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

Thursday 10 April 1941

USS Niblack (DD-424), which launches depth charges today, 10 April 1941.

Operation Marita/Operation 25: The Germans of the XL Panzer Corps continue to roll in Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941. By the morning, the Germans have regrouped and now are ready to advance south toward Kozani. Capturing Kozani would put the Wehrmacht troops in position to drive to the coast at Larissa or nearby, cutting off the British forces holding on the Aliakmon Line near Thessaloniki. However, there is a lot of rough terrains to cover, things are a little different now than in the drive west against light opposition.

The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH), under the command of Hitler's former chauffeur Josef "Sepp" Dietrich, captures Vevi in southern Macedonia and immediately turns to clear the enemy from the Kleisoura Pass southwest of Vevi. pass This leads to the town of Klidi in the south (it also is known as the Klidi Pass or Kirli Derven). The plan is to take Klidi and then drive downhill to Kastoria in northwest Greece.

SS-Sturmbannführer Kurt "Panzer" Meyer leads LSSAH's reinforced Aufklärungs-Abteilung (reconnaissance battalion) south into the pass, which is defended by scratch forces mixed Australian/New Zealand/Greek formation known as the "Mackay Force" under the Australian General Iven Mackay. Meyer's forces, backed by the 73rd Infantry Division, attack Glava Hill and Delinski Dol, but the Mackay Force is under orders from General Henry Maitland Wilson to "stop a blitzkrieg down the Florina Valley." Today, it does that, stopping the Germans cold.

In the north of Yugoslavia, the 14th Panzer Division of General von Kleist's 2nd Army takes Zagreb. Colonel Slavko Kvaternik of the Ustasa within the city declares an Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Drzava Hrvatska - NDH). Croatian fascist strongman Ante Pavelic returns from his exile in Italy to join in the proclamation, illustrating its Fascist orientation. This declaration of independence triggers an unexpected result, causing Hungary to decide that the Tripartite Pace to which both it and Yugoslavia are signatories no longer bars it from invading the now-dismembered country. Hungary prepares to send its tanks across the border tomorrow, the 11th.

Adolf Hitler and Ante Pavelic' at the Berghof.

Meanwhile, local Communist Party Secretary-General Josep Broz "Tito" (Tito is one of his assumed names taken when the Communist Party in Yugoslavia is outlawed) forms a Military Committee.

To the southeast in Greece, the battle of the Metaxas Line is over. The Greek commander of the Eastern Macedonian Army Section, Lieutenant General Konstantinos Bakopoulos, has ordered the forces holding out behind German lines to surrender. As of yet, the Germans at Thessaloniki and the British on the other side of the Aliakmon River have not engaged in any battles aside from a minor encounter between a German patrol and defending New Zealanders. Both sides took minor casualties, relatively speaking, during the battle, the Germans about 500 men killed.

The German government grows sensitive about the image it is projecting by bombing Belgrade in Operation Punishment. It ends the bombings, and the Ministry of Propaganda warns the media to "omit" sensational comments such as "its streets are covered with corpses of women and children." In fact, Luftflotte IV stops bombing northern Yugoslavia altogether - it hasn't bombed any Croatian areas at all - and turns its attention solely to southern Yugoslavia and Greece.

The Royal Hellenic Navy loses patrol boat A-2 to unknown causes. Axis troops seize Yugoslavian minesweeper Kobac at Sebenico.

Convoy AG 12 departs from Alexandria bound for Phaleron Bay. Previous convoys have gone to nearby Piraeus, which is the ordinary modern port for Athens, but German bombing temporarily has put the port out of commission. Convoy AS 25 (five Greek ships) departs from Piraeus.

British 3791-ton troopship HMS Ulster Prince, part of Convoy AC 3 which departed from Alexandria bound for Tobruk on the 6th, returns to Alexandria and grounds in Great Pass as it enters. It suffers minor damage.

Hungary decides to join the invasion of Yugoslavia today, 10 April 1941, due to the declaration of independence by Croatia - until then, Hungarian leader Admiral Horthy felt bound by the fact that both it and Yugoslavia were signatories to the Tripartite Pact.

European Air Operations: Adolf Hitler is very upset at last night's bombing that gutted the Berlin Opera House. He confronts Luftwaffe boss Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering about antiaircraft defenses, then departs from his Fruhlingssturm headquarters south of Vienna to oversee Operation 25/Operation Marita. While he just as easily could review the operations from Berlin, Hitler likes to give the appearance of being at the front with his troops.

The Luftwaffe attacks Birmingham on the night of 10/11 April, with 206 bombers dropping 246 tons of high explosives and 1183 incendiaries. After dark, it attacks Coventry again. Overall, about 475 people are killed and 700 seriously wounded in the two Coventry raids of two nights earlier and tonight.

East African Campaign: The British now hold the key points in Italian Somaliland, Eritrea, and Abyssinia. However, many Italian strongholds remain in far-flung places. The British 11th African Division advances southwest from Addis Ababa to attack one of them, Jimma. They have to halt at Abaiti on the Omo River, where the Italians have blown the bridges.

At Assab, Eritrea, the Italians watch British troops approach and do what Italians in other ports have done in that situation: they start scuttling their ships:

• 6366-ton freighter India
• 7565-ton tanker Piave
• 9834-ton Sannio
• 57-ton coastal freighter Scillin
• 59-ton coastal freighter Circeo
• 80-ton coastal freighter Dante
• 64-ton coastal freighter Sicilia

The British later salvage India, Piave, and Sannio.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-52 (Kptlt. Helmut Möhlmann) torpedoes 6563-ton Dutch freighter Saleier east of Greenland. The ship goes down extremely quickly, in a  matter of seconds, but all 63 men on board survive pickup by the destroyer USS Niblack - unusual for a ship sinking so fast and during the colder months so far north. Saleier had been dispersed from Convoy OB 306. The Niblack, which is on its way to Iceland and nearby strictly by chance - then unsuccessfully attacks an (apparently false) submarine contact by dropping three depth charges. This apparently is the first US naval combat involvement in the Battle of the Atlantic - though nobody on the German side is aware of it and nothing comes of it, and thus it passes virtually unnoticed by anyone. But it most definitely is the first US combat incident of World War II, and shows just how close the US is coming to open conflict.

The Luftwaffe attacks shipping in the Tyne. A bomb strikes Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Naiad, already under repair, and damages it slightly some more.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 4887-ton British freighter Thirlby about 140 miles northwest of the Butt of Lewis. It is brought in to Loch Ewe in tow.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 943-ton British freighter Busiris off Runnel Stone in Mount's Bay, Cornwall.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 397-ton Dutch freighter Virgo five miles northwest of Bar Light Vessel. It is towed to Liverpool.

The Admiralty, happy that the RAF damaged German heavy cruiser Gneisenau in Brest over the night with four bomb hits, transfers six of its submarines to the Mediterranean.

British Convoy DS 1 departs from Scapa Flow, the first of the DS convoys. It is composed of two troopships and two escorts, bound for Reykjavik. Return convoys are SD convoys.

Convoys T-10 and HX 120 depart from Halifax. Convoy TC-10 is a two-transport Canadian troop convoy that is escorted the entire way by battleship HMS Rodney and other ships as well.

U-401 (Kapitänleutnant Gero Zimmermann) and U-565 (Oberleutnant zur See Johann Jebsen) are commissioned.

Australian soldiers defend Tobruk, 10 April 1941. Just three months earlier, they captured the fortress, today they are defending it themselves. It is one of numerous such reversals during World War II.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel records his thoughts today:

I am convinced the enemy is retreating, we have to push after him with all forces. Target to be made clear to every man is the Suez canal. To prevent a breakout of the enemy from Tobruk, an encirclement has to be pursued by all means.

Forward Detachment Prittwitz (led by Major General von Prittwitz) advances south on the Via Balbia, which runs east of Tobruk and is the main road in the region. At noon, the detachment encounters British troops. Everything is extremely fluid with no clear battle lines, and, just as with British Generals Neame and O'Connor recently, the Germans lose one of theirs due to the confusion. Prittwitz perishes when he is fired upon by them - his driver had driven past the lead elements of his detachment without noticing. Lieutenant Colonel Graf Schwerin takes over the detachment.

Rommel orders the Italian Brescia Division forward from Mechili to take over for Schwerin's force. He also orders the Ariete Division forward toward El Adem. Due to all these troop movements, today is often cited as the start of the siege of Tobruk. The port city is defended by the 9th Australian Division, with overall command under General Morshead. The British strengthen their defenses at Halfaya Pass to the south by bringing up the 22nd Guards Brigade.

Moving his headquarters forward to Gazala airfield, Rommel's biggest problem is one of supply. Some detachments have run out of food and water.

The Royal Navy sends off four destroyers from Suda Bay to be based in Malta. The purpose is to interdict Axis supply convoys operating between Naples and Tripoli. Rommel's advances on land, the British believe, can be stopped - at sea.

Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Abingdon is damaged by mines at Malta. Repairs will take until June. It is the second ship damaged or sunk by mines there recently.

Royal Navy gunboats HMS Aphis and Gnat bombard German positions at Gazala and Bomba.

An Italian convoy of four ships (Bosforo, Ogaden, Persiano, and Superga) departs from Palermo, Sicily for the final leg of its trip from Naples to Tripoli. Another convoy arrives at Tripoli.

The War Office transfers Special Service troops from Malta back to Alexandria. They have been among the troops guarding Gozo Island pursuant to Operation Picnic.

The war is creeping closer. Notice that the news of the capture of British Generals O'Connor and Neame now is being made public. The El Paso (Texas) Herald-Post, 10 April 1941.

Anglo/Irish Relations: Visiting Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies is an advocate of less rigid English relations with Ireland. He has prepared a memo on the matter, and Prime Minister Winston Churchill finds it "very readable." Menzies continues in his diary:

Winston and Kingsley Wood exhibit the blank wall of conservatism. There is triangular prejudice on this matter. Winston is not a receptive or reasoning animal. But they will come to it! [Emphasis in original].

In this instance, Menzies' liberal instincts clash with Churchill's conservative ones. Throughout his diary, Menzies is alternately attracted and repelled by Churchill's very strong personality, and this is an instance of the latter. The bottom line is that Churchill has very definite ideas about how to handle the Irish question, and those ideas do not include being "soft" or "lenient."

Anglo/US Relations: President Roosevelt authorizes the transfer of ten Coast Guard cutters to the Royal Navy. The British will work up the cutters in Long Island Sound through the end of May.

Anglo/Turkish Relations: President Inonu once again declines to join the Allies.

US/Polish Relations: Having met with President Roosevelt, General Sikorski concludes his brief visit to the United States and returns to England.

An IJN B5N in early 1941. The "VI-324" on the tail would change to AII-324 due to today's changes (Famous Airplanes of the World - B5N "Kate", number 32, page 44, January 1992, by Bunrin Do Company via Japanese Aviation.).

Japanese Military: The Imperial Japanese Navy forms the First Air Fleet, composed of all seven of its aircraft carriers. Altogether, they can launch 474 aircraft. The carriers are arranged as follows:

• Kaga - Carrier Division 1
• Akagi - Carrier Division 1, also flagship of the First Air Fleet
• Soryu - Carrier Division 2
• Hiryu - Carrier Division 2
• Hosho - Carrier Division 3
• Ryuo - Carrier Division 4
• Shoho - Carrier Division 4 (when it joins the fleet)
• Shokaku - Carrier Division 5
• Zuikaku - Carrier Division 5

Admiral Chuichi Nagumo is the First Air Fleet's first commander. Of interest to modelers is that the IJN changes all carrier aircraft tail codes are changed to reflect this

US Military: Admiral John Newton brings his fleet back into Pearl Harbor, concluding its "goodwill" missions to Australia and Fiji.

Japanese Government: War hawks Musatsume Ogura, Admiral Teijiro Toyoda, and Lieutenant General Teiichi Suzuki join the cabinet. Admiral Osami Nagano becomes the new chief of the Naval Staff, replacing Prince Hiroyasu Fushimi, who has resigned (but technically remains in the cabinet). Seiichi Ito becomes the new chief of staff of the Imperial Combined Fleet.

Iraq: The British at Habbaniyah Airfield outside Baghdad are getting increasingly nervous about the new government of Rashid Ali. While there haven't been any attacks on the base yet, the Ali government is distinctly anti-British and pro-German. The British War Cabinet authorizes troop transfers from General Claude Auchinleck's command in India to Iraq.

In Berlin, meanwhile, Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering has his eye on Iraq as well. The country fits into the, shall we say, larger war aims of the Third Reich. However, it is far away over air space largely controlled by the British, so even getting airplanes to it is a chore. Goering believes that supporting the Ali government with his Luftwaffe would increase his own prestige within the hierarchy - which of course he is almost at the top of already, but there is a lot of infighting that he worries about nonetheless - so he is thinking of sending some units there. The main problem is that there is no ground support for Luftwaffe planes in Iraq because it is all controlled by the British, so capturing the RAF facilities is somewhat of a prerequisite to Luftwaffe operations. However, the facilities likely can't be captured without the Luftwaffe's assistance.

American Homefront: The Anthony and William Esposito trial begins in New York City. They are accused of the 14 January 1941 killing of a police officer and a holdup victim. The case receives a lot of media attention because the incident happened near the Empire State Building and a visiting photographer was on the scene to snap some pictures right after it happened. The Esposito brothers enter an insanity plea and exhibit odd "insane" conduct in the courtroom.

Hooverville, in Seattle's Pioneer Square, burns down today. A Depression-era shantytown begun about 1931, its burning causes the Seattle Port Commission to condemn all shacks and other rudimentary habitations in the area.

Toronto Birch Cliff Public Schools teachers and students pose with an ambulance they have purchased for the Canadian Armed Forces. The school raised the money for the ambulance and an extra $200, both of which were presented today to the Department of National Defense, 10 April 1941.

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