4 Apr 1940
- Aktion 14 F 13 began; it was the first documented proof that the Nazi German regime conducted mass extermination of the handicapped in concentration camps. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
- British newspapers reported concentrations of troops in German ports. ww2dbase [CPC]
- British Vice Admiral Max Horton ordered British submarine HMS Snapper to depart Harwich naval base for the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway and French submarines Amazone and Antiope (under British command) to depart Harwich for the Frisian Islands and Heligoland. ww2dbase [CPC]
- U-56 began her eighth patrol west of Scotland, United Kingdom; off the Norwegian coast; and off the Shetland Islands, Scotland. ww2dbase [U-56 | CPC]
- Winston Churchill traveled to Paris, France to persuade the French on a plan to mine Norwegian waters. Unable to convince French leadership to mine the Rhine River at the same time, Churchill decided that the British would mine Norwegian waters without French cooperation. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | Paris | CPC]
- U-1 began her second and final war patrol. ww2dbase [U-1 | CPC]
- The Netherlands declared itself in a state of siege. ww2dbase [TH]
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"We no longer demand anything, we want war."Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Foreign Minister, Aug 1939