1 April 1939

Yesterday Tomorrow

1933: FRANCE: French air minister Pierre Cot signs documents creating an independent air force, the L'Arme de l'Air. The Army loses control of the air units and the Army, Navy and Air Force are put on an equal footing.

April 1st, 1939 (SATURDAY)

GERMANY: The Gerhard Fiesler Werke GmbH is created from the old Fieseler Flugzeugbau by Gerhard Fieseler. (21)

At Wilhelmshaven, Erich Raeder is promoted to Grand Admiral aboard the Scharnhorst and the battleship Tirpitz is launched. (Navy News)

JAPAN: The prototype Mitsubishi A6M1, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighter (assigned the Allied Code Name "Zeke" in 1942) makes its first flight at Kagamigahara. A total of 10,449 aircraft will be build during the war.

CANADA: Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA) begins transcontinental airline service today with a flight from Montreal, Quebec, to Vancouver, British Columbia. TCA operates 10-passenger Lockheed Model 14-H2 Super Electras and 14-passenger Lockheed Model 18-10 Lodestars.

U.S.A.: William Patrick Hitler, nephew of the Führer, arrived yesterday in New York aboard the French liner Normandie. Hitler takes a room at the Buckingham Hotel, Sixth Avenue and 57th Street. (New York Herald Tribune and Cris Wetton)

The government recognizes the Franco government in Spain following the end of the Spanish civil war.

Hawaii: The US Navy holds the largest war games to date. (Denis Peck)

1 April 1940

UNITED KINGDOM: The government says that it will intervene to keep food prices down.

Douglas Bader, the brilliant pilot and rugby footballer who lost both legs when he crashed his Bristol Bulldog fighter in December 1931, is back in the cockpit, flying fighters again with the RAF. He left the RAF because he was no longer allowed to fly despite his mastery of his "tin legs". But immediately the war was declared he started to pull strings until he was given a test on a trainer. All his old skill came flooding back - flying was still "a piece of cake". No he can be seen stumping towards his Hurricane, as aggressive as ever, to fly patrols over Channel convoys, and when he takes of he flies like all the other pilots - only better than most.
This is one take on Bader, a somewhat controversial figure. Cris Wetton views from another angle.

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: Parliament passes General Smuts' War Measures Bill.

GERMANY: Hitler fixes the date of Operation Weserubung [Exercise Weser], the invasion of Norway and Denmark, at 9 April and orders preparations to start.

U.S.A.: “Broadcasting” magazine reports that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has suspended its order for "limited commercial" operation of TV, censures the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) for their sales efforts which are seen as an attempt to freeze TV standards at the present level and calls a new hearing. Critics call the move "usurpation of power."

1 April 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: The Commons rejects government proposals to allow theatres to open on Sundays.

RAF Bomber Command: Last night 6 Wellingtons from 9 and 149 Squadrons attacked the German port of Emden. One specially-modified aircraft from each squadron dropped a 4,000-pound bomb on the target. Like the 2,000-pounder, which was first used last July, this new bomb has a thin, blunt-nosed case packed with HE. Already nicknamed the "cookie" or "blockbuster" by air and ground crews.

London: Churchill instructs Wavell to not hesitate to implement a full blockade on French Somaliland and its port of Djibouti.

Cambridge: When a small boy told Alice Stutley, a Cambridge air-raid shelter marshal, that there was a dead body in the shelter in the park, she thought it was an April Fool's Day trick. When she finally agreed to go and look she found a man who had shot himself through the head.

The body was that of Jan Willen ter Braak, a German spy charged with "liquidating" Churchill. He had lodged in Cambridge since last autumn, posing as a Dutch scientist who was working on fossils. But frequent visits to London, and to Whitehall in particular, soon alerted the Secret Service. Today they had found a transmitter, a Luger pistol and a file on Churchill's movements in ter Braak's rooms and were waiting for him to return.

YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: The Senate is dissolved and the government order a general mobilization. The Yugoslav Army has 900,000 men on active service but with mobilization, that will be increased to 1.4 million.

Hitler today demanded the demobilization of the Yugoslav army and ratification of the Axis Pact. A third demand - that Yugoslavia apologize for the anti-Nazi demonstrations - is less of a problem for Belgrade. Meanwhile the Germans are making plans to attack Yugoslavia in line with the Fuhrer's 25th war directive.

Yugoslav officials are planning to sign a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union. The treaty promises no Enmity between the two nations and that each country will come to the aid of the other, should one be attacked by a third party.

ITALY: Japanese Foreign Minister MATSUOKA Yosuke, on an official visit to Rome, has separate meetings with King Victor Emmanuel III and dictator Benito Mussolini"> Mussolini. Matsuoka has arrived from Berlin where he had discussions with Chancellor Adolf Hitler and Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.

LIBYA: Lieutenant General Sir Philip Neame, General Officer Commanding Western Desert Force, orders the British 2nd Armoured Division to withdraw towards Benghazi; the retreat is hampered by the breakdown of most of their tanks. He also orders the Benghazi garrison to prepare demolition charges and be prepare to evacuate on 24 hours’ notice.

ERITREA: Asmara the capital of Eritrea has fallen to the advancing 5th Indian Division. Italian General Nicola Carnimeo, commander of the 2nd Colonial Division, though wounded in the leg, tries with scraps of his defeated army to hold up the Indian advance at Adi Tecesan, 35 miles (56 kilometres) from Asmara. He failed. With nothing left, the Italians sent out two policemen with a white flag, and declared Asmara an open city. The Italian destroyer Leone runs aground off Eritrea and is scuttled by its crew to prevent it from being captured by the British.

IRAQ: A coup is led by the nationalist politician Rashid Ali and a group of officers opposed to the British presence in the country; they call themselves the "Golden Square." The Regent Faisal escapes to Transjordan (now Jordan).

PACIFIC: The USN's heavy cruisers USS Chicago (CA-29) (Rear Admiral John H. Newton, Commander Cruisers Scouting Force) and USS Portland (CA-33) and destroyers USS Clark (DD-361), USS Conyngham (DD-371), USS Reid (DD-369), USS Cassin (DD-372) and USS Downes (DD-375) arrive at Suva, Fiji Islands from Brisbane, Australia.

1 April 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham of the Commander-in-Chief of the British Mediterranean Fleet is appointed to serve on the Combined Chiefs of Staff Committee in Washington D.C. relinquishing his command in the Mediterranean.

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: Berlin: The Nazis have drawn up a set of rules for disposing of the possessions looted from Jews, down to the last fountain-pen.

They have decreed that German Mark are to be paid into the bank account of the SS's administration department, which runs the concentration camps. Foreign currency, precious metals, jewellery and dental gold are to be handed over to the SS for transfer to the Reichsbank. Alarm clocks, pocket knives, scissors, wallets and fountain-pens will be sold to troops at the front.

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, Suffolk, England, lost seven of 14 Wellingtons.

SWEDEN: Operation Performance kicks off as eleven 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.S.S.R.: A stalemate exists along the entire line. The Germans of Army Group North are largely concerned during the month with extricating II Corps of the Sixteenth Army from a pocket southeast of Staraya Russa.

Murmansk: The battered convoy PQ-13 arrived here today. Five of the 19 merchant ships which began the voyage had been sunk, two by U-boats, two by aircraft and one by a destroyer. The problems began on 24 March when a violent storm off Bear Island separated them from the escort of a cruiser, HMS TRINIDAD, and two destroyers.

The Luftwaffe found the unprotected ships and called in the U-boats and three destroyers from Kirkenes. The escort found its charges too late to save five of them, but it managed to destroy on of the German destroyers, Z26.

HMS TRINIDAD was crippled by a torpedo but managed to limp into Kola Inlet near Murmansk. It was only when her sailors were examining the debris in the boiler rooms that they discovered that the torpedo that hit her was her own. The severe cold had affected the steering mechanism so that it circled back.

The incident shows the hazards of the Arctic route. Sailors work in ice spray which freezes on the deck. But the improving weather now also means a bigger threat from the Germans. This spring the convoys have to cope with attacks from Germany's most powerful battleship, the TIRPITZ, sent to these waters a few weeks ago. Yesterday a force of 34 Halifaxes set out to bomb her but failed even to find the target.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Submarine HMS Urge sinks the Italian light cruiser Giovanni delle Bande Nere near Stromboli Island north of Sicily.

MALTA: LAC Albert Matthew Osborne (b.1906), RAFVR, died while tackling a burning plane with the courage shown in his many similar operations on Malta. (George Cross)

MALTA: Two submarines are sunk in harbour by an air attack.

U class submarine P.36 is bombed in an air attack whilst alongside the jetty at Manoel Island, Malta and has a hole blown in her pressure hull. An attempt was made to keep the submarine afloat, but when it seemed as if the weight of the submarine might cause the arches of the submarine base structure to collapse, she was cut free and allowed to sink. In August 1958, P.36 was raised and scuttled at sea.

Submarine HMS Pandora which had brought vital stores to Malta and was being unloaded, receives two bomb hits in an air attack and sinks within four minutes. The wreck was later raised and sent to join P. 39 at Kalkara Creek. In 1957 it was being broken up when two skeletons of her crew were found in the compartment where they had died, which were then buried at sea on 1 July 1957 from HMS Tudor. (Alex Gordon)(108)

BURMA: General Archibald Wavell, Commander-in-Chief India, visiting the front, agrees to the immediate withdrawal of Burma I Corps to the Allanmyo area, north of Prome. The Japanese continue to press in on Prome. Wavell sends a message to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill stating that the Japanese command of the air is setting the Allied command in Burma an extremely difficult task. Lieutenant General William J Slim, General Officer Commanding Burma Corps, and Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commanding General American Army Forces, China, Burma and India and Chief of Staff of the Chinese Army, meet for the first time and are impressed with each other.

CHINA: After meeting with British General William J Slim in Burma, Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell flies to Chungking to meet with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. The meeting is stormy. Stilwell tells Chiang he will resign because the Chinese generals won't obey his orders. "What a gag," Stilwell writes. "I have to tell Chiang Kai Shek with a straight face that his subordinates are not carrying out his orders, when in all probability they are doing just what he tells them. In justice to all of them, however, it is expecting a great deal to have them turn over a couple of armies in a vital area to a foreigner."

JAPAN: Japanese Combined Fleet Headquarters submits a draft of an operational plan for the Second Phase of operations, in which the Aleutian Operation (AL-GO) will be followed by a Midway Operation.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese Army resumes major attacks against the US and Filipino forces on Bataan. The 24,000 men there are on 1/4 rations and ill from food shortages and tropical diseases.

NEW GUINEA: Japanese troops from the Netherlands East Indies land at a number of points on the Dutch New Guinea coast, from Sorong on the north-western tip to Hollandia, during the period 1-20 April; the landings are virtually unopposed.
Six USAAF A-24 Dauntlesses based at Port Moresby attack the Japanese at Lae.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: During the night of 31 March/1st, the Japanese land on Ceram Island, Netherlands East Indies. The 1st Detachment occupies the town of Fakfak and the small Dutch garrison surrenders without a fight.
RAAF Hudsons of Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons operating from Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, bomb Penfui Airfield on Dutch West Timor Island. The Australians destroy six and damage six aircraft on the ground.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Submarine USS Seawolf (SS-197) torpedoes Japanese light cruiser HIJMS Naka 50 miles (80 kilometres) northwest of Christmas Island south of Java. British submarine HMS Truant sinks two Japanese merchant cargo ships in Malacca Strait, 60 miles (97 kilometres) off the coast of Sumatra.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Japanese forces occupy Buka Island off the north coast of Bougainville Island.

U.S.A.: New York: Admiral Ernest J. King, the commander-in-chief of the US Navy, who has his headquarters in downtown Manhattan, has finally accepted the British view on convoys. The devastating successes of the U-boats has convinced his of this.

Ironically, the Allies have been doing less well since the US entered the war. Before then the British had established the convoy system with help from Canada and, despite its neutrality, from the US. Once the US joined the war, Admiral King took the view that "inadequately escorted convoys are worse than none". Hundreds of ships were allowed to sail unescorted from US ports before joining convoys in mid-ocean. U-boat commanders simply moved closer to the well-lit US shore. So easy did they find it to pick off sitting targets that they called it "the American turkey-shoot."

The US Navy has not got sufficient escort ships to guard all the shipping all the way, however. The new system requires ships to sail in convoy as close to the shore as possible during daylight hours, and to anchor at night in harbour.

US Marine Corps Photo Reconnaissance Squadrons VMD-1 and VMD-2 are organized at Naval Air Station San Diego.

The Pacific War Council holds its first meeting at Washington, D.C. Presided over by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and attended by representatives of Australia, Canada, China, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the Philippines and the U.K., this is the first of more than 30 meetings held during the war.
     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 harbours 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.
     Transport Squadron Two (VR-2), the first Naval Air Transportation Service (NATS) squadron for Pacific operations, is established at NAS Alameda, California.

The US Navy Amphibious Force, Pacific Fleet is renamed to the Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet. (Gordon Rottman)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The Allies suffered their worst shipping losses of the war last month. No fewer than 273 merchant ships were sunk, totalling 834,184 tons. The total for the first three months of the year was 1.93 million tons lost, and the vast majority of these - 1.34 million tons - were sunk by the U-boats.

GERMANY, now has 121 operational U-boats, compared with 91 at the beginning of the year, Because of the long distances they have to travel to the main battleground on the eastern seaboard of the US, there are rarely more than a dozen in position at any one time. Nevertheless, their effect has been devastating, In the first quarter of the year U-boats sank 216 ships in the North Atlantic, most of them in the area patrolled by the US Navy.

Admiral Dönitz ordered them to go for the easiest targets amongst ships which were strategically important, particularly oil tankers carrying essential fuel for the war in Europe.

More than half of the sinkings have been oil tankers. Moreover, the Germans are stepping up their efforts. The submarine building programme is being accelerated and in six months time the Allies will be reckoning with the menace of at least another 100 U-boats.

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.

1 April 1943

April 1st, 1943 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: USAAF 78th Fighter Group moves to Duxford, Cambridgeshire.

USAAF 4th Fighter Group disposes of its last Spitfire today.

GERMANY: The prototype Blohm und Voss Bv 222 V7 makes it maiden flight today. This aircraft is different from its predecessors in having six 980 hp Junkers Jumo 207C Diesels in place of BMW engines. It has increased defensive armament and provision for rocket assisted take off.(21)

TUNISIA: Ninth Air Force P-40s escort bomber missions. B-25s and A-20 Havocs hit parked airplanes and AA batteries at El Maou Airfield at Sfax.

During the night of 31 March/1 April, RAF Wellingtons of the Northwest African Air Force (NAAF) bomb the Bizerte docks and Karouba Bay seaplane base. During the day, A-20s bomb La Fauconnerie and El Djem Airfields.

Fighters, carrying out reconnaissance missions over wide areas of Tunisia, attack motor transport, tanks, and guns in the Sidi Mansour-Djebel Tebaga areas. British medium and light bombers, and fighters hit gun positions north of Oued el Akarit and hit the Sfax-El Maou Airfield.

BURMA:16 Tenth Air Force B-25s bomb the Maymyo railroad sheds while 8 others hit the railroad yards at Ywatsung.

CHINA: a Japanese force of 9 Nakajima Ki-43, Army Type 1 Fighter Hayabusa, Allied Code Name "Oscar," strafe the airfield at Hengyang and then fly on to Lingling Airdrome. They are intercepted in the Lingling area by Fourteenth Air Force P-40s. The AAF claims 5 fighters shot down and 2 others crash while returning to base; one P-40 and the pilot are lost.

NETHERLANDS East Indies: Flights of from 1 to 3 Fifth Air Force B-25s attack coastal shipping and shore targets over a wide area.

NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force B-17s attack the town of Madang.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses attack a convoy off Kavieng, sinking merchant cargo ship SS Kokoko Maru, and airfields at Gasmata and Cape Gloucester on New Britain Island.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN) launches Operation I GO to hit US stockpiles on Guadalcanal, the naval base at Tulagi, and the incomplete airstrips in the Russells. The Japanese launch 58 Mitsubishi A6M, Navy Type 0 Carrier Fighters, Allied Code Name "Zeke," in two waves to sweep Allied aircraft from the air over the Russell Islands. They are intercepted by 28 F4F Wildcats, 8 F4U Corsairs and 6 P-38s. Navy and Marine pilots shoot down 19 IJN aircraft in aerial battles lasting three hours; five Marine and one Navy aircraft are shot down with the loss of three pilots.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: Territory of Alaska: A joint directive by Commander-in-Chief, Pacific and Commanding General Western defence Command orders preparations for Operation LANDGRAB, the invasion of Attu Island.

In the Aleutians, the Eleventh Air Force dispatches 16 B-24 Liberators, 5 B-25 Mitchells, and 12 P-38 Lightnings in attacks against Kiska Island from Adak and Amchitka Islands. Targets include a ship in Gertrude Cove, the North Head area, the Main Camp and the beach. AA fire damages 2 bombers. Reconnaissance covers Kiska, Attu, Buldir, and Semichis Islands.

1 April 1944

April 1st, 1944 (SATURDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: A ten-mile deep coastal belt from Land's End to the Wash is closed to the public.

GERMANY: The Eighth Air Force flies Mission 287 consisting of 440 bombers and 475 fighters; the target is the chemical industry at Ludwigshafen (the largest in Europe). The 245 B-17s dispatched of the lead force abandon the mission over the French coast due to heavy clouds. The 195 B-24s in the second force became widely dispersed and bomb targets of opportunity; 101 hit Pforzheim; 38 hit Schaffhausen, Switzerland; 17 hit Strasbourg, France; and 9 hit Grafenhausen; Schaffhausen and Strasbourg were mistaken as German towns; they claim 1-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; 12 B-24s are lost. Escort is provided by 280 P-47 Thunderbolts and 195 Eighth and Ninth Air Force P-51 Mustangs: P-47s claim 13-1-19 Luftwaffe aircraft on the ground 2 P-47s are lost; P-51s claim 5-2-4 aircraft, 2 P-51s are lost.

SWITZERLAND: 26 USAAF bombers kill 50 Swiss civilians as they mistakenly bomb Schaffhausen.

FINLAND: Paasikivi and Enckell return from Moscow. As Paasikivi notes in his diary, during the negotiations the Russians, Molotov included, were scrupulously polite and considerate personally, but absolutely unyielding in negotiations. Finland has to accept the Soviet demands or the war goes on.

U.S.S.R.: The 40,000 strong German Force near Skala is caught between the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.

ITALY: Twelfth Air Force B-25s attack Leghorn harbour, bridges at Orvieto, and railway track south of Poggibonsi; B-26 Marauders hit Arno River railroad bridges at Signa, Riva-Trigoso, and Valdarno, while A-20s hit ammunition dumps; P-40s hit targets in the vicinity of Gaeta, Formia tunnel, several fuel dumps, bridges, and guns in the battle areas; P-47s bomb Poggibonsi bridge and strafe a train; and fighters patrol the Anzio battle area without incident.

INDIA: Headquarters of CBI Theatre are moved to New Delhi, with a Forward Echelon at Chungking, China. (Gordon Rottman)

BURMA: The Tenth Air Force dispatches 14 P-38s to hit a freight train and damage a factory in the vicinity of Mandalay; near Rangoon, 16 B-24s hit a railroad station and bomb Akyab while 6 B-25s damage a railroad bridge near Nattalin; 40 RAF A-31 Vengeances attack the Homalin, Paungbyin and Thaungdut areas; and 10 RAF A-31s attack Japanese positions near Buthidaung in the Arakan coastal region.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Fifth Air Force B-24s bomb Boela on Ceram Island in Moluccas /Islands, and B-25s attack Penfoei on Timor Island in the Lesser Sunda Islands.

NEW GUINEA: Fifth Air Force B-25s and A-20s hit the Tadji and Hansa Bay areas.

CAROLINE ISLANDS: Aircraft of Task Force 58 commence an all-out attack against Woleai Atoll and a minor raid on Ulithi Atoll. This concludes three days of attacks against targets in the western Carolines including the Palau Islands. During these three days, the USN estimates that the Japanese lost 150 aircraft in the air and on the ground; and two destroyers, four escort ships and several auxiliary and merchant vessels totalling 104,000 tons. Aerial mines are also dropped in the main fleet anchorage in the Palau Islands which will block it for six weeks. US losses are 58 aircraft and 18 airmen.

Three aircraft carrier groups of the US Navy were involved in the attacks.

The carriers despatched their planes at dawn on 30 March and again yesterday, losing 20 aircraft. The Japanese combined fleet had been forced out of Truk, and the concentration of its forward elements on the Palaus was seen as a potential threat to General MacArthur's advance along the north New Guinea coast. The Palau Islands are beyond the range of Allied heavy bombers based at Darwin, Australia, so the US Navy was asked to send Task Force 58 - practically the whole of the US Fifth Fleet - to take out the base as it had at Truk.
A Japanese reconnaissance aircraft detected the approaching ships, and as a result the strike date was moved forward to 30 March while the Japanese flew in all the fighters they had from Peleliu and Yap to defend the new base. US aircraft mined passages to the main harbour, trapping many ships which then became prime targets.
Admiral Mineichi Koga, the Japanese navy chief, decided to move his headquarters from the battleship MUSASHI to Davao. He left the Palaus on 31 March for Davao, but his plane never arrived.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: 24 Thirteenth Air Force B-25s bomb supply areas at Wunapope and Ratawul on New Britain Island; 28 P-39Airacobras and P-40s hit the Toboi wharf area at Simpson Harbour; 3 P-40s follow with a strike on oil and coal storage in same general area; fighters maintain sweeps over Rabaul and New Ireland Island throughout the day and B-25s harass Rabaul during the night of 1/2 April.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The Thirteenth Air Force dispatches 12 P-38s to bomb the mission at Monoitu and 12 P-40s hit Numa Numa supply dumps on Bougainville Island.

U.S.A.: Stan Kenton And His Orchestra's record of "Do Nothin' 'Till You Hear From Me" with vocal by Red Dorris makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is their first single to make the charts and it stays there for 1 week reaching Number 10.

Cherry Point: The 9th Marine Air Wing is commissioned. It succeeds the 3rd MAW to train, equip, and prepare Marine aviation units for combat. It was strictly a training wing and did not see any combat. (Mel Shettle)

1 April 1945

April 1st, 1945 (SUNDAY)

FRANCE: Paris: Notre Dame and the Arc de Triomphe are floodlit for the first time since the war broke out.

GERMANY: The US 1st and 9th Armies link at Lippstadt cutting off the Ruhr. 325,000 men of the German 15th and 5th Panzer Armies under Field Marshal Model are surrounded.

The LIII A.K. attack to breakout of the "Ruhr pocket" recaptures Medebach but can go no further. Hitler orders Field Marshall Walter Model, commander of Army Group B, to cease breakout attempts and to tie down as many enemy troops as possible through a vigorous defence. (Jeff Christman)

HUNGARY: The Red Army captures Sopron, near the Austrian frontier south-east of Vienna.

FINLAND: Finnish Air Force changes its national insignia from blue swastika to a white-blue-white roundel.

U.S.S.R.: The highest Soviet military command, Stavka, formulates the political goals of the strategic strikes of the coming summer: "to purge our country of fascist invaders and reach the Barents Sea - Black Sea line".

CENTRAL AND SOUTHERN EUROPE: Almost 400 Fifteenth Air Force B-24s and B-17s bomb the Maribor, Yugoslavia, railroad bridge, marshalling yards at Sankt Polten, Selzthal, Zeltweg, Graz, and Villach, Austria, the railroad bridge at Krieglach, Austria, and gun positions on the Adriatic coast near Venice, Italy; 82 P-38s bomb the Ybbs, Austria, railroad bridge while 52

P-51s strafe rail traffic in the Prague-Plzen, Czechoslovakia, area; other P-38s and P-51s fly reconnaissance and reconnaissance escort.

ITALY: During the night of 31 March/1 April, Twelfth Air Force A-20s and A-26 Invaders on intruder missions over the Po Valley continue to attack road and railroad bridges, motor transport, loading points, and other targets; principal strikes are made at Po River bridges; fighters and fighter-bombers during the day strike rail bridges, dumps, rail lines, marshalling yards, trains, vehicles, gun positions, several buildings (including an ammunition plant and truck factory), and a variety of targets of opportunity in the Po Valley and northeastern Italy; B-25s hit railroad bridges at Calcinato, Crema, Mantua, Monselice, Colle Isarco, San Ambrogio di Valpolicella, and Perea.

Cesena: In a small cinema here four days ago, the commander of the Eighth Army, Lt-Gen Richard McCreery, summoned all officers over the rank of lieutenant-colonel. His intention, he told them, was to destroy the Germans south of the river Po in what could be the last great battle of the gruelling Italian campaign. Soon the Germans will face a massive assault from armies which include Americans (many of Japanese origin), Britons, Brazilians, Italians, New Zealanders, Poles, Indians, Ghurkhas and a Jewish brigade. British commandos began their attack east of Lake Comacchio tonight.

BURMA: The Tenth Air Force dispatches 10 B-25s to attack roads and bridges behind enemy lines in central Burma; 478 transport flights are made throughout the day

The British 36 Division forces begin to push down the railroad from Mandalay to Rangoon.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: 4 Fourteenth Air Force B-25s attack railroad targets at Ninh Binh and Minh Koi.

CHINA: 7 Fourteenth Air Force B-24s bomb the Ft Bayard storage area; 6 B-25s and 6 P-51s attack river shipping and warehouses in the Sienning-Puchi area; 5 B-25s hit warehouses and other buildings at Hsuchang while 3 damage a bridge at Changtuikuan; single B-25s bomb targets of opportunity around Sanshihlitun, Sichuan, Loning, and Suicheng; 23 P-51s pound airfields in the Shanghai area; 70+ other fighter-bombers attack river, road, and rail traffic, storage areas, troops, and general targets of opportunity throughout wide areas of occupied south and eastern China.

FORMOSA: Far East Air Forces (FEAF) B-24s attack Giran Airfield while B-25s and P-47s sweep wide areas.

Off Formosa, the USN submarine USS Queenfish (SS-393) inadvertently sinks the Japanese relief ship SS Awa Maru (11,600-ton) in Formosa Straits. Awa Maru, a cartel ship, is carrying Red Cross supplies earmarked for distribution to Allied POWs in Singapore. Guaranteed safe conduct by the U.S. government, Awa Maru is properly marked and lighted, but Queenfish's commanding officer, Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Loughlin, does not discern the markings in the foggy weather in which his boat encounters the enemy vessel. Loughlin is relieved of his command for the mistake, and is court-martialled. He is subsequently convicted of one of three charges, negligence in obeying orders. After the war, it will be confirmed that the Awa Maru was loaded with munitions and contraband. (Jack McKillop and Ron Babuka)

JAPAN: Operation Iceberg; the invasion of Okinawa begins. Admiral Turner with TF 51 consists of 1200 transport and landing ships, 450,000 Army and Marine soldiers. The III Amphibious and XXIV Corps of General Buckner's 10th Army land in the Hangushi area on the SW side of Okinawa They land against no resistance. They secure a bridgehead of 3 miles by 9 miles by nightfall. Kadena and Yontan Airfields are captured.

US TF 58; British TF 57; and TF 54 (Heavy ships) are also involved. The BB USS West Virginia and CV HMS Indomitable, receive damage from Kamikaze raids.

The first successful mission of the 'Ohka' suicide plane takes place today when they damage the battleship USS West Virginia (BB-48), attack transports USS Hinsdale (APA-120) and USS Alpine (APA-92), and tank landing ship USS LST-884.

Shortly after the landings on the west coast, a feint landing is made on the southeast coast of the island by the US 2d Marine Division. (Benis M. Frank)

EAST CHINA SEA: A kamikaze attack kills 14 sailors on board British carrier HMS INDEFATIGABLE and damages the destroyer HMS ULSTER.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The U.S. Army's 158th Regiment Combat Team lands near Legaspi, southern Luzon, under cover of naval gunfire and USAAF aircraft.

After the troops encounter only token opposition at the beaches, considerable opposition develops inland.

On Luzon Island, Far East Air Forces B-24s, A-20s, and fighter-bombers hit the Legaspi area in support of the landings above, targets north of Balete Pass, the Batangas area, and support troops over parts of southern and north-western Luzon. In the central Philippine Islands, B-25s and A-20s support ground forces near Cebu City on Cebu Island and on Negros Island.

BORNEO: Far East Air Forces B-24s bomb Oelin Airfield.

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