April 2nd, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: In an attempt to entice fighters back from the Balkans daylight intruder operations are stepped up. 19 sorties are flown today, nine ships being attacked.GERMANY: Marienehe: The Heinkel He 280 V1, the first turbojet-powered aircraft designed as a potential fighter, makes its first flight at Marienehe. The aircraft, carrying minimum fuel, circles the field once at a maximum height of 900 feet (274 meters) with the landing gear (undercarriage) down. The works test pilot, Fritz Schafer, is at the controls.
NETHERLANDS:
The RAF drops 75,000 tea bags over the country bearing the words, “Holland
will arise. Keep your courage up.”
YUGOSLAVIA: The British Chief of the Imperial General Staff, General Sir John Dill, is in Belgrade meeting with the head of the government, General Dusan Simovic. Dill is attempting to reach an alliance with Yugoslav officials but they refuse.
Belgrade: Gerhard Feine, the Counsellor at the German Legation at Belgrade, reported that morale generally was low. People were having second thoughts about the coup d'état, and it seemed likely that the government would be willing to make concessions in order to avoid war, including adherence to the Tripartite Pact.
It is too late though. Feine is instructed by Berlin to reduce the size of the Legation to four or five men, destroy all secret files and warn friendly Legations in Belgrade, so that they could draw their own conclusions.
HUNGARY: Prime
Minister Count Teleki Pál commits
suicide because he does not wish to lead his country in collaboration with
Germany. The regent, Admiral Horth, and the new prime minister, Laszlo
Bardossy, continue to work with the Germans.
GREECE: The New Zealand Division under Major-General Sir Bernard Freyberg completes its concentration on a position stretching from the Aegean coast north of Katerini westwards along the south bank of the river Aliakmon.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: HMS Ark Royal brings Hurricanes to Malta.
LIBYA: Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, orders the 5th Light Division to continue its advance and take Agedabia. The British then begin a withdrawal to Antelat, 35 miles (56 kilometres) northeast of Agedabia. After a number of unit engagements during the day, the British 2nd Armoured Division is ordered to withdraw to Antelat leaving the coast road to Benghazi open.
ERITREA: British troops advance from Asmara towards the seaport of Massawa on the Red Sea.
RED SEA: With the British advance on the seaport of Massawa, Eritrea, five Italian destroyers in port set sail for Port Sudan, Sudan. RAF reconnaissance aircraft spot the ships and they are attacked by torpedo carrying aircraft which sink four of them; the fifth is scuttled by her crew.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-boats attack convoy SC26 from North America. Over the next day they sink ten ships including the British armed merchant cruiser HMS WORCESTERSHIRE (11402 GRT). (Alex Gordon)
CHINA: The battle of Shanggao ends.
Shanghai: Rumours are afoot here that one of Germany's 26,000 ton battleships, either the
Scharnhorst or the Gneisenau, is now in the Pacific. In the same dispatch it is announced
that the 8,000-ton German merchantman Ramses, anchored in Shanghai since the start of the
war has left and all US naval units in the Pacific have been instructed to watch this
vessel closely.