April 11th, 1941 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Coventry has again been the target for the Luftwaffe. 230 aircraft dropped 330 tons of bombs, but the fires started by the incendiaries did not get out of control, thanks to prompt action by fire-watchers and the Auxiliary Fire Service. A hospital was hit repeatedly by HE over several hours. The staff struggling to save 160 patients by moving them to the basement as ward after ward was hit. At one point oxygen cylinders were used to provide air in the packed conditions. Several doctors and nurses were killed. Bath is also bombed.RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 105 Squadron makes a nuisance raid on Brest.
FRANCE: VICHY FRANCE: Under American pressure Darlan agrees not to move the battleship 'Dunkerque' from Oran to dry dock in Toulon lest it should fall into German hands.
GERMANY: Colditz: A French officer, Lieutenant Alain le Ray, is the first PoW to escape from the castle now serving as a prison camp.
BALKANS: General Ambrosio and the Italian 2nd Army advances from Trieste toward Ljubljana. Other Italian units advance south down the Dalmatian coast.
It is announced that the Germans have captured Monastir and its Pass.
GREECE: Florina gap: The Germans attack near Vevi and Kelli in front of Amynteion, with tanks supported by infantry. It is beaten off with considerable enemy casualties.
LIBYA: The Germans cut the Tobruk-Bardia road putting Tobruk in a state of
siege.
Australian Infantry and British Artillery prove too strong.
The Australian 9th Division withdraw into Tobruk.
The American United Press News Agency reported (on the 17th):
The Germans launched their first infantry attack on the outer defensive perimeter at Tobruk this afternoon under cover of a sandstorm; but the attack was repulsed by the British with heavy losses to the Germans. The storm had reached such a pitch of violence that it was hard to see farther than one yard. But at 5:00 P.M. the storm suddenly abated and approximately 800 German infantrymen sprang into view, dismounting from about 30 trucks and heading in tight formation toward the outer defensive perimeter. The British then attacked the trucks that had brought the infantry and the accompanying tanks.
U.S.A.: With the destruction of all Italian war vessels in the Red Sea, Roosevelt declares the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden are no longer "combat zones" and therefore open to American shipping.
The President also cables Churchill to tell him that he proposes to extend the US
Security Zone to 26 degrees west. He asks for details of British convoys to be relayed to
the US Navy so that patrol units may meet them. In return the Americans will pass on
intelligence of U-boats operating within the Security Zone.
US President Roosevelt issues an executive order creating the Office of Price Administration. Leon
Henderson is appointed Director with the charge of controlling prices and
profits while balancing civilian and defence needs. Later in the war,
Director Henderson will ride a bicycle to his office as a way of promoting
petrol rationing.
Most Americans complied with the OPA but the agency could not quell the spread of black markets for certain items, including meat, petrol and cigarettes.
The BuAer issues a requirement for a bomber capable of carrying a 5-ton bomb-load for 5,000 miles and return. This leads to the Northrop B-35 and the Convair B-36. (Marc James Small)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Destroyer USS Niblack (DD-424), while rescuing survivors of a Dutch freighter torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-52 the day before after the dispersal of convoy OB 306, depth charges what is believed to be a German U-boat off Iceland. The German Navy investigates and concludes that none of their submarines are in the vicinity at the time of Niblack's attack. The U.S. Navy's conclusion is that Niblack has depth-charged a false contact.