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• At 0400 hours, Dutch passenger liner Slamat departed Nauplia in southern Greece with 211 crew and 500 evacuating Allied troops; Slamat and escorting destroyers HMS Diamond and HMS Wryneck were all sunk by German Stuka dive bombers at 0700 hours, killing about 900. Later in the same morning, German 2nd Panzer Division captured Athens, raising the Nazi German flag above the Acropolis as a sign of victory and capturing large quantities of fuel, ammunition, and heavy vehicles; surrendered Greek officers were allowed to retire to their homes with their sidearms without being interned as prisoners of war. German 5th Panzer Division moved across the Corinth Canal all day and Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment crossed onto the Peloponnese Peninsula in southern Greece at Patras at 1730 hours. 4,200 Allied troops were evacuated from beaches south of Athens. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | TH]
• Heinrich Himmler visited Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. ww2dbase [Heinrich Himmler | CPC]
• German submarine U-110 sank British ship Henri Mory 300 miles west of Ireland at 0130 hours; 28 were killed, 4 survived. 80 miles south of Iceland, U-552 sank British trawler Commander Horton at 0210 hours, killing the entire crew of 14. Shortly after, at 0242 hours, 100 miles southwest of the Faroe Islands, U-147 sank Norwegian ship Rimfakse; 11 were killed, 8 survived. At 1612 hours, U-147 struck again, sinking British ship Beacon Grange; 2 were killed, 82 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German medium and dive bombers attacked Tobruk, Libya, destroying 4 anti-aircraft guns (killing 8); 1 German aircraft was lost. After these losses, the British moved the anti-aircraft guns to conceal positions while dummy guns were constructed in the old anti-aircraft gun positions. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]

• The 10,160-ton British motor merchant vessel Beacon Grange, built in 1938 and owned by the Houlder Line Ltd, was torpedoed by German submarine U-552 (Erich Topp) and sank south of Iceland at 1612 hours; 2 were killed, 82 survived. Beacon Grange was sailing unescorted, en route from Tyne, England, United Kingdom to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The survivors were picked up by Belgian trawler Edouvard Anseele, and they were later be transferred aboard corvette HMS Gladious. ww2dbase [HM]
• Comandante Cappellini was ordered to shift her patrol area in the Atlantic Ocean. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• German Deputy Chief of Staff Friedrich Paulus arrived in Libya. ww2dbase [Friedrich Paulus | CPC]

• The British Submarine HMS Upholder (N 99) under Lieutenant Commander M. D. Wanklyn, RN surfaced at 1950 hours and tried to close the wreck of the Italian destroyer Lampo which had been torpedoed and sunk in shallow waters by British destroyers during the action against the Tarigo convoy on 16 Apr 1941. At 2040 hours, the submarine ran aground in 15 feet of water some 4,000 yards short of her target and the attempt was abandoned. ww2dbase [HM]

• The 942-ton Norwegian collier Rimac, on a voyage from Blyth, England, United Kingdom to Loch Ewe, Scotland, United Kingdom with a cargo of coal, collided with British minelayer Lord Plender near Yarmouth, on England's eastern coast. The Rimac sank quickly with a loss of three crew; Lord Plender also lost three. The 14 survivors from the Rimac were taken aboard the Lord Plender and landed at Grimsby, England. ww2dbase [Yarmouth, England | HM]

• Jack Kleiss completed flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida, United States. ww2dbase [Jack Kleiss | Pensacola, Florida | CPC]

27 Apr 1941 Interactive Map