January

20                    Franklin D Roosevelt was inaugurated for the fourth time. Vice President was Harry S Truman

 

26                    William Lake 7 days leave

 

27                    Auschwitz - Birkenau Concentration Camp was liberated by the Russian Red Army

 

February

2                      Ecuador declared war on Germany

                        Paraguay declared war on Germany following the USA giving them aid they had

                        previously thought of joining the axis.

                        Peru declared a state of “belligerency” to Germany

                        Venezuala declared war on Germany, Japan & Italy

 

12                    William Lake Embarked UK & Disembarked NW Europe

 

13-15               The Bombing of Dresden in Germany. 722 bombers from the RAF and 527 from the

                        USAAF dropped more than 3,900 tons of explosives and incendiary devices on the city.

                        The bombing caused a firestorm which resulted in 1,600 acres of the city centre being

                        destroyed. At the time German Military ordered the press to falsify figures of casualty

                        and death figures to up to 500,000 people but city authorities at the time estimated

                        no more than 22,500 and 27,000 civilians were killed which recent research now supports.

 

15                    Uruguay dropped neutrality and joined the allies

 

23                    Wilfred Ernest Lake (Bill) (my 1st cousin once removed) on board The George Chamberlain

                        ship from Port Said Egypt to Phildelphia. He was working for the Bechtel Corporation the

                        largest Construction & Engineering Company in the USA.

 

28                    Saudi Arabia declared war on Germany & Japan

 

March

10                    67 German POW’s tunnelled their way out of the Island Farm Camp in Bridgend

                        South Wales the biggest escape attempt in the UK.

 

22                    William Lake mentioned in despatches in the London Gazette

 

26                    Former Prime Minister David Lloyd George died

 

27                    The last V-2 rocket attack took place landing in Orpington

 

29                    The last V-1 attack on the UK landed in Datchworth Hertfordshire.

                        This was the last enemy action of any kind on British soil in WW2.

April

15                    British troops liberate the Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp

 

20                    Sybil Campbell becomes the first professional Judge in the UK

 

30                    Adolf Hitler commits suicide after marrying his mistress Eva Braun

 

May

7                      At 23.00 hrs the SS Avondale was torpedoed and sunk off the Firth of Forth in Scotland

                        the last British merchant ship lost to German action. 2 were killed

                    

8 May               V E Day Victory in Europe. Street parties took place across Britain

                      

9 May              The German garrison in the Channel islands agrees to surrender

                       Alice Amelia Lake and husband George Poat Falla and in law John Coombes were free

                       from German occupation after 5 years

 

12 May            British relief troops arrive at St Helier to an overwhelming welcome

 

13 May            The Royal family and allied leaders attend a thanksgiving service at St Pauls Cathedral

 

16 May            British Troops land on Alderney taking 3,200 German prisoners

 

18 Jun             Reginald Robert Lake (my 1st cousin once removed) on a passenger list from Port Said

                       Egypt to New York. Working in Petrochemical industry

                       

28                   William Joyce known as Lord Haw Haw was captured. He was charged with high treason

                       for his broadcasts on German Radio and hanged in January 1946.

June

1                      Britain took over administration of Lebanon & Syria

 

4                      Britain, USA, Russia & France agree to split occupied Germany

                        This decision eventually led to the erection of the Berlin Wall

 

15                    Parliament passes the Family Allowance Act to provide payments to families with children

July

1                      Chile declared war on Japan

 

4                      William Lake appointed Acting Corporal

 

5                      Polling Day in the United Kingdom but counting is delayed for 3 weeks so that soldiers

                        overseas can get their votes in.

 

26                    Clement Attlee beats Winston Churchill in the election and becomes Prime Minister

                        A new MP in parliament for the first time was Harold Wilson

                  

29                    The BBC launch the Light Programme aimed at mainstream light entertainment & music

August

4                      William Lake embarked NW Europe & Disembarked UK

 

5                      The Giles cartoon appeared in the Daily Express for the first time

 

6                      An Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. Within the first 2 – 4 months after the

                        bombings 90,000 and 166,000 people died, 50% on the first day and the rest over time

                        due to acute burns and radiation sickness

 

                        William Lake 14 days leave DIS & 14 days leave EMB                 

 

9                      An Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan between 60,000 and 80,000 died

                        Most of the dead in Hiroshima & Nagasaki were civilians.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

10                    Mongolia declared war on Japan

 

 

13                    The Zionist world congress approaches the British Government about the founding of Israel

 

15                    VJ Day declared Victory in Japan Day

 

16                    Winston Churchill makes a speech in the commons declaring that an

                        “Iron Curtain” is descending across Europe

 

17                    George Orwell’s book Animal farm is published

September

1                      Japan surrenders ending WW 2

2                      British press censorship ended

 

                        Ho Chi Min declares Vietnam indepedence from France

 

8                      USA invades Korea

 

9                      Japanese forces in South Korea, Taiwan, China & Indochina surrender

 

October

2                      Piccadilly Tube Station became the first to be lit by fluorescent light

 

24                    The British Government signs the United Nations Charter

 

31                    William Lake 7 days Camp leave

 

November

5                       Columbia joins the United Nations

 

12                      The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Cordell Hull for establishing the United Nations

 

20                      24 Nazi leaders were put on trial at Nuremburg

 

December

1                      Alexander Fleming & Ernst Boris Chain won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for the

                        discovery of Penicillin

 

4                      William Lake Embarked UK & Disembarked NW Europe

 

31                    Britain receives its first delivery of bananas since the start of the war

 

Undated events in 1945

                        A Grammar School in Windermere reorganised to become the first Comprehensive School

                        in Britain

                        

                        Bernard Lovell established Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire

                       

                        Rev W V Awdry’s children’s book The Three Engines was published the first of the

                        Railway series

                       

                        Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited was published

 

1946

                        William Lake returned to the UK on 23 June 1946