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• German troops attack British and Australian positions at Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian border. Allied troops held the pass all day, but after dark they withdrew to Buq Buq, Egypt. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]
• German paratroopers attacked the Corinth Canal bridge in Greece early in the morning; the bridge was blown up as the German approached; by the end of the day, however, German engineers would erect temporary crossings at this point of the canal. Overnight, 8,300 Allied troops were evacuated from beaches south of Athens while 12,950 were evacuated from beaches on the Peloponnese Peninsula. German aircraft sank Greek torpedo boat Kydonia and 3 other ships on this date. To the north in Yugoslavia, British destroyer HMS Defender evacuated the crown jewels of Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
• General Georgy Zhukov, the recently appointed Soviet Chief of Staff, ordered a creeping mobilization to begin, in response to widespread evidence that German forces were moving eastward. ww2dbase [Georgy Zhukov | AC]
• General MacArthur issued his third plan for the seizure of the New Britain, New Guinea, and New Ireland area, emphasizing cooperation between the US Army and US Navy as the two services each moved toward the Japanese stronghold at Rabaul. ww2dbase [Douglas MacArthur | CPC]
• The German Nachtjagdfliegerdienst nightfighter unit scored its 100th night kill. ww2dbase [CPC]
• General Lord Gort was appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Gibraltar. ww2dbase [John Vereker | AC]

• South African 1st Brigade captured Dessie, Abyssinia, taking 4,000 Italians as prisoners of war. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Dessie | CPC]

• HMS Eagle arrived at Mombasa, Kenya. ww2dbase [Eagle | Mombasa | CPC]

• Wolfgang Falck, stationed at Deelen in the Netherlands, was ordered to attend a meeting at Hamburg, Germany. He would use the opportunity to learn more about new aircraft-mounted radar systems under development: Morgenstern, Flensburg, and SN-2 (Lichtenstein). ww2dbase [Wolfgang Falck | Deelen | CPC]

• British freighters Clan Chattan, Clan Campbell, Clan Lamont, Empire Song, and New Zealand Star, carrying 295 tanks for Egypt, departed from the Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom in Operation Tiger. They were escorted by battleship HMS Rodney, cruiser HMS Naiad, destroyer HMS Havelock, destroyer HMS Hesperus, and destroyer Harvester. ww2dbase [Rodney | Scotland | CPC]

26 Apr 1941 Interactive Map