page_title: 1941 in the United Kingdom
section_title: Events
hierarchical_section_title: 1941 in the United Kingdom / Events
context_page_description: Events from the year 1941 in the United Kingdom. The year was dominated by the Second World War.
context_section_description: 9 January – the Avro Manchester Mark III BT308, prototype of the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber, first flies, from RAF Ringway.
  19 January – World War II: British troops attack Italian-held Eritrea.
  20 January – firewatching mandatory for business premises, to limit incendiary damage.
  21 January – the Daily Worker, newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain, is suppressed by the (Labour) Home Secretary in the Churchill war ministry, Herbert Morrison (until September 1942) in view of its continuing pro-Soviet stance.
  21–22 January – Battle of Tobruk: Australian and British forces attack and capture Tobruk (Libya) from the Italians.
  31 January – Josef Jakobs a German spy, parachutes into the village of Ramsey, Cambridgeshire; he breaks his ankle on landing and is immediately arrested.
  5 February – Air Training Corps formed.
  11 February – RMS Queen Elizabeth begins her first voyage as a troopship, from Singapore.
  12 February – Reserve Constable Albert Alexander, a patient at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, becomes the first person treated with penicillin intravenously, by Howard Florey’s team. He reacts positively but there is insufficient supply of the drug to reverse his terminal infection. A successful treatment is achieved during May.
  19 February – the start of the "three nights' Blitz" over Swansea, South Wales. 230 are killed and 409 injured.
  2 March – John Gilbert Winant takes up post as United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom in succession to Joseph P. Kennedy; he will serve for 5 years.
  11 March
  President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Act into United States law, allowing the country to supply military equipment to Britain.
  Luftwaffe air raids on Manchester cause extensive damage to the city, a notable casualty being Old Trafford football stadium, home of Manchester United, which is severely damaged.
  13 March – Clydebank Blitz: bombing of Clydebank. 528 people die, 617 more were seriously injured, and hundreds more were injured by blast debris. Another 35,000 people were made homeless.
  15 March – Plymouth Blitz: bombing of Plymouth. 336 people lose their lives.
  27–29 March – Battle of Cape Matapan: Off the Peloponnesus coast in the Mediterranean, British naval forces defeat those of Italy sinking five warships.
  15 April – Belfast Blitz: Belfast is heavily bombed, killing 900 and injuring 1,500.
  18 April – heaviest air-raid of the year on London.
  21 April – Greece capitulates. British troops withdraw to Crete.
  May – The Ministry of Information issues more than 14 million copies of a leaflet Beating the Invader, with a preface from Churchill, giving advice on what to do "if invasion comes".
  2–8 May – the 'May Week Raids'; sustained heavy bombing on Merseyside result in over 1,700 deaths and well over 1,000 injuries.
  6–7 May – Greenock Blitz: Greenock in Scotland is intensively bombed. 280 people are killed, and 1,200 more injured.
  9 May – the German submarine U-110 is captured by the Royal Navy in the North Atlantic with its Enigma cryptography machine and codebooks intact.
  10 May
  The House of Commons is damaged by the Luftwaffe in an air raid.
  Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland claiming to be on a peace mission.
  15 May – first British jet aircraft, the Gloster E.28/39, is flown at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.
  17 May – Tipton, near Dudley in the midlands, is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the second time in six months, with a further six civilian deaths.
  24 May – in the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks HMS Hood killing all but three crewmen on what was the pride of the Royal Navy.
  26 May – in the North Atlantic, Fairey Swordfish biplanes from the carrier HMS Ark Royal fatally cripple the German battleship Bismarck in torpedo attack.
  May – meatless Woolton pie introduced.
  1 June – clothes rationing introduced.
  4 June – Britain invades Iraq, the pro-Axis government there is overthrown.
  June – Noël Coward's comedy Blithe Spirit is premiered at Manchester Opera House. Opening in London on 2 July, its run of 1,997 consecutive performances sets a record for non-musical plays in
caption: The Gloster E.28/39, the first British aircraft to fly with a turbojet engine
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