 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| 14/06/1941 |
The RAF begins fighter
sweeps over Northern France. |
| |
 |
| 01/07/1941 |
RAF starts daylight air
offensive over Northern France, English Channel and Occupied
Europe. |
| 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. |
| 31/07/1941 |
During July, 501 British
civilians died in air raids. |
| |
 |
| 20/08/1941 |
Adolf Hitler authorises
the development of the V-2 missile. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
| |
 |
| 07/11/1941 |
The RAF bombs Berlin with
169 aircraft, but 21 are lost. |
| |
 |
| 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. |
