Year 1941

Diary for Monday, April 14, 1941: Politics King Farouk of Egypt sends a secret message to Hitler, via Egyptian Minister in Iran, expressing hope that Germany will ‘soon liberate Egypt […]

Diary for Sunday, April 13, 1941: North Africa FIRST SIEGE OF TOBRUK begins (until December 17, 1941): Australian 9th Divison (General Morshead) repels Rommel’s Panzers (April 14, 17, 19 and

Diary for Saturday, April 12, 1941: Balkans Germans enter Belgrade. North Africa Rommel captures Bardia.

Diary for Friday, April 11, 1941: Balkans Italian and Hungarian forces invade Yugoslavia.

Diary for Thursday, April 10, 1941: Balkans Germans capture Zagreb and Monastir. Pavelich and Kvaternik, leaders of Croat freedom organization, the Ustachi, proclaim the separation kingdom of Yugoslavia. Occupied countries

Diary for Wednesday, April 9, 1941: Air War Europe: RAF night raid on Berlin; State Opera House gutted by fire. (Hitler furious ! ) Balkans Germans enter Salonika. Politics Yugoslav

Diary for Tuesday, April 8, 1941: East Africa British and Free French troops capture port of Massawa. Air War Britain: Second ‘Blitz’ on Coventry. 230 aircraft drop 330 t. of

Diary for Monday, April 7, 1941: Balkans Germans capture Skopje, southern Yugoslavia. North Africa Rommel captures Derna and two important British Generals (Neame and O’Connor). Home Fronts Britain: Government Budget

Diary for Sunday, April 6, 1941: Balkans GERMAN INVASION OF YUGOSLAVIA AND GREECE: Germans employ 15 divisions (with 5 Panzer divisions) and 800 aircraft. Yugoslav Government flees from Belgrade to

Diary for Saturday, April 5, 1941: North Africa Rommel captures Barce, east of Benghazi. East Africa South African and Commonwealth troops capture Addis Ababa, capital of Italian East Africa. Politics

Diary for Friday, April 4, 1941: North Africa Rommel captures Benghazi. Sea War Atlantic: Disguised German raider Thor sinks armed merchant cruiser Voltaire (13,300 t.). Politics Japanese Foreign Minister, Matsuoka,

Diary for Thursday, April 3, 1941: Politics Britain breaks off diplomatic relations with Hungary. German diplomats leave Belgrade.

Diary for Wednesday, April 2, 1941: Air War Maiden flight of Heinkel He 280 – world’s first experimental jet fighter – at Rostock, Germany. Blenheim bombers attack shipping off Dutch

Diary for Tuesday, April 1, 1941: Sea War Tankers San Conrado and Hidlefjord bombed and sunk by He 111 bombers in Bristol channel. East Africa British capture Asmara (Eritrea). Occupied

Diary for Monday, March 31, 1941: North Africa Rommel breaks through British defences at Mersa Brega, near El Agheila. British withdraw, abandoning 50 armoured cars and 30 light tanks. Sea

Diary for Sunday, March 30, 1941: Air and Sea War Blockade of Brest: 109 RAF bombers attack Gneisenau and Scharnhorst (night March 30-31) in first of 63 raids on the

Diary for Saturday, March 29, 1941 East Africa South Africans occupy Diredawa, third city of Ethiopia, with important railway repair shops.

Diary for Friday, March 28, 1941: Sea War BATTLE OF MATAPAN: Italian Fleet is attacked by British torpedo-bombers while returning from unsuccessful sortie into Aegean Sea. Battleship Vittorio Veneto and

Diary for Thursday, March 27, 1941: Politics Yugoslavia: BLOODLESS COUP D’ETAT IN BELGRADE. Pro-Axis Prime Minister Tsvetkovich and Foreign Minister Cincar-Markovich arrested; Air Force CinC, General Simovic, forms all-Party anti-Nazi

Diary for Wednesday, March 26, 1941: Sea War Mediterranean: Italian one-man explosive motorboats (barchini esplosivi), launched from destroyers, cripple British cruiser York and sink Norwegian tanker in Suda Bay, Crete