Air Operations, Europe

• During the night British bombers raid Sofia, Bulgaria. It looks like nothing more than a British version of Operation Castigo, for, as with the German raids on Belgrade, these raids can have no other object that to sow terror among the civilian population.
• During the night there is a heavy RAF raid on the Kiel shipyards.
• In a change of tactics, German bombers fly missions from the French Channel ports against sites in Scotland. The Luftwaffe is being increasingly taken in by dummy installations and the jamming of their radio navigational aids. Dozens of mock airfields litter the countryside complete with dummy aircraft and simulated runway lighting. They are also fooled by the scattering of flares which the German bomber pilots think are signals from their own pathfinder aircraft.

Battle of the Atlantic

• US naval and air bases open in Bermuda. The carrier Ranger and other ships are to based there as the Central Atlantic Neutrality Patrol. These forces will be considerably increased by 3 battleships and 2 carriers later in April and during May and June.
• U-24 sinks the Canadian steamer Portadoc (1746t) 150 miles southwest of Freetown. The entire crew of 20 make landfall 6 days later in French Guinea are interned by Vichy French authorities.
• The British steamer Elisabeth sinks on a mine 5 miles east-southeast of Porthscatho, Cornwall with the loss of 10 crewmen.

The Blitz

There is a raid on Merseyside. 172 aircraft bomb Clydeside with 200 tons of high explosives and 26,000 incendiaries. The targets are Hillington, Dumbarton and Greenock. Thousands lose their homes but casualties are light. The shipyards are struck but sustain minor damage.

Britain, Home Front

The government budget for 1941-42 is submitted. Income tax is increased by 1s 6d to 10s in the pound.

Greece

• As well as the frontal pressure on the Metaxas Line its left flank is being threatened by a German armored div which is moving south into Greece after having reached Strumica in the advance in Yugoslavia. The Greek Commander in Chief, Gen Papagos, further weakens the Aliakmon Line by sending forward a Greek force from it to try to block this last German advance.
• A 12,000-ton ship laden with TNT explodes in Piraeus severly crippling the port facilities there. 6 merchant ships and 60 lighters are lost in the blast. An ammunition train is ignited on the shore. The accident creates a logistical hardship for the British in the crucial days ahead.

Mediterranean

The Greek steamer Kyrapanagia II (1012t) is sunk by German bombing at Piraeus.

North Africa

On the coast Derna is overrun in the continuing Axis advance. Inland near Mechili an armored battle bagins between the German 5th Pzr Regt and the remnants of the British 2nd Arm Div. Meanwhile the British begin to strengthen the garrsion of Tobruk.

Yugoslavia

After a rapid advance from Bulgaria, 60 miles in 32 hours, troops from XL Pzr Corps enter Skopje late in the day and pushes on towards Monastir. In the north of the country the 2nd Army under von Weichs advances on Zagreb. The Italian 2nd Army under Gen Vittorio Ambrosia crossed the Giulian frontier. The head of the Croatian separatist movement, Ante Pavelic, calls on Croatians to set up a separate state. The German 12th Army under von List enters Greece from Bulgaria. Facing it are 4 Greek divisions, and at their flank, some 30 miles away, the British expeditionary force consisting of 4 British divisions and a brigade of British volunteers. Another three and a half Greek divisions are on the Metaxas Line, a system of fortifications about 100 miles long extending from the Beles mountains to the mouth of the Nestos River. After hard fighting the Germans seize the important Rupel pass.

German planes have effectively neutralized Yugoslavia's rail system by knocking out key junctions. The Yugoslavs find it impossible to strengthen faltering defense points. With transportation so decisive a factor, the Yugoslav troops which have penetrated into northern Albania are forced to withdraw.