April 8th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: No. 21 Sqn attack three ships near the Danish coast and bomb a bridge being built near Ringkobing. 110 Sqn. try unsuccessfully to block the Kiel Canal during the night.During the night of the 8th/9th, the Luftwaffe
attacks Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, killing 13 and injuring
81. The Luftwaffe also bombs Coventry, Warwickshire, England, and the body
of Christchurch church built in 1832 as a replacement for the medieval
church is gutted by incendiaries. (Andy Etherington and Jack McKillop)
NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN: AMC Rajputana is torpedoed and sunk by U-108
at 64 50N 27 25W whilst operating the Northern Patrol duty. There are 40
casualties, but 277 survivors are rescued by HMS Legion and taken to
Iceland. (Alex Gordon)(108)
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: Two nights of German air raids wreak havoc; estimates of dead range from 1,500 to 30,000 people.
The German 1st Panzer Group Kleist under General Ewald von Kleist captures Nis (or Nish) in Serbia and advances along the Morava Valley towards Belgrade. The Yugoslav Army in southern Serbia is retreating under enemy pressure and thereby exposing the left flank of the army (Andy Etherington and Jack McKillop)
GREECE: Associated Press reports the Greeks holding firm at Rupel Pass, through which another German armoured column was trying to penetrate to the Struma River valley.
German armour advancing through the Dorian Gap pushes back the Greek 19th
Division and the British 1st Armoured Brigade is sent to their aid. German
units moving down the Axios Valley reach Kilkis late in the evening. The
weather on the battlefield is terrible. Snow falls intermittently on the
mountains and it is raining in the valleys and sometimes fog envelops the
mountains and does not lift until 1000 hours. A force of Australian, British
and New Zealand units under Major General Iven Mackay, General Officer
Commanding 6th Australian Division, is formed to stop the German advance
down the Florina Gap. General Thomas Blamey, General Officer Commanding I
Australian Corps, is ordered to prepare for the defence of the Aliakmon line
with the Australian 16th Brigade, Greek 12th Division and the New Zealand
Division. (Andy Etherington and Jack McKillop)
The 16th Australian Brigade is hurried forward to the Veria Pass where it begins to take up its positions. The brigade is astride a mountain road some 3000 feet above the sea and troops have to carry their gear, ammunition and rations either by hand or on the backs of donkeys. Snow and rain falls on the mountains and for shelter each platoon has a tent-fly which sags under the weight of the snow. (Anthony Staunton)
Athens:
The Greek High Command announced:
The Yugoslavia army in southern Serbia is retreating under enemy pressure and thereby exposing the left flank of our brave army. Nevertheless our soldiers are fighting with an incomparable spirit of sacrifice for every foot of the land of our ancestors.
LIBYA: The Italian Stefani News Agency reported:
Motorised German and Italian troops have recaptured the city of Derna.
Mechili falls to the German attacks in the morning and the Germans immediately begin to organize an advance to Tobruk.
ERITREA: The Italians in the seaport of Massawa, the main Italian naval base in East Africa, surrender to British and French Foreign Legion troops. Of the 13,000 men defending the town, 3,000 have been killed and 5,000 wounded. The last Italian warship in East African waters, the torpedo boat Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, is scuttled by its crew prior to the British entering the town however, the Allies capture 17 large Axis merchant ships in the port along with many smaller military and civilian vessels. The 4th Indian Division, which has played a large part in the Allied campaign in Eritrea, is immediately prepared for shipping to Egypt where the Allied forces are under great pressure. The priority in the East African campaign is now to clear the road between Asmara and Addis Ababa and troops are being sent to this task from both ends of the road.
The Italians had destroyed the workshops and had scuttled all ships in the harbour and the large floating dry-dock. The British were anxious to restore Massawa to operation as a working dockyard as it was geographically well-suited to support the RN in the Mediterranean, the current support then being conducted from South Africa, and had been a very modern and well-equipped facility. The British, however, lacked the resources to salvage the scuttled ships and to restore the port to operating condition.
The RN asked the USN for support. This was a political hot potato as the US was still at peace and rehabilitating a military base for use by a warring power seemed to be more than a bit of a challenge to the US claims to neutrality. The USN developed a team of salvage personnel to go to Massawa once the White House approved the move but a decision was deferred and was still pending on 7 DEC 1941. Following the Japanese strike against Pearl Harbor and the declaration of war on the US by Germany and Italy on 10 DEC, White House approval became a moot point but the team originally intended for Massawa was diverted to Pearl Harbor, along with almost all of the USN's salvage assets. (Andy Etherington, Marc James Small and Jack McKillop)
Before the final scuttling Italian MTB MAS213 torpedoes and damages cruiser HMS Capetown as she escorts a convoy off Massawa.
Four Italian submarines do manage to escape and eventually reach Bordeaux.
U.S.A.: An "Agreement relating to the defence
of Greenland" is signed with the Danish minister to the U.S. This agreement
includes Greenland in the U .S. system of cooperative hemispheric defence.
The American Institute of Public Opinion (AIPO) asked a cross section of
America the following question: "If it appeared certain that there was no
other way to defeat Germany and Italy except for the United States to go to
war against them, would you be in favour of the United States going into the
war?" Yes - 68%, No - 24%, No opinion - 8%. (Will O'Neil) (135)