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April 20th, 1941 (SUNDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Plymouth: Heavy air raids wipe out an area of 600 yards radius around the
Guildhall;
mediaeval buildings simply vanished.
In all 1,000 people have died, with 30,000 made homeless as 18,000 houses have been
destroyed.
However, Devonport dockyard - the bombers' target - is still working. The Royal Navy is
clearing the wreckage and the lord mayor and lady mayoress, Lord and lady Astor have been
raising morale. A band is playing on Plymouth Hoe for open-air dancing. At night 50,000
people leave Plymouth to shelter on the moors, in barns, in churches, even cow-sheds.
GERMANY:
Gen-Leut Kurt Student, leader of the new XI. Fliegerkorps which took under its control all
air transport units, suggests to Goring that an attempt be made to invade Crete from the
air.
GREECE:
Allied forces pull back to Kalamata, Nauplia and Monemvasia. They are retreating
southwards through Thermopylae, with some detachments remaining to slow the German
advance.
CHINA:
Japan captures Ningbo.
U.S.A.:
New York: Reuters News Agency announced:
Undersecretary-of-State Patterson of the US War Department, and other American and
Canadian leaders, have seen a demonstration of the first 28-ton tanks built for the US
Army. The new tanks have a 400-hp airplane engine, a maximum speed of 24 mph and are
equipped with several heavy machine-guns and one 37-mm cannon.
Yorktown
and four destroyers are transferred from Pacific to Atlantic Fleets.
(By the summer, three battleships, one aircraft carrier, four light
cruisers, seventeen destroyers and 16 auxiliaries had been transferred.) (Marc
Small)
The motion picture "That Uncertain Feeling" is
released in the U.S. The film, directed by Ernst Lubitsch, stars Merle Oberon,
Melvyn Douglas, Burgess Meredith, Alan Mowbray and Eve Arden. This romantic
comedy is about a married couple (Oberon and Douglas) who have problems and get
involved with an absurd pianist (Meredith). The film was nominated for an
Academy Award in the Best Music category.
President Roosevelt announces an exchange of defence articles
with Canada.
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