April 5th, 1941 (SATURDAY)
FRANCE: An RAF Beaufort torpedoes and badly damages the Gneisenau at Brest; the plane is shot down.GERMANY: Marienehe: The He 280 V1 jet fighter prototype is demonstrated before Luftwaffe and RLM officials including Udet, Lucht, Eisenlohr, Reitenbach and Schelp.
YUGOSLAVIA: Associated Press reports:
Italy closed the Yugoslav border at Fiume tonight and mined the international bridge. The Yugoslav consul at Fiume departed hurriedly for home.
The German plan of operations provides for a concentrated three-pronged armoured attack on Belgrade from Sofia, Banat [region in Hungary and Yugoslavia], and Austria. First, Field Marshal List's Twelfth Army advanced from Bulgaria, preparing to move into Yugoslavia and then march on Greece out of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Twelfth Army was to be followed a few days later by von Weich's Second Army that just assembled in Austria. The Italian High Command then ordered forces of General Ambrosio's Second Army to march along the Adriatic coast and strike at Greece from Istria and Ljubljana [Yugoslavia] and simultaneously to support the defence of Albania against the Greeks. A total of approximately 85 Axis divisions entered the field against Yugoslavia and GREECE: 35 German, 45 Italian and 5 Hungarian. 52 of them - 24 German, 23 Italian and 5 Hungarian - were deployed against Yugoslavia, and 27 against Greece, with one division securing the border with Turkey and 5 divisions kept in reserve.
The Yugoslavian plan of operations, "R-41," provides for the defence of the entire length of the border. Almost the whole Yugoslav army - 27 divisions or 88% of all its forces - was to be deployed in defensive operations, leaving only minimal reserves. The Yugoslavs planned only one offensive action in which they were to combine with Greek forces along the Albanian front. The dispersal of the Yugoslav forces along an extended border front limited their operational capability.
GREECE: General Maitland Wilson formally takes command of the forces in central Macedonia with his advanced headquarters at the foot of Mt Olympus on the main Larisa-Florina road. The 1st Australian Corps commanded by General Thomas Blamey is situated from the sea to the Veria Pass. The Greek forces, two divisions called the Central Macedonian Army are in the Vernion mountains, north of Veria. (Anthony Staunton)
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The government offers Yugoslavia a treaty of friendship and non-aggression but not mutual assistance. The Yugoslav government accepts the offer and a treaty is signed in Moscow; the German government condemns the treaty.
The MiG-3 fighter plane makes its maiden flight.
LIBYA: German troops take Barce, 200 miles from their start point at El Agheila. The main reason why Rommel is meeting so little resistance is that so many men have been withdrawn from Wavell's army to join the British expeditionary force to Greece. The 2nd Armoured Division is new in the desert; its men are untrained in this unique form of mobile warfare, and many of its tanks have broken down.
U.S.A.: The motion picture "The Great Lie" is released in the U.S. This soap-opera drama, directed by Edmund Goulding, stars Betty Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor and Hattie McDaniel. The plot centres around two women, Davis and Astor. Brent marries Davis but gets Astor pregnant and then he is lost in an airplane crash in South America leaving the two women to battle for the child. Ms. Astor won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN: Slow Halifax/UK convoy SC26 is attacked by U-boats for two days and loses 10 merchantmen. Escorting destroyer HMS Wolverine and sloop HMS Scarborough sink U-76 (Type VIIB), only one U-boat crewmember dies the other 42 survive.