Posted on 04/04/2011 5:23:03 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept
William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
Hull in Blunt Note – 2-3
Camp Stewart Plans First Work on Guns – 3
Axis Troops Force Retreat in Libya – 3-4
Greek Patrols Take Prisoners and Guns – 4
Italian Students Demand Dalmatia – 4
A Mountain Fortress – 5
Contract to Build Drydocks Here Let – 5
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 6-7
Ensign Roosevelt Reports for Duty – 7
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/apr41/f04apr41.htm
Axis forces capture Benghazi
Friday, April 4, 1941 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... Benghazi, on the coast, is taken by the Italian forces and the accompanying German battalion. The force heading for Msus is making only slow progress but the third group, the most southerly, with part of the German 5th Light Division and the Italian Ariete Division, is going well toward Mechili.
In Washington... Roosevelt agrees to allow Royal Navy warships to be repaired in the US. Among the first ships to benefit from this order are the battleships Malaya and Resolution. RN warships are also to be allowed to refuel in the US when on combat missions.
In the North Atlantic... The German raider Thor meets and sinks the British armed merchant cruiser Voltaire.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/04.htm
April 4th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Roosevelt had expressed concern for the Italian civil population in Abyssinia. Churchill telegrams to re-assure him that all efforts would be made to provide for civilians once the fighting has stopped. In the meantime though, all efforts were going towards keeping the armies supplied.
London:
Churchill appealed to Simovich, the Yugoslav Minister President, saying that he could not understand his argument about playing for time. The German army and air force were concentrating for an attack on Yugoslavia, and what was wanted was a decisive forestalling thrust by the Yugoslavs into Albania.
The Government issues a new regulation regarding the official time in the country. This regulation provides for double summer time, during which period the time is two hours in advance of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), starting on the day after the first Saturday in May (4 May 1941) and ending on the day after the second Saturday in August (10 August 1941), both at 0100 hours GMT (rather than the previously used 0200 hours). The time for the rest of the year remained one hour in advance of GMT. The order provided savings for certain contracts with agricultural workers and concerning the production of milk: for those purposes, the time was to be taken to be one hour in advance of GMT throughout the year, unless the parties to the contract agreed otherwise. (Jack McKillop)
FRANCE: Professor Georges Claude informs the Academy of Sciences at Paris of a new low cost, synthetic motor fuel called “acetylated ammonia”, 40% acetylene and 60% ammonia. It should put France’s cars back on the road as it can run a car 300 miles on a single tank.
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler meets Matsuoka again, and promises to join Japan in fighting the US if it should declare war.
The anti-British propaganda film ‘Omh Kruger’ [Uncle Kruger], which depicts British atrocities against the South Africans in the Boer War, is released.
In an article in the German scientific magazine ‘Die Naturwissenschaften’ it is announced that Professors Clusius and Dickel of the University of Munich can now separate Uranium 235 from Uranium 238.
The Wehrmacht High Command announced:
As we already reported in a special announcement, on April 2, German and Italian troops continued their pursuit of British troops whom they defeated at Mersa-el-Brega in North Africa. We have captured Agedabia and reached Zuctina. The enemy is retreating northward in haste.
U.S.S.R.: Polish General Anders was taken from his cell in a Moscow prison and led to a luxuriously furnished study. Upon reaching this room, Anders was informed that in accordance with a recently signed Polish-Soviet agreement, he was promoted to Lieutenant General and appointed the commander of all Polish troops in the Soviet Union. The stunned Anders was then taken by limousine to a Moscow apartment which had been furnished for his personal use. (Alex Bielakowski)
EGYPT: The 2nd Armoured Division is abandoned without supplies at Msus because the British garrison there had prematurely blown up the all the fuel store, thinking to save them from the German tanks.
Cairo: The Reuters News Agency announced:
An official British government spokesman has said that Great Britain is allowing the enemy to penetrate farther east in Cyrenaica, until a point is reached where he can be fought with the greatest prospect of victory.
LIBYA: The German 5th Light and the Italian Ariete Divisions advance toward Mechili is going well.
German and Italian spearheads reach Benghazi and occupy the city.
ETHIOPIA: Italian forces quit Addis Ababa.
RED SEA: Italian torpedo boat Giovanni Acerbi is sunk near Massawa, Eritrea, by British torpedo bombers. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt agrees to allow Royal Navy warships to be repaired in the U.S. Among the first ships to benefit from this order are the battleships HMS Malaya and Resolution. RN warships are also to be allowed to refuel in the U.S. when on combat missions.
The government freezes Bulgarian assets in the U.S.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Armed merchant cruisers again suffer heavy losses at widely scattered locations and in different circumstances. Today AMC HMS Voltaire is sunk at 14 25N, 40 40W in a gun duel with raider ‘Thor’ west of the Cape verde islands and U-boats sink ten vessels of a 22-ship US convoy. One U-boat is sunk.
AMC Cormorin is lost whilst escorting MV Glenarty to Freetown due to fire in the North Atlantic at 54 34N 21 20W. There are 20 casualties, but 405 survivors who are taken on board accompanying destroyers. The blazing Cormorin is finally despatched by a torpedo from HMS Broke. (Alex Gordon)(108)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 582 April 4, 1941
Libya. Just before dawn, German and Italian troops moving along the coast road capture Benghazi unopposed. They push out East onto the Green Mountain but are held up all day by 3 companies from Australian 9th Division. German 5th Light Division remains stationary in the desert while fuel is brought forward. Unaware, British continue to fall back in disarray and begin to occupy the old Italian defenses in the desert at Mechili. Luftwaffe destroys a convoy of 21 trucks carrying 1,600 gallons of petrol, worsening the fuel shortage of the British armour.
Eritrea. After mopping up at Asmara, Indian 5th Division heads 50 miles East towards the Red Sea port of Massawa (while 4th Indian Division is sent back to bolster Allied defenses in Libya). Briggs Force approaches Massawa along the coast from the North, having advanced cross-country from Keren. 6 German and 7 Italian freighters are scuttled at Massawa, while RAF bombing sinks Italian torpedo boat Acerbi.
Ethiopa. 11th African Division marches on towards the capital Addis Ababa.
German raider Thor and British armed merchant cruiser Voltaire engage in a 55-minute gun duel 900 miles West of the Cape Verde Islands. Thor uses half her ammunition to sink Voltaire from 9 km (74 killed, 195 rescued from the burning Voltaire or picked up out of the water by Thor).
U-94 and U-98 resume the attack on convoy SC-26, 250 miles South of Iceland, sinking 3 steamers between midnight and 3.44 AM (36 crew killed, 70 survivors picked up by destroyers HMS Veteran and HMS Havelock). At 7.56 PM, U-76 sinks SS Athenic (all 40 hands rescued by corvette HMS Arbutus) but SC-26 convoy escorts destroyer HMS Wolverine and sloop HMS Scarborough locate U-76 and begin depth-charging.
At 8.06 PM 500 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-97 sinks British MV Conus (57 crew and 2 gunners lost). At midnight 75 miles West of Freetown, Sierra Leone, U-124 sinks British SS Marlene (13 crew lost, 47 crew make land at False Cape, Sierra Leone).
British Trinculo class mooring vessel HMS Buffalo sinks in a British minefield off Singapore (32 killed). Italian bombers sink Greek torpedo boat Proussa and SS Sussanna off Corfu. German bombers sink Free French sloops Suippe and Conquerant at Falmouth, England.
Well, at least they were quick to admit that they bailed on Benghazi.
I got a kick out of the claim that they were moving east to find a battlefield to concentrate on and beat the Germans.
First, they’re basically fighting on a pool table, so one spot’s about as good as another [ exempting El alamein and, to a lesser degree, El Agheila], depending on where the fuel and ammo dumps are.
Second, I don’t think it’s gonna happen.
The admission came with a vigorous spin.
"As in the Autumn of 1940, the enemy is evidently seeking propaganda success at the expense of stretching still farther an already extended line of communications."
Yeah, you've got them right where you want them. Just like with the Italians.
Oh come one guys. Like they said, they weren’t using that port anyway.
hmmm. one=on. Fingers were a bit to fleet.
John Strawson-Hitler As Military Commander
I'm curious, does anyone here agree with Jodl's rather startling conclusion that Hitler lost Russia based on the military events of early spring in Greece and Yugoslavia-or is this just a convenient excuse used by certain Wehrmacht generals?
It’s pretty well settled that the late Spring in the USSR, with its viscuous mud delayed the German attack. However in the sense that the wear and tear on men and machines in the reserve MIGHT have affected operations -ON THE SOUTHERN FRONT, maybe. But better reasons include facing one of the few decent Soviet Generals [Kirponos], leading the largest single front with the most [and most modern] tanks, coupled with a real tough geography.
To paraphrase Homer, “Beware of German generals bearing tales of the Fuehrer’s being at fault”.
And I believe, if you check the maps with dates, the DAK will drive the British out of Cyrenacia faster than the Brits did the Italians.
I’m thinking that some Southern general was having some fun at the Yankees’ expense, sending Pennsylvania Anti-aircraft artillery troops into the Okefenokee Swamp for maneuvers. The Southern boys in the 70th got a few days at the beach in Florida, instead.
I think I have an excerpt from Liddell Hart coming in the next week or so in which he makes roughly the same point. He was most unhappy with Churchill over the decision to move a chunk of the British North African force to Greece.
This should be good experience under trying conditions. They can assign one man in each battery to keep a gator watch and swat mosquitos while the others are scanning the heavens for approaching enemy aircraft.
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