Posted on 03/13/2011 6:09:29 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
7 Billions Asked – 2-3
Budget Bureau Details Spending Plan for $7,000,000,000 Lease-Lend Fund – 3
The International Situation – 4
British Grateful – 5
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on theWar – 6-7
ASCAP Salaries Cut; Buck Loses $15,000 – 7
Searching for His Wife and Children (photo) – 7
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/mar41/f13mar41.htm
Italian offensive falters in Albania
Thursday, March 13, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the Balkans... In Albania, the Italian attacks toward Klisura continue but are now being held comfortably by the Greek defense.
From Berlin... Hitler issues a directive for the invasion of the Soviet Union which gives administrative control of any captured territory to the SS.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/13.htm
March 13th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Glasgow and Clydeside suffer their first major Luftwaffe raid tonight; 236 aircraft drop 272 tons of high explosive and 59,400 incendiaries. In the shipbuilding town of Clydebank only seven houses were left undamaged, and three-quarters of its population were made homeless. The raid leaves 1,100 dead and 1,000 injured. 13 bombers are claimed.
Merseyside is also raided and in Cardiff the Royal Infirmary is hit.
RAF Bomber Command: Raids on Hamburg.
NETHERLANDS: Dutch radio societies are disbanded on orders of the German occupation forces. (Jack McKillop)
GERMANY: Berlin: Germany repeats its demand that Yugoslavia join the Axis.
Hitler issues a directive for the invasion of the Soviet Union. He appoints Alfred Rosenberg minister of the eastern occupied territories; he gives administrative control of future eastern conquests to Himmler; Göring is to exploit the Soviet economy to serve Germany.
U-79, U-561 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ALBANIA: Tiranë: With the Duce himself present the Italian High Command ordered his soldiers to attack at all costs. The costs were high, despite the courage of Mussolini’s blackshirts who fought furiously to regain vital heights in the Temepeleni region.
They attacked the heights in close-packed waves, but tonight their offensive stopped leaving thousands dead on the mountainside.
A Greek statement insisted that no ground had been taken. The Italians dropped leaflets among their own men, stressing the presence of the Duce to maintain flagging morale.
(Mike Yaklich adds): Bari Division replaces the Puglie in renewed heavy assaults on Monastery Hill. Despite a sophisticated artillery fire plan featuring a rolling barrage, the first attack suffers severe losses without reaching its objective. After dark the Bari tries again with a night attack that reaches the summit briefly but is quickly driven back.
LIBYA: General Erwin Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, moves his headquarters forward to Sirte and orders the occupation of Mirada, about 60 miles (97 kilometres) south of Aghelia. (Jack McKillop)
CHINA: Ichang: Chinese Nationalist forces have successfully repulsed Japan’s latest offensive in western Hupeh after a week of heavy fighting in which the Japanese are thought to have suffered at least 4,000 casualties.
The Nationalist counter-attack, which has driven the Japanese back to their old positions at Ichang, has been a mix of guerrilla attacks and conventional flanking movements by the River defence Force, which has managed to penetrate behind enemy lines.
NEWFOUNDLAND: HMS Burin (ex-MMS 141) and Cottel (ex-MMS 142) ordered Steers Shipbuilding St John’s. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: It is reported that at present there are 32 strikes going-on in the defence industries. This does not include the number in the allied industries. Chairman of the House naval affairs committee, Carl Vinson, estimated that 1940 strikes wasted enough labour to manufacture 325 bombers. Vinson is urging the government to bring in a measure to curb strikes in plants producing defence materials. He reported that the loss during 1940 and to the middle of last February totalled 7,817,360 man-hours.
The government freezes Hungarian assets in the U.S. (Jack McKillop)
Destroyer USS Ericsson commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 560 March 13, 1941
Libya. Rommel moves his headquarter to Sirte, to launch offensive operations to recapture Eastern Libya and attack into Egypt using the 5th Light Division which is now at full strength after receiving 150 tanks just arrived from Italy. He orders the capture of the unoccupied oasis at Marada, 75 miles South of Allied forward positions at El Agheila, to secure his Southern flank from any possible Allied counterattack through the desert.
400 miles North of The Azores, British sloop HMS Scarborough intercepts Norwegian whalers Star XIX and Star XXIV (captured by German raider Pinguin on January 15). German prize crews are rescued by HMS Scarborough after scuttling both whalers.
Overnight, 236 Luftwaffe bombers attack Glasgow, Scotland, targeting munitions factories and docks on the River Clyde (3 steamers are sunk and destroyers HMS Goathland and HMS Haldon, under construction, are damaged). In addition, Luftwaffe bombs Liverpool again hitting an air raid shelter on Adlington Street (65 civilians killed).
$50,000.00 salary in 1941 was real money.
My great grandfather was a watchman in Clydebank during the blitz.
There had just been a programme on BBC Scotland to mark the 70th anniversary. 15 members of 1 family killed when their tenement was hit.
March 13, 1941Lieutenant General Walter C. Short,
Commanding, Hawaiian Department,
Fort Shatter, T. H.Dear Short : The progress that you are making in reaching close coordination with local naval authorities, and so insuring a maximum degree of readiness in your Department, is most gratifying.
Since the Navy development in Kaneohe Bay has exceeded the project originally contemplated, I agree with you that the Army should consider assuming responsibility for its defense, and meanwhile defend it within the means available.
The several letters which you have submitted to The Adjutant General requesting personnel, materiel and funds are being processed. To avoid delay in initiating projects that may be approved, I am tentatively including $3,000,000 in the estimates now being prepared.
Faithfully yours,
[Stamped] (Sgd) G. C. Marshall,
Chief of Staff.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.