28 April 1941

ENGLISH CHANNEL: The Channel Stop campaign starts with the Royal Navy and RAF working to deny use of the Channel to enemy shipping. On the first day a Blenheim of 101 Sqn. is shot down by flak ships trying to attack trawlers off Calais.

GERMANY: The OKH orders army collaboration with the SS in the campaign in Russia. Special SS units had sole responsibility for carrying out their missions, but were under the authority of the army with respect to marching orders, food and shelter.

The British Expeditionary Force and powerful contingents of the Greek army are continuing their retreat manoeuvres, which are being conducted under the protection of naval forces and air squadrons, and which are now fully under way. Direct reporting from Greece must be interrupted for the duration of these strategic operations because even radio messages might provide valuable clues to the enemy. Australian and New Zealand troops have obeyed orders to defend their positions on the Greek mainland to the very last minute, and then assembled in good order at their evacuation points.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Hart establishes TF 5, to consist of all ships to be sent south to Singapore when war broke out.

U.S.A.: Washington: Colonel Charles Lindbergh, the air hero and leader of the isolationist "America First" group, has resigned from the US Army Air Corps reserve after President Roosevelt questioned his loyalty. Lindbergh recently said that the US was being "led to war by a minority", after which Roosevelt compared him to Northerners in the civil war who favoured peace with the South. Roosevelt's press secretary wondered if Lindbergh, who received a Nazi order in 1938, would be "returning his decoration to Hitler." The "Verdienstorden vom Deutschen Adler" was a diplomatic decoration awarded only to foreigners.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-65 is sunk by southeast of Iceland in position 59.51N, 15.30W, by depth charges from the destroyer HMS DOUGLAS. 50 dead (all crew lost).

At 1925, U-96 fired three single torpedoes at three tankers in Convoy HX-121 south of Iceland and reported the sinking of two tankers with 18,000 tons and damaging another with 6,000 tons after observing three hits. The tankers Oilfield and Caledonia were sunk and freighter Port Hardy was hit and sunk after the torpedo had missed the intended target. Seven crewmen of the 35 men and two gunners aboard the Caledonia died in the engine room. Five others jumped overboard and tried to get to the only launched lifeboat, but they drifted into the burning inferno around the nearby torpedoed Oilfield and died. The 25 men in the lifeboat desperately tried to rescue them, but this had to be given up because of the intense heat. The survivors were picked up by the British rescue ship Zaafaran and landed in Gourock on 1 May. Oilfield caught fire immediately and burned until she broke in two and sank the next day in 60°06N/16°06W. The master, 44 crewmembers and two gunners were lost. Six crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by ASW trawler HMS St Zeno and landed at Londonderry. Lawrence Robert Andersen was the commodore of the fleet of Hunting and Son Ltd. Port Hardy was hit by one torpedo on the port side abaft the main mast and sank after about three hours. One crewmember was lost. The master, 82 crewmembers, four gunners and ten passengers were picked up by the British rescue ship Zaafaran and landed at Greenock on 1 May. The master, John Geoffrey Lewis later survived another sinking when his next ship, the Port Montreal was sunk by U-68 10 Jun 1942.

At 1615, the Capulet in Convoy HX-121 was torpedoed by U-552 south of Iceland in 60°16N/16°10W. She broke her back, caught fire and was abandoned. Eight crewmembers and one of three passengers were lost. After HMS Douglas tried to sink the tanker with gunfire, the destroyer picked up the master and 17 survivors and landed them at Londonderry. 17 survivors were rescued by the British rescue ship Zaafaran and landed at Greenock on 1 May. At 2114 on 2 May, U-201 found the drifting wreck of the Capulet and sank her by a coup de grâce.