April 22nd, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Bovington, Dorset: British tank regiments armed with Cruiser-type tanks have been re-organized as more effective fighting units. In future they will have their own support arms in the front-line, including motorised infantry, combat engineers, artillery, anti-aircraft and anti-tank units. It is the sort of mixture which has given such strength to the German Panzer divisions.The government believes that Cruisers - Matildas, Crusaders, Cavaliers or Cromwells - are as good as anything that the Germans or Italians can put into the field.
ASW trawler HMS Tango commissioned.
Corvette HMS Spikenard arrived Tobermory for workups.
Destroyer HMCS Saguenay arrived Barrow-in-Furness for refit.
GERMANY: U-611 laid down.
GREECE: German forces reach the Thermopylae position in Greece.
The evacuation of Allied troops from Greece begins. The evacuation marked the end of the ill-conceived Greek campaign which lasted only three weeks and saw the Allies retreat ever southwards in the face of the German advance until they were evacuated at the end of April.
CHINA: Japanese forces occupy Fuzhou.
JAPAN: Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka returns from Europe and says, "We should not confuse deliberation with procrastination just as the Tripartite Pact does not affect the relations of the Three Powers vis the Soviets so that the Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact and the declaration do not affect in the least the Tripartite Pact which remains the immutable basis of our foreign policy."
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 2,000 American troops arrive to reinforce the US Army's Philippine Department.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Geelong launched.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Wilkes commissioned.