http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
March 11th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
RAF Bomber Command: The Handley-Page Halifax bomber makes its operational debut in a raid on Le Havre.
This mission was flown by six Halifax Mk Is of No. 35 Squadron based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire, England. The squadron had received its first Halifax Mk I on 23 November 1940. (Jack McKillop)
Heavy raids hit Birmingham, Manchester and Salford during the night.
Old Trafford football ground, home of Manchester United, suffer two direct hits from German bombs. The main stand is nearly demolished and the United Road terrace damaged and the pitch scorched.
Corvette HMS Pennywort laid down.
Destroyer HMS Offa launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
YUGOSLAVIA: Belgrade: Demonstrators hold a protest rally against growing Axis influence.
ALBANIA: Further Italian attacks on Monastery Hill result in nothing but additional casualties. (Mike Yaklich)
LIBYA: An armoured and a machine-gun regiment of the German 5th Light Division completes disembarking at Tripoli today. The tank regiment is composed of two battalions and has 150 tanks; more than half the tanks had 50 mm or 75 mm guns. The machine-gun regiment has two fully motorized battalion; one anti-tank battalion was equipped with 50 mm guns and the other with dual-purpose 88 mm guns. (Jack McKillop)
Meanwhile, General Erwin Rommel, Commander of the Afrika Korps, has flown back to Germany for further orders and has been told that when the 15th Panzer Division arrives in Libya at the end of May, he is to recapture Benghazi. (Jack McKillop)
GULF OF SIAM: France cedes two areas of Laos and part of Cambodia to Thailand. Both (and the only parts of Laos) lying on the right bank of the Mekong river. The first is Saiburi Province (northwester Laos), the second is part of Pakse Province (southern Laos).
Japan is given full use of Saigon airport and a monopoly of the colony’s entire rice production.
(Peter E. Beal)
CANADA: Submarine HMS Severn departed Halifax for anti-U-boat patrol off Freetown.
Minesweeper HMCS Miramichi laid down North Vancouver, British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Washington: President Roosevelt this afternoon signed into law the Lend-Lease Bill, Public Law 11, 77th Congress, which in effect makes the United States a partner of Britain in the war.
The bill passed both the House of Representatives and the Senate with large majorities. It seeks, as its congressional sponsors put it, to give “legislative form to the policy of making this country an Arsenal for the Democracies and seeks to carry out President Roosevelt’s pledge to send these countries in ever-increasing numbers, ships, aeroplanes, tanks and guns.” The bill empowers the President to lease to Britain munitions owned and paid for by the US government.
Debate on the bill was fierce, and its isolationist opponents in the Senate filibustered against it. On 6 March, however, Senator Walter George, the influential chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, made a powerful speech in favour of its passage, arguing that “the collapse of the British Empire would mean chaos in this world.” Two days later the bill was finally passed by the Senate - by 60 votes to 31.
Immediately after the bill was signed the US Army and Navy approved the export of the first material to be released under the terms of the act. Though what is involved is being kept secret for military reasons, it is believed that the first shipments will include 24 motor torpedo boats already ordered to British design which have been held up by the US attorney-general and will help to defend Britain against invasion.
Most of the material released today will go to Britain. Some will go to Greece, and some to China. The president’s assistant, Laughlin Currie, has been sent to determine what the Chinese need.
A few hours after the vote the president sent Congress a request for $7,000 million for munitions. The New York Times predicted that if American convoys are needed to deliver the products from the arsenal to the democracies, they will be sent.
The House of Representatives had passed House Resolution 1776, which would eventually become known as the Lend-Lease Act, in February and the Senate passed their version of the bill on 8 March. The two bills had differences requiring a committee of House and Senate members to resolve them and the new bill was passed by both houses today. The bill was rushed to the White House and President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed it into law at 1550 hours. This new act changes the “cash and carry” provisions of the Neutrality Act of 1939 to permit transfer of munitions to Allies. The initial aid package worth roughly US$7 billion (US$85.4 billion in year 2002 dollars) but by the time the aid ended in 1946, the U.S. funnelled US$50.6 billion (US$617 billion in year 2002 dollars) worth of Lend-Lease aid to 44 countries, the majority of which went to the U.K. and the U.S.S.R. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Scharnhorst and Gneisenau refuel from tankers Ermland and Uckermark. Conference held on board Gneisenau with the Captains of both battleships and the tankers. (Navy News)
At 1546, the unescorted SS Memnon was hit by one torpedo from U-106 about 200 miles west of Cape Blanco, French West Africa and sank by the stern 15 minutes later following a second hit at 1547 hours. Three crewmembers and two passengers (RAF personnel) were lost. The master and 21 survivors landed at Yoff near Dakar on 21 March and were detained by the Vichy French authorities, were later released and went to Bathurst. The remaining survivors landed at Bathurst on 24 March, one of these lifeboats with 24 survivors had been found by the German battleship Gneisenau, which took three passengers and one gunner as prisoners on board.
Steam trawler Frodi was attacked by U-74 with gunfire about 192 miles SE of Westman Islands, Iceland. The vessel was heavily damaged by gunfire but made it back to Iceland. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 558 March 11, 1941
At 8 AM, U-74 shells Icelandic trawler Frodi with the deck gun 192 miles Southeast of Iceland. Frodi is badly damaged (5 killed) but reaches the island of Vestmannaeyjar next day.
At 3.46 PM 200 miles West of Senegal, U-106 sinks British MV Memnon (3 crew and 2 RAF personnel killed). 69 survivors in lifeboats meet varied fates. 4 are taken prisoner by German battlecruiser Gneisenau. 43 land at Bathurst, Sierra Leone, on March 24. 22 make land in Senegal on March 21, are imprisoned by Vichy French but then put back in their lifeboat and sent to Sierra Leone.
President Roosevelt signs Lend-Lease Bill into law allowing Britain (and other countries) to get weapons and munitions from America on credit instead of paying in gold under “cash and carry”, as required by the Neutrality Acts. This is just in time, as Britain is beginning to run out of gold.
Rommel’s armour arrives in Libya. 5th Light Division’s Panzer Regiment completes unloading from freighters at Tripoli, parades through the town (they go around several times to create the illusion of greater strength) and then heads East to Sirte.
Overnight, 135 Luftwaffe aircraft drop 122 tons high explosive bombs and 830 incendiary canisters on Birmingham in the English Midlands. 6 Handley Page Halifax bombers of 35 Squadron raid Le Havre, France, from RAF Leeming in North Yorkshire (operational debut of the Halifax).
People will be buying a lot of bicycles and the like as alternative means of transportation.
The 75mm guns referred to are all on the Mark IV panzer, and at this point are all short barreled, low velocity howitzers, since the Mark IV was originally intended as an infantry support tank. the long barreled high velocity 75 that will make the Mark IV the dominant battle tank in Africa in 1942 hasn’t been introduced yet.
At this point, the Mark IIIs with the upgraded 50mm gun are the Germans’ main battle tank [And the re-arming of the IIIs led to a major row between the Army and Hitler when they put a different, less effective 50mm cannon on the tanks than tyhe one Hitler ordered. Turnedout Hitler was right].
Rommel will be well past Benghazi before the 15th Panzer shows up.