"Weapons on the Wall"

Chronology of the Home Front

1939

  • 1 September
    Germany invades Poland

  • 2 September
    National Service comes into effect, enabling the call-up of men beteen 18 and 41

  • 3 September
  • Britain and France declare war on Germany
  • Ministry of Information comes into action (created in shadow form in 1936)

    • 1940

  • 8 January
    Food rationing introduced (butter, bacon and sugar)

  • 10 May
  • Churchill replaces Chamberlain as Prime Minister
  • Home Guard formed

  • 22 May
    Emergency powers introduced

  • 27 May - 4 June
    Evacuation from Dunkirk

  • 10 June
    Italy declares war on Britain and France

  • 2 June
    Fall of France

  • 10 July
    Battle of Britain begins

  • 23 August
    Beginning of the "Blitz" on London

  • 15 September
    Hitler calls off planned invasion of Britain

  • 14 November
    Bombing raid on Coventry

    • 1941

  • 11 March
    Lend-Lease Act signed

  • 13-14 March
    Bombing raids on Clydebank

  • 10 May
    Hess flies to Scotland

  • ? June
    Clothes rationing introduced

  • 22 June
    Germany invades the Soviet Union

  • 12 July
    British-Soviet Mutual Assistance Agreement signed

  • 14 August
    Churchill and Roosevelt meet at Placentia Bay

  • 22 September
    "Tanks for Russia week" begins in British arms factories

  • 7 December
    Japan attacks Pearl Harbour

  • 8 December
    Britain and the United States declare war on Japan

  • 11 December
    United States enters war against Germany and Italy

    • 1942

  • 15 February
    Fall of Singapore

  • 23 February
    British-US Mutual Aid Agreement signed (confirming Lend-Lease)

  • March
    RAF raids on Baltic towns

  • April
    "Baedeker" raids directed at architecturally important English cities (such as Bath, Canterbury, Exeter, Norwich and York)

  • 30 May
    RAF "1000-bomber" raid on Cologne

  • June
    Destruction of convoy PQ17

  • 1 July
    Coal Commission takes over collieries

  • 12 - 15 August
    Churchill visits Moscow

  • 13 September
    Battle of Stalingrad begins

  • November
    Regular Allied air-raids on Berlin begin

  • 4 November
    Victory at El Alamein

  • 1 December
    Beveridge Report published

    • 1943

  • 2 February
    German surrender at Stalingrad

  • 23 February
    Red Army Day

  • 7 May
    British forces capture Tunis

  • 12 May
    German forces in Tunisia surrender

  • 13 July
    Allied invasion of Sicily

  • 3 September
    Italy surrenders

  • 28 November - 1 December
    Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at Tehran

    • 1944

  • 14 January
    Education Act passed (England)

  • 6 June
    D-day landings in Normandy

  • 12 June
    First V-1 flying bombs strike London

  • 8 September
    First V-2 rockets strike London

  • 17 - 30 September
    Arnhem operation fails

  • 13 December
    Home Guard disbanded

    • 1945

  • 4 - 11 February
    Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet at Yalta

  • 14 February
    Allied raid on Dresden

  • 12 April
    Death of Roosevelt; succeeded by Truman

  • 30 April
    Death of Hitler in Berlin

  • 7 May
    Unconditional surrender of Germany

  • 17 - 26 July
    Churchill (succeeded by Attlee), Stalin and Truman meet at Potsdam

  • 27 July
    Attlee forms Labour government

  • 6 August
    United States drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

  • 9 August
    United States drops atomic bomb on Nagasaki

  • 14 August
    Surrender of Japan

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