page_title: Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II
section_title: 1940
hierarchical_section_title: Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II / 1940
caption_attribution_description: English: Don't do it Mother whole: the image is placed in the upper half, incorporating a speech bubble that contains text in red. Text is positioned below, in red, with further text, placed at the bottom, in black set within a horizontal red rectangle. All is up against a plain white background. image: a monchrome image of an anxious looking mother sitting by the trunk of a tree in a rural scene with two young boys playing with a model aeroplane. A ghost-like figure of Hitler whispers to mother and points towards the city shown in the distance to the right. A speech bubble emerges from his mouth. text: TAKE THEM BACK! TAKE THEM BACK! TAKE THEM BACK! ... DON'T do it Mother - LEAVE THE CHILDREN WHERE THEY ARE ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH
context_page_description: This is a Timeline of the United Kingdom home front during World War II covering Britain 1939–45.
context_section_description: January 1940
  35% of London schoolchildren had returned from evacuation.
  8 January 1940
  First food rationing introduced.
  May to June 1940
  Further evacuation of 160,000 children from London and relocation of children who had been settled near vulnerable coastal areas.
  Winston Churchill gives a series of famous speeches in Parliament: "Blood, toil, tears, and sweat", "We shall fight on the beaches" and "This was their finest hour."
  7 May 1940
  The debate on the recent military failure in Norway leads (on 10 May) to Chamberlain's resignation.
  10 May 1940
  Germany invades France and the Low Countries, ending the Phony War.
  Winston Churchill becomes Prime Minister and forms an all-party coalition government.
  12 May 1940
  Internment of all German or Austrian males aged between 16 and 60 begins, starting with those living nearest to the south and east coasts.
  14 May 1940
  In a BBC radio broadcast Anthony Eden calls for the creation of the Local Defence Volunteers (LDV) militia – renamed on 23 July the Home Guard.
  22 May 1940
  The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1940 is passed, granting the government even more authority to control persons and property for the duration of the war.
  10 June 1940
  Italy declares war on Britain.
  Italian men aged 17 to 60 are arrested and interned.
  Large mobs attack Italian businesses and families in London, Liverpool, Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Glasgow.
  19 – 28 June 1940
  25,000 Channel Island refugees arrive in England.
  30 June 1940
  German occupation of the Channel Islands begins.
  July 1940
  A further 60,000 schoolchildren evacuated from London and the Home Counties in the following 12 months.
  3 July 1940
  Cardiff is bombed for the first time.
  6 July 1940
  Plymouth is bombed for the first time.
  9 July 1940
  Official start date of the Battle of Britain.
  10 July 1940
  Introduction of Defence Regulation 58AA allowing the Minister of Labour to ban strike action and force compulsory arbitration. No strikes are called by any trade union during the war; there are unofficial short local strikes in coal, shipbuilding and machinery.
  21 July 1940
  SS Anselm leaves Liverpool for Halifax, Nova Scotia with the first group of 82 children being evacuated under the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) scheme.
  25 August 1940
  First major air raid on central Birmingham.
  28 August 1940
  First major air raid on Liverpool.
  August–October 1940
  The German Blitz hits London and other major cities causing death and damage. Official histories concluded that the mental health of a nation may have improved, while panic was a rarity. Prewar dire predictions of mass air-raid neurosis were not borne out. Predictions had underestimated the adaptability and resourcefulness; in addition there were many new civil defense roles that gave a sense of fighting back rather than despair.   The highly visible dangerous role gave firemen some of the ideal attributes more commonly associated with the venerated image of the military hero.
  7 September 1940
  German bombing raid on South London; formal beginning of London Blitz.
  18 September 1940
  SS City of Benares bound for Canada is torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic; 77 of the 90 evacuee children on board died, resulting in the abandonment of the Children's Overseas Reception Board (CORB) evacuation scheme.
  31 October 1940
  Official end date of the Battle of Britain.
  14 November 1940
  Massive German bombing raid on Coventry.
  12 December 1940
  Major raid on Sheffield.
  24 November 1940
  First major air raid on Bristol.
  20 December 1940
  Major raid on Liverpool.
  22 December 1940
  First major raid on Manchester.
caption: A government poster urging mothers not to bring their evacuated children back to vulnerable urban areas.
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