells the Luftwaffe ‘There is no unconquerable island’. The Ruhr industrial area bombed by RAF. |
| 08/06/1941 |
RAF launch biggest bombing raid yet on Germany with 360 aircraft. |
| 09/06/1941 |
Fire Service Council established in Britain, with 1,400 local brigades being merged in to 32 regional ones. |
| 12/06/1941 |
The RAF raids the Ruhr, Rhineland and German ports in the first of 20 consecutive night raids. |
| 13/06/1941 |
The Luftwaffe carries out a raid on the British naval base at Chatham, but with little success. |
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14/06/1941 |
The RAF begins fighter sweeps over Northern France. |
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01/07/1941 |
RAF starts daylight air offensive over Northern France, English Channel and Occupied Europe. |
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02/07/1941 |
The RAF carries out night raids on Bremen and Cologne. |
| 05/07/1941 |
The RAF carries out night raids on Münster and Bielefeld. |
| 27/07/1941 |
London is severely bombed by the Luftwaffe, in its first air raid for 10 weeks. |
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31/07/1941 |
During July, 501 British civilians died in air raids. |
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20/08/1941 |
Adolf Hitler authorises the development of the V-2 missile. |
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02/09/1941 |
RAF daylight raids on Occupied Europe miss only 19 days in August and September. |
| 30/09/1941 |
Newcastle bombed, but only the second serious raid on Britain in a month with September’s casualties listed as 217 killed. |
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31/10/1941 |
British air raid casualties in October remain low at 262 killed. RAF raid occupied Europe on all but six days with Hamburg and Cologne bombed three times. Dover the only serious British casualty. |
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07/11/1941 |
The RAF bombs Berlin with 169 aircraft, but 21 are lost. |
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02/12/1941 |
Hitler issues Directive No.38 which tasks Kesselring as C-in-C South, with gaining air superiority over the area between southern Italy and Libya in order to deny British supplies to Malta and Libya. To assist with this, he was given Fleigerkorps II, which was transferred from Russia. This, together with the existing air units of Fleigerkorps X were to form Luftflotte 2 and give the axis a
significant numerical superiority over the RAF. |
