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April 26th, 1939 (WEDNESDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: London: A bill for limited conscription is introduced.

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April 26th, 1940 (FRIDAY)

NORWAY:

RAF Wellingtons bomb Stavanger aerodrome and fjord, while six Whitleys search Oslo Fjord attacking oil tanks and a refinery at Vallo and Grisebu. A ship of 5,000 tons is hit.

Allied units in northern Norway begin retreating.

Pellengahr again attacks 15 Brigade, enveloping both flanks of the new British position and driving hard at its centre with artillery and air support. Mortar shells set the woods on fire, eventually forcing the British to retreat three miles to a position at Kjorem.

(Mark Horan adds): 

Throughout the day, HMS Furious, in company with the destroyers HMS Isis, HMS Ilex, HMS Imogen, HMS Delight, HMS Diana, and HMS Imperial, continued her journey home, flying single plane A/S patrols and searches well ahead of her course.

Off Trondheim Vice-Admiral Wells again had a big day planned for his carrier air groups, but the weather is not cooperating. After the prior days activity, the two carriers have the following aircraft (serviceable): 

HMS Ark Royal:

800: 8 x Skua, 2 x Roc - the later reserved for fleet defence, the former for fighter patrols 
801: 8 x Skua, 3 x Roc - the later for fleet defence, the former for fighter patrols

810: 9 x Swordfish - ASW and strike capability 

820: 8 x Swordfish - ASW and strike capability

HMS Glorious:

802: 8 x Sea Gladiator - for fleet defence

803 7 (6) x Skua - fighter patrols

804: 9 x Sea Gladiator - for fleet defence

The mornings activity sees a three plane search by 810 Squadron looking for Royal Navy destroyers scheduled to join the Task Force. Admiral Well's intention for the day was to maintain a standing patrol over the landing area until nightfall, but the weather did not clear sufficiently to send off fighter patrols off until 1000, when the carriers are in position 65.08 N, 5.28 E.

Lt.Cdr. H. P. Bramwell, RN led of the first patrol with two sections of 801Squadron (six Skuas). They engaged three He-111s of 5/KG 4 in the area of Åndalsnes  and Gladiator Lake (Leskasjog), claiming one destroyed and one damaged. 

HMS Glorious contributed the next patrol at 1158, when Lt. W. P. Lucy, RN leads 803 Squadron's Blue section to Aalesund. At 1308 they engaged three He-111s of I/KG 26, forcing one out of formation as they fled, but Skua 8Q:L2991 goes down on fire. Blinded by spraying petrol and with his cockpit full of smoke he force-landed in a Fjord near Aalesund. The pilot (Lieutenant Cecil Howard Filmer, RN, known as "Fairy") survives his forced-landing, but observer Petty Officer Airman Kenneth George Baldwin, RN is killed by the enemy fire. At 1350, the remaining pair intercept three more He-111, this time from 9/LG 1, shooting down one, then return home with empty guns.

Ark Royal sends off the next patrol, three Skuas of 800 Squadron lead by Captain R. T. Partridge, RM. They attack one of two He-111 bombing HMS Flamingo, damaging it, but Skua 6C is hit by return fire, shattering the non-armoured windscreen, wounding the pilot, Petty Officer Airman J. Hadley, RN. All three are able to return to the ship safely.

Glorious next sends off 803 Squadrons Yellow section (three Skuas, S-Lt.(A) G. W. Brokensha, RN) which return to Aalesund. These are later joined by two consolidated sections from Ark Royal's 800 and 801 Squadrons, led by Lt. G. E. D. Finch-Noyes, RN and Lt. W. C. A. Church, RN. Only Finch-Noyes Red section sees action, engaging an He-115 in a running battle, damaging it. The lot returns safely the carriers after nightfall.

Glorious managed to get off only a few standing patrols by 802 Squadron during the day, although throughout the day sections were maintained in readiness ranged on deck. During the day the carriers managed to fly 21 offensive fighter patrols over the Allied troops and seven A/S sorties over the fleet.

GERMANY: Berlin: Improving news from Norway boosts Hitler. At 3.30 in the morning during an all-night session with his military advisers, he tells them he intends to start ‘Yellow’ between May 1 and 7. ‘Yellow’ is the code name for the attack on Holland and Belgium.

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April 26th, 1941 (SATURDAY)

German columns advancing in the west of Greece have reached Missolonghi.

At night troops of the armoured brigade were embarked from Athens beaches and 8000 troops including the 16th and 17th Brigades from Kalamata. (Anthony Staunton)

NORTH AFRICA: Rommel's forces crossed the Egyptian border today, with three motorised columns of Italian troops breaking through to the thinly defended "Hellfire Pass" at Halfaya.

300 miles to the west, the garrison at Tobruk has withstood two more assaults by Rommel's tanks and taken over 2,000 prisoners.

EAST AFRICA: Dessie in East Africa falls to British Forces with 8,000 Italian prisoners.

U.S.A.: The U.S. Neutrality Patrol is extended southward to 26.00S latitude. A carrier task group, Task Group 2 comprised of the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), the heavy cruiser USS Quincy (CA-39) and the destroyers USS Livermore (DD-429) and USS Kearny (DD-432), gets underway for Bermuda as part of the patrol.

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April 26th, 1942 (SUNDAY)

GERMANY: Hitler tells of "Great Victories" to come this summer while addressing the Reichstag.  He calls for a "Supreme Effort" to accomplish this. They confirm his absolute power and make him "Supreme Judge" of the Reich, giving him powers to act independently of the law.

In a speech full of foreboding and intimations of catastrophe, Hitler today assumed absolute power of life and death over every German, and abolished all laws that might stand in his way.

A proclamation read to the Reichstag and endorsed by the deputies said that the Führer "without being bound by existing legal regulations, in his capacity as Leader of the nation, Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Head of the Government, and supreme executive chief, Supreme judge and Leader of the Party, must be in a position to force with all means at his disposal every German, whether common soldier or high official, to fulfil his duties."

In the hour-long speech, the familiar histrionics were almost completely absent. Although the Führer claimed to have mastered "a peril unexampled in history" and averted disaster on the eastern front by ruthless action, he had many references to nerves at breaking point, obedience wavering and sense of duty lacking. His voice rose to a scream when he threatened: "I will ruthlessly eliminate everybody who does not stand up to the task."

He admitted that German forces had been compelled to retreat - he called it "a backward movement". This move, he said, enabled his army to hold the front against "vast masses of new, highly-trained" Soviet troops.

Ominously, Hitler compared the plight of the German forces last winter with the fate of Napoleon's army in 1812. But, he argued, "We have mastered a fate that broke Napoleon." He promised that next winter - an admission that the war would continue for another year - the troops would have better clothing, transport and equipment. "The Bolshevik colossus will be fought by us until he is smashed," Hitler said. "The loss of this war would be the end of us."

His speech was dutifully applauded, but the usual frenzied acclamation were noticeably absent. Göbbels noted afterwards that the Führer was at times "rather difficult to understand ... the terrific physical and spiritual exertions have taken their toll." After the speech Hitler told Göbbels that he felt numb.

FINLAND: The severely injured Aarne Snellman, CO of the Finnish 17th Division, is promoted to major-general.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japan reinforces its taskforce on Mindanao.

PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine RO.30 is sunk by USS Tautog west of Hawaii. (Mike Yared)(144 and 145)

U.S.A.: San Francisco: Admiral's King and Nimitz meet. Kings asks Nimitz to consider stationing one division of battleships, preferably Batdiv 3 (Idaho, Mississippi, New Mexico) in New Zealand. Nimitz persuaded King to return all the old battleships to San Francisco. (John B. Lundstrom)(225)

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April 26th, 1943 (MONDAY)

GERMANY: Tonight the RAF bomb Duisburg with 561 aircraft.

POLAND: Warsaw: At the close of a busy day, SS General Stroop reported by teletype to SS headquarters from the Warsaw Ghetto: "A further 1,330 Jews pulled out of dug-outs and immediately destroyed; 362 Jews killed in battle." The day before, reporting the capture of 27,464 Jews, he told Himmler that he was ordering a train to take them to Treblinka extermination camp.

Stroop says that he has lost only 16 men in the battles, though the Jews put the figure at several hundred. He claims that the ghetto has been cleared, but there are still Jews hiding in the sewers, while others have escaped to seek refuge in the Christian sector of the city.

U.S.S.R.: Russia breaks diplomatic relations with the Exiled Polish Government over allegations concerning the Katyn Massacre.

TUNISIA: Longstop Hill, the gateway to the Tunisian plain, falls to the British V Corps.

INDIAN OCEAN: Off Mauritius: Subhas Chandra Bose, the leader of the Indian National Army, is transferred from a U-boat to a Japanese submarine en route from Berlin to Penang.

AUSTRALIA: 79 Squadron RAAF is formed on Spitfire Vcs at Laverton under Sqn Ldr AC Rawlinson. (Daniel Ross)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese submarine I-23 is sunk by the USS Tautog (SS-199) south of Hawaii. (Mike Yared)(144&145)

Operation Cartwheel is agreed to.  This has US Admiral Halsey's forces move through New Georgia and Bougainville in the Solomon Islands. US General Douglas MacArthur will move NW along the coast of New Guinea.  Then they will both attack Rabaul, New Britain and Kavieng, New Ireland.

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April 26th, 1944(WEDNESDAY)

FRANCE: Paris: Pétain visits Paris. Huge crowds gather and cheer the 88 year old Marshal. He visits a hospital and attends Mass said by Cardinal Suhard in Notre-Dame. He speaks from the balcony of the Hôtel de Ville.

Off Brittany: HMS BLACK PRINCE and four destroyers engage three German torpedo boats, one is sunk.

GERMANY: Sgt Norman Cyril Jackson (b.1919), RAFVR, climbed out of a Lancaster at 20,000-feet to tackle a fire. He was pulled off the wing when his parachute partly opened and was captured on landing. (Victoria Cross)

GREECE: CRETE: General Heinrich Kreipe, the commander of the 22nd Panzer-Grenadier Division in Crete, was being driven home today when men appeared on the road waving a red flag. The car door was opened and a polite voice said: "Please consider yourself a prisoner of war." A sub-machine gun was brandished. With the general sitting in the back and a British Guards officer at the wheel, the car headed for a beach 20 miles away. Guards at 22 checkpoints cleared the way and saluted when they saw the two pennants fluttering from the car.

The general's hijackers were Major Patrick Leigh Fermor and Captain Stanley Moss of British Combined Forces. Before they left with the general for Cairo, they wrote a note telling the Germans that this was an exclusively British operation and that reprisals against the civilian population would be wholly unwarranted. It ended: "We're sorry to leave this nice car behind."

BURMA: Air Commando Combat Mission N0. 51 3:10 Flight Time Hailakandi, Assam to Meza, Burma Did not bomb due to weather.

Note: The rainy season is beginning and our field here at Hailakandi is a dirt and grass strip. Landings are getting real tricky and both our fighters and bombers get a mud bath each time they land. With the wet, high and hot humidity. We have our share of problems with bomb rack electrical systems and rusting machine guns, although check firing them each flight and oiling them down (we do not fly high enough for them to freeze up) seems to keep them operating better. The flight crews (enlisted) do all the reaming and general work. (Chuck Baisden)

NEW GUINEA: Australian forces take Alexishafen (aka Alexister), north of Madang.

HOLLANDIA: Within days of its recapture from the Japanese this small quiet colonial Dutch town is being transformed into the largest Allied base yet built in the South-west Pacific.

Squads from the US Navy construction battalions, known as the "Seabees", have started work on extensive docks and airfields, while a city of huts is being erected on the edge of the primæval jungle. Some 140,000 men are to be based here for the next phase of MacArthur's Operation Cartwheel, intended to drive the Japanese from north-west New Guinea before attacking the Philippines. Meanwhile, US flyers have bombed Weak in pursuit of MacArthur's policy of "neutralising" Gen Adachi's beleaguered garrison east of here.


U.S.A.: Wyoming's legislature approves statute allowing deployed soldiers to vote absentee in Wyoming's elections. (Pat Holscher)

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April 26th, 1945 (THURSDAY)

Galland is wounded and Obstlt.Heinz Ba(e)r took over command of the combined Luftwaffe unit of Jagdverband-44 and Erprobungskommando 162 which flies the Heinkel 162 Salamander jet fighter. (Russ Folsom)

Berlin: Russian tanks have crossed the Spree and reached the Jannowitz  Bridge station within a few hundred yards of the Imperial Castle at the start of the Unter den Linden. There is, however, a surge of optimism in Hitler's bunker as General Wenck has launched his relief attack from the west and has made good progress towards the capital. On the Russian side, there is dismay at Konev's HQ because Stalin has divided Berlin between his armies and drawn the boundary so that Konev's rival, Zhukov gets the plum prize, the Reichstag.

Soviet artillery fire made the first direct hits on the Chancellery buildings and grounds directly above the Führerbunker. That evening, a small plane containing female test pilot Hanna Reitsch and Luftwaffe General Ritter von Greim landed in the street near the bunker following a daring flight in which Greim had been wounded in the foot by Soviet ground fire.

Once inside the Führerbunker the wounded Greim was informed by Hitler he was to be Göring's successor, promoted to Field-Marshal in command of the Luftwaffe.

Although a telegram could have accomplished this, Hitler had insisted Greim appear in person to receive his commission. But now, due to his wounded foot, Greim would be bedridden for three days in the bunker. (Gene Hanson)

SWITZERLAND: Vallorbe: With a soldier's bearing, Marshal Philippe Petain saluted the aide-de-camp of General Koenig, the Free French commander-in-chief. He then advanced towards Koenig with outstretched hand, Koenig refused to shake. It took the aged marshal a moment to realize that he was under arrest.

He was transferred to a second-class train which will arrive in Paris early tomorrow. There the prosecutor in his case, Andre Mornet, said that Petain's conduct deserved the death sentence "but he has reached an age where considerations of humanity should prevail."  He will later be tried and convicted as a war criminal.
 

ITALY: The US 5th Army moves towards the Brenner Pass and west towards Milan.

The British 8th Army moves northeast towards Venice and Trieste.

The US 15th Air Force conducts it last bombing mission when B-24s diverted from the original targets in northern Italy attack marshalling yards at four locations in southern Austria.

JAPAN: Off Okinawa, the destroyer USS Hickox (DD-673) is damaged by Japanese aircraft.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: RAAF B-24 Liberators stage through Corunna Downs to bomb Malang Airfield near Surabaya. Weather is bad and one Liberator is lost. The purpose of the operation was to put this airfield out of
commission during the invasion of Tarakan. The operation was led by Squadron Leader J. E. S. Dennett. The weather was bad over Java and over the alternate target. Some Liberators bombed but results could not be observed. 
The fifth aircraft in the mission (captained by Sqn-Ldr Wawn AFC) sent out distress signals. He called for a bearing and said he was making for Truscott airfield. Off Sumba, he radioed that he would have to land. He did
so successfully but Japanese soldiers arrived almost immediately and captured all the crew. They were taken first to Sumbawa, then to Lombok and Bali. They finally arrived in Batavia at the end of June 1945. They reported
brutal treatment, including beatings and torture, particularly on Sqn-Ldr Wawn. They were released in Batavia at the end of the war. (Michael Alexander Mitchell)

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