Associated Press reports: Italy closed the Yugoslav border at Fiume tonight and mined the international bridge. The Yugoslav consul at Fiume departed hurriedly for home.
Predictions that “zero hour” in Yugoslavia’s crisis with Germany had arrived were voiced early today as the cabinet ended an extraordinary four and a half-hour session and thousands of troops rushed to the frontiers. It was estimated 1,500,000 men had been called to the army by a royal decree disclosed late last night. The nation’s ministers, from the tough General-Premier Dusan Simovic down, wore grave expressions as they left the meeting, described as unprecedented. Many refused to return home, staying instead at their offices beside telephones which they apparently expected to bring them grave news at any moment.
The German plan of operations provides for a concentrated three-pronged armored attack on Belgrade from Sofia, Banat [region in Hungary and Yugoslavia], and Austria. First, Field Marshal List’s Twelfth Army advanced from Bulgaria, preparing to move into Yugoslavia and then march on Greece out of Bulgaria and Yugoslavia. Twelfth Army was to be followed a few days later by von Weich’s Second Army that just assembled in Austria. The Italian High Command then ordered forces of General Ambrosio’s Second Army to march along the Adriatic coast and strike at Greece from Istria and Ljubljana [Yugoslavia] and simultaneously to support the defense of Albania against the Greeks. A total of approximately 85 Axis divisions entered the field against Yugoslavia and Greece: 35 German, 45 Italian and 5 Hungarian. 52 of them — 24 German, 23 Italian and 5 Hungarian — were deployed against Yugoslavia, and 27 against Greece, with one division securing the border with Turkey and 5 divisions kept in reserve.
The Yugoslavian plan of operations, “R-41,” provides for the defense of the entire length of the border. Almost the whole Yugoslav army — 27 divisions or 88% of all its forces — was to be deployed in defensive operations, leaving only minimal reserves. The Yugoslavs planned only one offensive action in which they were to combine with Greek forces along the Albanian front. The dispersal of the Yugoslav forces along an extended border front limited their operational capability.
General Henry Maitland Wilson formally takes command of the forces in central Macedonia with his advanced headquarters at the foot of Mt Olympus on the main Larisa-Florina road. All British, Australian and New Zealand forces in Greece came under command of the veteran Australian, General (later Field Marshal Sir) Thomas Blamey to form the 1st Australian Corps. The 1st Australian Corps is situated from the sea to the Veria Pass. The Greek forces, two divisions called the Central Macedonian Army are in the Vernion mountains, north of Veria.
The Soviet government offers Yugoslavia a treaty of friendship and non-aggression but not mutual assistance. The Yugoslav government accepts the offer and a treaty is signed in Moscow; the German government condemns the treaty.
Axis forces advanced toward Msus and Mechili in Libya. German troops take Barce, 200 miles from their start point at El Agheila. The main reason why Rommel is meeting so little resistance is that so many men have been withdrawn from Wavell’s army to join the British expeditionary force to Greece. The 2nd Armoured Division is new in the desert; its men are untrained in this unique form of mobile warfare, and many of its tanks have broken down.
Indian 5th Division reached Massawa, Eritrea, Italian East Africa. Italian Admiral Bonetti, the head of the 10,000-strong garrison who had ignored surrender demands previously, asked for surrender terms at 1330 hours. Before the Allies responded, however, his superiors in Rome, Italy ordered him to fight until the last man.
Operation SAVANNA ended with the main Allied objective having failed. This was the first insertion of SOE trained Free French paratroops into German-occupied France during World War II. This SOE mission, requested by the Air Ministry, was to ambush and kill as many pilots as possible of the Kampfgruppe 100, a German Pathfinder formation stationed at Meucon airfield which spearheaded night raids on Britain. Setting off from an RAF Whitley on the moonlit night of 15 March 1941, five paratroops made a blind drop at midnight, landing some eight miles east of the town of Vannes (where the Pathfinder crew billeted), and five miles off target. The following day they discovered the pilots no longer commuted between Vannes and Meucon by bus, but had taken to travelling on an ad hoc basis by cars. Hence the grand ambush and assassination had to be aborted.
The MiG-3 fighter plane makes its maiden flight.
Before dawn, shortly after midnight, British destroyer HMS Wolverine, corvette HMS Arbutus, and sloop HMS Scarborough, escorting Allied convoy SC.26, forced German submarine U-76 to surface 250 miles south of Iceland. The German crew scuttled the submarine to prevent capture. During the attack on the submarine, 1 German crewman was killed; the 42 survivors were captured by the British.
The German embassy in Moscow, Russia reported that Soviet exports to Germany had dramatically increased in the month of Mar 1941, but the flow of goods from Germany to the Soviet Union had slowed.
The Cologne Zeitung (newspaper) reports that, “Although the Lodz ghetto was intended as a mere trial, a mere prelude to the solution of the Jewish question, it has turned out to be the best and most perfect temporary solution of the Jewish problem.”
German submarine U-76 was depth charged and sunk in the North Atlantic by British warships.
RAF Bomber Command: Day of 5 April 1941
10 Hampdens to Brest but only 1 aircraft bombed, because of cloud. 1 aircraft lost.
U-105, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Georg Schewe, sank British steamer Ena de Larringa (5200grt) in 1-10N, 26W. At 0338 hours on 5 April 1941 the unescorted Ena de Larrinaga (Master Reginald Sharpe Craston) was hit aft by one G7a torpedo from U-105 and sank slowly on an even keel 205 miles east of St. Paul Rocks. The U-boat had spotted the ship about 10 hours earlier and decided to wait for the night to attack. Five crew members of 39 crew members, two military and two naval gunners were lost. The master and 18 survivors were rescued after 13 days and landed at Rio de Fogo near Toures, Brazil. The chief officer and 18 survivors were picked up by the Brazilian steam passenger ship Almirante Alexandrio and landed at Pernambuco. The master Reginald S. Craston was awarded an OB.E and the Lloyd’s War Medal for bravery at sea. The 5,200 ton Ena de Larrinaga was carrying coal and general cargo and was bound for Buenos Aires, Argentina.
U-76, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Friedrich von Hippel, was sunk south of Iceland in 58-32N, 20-15W by depth charges from the destroyer HMS Wolverine (D 78) and the sloop HMS Scarborough (L 25). Of the ship’s complement, 1 died and 42 survived. During its career the U-76 sank 2 ships for a total of 7,290 tons.
Light cruisers HMS Aurora and HMS Galatea departed Scapa Flow at 0720 to support cover minelaying operation SN.8. Minelayers HMS Southern Prince, HMS Agamemnon, HMS Port Quebec, and HMS Menestheus, escorted by destroyers HMS Cossack and HMS Anthony, which had departed Scapa Flow at 0900/4th and arrived at Loch Alsh at 1630, HMS Lancaster, and HMS St Marys, departed Loch Alsh at 1630/5th for minelaying operation SN.8. Minelayer Agamemnon was carried a reduced load of mines due to collision damage with destroyer HMS Castleton. The operation was carried out on the 6th. Heavy cruisers HMS Norfolk from the Denmark Strait patrol and HMS Suffolk departed Scapa Flow on the 5th provided cover for the operation. Heavy cruiser Norfolk arrived at Hvalfjord at 0540/8th. Light cruisers Aurora and Galatea arrived at Scapa Flow at 0640/8th. Heavy cruiser Suffolk and destroyer Cossack arrived at Scapa Flow at 0829 on the 8th and destroyer Anthony arrived at 1245.
Battleship HMS Resolution with destroyers ORP Piorun, ORP Garland, HMS Legion, and HMS Leopard departed Greenock for Hvalfjord. Destroyers HMS Active and HMS Echo relieved the battleship escort off Iceland for refueling. The battleship proceeded on to Halifax, then Philadelphia for refitting.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Curacoa departed Scapa Flow at 0630 to cover convoy WN.9 from the Pentland Firth. At 1000/6th, the ship transferred to convoy EN.95 and covered her to the north. After departing convoy EN.95 in Pentland Firth, the ship arrived at Scapa Flow at 1000/7th.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank departed Methil at 0630 to meet convoy EC.2 and provide cover to the Pentland Firth. Minelayer HMS Teviotbank, escorted by patrol sloop HMS Sheldrake and French torpedo boat La Melpomene, laid minefield BS.53 off the east coast of England.
The Admiralty reported that six German destroyers passed through the Straits of Dover at about 1900, possibly en route to Brest. Three of the destroyers were reported entering Cherbourg at 0720/6th. This was viewed as a prelude to the sailing of German warships from Brest. Destroyers HMS Kelly and HMS Kashmir departed Plymouth and rendezvoused with destroyers HMS Kelvin and HMS Jackal ten miles 130° from Wolf Rock. No contact was made with the German ships.
Light cruiser HMS Fiji arrived at Gibraltar.
Canadian destroyer HMCS Assiniboine was damaged in a collision with British steamer Lairdswood (789grt) in the Irish Sea in 55-05N, 5-32W. The destroyer was escorting British steamer Glenartney (9795grt) to Gibraltar. Destroyer HMS Boreas relieved her of the escort duty. Destroyer Assiniboine was repaired at Greenock from 8 April to 18 May. The destroyer departed Greenock on 22 May.
British steamer St Clement (450grt) was sunk by German bombing in 57-10N, 1-50W. One crewman was missing.
British steamer Rattray Head (496grt) was sunk by German bombing eight miles ENE of Aberdeen. Three crew were lost on the steamer.
Greek steamer Sifnos (2290grt) was sunk by German bombing at Milos.
Convoy AN.25 of five British and one Greek ship departed Alexandria escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and destroyers HMS Jervis and HMS Janus. The destroyers carried mines and special stores for the Fleet Air Arm in Greece, and arrived at Piraeus on the 9th. Anti-aircraft cruiser Coventry then proceeding to Suda Bay.
The U.S. Congress passed the “Fifth Supplemental National Defense Appropriation Act, 1941”, which allocated US$14,575,000 for establishing a Marine Corps training ground on the east coast of the United States.
An informal poll indicated today administration forces in the Senate have ample strength to kill proposals to forbid American convoy of shipments to Britain. A ban against convoys, proposed by Senator Tobey, New Hampshire Republican, is pending before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. An administration poll, corroborated in the main by an Associated Press check, showed not more than eight of the 23 members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee would support the proposal.
William S. Knudsen, asserting the Allis-Chalmers case had shown that “radical leaders” could tell the nation “where to get off,” declared tonight 90 per cent of strikes must be eliminated or the defense program would fail. To this end, the director of defense production proposed these stops be taken: All strike votes be placed under supervision of the labor department. A “certain minimum of time” be required between a strike vote and the effective date so the conciliation service and the defense mediation board may attempt to end the dispute without a work stoppage.
The C.I.O. Steel Workers Organizing Committee tonight ordered its members in all steel mills of the giant United States Steel Corporation, employing about 261,000 wage-earners, to stop work at midnight next Tuesday.
Yielding to pressure from the Federal Government, representatives of 65 percent of the nation’s soft-coal producers agreed yesterday to sign a new contract with the United Mine Workers tomorrow. At least 300,000 miners are expected to return to work Tuesday or Wednesday, ending a week’s stoppage that threatened to cut off vital fuel supplies for defense industries.
Here is an accounting of defense production as given tonight by O.P.M. Co-Director William S. Knudsen in an address in New York: Orders placed for practically all the equipment required for 1,200,000 men, and heavy equipment meaning guns, tanks and planes ordered for 800,000 addition.
Aircraft: A pretty fair production in January and February, monthly figures have to double by August and keep on doubling until the end of the year.
Machine-guns: .30 calibers close to schedule. .50 calibers up to production schedule. “In the former case we are striving for a 500 per cent increase in monthly production by the end of the year and in the latter case nearly a thousand percent.”
Tanks: “We will start making a few of the 26-ton tanks in April or May and are now turning out 13-ton tanks, our present schedule must be doubled by the end of the year.”
Powder production: New explosive plants going into production on schedule. Small arms, such as rifles and sub-machine-guns running ahead of schedule but production has to be stepped up.
Aluminum: “A year ago we were producing 25,000,000 pounds of aluminum ingots a month. Today the monthly production exceeds 40,000,000 pounds. By the end of the year the American output of aluminum should approximate 70,000,000 pounds a month.”
Army and navy housing and base facilities: Construction is better than half completed.
Ships: Over 3,400 ships, ranging from small boats and patrol craft to larger tanker cargo vessels and on to battleships are to be built. Along with this is the conversion and modification of hundreds of existing craft. “A gratifying start has been made some new ships already are being delivered ahead of schedule. On the other hand, it is only a start this program outstrips anything ever attempted as to time, volume and complexity.”
Both the army air corps and the navy were reported authoritatively today to be preparing to let down bars to enlisted men to assure an adequate number of pilots for their prospective new fleets of warplanes. The air corps already has started a study of steps to revise downward its existing strict requirements for fliers, and the navy has approved a recommendation that 20 per cent of its flying force be enlisted men. With a few exceptions, only officers now fly American military and naval planes, and pilot candidates must have at least two years’ college education or its equivalent.
In San Francisco, the Castro and Fillmore streetcars are replaced by buses.
The motion picture “The Great Lie” is released in the U.S. This soap-opera drama, directed by Edmund Goulding, stars Betty Davis, George Brent, Mary Astor and Hattie McDaniel. The plot centers around two women, Davis and Astor. Brent marries Davis but gets Astor pregnant and then he is lost in an airplane crash in South America leaving the two women to battle for the child. Ms. Astor won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
A border dispute between Colombia and Venezuela that had lasted for 100 years was ended today when the Foreign Ministers of the two countries signed a treaty defining their frontier limits.
Following the example of the United States and the greater part of the Latin-American States, Uruguay today took possession of all ships in her ports belonging to the totalitarian powers or to countries controlled by them.
War Minister Ho Ying-Chin said today that the Chinese victory in Kiangsi Province last week was “the greatest victory of the war.” A. Chinese military spokesman said that one-third of the 56,000 Japanese troops engaged were wiped out.
The Chinese Central News Agency reported today that Chinese forces were approaching Nanchang, Japan’s main army base in Northern Klangsi Province, Central China. The agency said the Chinese were in pursuit of Japanese after the recapture of Wanshoukung and Sishan, near Nanchang.
Japanese troops were reported tonight by Reuters, British news agency, to be in full rout after a six-day battle with. Chinese forces in Central China. Chinese chief of staff and War Minister General Ho-Ying-Chin, described the action as the “most brilliant military feat in the entire war” and said the battle cost the Japanese three generals and about 20,000 men killed and wounded.
Having completed reorganization of the government, the Cabinet, now dominated by a triumvirate of Premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye, Home Minister Baron Kiichiro Hiranuma and Masatsune Ogura, Minister for Wartime Economy, is believed ready to go ahead with the creation of a “high degree defense State for the promotion of a Greater East Asia co-prosperity sphere under the leadership of the Japanese Empire.”
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 124.32 (-0.32)
Born:
Michael Moriarty, American-Canadian actor (“Bang the Drum Slowly”, “Holocaust”, “Law and Order”), in Detroit, Michigan.
Viktor Kurentsov, Belarusian weightlifter (Olympics middleweight gold medal, 1968; silver medal, 1964), in Tukhinka, Byelorussian SSR, Soviet Union (d. 2021).
Dave Daniels, AFL defensive tackle (Oakland Raiders), in East Palatka, Florida (d. 2014).
Dave Swarbrick, British folk fiddler, and songwriter (Fairport Convention; Martin Carthy), in New Malden, Surrey, England, United Kingdom (d. 2016).
Died:
Parvin E’tesami, 34, Iranian poet.
Nigel Gresley, 64, British steam locomotive engineer.
Franciszek Kleeberg, 53, Polish general.
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Assertive (AMc-65) is laid down by the Bristol Yacht Building Co. (South Bristol, Maine, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-610 is laid down by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (werk 586).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-767 and U-768 are laid down by Kriegsmarinewerft (KMW), Wilhelmshaven (werk 150 and 151).
The Nihon Kaigun (Imperial Japanese Navy) Yūgumo-class destroyer HIJMS Naganami (長波; “Long Waves”) is laid down by the Fujinagata Shipyards (Osaka, Japan).
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Limpkin (AMc-48) is launched by the Greenport Basin and Construction Co. (Greenport, Long Island, New York, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-153 is launched by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 995).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-373 is launched by Howaldtswerke AG, Kiel (werk 4).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-503 is launched by Deutsche Werft AG, Hamburg (werk 293).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-572 is launched by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (werk 548).
The Royal Navy harbor defence motor launch HMS HDML 1013 is commissioned.
The Nihon Kaigun (Imperial Japanese Navy) No. 13-class submarine chaser HIJMS Ch-16 is commissioned.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-431 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kapitänleutnant Wilhelm Dommes.
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