April 22, 1944 Americans launch Operation Persecution in the Pacific On this day in 1944, Allied forces land in the Hollandia area of New Guinea. The Japanese occupiers, only 15,000 in number, many of whom were on administrative duty, fight for more than three months against ludicrous odds at great cost: When the battle for the northern coast of New Guinea was finally won by the Allies, 12,811 Japanese were dead, compared with 527 Americans.
April 23, 1942 Germans begin "Baedeker Raids" on England On this day in 1942, in retaliation for the British raid on Lubeck, German bombers strike Exeter and later Bath, Norwick, York, and other "medieval-city centres." Almost 1,000 English civilians are killed in the bombing attacks nicknamed "Baedeker Raids." On March 28 of the same year, 234 British bombers struck the German port of Lubeck, an industrial town of only "moderate importance." The attack was ordered (according to Sir Arthur Harris, head of British Bomber Command) as more of a morale booster for British flyers than anything else, but the destruction wreaked on Lubeck was significant: Two thousand buildings were totaled, 312 German civilians were killed, and 15,000 Germans were left homeless. As an act of reprisal, the Germans attacked cathedral cities of great historical significance. The 15th-century Guildhall, in York, as an example, was destroyed. The Germans called their air attacks "Baedeker Raids," named for the German publishing company famous for guidebooks popular with tourists. The Luftwaffe vowed to bomb every building in Britain that the Baedeker guide had awarded "three stars."
USS EAGLE 56 (April 23, 1945) About noon on April 23 the American submarine chaser Eagle 56, built by the Ford Motor Company and launched in August 1919, sank after a violent explosion when off Portland on the coast of Maine. Classified by the US Navy as sunk due to a boiler explosion, it was not until 2001 that the true story of this long forgotten sinking came to light. When the few surviving members of the crew were interviewed they all mentioned seeing the dark outline of a submarines conning tower a short distance away. German records revealed that the U-853, part of 'Group Seewolf', was operating in the area of the sinking at the time. The US Navy then re-classified the sinking as a combat loss and in June, 2001, posthumously awarded the Purple Heart to the 49 men lost and to the 12 survivors (or their next of kin) who were rescued by the destroyer USS Selfridge. The U-853, commanded by 24 year old Oberleutnant Helmut Frömsdorf, was sunk on May 6, 1945, by the destroyers USS Artherton and USS Moberly. There were no survivors.
April 24, 1940 Britain begins its evacuation of Greece in Operation Demon On this day in 1940, British forces, along with Australian, New Zealand, and Polish troops, begin to withdraw from Greece in light of the Greek army's surrender to the Axis invaders. A total of 50,732 men are evacuated quickly over a six-day period, leaving behind weapons, trucks, and aircraft.
USS FREDERICK C. DAVIS (April 24, 1945) The 1,490 ton destroyer escort was commissioned on July 14, 1943. Nine months later the destroyer was sunk by the U-546 in the Western Atlantic. The vessel was participating in a search for snorkel-equipped U-boats when she sighted the U-546 preparing to attack the American aircraft carrier USS Bogue. The Davis attacked the U-boat but while doing so was herself hit by a torpedo from the U-546 the explosion of which split the Davis in two causing her to sink within a few minutes. Other destroyers in the group then attacked the U-boat which was eventually destroyed. They then proceeding to rescue the 77 survivors of the Davis. Unfortunately, 115 of her crew perished.
April 25, 1945 Americans and Russians link up, cut Germany in two On this day in 1945, eight Russian armies completely encircle Berlin, linking up with the U.S. First Army patrol, first on the western bank of the Elbe, then later at Torgau. Germany is, for all intents and purposes, Allied territory. The Allies sounded the death knell of their common enemy by celebrating. In Moscow, news of the link-up between the two armies resulted in a 324-gun salute; in New York, crowds burst into song and dance in the middle of Times Square. Among the Soviet commanders who participated in this historic meeting of the two armies was the renowned Russian Marshal Georgi K. Zhukov, who warned a skeptical Stalin as early as June 1941 that Germany posed a serious threat to the Soviet Union. Zhukov would become invaluable in battling German forces within Russia (Stalingrad and Moscow) and without. It was also Zhukov who would demand and receive unconditional surrender of Berlin from German General Krebs less than a week after encircling the German capital. At the end of the war, Zhukov was awarded a military medal of honor from Great Britain.
LCG 15 and LCG 16 (Landing Craft Gun) (April, 25, 1943) Their purpose was to engage enemy shore batteries during the forthcoming beach landings in Sicily. A number of these newly converted craft set sail from the Belfast docks, their destination, Falmouth. As the weather deteriorated and the seas mounted, many of the crews became seasick. As they headed down the Welsh coast with the wind now at gale force the ships started to fill up with water. Approaching the Naval Base at Milford Haven, the LCGs 15 and 16 were battling to keep afloat. Swept overboard, bodies were pummelled against the rocks. Hundreds of would be rescuers had gathered on the cliff tops unable to help as they watched the merciless seas pound the two vessels to smithereens. In all, 78 men were lost from the two landing craft, there were only three survivors. Today at Milford Haven, 39 gravestones stand in stark reminder of the tragedy. The other bodies were sent back to their families for private burial.
April 26, 1894 Rudolf Hess is born Rudolf Hess, Nazi party secretary and deputy to Adolf Hitler who caused an international sensation when he parachuted into Scotland in an attempt to negotiate a truce between Britain and Germany, is born on this day in Alexandria, Egypt. Hess joined the Nazi Party as early as 1920 and became a friend and confidant to Hitler, editing much of Mein Kampf as it was dictated to him in Landsberg Prison, where both landed after the famous, and failed, November 1923 Munich beer hall putsch. On May 10, 1941, the day Hitler planned to invade Russia, Hess parachuted into Scotland, hoping to negotiate peace with Britain, in the person of the Duke of Hamilton, whom Hess claimed to have met at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Such a peace would have prevented Germany from fighting on two fronts and greatly increased Hess's own prestige within the Nazi regime, many of whose members saw Hess as little more than a yes-man and sycophant (his nickname was "the Brown Mouse"). Hess did, in fact, find peace--in the Tower of London, where the British imprisoned him, the last man ever to be held there under lock and key. After the war, he was sentenced to life imprisonment in Spandau prison by the Nuremberg tribunal. He died, in prison, in 1987.
YOSHIDA MARU (April 26-May 6, 1944) A Japanese convoy (Operation Take-Ichi) transporting around 20,000 troops, en route from Shanghai to reinforce the Japanese garrison of Halmahera on the Vogelkop Peninsula, was attacked by the American submarine USS Jack. The Yoshida Maru was sunk off Minila Bay. Later on the 6th. May, the American submarine USS Gurnard spotted the convoy and attacked. Her torpedoes sank the transports Tenshizan Maru (6,886 tons), Taijima Maru (6,995 tons) and the Aden Maru (5,824 tons). Nearly half of the troops that embarked at Shanghai were lost.
April 27, 1941 German forces enter Athens On this day in 1941, the German army enters the Greek capital, signaling the end of Greek resistance. All mainland Greece and all the Greek Aegean islands except Crete are under German occupation by May 11. In fending off the Axis invaders, the Greeks suffer the loss of 15,700 men. Greece will not be liberated until 1944, by British troops from the Mediterranean theater.
SLAMAT (April 27, 1941) The 11,636 ton Dutch passenger liner was taken over for service as a troop transport and while engaged in the evacuation of British and New Zealand troops from Crete, she was attacked for the second time by German aircraft of Luftwaffe JG-77 and sank with the loss of 193 men. Of the troops on board, around 700 were rescued by the destroyers HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck, both of which were later bombed and sunk, drowning most of the survivors of the Slamat. There was one officer, 41 seamen and 8 soldiers saved from this triple disaster, leaving a death toll of 843 men. For more, see http://home.kabelfoon.nl/~popta/slamat/index.htm. The Dutch passenger liner Slamat
HMS WRYNECK and HMS DIAMOND (April 27, 1941) British destroyers (900 tons) attacked by German Stuka aircraft and sunk off Nauplia, Greece. She was helping in the evacuation of troops from Greece, and in the process had picked up, with the help of another destroyer HMS Diamond, around 700 troops and crew from the 11,600 ton Dutch liner Slamat, now converted as a troopship and under British control, which had been attacked and damaged earlier. HMS Wryneck and HMS Diamond were both sunk in the attack with the loss of nearly both their crews and all the survivors of the Slamat. The Wryneck lost seven officers and 98 ratings, the Diamond lost seven officers and 141 ratings. Of approximately 950 troops and crews of both ships only one officer, fourteen naval ratings and eight soldiers were rescued.
April 28, 1945 Mussolini is executed On this day in 1945, "Il Duce," Benito Mussolini, and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by Italian partisans who had captured the couple as they attempted to flee to Switzerland. The 61-year-old deposed former dictator of Italy was established by his German allies as the figurehead of a puppet government in northern Italy during the German occupation toward the close of the war. As the Allies fought their way up the Italian peninsula, defeat of the Axis powers all but certain, Mussolini considered his options. Not wanting to fall into the hands of either the British or the Americans, and knowing that the communist partisans, who had been fighting the remnants of roving Italian fascist soldiers and thugs in the north, would try him as a war criminal, he settled on escape to a neutral country. He and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses.
April 28, 1945 [Mussolini]and his mistress made it to the Swiss border, only to discover that the guards had crossed over to the partisan side. Knowing they would not let him pass, he disguised himself in a Luftwaffe coat and helmet, hoping to slip into Austria with some German soldiers. His subterfuge proved incompetent, and he and Petacci were discovered by partisans and shot, their bodies then transported by truck to Milan, where they were hung upside down and displayed publicly for revilement by the masses. Peter It was Rachele, Mussolini's wife, who tried to get into Switzerland, not Mussolini. It was Guido Buffarini-Guidi, the Fascist Minister of the Interior in the Salò Republic, who had pleaded with Mussolini to go to Switzerland but Mussolini rejected the proposal outright dismissing it as 'hardly serious'. The best account in English is here. Mussolini: The Last 600 Days of Il Duce - Google Ricerca Libri Chapter 21 of the Last Days of Mussolini by Ray Mosley. Incidentally, there is absolutely no way that Fascist Republican Border Guards could go over to the Partisans in April 1945. It was far too late. I was there when this happened, scores of Fascists were summarily shot or hanged publicly. This was the end of a bitter and bloody civil war and tempers were running extremely high. Peter
April 29, 1945 Adolf and Eva marry Eva Braun met Hitler while employed as an assistant to Hitler's official photographer. Of a middle-class Catholic background, Braun spent her time with Hitler out of public view, entertaining herself by skiing and swimming. She had no discernible influence on Hitler's political career but provided a certain domesticity to the life of the dictator. Loyal to the end, she refused to leave the Berlin bunker buried beneath the chancellery as the Russians closed in. The couple was married only hours before they both committed suicide. Also on this day in 1945, the Americans liberate the concentration camp at Dachau. Five hundred German garrison troops guarding the camp are killed within an hour, some by inmates, but most by the American liberators, who are horrified by what they bear witness to, including huge piles of emaciated dead bodies found in railway cars and near the crematorium. There were 33,000 survivors of the camp, 2,539 of them Jewish. Dachau, about 12 miles north of Munich, was the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime, only five weeks after Hitler came to power. At least 160,000 prisoners passed through the main camp and another 90,000 through its 150 branches scattered throughout southern Germany and Austria. Medical experiments, ranging from studying the effects of freezing on warm-blooded creatures to treating intentionally inflicted malaria, were carried out on prisoners. At least 32,000 prisoners died of malnutrition and mistreatment at the camp itself; innumerable more were transported to the Auschwitz gas chambers. A memorial was established at the campsite on September 11, 1956
April 30, 1945 Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his underground bunker Der Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany, burrowed away in a refurbished air-raid shelter, consumes a cyanide capsule, then shoots himself with a pistol, on this day in 1945, as his "1,000-year" Reich collapses above him. Hitler had repaired to his bunker on January 16, after deciding to remain in Berlin for the last great siege of the war. Fifty-five feet under the chancellery (Hitler's headquarters as chancellor), the shelter contained 18 small rooms and was fully self-sufficient, with its own water and electrical supply. He left only rarely (once to decorate a squadron of Hitler Youth) and spent most of his time micromanaging what was left of German defenses and entertaining such guests as Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, and Joachim von Ribbentrop. At his side were Eva Braun, whom he married only two days before their double suicide, and his dog, an Alsatian named Blondi. Warned by officers that the Russians were only a day or so from overtaking the chancellery and urged to escape to Berchtesgarden, a small town in the Bavarian Alps where Hitler owned a home, the dictator instead chose suicide. It is believed that both he and his wife swallowed cyanide capsules (which had been tested for their efficacy on his "beloved" dog and her pups). For good measure, he shot himself with his service pistol. The bodies of Hitler and Eva were cremated in the chancellery garden by the bunker survivors (as per Der Fuhrer's orders) and reportedly later recovered in part by Russian troops. A German court finally officially declared Hitler dead, but not until 1956.
SS NERISSA (April 30, 1941) Canadian 5,583 ton passenger vessel built in Scotland in 1926 for the Warren Line. Engaged on the New York-Bermuda run before the war, she was pressed into service as a troop carrier and was sunk during her 40th wartime crossing of the Atlantic by the U-552 (Erich Topp) while en route from Nova Scotia to Liverpool, England. Carrying 175 passengers, mostly Canadian Army personnel and a class of newly graduated RAF pilots, the Nerissa, under the command of Captain Gilbert Watson, sank in less than four minutes with the loss of 124 passengers and 83 crewmembers including Captain Watson who stood on the bow of his ship as it went down and yelling to his men in the water 'Good luck boys'. The 84 Survivors were picked up by the destroyer HMS Veteran and eventually landed at Londonderry in Northern Ireland 200 miles away. (Erich Topp, who sank the American destroyer Reuben James on October 31, 1941, survived the war and died in Germany on December 26, 2005, at age 91) The Canadian passenger ship SS Nerissa
HMS Edinburgh. (30 April 1942) In the Barentz Sea the cruiser Edinburgh, part of a convoy escort and carrying gold bullion, was torpedoed by U 456 and her stern was blown off. On 3 May, under tow to the Kola Inlett about 200 miles away, the cruiser and her escort were attacked by three German destroyers. The cruiser was further damaged by a torpedo from the destroyer Z-24. The badly-damaged cruiser had to be sunk by the destroyer Foresight. 57 of Edinburgh's crew were killed.
May 1, 1887 Alan G. Cunningham, British liberator of Ethiopia, is born On this day, General Alan Gordon Cunningham, commander of the British forces that captured Ethiopia, liberating it from its Italian invaders, is born. The younger brother of Admiral Andrew Cunningham, the man who effectively eliminated the Italian naval threat in the Mediterranean as early as 1940, General Alan Cunningham did virtually the same to the Italian threat in Ethiopia. Overcoming topographical and administrative obstacles, Cunningham's forces entered Italian Somaliland, occupied the ports of Chisimaio and Mogadiscio, and then pursued the Axis enemy into the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa. On May 20, 1941, along with General Sir William Platt, whose army was advancing on the Italian invaders from the north, Cunningham received the surrender of Amadeo di Savoia, commander of the Italian armies. The way was paved for the return of Ethiopia's emperor, Haile Selassie. Cunningham was less successful in campaigns in Libya and was finally relieved of his command. He returned to England and in 1941 was knighted for the successes he had enjoyed. He went on to become British high commissioner in Palestine from 1945 until Israel's independence in 1948.
SS ERINPURA (May 1, 1943) British India SN Company troop transport in convoy with 23 merchantmen and escorted by eleven destroyers, was bound for Malta. When some 30 miles north of Benghazi, the convoy was attacked by German bombers and torpedo carrying aircraft. On board the Erinpura (Capt. P. V. Cotter) were 1,025 troops. One large bomb exploded in the hold sinking the ship in a matter of minutes. A total of 664 lives were lost including forty-four crewmembers and three gunners.
