10 January – World War II: Liverpool Blitz ends with German bombs dropped in the Stanhope Street area of the city, with nine people dying and many more suffering injuries. Among the houses destroyed in the bombing is the former home of Adolf Hitler's half-brother Alois. Four more people die as a result of their injuries the following day.
26 January – World War II: First United States troops for the European theatre arrive in the UK, at Belfast.[3]
29 January – radio programme Desert Island Discs first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme, presented by Roy Plomley; Austrian-born revue performer Vic Oliver (the Prime Minister's son-in-law) is the first castaway.[4] The programme will still be running 80 years later.
25–27 April – World War II: "Baedeker Blitz" – Bath Blitz: three bombing raids on Bath kill 417; among the buildings destroyed or badly damaged the Assembly Rooms are gutted.
1 May – destroyer HMSPunjabi sinks after collision with battleship HMSKing George V in Arctic waters with 49 fatalities.
12 September – World War II: British transport ship RMS Laconia torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic, west of Africa, with the loss of around 2,000 lives, mainly Italian prisoners of war.
13 September – World War II:
The RAF and the Soviet Air Force bomb oil wells and refining facilities at Ploeşti in Romania causing extensive damage.
The RAF carries out its 100th bombing raid on the German city of Bremen.
World War II: Japanese troopship Lisbon Maru sinks following a torpedo attack the previous day by submarine USSGrouper off the coast of China: 829 are killed, mostly British prisoners of war who (unknown to the attacker) are being held on board.
23 October – World War II: British and Commonwealth forces launch a major attack against German and Italian forces in the Second Battle of El Alamein in Egypt.[4]
25 October – the milk ration is cut to two and a half pints a week.
29 October – a public meeting presided over by the Archbishop of Canterbury and with international political figures in attendance at the Royal Albert Hall in London registers outrage over The Holocaust.[14]
31 October – World War II: Canterbury is bombed by the German Luftwaffe, apparently in reprisal for an RAF 1,000 bomber raid on Cologne.
4 November – World War II: Second Battle of El Alamein effectively ends with Erwin Rommel forced to order German forces to retreat this evening in the face of pressure from General Montgomery's Eighth Army.[4] Clearing up operations continue until 11 November.
6 November – the Church of England archbishops announce relaxation of the custom that women should wear hats in church.[15]
1 December – publication of the Beveridge Report into social insurance.[4] It is so popular that people queue overnight to buy it and the government issues a brief threepenny version.[6]
7 December – World War II: British commandos conduct Operation Frankton, a raid on shipping in Bordeaux harbour.
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