RAF Bomber Command: Last night 6 Wellingtons from 9 and 149 Squadrons attacked the German port of Emden. One specially-modified aircraft from each squadron dropped a 4,000-pound bomb on the target. Like the 2,000-pounder, which was first used last July, this new bomb has a thin, blunt-nosed case packed with HE. Already nicknamed the "cookie" or "blockbuster" by air and ground crews.
London: Churchill instructs Wavell to not hesitate to implement a full blockade on French Somaliland and its port of Djibouti.
Cambridge: When a small boy told Alice Stutley, a Cambridge air-raid shelter marshal, that there was a dead body in the shelter in the park, she thought it was an April Fool's Day trick. When she finally agreed to go and look she found a man who had shot himself through the head.
The body was that of Jan Willen ter Braak, a German spy charged with "liquidating" Churchill. He had lodged in Cambridge since last autumn, posing as a Dutch scientist who was working on fossils. But frequent visits to London, and to Whitehall in particular, soon alerted the Secret Service. Today they had found a transmitter, a Luger pistol and a file on Churchill's movements in ter Braak's rooms and were waiting for him to return.
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The Senate is
dissolved and the government order a general mobilization. The Yugoslav Army
has 900,000 men on active service but with mobilization, that will be
increased to 1.4 million.
Hitler today demanded the demobilization of the Yugoslav army and ratification
of the Axis Pact. A third demand - that Yugoslavia apologize for the anti-Nazi
demonstrations - is less of a problem for Belgrade. Meanwhile the Germans are making plans
to attack Yugoslavia in line with the Fuhrer's 25th war directive.
Yugoslav officials are planning to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The treaty promises no Enmity between the two nations and that each country will come to the aid of the other, should one be attacked by a third party.
ITALY: Japanese Foreign Minister MATSUOKA Yosuke, on an official visit to Rome, has separate meetings with King Victor Emmanuel III and dictator Benito Mussolini"> Mussolini. Matsuoka has arrived from Berlin where he had discussions with Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
LIBYA: Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame,
General Officer Commanding Western Desert Force, orders the British 2nd
Armoured Division to withdraw towards Benghazi; the retreat is hampered by
the breakdown of most of their tanks. He also orders the Benghazi garrison
to prepare demolition charges and be prepare to evacuate on 24 hours’
notice.
ERITREA: Asmara the capital of Eritrea has fallen to the advancing 5th Indian Division. Italian General Nicola Carnimeo, commander of the 2nd Colonial Division, though wounded in the leg, tries with scraps of his defeated army to hold up the Indian advance at Adi Tecesan, 35 miles (56 kilometres) from Asmara. He failed. With nothing left, the Italians sent out two policemen with a white flag, and declared Asmara an open city. The Italian destroyer Leone runs aground off Eritrea and is scuttled by its crew to prevent it from being captured by the British.
IRAQ: A coup is led by the nationalist
politician Rashid Ali and a group of officers opposed to the British
presence in the country; they call themselves the "Golden Square." The
Regent Faisal escapes to Transjordan (now Jordan).
PACIFIC: The USN's heavy cruisers USS Chicago (CA-29) (Rear Admiral John H. Newton, Commander Cruisers Scouting Force) and USS Portland (CA-33) and destroyers USS Clark (DD-361), USS Conyngham (DD-371), USS Reid (DD-369), USS Cassin (DD-372) and USS Downes (DD-375) arrive at Suva, Fiji Islands from Brisbane, Australia.