Wednesday 28 May 1941

The 9th Cavalry passes in review at its new home at Camp Funston, Ft. Riley, Kansas, 28 May 1941.

Anglo/Iraq War: Things begin heating up in Syria on 28 May 1941, which is on the list of British targets because it is considered the gateway to the ongoing battle in Iraq. The RAF raids Aleppo, a key transit hub for the Axis support of operations in Iraq. During this raid, an RAF Blenheim reconnaissance is shot down by Vichy French pilot Lt. Vuillemin of 7 Squadron, 1st Fighter Group (GCI/7) in a Morane 406. This is the first aerial victory of a Vichy French pilot over the RAF.

The Vichy French also send 28 new Dewoitine D.520s of the 6th Squadron, 3rd Fighter Group (GCIII/6) from Algeria via Athens, which unit arrives on 28 May 1941 at Rayak (two planes failing to make it).

The British continue their concentric attack on Baghdad. The main thrusts are from the south (Indian troops from Basra) and west (Habforce advancing from Fallujah). Today, the 20th Indian Brigade captures Ur after a march of 110 miles.

In Baghdad, rioting and looking take hold as the British approach. Dr. Fritz Grobba, head of the German diplomatic mission, cables Berlin with the warning that the British are approaching with "one hundred tanks." While this is a vast exaggeration, it conveys the key message that the city is about to fall. The Luftwaffe mission, Special Force Junck (Sonderkommando Junck) led by Luftwaffe Oberst Werner Junck, has only two Heinkel He 111s left and only four bombs for them. A force of eleven Italian Fiat CR-42 fighters has arrived but is having little effect.

A London housewife gets her washing up to dry, Monday, May 28, 1941 in London. (AP Photo).

European Air Operations: RAF Fighter Command conducts an anti-shipping sweep off the French coast. RAF Bomber Command sends 14 planes to attack Kiel. This is one of the countless RAF raids throughout the war that targets the remaining German battleship, Tirpitz. The planes make no hits.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill instructs General Ismay to begin setting up "Air Squadrons and also at least a Brigade Group" composed of Yugoslav expatriates. A similar agreement is reached with Norwegian refugees.

Churchill also sends a telegram to William Averell Harriman ("My dear Harriman"), one of President Franklin's "special envoys," thanking him for a recent note promising delivery of six Douglas DC-2 transport planes and fourteen Lockheed transports.

A censored war photo was taken by a press agency photographer on 28 May 1941. © IWM (HU 131478).

Battle of the Atlantic: U-107 (Kptlt. Günther Hessler) continues its lengthy second patrol off of Freetown, Sierra Leone. AT 14:52, it torpedoes and sinks 3748 ton Greek freighter Papalemos. The Papalemos is an independent, and the hit on the stern in the port side destroys the superstructure and a lifeboat. Captain Hessler has his men accelerate the sinking with some target practice with the anti-aircraft gun, then sails over to the two lifeboats. In a rare act of kindness, he gives the survivors some food, cigarettes and other provisions after asking them a few questions.

HMS Edinburgh intercepts German blockade runner Lech about 400 nautical miles (740 km) north of the Azores, at the Bay of Biscay. The Lech's crew scuttles it. Some sources place this as happening on 22 May.

The Luftwaffe is active over the Atlantic searching for Royal Navy ships returning from the interception battleship Bismarck. Many of the Royal Navy ships are low on fuel and traveling slowly and without zig-zagging or other precautions. The German planes attack Canadian destroyer HMCS St Clair (formerly USS Williams (DD-108)) and HMS Mashona about 100 miles west of Galway Bay, Ireland. The handful of German planes (Junkers Ju 88 aircraft of I Staffeln, Kampfgeschwader 77) sink the Mashona, and St Clair picks up the survivors.

German flak ship (vorpostenboot) V 1610 "Innsbruck" sinks today of uncertain causes, probably RAF bombing.

British freighter City of Rangoon spots and rescues three survivors of Greek freighter Marionga, sunk by U-103 on 24 May, off Freetown. The U-boats have sunk so many ships in the area recently that there are lifeboats and rafts in many places.

Convoy OB 327 departs from Liverpool

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lightning is commissioned, and destroyer Panther, corvette Cowslip, and minesweeping trawler Professor are launched.

Canadian minesweepers HMCS Kelowna launched at Prince Rupert and Guysborough laid down in North Vancouver.

Polish destroyer ORP Krakowiak (formerly HMS Silverton) is commissioned (Tadeusz Gorazdowski).

Free French corvette Roselys (formerly HMS Sundew) is launched.

U-579 and U-580 are launched, U-183 is laid down.

"6-inch howitzers towed by AEC Matador artillery tractors of 79th (The Scottish Horse) Medium Regiment, Royal Artillery, pass over a bridge near Huntly in Banffshire, 28 May 1941." (Lockeyear W T (Lt), War Office official photographer, Imperial War Museum).

Battle of the Mediterranean: With the British decision to evacuate Crete having been made at the highest levels on the 27th, Commonwealth troops fight rearguard actions as they head south for pickup at Sfakia (Sphakia, south of Canea/Chandia) and other points. Two companies of the Māori Battalion under Captain Rangi Royal in the New Zealand 5th Brigade make a temporary stand at Stylos, beating up the 1st Battalion of the 141st Gebirgsjäger (Mountain) Regiment and 85th Gebirgsjäger Regiment in order to allow the main force to gain ground. Sgt Alfred Clive Hulme (1911-82) of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force wins the Victoria Cross for actions here and elsewhere on Crete throughout the past week. Many other anonymous soldiers also fight valiantly.

However, not all of the Commonwealth troops get away clean. The 800 men of Layforce (so named for commander Colonel Robert Laycock), which landed at Suda Bay on the 26th and 27th, are caught there along with some other units (20th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Battery). At the end of the day, Laycock's men stage a night retreat to Beritiana, but it is too late - most are killed or captured. In all, only 179 of the 800 Commandos of Layforce make it to Egypt. Laycock himself, along with brigade major Evelyn Waugh (the famous author), escape in one of the unit's three tanks.

The Luftwaffe is active over the ports and airfields on the north coast such as Heraklion, Suda, and Rethymno which the Germans need to bring in more reinforcements. This gives the retreating British time to get to the southern embarkation points - but they have to hurry. The German planes sink 667 ton Greek freighter Georgos at Heraklion (Candia) Harbour and 298 ton Greek freighter Aghia Kyriaki at Cape Kephola.

Fallschirmjager heading back to Major Edgar Stentzler’s temporary field headquarters, near Platanias, Kreta, 28 May 1941 (Federal Archive Bild 1011-166-0508-15).

The Italian relief convoy which set out on the afternoon of 27 May from Rhodes arrives at Sitia at 17:20. They are surprised to encounter no Royal Navy ships at all, which they don't realize are all to the south of the island supporting the evacuation. The Italians bring 13 L3/35 tanks and 3000 men of the 50th Infantry Division. This is the first Axis armor on Crete. The Italians ignore the retreating British and hook up with the German troops at Ierapetra.

The Royal Navy sends Force B, led by light cruisers Ajax, Dido, and Orion, from Alexandria to take men off from Heraklion. They arrive at 23:30 and evacuates 3486 men from Heraklion after dodging Luftwaffe bombs, with Ajax hit and forced to return to base. On the way home, the Luftwaffe bombs and sinks destroyer Hereward, with 71 men killed or missing and 85 taken prisoner.

Royal Navy Force C heads for Sfakia. Consisting of destroyers Kandahar, Kelvin, Napier and Nizam, it takes off 608 men without loss.

President Roosevelt's declaration of a National Emergency during a radio broadcast takes precedence over the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck in the Arizona Daily Star, 28 May 1941.

Evacuations from Sfakia generally wait for the 29th. There are 32,000 Commonwealth troops on Crete, which is a manageable number to evacuate, but they are spread out throughout the island and some either can't make it to the south coast or have to fight their way through to get there. Men try to get off every which way they can - motor launch HMML 1030 (Lt W. M. O. Cooksey RNVR)  sinks while trying to escape from Suda Bay.

Greek civilians participate in the attacks on the advancing Wehrmacht. There are snipers, groups of civilians actively participating in the defense of key points, and supply services given to the defending Commonwealth troops. The defense is fiercest around Heraklion. The Germans view such civilian participation as illegal and treacherous, beginning a cycle of hatred between the local inhabitants and the occupying forces.

While the disastrous situation on Crete is being wound up, the British turn to other sectors. Winston Churchill sends Middle East Commander General Archibald Wavell with "observations" about the Middle East which Wavell is much more able to judge himself. Churchill opines that "Everything must now be centered upon destroying the German forces in the Western Desert" considering that "you and Freyberg pronounced situation [on Crete] hopeless." He urges Wavell to fight until he has "beaten the life out of General Rommel's army." He hopes that in this way "the loss of Crete will be more than repaired."

Woman reading to children outside, The University of Iowa, May 28, 1941, by The University of Iowa Libraries, via Flickr (photo by Kent, Frederick W. (Frederick Wallace), 1894-1984).

As usual, Churchill cannot resist some covert digs at Wavell. He notes that "We were all very much puzzled" at some of Wavell's appointments of commanders. It is akin to a baseball team owner questioning a manager's lineup. Churchill notes that, while one such appointment to command troops in the western desert, Noel Beresford-Peirse, "is a good Divisional Commander, it is difficult to believe that he can compare with Wilson [sent to Palestine] in military stature, reputation or experience." One can only imagine Wavell's reaction to such second-guessing from afar.

Wavell indeed is planning his next operation on the Libyan frontier. He signals London that this operation, codename "Battleaxe," will include all available armored strength. This includes the "Tiger cub" brought in by the Tiger convoy of which Winston Churchill is so fond. The 7th Armoured Division will lead the advance. Wavell includes in his message some criticism of British armor - he considers the army's armored cars too lightly armored and inadequate to provide protection against either Luftwaffe strafing or Wehrmacht armored cars.

The RAF attacks Italian shipping off Tripoli, damaging Italian freighters Sebastiano Venier and Marco Foscarini. The master of the Foscarini beaches it near Tripoli.

In Malta, soldiers begin wearing their summer uniforms. The government decides to clamp down on a long-standing issue of soldiers selling their uniform equipment such as boots and shirts to civilians by stamping clothing with the soldiers' serial numbers.

Original capture on the back of this photograph: “The motley tribal army listens to Haile Selassie message after the defeat of 30,000 Italians.” 28 May 1941.

Anglo/US Relations: Hamilton Fish, a New York congressman who chairs the naval affairs committee (and who is not a favorite of President Roosevelt), reviews some data about US cooperation with the British. He reveals that the Royal Navy has filed 132 requests with the US government for permission to have damaged warships repaired at US naval yards. This, of course, violates the rules of war for neutrals, but the US is neutral in name only at this point.

Today, the light cruiser HMS Liverpool adds to the list of Royal Navy ships repaired in the US as it departs from Manila bound for repairs in San Francisco due to damage sustained in October 1940.

South Africa: Prime Minister Jan Smuts officially vests as the first South African Field Marshal in the British Army.

Maximilian Kolbe.

Holocaust: Maximilian Kolbe, a Franciscan friar and a future saint of the Catholic church, arrives at the German Auschwitz camp from Warsaw.

British Homefront: Minister of Food Lord Woolton introduces egg, fish, and milk rationing. He also announces that successful prosecutions under Food Control Orders now totaled 17,319, a sign that the black market is thriving.

American Homefront: Animation workers vote to go on strike at the Walt Disney studios after Walt Disney fires Union leader Art Babbitt. They are members of the AFL Screen Cartoonists Guild.

Original caption: "Bringing mention of 'Mickey Mouse' and 'Pluto' into the picket line, members of the A.F. of L. Screen Cartoonists Build are shown picketing the Walt Disney Studios on 28 May 1941 after a strike call. Some of the placards they carry show pictures of Disney characters and such slogans as 'Are We Mice or Men?'" This incident is known as The Great Walt Disney Cartoonists Strike of 1941. The photo is dated 28 May 1941, though many accounts state the strike officially begins on 29 May.

May 1941

May 1, 1941: British Hold Tobruk
May 2, 1941: Anglo-Iraq War
May 3, 1941: Liverpool Hammered
May 4, 1941: Hitler Victory Speech
May 5, 1941: Patriots Day
May 6, 1941: Stalin In Command
May 7, 1941: May Blitz
May 8, 1941: Pinguin Sunk
May 9, 1941: U-110 Captured
May 10, 1941: Hess Flies Into History
May 11, 1941: The Hess Peace Plan
May 12, 1941: Tiger Arrives Safely
May 13, 1941: Keitel's Illegal Order
May 14, 1941: Holocaust in Paris
May 15, 1941: Operation Brevity
May 16, 1941: Blitz Ends
May 17, 1941: Habbaniya Relieved
May 18, 1941: Croatia Partitioned
May 19, 1941: Bismarck at Sea
May 20, 1941: Invasion of Crete
May 21, 1941: Robin Moore Sinking
May 22, 1941: Royal Navy Destruction Off Crete
May 23, 1941: Crete Must Be Won
May 24, 1941: Bismarck Sinks Hood
May 25, 1941: Lütjens' Brilliant Maneuver
May 26, 1941: Bismarck Stopped
May 27, 1941: Bismarck Sunk
May 28, 1941: Crete Lost
May 29, 1941: Royal Navy Mauled Off Crete
May 30, 1941: Sorge Warns, Stalin Ignores
May 31, 1941: British Take Baghdad

2020

Sunday 13 April 1941

Soviet premier Joseph Stalin presides over the signing of the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact, 13 April 1941.

Operation Marita/Operation 25: While Belgrade officially surrendered on the 12th, the mass of Wehrmacht troops enter the city today, 13 April 1941. It is a hub of activity and the start of a very long and dark chapter in Belgrade's history.

General Henry Maitland Wilson in Athens (actually he usually is in Piraeus) orders all Allied forces to abandon the Aliakmon Line before they are cut off by the XL Panzer Corps heading south from western Yugoslavia. He sends them past Mount Olympus and to a new area further south where the terrain favors the defense. The new defensive line beginning at Molos on the Gulf of Euboea, run through the pass at Thermopylae, and end on the Gulf of Corinth. The main question is whether the British and their allies can get to this 50-mile line ahead of the Germans and garrison it sufficiently to halt the Wehrmacht's panzers.

The Germans in Thessaloniki watch the British go from across the Aliakmon River, not wishing to rush them and biding their time before they cross the river. While the British are retreating, they retain strong rear guards just west of the river.

The main action continues to rest with the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), which at this stage of the war is still of brigade size (about 6,000 men). After having taken the Klidi Pass and advanced well into the Kleisoura Pass, the LSSAH is pursuing a beaten enemy. The Mackay Force of Australians, New Zealanders, British and Greeks is in disarray, with units spread to the four winds and heading south by whatever roads they can find that have not yet been blocked by the fast motorcycle troops of "Panzer" Meyer's LSSAH reconnaissance force.

Members of the Australian 2/1st Anti-Tank Regiment on or about 13 April 1941, after retreating from the Vevi area through the Klidi Pass (Weapons and Warfare).

The Greeks held their ground too long at Klidi, and the other Allied troops basically left them holding the bag. The Greek 20th and 12th Divisions are trapped on Mount Siniatsiko and facing a nightmarish cross-country trek to the south. As the British attempt to form a line of resistance at Mount Olympus, their 1st Armoured Brigade today fights delaying engagements in the Ptolemaida area against the German 9th Panzer Division at Sotir and Proasteion (Proastio). The Germans are barely halted at all, and, while accounts vary, the British lose at least 30 tanks versus the Germans losing 8 - and German claims suggest a much higher disadvantage to the Allies of up to 80 British tanks lost.

This British tank action is intended to cover the retreat of the Greek 12th Division through snowstorms over Mount Vermion, but the Germans are moving fast to cut off as much of that division as they can. They manage to split the 12th roughly in half, and by nightfall, the Germans are in contact with the next Allied line at Kleisoura with much of the Greek part of the Allied Army cut off or useless.

The powerful Greek forces in Albania accelerate their withdrawal south. In retrospect, one can say that they took to long to begin moving, but nobody expected the Yugoslav and British defenses to crack so easily. In addition, the Greek forces have been pinning down large Italian formations which now can join the German advance, so the withdrawal has its drawbacks as well as its benefits.

The Luftwaffe attacks the port of Volos with 70 bombs, causing massive destruction to the harbor facilities. Among the damage is a hit on 7140-ton British freighter City of Karachi. There are no casualties. The City of Karachi is towed to a nearby bay and beached, where it makes a tempting target for further attacks. Another ship, 4968-ton Norwegian freighter Brattdal, also is damaged and disabled. There is one death on the Brattdal.

The port of Piraeus is back in action after the violent Luftwaffe attacks on the first days of the invasion. Convoys GA 12 and ASF 25 depart for Alexandria. However, the Luftwaffe is still focusing on Piraeus and the nearby seas - the German consulate overlooks the harbor and they know how important it is - and today they bomb and damage Greek destroyer Basileus Georgios I in the Saronikos Gulf. The destroyer makes it to Salamis.

The Luftwaffe also bombs and sinks Greek destroyer Psara in the Gulf of Athens.

German radio mentions General von Kleist, whose 2nd Army forces took Belgrade, in the nightly Wehrmachtbericht communique. This is an honor even for a senior general and shows that he is in good favor with the German hierarchy.

Greek officers in Ioannina, 13 April 1941 (WW2 Militaria).

European Air Operations: The RAF performs engine modifications on its 40 Avro Manchester bombers, putting them temporarily out of action. They also are adopted to carry 4000 lb bombs. Otherwise, the RAF sends 16 aircraft to attack shipping off France and points north, and 17 aircraft to conduct minelaying.

East African Campaign: The South African 1st Infantry Brigade advances north from Addis Ababa toward Dessie, while the East African 22nd Infantry Brigade advances south from Addis Ababa. Meanwhile, the Indian 29th Infantry Brigade advances south toward Amba Alagi. The Italians under the Duke of Aosta have bottled themselves up in mountain fortress, and while the British control the main cities, the Italians remain an oppressive presence.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-108 (K.Kapt. Klaus Scholtz), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 16,444-ton armed merchant cruiser HMS Rajputana in the Denmark Strait west of Reykjavik, Iceland. The ship sinks in about an hour. There are 42 deaths, including the Commodore of Convoy HX 117 (which it recently had left), while about 280 men are saved by destroyer HMS Legion. All else aside, the loss is serious to the Royal Navy because it depends on these AMCs to free up its cruisers and capital ships for other, less mundane, tasks. The Rajputana thus joins her sister ship HMS Rawalpindi on the bottom.

U-124 (Kptlt. Georg-Whilhelm Schulz) continues its highly successful fourth patrol north of the Cape Verde Islands by sinking another ship. This one is 4823-ton British freighter Corinthic. Kptlt. Shulz's first torpedo fails to explode - a fairly common occurrence in northern waters - but the second explodes.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 6591-ton British freighter Baron Belhaven at the mouth of the Bristol Channel off Milford Haven. The ship is towed to that port. There are four deaths.

OB 310 departs from Liverpool.

SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Klingenberg, a company commander in the Das Reich Division’s reconnaissance battalion responsible for the timely and peaceful capture of Belgrade on 12/13 April 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies records in his diary that everyone at Chequers, including President Roosevelt's special envoy W. Averell Harriman, is "depressed by the news of what I call the 'botch' in Libya." He is too polite to note in his diary, of course, that he was the only one at the time to call into question Churchill's fixation on transferring troops from the winning campaign in Libya to the almost inevitable defeat in Greece.

The First Siege of Tobruk is underway. The Italians finally give Afrika Korps commander Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel blueprints of the port fortress' defenses so that he can plan his attacks better.

The Australian 9th Division (General Morshead) remains trapped in Tobruk, and no relief is in sight. The Germans, astounded by their quick advance, become confident and attempt to seize as much of Egypt as they can before the British and Australian troops return from Greece. Rommel orders Forward Detachment Knabe to take Sollum and then advance toward Marsa Matruh. The Ariete Division advances to El Adem while Knabe occupies Fort Capuzzo. The next British blocking position is at Sollum as the Germans basically roll up the British gains of Operation Compass.

The Australians bottled up in Tobruk have something to say about all this, however. They repulse an attack on a key road junction south of Tobruk. After dark, the Germans infiltrate through the Tobruk wire defense, but a fierce local counterattack kills a dozen Germans and sends the rest fleeing. Basically, the Australians let the Germans know that they are going to fight it out in the port city. Without taking Tobruk, Rommel's advance cannot hope to advance far into Egypt.

The RAF bombs Tripoli Harbor, bombing and destroying medium-sized Italian tanker Santa Giulia. There is one death.

The Luftwaffe raids Tobruk Harbor and damages anti-submarine whaler Skudd IV just outside the port. The whaler makes it back into Tobruk in tow.

The Luftwaffe bombs Malta just after midnight on the 14th. The bulk of the destruction takes place at Mdina and nearby areas, but Luqa and some areas along the coast also are hit. It is a "lucky" raid for the British because many of the bombs narrowly miss causing much worse damage. For instance, bombs hit a large shelter protecting a hundred people, cut all escape unharmed.

Malta is facing another, more insidious problem than daily bombing raids. The constant action is wearing out the antiaircraft guns that are the main source of protection. In addition, there are not enough anti-aircraft soldiers, so many guns are manned by "amateurs" or they won't be operated at all.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Eagle completes its transit of the Suez Canal and re-embarks its two Swordfish squadrons that had been flying out of Port Sudan.

German soldiers enter Belgrade, April 13th 1941.

Soviet/Japanese Non-Aggression Pact: The two nations sign a 5-year non-aggression pact in Moscow. The Pact recognizes existing borders, and from the Japanese standpoint is desirable because the Soviets finally recognize Japanese control of Manchukuo (Manchuria). It is not an agreement like the Tripartite Act, in which one party agrees to come to the aid of the other when acted, just a promise not to join an attack on the other country. In some ways, the course of World War II will turn on which side observes this treaty, and which does not. In grand strategic terms, the Pact will free each party to cast their military eyes elsewhere. The Pact is almost entirely the doing of Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka, who negotiated it at the end of his visit to Europe.

President Roosevelt takes notice of this development and orders less focus to be placed on the Atlantic. It is clear to everyone that Japan would only desire this Pact if it were focusing its military ambitions to the south.

Vatican: Pope Piux XII broadcasts an Easter appeal calling for an end to terror attacks against population centers. He also obliquely asks the Germans to follow the Golden Rule, saying:

let your conscience guide you in dealing justly, humanely and providently with the peoples of occupied territories. Do not impose upon them burdens which you in similar circumstances have felt or would feel to be unjust.

Hitler is no fan of the Pope but does recognize that deposing or harming him would be politically disadvantageous.

Annie Jump Cannon.

American Homefront: Annie Jump Cannon passes away. She is an astronomer who created the Harvard Classification Scheme which for the first time organizes stars into categories based on their temperatures. Cannon personally classified over 225,000 stars during her career, publishing her work over a span of more than 40 years, from 1881 to 1924. She is said to have been able to classify up to three stars a minute.

Future History: Michael Stuart Brown is born in Brooklyn New York. He will become a top geneticist and win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Joseph L. Goldstein in 1985 for describing the regulation of cholesterol metabolism.

A locomotive of the Santa Fe Railroad at Topeka, 13 April 1941 (Ray Hilner via The Santa Fe Railway Historical and Modeling Society).

April 1941
April 1, 1941: Rommel Takes Brega
April 2, 1941:Rommel Takes Agedabia
April 3, 1941: Convoy SC-26 Destruction
April 4, 1941: Rommel Takes Benghazi
April 5, 1941: Rommel Rolling
April 6, 1941: Operation Marita
April 7, 1941: Rommel Takes Derna
April 8, 1941: Yugoslavia Crumbling
April 9, 1941: Thessaloniki Falls
April 10, 1941: USS Niblack Attacks
April 11, 1941: Good Friday Raid
April 12, 1941: Belgrade and Bardia Fall
April 13, 1941: Soviet-Japanese Pact
April 14, 1941: King Peter Leaves
April 15, 1941: Flying Tigers
April 16, 1941: Battle of Platamon
April 17, 1941: Yugoslavia Gone
April 18, 1941: Me 262 First Flight
April 19, 1941: London Smashed
April 20, 1941: Hitler's Best Birthday
April 21, 1941: Greek Army Surrenders
April 22, 1941: Pancevo Massacre
April 23, 1941: CAM Ships
April 24, 1941: Battle of Thermopylae
April 25, 1941: Operation Demon
April 26, 1941: Operation Hannibal
April 27, 1941: Athens Falls
April 28, 1941: Hitler Firm about Barbarossa
April 29, 1941: Mainland Greece Falls
April 30, 1941: Rommel Attacks

2020

Saturday 15 March 1941

A dead child in Clydebank. This picture of the aftermath of the Clydebank Blitz was censored during the war. On or about 15 March 1941.

Italian/Greek Campaign: The first phase of the Italian Primavera Offensive ends today, 15 March 1941. At Mussolini's insistence, ground attacks continue, but the main effort now is Italian artillery barrages. The offensive is a failure, but at least it is not a catastrophe like the opening offensive of the war in October, when the Italians not only failed to advance but were forced to retreat ("We are advancing to the rear!"). The Italian lines hold while the Generals bring up reinforcements and plan new attacks. Responding to recent strong Regia Aeronautica activity, the RAF attacks Italian airfields at Berat and Valona.

Mussolini knows by this point that he cannot lose this war because the Wehrmacht is just over the horizon and the weather is improving. However, if he is to regain any semblance of equality with Hitler, Mussolini must pull off some kind of military achievement in the few weeks that remain before the German tide washes over the battlefield. Thus, he has every incentive to throw his men into further pointless battles that wash the mountain crags and gullies with their blood, in the vague hope that suddenly his troops will find some weakness in the Greek lines and turn a disaster into an honorable campaign.

East African Campaign: Lieutenant-General William Platt finally has his forces arranged to attack the Italian strong point of Keren again. At 07:00, the 4th Indian Infantry Division begins attacking from Cameron Ridge, on the left side of Dongolaas Gorge. Their objectives are Sanchil, Brig's Peak, Hog's Back and the three peaks of Mount Sammana - essentially, the heights overlooking the gorge. The main problem for the Indian troops is that there is no cover - they are exposed to Italian fire from above, and often from all sides. Both sides take heavy casualties in this attack. The RAF sends Blenheim and Wellesley bombers over the battlefield, but bombs do little against the rocks and gravel.

On the right side of the Dongolaas Gorge, the 5th Indian Infantry and 2nd Highland Light Infantry also attack. As on the left, the problem for the British is the fact that the Italians have the high ground and can shoot down on soldiers advancing over bare rock. The British forces make little progress on this site, either. However, after dark, the 9th Brigade makes progress and attacks the Pimple and Pinnacle features. After a vicious battle, the Indian troops take the Pinnacle. However, the Italian forces at Fort Dologorodoc remain intact and plan a counterattack in the morning.

While Platt attacks the strong Italian defenses at Keren, he also wants to flank the strong point and cut its lines of communications. The Indian troops of 4/16 Punjab probe the Italian defenses on Engiahat and find them to be very strong. The British bring up artillery for an assault on Engiahat, while a Foreign Legion battalion moves up to occupy Mount Gegghiro and free troops for the assault on Engiahat.

The Glasgow Herald reported on the recent heavy Luftwaffe raids on Glasgow and Clydebank, 15 March 1941.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command puts 21 bombers over Dusseldorf. Another 37 aircraft attack the U-boat pens at Lorient.

The Luftwaffe attacks London with 101 bombers, losing two Heinkel He 111s.

Glasgow and Clydebank begin recovering from the Clydebank Blitz of 13-15 March. The authorities later calculate that 528 people have been killed and 617 seriously injured in Clydebank, and 1200 killed and 1100 seriously injured in all of Clydeside. Glasgow is calculated as having about 650 people killed. The massive number of people made homeless in Clydebank are dispersed to surrounding localities.

"Distribution of people made homeless by the raids who were evacuated from Clydebank, 17 March 1941." National Records of Scotland, ED31/528.

Battle of the Atlantic: Operating in the Atlantic shipping lanes near the Cape Verde Islands, German heavy cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst only have a few days left to find targets. Scheduled to head to Brest on the 18th, they have little time to find more victims. Normally, a few days at sea in the vast Atlantic would pass without incident, and the ships would make a quick run to the coast. However, Admiral Lütjens gets lucky. With his two tankers trailing him, Lütjens spots a dispersed convoy and decides to go to work.

The bait is tankers and other merchant shipping without an escort. They have been dispersed from Convoy OB 294. Gneisenau captures three and sinks a fourth, while Scharnhorst sinks some ships, too:

• 5688-ton Norwegian tanker Bianca (captured, all survive)
• 8046-ton British tanker San Casmiro (captured, two crew are taken POW on Gneisenau)
• 6405-ton Norwegian tanker Polykarp (captured)
• 4388-ton British freighter Royal Crown (sunk, all survive)
• 4564-ton British freighter Myson (sunk, all survive)
• 4507-ton British freighter Rio Dorado (sunk, all perish)
• 7139-ton British tanker British Strength (sunk, two dead, rest POWs)
• 6554-ton British tanker Athelfoam (two dead, rest POWs)
• 6197-ton British tanker Simnia (sunk, three dead, rest POWs).

March 1941

March 1, 1941: Rettungsboje
March 2, 1941: Oath of Kufra
March 3, 1941: Germans in Bulgaria
March 4, 1941: Lofoten Islands Raid
March 5, 1941: Cooperation With Japan
March 6, 1941: Battle of Atlantic
March 7, 1941: Prien Goes Under
March 8, 1941: Cafe de Paris
March 9, 1941: Italian Spring Offensive
March 10, 1941: Humanitarian Aid
March 11, 1941: Lend Lease Become Law
March 12, 1941: A New Magna Carta
March 13, 1941: Clydeside Wrecked
March 14, 1941: Leeds Blitz
March 15, 1941: Cruisers Strike!
March 16, 1941: Kretschmer Attacks
March 17, 1941: Happy Time Ends
March 18, 1941: Woolton Pie
March 19, 1941: London Hit Hard
March 20, 1941: Romeo and Juliet
March 21, 1941: Plymouth Blitz
March 22, 1941: Grand Coulee Dam
March 23, 1941: Malta Under Siege
March 24, 1941: Afrika Korps Strikes!
March 25, 1941: Yugoslavia Joins The Party
March 26, 1941: Barchini Esplosivi
March 27, 1941: Belgrade Coup
March 28, 1941: Cape Matapan Battle
March 29, 1941: Lindbergh Rants
March 30, 1941: Commissar Order
March 31, 1941: Cookie Bombs

2020

Tuesday 18 February 1941

HMS Dido, first of the Dido class of Royal Navy cruisers, in the Firth of Forth during February 1941.

Italian/Greek Campaign: There is little ground fighting aside from artillery barrages on 18 February 1941. The RAF raids Italian airfields in the Dodecanese Islands.

East African Campaign: In Abyssinia, the South African forces from Kenya have been advancing on Mega for some time. Today, they quickly take it, netting about a thousand prisoners. This opens the main road to Addis Ababa. On the Juba River line, the Italians counterattack the South African 1st Infantry Brigade.

European Air Operations: Activity is light today again due to the continuing poor weather. A few Luftwaffe planes drop a few bombs and strafe a train in East Anglia.

RAF Bomber Command bombed Basel, Switzerland on 16 December 1940, killing four women. It also bombed Zurich on 22 December, killing 22 people. Today, the British ambassador delivers a note to the Swiss Federal Council in Bern expressing "deep regret" for these attacks and agreeing to pay for damages. Later scholarship suggests that at least the first bombing wasn't quite as accidental as the British pretended at the time; they were targeting a ball-bearing factory in Basel which was suspected of supplying the German war machine. As with many aerial attacks of the time, the bombers completely missed the factory and hit a residential area instead.

U-203 is commissioned on 18 February 1941. It is a Type VIIC U-boat. Its armament is  4 x 21 Inch (533mm) Torpedo Tubes (Bow) (14 Torpedoes or 26 TMA Mines) 1 x 3.5 Inch (88mm) Deck Gun and Various AA Guns. The complement is four officers and 40-56 enlisted men.

Battle of the Atlantic: Admiral Lütjens, commanding Operation Berlin in the North Atlantic, searches today for eastbound Convoy HX 111 in the shipping lanes. He is ready for action but finds nothing. He intends to keep searching tomorrow.

U-96 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Lehmann-Willenbrock) is having a successful third patrol out of Lorient. at 02:27, it puts a torpedo into 5589-ton British freighter Black Osprey, a straggler from Convoy HX 107. When the ship doesn't sink immediately, Lehmann-Willenbrock puts a second torpedo into it and it sinks at 02:39. That does the trick. Despite being in a convoy, due to the poor weather, there are only 11 survivors while 26 men perish. Many of the survivors are half-dead from exposure when found by Norwegian freighter Mosdale after being adrift for only 53 hours.

U-103 (Kptlt. Viktor Schütze) also is having a successful patrol. It torpedoes and sinks 5459-ton British freighter Seaforth. All 59 men on board perish.

The Luftwaffe attacks and damages 10,354-ton Dutch tanker Taria in the Northwest Approaches. The tanker makes it to Rothesay Bay.

The 8651-ton refrigerated cargo ship Duquesa (renamed Herzogin upon capture by the Germans), known to the Kriegsmarine as a "floating delicatessen" due to its extensive supplies of fresh meat and dairy products, is scuttled in the south Atlantic by supply ship Nordmark. This is due to no more fuel being available to maintain its refrigeration systems.

Vichy French 286-ton auxiliary minesweeper Marie Gilberte (AD 158) is lost this date from unknown causes.

In Convoy SC 21, British 4297-ton steel/vehicles freighter Middleton collides with Norwegian freighter Tungsha. The Middleton gets the worse of the encounter and sinks, but the crew survives.

Convoy OB 288 departs from Liverpool, Convoy SC 23 departs from Halifax, convoy SL 66 departs from Freetown.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Gurkha (G 63, Commander Charles N. Lentaigne) and corvette HMS Veronica (K 37) are commissioned.

U-203 (Kapitänleutnant Rolf Mützelbur) is commissioned, U-502 is launched.

Harbor tug USS Noka (YN-54), acquired and commissioned 18 February 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: General Rommel's forces in Tripolitania pursuant to Operation Sunflower receive their new title: Afrika Korps. General Rommel formally organizes the 5th Light Division in Tripolitania. Already his forces have encountered advance British forces at Sirte, but the British have stopped advancing.

The Italian air force stages a massive raid against Benghazi. Combined with other recent raids to mine the harbor, this compels the British to close the port and rely upon Tobruk and other ports further east. Since the British are not advancing any more, this is not a major problem.

In any event, the British are looking east, not west. British Middle East Commander General Archibald Wavell briefs General Thomas Blamey, General Officer Commanding I Australian Corps, on his plans for Greece. Wavell is planning to send 2nd New Zealand Division, the 1st Armored Brigade, the Independent Polish Brigade, and the 6th and 7th Australian Divisions, all commanded by the 1st Australian Corps. This is to be called "Lustre Force."

Wavell tells Blamey that he already has talked to Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies about this - which, if so, Menzies only refers to obliquely in his voluminous diary (and he has quite a bit to say about it when he finally reaches London later in February). They did indeed talk recently in Cairo, though whether or not Wavell told Menzies about the extent of this operation is unknown. Menzies might choose not to discuss the issue in his diary for security concerns (though he talks about everything else), so its absence there is not determinative. However, just how honest Wavell is being when he implies the Australian government is already solidly behind this plan remains somewhat murky.

New Zealand Major General Bernard Freyberg already has been briefed about this Lustre Force operation, and much later comments:

There was no question of our being asked if we agreed. We attended and were given instructions to get ready to go … At that meeting my opinion was never asked. I was told the bare facts … In any case I never expected to be asked my opinion by the Commander-in-Chief [Wavell]. He was far from co-operative. He had the secrecy mania.

David Horner, High Command — Australia’s Struggle for an Independent War Strategy, 1939–1945, Sydney, 1982, p.67. In Wavell's defense, he knows about Ultra and is honor-bound to treat the source of his information with the utmost secrecy.

The Luftwaffe mines the Suez Canal again. The first operation was quite successful, and so is this one. Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Formidable is ready to pass the canal to join the Mediterranean Fleet, but this keeps it in the Red Sea.

The Free French under Colonel Leclerc in southwest Libya continue investing the fortress at Kufra. The fortress of El Tag is well-defended with hundreds of soldiers, but the reserve captain commanding the Italian troops is unprepared. The French have the advantage of a 75 mm field gun which is firing away from 3 km away, as well as mortars sited 1.5 km away.

In Malta, the Admiralty declares a wide zone between North Africa, Italy, and Sardinia an area where surface vessels can be attacked on sight. This greatly expands the area from the original unrestricted warfare zone in the Adriatic.

"HMS SCIMITAR (H21) on escort duty in the North Atlantic." Photo taken 18 February 1941, convoy ships in the distance. © IWM (HU 110297).

Battle of the Pacific: Thousands of Australian troops arrive at Singapore aboard the Queen Mary. The men are from General Gordon Bennett's Australian 8th Infantry Division, including parts of the 22nd Infantry Brigade (2/18th, 2/19th, and 2/20th Battalions).

Norwegian/Finnish Relations: Oberst Erich Buschenhagen, Norwegian military Chief of Staff, visits Finland for consultations. The two countries share a border in the far north and thus have mutual defense issues. However, the real purpose of the talks is to probe Finnish willingness to join Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union.

Panzer Deine Waffe!

German Military: Adolf Hitler calls a meeting at the Berghof relating to tank designs in the Panzerwaffe (armored forces). He asks the Generals and industry men there to up-gun the Mark III and Mark IV tanks - the main battle tanks of the Wehrmacht, the Panzer I and II now being considered obsolete. Specifically, he wants a 60 mm gun in the Panzer III and a 75 mm gun in the Panzer IV. The tank designers object. General Keitel also objects that the project would require 20,000 skilled workers that are not available. Hitler brooks no objections, however, and tells everyone to get moving on the project, find men for the work and train them. This is a critical decision that dramatically improves the Wehrmacht's prospects in Operation Barbarossa.

This is a significant meeting because it punctures holes in two pet theories by some historians. First, apparently, there is no mention at this meeting of building a much larger tank. This explodes the claims by some latter-day historians that Hitler ordered work done on the Tiger tank due to British tanks encountered in France almost a year before this meeting. The urgency lies in simply improving the existing stock of panzers, which the military leaders agree should be good enough already but, well, improvements are never a bad thing, so why not?

Second, the meeting shows that, at least at this point in the war, Hitler really does have better ideas than his generals and others in some military areas. In hindsight, there is absolutely no question that the panzers need to be upgraded in order to tackle the tasks allotted to them. While the Wehrmacht has all sorts of difficulties later in the year, they would have been far worse if the work had not begun now on improving the panzerwaffe. Not upgrading the panzers before Operation Barbarossa would have been a cataclysmic error - and much more work should have been done in this error beyond simply putting new guns in the existing panzers.

US Military: The US Coast Guard Reserve is established.

Rear Admiral William P. Blandy becomes Chief of the Bureau of Ordnance.

This is a picture from a Historic American Buildings Survey by photographer George Neuschafer taken on 18 February 1941. This is the Morris-Goodwin House, Fort Elfsboro Road, Salem, Salem County, NJ. (Library of Congress).

US Government: Averill Harriman becomes President Roosevelt's latest choice to be his special representative in London.

Australian Government: Prime Minister Menzies continues his epic journey from Melbourne to London. Today, he flies from Lagos to Freetown, which he describes as "a considerable and modern looking town with a fine spacious harbor." In a great coincidence (see above), Menzies repeats his disdain for Wavell:

It all takes me back to the Libyan campaign - Wavell will get a peerage and a place in history, while O'Connor will get a C.B.!

Holocaust: IG Farben meets with Schlesien-Benzin Co. The topic is creating a Buna Werke (factory) to manufacture synthetic oil. The locations discussed Auschwitz, which one of the Schlesien-Benzin directors (Josenhans) comments:

The inhabitants of Auschwitz consist of 2000 Germans, 4000 Jews and 7000 Poles... The Jews and Poles, if industry is established there, will be turned out, so that the town will then be available for the staff of the factory... A concentration camp will be built in the immediate neighbourhood of Auschwitz for the Jews and Poles.

There already is a camp at Auschwitz, but the company men are dismayed by the quality of the potential labor force there. However, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering also approves the use of the Auschwitz workers today and feels they are good enough, so construction is soon underway.

Spanish Homefront: Fires have been raging at Santander. They leave 35,000 people homeless. This gives some strength to Francisco Franco's arguments to Hitler that Spain is not ready to enter the conflict.

Dutch Homefront: The atmosphere remains tense in Amsterdam, where German soldiers and Dutch police have been battling to retain control. While not quite an uprising, there have been numerous street incidents over the past week, with rebels taking control of certain locations.

Thomas Maskell Store, Main & Pine Streets, Greenwich, Cumberland County, NJ, 18 February 1941 (George Neuschafer, Library of Congress).

February 1941

February 1, 1941: US Military Reorganization
February 2, 1941: Wehrmacht Supermen
February 3, 1941: World Will Hold Its Breath
February 4, 1941: USO Forms
February 5, 1941: Hitler Thanks Irish Woman
February 6, 1941: Operation Sunflower
February 7, 1941: Fox Killed in the Open
February 8, 1941: Lend Lease Passes House
February 9, 1941: Give Us The Tools
February 10, 1941: Operation Colossus
February 11, 1941: Afrika Korps
February 12, 1941: Rommel in Africa
February 13, 1941: Operation Composition
February 14, 1941: Nomura in Washington
February 15, 1941: Churchill's Warning
February 16, 1941: Operation Adolphus
February 17, 1941: Invade Ireland?
February 18, 1941: Panzerwaffe Upgrade
February 19, 1941: Three Nights Blitz
February 20, 1941: Prien's Farewell
February 21, 1941: Swansea Blitz Ends
February 22, 1941: Amsterdam Pogrom
February 23, 1941: OB-288 Convoy Destruction
February 24, 1941: Okuda Spies
February 25, 1941: Mogadishu Taken
February 26, 1941: OB-290 Convoy Destruction
February 27, 1941: Operation Abstention
February 28, 1941: Ariets Warns Stalin

2020