Posted on 04/02/2011 6:16:54 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/apr41/f02apr41.htm
Rommel flies to troops urging advance
Wednesday, April 2, 1941 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... The Axis advance begins to gather momentum. Abegabia is taken and the Axis forces now have the option of striking out across Cyrenaica on various routes or following the coast. The German units divide into three columns taking two main routes to Msus and Mechili. Italian forces and a small German unit are sent along the coast to Benghazi under a German commander. Rommel flies from column to column in his scout plane, urging the advance on. Meanwhile, Wavell comes up to the front from Cairo and decides that O’Connor must be brought from convalescence to replace Neame. (O’Connor agrees only to act as an adviser.) The exiguous British tank force is split up on Wavell’s order and is further weakened by breakdowns.
In Mediterranean... The carrier Ark Royal flies a small contingent of Hurricane fighters to Malta.
In Hungary... Prime Minister Count Teleki commits suicide because he does not wish to lead his country in collaboration with Germany. The regent, Admiral Horth, and the new prime minister, Laszlo Bardossy, continue to work with the Germans.
In Washington... Roosevelt orders the transfer of 10 coastguard cutters to the Royal Navy. These are very useful vessels for escort work, having a long range and good sea keeping qualities. They will be in Royal Navy service by June.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/02.htm
April 2nd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: In an attempt to entice fighters back from the Balkans daylight intruder operations are stepped up. 19 sorties are flown today, nine ships being attacked.
GERMANY: Marienehe: The Heinkel He 280 V1, the first turbojet-powered aircraft designed as a potential fighter, makes its first flight at Marienehe. The aircraft, carrying minimum fuel, circles the field once at a maximum height of 900 feet (274 meters) with the landing gear (undercarriage) down. The works test pilot, Fritz Schafer, is at the controls. (Jack McKillop)
NETHERLANDS: The RAF drops 75,000 tea bags over the country bearing the words, “Holland will arise. Keep your courage up.” (Jack McKillop)
YUGOSLAVIA: The British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Dill, is in Belgrade meeting with the head of the government, General Dusan Simovic. Dill is attempting to reach an alliance with Yugoslav officials but they refuse. (Jack McKillop)
Belgrade: Gerhard Feine, the Counsellor at the German Legation at Belgrade, reported that morale generally was low. People were having second thoughts about the coup d’etat, and it seemed likely that the government would be willing to make concessions in order to avoid war, including adherence to the Tripartite Pact.
It is too late though. Feine is instructed by Berlin to reduce the size of the Legation to four or five men, destroy all secret files and warn friendly Legations in Belgrade, so that they could draw their own conclusions.
HUNGARY: Prime Minister Count Teleki Pál commits suicide because he does not wish to lead his country in collaboration with Germany. The regent, Admiral Horth, and the new prime minister, Laszlo Bardossy, continue to work with the Germans. (Jack McKillop)
GREECE: The New Zealand Division under Major-General Sir Bernard Freyberg completes its concentration on a position stretching from the Aegean coast north of Katerini westwards along the south bank of the river Aliakmon.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA:HMS Ark Royal brings Hurricanes to Malta.
LIBYA: Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, orders the 5th Light Division to continue its advance and take Agedabia. The British then begin a withdrawal to Antelat, 35 miles (56 kilometres) northeast of Agedabia. After a number of unit engagements during the day, the British 2nd Armoured Division is ordered to withdraw to Antelat leaving the coast road to Benghazi open. (Jack McKillop)
ERITREA: British troops advance from Asmara towards the seaport of Massawa on the Red Sea. (Jack McKillop)
RED SEA: With the British advance on the seaport of Massawa, Eritrea, five Italian destroyers in port set sail for Port Sudan, Sudan. RAF reconnaissance aircraft spot the ships and they are attacked by torpedo carrying aircraft which sink four of them; the fifth is scuttled by her crew. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-boats attack convoy SC26 from North America. Over the next day they sink ten ships including the British armed merchant cruiser HMS WORCESTERSHIRE (11402 grt). (Alex Gordon)
CHINA: The battle of Shanggao ends.
Shanghai: Rumours are afoot here that one of Germany’s 26,000 ton battleships, either the Scharnhorst or the Gneisenau, is now in the Pacific. In the same dispatch it is announced that the 8,000-ton German merchantman Ramses, anchored in Shanghai since the start of the war has left and all US naval units in the Pacific have been instructed to watch this vessel closely.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 580 April 2, 1941
Libya. At dawn, British troops encounter German tanks & infantry probing in front of Agedabia. British fall back as ordered. Encouraged by this immediate withdrawal plus Luftwaffe reports of British armour moving away, Rommel orders 5th Light Division to advance. British 2nd Armoured Division withdraws inland to Antelat, uncovering the road to Benghazi and allowing Germans to take Agedabia. In the first tank battle in the desert, 40 German and 14 British tanks tangle at dusk (Afrika Korps loses 3 tanks, British lose 5 with 1 damaged).
Eritrea. British offer surrender terms to Italian Admiral Mario Bonnetti, commander of Italian Red Sea Flotilla and the garrison at the Red Sea port of Massawa. Instead, he sends Italian destroyers Nazario Sauro, Daniele Manin, Battisti, Pantera and Tigre from Massawa on a suicide attack on British facilities at Port Sudan, Sudan.
Ethiopa. 11th African Division (now lead by 22nd East African Brigade) reaches the Awash River, 120 miles from Addis Ababa. Retreating Italians have blown bridges but they do not defend the river to prevent a crossing. British armoured cars under Colonel Bernard Fletcher (”Flitforce”) reach Adigrat (just across the border from Eritrea), cutting off the Italian retreat from Eritrea and taking 3,500 prisoners.
At 1.50 AM 300 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-48 sinks British SS Beaverdale with 1 torpedo and the deck gun (20 crew and 1 gunner killed). 58 survivors escape in 2 lifeboats (1 reaches Iceland, the other picked up by the Icelandic trawler Gulltoppur).
2 German merchant ships are scuttled by their crews off Peru, to avoid being impounded by Canadian armed merchant cruiser Prince Henry.
German bombers sink 2 freighters and damage 2 more in convoy AS23, off Gavdo Island 25 miles South of Crete.
Convoy SC-26 runs into a patrol line of 8 U-boats, 460 miles Southwest of Iceland. Overnight, U-46, U-69, U-73 and U-74 sink 6 steamers and damage 1 more (110 killed, most crew rescued). The only escort, British armed merchant cruiser HMS Worcestershire, is stopped by U-74 with the last torpedo (HMS Worcestershire will be escorted back to Liverpool by destroyer HMS Hurricane).
Cutty Sark alongside HMS Worcester, Greenhithe, around 1938
Wait a minute. Are we sure that is the same HMS Worcester that was sunk by U-Boats in convoy SC-26?
Apparently those New Zealand Tanks didn’t work out too well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Semple_tank
Now Rommel realized that the British had begun a general withdrawal from the bulbous peninsula of Cyrenaica; evidently they were desperate to keep their remaining forces intact. Agedabia was the starting point of half a dozen desert tracks cutting across the peninsula. Rommel determined to exploit them to the east. On April 2nd a stern veto came from Gariboldi: “This is in contradiction to what I ordered. You are to wait for me before continuing with any advance.” Rommel did not wait.
On April 3rd he decided on a dramatic three-pronged thrust across the peninsula. If he moved fast enough he might destroy the entire enemy force right there. The southernmost prong of his thrust would cut clean across the desert, following an ancient caravan trail known as the Trigh el Abd; the trail led from Agedabia onward through Ben Gania, Bir Tengeder, Bir Hacheim and Bir el Gubi to the Egyptian frontier. A “Bir” was a waterhole, in theory.
Rommel put Count Gerhard von Schwerin, a spiky but experienced half colonel, in charge of a mixed German-Italian force for this prong. Streich would lead another task force on a parallel track and, since a passing Italian priest had just tipped him off that even Benghazi, capital of Cyrenaica, was being abandoned, Rommel sent a reconnaissance battalion straight up the coast road to the big port. They drove in through cheering crowds at 10PM. that evening, just as a furious General Gariboldi was confronting Rommel about this disobedience of his veto.
An orgy of destruction and murder had marked Benghazi’s second change of owners in three months. The British had detonated 4,000 tons of Italian ammunition and fires were still raging everywhere.
A German navy commander sent next day to investigate this port’s capacity for supply ships reported: “Australian troops and Arabs looted the buildings and robbed the Italian civilians of all their valuables at pistol point.” One of his officers wrote of a building he took over, “In the rooms where the young girls had been slaughtered I arranged for photos to be taken of the pools of blood before they were mopped up.” But now General Sir Philip Neame’s motley “Cyrenaica Command” was being hustled straight out of the peninsula by Rommel’s unexpected advance.
David Irving-The Trail Of The Fox
Rommel! You da Man!
For the next 18 months Rommel and a succession of British generals sparred with one another up and down the western desert.
This imaginative Panzer leader sometimes took unjustifiable risks, but they generally paid dividends. The Germans had better equipment-though never enough of it-and they extracted the maximum advantage from their panzers, their anti-tank guns and the magnificent 88mm anti-aircraft guns they used in a ground role.
Rommel stuck faithfully to the blitzkrieg creed and Guderian's principle of 'Klotzen nicht Kleckern' -keeping his Panzers concentrated and employing them to achieve massive local superiority at the decisive moment; they were never frittered away in pointless battles of attrition.
To the British troops The Desert Fox became a sort of bogy-man, an invisible will-o'-the-wisp whose panzers had a habit of suddenly appearing from nowhere-and disappearing equally as quickly"
A.J. Barker-Panzers At War
Thanks PzLdr-it looks like in a few days we'll have more than enough battle action to keep us all busy, and on multiple fronts. I am particularly looking forward to what takes place in the coming months.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.