April 1940

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1940
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The following events occurred in April 1940:

April 1, 1940 (Monday)

  • The 1940 United States Census was taken.
  • The BBC broadcast what appeared to be a speech by Adolf Hitler, in which the Führer reminded the audience that Columbus had discovered America with the help of German science and technology, and therefore Germany had a right "to have some part in the achievement which this voyage of discovery was to result in." This meant that all Americans of Czech and Polish descent were entitled to come under the protection of Germany and that Hitler would "enforce that right, not only theoretically but practically." Once the German Protectorate was extended to the United States, the Statue of Liberty would be removed to alleviate traffic congestion and the White House would be renamed the Brown House. CBS contacted the BBC in something of a panic trying to learn more about the origin of the broadcast, not realizing that it was an April Fools' Day hoax. The voice of Hitler had been impersonated by the actor Martin Miller.[1][2]
  • The soap opera Portia Faces Life premiered in syndication on American radio.
  • Born: Wangari Maathai, environmental and political activist and Nobel laureate, in Ihithe, Tetu, Kenya (d. 2011)
  • Died: John A. Hobson, 81, English economist and social scientist

April 2, 1940 (Tuesday)

April 3, 1940 (Wednesday)

April 4, 1940 (Thursday)

  • Neville Chamberlain gave a speech to the Conservative Party in London stating he was confident of victory and that Hitler had "missed the bus" by not taking advantage of Germany's military superiority over Britain at the beginning of the war.[11]
  • 34 French communists convicted of illegally attempting to reorganize the Communist Party were sentenced to five years in prison. Eight others received suspended sentences of four years.[12]
  • The musical stage comedy Higher and Higher by Rodgers and Hart premiered at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.

April 5, 1940 (Friday)

April 6, 1940 (Saturday)

April 7, 1940 (Sunday)

April 8, 1940 (Monday)

  • Norway protested the British naval mining of its territorial waters.[5]
  • The British destroyer Glowworm was sunk by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper in the Norwegian Sea. Despite being hopelessly outgunned, the Glowworm managed to ram the Admiral Hipper and inflict considerable damage before sinking. Captain Gerard Broadmead Roope earned the first Victoria Cross of the war for his conduct, but it was only bestowed after the war when the Admiral Hipper's log describing the battle was read by the Royal Navy.[16]
  • The German troop transport Rio de Janeiro was torpedoed and sunk in the Skagerrak by the Polish submarine Orzeł under British command.[4]
  • Born: John Havlicek, basketball player, in Martins Ferry, Ohio
  • Died: Gerard Broadmead Roope, 35, British naval officer and Victoria Cross recipient (killed in action)

April 9, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • At 5:20 a.m. in Norway (4:20 a.m. in Denmark), the German envoys in oslo and Copenhagen presented the Norwegian and Danish governments with a German ultimatum demanding that they immediately accept the "protection of the Reich." Denmark capitulated so as to not provoke mass bloodshed at the hands of the Germans, and the country was invaded in six hours. Norwegian Foreign Affairs Minister Halvdan Koht, however, responded with the defiant words "Vi gir oss ikke frivillig, kampen er allerede i gang" ("We will not submit voluntarily; the struggle is already underway"). The entire Norwegian government including King Haakon VII fled the capital that morning for the mountains in the north.[17][18]
  • German forces quickly took control of the ports of Narvik, Trondheim, Bergen, Stavenger and Oslo.[19]
  • The Germans executed the Captures of Arendal and Egersund.
  • The Action off Lofoten was fought.
  • Vidkun Quisling spoke on Norwegian radio and ordered his countrymen not to resist the Nazis.[19]
  • The French and British put Plan R 4 into action.
  • The Norwegian destroyer Æger was attacked and sunk off Stavenger by German bombers.
  • The old Norwegian coastal defence ships Eidsvold and Norgewere sunk near Narvik by the German destroyers Wilhelm Heidkamp and Bernd von Arnim, respectively, when they chose to fight rather than surrender.
  • The Norwegian destroyer Tor was scuttled at Fredrikstad to avoid falling into the hands of the enemy. The Germans were still able to salvage it, however.
  • The German heavy cruiser Blücher was sunk by the guns of Oscarsborg Fortress in the Battle of Drøbak Sound.
  • The German cruiser Karlsruhe was scuttled after being torpedoed and badly damaged near Kristiansand by the British submarine Truant.
  • The German cargo liner Seattle was sunk by Norwegian coastal artillery.
  • The British destroyer Gurkha was bombed and sunk off Norway.
  • Born: Jim Roberts, ice hockey player, in Toronto, Canada (d. 2015)
  • Died: Mrs. Patrick Campbell, 75, English stage actress

April 10, 1940 (Wednesday)

April 11, 1940 (Thursday)

  • The German pocket battleship Lützow was knocked out of action for a year after being hit by a torpedo from the British submarine Spearfish in the Kattegat.[4]
  • First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill made a speech to the House of Commons announcing that the strategically important Faroe Islands belonging to Denmark were now being occupied by Britain. "We shall shield the Faroe Islands from all the severities of war and establish ourselves there conveniently by sea and air until the moment comes when they will be handed back to the Crown and people of a Denmark liberated from the foul thraldom in which they have been plunged by the German aggression," Churchill said.[21]
  • Belgium canceled army leave.[6]

April 12, 1940 (Friday)

  • The Cyprus Regiment was founded.
  • During a press conference at the White House, reporters asked President Roosevelt whether a violation of the integrity of Greenland, such as a German invasion, would raise the question of applying the Monroe Doctrine. The president called the reporters "very, very premature" and "awfully hypothetical," explaining that the U.S.'s primary interest in Greenland was currently in providing relief for its 17,000 inhabitants if their supply ships from Denmark were cut off. The president also took a question about television. He said that while it had "a great future", the FCC still needed to work out the matter of monopoly prevention to ensure that no single company would control it.[22]
  • German submarine U-103 was commissioned.
  • The Alfred Hitchcock-directed psychological-thriller mystery film Rebecca premiered in the United States.
  • The science fiction horror film Dr. Cyclops was released.
  • Born: John Hagee, televangelist, in Goose Creek, Texas; Herbie Hancock, jazz musician, in Chicago, Illinois
  • Died: Nestor Nyzhankivsky, 76, Ukrainian composer

April 13, 1940 (Saturday)

April 14, 1940 (Sunday)

  • The Battle of Dombås began in Norway.
  • Norway's King Haakon VII made a radio address telling his people that British soldiers were on their way and should be given any assistance possible.[24]
  • 350 Royal Marines landed at Namsos, the first British troops to land in Norway.[15]

April 15, 1940 (Monday)

  • The British 146th Infantry Brigade landed at Namsos and started to advance south towards Trondheim. Further north, other British troops landed in the Lofoten Islands.[4]
  • The Battle of Hegra Fortress began in Norway.
  • The German submarine U-49 was sunk off Narvik by depth charges from British destroyers. The British recovered a bag from the debris containing secret operational documents including grid charts and a map of the locations of other U-boats in the area.[10][25]
  • Japanese Foreign Minister Arita Hachiro declared that all of Southeast Asia was "economically bound" to Japan and that the Japanese government would be "deeply concerned over any development acompanying an aggravation of the war in Europe that may affect the status quo of the Netherlands East Indies."[26]

April 16, 1940 (Tuesday)

April 17, 1940 (Wednesday)

  • The British cruiser Suffolk shelled a German held-airfield at Stavenger, but was attacked by aircraft in return, heavily damaged and put out of action for almost a year.[4]
  • U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull issued a statement in response to the Japanese declaration of two days earlier. Hull's statement declared, "Any change in the status of the Netherlands Indies would direcly affect the interests of many countries. The Netherlands Indies are very important in the international relationships of the whole Pacific Ocean ... They are also an important factor in the commerce of the whole world. They produce considerable portions of the world's supplies of important essential commodities such as rubber, tin, quinine, copra, etc. Many countries, including the United States, depend substantially upon them for some of these commodities." The statement went on to recite a list of international treaties that agreed to respect the rights of the Netherlands in the region.[28]
  • The British ocean liner Queen Mary arrived in Sydney to be refitted as a troopship.[4]
  • Died: Maria Kaupas, 60, American Catholic Religious Sister and founder of the Sisters of Saint Casimir

April 18, 1940 (Thursday)

April 19, 1940 (Friday)

April 20, 1940 (Saturday)

April 21, 1940 (Sunday)

  • German troops landed at Verdal and Kirknessvag, threatening to encircle the British 146th Infantry Brigade near Trondheim.[4]
  • Take It or Leave It, the forerunner to the popular quiz show The $64,000 Question, premiered on CBS radio.
  • Died: Walter J. Kohler, Sr., 65, American businessman and politician; Robert M. Losey, 31, American aeronautical meteorologist considered to be the first U.S. military casualty of World War II (killed during German bombardment of Norway)

April 22, 1940 (Monday)

April 23, 1940 (Tuesday)

  • The Battle of Gratangen began in Norway.
  • The British 148th Brigade tried to make a stand at the strategic village of Tretten, but was too tired and underequipped to hold back the German onslaught. By the end of the day the Brigade was in full retreat.[34]
  • The Rhythm Club fire in Natchez, Mississippi killed 209 people.
  • On Budget Day in the United Kingdom, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir John Simon announced that the government was seeking an all-time record £1.234 billion in revenue to meet the cost of the war through March 1941. Taxes and duties were increased on income, alcohol, tobacco, telephone calls, telegrams of "ordinary priority" and postage.[35]
  • The Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo was visited by a German officer who expressed his intention to take over the building, but was told that it belonged to the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm and was therefore Swedish property. Nevertheless, the wartime situation made the Nobel Committee's regular activities difficult to conduct and so there would be not be any Nobel Prizes awarded for 1940, 1941 or 1942, and no ceremony until 1944 when a special one was held in New York City.[36][37][38]
  • Pee Wee Reese made his major league baseball debut for the Brooklyn Dodgers, going 1-for-3 against the Chicago Cubs.[39]
  • Born: Jaime Bateman Cayón, guerrilla leader, in Santa Marta, Colombia (d. 1983)

April 24, 1940 (Wednesday)

April 25, 1940 (Thursday)

  • The Battle of Gratangen ended in German victory.
  • The British 15th Infantry Brigade repulsed an assault of the 196th Division of the Wehrmacht at Kvam.[4]
  • U.S. President Roosevelt recognized the state of war between Germany and Norway and reaffirmed American neutrality in the conflict. Norwegian submarines were added to the list of belligerent ships forbidden from entering American territorial waters.[4]
  • The Norwegian torpedo boat Trygg was sunk by German bomber planes. The Germans later salvaged it and put it back into service as the Zick.
  • A bomb or land mine exploded in Dublin Castle, wounding five detectives slightly. Taoiseach Éamon de Valera inspected the damage.[41]
  • Women gained the right to vote in the Canadian province of Quebec, the last province to grant women's suffrage.[14]
  • Born: Al Pacino, actor and filmmaker, in Manhattan, New York

April 26, 1940 (Friday)

  • The British 15th Brigade fell back 3 kilometers to Kjorem after their supplies were destroyed by a full day of bombing from the Germans, who had complete air superiority. London began seriously considering a complete withdrawal from Norway.[15][42]
  • The Norwegian destroyer Garm was sunk by German bomber planes.
  • Born: Giorgio Moroder, record producer and songwriter, in Urtijëi, Italy
  • Died: Carl Bosch, 65, German chemist, engineer and Nobel laureate

April 27, 1940 (Saturday)

  • Germany finally declared war on Norway. Joachim von Ribbentrop took to the airwaves shortly afterward and claimed that the Germans had captured documents from the Lillehammer sector revealing a British and French plan to occupy Norway with Norwegian complicity. That same day Samuel Hoare made a radio address of his own in which he called Ribbentrop's assertion "despicable."[43][44]
  • The Luftwaffe bombed Namsos. The order was given to evacuate the port.[10]
  • The British 15th Brigade fell back another 15 kilometers to Otta while the Germans captured the valley of Østerdalen.[15]
  • Reinhard Heydrich ordered the deportation of 2500 German Sinti to the General Government.[45]
  • Heinrich Himmler ordered the creation of a new concentration camp at Oświęcim, known in German as Auschwitz.[45]
  • German submarine U-102 was commissioned.

April 28, 1940 (Sunday)

April 29, 1940 (Monday)

April 30, 1940 (Tuesday)

References

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  38. Lemmel, Birgitta. "The Nobel Foundation: A Century of Growth and Change." The Nobel Prize: The First 100 Years. Ed. Agneta Wallin Levinovitz, Nils Ringertz. London: Imperial College Press, 2001. p. 22-23. ISBN 9789810246655.
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  48. Collins, Sandra. "Tokyo/Helsinki 1940." Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement. Ed. John E. Findling and Kimberley D. Pelle. Greenwood Publishing, 2004. p. 121. ISBN 9780313322785.
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