This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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ATLANTIC: Three unarmed U.S. merchant tankers are
torpedoed by German submarines off the East Coast of the U.S.:
(1) U-160 attacks a ship bound from Corpus Christi, Texas, to New York City, about 65 miles southeast of Beaufort, South Carolina, but she manages to reach Hampton Roads, Virginia, under her own power. One man of her 33-man crew is lost in the attack.
(2) U-123 sinks the second ship, which is en route from Port Arthur, Texas, to Providence, Rhode Island, about 53 miles east of Brunswick, Georgia.
(3) U-123 then proceeds to sink the third ship about 85 miles east of Brunswick, Georgia.

FRANCE: During the night of the 8th/9th, seven of 13 RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons dispatched bomb the port area at Le Havre and one bombs the port area at Cherbourg.

GERMANY: During the night of the 8th/9th, 272 RAF Bomber Command bombers (177 Wellingtons, 41 Hampdens, 22 Stirlings, 13 Manchesters, 12 Halifaxes and seven Lancasters) are dispatched to bomb the Blohm and
Voss submarine shipyards at Hamburg. Icing and electrical storms are encountered and only 175 bombers hit the targets with the loss of four Wellingtons and a Manchester. Overall, the raid is a failure; 17 people are killed and 119 injured. Other targets bombed are: three bomb Heligoland, two bomb Emden and individual aircraft attack Cruxhaven, Norden and Bremen. Bremen reports a load of incendiaries dropped very accurately on the Vulkan shipyard where four U-boats and several surrounding buildings are damaged by fire

MALTA: German and Italian a/c bomb Malta in what will be the heaviest raid of the war against this beleaguered outpost in the Mediterranean.

NETHERLANDS: Three RAF Bomber Command Blenheims attack Eindhaven, Haamstede, Leeuwarden and Schipol Airfields during the night of the 8th/9th.

NORTH SEA: Four RAF Bomber Command Bostons fly a sweep off the Dutch coast during the day without loss. A ship is bombed but not hit.

U.K.: Harry L Hopkins, Special Assistant to President Franklin D Roosevelt, and General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, arrive in London, England, for talks with British service and supply chiefs concerning the integration of U.S. and British manpower and war
production for action in Europe. General Marshall urges an offensive in the west to relieve pressure upon the U.S.S.R. and promises a constant flow of U.S. troops, including many air units, to the U.K.

U.S.: The USAAF’s V Air Support Command, which was activated on 1 September 1941 to support the Armored Force, is redesignated 9th Air Force with headquarters at New Orleans AAB, Louisiana.
The War Production Board accelerated the transformation of the nation's economy by ordering a halt to all production that was not deemed necessary to the war. The War Production Board's mandate quickly took hold; at the peak of the war, the military utilized nearly half of the nation's production and services. Far from causing fiscal woe, World
War II proved to be a great boon to the economy: unemployment, which had climbed up to 14 percent in 1940, all but evaporated, while the gross national product doubled by the close of the war.

U.S.S.R.: The Soviet Navy lists submarine Shch-421 Northern Fleet off Nordkapp Cape (sunk by K-22 after mine damage, former Shch-325)

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April 8, 1942

MALTA: The cruiser, HMS "Penelope" made a dash from Malta to Gibraltar. She was chased and attacked by Axis aircraft most of the way. Although heavily attacked including an attack near Sardina, she made Gibraltar on the 10th.

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ATLANTIC: The German submarine U-123 sinks unarmed U.S. freighter SS
Esparta, en route from Honduras to New York, about 14 miles south of Brunswick, Georgia. Two ships are sunk off Cape Hatteras, North
Carolina:
U-160 sinks the unarmed U.S. freighter SS Malchace about 50 miles off the coast while U-552 sinks unarmed U.S. tanker SS Atlas. Later the same day, U-552 torpedoes the tanker SS Tamaulipas; the tanker, gutted by fires, sinks the following morning. Motor torpedo boat PT-59, on a practice run in upper
Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, accidentally torpedoes cargo ship USS Capella (AK-13); tugs are on the scene immediately and anchor the damaged
auxiliary in shoal water.

U.S.: The 8th Air Force HQ echelon is relocated to Bolling Field, Washington, DC, to prepare the 8th for a move overseas.

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April 10, 1942

MEDITERRANEAN: Lt. Herman Neuhoff of III./JG 53 was shot down in error by his wingman, Lt. Schow who mistook him for a Hurricane. He bailed out safely, was captured and spent the rest of the war as a POW.

Walther Dahl was appointed Staffelkapitaen of Erganzungsgruppe./JG 3.

GERMANY: Hptm. Wilhelm 'Wutz' Galland finally reached "ace" status when he shot down his fifth victim, a Spitfire Mk V of RAF No. 340 Sqdn over Etaples.

Essen was bombed again at night. RAF crews were given a forcast of clear skies over Essen but instead found the target covered in cloud. The bombing force of 167 Wellingtons, 43 Hampdens, 18 Stirlings, 10 Manchesters, 8 Halifaxes and 8 Lancasters became scattered and suffered from the Ruhr flak defenses and nightfighters. Bomber Command's first 8,000 lb bomb was dropped during this raid by a Halifax from RAF No. 76 Sqdn. Fourteen aircraft were lost, four being claimed by nightfighters. Credit for kills were given to Oblt. Helmut Lent of II./NJG 2, Hptm. Werner Streib of Stab I./NJG 1 who shot down two Wellingtons within eight minutes and Oblt. Reinhold Knacke of 2./NJG 1.

EASTERN FRONT: Hptm. Karl-Gottfiried Nordmann was made a Major and appointed Geschwaderkommodre of JG 51.

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GERMANY: The RAF drops the 1st 2 ton bombs over Essen.

ATLANTIC: the US tanker SS Gulfamerica is sunk by the German submarine U-123. The tanker had been silhouetted by the lights of Jacksonville, Florida making her an easy target. Seventeen of the 41-man crew die along with two of the seven-man Armed Guard detachment.

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RUSSIA: Russian landing begin at Eupatoriya, Crimea. The Russians attack the Finnish positions in Aunus (Olonets) north of Lake Ladoga. The offensive is aimed at the dividing line between the Finnish 11th and 17th divisions (which is also the border of the V and VI Corps), and hits a stretch of thinly manned wilderness. After some initial difficulties, the Finnish troops are able to encircle the attacking Russian spearheads, and the last Russian pockets surrender on the 20th April. After the battle, Finns count some 10 000 Russian dead on the battlefield, the Finnish losses are 440 men. (The casualty figures are Finnish and should be used with caution.)

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Adding this a day early as I wont be around tommorrow.

April 12, 1942

Another RAF raid on Essen during the night. 251 aircraft took part in the raid - 171 Wellingtons, 31 Hampdens, 27 Stirlings, 13 Halifaxes and 9 Manchesters. Five HP and 200 IBs hit the Krupps factory and a large fire was started. 28 private dwellings were destroyed and 50 seriously damaged. 27 people were killed, 36 injured and 9 missing. Ten aircraft - 7 Wellingtons, 2 Hampdens and one Halifax - were lost with 5 of this number shot down by nightfighters. Confirmed kills were awarded to Lt. Herman Mueller and Oblt. Horst Patuschka of Erg./NJG 2, Oblt. Helmut Lent of II./NJG 2, Oblt. Hans-Dieter Frank of 2./NJG 1 and Oblt. Helmut Woltersdorf of 7./NJG 1. This raid concluded a disappointing series of RAF raids on Essen, which was judged to be the heart of the German armaments industry. Essen's records show that industrial damage was caused on only two ocassions - a fire in the Krupps factory and a few bombs on some nearby rail lines -, that sixty-three civilians were killed and that a modest amount of residential property had been hit. There had been eight heavy raids since the first Gee raid on 8/9 March.

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ATLANTIC: German submarines sink 4 merchant vessels:
- Armed U.S. freighter SS Delvalle, en route from New Orleans, Louisiana to Buenos Aires, Argentina, via St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, is torpedoed and sunk by U-154 south of Haiti.
- Armed Panamanian motor tanker MT Stanvac Melbourne is torpedoed by U-203 about 15 miles (24 km) off Frying Pan Shoals, North Carolina.
- Unarmed U.S. tanker SS Esso Boston, en route from Venezuela to Nova Scotia, is torpedoed and shelled by U-130 northeast of Puerto Rico.
- Unarmed U.S. freighter SS Leslie is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-123 approximately 3 miles SE of Hetzel Shoals Gas Buoy, Florida.

U.S.: Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF, sends air plans for Operation BOLERO, the buildup of US armed forces in the UK for an attack on Europe, to General George C Marshall, Chief of Staff US Army, in London. The plan calls for establishment of the 8th Air Force in the UK.

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UK: Rear Admiral Lord Mountbatten is appointed Chief of
Combined Operations and functions as a member of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee. This appointment announced today was effective March 18.

GERMANY: The German radio announces the finding of mass graves in Katyn, Poland, filled with the bodies of thousands of Polish officers.

U.S.: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) mandates that the minimum program time required of TV stations is cut from 15 hours to four hours a week for the duration of the war.

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April 13, 1942

ENGLAND: The Luftwaffe conducted a raid on Hull at 00:05 hours and three HBs fell in the Willerby Road, Woodlands Road Springhead Ave. area. Residential damage was reported. Casualties were four killed and five seriously injured.

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April 14, 1942

GERMANY: Following a successful RAF attack on Lubeck on the night of 28 March, German public opinion demanded heavy reprisal attacks against British cities. Although few aircraft could be spared from the Russian Front, a small formation was assembled for which the He-111s of Erg. U. Lehr Kdo 100 were to act as pathfinders. The main bomber force, comprising some 80 aircraft were drawn from II and III./KG 2 and II./KG 40 equipped with Do-217s as well as KuFlGr 106, an anti-shipping unit equipped with Ju-88s while I./KG 2 with around 25 Do-217s joined the battle a little later. The attacks were planned to start during the moonlight period at the end of April, and copying the tactics so successfully employed by the RAF against German towns, were to be concentrated and of a short duration in order to minimize British defensive action. The Luftwaffe Operations Staff issued the following order: “The Fuehrer has ordered that air warfare against England is to be given a more aggressive stamp. Accordingly when targets are being selected, preference is to be given to those where attacks are likely to have the greatest possible effect on civilian life. Besides raids on ports and industry, terror attacks of a retaliatory nature are to be carried out against towns other than London. Minelaying is to be scaled down in favor of these attacks.” The new bombing operation was called the “Baedecker Raids”, named after a German Publishing company that printed tourist guidebooks. Hitler announced that the Luftwaffe would destroy every building in Britain to which the guidebooks had awarded three stars of its places of interest.

MEDITERRANEAN: While flying near the airfield at Luqa, the Gruppenkommandeur of II./JG 3, Hptm. Karl-Heinz Krahl was shot down by the airfield’s flak guns. He had 24 victories in the air. Major Kurt Brandle was made Gruppenkommandeur in his place.

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ATLANTIC: USS Roper sinks U-85, scoring the first submarine sunk by an American ship. Amplifying the above:
U-85 was the first U-boat to be sunk off the North American coast after the start of the Operation Paukenschlag (Drumbeat) on January 13, 1942.
On the day that she was sunk, 14 April, U-85 stayed on the surface through the engagement. After repeated hits on the boat, fatally damaging her, the order to abandon ship was given and maybe half of the crew got into the water and then U-85 started to sink again fast. USS Roper then
dropped 11 depth charges onto the already sinking U-boat and its 2 dozen survivors and in the process killed everyone in the water.
German submarine U-203 torpedoes and sinks the British freighter SS Empire Thrush approximately 8 miles north of Diamond Shoals, North Carolina. The antisubmarine vessel ("Q-ship") USS Asterion (AK-100), masquerading as the freighter SS Evelyn (her original
mercantile name), picks up entire crew (and the captain's dog). The rescued sailors are enjoined not to reveal the fact that they were rescued by a "Q-ship" and to keep secret Asterion's true identity.
The unarmed U.S. freighter SS Margaret is sunk by German
submarine U-571 off the eastern seaboard while bound for New York City from San Juan, Puerto Rico. Although the Germans see the crew lower a boat and put rafts over the side, none of the 29 sailors from Margaret's complement are ever seen again.

FRANCE: Laval forms a new government in Vichy, with Marshal Petain as Head of State.

GREAT BRITAIN: Operation Bolero is provisionally accepted by the British as a basis for the American buildup in Britain.

MED: Ultra Intercepts had placed three Axis convoys at sea enroute from Italian ports to Tripoli. The largest convoy, consisting of the German motor vessel Reichenfels (7,744 g.r.t.), and three Italian motor vessels:
Vettor Pisani (6,339 g.r.t.), Ravello (6,142 g.r.t.), and Reginaldo Giuliani (6,837 g.r.t.).
The Italian Navy had provided a strong escort: five destroyers and two torpedo boats including Pegaso. The recent blitz of Malta having greatly reduced the islands strike capability, the convoy was bolding steaming on a direct course, passing within 100 miles of the island.
The Coastal Command's Mediterranean command, 201 Group, had been building up a small force of Beauforts for 39 Squadron. Combining with elements of 22 Squadron, on a delayed passage to Ceylon, a striking force of 10 serviceable Beauforts (three from 22 Squadron, seven
from 39 Squadron) as well as four Beaufighters of 272 Squadron is forwarded to the airfield at Bu Amud. As the aircraft do not have the range to strike the convoy and return to their North African base, the plan calls for them to fly on to Malta after the attack, and hope that they can
fight their a through to the islands airfields through the ever present patrols of German fighters. Though the convoy is contacted by two Maryland reconnaissance aircraft of 203 Squadron, also operating from Bu Amud, one of 22
Squadron's ASV Beauforts is dispatched 0730 as a contact plane. The main striking force of nine Beauforts and four Beaufighters follows. One Beaufort had to abort early on.
The ASV-equipped contact plane found the convoy, transmitted its position, and then headed for Malta. Caught by Bf-109s during the approach to the island, the pilot (FS S. E. Howroyd) was killed, and Beaufort AW-282 crashed short of the runway. While the other three members of
the crew survived the crash, the navigator, subsequently died of his wounds in hospital.
Unfortunately, Howroyd's position report was never received by the strike leader, FL J. M. Lander DFC (22 Squadron). Flying at sea level, the striking force passed the convoys line of advance without sighting it. Turning Southwest to search for the elusive foe, the escorting
Beaufighters of 272 Squadron, led by SL W. Riley, flying about 500 feet higher than their charges, spotted several German Me-110s and Ju-88s providing distant air cover for the convoy.
The series of combats bled away their precious combat fuel, and they were forced to turn for Malta. Lander knew the mission was in trouble. The departure of his escort
left the Beauforts terribly alone. Several minutes later, when the target was finally sighted, the Beaufort crews were horrified to discover that, besides the strong naval escort, there were some 25 Bf-109s, Bf-110s, and Ju-88s overhead.
What followed was reminiscent of the Charge of the Light
Brigade. Stripped of their escort, there was little the three sub-flights could do but fling themselves at the convoy and then flee for home. Five of the Beauforts managed to get off good drops, unfortunately without any result (though three hits were claimed).
Then began one of the longest air battles of the entire campaign, as the badly outnumbered eight struggled to fight through the 70 miles to safety. Five , N1100 (PO G. Belfield) of 22 Squadron, N1169 (FL R. G. W. Beveridge), N1186 (FO R. B. Seddon), N1166 (PO B. W. Way), and X8923 (FO D. A. R. Bee), all of 39 Squadron, did not make it, the latter actually lost over the island itself.
Of the 20 aircrew, only five (Belfield's crew and FO McGregor of Seddon's crew) were rescued. Of the three that reached Malta, Lander's X8924, whose wing tip had actually hit the sea at one point, would not fly again while N1102 (FO S. W. Gooch) would be under repair for some time. Amazingly, other than sweat from the crew, FL A. T. Leaning's W6505 came through the entire ordeal without so much as a scratch!
While the courage and devotion to duty displayed by the
Beauforts crews could not have been higher, the aftermath of the mission was to have severe consequences on the campaign against Rommel's supply lines.
The combined squadron had operationally, for all intents, been wiped out. Besides the seventeen highly trained aircew lost, only one operational Beaufort remained to return to Egypt. It had taken three months to
accumulate 10 operational aircraft prior to this mission. It would take another two to replace them. Until June, the Beaufort Squadron had shot its bolt.
There was, however, one other unforseen consequence of the mission. With the loss of Beveridge, 39 Squadron had lost one of the Flight Leaders. The needed replacement had been lingering at Group for several months - one FL Reginald Patrick Mahoney ÒPatÓ Gibbs, DFC - a man who in the coming months would stamp a huge mark on the course of the war in the Mediterranean.

FRANCE: Laval forms a new government in Vichy, with Marshal Petain as Head of State.

GREAT BRITAIN: Operation Bolero is provisionally accepted by the British as a basis for the American build-up in Britain.
London: Purchase tax is to be doubled to 66% on nearly all
non-essential goods. Beer is up 2d a pint. A bottle of whisky will cost 22/6 instead of 17/10, and cigarettes go up from 1/6 to 2/- for a pack of 20. These hefty increases in indirect taxation were announced in today's "sacrifices for victory" budget, which keeps the standard rate of
income tax at 10/- in the pound (50%). The government denied that tobacco supplies to shops are to be cut.

USSR: Stalin opens a war loan subscription to raise 10,000 million rubles.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-575 torpedoes and sinks the unarmed U.S. freighter SS Robin Hood, en route to Boston, Massachusetts from Trinidad, British West Indies, about 300 miles off Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.

POLAND: Sobibor, the new camp set deep in the woods near the river Bug, on a former railway siding, is ready to receive its first transports of Polish Jews and Gypsies. Like Chelmo and Belzec, it is a death camp: there will be no forced labour here, just immediate extermination in
the gas chamber.
SS Staff Sergeant Paul Grot is one of the staff waiting to greet the first arrival. He is especially proud of his enormous dog Barry, trained to rip off the testicles of his master's chosen victim on
the command Jude! [Jew]

U.K.: London: Lord Louis Mountbatten's dazzling progress
through the military hierarchy continues apace. Less than six months after being appointed chief of the tri-service Combined Operations, he has been made a vice- admiral of the Royal Navy, a lieutenant-general in the army,
an air- marshal of the RAF and a full member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee.
At yesterday's meeting in London of the Anglo-American
Combined Commanders' Group. it was decided that no major Allied assault on the Nazis in western Europe could be launched this year. The decision puts the onus on Mountbatten at Combined Operations to keep the Germans
guessing by delivering a succession of hit-and-run raids. One report, unconfirmed, says that he is planning an assault in strength on one of the French Channel ports. Such an operation, it is said, would provide invaluable experience for a full-scale invasion.
There are to be no more frills and fripperies in Britain as
from 1 June. A new order issued by the board of trade bans embroidery, applique work and lace on women's and girl's underwear and also introduces stringent rule designed to minimize the work and material put into clothing. Skirts are to have no more than three buttons, six seams, one pocket
and two box pleats or four knife pleats. Double-breasted suits are out, and men will also lose pockets on pyjamas.
King George VI writes to the governor of Malta awarding the island the GC "to honour her brave people" and "to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous."

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April 15, 1942

ENGLAND: A few German aircraft were engaged in laying mines at the approaches to Tynemouth. Between 22.15 and 01.20 hours some of these machines flew inland and dropped bombs at points in Berwickshire, Northumberland, Durham and the North Riding. At 00.45 hours, four bombs fell in the grounds of residential property in Westoe. The last one fell on the lawn 10 yards from 'Chapel house'. No casualties were reported but considerable damage was done to a large number of homes, including 40 roofs of houses in Horsley Hill road.
....One person was killed and two injured when two HBs fell in Hart lane, West Hartlepool where one house was demolished and the A179 was blocked by a crater. Two HBs were dropped near Ship Inn, High Hesledon, one of which failed to explode. There was slight damage to property. The most serious of the night's raids was a Middleborough, Yorkshire. HBs and IBs fell and 26 people were killed and 52 seriously injured. Five babies were among the dead and in one instance the mother as well. 39 houses were made unihabitable and some 1700 suffered less damage. Public utilities wre affected.

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ATLANTIC: The unarmed U.S. freighter SS Alcoa Guide is shelled by German submarine U-123 (which expended her last torpedo on 12 April) east of North Carolina; Alcoa Guide tries to ram the U-boat without success. U-123 pauses to allow the crew to abandon ship and then sinks the freighter with gunfire once the merchant sailors (two of whom die of wounds suffered in action) have gotten away safely.

FRANCE: Under German pressure, Marshal Petain appoints Pierre Laval head of government and himself becomes a ceremonial head of state. Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Retired), Ambassador to France, receives a cable from Washington with information that his recall "for consultation" will be announced shortly after the formation of a new Vichy government.
School students stage a demonstration after their history teacher is arrested.

GERMANY: Germany: Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, the veteran of the invasion of France and the USSR is appointed C-in-C of the Atlantic Wall defences.

U.K. King George VI awards Malta the George Cross for collective heroism isn the face of the Axis air attacks. Lieutenant-General Sir William Dobbie, read: "To honour her brave people I award the George Cross to the Island Fortress of Malta, to bear witness to a heroism and a devotion that will long be famous in history."
Since Hitler ordered that the island be "neutralized" in preparation for invasion four months ago, it has suffered 1,000 air- raids – an average of seven a day. The Maltese people have gone underground, burrowing deep into the soft limestone to build shelters, communications centres and first aid centres, racing for cover when the alert sounds and emerging into the sunlight to carry on a near normal life - given that many Maltese are on desperately short rations - when they hear the "all clear".
The capital, Valetta, is devastated beyond recognition; the Grand Harbour, once the home of the British Mediterranean Fleet, is under such constant bombardment that submarines are forced to remain submerged during daylight. The submarines are an essential part of the island's lifeline. They bring fuel for the few Spitfires and Hurricanes available to defend Malta from airfields which are bombed daily, with ground crews working round the clock to service the aircraft, often "cannibalizing" wrecked planes for spares.
HMS WELSHMAN, one of the fastest ships in the navy, makes regular dashes from Gibraltar, bringing in food and ammunition to help the island resist a bombardment which - the Germans say - has become the "most accurate in the world."