Posted on 03/30/2011 5:24:36 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
News of the Week in Review
A Momentous Week in the War (map) – 8
Twenty News Questions * – 9
Yugoslav Coup Points to New Phase of War – 10
Serbs Aid the Democracies – 11
* Answers posted Saturday, 4/2/11. Or Wednesday, 4/2/41, if you prefer.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f30mar41.htm
Afrika Korps advancing on Mersa Brega
Sunday, March 30, 1941 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... Correctly discerning that the British forces are weakly dispersed in positions which prevent mutual support, Rommel brings his forces forward from El Agheila toward Mersa Brega. Only part of 2nd Armored Division is ready to oppose him. The bulk of the Australian Division is near Benghazi and the remainder is back at Tobruk.
In Berlin... Hitler approves the army plans for the attack on Yugoslavia, to begin on April 6th. Hitler also speaks to a conference of 250 top commanders who will have important parts in the Barbarossa operation. He makes it plain to them that the war in the east is to be conducted along different lines to any previous operation. There is to be no talk of proper “knightly” behavior and commissars and Communists are to be treated with utmost severity.
In the United States... The United States takes German, Italian and Danish ships into “protective custody,” effectively confiscating them.
What a waste of time and lives. Today - England and the USA are much softer on IslamoFacism than Germany and Italy. England has already surrendered. Who cares now what happened in 1940? Englandistan and ObamaLand treat WW2 pensioners like dogs now.
The Italians and Germans today do not elect Muslims to destroy their countries.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/30.htm
March 30th, 1941
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler privately addresses 250 officers on the inevitability of war in the east and the necessity of destroying Bolshevism. They must be under no illusions: this was to be a war to the death fought between opposing ideologies, and the struggle would be conducted with ‘unprecedented, merciless and unrelenting harshness. No quarter must be given. Breaches of international law would be excused since Russia had not participated in the Hague Conference and possessed no rights under it. Russian commissars who surrendered were to be executed. No Russian prisoner of war could be transported into the Greater German Reich.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler approves the plan to invade Yugoslavia on 6 April. (Jack McKillop)
ITALY: Rome: The Italian High Command announced:
We have repeatedly attacked a strong enemy naval unit in the eastern Mediterranean. Despite vigorous enemy anti-aircraft fire, an Italian torpedo bomber scored a direct hit on a light cruiser. Aircraft of one German air corps damaged an aircraft carrier and shot down an enemy fighter plane. In East Africa, enemy pressure is continuing on the northern front east of Keren but is being impeded by our violent counterattacks. Our troops have evacuated Dire Dawa in the Harar area (Ethiopia) and moved into new positions without breaking ranks. Italian fighter planes destroyed several aircraft on the ground on the Jijiga airfield (Ethiopia). Two British Hurricanes were show down in aerial combat. Two Italian aircraft have not returned to their bases.
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The new Foreign Minister makes efforts to remain on good terms with Germany. He assures the German Minister that they would respect international treaties concluded by their predecessors, including accession to the Tripartite Pact. The Foreign Minister says that Minister President Simovic’s less than friendly policy towards Germany may be a personal opinion and not on behalf of the government.
The Yugoslav Army takes up positions on the frontier anticipating a German invasion. (Jack McKillop)
EGYPT: Cairo: RAF HQ in the Middle East announced:
RAF operations in Eritrea continued on Friday south of Keren. Enemy motorised columns and troops near Asmara (capital of Eritrea) were bombed and fired on by our machine-guns.
WESTERN DESERT: Air Marshal Arthur Tedder crash-lands, but is not seriously injured.
LIBYA: The Afrika Korps led a reconnaissance raid against Agedabia. Correctly discerning that the British forces are weakly dispersed in positions which prevent mutual support, German and Italian forces begin a counter-offensive and advance east from El Agheila toward Mersa Brega. Only part of the British 2nd Armoured Division is ready to oppose them. The bulk of the Australian Division is near Benghazi and the remainder is back at Tobruk. The Germans captured British tanks and trucks and kept driving forward.
SOUTH AFRICA: Heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44) departs Simonstown for New York CIty, with a cargo of gold for deposit in the U.S. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: New York: 27 Italian ships in various US ports were boarded today by the US coastguard service after reports that the crews of five of them were starting to sabotage their craft in Newark, New Jersey. The most valuable ship, the Brennaro, is loaded with diesel and aircraft fuel.
The order was given by the secretary of the treasury, Mr Morgenthau. Rumours abound as to motives for the action. Some say that the Italians were acting on orders to destroy ships which might be used to transport arms for the Allied cause. Others say that the sailors are trying to get themselves held in the US to avoid going home now that Italy has joined with Germany in the war against the Allies. The US has also placed guards on two German ships in US ports.
The U.S. Coast Guard took protective custody of 63 ships in U.S. ports, two German, 26 Italian, and 35 Danish. An executive order consequently imprisons 850 Italian and 63 German officers and men. (Jack McKillop)
List member and Flying Tiger, Chuck Baisden celebrates his 21st birthday.
ALASKA: The air echelon of the USAAC’s 73d Bombardment Squadron (Medium) flies into Elmendorf Field, Anchorage, with eight Douglas B-18 Bolos. These are the first bombers based in the Territory. (Jack McKillop)
PACIFIC: Detachment “A” of the U.S. Marines 1st defence Battalion with 5-inch (12.7 cm) artillery arrives at Palmyra Island in stores issuing ship USS Antares (AKS-3) to begin construction of defenses. Palmyra Island, one of the Line Islands, is 1 square mile (2.6 square kilometres) and located about 960 miles (1545 kilometres) south of Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii. (Jack McKillop)
Detachment “B” of the U.S. Marines 1st defence Battalion with 5-inch (12.7 cm) artillery and a machine gun battery, arrives at Johnston Island in high speed minesweeper USS Boggs (DMS-3) to begin construction of defenses. Johnston Island is one of two small islets located 717 miles (1154 kilometres) west southwest of Honolulu; the island is 1,000 yards (914 meters) long and about 200 yards (183 meters) wide. (Jack McKillop)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 577 March 30, 1941
At 7.34 AM 300 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-69 sinks British SS Coultarn (3 killed, 35 crew and 4 gunners picked up by British armed merchant cruiser HMS California).
33 miles Northwest of Trapani, Sicily, British submarine HMS Rorqual sinks Italian tanker Laura Corrado with torpedoes and the deck gun.
Libya. British 2nd Armoured Division is reinforcing defenses on the narrow coastal defile at Mersa Brega. In order to prevent the Allied defenses becoming impregnable and to secure a source of fresh water running off the Green Mountain (Jebel Achdar), Rommel orders 5th Light Division commander General Johannes Streich to capture Mersa Brega.
A US/British Military Staff Conference in Washington D.C. (from January 29 to March 27) agrees on military coordination in the event of US entry into the war (ABC Staff Agreement). Accordingly, US takes possession of German, Italian, and Danish ships in American ports.
At 8.27 PM, Italian submarine Dagabur unsuccessfully attacks British cruiser HMS Bonaventure (escorting convoy GA-8) midway between Crete and Egypt.
At 11 PM 90 miles Southwest of Freetown, Sierra Leone, U-124 sinks British SS Umona (82 crew, 7 gunners and 13 passengers lost). 3 survivors are picked up on April 7 by destroyer HMS Foxhound and 2 more on April 12 by British freighter SS Lorca (all landed at Freetown).
Overnight, 100 RAF bombers drop 500 lb armour-piercing bombs on German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest, France. The ships, which were spotted by a Spitfire on March 28, escape unharmed.
Not enough people, but it's important to keep the discussion alive wherever possible because some of us do care.
I see that the British have taken a new tack in their bulletins re: Libya. Today they didn’t mention it at all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Matapan
Battle of Cape Matapan
http://www.historynet.com/battle-of-cape-matapan-world-war-ii-italian-naval-massacre.htm/1
Battle of Cape Matapan: World War II Italian Naval Massacre
ME!
On the same subject and around the same time David Irving writes in Churchill's War:
Winston passed much of the weekend striding and even dancing up and down the Great Hall while a table gramophone tinkled marches and vulgar waltzes.
But all the while he was sunk deep in thought, as his staff could see. He was now certain that Hitler would shortly attack Russia. That weekend he decided he must notify the Kremlin.
He telegraphed Cripps in Moscow and commanded him to deliver a cryptic warning message to Stalin in person, his first as P.M. to the Soviet head of state telling him of sure information from a trusted agent
The message concluded portentously: "Your Excellency will readily appreciate the significance of these facts:. It was too cryptic. Without the supplementary Intelligence available to Churchill, it meant nothing. Churchill later explained that he left it cryptic because of its deadly content, hoping that its very brevity would arrest Stalins attention. It did not arrest Crippss attention in the Moscow embassy: he scratched his head and filed Churchill's message away, -undelivered.
Uh, Frantzie,
These posts concern 1941. Make a difference?
But how many 9/11 and later terrorists enhanced their radicalism in der Faterland, ummmmmmm?
And while we're on that particular subject, which religious group do you suppose it was who informed der Fuhrer that he must destroy the Jews if he wanted their support in acquiring access to Middle East oil supplies?
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