April 5th, 1940 (FRIDAY)
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN:
Scapa Flow: British minelaying ships leave for Norway commanded by Vice-Admiral Whitworth on the battle cruiser Renown, with eight destroyers as escorts and four destroyers to lay mines across the Leads outside Narvik Fjord.UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: The Prime Minister told a Conservative Party meeting today that after seven months of war he feels ten times as confident of victory as he did at the start. In this unusually buoyant mood Mr. Chamberlain said: "One thing is certain. Hitler has missed the bus."
The speech appeared to be aimed at dispelling some signs of public impatience about the conduct of the war. Mr. Chamberlain recalled that Germany was turned into an armed camp in the years before the war while Britain postponed rapid rearmament so long as any hope of peace remained.
He went on: "It was natural then to expect that the enemy would take advantage of his initial superiority to make an endeavour to overwhelm us and France before we had time to make good our deficiencies. Is it not extraordinary that no such attempt was made?"
Having made his point, he declared: "Whatever the reason, Hitler has very little margin of strength still to call upon."
RAF Fighter Command: An unknown number of Luftwaffe aircraft attack Scapa Flow. RAF claim 5 destroyed.
U.S.S.R.: Katyn: Secret police remove a group of Polish officers from Kozelsk prisoner-of-war camp and shoot them dead in a wood. It is feared that this could be the first of a series of killings.
NORWAY: Oslo: The Allies send a diplomatic note to saying Norway that they reserve the right to cut off Norwegian supplies to Germany.
IRAQ: MacPhail and Burton fly from Habbaniya for their second reconnaissance mission over the Soviet oilfields. This time the target is Batum, the most important Soviet oil seaport on the Black Sea and the terminal point of the Baku pipeline. They fly across Turkey and approach Batum at high altitude from the Black Sea. They just finish photographing the port and are circling over the rows of oil refineries, when anti-aircraft shells explode around them. MacPhail pulls up the aircraft and is able to escape under a protective cloud cover.