This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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ATLANTIC: Two ships are torpedoed and sunk by German
submarines off the coast of the U.S.:
(1) U-71 sinks an unarmed U.S. tanker about 45 miles
south southwest of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina; the
ship breaks in half and sinks; and (2) U-160 sinks a Panamanian freighter about 107 miles east southeast of Norfolk, Virginia.

FRANCE: During the day, 20 of 24 RAF Bomber Command Boston attack the port area at Le Havre with the loss of one aircraft. Hits were reported on ships in the harbor. During the night of the 26th/27th, eight aircraft attack the port area at Le Havre.

GERMANY: During the night of the 26th/27th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 104 Wellingtons and 11 Stirlings to attack Essen using Gee; 10 Wellingtons and a Stirling are lost. The bombing force encountered heavy Flak at the target and many night fighters on the routes. Hits on
the Krupps works and fires in Essen were claimed but the raid was actually another failure on this difficult target. Only 22 high-explosive bombs were counted in Essen, with two houses destroyed, six people killed and 14 injured. The bombers had suffered nearly 10 per cent casualties.
Additional targets hit include Oberhausen by two aircraft and individual aircraft attacks on Duisburg and Kempin.

MALTA: Two of the freighters from the recent relief convoy that arrived from Alexandria, Egypt, are sunk in port by the Luftwaffe. These two ships were still almost fully loaded as damage to the docks at Valletta has prevented their swift unloading. Of the 26,000 tons (23 587 metric tonnes) of supplies that had been sent from Egypt on this latest
convoy, only 5,000 tons (4536 metric tons) are eventually
unloaded.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 26th/27th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 11 Blenheims on an intruder mission; five hit Schipol Airfield (with the loss of two) and individual aircraft hit the port area of Rotterdam and Leeuwarden and Soesterburg Airfields.

POLAND: The shipment of Jews to the Auschwitz extermination camp begin. The first Jews come from Slovakia and France.

U.K.: The St. Nazaire Raid. At 1500 hours, a small Royal Navy force consisting of three destroyers, a gunboat, and motorboats and motor torpedo boats carrying British Commandoes departs Falmouth Bay, Cornwall, England, for the French port of St. Nazaire located at the mouth of
the Loire estuary.

U.S.: Admiral Ernest J. King relieves Admiral Harold R. Stark as Chief of Naval Operations and thus becomes Commander in Chief U.S. Fleet and Chief of Naval Operations; Vice Admiral Frederick J. Horne (Vice
Chief of Naval Operations) and Vice Admiral Russell Willson (COMINCH Chief of Staff) are his principal assistants.
Rear Admiral John Wilcox commanding Task Force 39 with the battleship USS Washington (BB-56), the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), the heavy cruisers USS Wichita (CA-45) and Tuscaloosa (CA-37) and six destroyers, sails from Portland, Maine, for Scapa Flow, the major British fleet base in the Orkney Islands. These ships will protect British
home waters for the duration of Operation Ironclad -- the British invasion of Vichy French controlled Madagascar. This is a reflection of the heavy Allied losses in capital ships to Japanese action in the Pacific. Commander of the USN's Eastern Sea Frontier is given operational control of certain USAAF units for antisubmarine patrol duty in the Atlantic. Unity of command over Navy and USAAF units operating over water to protect shipping and conduct antisubmarine warfare is thus vested in the Navy.

The presidents of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) promise to do all they can to curb the rash of strikes that has slowed industrial production. They oppose strikes for the duration.

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ATLANTIC: Aboard the battleship USS Washington (BB-56) en route from Portland, Maine, U.S.A., to Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands,Commander Task Force Thirty Nine (TF 39), Rear Admiral John W. Wilcox,taking an unaccompanied walk on deck of his flagship is washed overboardand disappears in a heavy sea. Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen becomes task force commander upon Wilcox's death.
The USN "Q-ship "USS Atik" (ex SS Carolyn) is torpedoed and sunk with all 141 crewmen by German submarine U-123 about 350 miles east of Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A., after the "Q-ship's" gunfire damages the U-boat in a spirited encounter. Atik is the only U.S. Navy warship disguised as a merchantman that is lost to enemy action during World War II.
While covering convoy WS17 in the UK approaches, HMS Leamington sinks U-587. USS Twiggs (DD-127), was commissioned as HMS Leamington (G-19) on 23 Oct. 1940, part of the destroyers-for-bases deal
Amplifying the above:
U-587 (Type VIIC) is sunk in the North Atlantic, in position 47.21N, 21.39W. Also involved are British escort destroyers HMS Grove and Aldenham, and the destroyer HMS Volunteer. 42 dead (all hands lost).

BELGIUM: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Bostons during the day to
attack the Ostend power station; there are no losses but their bombs fell into fields short of the target.

FRANCE: The St. Nazaire Raid. RAF Bomber Command dispatches 35
Whitleys and 27 Wellingtons to bomb German positions around St Nazaire in
support of the naval and Commando raid to destroy the dry-dock gates in the port. The aircraft were ordered to bomb only if the target had clear
visibility. Conditions were bad, however, with 10/10ths cloud and icing, and only 4 aircraft bomb at 2330 hours. One aircraft bombs Lannion Airfield

GERMANY: During the night of the 27th/28th, 13 of 15 RAF Bomber Command Hampdens lay mines off the northwest German coast; three aircraft are lost.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 27th/28th, RAF Bomber Command
dispatches eight Blenheims to attack airfields; two attack Schipol and two attack Soesterburg; one Blenheim attacking the latter target is lost.

U.S.: The U.S. Army's War Plans Division Issues "Plan for Operations in Northwest Europe," in which a tentative timetable for an invasion of France is offered. The plan calls for (1) a limited cross-Channel attack in the autumn of 1942 (Operation SLEDGEHAMMER) as an emergency measure if Soviet forces show signs of collapsing or (2) the main Anglo-American invasion (Operation ROUNDUP) in the spring of 1943 if SLEDGEHAMMER is not required. The build-up of U.S. forces and supplies in the U.K. for the major cross-Channel attack is coded Operation BOLERO.

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FRANCE: During the night of the 28th/29th, 14 RAF Bomber Command aircraft fly leaflet missions, nine over Paris and five over Lens. St. Nazaire: OPERATION CHARIOT: The "Normandie" dry-dock, the biggest in occupied Europe, vital to enemy warships such as the TIRPITZ, is a flooded ruin after an extraordinary night in which the destroyer HMS CAMPBELTOWN (ex USS Buchanan DD-191) was converted into a delayed action bomb and rammed onto the dock gates at 20 knots. Commandos then swarmed on shore to sabotage other key parts of the dock.
One demolition party had just 90 seconds' start on its own charges, placed 40 feet below ground. At 11.30 this morning, about 12 hours after the start of the operation, when over half of the Combined Operations raiders were dead or captive, the destroyer blew up, killing more than 380 Germans exploring the ship. The base is now only usable by submarines, whose facilities remain untouched.
The operation was precisely planned and well-executed. But its success was due in a large part to the heroism of the men involved. Some 611 men went into action (345 Royal Navy; 257 Commando; four doctors; three liaison officers and two journalists) of whom 169 were killed -104 from the navy and 200 captured. The naval forces were commanded by Cdr. Robert Edward
Dudley "RED" Ryder, RN, while the Army commandoes were led by Lt-Col. Augustus Charles Newman, the Officer Commanding Number 2 Commando, both on board MGB-314.
The plan called the RN force to boldly sail up the Loire estuary at night and penetrate into St. Nazaire harbour, at which point HMS Campbeltown, modified to carry 9,600 pounds of delayed action high explosives (24 x 400 pound depth charges encased in concrete), and under command of Lt.Cdr. Stephen Halden "Sam" Beattie, RN, would ram the forward caisson of the Normandie dock at high-speed, and scuttle herself.
Immediately thereafter the commandos carried on board Campbeltown, the MGB, and 12 of the the motor launches, would land at three separate
locations, push ashore, and destroy the various harbour installations used in
operating the dock. After this was accomplished, the commandoes would re-embark on the small craft and run for home.
A flotilla of 17 motor launches and two other small craft joined the trip up the Loire estuary. Only four would return. Surprise was lost and only one launch would put its men ashore. Some local residents thinking it was a full-scale invasion, joined in the fighting against the Germans.
In the event, the wooden hulled, petrol engined motor launches proved to be too entirely too vulnerable to German defensive fire - ten being sunk. Of the 12 troop carrying MLs, only three were able to land their commandoes - of the remainder, four were sunk and the other five forced to retire with their commandoes still aboard. Regardless, nine of the craft that remained were able to remain in the harbour long enough to embark the commandoes that did get ashore. Amazingly, however, the commando parties that did get ashore managed to destroy all of the key objectives, the Normandie pump house, and both caisson winding houses.
Realizing that there was to be no return to the UK, the commandoes then attempted, in large, unsuccessfully, to fight their way inland and escape into the French countryside. However, it was not until next morning when the delayed action charges on HMS Campbeltown belatedly exploded, totally destroying seaward facing caisson and opening the dock to the sea that the raid could be judged a resounding success.
Admiral Mountbatten, commanding Combined Operations, sought a second destroyer to retrieve the raiders but was overruled. The force was one destroyer [HMS Campbeltown, ex. USS Buchanan (DD-191)] , one Fairmile "C" motor gun boat [MGB-314], one motor torpedo boat [MTB-74], five torpedo equipped and eleven non-torpedo equipped Fairmile "B" motor launches [MLs 156, 160, 177, 192, 262, 267, 268, 270, 298, 306, 307, 341 (aborted), 443, 446, 447, 457] carrying 624 personnel (356 RN, 263 Army, 3 foreign, and 2 civilian). This was supported by one submarine beacon ship [HMS Sturgeon], and a support force of two Hunt class destroyers [HMS Atherstone & HMS Tynedale].
Besides the ten MLs and MTB lost in the harbour during the attack, on the return voyage one further ML was, after an epic but one-sided fight, sunk in action with the German torpedo boat Jaguar, and subsequently three more, as well as the MGB, were scuttled after having their crews removed to the British covering force destroyers. Casualties included 169 killed (103 RN, 66 Army and 212 prisoners of war (79 RN, 133 Army). Five of the Army commandoes did manage to evade German forces and eventually returned to the UK via Spain.
The epic nature of the raid can be easily seen in the awards granted to the participants, which totalled:
5 Victoria Crosses: Ryder; Beattie; AB William Alfred Savage, RN (MGB-314); Newman; Sgt. Thomas Frank Durrant, RE (1 Commando) [fight with Jaguar]
4 Distinguished Service Orders
17 Distinguished Service Crosses
11 Military Crosses
4 Conspicuous Gallantry Medals
5 Distinguished Conduct Medals [DCM viz DSM above]
24 Distinguished Service Medals [DSM correct above]
15 Military Medals
51 Mentioned in Dispatches
The French also awarded 6 Croix de Guerre's (CdeG) and 2 Chevaliers of the Legion d' Honour. (Mark E. Horan)
St. Nazaire: Lt-Cdr Stephen Halden Beattie (1908-75) steamed HMS CAMPBELTOWN into the port gates under withering close-range fire and scuttled her as planned; many crew died. (Victoria Cross)
St. Nazaire: Cdr. Robert Edward Dudley Ryder (1908-86), commanding the naval force, led HMS CAMPBELTOWN in, and helped to take off her crew before escaping under an intense German barrage. (Victoria Cross)
St. Nazaire: AB William Alfred Savage (b.1912) fired his unshielded pom-pom gun aboard Cdr Ryder's motor gun boat with great coolness until he was killed.
(Victoria Cross)
St. Nazaire: Sgt. Thomas Frank Durrant (b.191,Royal Engineers, fired his Lewis gun aboard a launch in spite of wounds from which, in captivity, he died. (Victoria Cross)
St. Nazaire: Lt-Col. Augustus Charles Newman (1904-72), Essex Regt, led the troops on the raid. Ignoring his own safety, he inspired his men until they were surrounded and captured. (Victoria Cross)

GERMANY: Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop asks Japanese Ambassador to Germany Count Oshima to secure a Japanese attack on
Russia simultaneously with Germany's "crushing blow." The Japanese would
attack at Vladivostok and Lake Baikal but the Japanese take no action.
During the night of the 28th/29th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 234 aircraft, 146 Wellingtons, 41 Hampdens, 26 Stirlings and 21 Manchesters to
attack LŸbeck; 204 attack the city. This raid was the first major success
for Bomber Command against a German target. The attack was carried out
in good visibility, with the help of an almost full moon and, because of the light defenses of this target, from a low level, many crews coming down to 2,000 feet (610 meters).
The force is split into three waves, the leading one being composed of experienced crews with Gee-fitted aircraft; although LŸbeck was beyond the range of Gee, the device helped with preliminary navigation. More than 400 tons (363 metric tonnes) of bombs are dropped; two thirds of this tonnage was incendiary; 191 crews claimed successful attacks. German sources show that 1,425 buildings in LŸbeck are destroyed, 1,976 are seriously damaged and 8,411 are lightly damaged; these represented 62 per cent of all buildings in LŸbeck.
The casualties in LŸbeck were 312 or 320 people killed (accounts conflict), 136 seriously and 648 slightly injured. The attacking force loses 12 aircraft, seven Wellingtons, three Stirlings, a Hampden and a Manchester. Other targets hit during the night include individual attacks on Emden, Heligoland, Husum and Sylt and two aircraft bomb Kiel.


NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 28th/29th, individual RAF Bomber Command Blenheims bomb Schipol and Soesterburg Airfields.

U.S.: Units of the USAAF I Bomber Command engaged in antisubmarine warfare patrols off the East Coast are placed under operational control of Commander, Eastern Sea Frontier, USN.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-160 torpedoes a U.S. steamship about 40 miles east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, U.S.A. Before the ship is torpedoed a second time, the Armed Guard, who man their gun stations promptly, manages to get 12 rounds off at the U-boat's periscope. A second torpedo sinks the ship, with the Armed Guard leaving only when the bridge is awash.

FRANCE: During the night of the 29th/30th, five RAF Bomber Command aircraft drop leaflets on Lille.

FRISIAN ISLANDS: During the night of the 29th/30th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 26 aircraft, 18 Hampdens and 8 Manchesters, to lay mines in the Frisians and off Denmark; two Manchesters are lost.

GERMANY: Hitler orders reprisal raids after a RAF air raid on
Lubeck. These are known as "Baedeker Raids" (John Nicholas)

LIBYA: Luftwaffe aircraft bomb Tobruk.

NORTH ATALANTIC: Whilst escorting convoy PQ13 to Russia, cruiser
HMS Trinidad and her accompanying destroyers sink German destroyer Z-26,
then Trinidad is sunk by its own torpedo which circles back on itself.

U.K.: The text of the "Draft Declaration of Discussion, with Indian Leaders," taken to India by Sir Stafford Cripps is published simultaneously in India and Great Britain. The British Government had decided to lay down in clear terms the steps to be taken for the earliest possible realization of self-government in India. "The object is the creation of a new Indian union which shall constitute a Dominion, associated with the United Kingdom and the other Dominions by a common allegiance to the Crown but equal to them in every respect, in no way subordinate in any aspect of its domestic or external affairs"

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ATLANTIC: U-585 (type VIIC) is sunk in the Barents Sea north of Murmansk about 70.00N 34.00E by a German mine which drifted from the "Bantos A" barrage. All 44 of the U-Boat crew are lost.

BARENTS SEA: U.S. freighter SS Effingham, straggling 90 miles astern of Murmansk-bound convoy PQ 13, is torpedoed and set afire by German submarine U-435 about 107 miles NNE of Murmansk. The ship explodes and sinks.

NORWAY: During the night of the 30th/31st, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 34 Halifaxes to attack the German battleship Tirpitz in a fjord near Trondheim but the ship is not located; five aircraft bomb flak positions. A total of six aircraft are lost.

USA: The Inter-American Defense Board holds its first meeting in Washington, D.C. The Board was created to study and recommend measures for the defense of the hemisphere. The War Production Board bans the production of certain electric appliances, notably toasters, stoves and razors.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-754 sinks two U.S. merchant ships off the U.S. East Coast near Norfolk, Virginia.
(1) Unarmed tug Menominee and the barges that she is towing, Allegheny, Barnegat, and Ontario, are shelled by U-754 about 53 miles northeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia; the tug and barges Allegheny and Barnegat sink but barge
Ontario, with its dunnage cargo, remains afloat and provides a life preserver for the three men who had been on board each barge. Only two of the 18-man tug boat crew and the nine men on the barges survive.
(2) Later in the day, the sub torpedoes an unarmed tanker as the ship, en route to Norfolk, Virginia, waits to embark a pilot. One crewman dies in the initial explosion.
An unarmed U.S. tanker en route to Caripito, Venezuela from Buenos Aires, Argentina, is shelled, torpedoed, and sunk by Italian submarine Pietro Calvi about 513 miles east northeast of Cayenne, French Guiana; 2 crewmen on the tanker are lost.

GERMANY: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 11 Hampdens and six Wellingtons on a cloud cover raids to Germany; six aircraft find targets to bomb.
During the night of the 31st/1 April, four RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons, with selected crews using Gee, are dispatched to Essen but only one bombs; a second aircraft bombs Hamborn.

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand now has 61,368 servicemen overseas, 52,712 of them in the Army. Home Guard strength is 100,000.

U.S.: In Washington, Major General Carl Spaatz suggests that the now "task-less HQ 8th Air Force" be shipped to the U.K. to assume operational control of the units assigned to Army Air Forces in Britain (AAFIB).

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Navy records 1 submarine loss during the month that is not listed by day: Shch-210 Black Sea Fleet off Shabler Cape (sunk by
German aircraft off Crimea)

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FRANCE: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Bostons to attack a "Q-ship" at Boulogne; clouds are encountered and the dock area is bombed instead. A Boston is lost. During the night, two targets are
hit:
(1) 34 Wellingtons and 22 Hampdens are dispatched to attack the port area at Le Havre; 46 bomb and successful bombing is claimed. One Wellington is lost.
(2) Twenty four Whitleys and 17 Wellingtons are dispatched to bomb the Ford Motor Co. factory in the Paris suburb of Poissy; 34 aircraft attack and crews claim accurate bombing but this is not confirmed by a later photographic flight. A Wellington is lost. Other missions during the night are
(1) 11 aircraft laying mines off Lorient and in the mouth of the River Gironde and
(2) five aircraft dropping leaflets.

GERMANY: During the night of the 1st/2nd, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 35 Wellingtons and 14 Hampdens to carry out low-level attacks on railway targets. Nine aircraft attack the marshalling yard at Hanau but 12 Wellingtons and a Hampden are lost en route. In other attacks, three
aircraft attack the city of Darmstadt and one hits Frankfurt-am-Main. No 57 Squadron based at Feltwell, Norfolk, England, lost five of the 12 Wellingtons dispatched while No. 214 Squadron at Stradishall, Suffok, England, lost seven of 14 Wellingtons.

ICELAND: Nineteen merchant ships of Convoy PQ 13 set sail for the Soviet Union. They will lose five ships and one of their escorting light cruisers, HMS Trinidad, will be crippled by German torpedoes.

MEDITERRANEAN: Italian light cruiser Giovanni Delle Bande Nere is sunk near Stromboli Island by British submarine HMS Urge.

SWEDEN: Operation Performance kicks off as ten Norwegian merchant ships in the port of Gothenberg try to flee through the Skagerrak (the body of water between Norway and Denmark) to Britain. Five are sunk before they clear the Skagerrak, one is too badly damaged to continue, two turn back, only two reach Britain.

U.K.: Admiral Sir A.B. Cunningham, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Fleet, is appointed to serve on the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee in Washington, D.C. relinquishing his command in the Mediterranean.


USA: The USAAF's Air Corps Proving Ground is redesignated Proving Ground Command, with its main base at Eglin Field, Valpariso, Florida. The command performs operational tests and studies of aircraft and aircraft equipment.
As a result of the immense loss in shipping along the U.S.
eastern seaboard, since January 1942, the U.S. authorities institute a partial convoying system, known as the "Bucket Brigade.". This meant that ships will sail in convoy as close to the coast as possible during daylight hours and anchor in protected harbors at night. Due to the shortage of escort vessels, continuous convoying is not possible and the "Bucket Brigade"system did not apply to the Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico.

U.S.S.R.: A stalemate exists along the entire line. The Germans of Army Group North are largely concerned during the month with extricating 11 Corps of the Sixteenth Army from a pocket southeast of Staraya Russa.

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ATLANTIC: Two unarmed U.S. merchant ships are shelled by German submarines off the U.S. East Coast:
(1) U-123 attacks a tanker about 55 miles southeast of Morehead City, North
Carolina; a motor torpedo (PT) boat arrives forcing the sub to leave the area and the ship is towed to Morehead City;
(2) U-552 shells a freighter about 30 miles off the coast of Virginia and 60
miles northeast of Virginia Beach, Virginia; only three of the 25 crew aboard the freighter survive.

FRANCE: RAF Bomber Command flies three missions during the night of
the 2nd/3rd:
(1) 40 Wellingtons and ten Stirlings are dispatched to bomb an armaments factory in the Paris suburb of Poissy; 44 aircraft bomb the target and one Wellington is lost:
(2) 26 of 49 aircraft dispatched bomb the port area at Le Havre without loss; and
(3) 23 Hampdens and seven Wellingtons lay mines in Quiberon Bay with the loss on a Hampden and a Wellington.

MALTA: Luftwaffe General Albert Kesselring's Luftflotte 2 commences massive bombing of Malta, to neutralize the British island. The heavy bombing depletes Malta-based bombers and submarines, enabling more supply convoys to reach Lieutenant General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps.
.
U.K.: Prime Minister Winston Churchill receives a letter from U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt stating that his foreign affairs advisor, Harry Hopkins, and General George S. Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, will be traveling to London. Roosevelt also says that "They will submit to you a plan which I hope will be received with enthusiasm by Russia." The plan is for a Second Front in Europe. The plan has been prepared by Major General Dwight D Eisenhower.
The USN’s Task Force Thirty Nine (TF 39) comprised of the battleship USS Washington (BB 56), the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), heavy cruisers USS Tuscaloosa (CA-45) and Wichita and eight destroyers, arrives at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands.

U.S.: The USAAF changes the designation of Observation Aircraft ("O") being delivered to Liaison Aircraft ("L") resulting in the following changes:
Stinson O-49 Vigilant redesignated L-1;
Taylorcraft O-57 Grasshopper redesignated L-2;
Aeronca O-58 Grasshopper redesignated L-3;
Piper O-59 Cub redesignated L-4;
Stinson O-62 Sentinel redesignated L-5;
and Interstate O-63 redesignated L-6.

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ATLANTIC: Two U.S. merchant ships are sunk by German submarines:
(1) a freighter, en route to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., from Takoradi, Gold Coast, is torpedoed and sunk by U-754 about 250 miles east of Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S.A.; and
(2) a freighter en route to Takoradi, Gold Coast, from Marshall, Liberia, is torpedoed by U-505 about 240 miles south southwest of Abidjan, Ivory
Coast and abandoned.

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ATLANTIC: Two U.S. tankers are sunk by German submarines:
(1) U-154 torpedoes and sinks the first about 140 miles north of San Juan, Puerto Rico and
(2) U-552 torpedoes and sinks the second about 21 miles east of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, U.S.A.; the ship's cargo of 91,500 barrels of crude oil catches fire.

FRANCE: During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Bostons and
four Wellingtons, escorted by RAF Fighter Command fighters, to attack the St. Omer railroad yards; 12 aircraft attack but their bombs fall in fields near the town.

U.S.: The U.S. grants recognition to Free French administration in Equatorial Africa and appoints a Consul General to Brazzaville.
Americans are granted permission to use the airfield at Point Noire, Congo in
exchange for eight Lockheed Hudson bombers.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-154 sinks a U.S. tanker en route from San
Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic, to Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A. about 37 miles off the eastern coast of the Dominican Republic.

CANADA: The port of Port Rupert, British Columbia, is opened to the U.S. for shipment of supplies to the Territory of Alaska, thus avoiding a logistics jam at Seattle, Washington, U.S.A.

FRANCE: During the night of the 5th/6th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 20Whitleys to bomb the Gnome & Rhone aircraft engine factory in the Paris suburb of Gennevilliers; 14 aircraft bomb but the main target is not hit. Local records show one house destroyed and four damaged, with no casualties. In a second mission, 14 aircraft bomb the port area at Le Havre.

GERMANY: Fuhrer Directive 41 is issued and the Wehrmacht has its marching orders for 1942. Leningrad is to finally be captured and contact is to be made with the Finns east of Lake Ladoga, but that is a secondary objective. The big plan is in the South, which involves 2nd Army and 4th Panzer Army breaking through to Voronezh on the Don River. 6th Army will break out south of Kharkov and combine with the 4th Panzer Army to surround the enemy. After that, the 4th Panzer Army and 6th Army will drive east under the command of Army Group B and surround Stalingrad from the North, while Army Group A's 17th Army and 1st Panzer Army will do so from the South. Once Stalingrad is taken, the 6th Army will holdthe flank defense line while Army Group A drives South into the Caucasus to seize the oilfields and become the northern punch of a grand pincer movement (the southern half being Rommel) to seize Suez, the Nile Delta, the Middle-East and its oilfields.
During the night of the 5th/6th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 263 aircraft, 179 Wellingtons, 44 Hampdens, 29 Stirlings and 11 Manchesters, to bomb the Humboldt works in Cologne; 219 bomb the target claiming good results with the use of GEE but the nearest bombing photographs developed were 5 miles from the Humboldt works. The Cologne report lists just one industrial building hit, a mill in the Deutz area, with 90 houses destroyed or seriously damaged and other buildings, including a hospital, hit. Seven people were killed and nine injured in the bombing. There were further casualties among a crowd who were watching a burning bomber which had crashed in the middle of Cologne; the bomb load exploded killing 16 people and injuring 30more. The bomber's crew had been killed in the original crash. Two of the aircraft dispatched bombed Bonn and another bombed Koblenz.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 5th/6th, RAF Bomber Command
dispatches six Blenheim intruders to attack airfields; individual aircraft hit De Kooy, Leeuwarden, Schipol and Soesterberg Airfields.

NORWAY: In Oslo, 654 of the 699 Lutheran ministers resign their civil service positions in protest of the German occupation of their country.

[Njaco]

Syscom, hope you don't mind if I add alittle to this thread.

April 6, 1942

RUSSIA: The Luftwaffe Transport units at the Demyansk and Kholm pockets flew 360 sorties to and from the Demyansk airfields escorted by elements of JG 51 and JG 53.

NORTH AFRICA: Axis bombers attacked the port of Alexandia in Egypt.

[syscom3]

Thanks NJaco!

Please feel free to add anything of interest to the thread.

[syscom3]

ATLANTIC: German submarine U-160 torpedoes an unarmed U.S. bound from Corpus Christi, Texas, to New York City, about 75 miles SE of Beaufort, South Carolina, U.S.A. The ship manages to reach Hampton Roads, Virginia.

BELGIUM: During the night of the 6th/7th, one RAF Bomber Command aircraft attacks the port area at Ostend.

EGYPT: Axis bombers attack the port of Alexandria.

GERMANY: During the night of the 6th/7th, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 157 aircraft, 110 Wellingtons, 19 Stirlings, 18 Hampdens and ten Manchesters, to bomb Essen The crews encountered severe storms and
icing and there is complete cloud cover over Essen. Only 50 aircraft claimed
to have reached the target area and Essen reports only a few bombs, with light damage; no casualties are recorded. Five aircraft, two Hampdens, a Manchester, a Stirling and a Wellington are lost. Individual aircraft attack Aachen, Cologne, Duisburg, Dusseldorf, Gladbeck and Koblenz.

NETHERLANDS: During the night of the 6th/7th, one RAF Bomber Command bomber attacks Schipol Airfield.

TUNISIA: The British destroyer HMS Havock is wrecked on the coast.

U.K.: The First Canadian Army formed in the U.K. under the command of Lieutenant General Andrew McNaughton.

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GERMANY: Karl Friedrich Stellbrink, an Evangelist minister in Luebeck, is arrested along with three Catholic priests for criticizing Nazi rule. Stellbrink was executed on 10 November 1943 in Hamburg.

U.S.: The War Department officially states that the 8th Air Force will be established in the UK as an intermediate command between US Army Forces in British Isles (USAFBI) and the AAF commands. General George C Marshall notifies Major General James E Chaney, Commanding General of USAFBI, of this decision.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet Army troops force a very narrow corridor to
Leningrad, opening a tenuous rail link to the city. Trains run into the city with desperately needed supplies and came out with civilians and the wounded, all under heavy artillery fire from the Germans.
The Soviet Navy lists submarine M-176 Northern Fleet
Varangerfjord (lost off Norwegian coast, former M-93) (Mike Yared)