On this day during W.W. 2

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Mar 21 1942 China and the U.S. completed arrangements for the $500 million in aid to the Chungking government.    The American defense of the Philippines was reduced to Corregidor in Manila Bay. General Jonathan Wainwright moved his headquarters to the heavily fortified Island as a further stand on Bataan would have been futile without real hope of reinforcements or resupply.    The depleted air defenses of Burma were further weakened when the Japanese attacked the air base at Magwe. A ferry command was activated in C>B.I. with 25 Pan-American transports being pressed into airlift service.    Some German aircraft were drawn off the Malta convoy, but the Allied ships came under attack despite the diversionary raids by the British in Libya.

1943 U.S. II Corps made strong gains in Tynisia. An encirclement operation at Djebel el Ank netted 700 Axis prisoners.    Mud caused by the spring thaw slowed action along the entire Russian front. Both sides were already drained by the intense and costly winter action and welcomed the spring respite. Russia found the forthcoming two month long lull advantageous because its military might was being replenished in part through U.S. and British aid, while Germany could mot match the mounting strenth of its rivals.

1944 The U.S. 34thDivision arrived as reinforcements at Anzio.    American cavalrymen began a drive to secure Los Negros

1945Japanese forces opened their drive to take the Laohokow air base in China.    Japanese piloted bombs made their first known appearance of the war while futiley attempting to attack the U.S. naval fast carrier task force whose planes were stiking targets on Honshu and Kyushu.    The 2nd British Division opened the road to Mandalay from Ava.    A flight of 18 R.A.F. Mosquitos bombed the Gestapo headquarters building in Copenhagen. While the building was hit (35 were killed including 9 Danish prisoners) Greater damage was done to a nearby Catholic grade school, killing 86 children and 17 adults.      Churchill told Britons food supplies were short in Britian because of the pressing need to feed liberated parts of the continent.

1939 Germany offered Polnd Slovakia in compensation for the return of Danzig and German control of overland routes between Germany and East Prussia.

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Mar 22 1940 Russian forces assumed control over Hango

1941 Two U.S. grain-carrying ships were permitted to pass through the British blockade and deliver their cargos to Vichy France.

1942 Magwe airfield in Burma was evacuated by British and American flight units, leaving the retreating British without any close air support.      U.S. forces on Bataan were issued a surrender ultimatum by the Japanese

1944 Japan advanced its large scale offensive into India from Burma. Units of the Eighteenth Army reached a point 30 miles east of Imphal in the mountainous area of Manipur.      Tojo informed the Japanese Diet the war situation was  grave.      Alexander halted frontal assults at Cassino.    Frankfurt am Main was attacked in one of the deadliest bomber raids of the war against the city. One thousand and one people were killed.

1945 U.S. 90th Division forces cleared Mainz. Other U.S. units achieved total surprise in establishing a late night crossing of the Rhine at Oppenheim, south of Mainz.    U.S. aircraft completed a week long campaign in support of Allied ground forces in which bombers flew 21,692 missions throughout Europe.      Danzig and Gdynia came under Russian seige. Heavy fighting developed between Lake Balaton and the Danube in Hungary. Other Red Army units began an offensive directed at Vienna and Bratislava.    During the last five days U.S. Naval Task Force 58 accounted for 528 Japanese aircraft in battles around Okinowa and the home Isalands.

1945 March 21-24 In a major effort to draw off German planes from the Rhine area,U.S. and R.A.F. planes attacked Berlin and other targets. During this period, Allied aircraft from Britian,France,and Italy flew 42,000 sorties

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Mar 23 1941 A small British relief convoy reached Malta, but two of the ships were bombed by German planes while unloading. The quantity of supplies actually delivered to the Islands defenders was meager.    A total of 59,141 tons of British shipping was lost the previous week, primarily in the North Atlantic where German U-Boats were marauding at will.      R.A.F. bombers raided Berlin.

1942 The Andaman Islands in the Bay of Bengal were occupied by the Japanese.

1943 Allied and Axis forces suffered heavy losses in hard fighting around El Guettar and Djebel Naemia.

1944 New Zealand forces broke off their costly attempt to take Monte Cassino.    Russian troops broke through German positions on the central front and encircled Tarnopol, the Wehrmacht stronghold and operational base.    Japanese troops made small advances on Bougainville after U.S. artillery halted the assaults.

1945 U.S. First Army troops broke out of the Remagen bridgehead and advanced to the Sieg River.    British and Canadian troops began assulting German positions on the Rhine north of the Ruhr. Wesel came under attack after the river was crossed by the British 1st Commando Brigade. U.S. units to the south continued breaching the Rhine fortifications on a broad front. The German First Parachute Army could offer only slight opposition th the advancing Allies.    A carrier task force of the British Pacific Fleet joined the U.S. in operations against the Japanese islands.      Russian units cut through to the Gulf of Danzig, cutting a wedge between the ports of Gdynia and Danzig.    De Gaulle announced that Indochina would be given a limited form of self-government after the war. He added, however, that Vietnam,Cambodia, and Laos would remain with the French Union.

1939 Germany signed a treaty with Slovakia guaranteeing the latters political independence and territorial integrity for 25 years, in effect extending the same kind of control over Slovakia that it had over Bohemia-Moravia (now known as Czechia ). With this formality completed, Germany maintained hegemony over the entire area of defunct Czechoslovakia.    Hitler made a triumphal entry into Memel aboard a German warship.    Under German pressure Rumania agreed to permit German participation in the development of Rumania’s mineral and agricultural resorces.

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No post yet, doing a global with Gen. Dicenhower and 4 others, maybe later

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No post yet, doing a global with Gen. Dicenhower and 4 others, maybe later

I gotta wait :(

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March 24-25, 1944, was the night when 76 allied POWs escaped from Stalag Luft III, an event on which the famous movie “The Great Escape”, featuring many famous action actors of the 1960s, was based. In an impressive operation, they had been building many long tunnels, most of which were discovered by the Germans. The escapees used one of the remaining tunnels, nicknamed “Harry”, but the tunnel turned out to be a few yards too short to reach the cover of the surrounding forest, and not as many POWs were able to get away as planned. Also, they faced difficulties after escaping, primarily because it was extremely cold for March. Unfortunately, only three of them managed to avoid recapture and managed to leave German-occupied territory. Of the remaining 73, 50 were executed by the Germans in a flagrant violation of the Geneva convention, at Hitler’s orders and against the advice of several senior German officers.
There’s an excellent reference about this event at http://www.elsham.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/gt_esc/.

Good luck with your game, Surprise Attack, and thanks for doing this!

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Tanks, you guys are great. They left me alone in Russia and we didnt roll real well and they had the Victory Cities, but there was still alot of war left to go.
March 24-25 1941 Turkey and the Soviet Union signed a neutrality treaty, each pledging to remain neutral if the other were attacked.    German forces in North Africa under Rommel mounted their first major offensive operation and reached El Agheila, which fell without offering resistance.    Allied forces ousted the last of the Italian troops from British Somaliland.
    25th Yugoslavia yeilded to german pressures to join the Axis by adhering to the Tripartite Pact. The Belgrade government said it had no alternative save military occupation by Germany. Hitler did agree that somehow Yugoslav “neutrality” would be observed.      Germany announced its blockade of Britian would extend to within three miles of Greenland.

1942 The Japanese opened their final drive to occupy the Bataan peninsula. Corregidor came under heavy air attack.    Chinese and Burmese troops were badly mauled by the Japanese, isolating Toungoo and pushing the defenders back to the Irrawaddy River.
  25th Japanese troops inflicted heavy losses on the Chinese 200th Division around Toungoo.

1943 24th Wingated Chindits were ordered to leave their operational area in northern Burma. In seven weeks the group had endured extreme hardships and one of three menended up as a casualty. The most notable success was in Disrupting trafic along the Mandalay-Myitkyina rail line which was cut at 75 points.

1944 24 mar Los Negros was nominally secured when U.S. forces took over commanding high ground positions. Only small scale fighting followed.    Japanese forces were routed in a Bougainville counterattack. It was the last major fight in the Solomans although some sporatic engagements were fought through May.    British Major General Orde Wingate was killed when his plane crashed in Burma. The eccentric but effective Wingate had organized the Chindits  and was a leading proponent of irregular warfare. Because most of the other victims of the aircrah were American, and no bodies could be identified. Wingate is buried in a common grave at Arlington National Cemetary near Washington, D.C.

25th Organized Japanese resistance ended on Manus Island.

1945 24th Russian troops southwest of Budapest advanced 44 miles and occupied large numbers of towns and villages.    The Japanese pocket on Iwo Jima was reduced to 50 square yards.    British 6th an U.S.17th Airborne Division paratroopers were dropped north and northeast of Wesel They soon made contact with the British infantry units advancing from the west. It was the largest airborne operation of the war involving 5,051 aircraft and 40,000 men.

25th U.S. Third Army units began their attack across the Rhine, after a preliminary bombardment by 1,250 guns. The 6th Armored Division broke through and started driving toward Frankfurt along the Autobahn. The Remagen bridgehead was expanded to a 30 mile long front 10 miles deep. American forces moved inta Darmstadt. All organized resistance west of the Rhine had ended.    All instalations at the Laohokow air base in China were blown up before U.S. Fourteenth Air Force personnel withdrew. This was the last of the American airbases to fall to the Japanese

1939 For the first time Hitler said the Polish problem might have to be settled by military means. He ordered Generals Wilhelm Keitel and Walther von Brauchitsch, his top military advisors to develop plans for a war against Poland. He made it clear that he did not want war with Britain.    Italy issued an ultimatum to King Zog of Albania in which he was to request a treaty placing his country under Italian protection. Zog requested British aid but was told London would not help. British policy was to maintain stable relations with Rome.

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March 26 1942 For reasons not readily apparent to most people at the time, Churchill declared “it seems very likely that we and our Allies cannot loose this war .  .  .except through our own fault”.      Roosevelt ordered a speedup in the shipment of supplies to the Soviet Union.    Admiral Ernest J King was named chief of Naval Operations, succeeding Harold R Stark as the renking U.S. naval officer. The army command was totally overhauled under General George C Marshal.    The Japanese occupied most of Toungoo.

1943 In one of the major misreadings of history Mussolini wrote to Hitler that Russia was so weakened after Stalingrad “she cannot hope, at any rate for a long time to come, to constitute a serious menance”.      New Zealand troops assulted the western flank of the Mareth Line under intense R.A.F. close air support. The defense line fell apart and the Axis forces began retreating.    A Japanese naval force en route to the Aleutians was turned back by U.S. ships. In the battle of the Komandorski Islands, the Japanese were unable to reinenforce their Atu garrison even though they possessed numerical combat ship superiority. Only one Japanese crusier was damaged ( to a damaged U.S. crusier and destroyer ) , but the task force had to return to Japan without putting men or material ashore.

1944 Red Army troops reached the Prut River in the Ukraine on a 53 mile front.    In one of the most bizarre and trajic incidents of the war the U.S. submarine Tullibee apparently torpedoed and sank itself. Operating north of Palau in the Carolines, the surfaced sub fired two torpedos at a Japanese transport. Shortly there after Tullibee expoded and sank. The only survivor, a gunners mate on the bridge, said one of the torpedos, equipped with a contact exploder made a circular run and hit the sub.

1945 The U.S. Seventh Army crossed the Rhine river near Worms and made contact with the Third Army which had reached the Main near Offenbach. The Rhine-Main airport was captured and Frankfurt was penitrated.    Red Army units made substantial advances through Hungary and Czechoslavakia.    The U.S. American Division landed on Cebu in the Philippines, to the west of Cebu City.    A final attack was made by the Japanese on Iwo Jima. About 200 of the trapped troops staged a suicidal assult from their tiny pocket. At least 196 were killed.

1939  Italy announced its intention to establish control over the Suez Canal, Tunisia, and Djibouti at the expense of Britisn and France.    Poland, politly but firmly, rejected Germany’s offer on Danzig and the rail and road corridor to East Prussia.

March 25 1936 The London Naval agreement was signed, with Britian France and the U.S. approving a 35,000 ton limitation on new war ships and restricting the size of guns on vessels. Italy refused to sign the final agreement, and Germany began construction of the 45,000 ton Bismark and Turpitz.

March 25 1937 Italy and Yugoslavia signed a treaty with each agreeing to honor the land and sea frontiers of the other and remaining neutral should either be attacked by a third country

March 25 1938  For the first time in the modern era, Japan suffered a major military defeat. The battle of Taierchuanng began this date when 3,000 Chinese troops attacked the Japanese garrison holding the walled town on the Grand Canal. For the next two weeks, with each side committing large numbers or troops in escalading combat, the Chinese were able to circle the town completly. Only 2,000 of the 18,000 Japanese survived. The rest were killed. About 15,000 Chinese troops died in the action.

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March 27 1941 American and British staff officers concluded their conferences in Washington on a common strategy if the U.S. entered the war.    Britian and the U.S. reached an agreement for the transfer of British naval and air bases in Newfoundland, Burmuda, Jamaica, St Lucia, Antigua, Trinidad, British Guiana, and the Bahamas to the U.S.    Congress approved an appropriation of $ 7 billion for the U.S. lend-lease program.      Seventeen year old King Peter II assumed power in Yugoslavia after Army and Air force officers overthrew the government which had been forced to bring the country into the Axis. Churchill immediately promised British aid, but the new Belgrade government under General Dusan Simovich vowed to remain neutral. Hitler upon hearing of the coup, said to his military leaders “destroy Yugoslavia as a national unit . . .with unmercifal harshness.”  The decision forced a crucial month-long delay in the German invasion of Russia.    British forces captured the fortress of Keren in Eritrea. It was the main defense bastion for the Italians, who fought fiercely for seven weeks to keep it. The British overpowered the garrison but lost 4,000 men. The Italians suffered 3,000 losses. With Keren gone, all of Eritrea was open to the British.

1942  British forces raided the St Nazaire Naval facility in France. The German battle ship Tirpitz was in Norway, but the British feared it would break-out to menace the Atlantic convoys. If it did , it could only be docked at the St Nazaire lock which in peacetime had accommodated the French luxury liner Normandie. British Commandos were therefore given the task of destroying the huge lock. In the early morning hoursof the 28th a force of 260 men aboard a former American destroyer (Campbeltown ) loaded with explosives tried to ram the lock. eightteen coastal craft went in with her. The operation succeeded but only after the force was serverly mauled.All but two of the small ships were sunk, stranding many of the Commandos. In all, 170 of the men were killed or captured. But the old American destroyer, with its delayed action fuses , blew uparound noon before the Germans could disarm her, and the Tirpitzwas deprived of its base to prey on convoys

1944 Polish underground units were directed to make contact with the Russian Army in Poland.

1945 The U.S. First and Third Armies linked up near the Lahn River. About 20 towns were taken in the advance which carried the Allies to within 200 miles of Berlin. BritishXVII Corps forces advanced five miles through the Wesel Forest.    House-to-house fighting took place in Danzig and Gdynia.      Russian troops were 60 miles from Vienna.      Sixteen prominent anti-communist Poles, including the deputy premier of the government-in-exile, were invited to a conference with Russian officials on  political matters. When they arrived, all were arrested. The Poles were sent to Moscow and imprisoned, eliminating the last vestages of anti-communist leadership remaining in Poland.    Cebu City fell to the American Division.    B-29’s began night missions to mine the waters around Japan,eventually establishing a total blockade. More than 1,000 tons of mines were dropped into the Shimonoseki Strait alone within the next 4 days.    The last V-2 rocket bomb fell on Britian. inall the 1,115 V-2s launched against England killed 2,855 people and seriously injured 6,268.      Argentina, under U.S. presure declared war on Germany and Japan.

Mar 27 1937 Japan tuned down a 14 inch naval gun limitation proposal on the grounds that ships of other maritime powers were already equipped with more 15-inch guns than Japan’s and Russia had two ships with 16-inch weapons

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March 28 1940 The Supreme War Council of the Allies agreed neither France or Britian would enter into separate peace arrangements. A study was ordered “for the bombing of the Russian oil area of the Caucasus,” a reflection of concern that the Germans would be fueled by Soviet oil. The council also ordered the mining of Norwegian waters.

1941 The Italians suffered a crushing defeat in the battle of Cape Matapan off the southern tip of Greece. Most of the Italian fleet was concentrated in these waters, but the British nontheless challenged the large enemy force with aircraft and surface forces. The crusiers Pola, Zara, and Fiume, and two destroyers were sunk by british gunfire. More than 2,400 Italians were lost aboard the five ships. The only British loss was a swordfish torpedo bomber airsraft.    Total air raid civilian casualties to date were 28,859 killed and 40,166 injured.

1942 28-29 lubeck was subjected to a devastating raid by the R.A.F., the opening of bomber command’s main offensive against Germany.    Bataan’s defense garisson was begining to experience severe problems as further efforts to break the Japanese blockade failed. Horses and mules were by now being slaughtered for food.    The Vatican established diplomatic relations with Japan.      The first trainload of Jews from Paris began being shipped to Auschwitz. Six thousand were earmarked for imprisonment.

1943 The British Eightth Army completed occupying the main positions on the Mareth line. Patton’s II Corps opened up an offensive directed at Gabes. French colonial camel corps troops of the southeast Algerian Command completed the capture of a string of towns to the south.

1944 Nikolayev was retaken by the Russians.    The Allies conceded the campaign to take Monte Cassino was a temporary failure.

1945 Hitler dismissed Guderian as chief of the Army General Staff after a violent quarrel in the Reich Chancellery.    Russian units reached the Austrian border. Gdynia was occupied inthe north.    British Second Army forces began an offensive to reach the Elbe. U.S. troops began occupying Frankfurt. Mannheim’s burgomaster sought th surrender the city. The American 4th Armored Division found a bridge over the Main intact. First army units reached Marburg and Giessen, advancing up to 40 miles a day.    Eisenhower confirmed plans for the final campaign to knock Germany out of the war choosing Leipzig instead of Berlin as the ultimate objective. Russia was to occupy the German capital. The decision had wide range political implications. Churchill futiley tried to change the thrust of the final Allied push, continuing to express his concern over Russian political gains after their military conquests.    Soldiers Of the Burma Natonal Army revolted against the Japanese in central and southern Burma and joined forces with the Allies.

1939 The civil war ended in Spain. Madrid was formally surrendered to General Franco

1933 The German Nazi party began an organized campaign to boycott Jewish stores and shops.

1938 The Japanese established the “Reformed Government of the Republic of China” in Nanking

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Mar 29 1940 foreign Minister Molotov declared the Soviet Union would remain neutral in the European war.

1942 In an achievement that buoyed Allied hopes, a convoy reached the Soviet Arctic port of Murmansk by evading German ships and planes. The Murmansk run remained the most dangerous of the war.    The Chinese withdrew from Toungoo, and the Japanese moved forward toward Prome.    Philippine guerrillas were organozed as the anti-Japanese Peoples Army ( the Hukbalahaps ) under communist leader Luis Taruc.    Britian offered India independence after the war.

1943 Montgomery’s forces pressed northward through Gabes and El Hamma.

1944 Japanese troops cut the road between Imphal and Kohima. Chinese troops occupied Shaduzup as part of an effort in northeast Burma to divert the Japanese forces from their main goal of moving into India.

1945 U.S, 5th Division forces comp,eted the capture of Frankfurt. Mannheim was abandoned by the Germans.    French forces crossed the Rhine near Germersheim.      U.S.3rd Armored Division units pursued disorganized German forces 50 miles northward toward Paderborn.    Fighting continued in the eastern section of Danzig.    The Kerama Islands in the Ryukyus were secured by the U.S.77th Division, clearing the approaches to projected landing beaches on Okinowa.    Goebbels said “The Germans must stay on their feet no matter how,  just stay on their feet, and then the moral and historical superiority of the German people can manifest itself.”

1939 Paris responded to the Italian demands of March 26 for controll of African territory held by France, saying it would not cede a foot of land.    Chamberlain announced the British territorial Army  would be doubled and placed on a war footing.    Poland declared any unilateral action to alter the status of Danzig would be considered an act of war.

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Mar 30 1940 A pro-Japanese government for all of China was proclaimed in Nanking to be headed by Wang Ching-wei, Tokyo stated " Arenascent China has just set out on the road to progress, a new defense is about to commence in East Asia"    The U.S. refused to recognize the Japanese pupet Chinese government; In the light of whats been happening invarious parts of China since 1931, the setting up of a new regime at Nanking has the appearence of a further step in a program of one country by armed force to impose its willupon  a neighboring country and to block off a large area of the world from normal political and economic relationships with the rest of the world.      Hitler decreed that “so far as necessary” arms shipments to Russia would receive priority over deliveries to the German Army. This remained in effect untill April 14, when he ordered "punctual delivery to Russia only till the spring of 1941.

1941 The U.S. government seized all German, Italian, and Danish ships in American ports.      R.A.F. planes failed to damage the German battle crusiers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau which were attacked while in port at Brest, France.

1942 Japanese troops broke through the outer defenses of Prome.

1943 U.S.units were blocked on trying to reach the Fondouk gap in Tunisia.    Stalin was told the Allied convoys to Murmansk were being suspended because of heavy losses. Increasingly suspicious of Washington and London, Stalin assumed the suspension was motivated by political rather than military considerations.

1944 Russian forces were positioned 30 miles from the Ruthenian border    U.S. bombers based in the Mediterranean began a series of heavy raids on the Balkans    30th-31st In a costly raid 795 R.A.F.planes attacked Nurnberg but 95 were lost and 71 severely damaged . Long range area raids were suspended as a result.

1945 The Russian Third Ukrainian Front crossed into Austria from Hungary near Koszeg.Danzig fell. Bulgarian and Soviet units advanced  to the Drava River boundry between Hungary and Yugoslavia. The capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, was threatened  as the Russian Second Ukrainian Front pressed westward across the Hron and Nitra Rivers.    The British 6th Airborne and 11th Armored divisions reached the Ems River.    Tanks of the 6th Armored Division broke through German defensives noth of Frankfurt and dashed toward Kassel. Heidelberg fell.    U.S. Air Force bombers sank 10 German submarines in raids on Naval facilities in the Bremen-Hamburg area.

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Nothing yet, two long games of Global yesterday and some chores to do today. I will post later.

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Mar 31 1940 Mussolini told his King that Italy must inevitably go to war, but he said it would be " a war parallel to that of Germany to obtain our objectives, which can be summed up in this phrase "Liberty on the seas a window on the ocean.

1941 31st British Naval and Air Forces had sunk one fifth of the German submarine fleet during the month. The losses were particularly damaging to the German effort since many of their experienced commanders were among those lost.    British civilian air raid casualties for March were 4,259 killed, 5,557 injured.             
April1  Japanese foreign Minister Matsuoka began talks in Rome with Italian officials. He met with the King and told himJapan was in complete sympathy with Italies war aim.    Asmara inEritrea fell to Commonwealth troops.      The first 4,000 puond bombs were droppedby R.A.F. Wellingtons, on Emden, Germany.

1942 For the previous four months, British air raid civilian casualties were 189 killed and 149 injured.
April 1 Japanese forces began landing on Dutch New Guinea.    Forced mass evacuation of Japanese Americans from the Pacific coast states was begun by the U.S. Army      A  reletive stalemate developed along the entire Russian front, with the Germans concentrating on aiding the II Corps to escape from the pocket at Staraya

1943 Cap Serrat in Tunisia was occupied by The British.      British civilian air raid casualties for the first three months of the year were 973 killed and 1,191 wounded.

March 30- April 2 U.S. Naval Task Force 58 aircraft hammered Japanese targets in the western Carolines, including Palau, Yap, and Ulithi. the raids, which resulted in the destruction of 150 Japanese planes, 6 combat ships, and 104,000 tons of miscellaneous shipping, were designed to deny a quick response to the projected invasion of Hollandia, New Guinea. A total of 20 U.S.planes were lost   
31st Admiral Mineichi Koga, Commander in-chief of the Japanese combined fleet, disapeared and was presumed killed while fling from Palau to Davao, in the Philippines, during a violent storm.      British civilian air raid casualties for March were 279 killed 633 injured.
April 1 A  German force of 40,000 was trapped by the Russians at Skala, in the Ukraine

1945 31st German troops began withdrwing fron the Netherlands.    U.S. forces discovered 350 suicide boats in the Kerama Islands, which had been positioned for attacks on Allied shipping during the expected invasion of Okinowa.    British air raid civiliancasualties for March were 792 killed, and 1,426 injured.
April 1 In what was to become the last , and the blodiest-major amphibious operation of the Pacific war, the U.S. Tenth Army invaded the Island of Okinowa, 360 miles south of Japan. Two army and twomarine division, a force of about 60,000 men, came ashore after intensive air and Naval bombardment. At first there was little Japanese opposition except for the Kamikaze attacks on the invasion fleet. Kadena airfield was taken at once, and the beachheads were firmly established, but the defense stiffened to a leval probably unmatched in the Pacific war.    French II Corps units established contact with the U.S. Seventh Army south of Heidelberg after crossing the Rhine near Germersheim.    The Ruhr was completely encircled as the U.S. First and Ninth armies linked up at Lippstadt, 20 miles west of Paderborn, trapping German Army Group B and two Corps of Army Group H. It was one of the largrst envelopments in history, with 325,000 Germans eventually captured . In numbers, it was a loss greater than Stalingrad.    Soviet forces  advanced to within 13 miles of Bratislava.      Radio Werwolf begab broadcasting. The radio station was created by Goebbels to rally Germans to suicidal resistance. Its repeated theme was Besser tot als rot (“better dead than red”).

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April 2 1940 The U.S. fleet sailed from west coast ports for Pacific maneuvers in the area of Hawaii

1941 British units began falling back in North Africa, abandoning Mersa Brega in the face of heavy German attacks.    Mussolini told Matsuoka the U.S. was deliberately provoking war. Matsuooka also visited the Vatican and reported to Tokyo “The Pope took an utterly detatched attatude, free of any favoritism regarding the European war, and approached the question from the point of view of a general peace throughout the world”.

1942 U.S. Tenth Air Force planes flew their first missions in the C.B.I. theater, bombing Japanese fleet units in the Andaman Islands.    Prome was abandoned by the British.

1943 A stalemate developed in Tunisia with both sides battered and unable to dislodge the opposing forces

1944 Units of the Second Ukrainian Front crossed into Rumania over the Prut River and occupied Gertza. Hitler continued to profess his belief in ultamate victory. The Russians have exhausted and divided their forces.

1945 Resistance on Okinowa remained light.    The 49th Canadian Division advanced toward Arnhem from Nijmegen bridgehead. U.S. troops pushed into Munster. German troops offered strong opposition around Kassel. Martin Bormann issued a proclamation, which called for “Victory or death”.    British Royal Marines and Commandos launched an offensive between the Comacchio lagoon and the Adratic Sea.    Russian forces crashed through to within 50 miles of Berlin, but swirter progress was made toward Vienna.

Apil 1 1939 With Hitler in attendance Germany launched the battleship Tirpitz, then the biggest in the world at Wilhelmshaven, The 42,900-ton giant carried a crew of 2,500, had eight 15 inch guns and 86 anti-aircraft weapons. Tirpitz was properly called “the most feared ship afloat,” altering European naval strategy once war began.

April1 1933 Hitler ordered a one day nation wide boycott of all Jewish stores, doctors, and lawers in Germany. Other Nazi leaders began urging  the expulsion of Jews from all schools and universities. The Nazi news paper Volkischer Beobachter said the boycott “is to be regarded merely as a dress rehearsal for a series of measures that will be carried out unless world opinion, which at the molment is against us,definitly changes”.

1936 April 1 Austria began plans for conscription, whether it was able to rearm or not. Vienna announced that military service was of “social value,for physical, moral, and patriotic education”. In fact, the Austrian government became fearfull of Germany’s military muscle-flexing.

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I HATE IT WHEN I TOUCH A BUTTON AND ALL MT PROGRESS IS GONE!!! time to start again
1941 Apri 2-3 German troops crossed into Hungary while the Budapest government was still considering a grant of transit rights. Germany had demanded them in order to use Hungary as a military jumping-off point. Prime Minister Count Teleki committed suicide to dramatize Hungary’s plight.
3 Yugoslavia ordered fill military mobilization.    A pro Axis Arab officer faction in Iraq, led by Rashid Ali Gailani, seized power in Baghdad. Rashid Ali had assurances from the Vichy officials in neighboring French Syria that German aircraft would operate out of Syrian bases in attacking the British in Iraq and that other German support would be forthcoming.    Stalinwas personally told by the British ambassador in Moscow, Sir Stafford Cripps, that German units were being deployed along their eastern frontier for an attack on the Soviet Union.

1942 About 2,000 people were killed in a destuctive Japanese air raid on Mandalay, Burma.      Japanese forces, reinforced by a fresh division, began their final assult on the last American defense line on Bataan. The U.S. units were subjected to a five hour air and artillary bombardment.
1944 U.S. and R.A.F.bombers began bombing Budapest and other Hungarian cities, ending the August 1943 agreement to refrain from such attacks in exchange for free and safe access
over Hungary. Germans,not Hungarians, now manned aerial defenses in Hungary.    U.S. bombers attacked Hollandia in the heaviest attack yet on the New Guinea base. During the next four days  more than 300 Japanese planes were destroyed, most of them on the ground. U.S. air superiority over Hollandia was established by these raids.

1945The British Guards Armored Division Reached the Dortmund-Ems Canal near Lingen. Munster was completely secured by the U.S. 17th Airborne Division. A hard fought battle ended when the Germans at Aschaffenburg surrendered.      Russian troops occupied the Austrian manufacturing center of Wiener Neustadt.

1939 German military planners drew up plans (code named WEISS 0 for a war against Poland to be launched by Sept.1st Hitler hiself drafted the introductory section, on the state of relations between the two nations, which was included in the HighCommand’s “Directive for the Armed Services,1939-40.”.      Chamberlain repeated the guarantees given Poland on March 31st, saying that recent developments have “made every state which lies adjacent to Germany, unhappy, anxious, uncertain, about Germany’s future intentions.”      Italy sent an ultimatum to Albania demanding Italian control over the small Adriatic state.

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April 4 1940 Churchill was given overall defense responsibilities in Britian.

1941 German and Italian troops wrested controll of Bengahazi. Rommel’s forces then moved out swiftly along the coast and directly across the Cyrenaican desert.      addis Ababa was abandoned by the Italians.    Hitler confered with Matsuoka in Berlin. The German leader had previously told his guest “England has already lost the war. It is only a matter of having the intelligence to admit it”. At this meeting Hitler again urged the Japanese to attack the British and her Allies in Asia. Hitler denigrated the United States, apparently to ease Japans fears about possible U.S. entry in to a Pacific war. The minutes indicate Hitler’s arguments, "Germany had made her preparations so that no American coiuld land in Europe. Germany would wage a vigorous war agains Americans with U-Boats and the Luftwaffe, and with her greater experience . . .would be more than a match for America, entirely apart from the fact that German soldierswere, obviously, far superior to the Americans
". In the end Hitler assured Japan that Germany would fightagainst the United States if japan got into a war with the U.S…    The United States rejected German and Italian protests of the March 30 ship seizures, and requested withdrawal of the Italian naval attache.    3rd-4th German U-Boats sank 10 ships out of a 22 vessel convoy in the North Atlantic. these losses prompted U.S. Naval leaders to bring America’s ships operating in the area under convoy protection.

1942  U.S. and Filipino defenders were forced to yield ground on Bataan.

1944 DeGaulle was named Commander of all Free French forces.    In a display of precision bombing six R.A.F. Mosquitos bombed a Gestapo building in the Hague which contained the files onDutchman earmarked for deportation. Inthe center of a civilian area only the target building was destroyed in the low leval attack.    Japanese troops began their direct assult on Kohima. Indian troops from the Dimapur area were rushed to the front to help block the Japanese.      Moscow called on all Rumanians to abandon the Germans and cese fighting or face destruction…

1945 Hungary was cleared of all German troops, who retreated into Yugoslavia. Bratislava in slovakia fell. red Army troops moved westward along the Polish-Czech boardertoward the Moravian gap.    The U.S. Ninth Army reached the Weser River but found the bridges destroyed. Patton’s tanks were within 70 miles of Leipzig. French First Army units occupied Karlsruhe. Troops of the U.S. 90th Division occupied Merkers and found the vast hoards of gold and art treasures buried by the Nazi’s in a salt mine.    The U.S. 4th Armored Division liberated the concentration camp outside Ohrdruf, the first of the infamous prisons reached by the Allies from the west. General Patton (who vomited on visiting the site ) rounded up townspeople to winess the horrors which had been perpetrated in their immediate area. Many victems were still lying where they had been shot by the retreating Nazi’s. Ohrdruf’s burgomaster and his wife were among those brought to the camp by Patton. When they returned home, they hanged themselfs.      for the first time since landing, U.S. forces on Okinowa encountered significant resistance.

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April 5 1941 Russia and Yugoslavia signed a treaty of friendship and nonaggression, which the Germans condemned. The pact marked a crucial point in the rupture between Germany and Ruaaia.    Japan declared it would control all ruber exports from Thailand, Indochona and the Dutch East Indies through a Japanese association of rubber dealers. Japan was reduced to a month’s supply of rubber stocks.

1942 Japanese Naval forces moved to complete their dominance of the Indian Ocean with an attack on Colombo, Ceylon. The carriers Akagi and Kaga, which had been involved at Pearl Harbor, launched 127 planes which inflicted only light damage on the port but which caught two British crusiers trying to escape to open water. Dorsetshire and Cornwall were sunk by dive bombers in attacks of remarkable accuracy.    4th-8th A marauding Japanese Naval surface squadron and submarines roamed the bay of Bengal sinking merchantmen almost at will. The British had cleared Calcutta Harbor, fearing an air attack, and the ships at sea were picked off at an alarming rate. During this five day period the Japanese sank twenty-eight ships,totaling 144,400 tons.

1943 Japanese forces overran British brigade headquarters on the Mayu peninsula in Burma.      A concerted Allied air campaign was begun to destroy Axis shipping and air facilities in Tunisia and Sicily, making it virtually impossible to resupply the Germans and Italians left in North Africa.

1944 U.S. planes launched the first in a new series of strikes against Axis oil targets. The first raid was directed at Polesti in Rumania as 588 tons of bombs were dropped on rail facilities around the refining and production center.    Tarnopol was captured by the Russians

1945 Moscow denounced the Russian-Japanese neutrality pact which had been signed on April 13 1941, and was to run for five years.    The Japanese cabinet resigned because of the Soviet action. Admiral Kantaro Suzuki replaced General Kuniaki Koiso as premier.    In an unmistakable order for mass suicide, the Japanese Imperial Navy commanded its remaining men-of-war to engage the Americans in a final banzai," Second Fleet is to charge the enemy anchorage of Kadena off Okinowa Island at daybreak of 8 April. Fuel for only one way passage will be supplied".      A bridgehead across the Wesser was established by the U.S. 2nd Armored Division. The U.S. First Army cleared a broad area within the Ruhr pocket. Units of the U.S. 6th Armored Division occupied Mulhouse. French units began attacking German fortified positions at the north end of the Black Forest.    Schwarze Korps, official organ of the Gestapo admitted that Germany was “only days or perhaps weeks from absolute collapse”.

1939 Warsaw again turned down Germany’s bid for control over Danzig and overland routes through the Polish corridor.

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April 5 1941 Russia and Yugoslavia signed a treaty of friendship and nonaggression, which the Germans condemned.

In a curious coincidence, another treaty was signed between the USSR and Yugoslavia (effectively, the provisional government established by the later president Tito) exactly 4 years later on April 5, 1945. The treaty allowed Soviet troops to enter Yugoslavia, which they had in fact already done in late 1944, and they were supposed to leave after concluding their operations (which they reluctantly did).

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That was interesting to know about Russia & Yugoslavia, and Tito as their leader.            Tanks

April 6 1941 German troops launched coordinated attacks against Yugoslavia from Bulgaria, Rumania, Austria, and Hungary. Spearheading the invasion were 33 German divisions, supported by 1,200 planes of the Luftwaffe. Hitler said he had only “tried to convince Yugoslav statesman of the absolute necessity for their cooperation with the German Reich for restoration of lasting peace and order in Yugoslavia.” Yugoslavia had 28 divisions to defend its long borders and could never offer concentrated or coordinated resistance. The Germans drove towards Zagreb and Belgrade in the north  while other units were to occupy southern Yugoslavia and break through to Greece. Belgrade was subjected to intense aerial bombardment, primarily from Stukas, and was reduced to rubble by the 13th.      German forces invaded Greece. Units from the XXX Corps swept into Thrace and the XVIII Corps into Macedonia from Bulgaria. Greek defenses in the northeast part of the country were arrayed along the Metaxas line, which was attacked frontally. As Yugoslavia defenses colapsed, the German 2nd Panzer Division swung south and moved behind the Metaxas line toward Salonika.      The capital of Ethiopia, Addis Ababa,was occupied by the South African 1st Division.      Six British Generals, including Sir Richard O’Connor and Sir Philip Neame, were captured by a German patrol in Libya. They had become lost un a sandstorm.(O’Connor later escaped from captivity and ended up commanding the VIII Corps in the Normandy invasion.)

1942 Red army units advanced in the area of Smolensk.    Japanese troops landed in the Admiralty Islands.    A Japanese naval force under Vice Admiral  Jisaburo Ozawa sank 92,000 tons of merchant shipping along the east coast of India.    Vizagapatam and Cocanada, Indian cities on the Bay of Bengal, were bombed by Japanese aircraft.    Chaing Kai-shek promised another division to help defend Burma. More Japanese troops arrived in Rangoon.    Axis planes bombed Alexandria, Egypt.

1943 The British army resumed offensive operations, attacking Wadi Akarit in Tunisia.

1944 Japanese troops advanced within Kohima.    Only 25 Japanese planes were left in sevice at Hollandia.

1945 The first of the concentrated Kamikaze attacks off Okinowa sank two U.S. destroyers, Bush and Calhoun, and four auxiliaries. Only 24 of the 355 suicide planes from Kyushuactually hit targets, but they caused great destruction. The furious fighting also resulted in many U.S. ships hitting each other. A battleship (North Carolina) a crusier (Pasadena) and two transports, a sub-chaser, a cargo ship, and two LST’s were all damaged by friendly fire.    U.S. 84th and 2nd Armorded Division forces broke across the Wesser River near Minden. The U.S. XVIII Airbirne Corps began a major offensive across the Sieg River.      The German POW camp at Hammelburg was liberated, all the prisoners except the seriously wounded had been evacuated.      The Germans moved 15,000 Jewish prisoners out of Buchenwald concentration camp.    Red Army forces advanced to the suburbs of Vienna.      Yugoslav Partisans gained control of Sarajevo.    The British 56th Division moved in force across the Reno River in Italy.

1939 Italy assured Britian it had no designs on Albania. London voiced its concern about military movements which appeared  directed at Albania.