BRITISH AND GREEKS RESIST NORTH OF ATHENS; NAZI PLANES BOMB PORTS TO BLOCK EVACUATION (4/24/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 4/24/41 | C. Brooks Peters, Harold Denny, Hanson W. Baldwin

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
The Balkans, 1941: Invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece, April 1941
North Africa – Rommel’s First Offensive, 24 March-15 June 1941
Marcks’ Plan, August 5, 1940
Operation Barbarossa (Dir. 21), December 18, 1940
The Mediterranean Basin
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance

[Homer_J_Simpson]

King Safe in Crete – 2
Books by Nazi Author Barred in City Schools – 2
The International Situation – 3
Terms of Surrender – 3
Stukas Sink Ships – 4
King Peter’s Escape in Belgrade Related – 4
British Quicken Libyan Offensive; Take Captives in Tobruk Sorties – 5
Italy is Expecting All of Dalmatia – 6
Bucharest is Firm in Mounting Crisis – 6
The Greek Tragedy – 7
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on Fighting in Europe and Africa – 8-9

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/apr41/f24apr41.htm

Allies retreat from Thermopylea

Thursday, April 24, 1941 www.onwar.com

In the Balkans... In Greece, German forces mount an assault on the Thermopylae position but are held off. During the night the defending troops fall back, leaving a further rearguard at Thebes.

From Washington... Roosevelt formally orders US warships to report the movements of German warships west of Iceland. This is happening unofficially already. The information is usually passed one way or another to the British.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

The Andrew.Etherington page is not working today.

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 602 April 24, 1941

Luftwaffe again mauls shipping off the Greek coast, sinking hospital ship Andros and 11 freighters. Bombers further damage British cruiser HMS York at Suda Bay, Crete. Submarine HMS Rover, moored alongside to supply electrical power for York’s anti-aircraft guns, is also damaged & out of service until March 1942. Greek torpedo boats Aigli, Alkyoni and Arethousa are scuttled to prevent capture. At 7 PM, Greek luxury yacht Hellas is bombed at Piraeus while boarding 500 British civilians and 400 wounded Allied soldiers (500 die as Hellas catches fire and slowly rolls over). Allied rearguard at Thermopylae holds off German attacks all afternoon (destroying 15 tanks) and then withdraws at midnight. Evacuation of Allied troops begins (Operation Demon) and 13,500 troops are taken from Raphtis (South of Athens) and Nauplia (Peloponnese peninsula) overnight.

At 7 AM, Italian infantry attack the Tobruk defenses at 2 points after an artillery barrage at dawn. Advancing in suicidally close formation, they are broken up by Australian small arms fire from the forward gun pits and British artillery fire from the rear. The attacks are over within an hour (107 Italian POWs captured).

[Larry381]

I’m continually amazed at what an excellent writer Hanson Baldwin is. Although obviously pro-Brit he doesn’t seem to allow this to stop him from telling the hard truths that the Allies in Greece are doomed. I remember his excellent stories on the Vietnam War where he was virtually the only columnist on the Times who tried to tell people that things were not as bad over there as some of his colleagues made out.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I’m continually amazed at what an excellent writer Hanson Baldwin is.

Prolific, too.

"[The British] have . . . forced the Germans to fight for their victories and have perhaps delayed by two week Adolf Hitler's Spring time-table of conquest."

This is a point that will be made endlessly post-Barbarossa. This may be the first instance of it being made before the fact. In the press, anyway.

[CougarGA7]

Today the TSS Zealandia arrived in Simpson Bay and the port at Rabaul in New Britain. Aboard it was the second half of the Australian 2/22nd Battalion. This battalion was sent to the town to defend New Britain in the event of war against Japan. This is the beginning of a rather tragic story as these men are undermanned and under-equipped for what the Japanese will send to take their future island fortress.

[Larry381]

Portraits Of The Afrika Korps April-May 1941

[Larry381]

Greek peasants, along with an Orthodox priest, present flowers to German troops.

[BroJoeK]

Prange, At Dawn We Slept: "[General] Marshall's 'aide memoire' concluded: 'In point of sequence, sabotage is first to be expected, and may, within a very limited time cause great damage.
On this account, and in order to insure strong control, it would be highly desirable to set up a military control of the islands prior to the likelihood of our involvement in the Far East.' "

Prange commenting: "The Chief of Staff expected widespread sabotage in Hawaii as a fact beyond dispute.
This in turn indicated he expected one of two things:

1. Either a general advance warning, such as a formal declaration of war, at which signal thousands of Hawaii's Japanese would spring into action, or
2. Tokyo's coordination of an attack with local brethren."

Here we see one root-cause of Hawaii's Army commander, General Short's, response to the various "war warnings" he will receive before December 7.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/24.htm

April 24th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM:
London:

Churchill meets with US Admiral Ghormley to discuss joint activities in the Atlantic, and the risk of German bases being set-up in the Canaries or Cape Verde Islands.

Letter to The Times:

Sir, - In case it would interest your readers I enclose extracts from a letter which I have received from my son, who was taken prisoner in British Somaliland last August by the Italians. The letter is dated January 1. He says:

“Christmas under these circumstances was a rather hollow farce, but even this prison atmosphere could not prevent us from capturing some of the good old Christmas spirit. Strange to relate we even got some presents - the Italian Red Cross sent us a case of cakes, biscuits and a few bottles of wine, which was a great luxury. The only other presents we received were from the Italian Air Force, who not only gave us a bottle of beer apiece - only Italian beer, it is true, but nevertheless beer - but a boxload of games, such as chess,draughts, dominoes, etc. The local General commanding the Air Force in this area came down in person on Christmas Eve to wish us a happy Christmas with these presents. We all thoroughly appreciated the kindness and consideratio shown by the Air Force, which is difficult to find elsewhere. The local captain of the police, who is our official gaoler, came and had a drink with us in the evening, and the other policemen who are variously responsible for our captivity came and visited us at various other times.”

I feel this should comfort relations of our men who have recently become prisoners in Italian hands.

Yours Truly, Eva Trevaskis.

The Rectory, Rusper, Sussex.

Corvette HMS Polyanthus commissioned.

Submarine HMS Sirdar laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY:

U-207, U-504 launched.
U-127, U-567 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GREECE: As German paratroopers capture the islands of Samothrace, Limnos and Thasos, the Allies start to evacuate their troops from the mainland. The troops at Thermopylae are withdrawn and themselves evacuated from Megara, Rafina and Porto Rafti near Athens. To lift the troops there were 6 cruisers, 24 destroyers and escort vessels, 2 Landing Ships Infantry, 14 troopships and a number of landing craft.
The Germans attacked the Thermopylae line which was held by the 6th NZ Brigade on the east and the 19th Australian Brigade on the west. German tanks tried to break through the New Zealanders while mountain troops attacked the high pass held by the Australians. The New Zealanders destroyed twelve tanks and together with the Australians held their ground. The 5th NZ Brigade and 6000 corps and base troops embarked on the night of 24/25 April. The 19th Australian Brigade embarked from the Peloponnese beaches the following night. (Anthony Staunton)

BULGARIA: Bulgaria declares a state of war in its occupied areas of Greece and Yugoslavia.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Wallaroos laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A. : President Roosevelt orders US naval units to report the movements of German warships west of Iceland, and move the Neutrality Patrol to 26.00W longitude.

The motion picture “Penny Serenade” is released in the U.S. Directed by George Stevens, the film stars Irene Dunne, Cary Grant, Beulah Bondi and Edgar Buchanan. This romantic drama (tearjerker) has a couple (Dunne and Grant) adopting a baby after the wife loses a child. Cary Grant was nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award but lost out to Gary Cooper for Sergeant York. (Jack McKillop)

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Today the TSS Zealandia arrived in Simpson Bay and the port at Rabaul in New Britain. Aboard it was the second half of the Australian 2/22nd Battalion. This battalion was sent to the town to defend New Britain in the event of war against Japan. This is the beginning of a rather tragic story as these men are undermanned and under-equipped for what the Japanese will send to take their future island fortress.

The previous day's post (Sat. 23 April) included a story (pg 12) about 2,000 American's debarking in the Philippines to beef up the garrison there. Those guys were to suffer a similar fate as the Australians on Rabaul. The ship that brought the American troops returned home with American dependents evacuating the islands.

[CougarGA7]

There is a definite effort underway to fortify some of these remote posts. Unfortunately the effort was half-hearted at best and many units would pay dearly for it. The book that I will be writing a review on here soon gives a view of the general disaster that took place in the south Pacific. We all hear about what happened in the Philippines, but don’t hear much on similar fights at places in the Bismark Archipelago and other island chains. Though this book uses my least favorite form of citation, it still tells a very interesting story of one of these peripheral fights.