March 27th, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The naval base in Trinidad is leased to the United States for 99 years. (Michael Ballard)
GERMANY: Berlin: Hitler flew into a blind rage when he heard that the Yugoslavs had overthrown their pro-Axis government. He ordered military leaders to come to then chancellery in Berlin at once, and for several hours harangued them about the terrible punishment that would be visited on the Yugoslavs.Demanding an immediate invasion, he said that Yugoslavia must be destroyed with "merciless harshness". Von Ribbentrop, the foreign minister, was sent off to tell Italy, Hungary and Romania that they would be given pieces of Yugoslav territory. Only the pro-German Croats would be allowed to survive with a puppet state. Hitler then dashed off a midnight letter to Mussolini.
"Today's reports leave no doubts as to the imminent turn in foreign policy in Yugoslavia. Therefore I have arranged for all necessary measures ... I consider it necessary, Duce, that you should reinforce your forces on the Italian-Yugoslav front with all available means and with the utmost speed.
As Germany's military chiefs set about implementing the Fuhrer's new orders, their misgivings increased. Hitler had closed his stormy session by revealing a potentially significant decision. because of the Yugoslav campaign, the launching of Operation Barbarossa would have to be postponed by four weeks.
Berlin
Daily Keynote from the Reich Press Chief:
The sensational news from Belgrade, that King Peter has been placed on the throne by a military coup, should not be reported until the situation is clarified.
BALKANS: Germany send about 500 Luftwaffe aircraft to Bulgaria and Romania.
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: At 2.30 this morning the Yugoslav regency council, headed by Prince Paul resigned; his nephew, King Peter, who is 17, took over and appointed as his prime minister General Dusan Simovich, the chief of the air staff. Simovich organized the coup after two days of anti-Nazi demonstrations. Soon after a radio announcement of the successful coup, King Peter was wildly cheered as he drove through Belgrade. A seething mass of people surged along the streets chanting "Now we are free". Outside the Soviet legation the crowd were shouting "Long live Britain!", "Long live Russia!" and "Down with Hitler!"
Belgrade:
The British Reuters News Agency announced:
Prince Paul of Yugoslavia has fled. Former premier Cvetkovich, who signed Yugoslavia's entry into the Tripartite Pact, has been imprisoned [by his own people in a coup d'état], as have other members of the former government.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Battle of Cape Matapan: As ships of the Mediterranean Fleet cover troop movements to Greece, intelligence is received from German and Italian sources that an Italian battle-fleet with one battleship, six heavy and two light cruisers plus destroyers is sailing to attack the convoy routes. 'Ultra' indicates that aerial reconnaissance is being arranged in the eastern Mediterranean. Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell with cruisers HMS Ajax, HMS Gloucester and HMS Orion and the Australian HMAS Perth and destroyers sails from Greek waters for a position south of Crete. Adm Cunningham with HMS Formidable, HMS Warspite, HMS Barham and HMS Valiant leaves Alexandria to meet the cruisers. (Peter Beeston)
During the battle ADMIRAL CARLO CATTANEO, commander of the Navy's 1st Division (heavy cruisers Zara, Pola, and Fiume plus destroyers) is killed. He went down with his flagship at the battle of Matapan, in which all three of the aforementioned heavy cruisers were sunk. In a dusk attack by British aircraft, Pola had been torpedoed, and left dead in the water and without electrical power. In the confusion and falling darkness, the ship was not initially missed. When its absence was noted, the Italian fleet commander, Admiral Iachino (who was heading home with his own flagship, the battleship Vittorio Veneto, damaged by an earlier torpedo), believing the pursuing British were much further away, detached Cattaneo with his entire division to search for the cruiser, and, if possible, bring it back to port. Searching for the Pola in the dark (and with his division inexplicably adopting a line-ahead formation that put the cruisers in front with no destroyer screen), Cattaneo ran unsuspecting into the main British battle fleet, which had picked him up on radar (the Italians had no radar at this stage) and was laying in ambush. In an action at point-blank range by naval standards (a little over a mile and a half, or 2,800 yards), Admiral Cunningham's British battleships and cruisers rapidly sank the Zara and Fiume, along with two destroyers, with the Italians literally unable to fire a shot in their own defence (later that night Cunningham's force found and sunk the Pola as well). (Michael F. Yaklich)
A flying boat dispatched by Cunningham sights 3 Italian cruisers on a south-easterly heading approximately 320 miles south west of Crete, and Ultra reports confirm the sighting. Cunningham orders British vessels in Alexandria to sail and then conspicuously leaves the port carrying his golf clubs in order to mislead enemy agents. He returns secretly and boards Warspite.
LIBYA: The German 8th Machine Gun Battalion is moved to El Agheila to free the 3rd Reconnaissance Unit for preliminary reconnaissance for the attack on Marsa Brega.
ERITREA: Keren: The Battle of Keren is over. After a 52-day siege against Italian Bersaglieri, Alpini and Caribineri and Eritrean colonials, the British and Free French have won. The Italians have won much respect from those who defeated them. Swiss Radio spoke of the Italian's "gallant resistance".
At first the Italians were outnumbered. Even after General Nicolangelo Carmineo brought in reinforcements, their numbers were only equal to the Allies, and they were far worse armed, but the Italian positions were rarely surrendered, and were usually only taken at great cost.
Today the British broke through, leaving a route covered with the bodies of Cameron Highlanders and Savoia Grenadiers. It has cost 536 British lives and 3,229 wounded, and around 3,000 Italian lives and 4,500 wounded.
GREENLAND: German bombers sighted over
Greenland’s east coast. The sightings are interpreted as evidence that
weather reports are being transmitted from the island to the Luftwaffe.
AUSTRALIA: The Australian Shipbuilding Board
is established to begin a program of building "River" class frigates of
1,420 tons; these vessels are similar to the Royal Navy's "River" class
frigates. The intention is to built 60 ships at a rate of 12 a year but only
six are commissioned during the war and two others in 1946.
U.S.A.: Washington: Congress approves spending $7,000 million in Lend-Lease aid.
(US $ 79,545 billion in year 2000 dollars. Jack McKillop)
Washington: The secret Anglo-US staff talks (ABC1) which began in January ended today with broad agreement on plans for strategic co-operation in the event of US entry into the war against Germany or Japan or both.
In fourteen meetings since 29 January the two sides have discussed the American plan, put
forward by Captain Turner of the US Navy and Colonel McNarney of the US Army, carefully
reviewed by the President. The result is plan ABC1. Its main thrust is that Germany must
be defeated first. the US would give strategic priority to the Atlantic and to Europe,
although the US navy would be used offensively in the Pacific as British staff officers
have drawn attention to the vulnerability of Singapore. One US general said: "If we
lose in the Atlantic we lose everywhere."
Carrying a prototype centimetric air-interception radar, a B-18 Bolo makes the first
air-to-air contact by a US radar system. Flying over the ocean off Cape Cod, the system
showed that it could also register surface targets. (Cris Wetton)
TRINIDAD: Britain leases defence bases in
Trinidad in the West Indies to the U.S. for 99-years.