Posted on 04/19/2011 5:13:55 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
#1 – “Amapola” ((Pretty Little Poppy) - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#2 - “Oh Look at Me Now” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#3 - “Perfidia” - Xavier Cugat
#4 – “Do I Worry” – Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#5 - “Frenesi” - Artie Shaw
#6 - “Blue Flame” – Woody Herman
#7 - “The Wise Old Owl” – Al Donahue, with Dee Keating
#8 - “There’ll Be Some Changes Made” – Benny Goodman, with Louise Tobin
#9 - “New San Antonio Rose” – Bing Crosby
#10 - “Intermezzo” – Wayne King
Greek Front Firm – 2
New Turkish Banknotes Sink with a British Ship – 2
Axis Hit in Desert – 3
French Seek Food by Farm Reform – 3
The International Situation – 4
Premier of Greece Dies Unexpectedly – 4-5
Papen Quits Turkey to Report to Berlin – 5
Nazis Claim Break in Defense Lines – 5-6
Plan New Plants for Big Bombers – 6
Japanese Get Ningpo in Coastal Attacks – 6
Yugoslavs to Fight, Envoy to U.S. Says – 6
France Will Quit League of Nations – 7
Paraguayan Revolt is Reported Blocked – 7
Gambles for High Stakes – 8
Japanese Invasion Seen in Indies Region – 8
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Europe and Africa – 9-10
Postcard from Ecuador Bears Nazi Censor Stamp – 10
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/apr41/f19apr41.htm
Luftwaffe bombs London
Saturday, April 19, 1941 www.onwar.com
Over Britain... During the night of April 19-20th, a very heavy German bombing raid of London takes place with about 700 Luftwaffe planes being involved.
In Iraq... A British convoy begins to land troops from the 20th Indian Brigade at Basra. A small British contingent has already been sent in by air to protect the air base at Shaibah, near Basra. By the treaty of 1930 the British are entitled to send troops across Iraq to and from Palestine and with no prospect of immediate German help of any size Rashid Ali’s new government cannot object at first to the British landings. In diplomatic exchanges they unsuccessfully oppose any addition to the British force.
In Britain... The first registration of women for war work under a new Employment Order begins.
In the Balkans... Wavell is in Athens to meet General Wilson and General Blamey, the commander of the Australian forces. They decide that it will probably be necessary to evacuate their troops from Greece, but promise the Greeks that they will keep fighting as long as the Greeks themselves do so.
In East Africa... The 1st South African Brigade has been sent north from Addis Ababa along the road to Asmara in Eritrea and now comes up to Italian positions south of Dessie. A battle ensues.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
April 19th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
Labour exchanges across Britain were filled today with 20 and 21 year old women signing up for war work under the new Employment Order.
Under the order, brought in by the Minister of Labour, Ernest Bevin, women with young children will not be compelled to work for the war effort, but they must all register so that their cases can be considered. Subsidised childcare is being made available.
The government has also issued an Essential Work Order compelling reluctant companies to employ women to do war work.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: Three aircraft of 18 Sqn. sink a 7,000-ton ship in the North Sea and a Blenheim of 101 Sqn. sinks a 5,000 tonner.
London:
Tonight London experiences its heaviest air raid since the “Great Fire” of December 29. The attack lasted until the early hours. 712 aircraft dropped 153, 096 incendiaries, which started a record 1,500 fires followed by a rain of 1,026 tons of high explosive and parachute mines. These are as large as pillar-boxes and weigh over two tons. They drift down on the wind, exploding on impact with the surface with the maximum blast effect. Two can completely obliterate a street. One mine failed to explode and lodged on the railway bridge leading to Charing Cross, where it was disarmed on the spot by a naval squad.
Eight London Hospitals including Guy’s were hit. Christie’s auction rooms, Maples’ furniture store and the Shaftesbury theatre were destroyed, parts of Selfridge’s set on fire, the Speaker’s House at Westminster, the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, the Law Courts and Wellington Barracks badly damaged.
St. Paul’s is closed after a 500-pound bomb crashed through the north transept, strewing the crypt below with wreckage. Fortunately the St Paul’s Watch, whose rest room is beneath, were all on the roof dealing with incendiaries. All the remaining windows were shattered, but the dome was not shaken by the blast.
Other churches destroyed or burnt out included St Andrew’s, Holborn - Wren’s largest after St Paul’s - the City Temple, St Clement Danes and Chelsea Old Church.
GREECE:
The Germans take Olympus and Larissa, the SS ‘Adolf Hitler’ division cutting off the Greek retreat. General Wavell arrives in Athens to meet Generals Wilson and Blamey. By dawn all units except parts of battalion in the Pinios Gap were south of Larisa and the Anzac Corps was deploying in the Thermopylae positions.
IRAQ:The first Imperial troops arrive in Iraq when the British 20th Indian Brigade lands at Basra. Although Rashid Ali’s new government objects, these movements are covered by a 1930 treaty and with no German support available, the objections are just words.
EGYPT:
Cairo: British Headquarters in Egypt announced:
GREECE: Violent attacks by German armoured formations and infantry units, aimed along the entire front, have been repulsed. The enemy has suffered heavy losses and we have taken many prisoners. Despite the heavy attacks, our lines have not been broken at any point.
LIBYA: Our patrols around Tobruk have launched several bold attacks.
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 597 April 19, 1941
Greece. Germans capture Larisa, allowing them to move South along the Aegean (East) coast but their progress is hampered by demolition of the roads by the retreating Allies. Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment captures Ioannina 50 miles from the Ionian (West) coast, threatening the left flank of the new Allied line at Thermopylae. This also cuts off the retreat from Albania of Greek Army of Epirus, creating a gap in the center of Greece through which German armoured columns pour South. General Wavell flies to Athens for a meeting with King George II of Greece where it is decided the Allies will evacuate with the Greek’s blessing to avoid further destruction of their country.
East Africa. 5th Indian Division (moving South from Amara, Eritrea) and 1st South African brigade (moving North from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia) converge on Italian stronghold at Amba Alagi, where Duke of Aosta (Viceroy of Italian East Africa) and his 7,000 troops reinforce the 3,700m mountain and lay in supplies for a siege. 1st South African Brigade are held at the city of Dessie, a regional Italian administrive center 130 miles South of Amba Alagi.
Libya. Rommel visits the frontier with Egypt and observes the weakness of the British defenses on the escarpment from Sollum Southeast to Sofafi. He decides to attack here while he waits for reinforcements to deal with Tobruk. Overnight, 450 British commandoes land at Bardia, Libya, from Landing Ship HMS Glengyle, escorted by cruiser HMS Coventry and 3 destroyers. Finding Bardia unoccupied by German or Italian troops, they destroy a supply dump and a coastal artillery battery. Most are successfully re-embarked but 1 man is killed by friendly fire and 67 are captured after getting lost and going to the wrong beach. The attack causes Rommel to divert troops from attack to supply line defense.
Overnight, London is heavily bombed by 712 German bombers (2300 civilians killed).
At this point in time, the LEIBSTANDARTE SS ADOLF HITLER [1st SS] is only a motorized regiment. It’s at least a year away from being a division. The only SS divisions at this point are the 2d: DAS REICH, the 3d: TOTENKOPF, and the 4th: POLIZEI.
From then on, the holding operations at Thermopylae and Thebes were conducted with the intention of gaining time for the British and Commonwealth forces to be evacuated to Crete and Egypt. After the disasters in Norway and France, the British were now to be ejected from the mainland of Europe for the third time in less than a year. It was a bitter blow to the British, but far worse for the Greeks who would now face years of brutal Axis occupation.
Shortly after the decision to evacuate was made, the German XL Corps struck westwards across the Pindus mountains, isolating the Greek forces facing the Italians in Albania.
On 21 April the Leibstandarte capturedYanina to the rear of the Greeks. One of the subordinate commanders from the Greek Army of the Epirus, General Drakos, took it upon himself to surrender his forces to the Germans. The capitulation took place at Larisa, and 16 Greek divisions laid down their arms, leaving the way clear for the Germans to race southwards through western Greece.
Campaigns Of World War 2-Germany's Lightning War by Adrian Gilbert
SS-Obergruppenfiihrer Sepp Dietrich photographed during negotiations leading to the surrender of the Greek Army (in the north)
According to my notes, LEIBSTANDARTE SS ADOLF HITLER was expanded to brigade strength just before it began offensive action in Greece, but you right, it still is not division strength yet. I don’t have that until June of 42 when they are shifted to France from the eastern front and the Sea of Azov. Once in France they are to rebuild and increase size to division strength.
The ones that I know of that are divisions right now are like you said, DAS REICH (first action as a division in May of 40), TOTENKOPF (same as Das Reich), POLIZEI (also formed at the same time and assigned limited offensive tasks in the Upper Rhine front during the invasion of western Europe).
I also have 5th: WIKING being trained in Swabia (isn’t that where Rommel is from?) to be transfered to Silesia in the General Government this June. So they are formed, but are not deployed. I know that the 6th: NORD, will begin operations in July as part of Operation SILBERFUCHS, but I don’t have any information on when and where they were formed for training. (I assume that since it is only 3 months away that they are probably already formed as a division and training somewhere).
By noon on 17 April two panzer companies had reached the entrance to Tempe, a very narrow gorge with high vertical mountain walls on either side and the Pinios River rushing in a formidable torrent down the middle. On the northern bank of the river ran the Salonika-Athens railway line, and on the southern bank there was a road—inaccessible as yet, for there were no bridges, and bridging equipment had not arrived.
A panzer company felt its way cautiously along the railway line; the troops were warned that in no circumstances must they bunch together in this narrow pass, where a few shells from the British guns would have wrought havoc among them. At first the move along the permanent way went smoothly; the first tunnel was intact but the second had been blown in the middle, and the tanks could go no farther. Recce parties found a point where the Pinios was divided by an island, and it was just possible that tanks might cross under their own power. Balck decided to risk one tank in the attempt. It got through. Two more crossed successfully but the crossing was a hazardous and difficult process.
Each tank took between half an hour and an hour to cross the river; some got water in their engines and were not recoverable. Nevertheless the first three tanks advanced along the road and ran up against a demolition covered by Australians. They had no antitank guns and fled when they saw the tanks.
Parties from the Rifle Regiment were sent forward to repair the road, and although the enemy shelled the valley heavily on the night 17/ 18 April there were few casualties. The passage of the Pinios continued day and night, and by the afternoon of 18 April Balck had assembled a tank battalion and a rifle battalion at the western entrance to the gorge. No wheeled vehicles had been able to get through, but four 100-mm guns drawn by tractors had got across the river.
To a man of Balck's temperament it was enough, and he flung these troops at the Australians covering the western entrance to Tempe Gorge. The Australian 16th Brigade was holding the approaches to Larissa; they were under pressure from the 6th Mountain Division thrusting across the massif of Mount Olympus, and from the right-flanking battle group of the 2nd Panzer Division at Elasson. Balck's advance across terrain regarded as impassable decided the issue, and his tanks soon broke into open country and advanced rapidly on Larissa until darkness compelled a halt. The Australians withdrew during the night, and at dawn on 19 April Balck's battle group entered Larissa.
A British Intelligence report, which fell into our hands, commented as follows: "The German Panzer Regiment 3 knows no going difficulties and negotiates terrain which was regarded as absolutely safe against armor." [The Other Side of the Hill (Wellington, 1952), 8. This official New Zealand pamphlet says of Balck's operations around Mount Olympus: "Seldom in war were tanks forced through such difficult country, or had foot soldiers, already with over 500 kilometres marching behind them, pushed forward so rapidly under such punishing conditions; it was a record of which any soldier could be proud."]
Apart from this aspect, Balck's success is to be ascribed to his boldness in separating his infantry from their transport and sending them off on wide-flanking moves, which should really have been entrusted to trained mountain troops. Balck pointed out in his report that his tanks and tractors were the only vehicles able to negotiate such immensely difficult terrain, and drew the conclusion that all wheeled transport should be eliminated from the panzer division, and even the supply vehicles should be tracked or half-tracked.
[This was a lesson which became bitterly apparent in Russia.]
I wonder how long it will be until they report Korizis’ death as a suicide.
That's the official story....
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