Children at play in wartime Britain
1944 TIMELINE
1944 – The WAR, The UK, & LAKE FAMILY TIMELINE
In this section I will attempt to give a timeline of events from all perspectives.
What was happening on the war front, what was happening in Britain and what
was happening to Lake family members. I will highlight the
Lake Family events in Yellow and the Axis and Allies events in their colours.
At the end of 1943 Operation Overlord was agreed by the three main allies.
This year saw the biggest seaborne invasion in the history of the world.
January
21- 22 Operation Steinbock (Baby Blitz) by the Luftwaffe on London
24 William Lake 9 days leave . During this leave William tried to teach his elder brother
John (then 38) how to ride a bicycle. Emily his wife, who was very nearly due
to give birth, was watching and was crying with laughter
27 Liberia declared war on Germany
29 Baby born to William & Emily Lake in Kew
February
10 PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system of tax collection introduced
26 Last heavy air raids on London
March
3 British civilian deaths during the war reached 50,324 whilst military deaths
stood at 50,103.
10 Lifting of the prohibition of married women working as teachers
April
5 William Lake 10 days leave
24 All overseas travel is banned in Britain
27 Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia
all arrived in London for a conference
28 Allied convoy T4 rehearsing for the Normandy landings at Start Bay in Devon were
attacked by German E Boats, 749 American servicemen were killed
May
1 A military mission from General Tito arrives in London. His 60,000 strong army
is now the recognized force in Yugoslavia
9 William Lake appointed Acting Lance Corporal
24 Churchill announces that Spain will not be a target in the forthcoming
Allied invasion of Europe. He hoped that Spain under General Franco
would be a strong influence for peace in the Mediterranean after the
war
29 Thunderstorms led to severe flooding especially around Holmfirth in
Yorkshire
June
5 A coded message, the second line of a poem by Paul Verlaine, was broadcast by the
BBC to warn French resistance fighters that the invasion of Europe was about to begin
6 D Day. The invasion of allied troops began the largest seaborne invasion in history.
155,000 troops landed on the beaches of Normandy beginning Operation Overlord.
William Lake was part of the invasion landing with Canadian forces on Juno Beach
(see WW2 Personal Stories for more details of D Day)
13 The first V-1 flying bomb attack on London. The bomb gets the
nickname “Doodlebug”
18 The Guards Chapel across the street from Buckingham Palace was hit
by a V-1, 119 soldiers and civilians were killed.
19 Conductor & Composer Henry Wood died he conducted the Proms for 50 years and
they are now named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts in his honour
July
1 So far 2,500 civilians have been killed by the V-1 flying bombs
4 First Japanese kamikaze attack took place on the US fleet at Iwo Jima
7 RAF bomber command drop 2,572 tons of bombs on the French town of Caen
20 A heavy storm hampers the British offensive at Caen. William Lake involved in offensive
Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attepmt by Claus Von Stauffenburg
August
3 The new Education Act creates a three tier system of secondary education in
England & Wales with Secondary Modern, Technical & Grammar Schools.
Entrance was determined by an 11 plus exam
4 Anne Frank and family were arrested in Amsterdam following a tip off by an informer
12 The V-1 attacks reach it’s 60th day with 6,000 deaths, 17,000 injured and more than
1 million buildings destroyed or damaged to date.
21 The Dumbarton Oaks Conference opened in Washington DC with representatives
from USA, United Kingdom, China, France & Russia this meeting planned the
foundations of the United Nations
25 General DE Gaulle returns to Paris and walks the Champs Elysee
September
3 Brussels, Belgium is liberated by allied troops
William Lake was one of the allied soldiers in Brussels when it was Liberated
In Britain a national day of Prayer is declared on the 5th anniversary of the
outbreak of war.
7 The Belgian Government leaves London and returns to Belgium following the lberation
8 The first V-2 rocket attack on Britain strikes in the Chiswick area resulting in 3 deaths
Chiswick is very close to Kew where the Lake family were living
17 Blackout restrictions were relaxed
October
9 Winston Churchill & Joseph Stalin began a 9 day conference in Moscow to discuss
the future of Europe
23 The allies recognised Charles de Gaulle’s Cabinet as the provisional Government of France
November
12 Herbert Lake now based at the electrical section RAF Henlow Bedfordshire
22 The film release of Henry V starring Laurence Olivier the first work of Shakespeare
filmed in colour
25 A V-2 rocket hits a Woolworths store in New Cross Rd London killing 168 civilians
and injuring 100.
27 The largest explosion ever on UK soil occurred when between 3,500 – 4,000 tons of
ordnance exploded at an underground storage depot at RAF Fauld in Staffordshire.
It left a crater 0.75 miles across and 400 ft deep. 75 people were killed
William Lake passed as Operator Wireless and Line B II
British Empire casualties announced as 282,162 killed, 80,580 missing,
386,374 wounded and 294,438 captured
December
3 The Home Guard was stood down after 5 years with King George VI
declaring to the civilian force that they had “Fulfilled their charge”
15 American band leader Major Glenn Miller missing presumed dead after his plane
disappeared over the English Channel in fog on its way to France
22 William Lake Embarked NW Europe for a course
23 William Lake Disembarked UK
24 A V-1 Flying bomb aimed at Manchester killed 27 people in Oldham
8 miles away from it’s target
Undated events in 1944.
The Olympic Games that were to be held in London were cancelled
The Ministry of works built the first demonstration Prefab house in Northolt
the design was intended to last for 10 years.
(1.2 million were constructed between 1945 – 1951 some are still standing today)
St Jean Church stands among the ruins in Caen