Wednesday 29 January 1941

US Ski troops during rifle training at Fort Lewis, Washington. They are in the 87th Mountain Regiment. The whole idea of mountain troops in the US is very new, and the men don't have white uniforms that eventually will become the norm around the world.

Italian/Greek Campaign: Greek Prime Minister General Ioannis Metaxas passes away on 29 January 1941 of a phlegmon of the pharynx, leading to incurable toxemia. His successor is former minister and bank governor Alexander Koryzis.

Metaxas remains a very divisive figure in Greece to this day. He also was a man of many contradictions, as he was fervently pro-German during World War I and later came to fear them. Some deplore his authoritarian style and dictatorial policies, while others remember him as a populist who always put Greece and the Greek people first. One thing is for certain: he left Greece in a much better military posture than anyone thought possible. Not only is the Greek army shoving the Italians all over Albania, he also gives the Greek state at least a chance of holding off the Germans along the Bulgarian border with his chain of fortifications known as the Metaxas Line.

On the Trebeshina mountain range, the Greeks turn the tables on the two Italian Blackshirt battalions who took the peaks recently. The Cretan 5th Division of III Corps launches its own attack to recapture the key area that has changed hands several times. However, the Blackshirt battalions defend strongly.

East African Campaign: The British offensive against Italian possessions in East Africa expands today. The South Africans enter Italian Somaliland from Kenya with the 1st South African, 11th and 12 African (local) Divisions. General Wavell remains in Nairobi watching over developments.

Major-General Noel Beresford-Peirse's British 4th Indian Division ends a fake diversionary attack it has been staging against Mount Itaberrè and Mount Caianac, north of Agordat. It also fails to capture Mount Laquatat, which it really does want to take. These are rare failures for the advancing British forces, which otherwise have had little opposition on their advance into Italian East Africa. Beresford-Pierse sends the 1st Battalion of the 6th Rajputana Rifles Regiment to take Mount Cochen, which it does. The Italian troops in the sector, however, are in good fighting form and make plans to try to retake the mountain.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command continues its persistent and fruitless attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz at Wilhelmshaven. It sends 25 Wellingtons to attack it, to no effect. If ever there were a warship that earned its keep by simply remaining afloat as a persistent target, it is the Tirpitz.

After an extended period (ten nights) without major air attacks, the Luftwaffe ramps back up slowly, sending 36 bombers against London. Many Londoners, feeling a false sense of security due to the lack of recent raids, have gone back to sleeping at home. This raid sends many back to the shelters and tubes.

Kids wearing Zoot Suits in Chicago, Chicago, 1941 (Library of Congress).

Battle of the Atlantic: German raider Kormoran, operating 600 hundred miles west of Freetown, at 13:00 sights 11,900-ton British refrigerator ship Afric Star. Captain Detmers of the Kormoran has to fire on the ship when it does not surrender. The Kormoran crew boards the ship confiscates codebooks, takes 76 prisoners (including two women), and, when scuttling doesn't work, finally has to sink it with gunfire and torpedoes.

After dark, the Kormoran crew sights another ship and shells it. This ship, unlike the Afric Star, gets off a distress call that the Kormoran can't jam. Once again the Kormoran crew boards, and, helped by the codebooks taken earlier in the day from the Afric Star, identifies the ship as the 5273-ton British freighter Eurolychus. It is carrying bombers for Ghana (the Gold Coast). Detmers sinks this ship with a torpedo as well and takes four British and 39 Chinese crew prisoners (there are 10 deaths and 28 survivors are picked up later by a passing Spanish freighter). Detmers has to leave the scene quickly because, responding to the distress calls, HMS Norfolk and Devonshire show up. One of the men who is rescued by the Spanish ship, Frank Laskier, later becomes a propaganda hero for the merchant marine. Fortunately for the Kormoran, it outruns the Royal Navy ships in the darkness.

U-93 (Kptlt. Claus Korth), operating in the Northwest Approaches, has a big day. It sinks 4929 ton Greek freighter Aikatern, 5886-ton British freighter King Robert, and 10,468-ton British tanker W.B. Walker. All three ships are part of Convoy SC 19. Everybody on King Robert and Aikatern survives, while four men perish on the Walker.

U-94 (Kptlt. Herbert Kuppisch) is operating in the same general area as U-93. It torpedoes and sinks 4353-ton British freighter West Wales. West Wales is a straggler from Convoy SC 19. There are 16 deaths and 21 survivors, rescued by the convoy escorts HMS Antelope and Anthony.

U-106 (Kptlt. Jürgen Oesten), on its first patrol out of Kiel (heading for Lorient), torpedoes and sinks 2962 ton Egyptian freighter Sesostris. Everybody perishes.

British 8967 ton transport Westmoreland hits a mine in the Thames Estuary and is abandoned by its crew. A prize crew boards and takes it to Liverpool.

German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau continue heading northeast toward a rendezvous with an oil tanker. The weather remains very rough, and the German ships are beyond the range of RAF reconnaissance, so they proceed unmolested.

Convoy FN 395 departs from Southend, Convoy FS 399 departs from Methil.

The Germans continue laying defensive minefields off Norway.

Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Ilfracombe and antisubmarine warfare trawler HMT Polka are launched.

Submarine USS Marlin is launched, the destroyer USS Bailey is laid down.

U-152 (Kapitänleutnan Peter-Erich Cremer) is commissioned.

"Members of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) in a pay queue, 29 January 1941." © IWM (HU 104557).

Battle of the Mediterranean: As the Italian Tenth Army evacuates the Cyrenaica of Libya, the British troops occupy the abandoned Derna. The Australian 6th Infantry Division follows on the Via Balbia, but the Italians have broken contact and left the road full of booby traps. The Italians in Benghazi also are beginning to move west, and the British 7th Armored Division sends units south of the Jebel Akhdar (Green Mountain) via Msus and Antelat to try to cut them off. It is rough going, and in any event, the Italians have a head start.

The Luftwaffe sends planes to bomb the Suez Canal again. Previously, it has failed, as the canal lies at the extreme range of German planes. This time, however, the Germans succeed, dropping mines from Heinkel He 111 bombers.

Anglo/US/Canadian Relations: The U.S.–British Staff Conference in Washington, D.C. officially begins today (preliminary meetings began on the 27th). The subject is the formulation of a joint Allied global military strategy. The general framework of the conference includes a "Europe first" policy if a global war breaks out in the Pacific as well as Europe. This conference will last until 27 March 1941 and culminate in the top-secret ABC-1 report. If any confirmation were needed, this conference by its very nature conclusively establishes that the US is prepared to enter the war on the side of Great Britain - but only when the time is right.

San Francisco, 1941.

Soviet/Finnish Relations: Despite the fact that the Winter War between the two countries has been over for the better part of a year, relations between them remain prickly. Petsamo in the far north is of particular interest to the Soviets because it contains valuable nickel reserves and a new and elaborate processing plant. Petsamo, on the other hand, is Finland's only deepwater port which is free of interference from the great powers. Thus, the area has strategic value as well as simply economic value.

Stalin, who had possession of Petsamo at the end of the Winter War but returned it to Finland, wants the nickel. Molotov has been enquiring about it since 23 June 1940. However, the Germans also want the nickel, and that was one of the major provisions of the trade agreements reached between the two countries that month. Nickel is one of the major reasons that Molotov demanded that Germany take its hands off Finland when he visited Berlin in November 1940, and why Hitler refused to even consider Molotov's demands for joining the Tripartite Pact. Nickel was one of the major contributing factors to Operation Barbarossa, though of course Hitler's obsession with the protection of the Romanian oil fields probably played a larger role.

Today, the Soviets and Finns begin talking about the issue in more depth in Moscow. Finnish ambassador to Moscow J.K. Paasikivi has some negotiating room, as the Finns are more interested in the territory in the south than in the far north. One of the possibilities discussed is a trade of Petsamo for other territory. Marshal Mannerheim is furious and threatens to resign, and this President Ryti quickly quashes the whole idea.

"A group of Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) drivers at a pay parade somewhere in England, 29 January 1941." © IWM (HU 104539).

British Military: Winston Churchill sends a lengthy memo to Secretary of State for War David Margesson. Among many other things, he expands a criticism he has made to General Wavell in North Africa about the "tooth to tail" ratio of fighting men to service troops. He says that "our main objective in this theatre" of the Middle East is the transfer of forces to Greece and/or Turkey. He contemplates having 12 divisions available for this purpose "by July."

British Government: Prime Minister Winston Churchill remains hacked off about Minister of Shipping Ronald Cross making statements that Churchill did not like. Upset at some of Cross' statements, Churchill required that all press comments by "junior ministers" be cleared by him. Today, he casts his net a bit further and memos the Minister of Information, Alfred Duff Cooper. In this memo, Churchill demonstrates his worst authoritarian streak and outright bans Cross from giving weekly radio broadcasts (which presumably is within his wartime powers... sort of). The interesting thing is that he does not (apparently) tell Cross this himself, but instead tells the news outlets not to air him.

Churchill also states in the same memo that he is upset at broadcasts by socialist John Boynton "J.B." Priestley. Churchill states that he "is far from friendly to the Government, and I should not be too sure about him on larger issues." Quite a tacit implication there. Priestley, however, is extremely popular with ordinary citizens - only Churchill himself draws larger audiences - perhaps because he espouses populist left-wing ideas These resonate deeply with the population (which Churchill will find out definitively to his own regret in 1945). This memo eventually leads to the cancellation of Priestley's popular radio talks - though Priestley's son says in 2015 that in fact, it was the Cabinet that disliked Priestley and poisoned Churchill against him rather than the other way around. In any event, the days of Priestley's talks now are numbered.

A police raid just after midnight on 29 January 1941 at the 7566 Club at 7566 Melrose Avenue. Blue laws prohibited the sale of alcohol at that time of day. With no television, prime time radio broadcasts ending early, not much else to do at that time of day for the restless. It looks like there are women there, too.

Soviet Military: First flight of the Tupolev ANT-58 medium bomber.

German Government: Franz Schlegelberger is appointed German Minister of Justice after Franz Gürtner passes away.

Singapore: Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies is continuing his long journey to London and now is in Singapore. In his diary entry for today, he notes that the new Commander in chief of the Far East, Air Chief Marshall Sir Robert Brooke-Popham has "shoulders a little stooped" and his "hair and mustache are both sandy and wispy and a little indeterminate." On the other hand, Menzies likes the governor, Sir Shenton Thomas, who strikes Menzies as "brisk and I should think efficient." He also notes that Brooke-Popham says that, at his meeting with Churchill before assuming his position in Singapore, Churchill had told him to "Hold out to the last, my boy, God bless you" - which does not seem overly optimistic.

Indochina: The Vichy French and Thais continue to negotiate a peace deal under the auspices of the Japanese. An unofficial cease-fire remains in effect.

China: The Nationalist Chinese capture Zhenyang from the Japanese, while the Japanese 4th Cavalry Brigade captures Huai-yang. In the Battle of Southern Honan, the Japanese 11th Army holds its ground against attacks by the Chinese 5th War Area.

Bela Lugosi's "The Devil Bat" advertisement in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 29, 1941.

January 1941

January 1, 1941: Muselier Arrested
January 2, 1941: Camp Categories
January 3, 1941: Liberty Ships
January 4, 1941: Aussies Take Bardia
January 5, 1941: Amy Johnson Perishes
January 6, 1941: Four Freedoms
January 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Plans
January 8, 1941: Billions For Defense
January 9, 1941: Lancasters
January 10, 1941: Malta Convoy Devastation
January 11, 1941: Murzuk Raid
January 12, 1941: Operation Rhubarb
January 13, 1941: Plymouth Blitzed
January 14, 1941: V for Victory
January 15, 1941: Haile Selassie Returns
January 16, 1941: Illustrious Blitz
January 17, 1941: Koh Chang Battle
January 18, 1941: Luftwaffe Pounds Malta
January 19, 1941: East African Campaign Begins
January 20, 1941: Roosevelt 3rd Term
January 21, 1941: Attack on Tobruk
January 22, 1941: Tobruk Falls
January 23, 1941: Pogrom in Bucharest
January 24, 1941: Tank Battle in Libya
January 25, 1941: Panjiayu Tragedy
January 26, 1941: Churchill Working Hard
January 27, 1941: Grew's Warning
January 28, 1941: Ho Chi Minh Returns
January 29, 1941: US Military Parley With Great Britain
January 30, 1941: Derna Taken
January 31, 1941: LRDG Battered

2020

Sunday 26 January 1941

The crew of HMS Wallace with pieces of a Junkers Ju 88 bomber they shot down on 26 January 1941 (© IWM (A 2808)).

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Italians launch on 26 January 1941 their largest attempt yet to recover the strategic Klisura Pass in the center of the front. Greek II Corps, which now includes the 5th Division, struggles to retain control of the pass after effective attacks by the Italian Legnano Division. After picking up some ground, however, the Italian advances lose momentum and the troops fall back.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill sends a long message to his Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Archibald Wavell, in which he elucidates his growing worries about Greece. He writes that the Germans are:

already establishing themselves upon the Bulgarian aerodromes and making every preparation for action against Greece.

Churchill is juggling the competing priorities of Libya and Albania, but it really is a false choice: he has a winning campaign in progress in the former, and basically no chance of affecting the outcome in the latter. He even has admitted recently, to Harry Hopkins, that victory in Greece is impossible against the Germans.

He further writes that:

sustaining of the Greek battle, thus keeping in the field their quite large army [becomes] an objective of prime importance.... [T]he massive importance of taking Valona and keeping the Greek front in being must weigh hourly with us.

The bottom line, according to Churchill, is that Wavell must "conform [his] plans to larger interests at stake" because "the destruction of Greece would eclipse victories ... in Libya and might affect decisively [the] Turkish attitude." In fact, contrary to Churchill's belief, Greece will remain little more than a sideshow to the decisive battles of World War II.

With this message, Churchill makes clear that his overriding objective at this stage is political, not military, and that winning a battle is not the same as winning the war. It is highly reminiscent of later reasoning by Adolf Hitler, who routinely places political objectives before military reality during the campaign in the Soviet Union.

Building N-26 of the 1907 Jamestown Exposition, Fifth Naval District Headquarters communications center at Hampton Roads, catches fire, January 26, 1941. (National Archives and Records Administration NSNorfolk-1941_33 (RG 71-CA, Box 314, Folder B)). The building was a total loss.

East African Campaign: The British continue advancing into Eritrea toward Agordat, taking Biscia.

In Churchill's message to General Wavell, he echoes earlier complaints about what he views as redundant troops in Wavell's command:

Certainly, there is no need to send another South African Division to swell the 70,000 troops of various kinds who are now officially out of action in Kenya.... How can you expect me to face the tremendous strain upon our shipping, affecting as it does our food and import of munitions, in order to carry more divisions this country to the Middle East, when you seem opposed to taking a South African Division which would only have less than half the distance to come.

Evidently, Churchill is having a cranky day. However, the strained tone of his message underlies the strain that the British military is experiencing - despite its absolutely stunning successes in Libya - in the Mediterranean basin.

View looking southeast following a fire. Firefighters managed to prevent the flames from spreading to Buildings N-21 and N-23, January 26, 1941. National Archives and Records Administration NSNorfolk-1941_43 (RG 71-CA, Box 323, Folder A).

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command attacks Hanover with 17 bombers during the night. The Luftwaffe continues with only sporadic raids both during the day and at night.

Destroyer HMS Wallace (Lieut Cdr E G Heywood-Lonsdale) shoots down a Junkers Ju 88 and a Bf 110 off the East Coast, receiving a great deal of publicity for it.

Commander Heywood-Lonsdale congratulates his gun crew aboard HMS Wallace, 26 January 1941. © IWM (A 2807).

Battle of the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe bombs and destroys 7557-ton British freighter Meriones that has run aground on Haisborough Sands, Norfolk (it apparently ran aground and is an easy target). Everybody survives.

Swedish 2023-ton freighter Belgia, running in Convoy FN 92 in the Thames Estuary, is attacked and heavily by the Luftwaffe. There are six deaths and 20 survivors. The wreck eventually drifts ashore at Frinton and is taken to Harwich and repaired. As a salvage, it is renamed Empire Bell.

The Luftwaffe attacks Convoy FS 395 and damages 1177-ton British freighter Gwynwood at the Barrow Deep with near misses. Leaking badly, the ship reaches Gravesend for repairs.

British 586-ton freighter Sandhill hits a mine and is damaged off Blackpool. The ship makes it to port.

British freighter 1568-ton Catford hits a mine off Oaze Bank and is damaged so badly that the crew beaches it. After temporary repairs, the ship is taken to Gravesend for repairs.

Dutch 6869-ton freighter Beemsterdijk hits a mine and eventually sinks off The Smalls Lighthouse (west of Grassholm). There are three survivors and 39 deaths. The crew tries to save the ship and anchors it, but eventually sinks and takes the crew with it. There is speculation this was a British mine, though why one would be there is unclear.

U-105 (Kapitänleutnant Georg Schewe) finishes off the sinking of the burning wreck that is 3564-ton British freighter Lurigethan today. The U-boat also fires two torpedoes at escorting corvette HMS Arabis, but misses. There are 16 deaths, the Arabis picks up the 35 survivors.

Convoy OG 51 departs from Liverpool, Convoy FN 392 departs from Southend, Convoy FS 396 departs from Methil, Convoy SLG 1 departs from Freetown.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Cachalot (Commander John D. Luce) lays fifty mines in Minefield FD 28 off Bud (near Molde), Norway. The Kriegsmarine also lays mine off Norway, with four minelayers seeding defensive minefield Pommern near Stavanger.

A map on the 26 January 1941 New York Times shows the situation in Libya, with fighting constricted to a fairly narrow plateau near the coast.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Italian North African commander Marshal Rodolfo Graziani is told by his intelligence people that a massive British tank force is approaching Mechili. This report is greatly exaggerated, but Graziani decides not to take any chances with his main armored force. He orders a withdrawal despite the fact that the Italian Babini Group is holding off the British. The Italians thus voluntarily give up their most favorable defensive position in Libya on the Jebel Akhdar upland area. This action is described in two different ways: 1) the Italians escape the British 4th Armored Brigade of the 7th Armored Division, or 2) the British "let the Italians escape." In reality, the Italians are not in many difficulties at any point and simply leave before they eventually are forced out.

Graziani makes the decision, however, to order General Giuseppe Tellera, the local commander, to continue defending Derna. The Babini Group is ordered to continue blocking the way west from the area. Tellera asks for more tanks (he has about 50 tanks and the false intelligence reports suggest that the British have 150 tanks approaching Mechili alone when they have only about 50 Cruiser tanks and 95 light tanks along the entire line), but this request is denied. With this decision, Graziani has made it impossible to hold Derna because the British troops can simply sweep around the city now that the Italian tanks are withdrawing.

Thus, the Australians continue outflanking the main Italian positions. The 2/4th Australian Battalion cuts the Derna-Mechili road and crosses Wadi Derna after dark. The Italians counterattack fiercely during the night with the 10th Bersaglieri of the Babini Group at Wadi Derna. They manage to blunt the Australian advance to encircle Derna from the south. The Italians finally are fighting, losing 40 Bersaglieri dead and 56 captured, but it is too late to save Derna. The withdrawal from Mechili uncovers the deep flank of the Derna position. Derna, a town of about 10,000 people, is in serious jeopardy now, particularly since their main infantry force, the 60th Infantry Division "Sabratha," has been decimated in fierce fighting. However, the Italians continue to defend it.

The British plan is to get around Derna and cut the coast road from Derna to Benghazi. This will isolate the garrison and make its surrender inevitable. General O'Connor of XIII Corps gives the memorable order to General O'Moore Creagh of the 7th Armored Division:

You are going to cut the coast road South of Benghazi, and you are going now!

The Luftwaffe begins moving units south to help the Italians out in North Africa. Stab,/JG 27 and II,/JG 27 (Hptm. Wolfgang Lippert) begins moving to Bucharest, Romania as a stepping stone to the Middle East.

Max Schmelling, former Heavyweight boxing champion, makes an appearance on the 26 January 1941 New York Times. As a propaganda hero, Schmelling will take part in the Crete jump in May 1941, quickly leave for medical reasons, and then sit out the rest of the war.

Anglo/US Relations: Wendell Willkie arrives in Great Britain as the latest of President Roosevelt's personal emissaries. He carries a personal, handwritten letter from President Roosevelt which has received a great deal of media attention. The letter contains a poem by American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Anglo/Abyssinian Relations: Churchill sends a message to South African leader General Jan Smuts in which he writes that:

it has become apparent that Haile Selassie stands out as the only possible candidate for the throne of a new Abyssinia. The Emperor is, in all probability, the only enlightened Abyssinian Prince.

Churchill notes that Selassie already has crossed the border and is leading an uprising against the Italian occupiers.

British Government: Churchill, on a very busy day, writes a memorandum showing that he is incensed by what he views to have been an insensitive radio broadcast by a "junior Minister" (Minister of Shipping Sir Ronald Cross) to the United States. He bans all Ministerial broadcasts other than by members of the War Cabinet without his personal approval. This also is an early sign that Cross's position is in jeopardy.

Headlines for 26 January 1941 in The New York Times.

Australian Government: Prime Minister Menzies continues his long journey to visit London, reaching Darwin by air today.

China: The Japanese 11th Army continues moving forward in the Battle of Southern Honan, capturing several towns.

Future History: Theodore Scott Glenn is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He overcomes childhood illnesses to graduate from The College of William and Mary, serves three years in the US Marines, and works as a reporter in Kenosha, Wisconsin. A frustrated screenwriter, he takes acting classes to learn dialogue and studies acting at the Actors Studio. Dropping his first name, Scott Glenn begins working in soap operas, then graduates to film work in 1970. He gets small roles in films like the "The Keep" (1983), "Silverado" (1985) and the film for which he is best known, "The Right Stuff" (1983). Scott Glenn continues to act, recently in Netflix's "Daredevil" series.

The Tiburon, California trestle, 26 January 1941 (Marin Magazine).

January 1941

January 1, 1941: Muselier Arrested
January 2, 1941: Camp Categories
January 3, 1941: Liberty Ships
January 4, 1941: Aussies Take Bardia
January 5, 1941: Amy Johnson Perishes
January 6, 1941: Four Freedoms
January 7, 1941: Pearl Harbor Plans
January 8, 1941: Billions For Defense
January 9, 1941: Lancasters
January 10, 1941: Malta Convoy Devastation
January 11, 1941: Murzuk Raid
January 12, 1941: Operation Rhubarb
January 13, 1941: Plymouth Blitzed
January 14, 1941: V for Victory
January 15, 1941: Haile Selassie Returns
January 16, 1941: Illustrious Blitz
January 17, 1941: Koh Chang Battle
January 18, 1941: Luftwaffe Pounds Malta
January 19, 1941: East African Campaign Begins
January 20, 1941: Roosevelt 3rd Term
January 21, 1941: Attack on Tobruk
January 22, 1941: Tobruk Falls
January 23, 1941: Pogrom in Bucharest
January 24, 1941: Tank Battle in Libya
January 25, 1941: Panjiayu Tragedy
January 26, 1941: Churchill Working Hard
January 27, 1941: Grew's Warning
January 28, 1941: Ho Chi Minh Returns
January 29, 1941: US Military Parley With Great Britain
January 30, 1941: Derna Taken
January 31, 1941: LRDG Battered

2020

Friday 5 April 1940

The Mig-1.

Operation Weserubung: Operation Wilfred, the British mining of Norwegian territorial waters, gets underway on 5 April 1940 when British minelayers set out at 06:30. British battlecruiser HMS Renown, destroyers HMS Inglefield, Ilex, Imogen, Isis, Greyhound, Glowworm, Hyperion, Hero & minelayer HMS Teviotbank depart Scapa Flow to mine the Norwegian coast.

German warships are on their way to Norway, many carrying armed troops. They are disguised as UK vessels, including actual false flags and manning their radio sets with English speakers who identify themselves as "British ship."

Numerous persons sympathetic to the Allies have learned of Operation Weserubung and try to warn the Norwegian/Danish governments and/or the Allies. The Norwegian ambassador in Berlin warns both his own government and Copenhagen. The British also receive quite specific warnings, including the key information that Narvik is on the docket.

Danish Ambassador in Berlin Herluf Zahle sends a memorandum to his Foreign Minister dated 5 April 1940 and marked "strictly confidential" which notes that there is "disturbing circumstantial evidence" of German war preparations aimed at the neutral Danish and Norwegian states.

The British and French hand Norway and Sweden diplomatic notes containing "admonitions" that the Allies will take the steps necessary to deprive the Germans of Norwegian resources regardless of whether Oslo approves. This obviously is related to Operation Wilfred, but the Norwegians misinterpret this to imply that the Allies - not the Germans - are about to invade.

Battle of the Atlantic: It is another quiet day on the Atlantic as the U-boat fleet has been re-oriented to protect Kriegsmarine transports around Norway.

British submarine HMS Spearfish departs from Blyth to join the ring of British and allied submarines around Norway.

Convoy HG 25 departs from Gibraltar.

Soviet Military: First flight of the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-1 at the Khodynka Aerodrome in Moscow with chief test pilot Arkadij Ekatov at the controls.

British Military: General Ironside, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, echoes Prime Minister Chamberlain's "missed the bus" speech of 4 April at a press conference: "Thank goodness Germany didn't attack in the first 7 months of the war - we've now made a fine army." He also gives some unsolicited advice: "German army must do something, or its morale will crack. I believe the great silence is worse to the Germans than anything else."

Swedish Military: The Swedish Anti-Profanity League donates 1500 signs for barracks, which state: "Don't curse. Cursing proves a lack of culture."

Anglo/French Relations: Georges Monnet, the French Minister of Blockade, arrives in London for talks with the British Minister of Economic Warfare, Ronald Cross.

War Crimes: The Katyn Forest Massacre by Soviet troops against Polish officers is under way. Polish officers leaving prisons believe that they are being taken home to Poland. Instead they are taken by train and bus to the Katyn Forest at bayonet point. Some prisoners are killed in their cells and then their corpses are taken to the forest. The corpses are stacked like wood, feet to head, until they fill each van. About 1,000 are killed on the first day, over 20,000 left. Pits are dug, and the corpses are thrown into them.

Turkey: All high school girls are required to obtain military training before graduation, with 11-16 year olds to study sharpshooting, tactics and first aid.

British Homefront: Captured German merchant ship Uhenfels, renamed renamed Empire Ability, is brought up the river Thames. It was captured in November 1939.

April 5, 1940. Washington, D.C. "Informal photo of J. Edgar Hoover, Director of FBI, Department of Justice."

April 1940

April 1, 1940: Weserubung is a Go
April 2, 1940: British Subs On Alert
April 3, 1940: Churchill Consolidates Power
April 4, 1940: Missed the Bus
April 5, 1940: Mig-1 First Flight
April 6, 1940: Troops Sailing to Norway
April 7, 1940: Fleets At Sea
April 8, 1940: HMS Glowworm and Admiral Hipper
April 9, 1940: Invasion of Norway
April 10, 1940: First Battle of Narvik
April 11, 1940: Britain Takes the Faroes
April 12, 1940: Germans Consolidate in Norway
April 13, 1940: 2d Battle of Narvik
April 14, 1940: Battle of Dombås
April 15, 1940: British in Norway
April 16, 1940: Germans Cut Norway in Half
April 17, 1940: Trondheim the Target
April 18, 1940: Norway Declares War
April 19, 1940: Dombås Battle Ends
April 20, 1940: Germans Advancing in Norway
April 21, 1940: First US Military Casualty
April 22, 1940: First British Military Contact with Germans
April 23, 1940: British Retreating in Norway
April 24, 1940: British Bombard Narvik
April 25, 1940: Norwegian Air Battles
April 26, 1940: Norwegian Gold
April 27, 1940: Allies to Evacuate Norway
April 28, 1940: Prepared Piano
April 29, 1940: British at Bodo
April 30, 1940: Clacton-on-Sea Heinkel