Posted on 03/29/2011 5:37:58 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
#1 – “Ampola” ((Pretty Little Poppy) - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#2 - “Song of the Volga Boatmen” - Glenn Miller
#3 - “Perfidia” - Xavier Cugat
#4 - “Frenesi”-Artie Shaw
#5 - “Oh Look at Me Now” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#6 - “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem” – Glenn Miller
#7 - “High on a Windy Hill” – Gene Krupa, with Howard Dulaney
#8 - “New San Antonio Rose” – Bing Crosby
#9 - “I Hear a Rhapsody” - Charlie Barnet, with Bob Carroll
#10 – “I Hear a Rhapsody,” Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f29mar41.htm
Abyssinian deserters turn on Italians
Saturday, March 29, 1941 www.onwar.com
In East Africa... Cunningham’s South African troops take Diredawa, Abyssinia, in their advance west to Addis Ababa. The local Italian population has appealed to the British for help because of atrocities committed by deserters from the native forces after the Italian part of the garrison has withdrawn.
In the Mediterranean... Battle of Cape Matapan. The British give up the chase and return to port. In whole the operation the British lose two aircraft. The training of the British forces is given some credit for the success.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/29.htm
March 29th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Royal Navy announced:
Significant operations took place in the eastern Mediterranean on Friday when our naval formation under the command of Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham encountered strong Italian forces. The enemy vessels tried to escape but several of them were brought to battle. It is presumed that so far at least one battleship of the Littorio class has recieved a direct hit, and two enemy cruisers are believed to be badly damaged. The aircraft of the Royal Navy and the RAF carried out raids whose results are not yet known. Greek naval forces also took part in these operations.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:The ‘Pola’ is found, partly abandoned. After taking off the remaining crew, destroyers HMS Jervis and HMS Nubian sink her with torpedoes.
The Royal Navy has lost one aircraft in the whole of the Battle of Cape Matapan.
ITALY: Rome: The Italian High Command announced:
In East Africa, the battle on the northern front continues to rage bitterly at the new positions east of Keren (Ethiopia). Our aerial formations have bombarded British motor truck columns. Our fighter planes shot down two enemy aircraft in aerial combat. In the earlu hours of Friday morning, British aircraft raided the airfield at Leece (southern Italy), opening machine-gun fire on the installations. There were a number of injuries.
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: Xavier Vallat is appointed to the new position of “commissioner for Jewish questions.”
EGYPT: Cairo: The Middle East Air Force in Egypt announced:
Yesterday in Italian East Africa, British aircraft once again operated forcefully in the Asmara area. In Asmara itself, rail station buildings, railroad cars and motorised columns were hit be repeated bombs. Free French aircraft led an assault on an enemy base between Gondar (Ethiopia) and Asmara and destrpyed a large number of military installations with precision-aimed bomb hits.
ETHIOPIA: Diredawa is captured by South African troops of the British East Africa Command under General Cunningham. The local Italian population had appealed to the British for help because of atrocities committed by deserters from the native forces after the Italian part of the garrison withdrew. (Jack McKillop)
SOUTH AFRICA: Heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44) arrives at Simonstown to pick up gold for deposit in the U.S. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: In an article in the New York Times the Governor of the French Province of Haute Garonne says :
“...we cannot count on the next harvest before mid-July. That leaves ahead of us three very bad months. ...any time after early June we may expect to be at the bottom of our larder. ...the peasants will be resentful. People in the cities will be worse. ...there is a real danger of riots in Toulouse...”
“Amapola (Pretty Little Poppy)” by Jimmy Dorsey And His Orchestra with vocals by Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell; reaches Number 1 on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the U.S. The song had been featured in the motion picture “First Love” starring Deanna Durbin and Robert Stack. This song, which debuted on the charts on 22 March 1941, was charted for 14 weeks, was Number 1 for 10 weeks and was ranked Number 1 for the year 1941. (Jack McKillop)
The U.S. Coast Guard receives a report that the crew of Italian merchantman SS Villarperosa, interned at Wilmington, North Carolina, is sabotaging the ship. The Coast Guard investigates reports that the crews of Italian and German vessels in American ports had received orders to “sabotage and disable” them. (Jack McKillop)
OPOR (Office of Public Opinion Research) asked: “Should the United States take steps now to keep Japan from becoming more powerful, even if this means risking a war with Japan?” Yes - 59%, No - 26%, No opinion - 15%. (Will O’Neil)(135)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 576 March 29, 1941
Battle of Cape Matapan. British destroyers HMS Jervis & Nubian sink wrecked Italian cruiser Pola with torpedoes at 4 AM (after taking off the crew & removing several Breda anti-aircraft machine guns). Fearing Luftwaffe air strikes, Allied ships depart at daybreak after picking up 905 survivors (16 Stukas attack later, unsuccessfully). Royal Navy signals the location of the survivors still in the water allowing Italian hospital ship Gradisca to rescue 160 more.
Libya. After 3 days of sandstorms which have immobilized both sides, Rommel moves more tanks up to El Agheila while Luftwaffe bombs Allied positions (destroying a train carrying vital petroleum for the British armour). German and British armoured cars tangle in the desert between El Agheila and Mersa Brega.
Operation Canvas. Nigerian brigade withdraws, allowing 1st South African Brigade to lead the 11th African Division charge into Ethiopia. Italians retreating from Harar to Diredawa have demolished bridges and blown away whole sections of the mountainside where the road runs 2,000 feet down a cliff. South Africans overcome these obstacles in 2 days and capture Diredawa, 33 miles North of Harar. Diredawa lies on the railway to Addis Ababa (opening the way to the capital) and has an airfield to bring in supplies.
120 miles South of Iceland, U-48 sinks 3 freighters in convoy HX-115 between 6.19 and 8.06 AM. Most crew members are picked up by corvette HMS Dianella. At 5.50 PM 300 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-46 sinks Swedish SS Liguria (19 killed, 10 survivors).
So Rommel’s recon units are now halfway to Mersa Al Brega, and the Brits still report no change in the situation
And the Germans don’t even want to talk about it.
Can’t really blame them. Rommel’s disobeying orders. He’s supposed to hold at El Agheila ‘til May, when the 15th Pz. shows up, and he can set his sights on Benghazi.
There definitely is a “nothing to see here, move along” attitude attached to Libya right now. When Rommel’s position finally comes out I think people familiar with the area are going to be asking, how the heck he got there so fast.
In Libya, Rommel found on his return, the tantalizing British retreat had continued. El Agheila, a dirty fort and watering point twenty miles east of El Mugtaa, had just fallen to Streich’s light forces with hardly a fight on March 24. The British withdrew thirty miles to Mersa Brega, an Arab village straddling sand hills near the coast; it was a tactical bottleneck relatively easy to defend.
The speed of Streich’s advance put Rommel in a dilemma. As he explained in a letter (to his wife), “I’ve got to hold my troops back now to stop them from galloping on ahead.”
According to his directives from Berlin - and from General Gariboldi; he was not allowed to attack Mersa Brega until the end of May, when he would have the Fifteenth Panzer Division too. But his radio intercept company had arrived, with skilled English-speaking operators listening in to the enemy’s signals; and from these signals and Luftwaffe econnaissance Rommel knew that the enemy were digging in and bringing up reinforcements. By May, the enemy defenses might be impregnable. On March 31st he ordered Streich to attack Mersa Brega, regardless of the directives from Berlin. The British abandoned their positions,and Rommel ordered a strong belt of mines and antiaircraft guns installed to prevent them from coming back.
that weekend at Chequers had been brightened by a spectacular achievement of those innocent-looking cryptanalysts at Bletchley. They had established that the Italian fleet was preparing a raid into the Aegean or Eastern Mediterranean on Thursday the twenty-seventh. This information was swiftly signaled to Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham at Alexandria. He put to sea. At noon-thirty a plane from Malta sighted the Italian force. Off Cape Matapan the next day he sank three Italian cruisers and two destroyers, saving the vital British convoy to Greece which had been their intended target. Never again did the Italian fleet seriously bother the British.
Thanks for the excerpts. Good stuff, both of them. The attack on the Italian task force will be tomorrow’s lead story. Now we already have the back-story.
Thanks Homer-can’t tell you how much I look forward to your daily postings.
Still so many unanswered questions, i.e.:
Important questions, then and now... ;-)
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