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 12 April 1941

Soldiers of SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Klingenberg's 2nd SS Division Das Reich enter Belgrade, 12 April 1941.

Operation Marita/Operation 25: In an event of international consequence that happens with little fanfare, the Germans of the XLVI Panzer Corps and their allies occupy Belgrade on 12 April 1941. The garrison surrenders at the first opportunity. Before the main body of German troops arrives, SS-Obersturmfuhrer Fritz Klingenberg, commanding the 2nd SS Division Das Reich, sends men across the Danube in rafts to accept the Yugoslav surrender. The Swastika flag flies over what remains of the German legation by 17:00. At 19:00, the mayor of Belgrade hurries over and issues Klingenberg a formal surrender.

Belgrade will become the seat of the puppet Nedić regime, headed by General Milan Nedić. Due to its quick surrender, Belgrade is spared the savagery of artillery bombardment that accounts for the preponderance of devastation of European cities on the Continent throughout the war even in the presence of terror bombing.

Hungarian troops (3rd Army) join the invasion of Yugoslavia.

While the occupation of Belgrade, of course, is a matter of great significance, its fall has been a foregone conclusion. The real issue of decision is playing out far to the south. Sepp Dietrich's 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), still of brigade-size at this time, begins the day being held up in the Klidi Pass. This is the key route for the Wehrmacht LX Corps (Lieutenant-General George Stumme) heading south from Yugoslavia into the Greek interior. This battle effectively decides the campaign in Greece, though much fighting remains to be done.

Snow fell during the night. At 09:00, the Germans, after being frustrated on the 11th by the British, Australian and Greek troops ("Mackay Force") that had hurriedly been redirected to the Pass from the Aliakmon Line to the east, resumes its attack. The LSSAH first takes a hill off their left flank, Hill 997, taking it by 11:00 and wiping out all but 6 of the Australian defenders. These Germans, the 1st Company of LSSAH, then take another hill nearby. The Australians troops begin to withdraw around mid-day, though the Greek troops nearby stay put - though sources are mixed on exactly who did what.

The Germans then bring up assault guns and Panzerjäger vehicles and continue their assault from the two hills they have taken. By 14:00, the Greek troops also are ordered to retreat by General Iven Mackay, and Obersturmbannfuhrer "Panzer" Meyer leads his assault guns forward into hills that had been thought inaccessible. By 16:00, the Germans take Klidi at the southern end of the pass, then spread out quickly to take nearby towns Kelli and Petra. By 20:00, the German armor (six StuG and nine PzJg I) are through the pass and harassing a retreating Greek column, forcing the British to riposte with about 25 tanks of their own. By 22:30, after a very hard day of fighting, the Germans have secured the entire pass, inflicting severe casualties on the defending Australians.

Allied histories cast a favorable light on the battle of Klidi Pass. The defense "bought time for the retreat" of Allied forces on the Aliakmon Line. However, when the battle began, there was no thought of retreating anywhere, and the battle only held the Germans up for two days. Many Greek troops are given the order to retreat too late, and they wind up essentially surrounded by the advancing Germans. The Allied withdrawal is pell-mell, with units intermixed, leading to confusion that remains throughout the campaign. The Allies attempt to form a new defensive line to the south at Kleisoura and begin pulling back their troops in northern Greece toward Mount Olympus.

General Iven Mackay renames his troops from 1 Australian Corps to Anzac Corps to honor the New Zealanders taking part.

The powerful Greek Western Macedonia Army formations in Albania to the west are seeing their lines of communication cut by the German LX Corps advance, but are reluctant to retreat. General Stumme's forces also attempt to broaden their gains to the west. With this German breakthrough, their position is even less secure. However, it is a matter of Greek pride to give no ground to the Italians, so today they only grudgingly begin heading south, blowing up the roads as they leave to slow the Italian advance. The Italians, meanwhile, watch them go without pursuing them today.

The British reinforcement of mainland Greece, Operation Lustre, continues despite the reversals to the north. The Australian 17th Infantry Brigade arrives today at Athens.

The Luftwaffe attacks Piraeus again, bombing and sinking 8271-ton British tanker Marie Maersk. The Italians later re-float and repair her, putting her in use as the Luisa. This sinking continues the devastation wrought on the Danish Mærsk shipping line, which began the wars with a total of 46 ships but dwindles to 7 by war's end, with an additional 14 under control of the US shipping board until 1946. Denmark, of course, is a non-combatant that is occupied by Germany.
The Luftwaffe raids Kozani, the Germans' first major objective on the push south. The RAF is caught flat-footed, putting up no opposition, and there is widespread damage to the town.

The Luftwaffe raids Yugoslav shipping on the Danube and sinks river monitor Drava. There are 54 deaths and 13 survivors.

For his successes in Yugoslavia and Greece, Lieutenant General Alexander Löhr, commander of Luftwaffe IV in Austria, receives a highly coveted mention in the evening's Wehrmachtbericht radio despatches. The Yugoslavs consider the bombing of Belgrade to be a war crime, and they have long memories.

One of the common themes of April 1941 is a large number of ships scuttled to avoid enemy capture. Up to now, those have been primarily Italian freighters in the Red Sea. Today, the shoe is on the other foot as the Yugoslavs scuttle three monitors at the confluence of the Danube and Sava Rivers near Belgrade to avoid capture: Morava, Sava, and Vardar. The captains decide to sink the ships because the water levels are too high (spring flood) and nearby bridges too low to prevent departure. As the crews are taken off by a tugboat, they pass under a railway bridge rigged for demolition and set off the charges accidentally. This causes the bridge to collapse on the tug, killing 95 of the 110 crew from the three ships. The Independent State of Croatia will raise and repair two of the ships (Sava and Morava), putting them back into service.

The Todd-Bath East Yard, site of the construction of Liberty Ships, 12 April 1941.

European Air Operations: With Operations Order 17, the RAF expands its anti-shipping priority to include the area from Norway to Bordeaux. During the day, 20 RAF planes attack Dusseldorf and Gelsenkirchen and also conducts Rhubarb operations over France. After dark, RAF Bomber Command attacks Brest with 66 aircraft and Bordeaux's airfield with 24 aircraft.

Visiting Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, in Bristol to receive an honorary degree, comments on the devastation of last night's Luftwaffe raid:

Bristol is a sad sight - churches blazing and streets of houses in ruins but St. Mary Radcliffe, the "fairest church in Christendom" of Elizabeth, stands untouched among the ruins. So I must say, seemed also the spirit of the university, where many a gown was worn over working uniform, and many learned participants had been up fire-fighting all night.

St. Helena, sunk today by U-124.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-124 (Kptlt. Georg-Whilhelm Schulz) continues its very successful patrol north of the Cape Verde Islands. It torpedoes and sinks unescorted 4313-ton British freighter St. Helena, which is carrying 7600 tons of canned meat and also grain, rice, cotton, and other goods. It is en route from Montevideo and Bahia bound for Hull. All 38 crew survive.

German raider Kormoran sinks 5486-ton Greek freighter Nicolaos D. L. midway between the closest points of Africa and Brazil. All aboard are taken as prisoners.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 901-ton Belgian freighter Arbel just northwest of Land's End, Cornwall. There are three deaths.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 3815-ton Swedish freighter Kexholm south of the Faroe Islands. Everyone survives.

The Luftwaffe sinks grain elevator Chicago at Millwall Dock, London. There apparently is nobody on board.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 4093-ton British freighter Dartford just south of Mumbles Lighthouse south of Swansea. The freighter is towed back to port.

Royal Navy 31-ton drifter HMT Rypa, manned by a Norwegian crew, sinks in Loch Ewe in stormy weather.

German raider Thor refuels from tanker Ill. It now heads back to Germany.

Convoy OB 309 departs from Liverpool.

Liberty Magazine (Canada) Easter 1941: April 12, 1941, Vol, 18, No. 15.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The Germans take Bardia in the morning without a fight. Afrika Korps Detachment Graf Schwerin closes the German landward envelopment of Tobruk. Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel somewhat hopefully orders the occupation of Tobruk as well. A force composed of the 5th Light Division, 5th Panzer Regiment and Trento Division attacks the Tobruk perimeter but is stopped at an anti-tank ditch constructed by the Italians and has to retreat. This becomes known as the beginning of the First Siege of Tobruk (which ignores the fact that Tobruk already has been put under siege by the British in January, but that's history for you).

The Germans wish to move quickly against Tobruk, and they have an excellent source of intelligence about the fortress: the Italians who built it. However, the Italians are very slow to provide detailed information, forcing the Germans to rely on 1:400,000 maps which provide no worthwhile details. General Rommel moves his command post to about 4 km west of the Via Balbia that runs parallel to Tobruk. At this time, his intelligence sources are unclear about the amount of opposition that he faces in Tobruk. While he thinks that there are few troops holding the fortress, in fact, the British have accumulated about 30,000 men there. The Luftwaffe attacks Tobruk and loses three Junkers Ju 87 Stukas.

While the British are determined to hold Tobruk, considered virtually impregnable (but the Italians thought so in January), they fortify Halfaya Pass and the coastal strip nearby to prevent an Afrika Korps eruption into Egypt. There are some minor skirmishes in that area, with the RAF bombing and strafing German columns and the Germans claiming to knock out some British tanks.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Tetrarch torpedoes and sinks Italian tanker Persiano about 30 miles (56 km) northeast of Tripoli. It goes down with 2200 cubic meters of gasoline headed to the Afrika Korps tanks.

A flotilla of four destroyers now based on Malta leaves port to intercept a southbound convoy from Naples to Tripoli. However, the destroyers find no sign of the convoy. The RAF also sends patrols out from St. Angelo on Malta to find the convoy, and they do - but they score no hits while losing a plane and four men from No. 803 Squadron. The four airmen wind up interned by the French.

Four Royal Navy destroyers conduct a patrol off Cyrenaica in Operation MBD 3. However, they find no sign of Axis shipping.

British evacuations begin again, this time in Greece. Four ships, including troopship HMS Glenroy, evacuate an entire battalion of troops, forty army vehicles, and 1000+ tons of stores from Moudros on the northern Aegean island of Lemnos.

The British beef up their naval forces in Gibraltar. Among the ships arriving is battlecruiser HMS Repulse and light cruiser Fiji. Submarine HMS Olympus arrives at Malta, but is in poor repair and quickly is sent back to Gibraltar.

Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Dunnottar castle, cruising off of Mauretania, seizes Vichy French freighter Banfora off Port Etienne (Nouadhibou). The Banfora is taken to Freetown.

In Malta, air attacks continue. Just before midnight, nine Luftwaffe planes strafe the airbase at Kalafrana and drop bombs on the St. Paul's Bay area. Another raid causes damage to the Ta Qali airfield area.

The New Yorker, 12 April 1941.

Anglo/US Relations: Demonstrating once again his political savvy, Prime Minister Winston Churchill confers honorary LL.D degrees from Bristol University (where he is chancellor) on several high-profile visitors. These include visiting Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, US Ambassador John Gilbert Winant, and Dr. J.B. Conant. The ceremony in Bristol is marred somewhat due to the fact that the Luftwaffe conducted a major raid on it last night.

US Army Air Corp General Henry "Hap" Arnold arrives in London for talks with the British leadership about cooperation with the RAF.

US/Greenland Relations: With an agreement in hand to establish bases in Greenland, the US sends three coast guard cutters and some US Marines to Greenland. The German government and (occupied) Danish government protest, but the US government ignores them.

HNoMS Mansfield.

Special Forces: Norwegian-manned HNoMS Mansfield completes its destruction of the Øksfjord fish oil factory near Alta Fjord. Commandos landed at the factory completely the demolition caused by the destroyer's guns. However, they fail to locate the local Quisling leader for capture.

Soviet Military: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin has been receiving a wave of warnings from numerous sources about a possible German invasion to commence as soon as 15 May. While he dismisses the warnings, he hedges his bets by issuing a secret directive to construct fixed defenses on the western frontiers.

An African soldier of the King's African Rifles holding his panga, or machete, circa 12 April 1941 (© IWM (K 45)).

US Military: The US Army Air Corps makes operational the 8th airfield in the Panama Canal Zone.

German Government: Adolf Hitler arrives at his forward headquarters of Mönichkirchen on his train "Amerika." He is just in time to be portrayed in the media as leading his troops to victory at Belgrade.

American Homefront: "Life of Riley" begins its run on the CBS Radio Network. This series stars Lionel Stander as J. Riley Farnsworth. It has no relation to the more famous "The Life of Riley" radio show that begins on 16 January 1944 starring William Bendix.

The Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 3-1, to win the Stanley Cup in a four-game sweep.


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