military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (04/07/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Sunday, 6 April, 1941 German troops cross the borders of Yugoslavia and Greece. Fifteen divisions, including 5 Panzer divisions, and 800 aircraft participate. While Yugoslavia fields 31 divisions, they are thinly spread in defense. Italy also declares war on Yugoslavia, making minor ground advances. Belgrade is heavily hit by the Luftwaffe in an operation coded "Punishment"; 500 sorties strike, starting huge fires, destroying large numbers of public buildings including the Royal Palace. Civilians fleeing the capital are later strafed. The Yugoslav government abandons Belgrade and flies to Uzice. Meanwhile, another German air raid hits Piraeus harbor, hitting the British ammunition ship Clan Fraser, which explodes, wrecking the harbor facilities and sinking another 13 ships. An RAF Beaufort torpedoes the battleship Gneisenau in Brest, and Wellingtons strike at Sofia, Bulgaria. General O'Connor arrives at the front in Libya to assist General Neame. During the night, however, they become lost in a sandstorm and are captured, along with four other generals, by a German patrol. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Soldiers of the Southwest Front: Since early this morning the German people are at war with the Belgrade government of intrigue. We shall only lay down arms when this band of ruffians has been definitely and most emphatically eliminated, and the last Briton has left this part of the European Continent, and that these misled people realize that they must thank Britain for this situation, they must thank England, the greatest warmonger of all time." - Adolf Hitler, in his Order of the Day