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Day 591 April 13, 1941 (Easter Sunday)
Libya. Rommel has finally received 2 maps of Tobruk’s defenses from his Italian allies (he keeps 1 map and gives the other to 5th Light Division commander General Streich). Rommel decides to concentrate his armour and plan an attack on Tobruk in force, using 5th Light plus Italian Ariete and Trento Divisions from the South at dusk. Allied defenders observe the preparations. After an artillery barrage at 5 PM, German infantry advancing at 5.30 are prevented from blowing the wire and filling anti-tank ditches by accurate British artillery fire. German tanks mill around overnight unable to find gaps to penetrate. Further East, Germans recapture Bardia (unopposed) and Fort Capuzzo, pushing the British out of Libya. Fort Capuzzo has now changed hands 4 times since June 1940.
Balkans. Leibstandarte SS Regiment cuts West through the Metsovon Pass to get behind the Greek Army of Epirus, holding the Albanian front. Too late, Greek Coomander-in-Chief General Papagos realizes the danger and orders a retreat (British General Wilson attributes this to a “fetishistic doctrine that not a yard of ground should be yielded to the Italians”). Italians pursue the withdrawal along the entire front, capturing the towns of Korçë, Permet and Porto Palermo on the Mediterranean coast. Further South, Germans bomb the Greek port of Piraeus sinking Greek destroyer Psara and badly damaging destroyer Vasilevs Georgios I.
In Moscow, Foreign Ministers Matsuoka (Japan) and Molotov (USSR) sign a 5 year Neutrality Agreement. With his Eastern border secure, Stalin transfers forces from Siberia to meet a suspected German attack.
U-108 has tracked British armed merchant cruiser HMS Rajputana for 2 days and missed her with the 5 torpedoes. At 7.43 AM 100 miles West of Iceland, U-108 sinks HMS Rajputana with the 6th torpedo (40 killed, 283 rescued by British destroyer HMS Legion and landed at Reykjavik). At 10.29 PM 75 miles West of Sierra Leone, U-124 sinks British SS Corinthic (2 killed, 37 crew and 2 gunners picked up by Dutch tanker Malvina and landed at Freetown).
It was here that W Force had prepared positions and the Germans came under heavy artillery fire from positions in the hills and to the southeast of Ptolemais. The reconnaissance patrols pushed forward and found the main bridge had been blown and that a water-filled ditch 1.8m (6ft) wide and 0.9m (5ft) deep with soft banks that ran across low ground was an effective anti-tank obstacle.
Under fire from the British the reconnaissance troops from 35rd Panzer Regiment identified two possible axes for advance along minor roads. Closer examination revealed that one was impassable because a bridge had been blown. The other route through marshy ground across drainage ditches was under enemy observation.
Choosing the route through the marsh the German tanks were forced to advance at walking speed and lost seven vehicles that got bogged down. At dusk the surviving German tanks were through and launched an attack at less than 183m (200yd) from the flank on British armour and anti-tank gun positions. Some British tanks were knocked out or abandoned and supply vehicles captured, but the delaying action had been effective.
The Germans halted, low on fuel and ammunition, and waited for the bogged-down tanks to be recovered. The 53rd Panzer Regiment lost two PzKpfw IVs, one PzKpfw II and one PzKpfw I in what was the only tank action of the campaign.
The Balkans And North Africa 1941-1941-Unternehmen Marita-by Will Fowler