The destroyer U.S.S. Sturtevant was named after Ensign Albert D. Sturtevant, a Naval aviator who was awarded the Navy Cross for heroic action. The destroyer later hit a mine off Key West, Florida, and sank, killing 15 of her crew of 130. It is later determined that Sturtevant passed through an American-laid minefield of which the vessel was never notified. Click to enlarge.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On April 24, the RAF begins a heavy, four-night bombing sortie against Rostock, Germany. The targets are facilities that manufacture military aircraft. The British cargo ship Empire Drum is torpedoed and sunk about 245 miles southeast of New York City by German submarine U-136. All 41 of the crew survive and are rescued.
Berlin radio announces on April 25 that captive French general Henri Giraud (captured while fighting the Germans at Wassigny, France, on May 19, 1940) had escaped eight days earlier from Konigstein Fortress, near Dresden. A reward of 100,000 Reichsmarks (about U.S.$40,000) is offered for information leading to his recapture. (After escaping, Giraud successfully makes his way to Switzerland, then returns to Vichy France, where he tries to persuade the government to continue the fight against the Nazis. He is unsuccessful, but the Vichy government refuses to hand him back over to the Germans.)
In Berlin, the Reichstag — the Nazi pseudo-Parliament — meets for the 20th and final time on April 26. It proclaims Der Führer the “Supreme Judge of the German People” and accedes to Hitler’s request to allow him to override legislative or judicial considerations in all matters. Adolf Hitler is thus given the absolute power of life or death over every German. The destroyer USS Sturtevant hits a mine off Key West, Florida, and sinks, killing 15 of her crew of 130. It is later determined that Sturtevant passed through an American-laid minefield of which the vessel was never notified.
Canada on April 27 holds a plebiscite on conscription: 66% of the nation’s voters favor compulsory military service, with Quebec being the only province or territory to have a majority voting against establishing a draft. In Europe, all Jews in Nazi-occupied Netherlands are ordered to wear a yellow Star-of-David badge. In China, the 22nd Infantry Division of the Japanese 13th Army captures Lungyu, in eastern coastal Chekiang Province.
British assault troops depart Durban, South Africa, on April 28 headed for Madagascar, off the southeast coast of Africa and controlled by Vichy France. Slower ships, carrying transportation equipment, heavy weapons and ammunition, have departed several days earlier. In Rome, Italian foreign minister Count Galeazzo Ciano — Mussolini’s son-in-law — tells Amin al-Husseini, the exiled Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and Rashid Ali al-Gaylani, erstwhile leader of Iraq, that Italy will formally recognize the independence of Arab states. A 15-mile strip of the U.S. Atlantic coast centered on New York City begins conducting blackouts at night to hinder German U-boat activity in the region.
In Salzburg, Austria, on April 29, Hitler, Mussolini and Ciano (Italy’s foreign minister and Mussolini’s son-in-law) hold a summit conference in which Hitler “strongly requests” that the Italians send more troops to the Eastern Front. Mussolini agrees to commit seven divisions in addition to two already promised. These divisions will form the Eighth Italian Army and they will join German Army Group B under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock. The trio also discuss what to do about Malta, and plans for an invasion of the island, code-named “Operation Herkules,” begin taking shape. An ammonium nitrate explosion at a chemical plant in Tessenderlo, Belgium, kills 189 people.
In Burma, the Japanese capture Lashio on April 30, cutting the Burma Road, the main land route for getting supplies and war materiel into China. Allied troops in Burma take up defensive positions north of the Irrawaddy River.
