19 Apr in WW2 History | World War II Database

19 Apr 1886

Hiroshi Oshima was born.
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19 Apr 1915

Kirishima was commissioned into service.
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Haruna was commissioned into service.
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19 Apr 1918

Quintin Brand was promoted to the rank of temporary major.
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19 Apr 1922

Future German fighter ace, Erich Hartmann (352 victories), was born at Weissach in Wüttemberg, Germany.

19 Apr 1935

Chen Changjie was promoted to the permanent rank of brigadier general.
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Monaghan was commissioned into service.
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19 Apr 1937

In Spain, the Falange and Carlist Movement were united and became the FET (Falange Espanola Tradicionalista y de las Junta de Ofensive Nacional-Sindicalista).

19 Apr 1938

The first of four pre-production Messerschmitt Bf 110B-01 fighters powered by two Junkers Jumo 210Ga engines took to the air, despite the misgiving of senior Luftwaffe officers who had been overruled by Hermann Göring.
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19 Apr 1940

Japan informed the United States that Japan had no aggressive intentions toward the Dutch East Indies.
The first engagement between British and German troops in Norway took place at Verdal, north of Trondheim, when the British 146th Brigade and Norwegian troops clashed with troops of the German 138th Gebirgsjäger Regiment; later on the same day, 45 German paratroopers surrendered to the Norwegian forces at Dombås. Norwegian General Ruge convinced British Brigadier Morgan to lead the British 148th Brigade in an effort to block the German advance from Oslo. Overnight, 3 battalions of French mountain troops arrived at Namsos, Norway, but without their skis, mules, and anti-aircraft weapons.
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Three Neubaufahrzeug prototype heavy tanks arrived in Oslo, Norway largely as a show of force to intimidate Norwegians.
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Germany announced the formation of the Reich Commissariat for the occupied Norwegian Territories.

19 Apr 1941

Indian 5th Division (marching south from Amara, Eritrea, Italian East Africa) and British 1st South African Brigade (marching north from Addis Ababa, Abyssinia) attacked toward the 7,000-strong Italian garrison at Amba Alagi, Abyssinia.
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German troops captured Larisa, Greece, theoretically allowing them to move south along the eastern coast of Greece, thus this movement was to be hampered by roads and bridges that were destroyed by retreating Allied troops. Elsewhere, troops of German Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment captured Ioannina 50 miles from the western coast of Greece, further frustrating the southward retreat of Greek Epirus Army from Albania. British General Wavell flew to Athens, Greece for a meeting with King George II where the king agreed that the Allies could not hold Greece, and preparations should begin immediately to evacuate troops to Crete to prevent further destruction of the country. General Wilson was ordered to prepare for a stand at Thermopylae with a small rearguard force to protect the southward evacuation of British troops.
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712 German bombers conducted a heavy raid on London, England, United Kingdom starting in the evening hours. Although the primary target was the London docks, the Old Place School in Poplar, East London, which was being used as a sub-fire station, was struck by a stray bomb, killing 13 London firefighters of both genders and 21 male Beckenham firemen; it was the largest single loss of firefighters in British history. The bombing continued past midnight.
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450 British commandos conducted an amphibious raid against Axis forces in Bardia, Libya. An Italian supply dump and a coastal artillery battery were destroyed. While most men were successfully evacuated after the raid, 1 was killed by friendly fire and 67 were captured after getting lost and going to the wrong beach.
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Erwin Rommel personally inspected the front lines in the Libyan-Egyptian border area.
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19 Apr 1942

German submarine U-136 sank US freighter Steel Maker 200 kilometers southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States, killing 1 of 45 aboard.
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Japanese troops landed on New Guinea.
German submarine U-130 attempted to bombard oil storage tanks near Willemstad on the island of Curaçao but was driven away by coastal defense guns before any damage was done.
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The 113th Regiment of the Chinese 38th Division under General Sun Liren captured Twingon, Burma then repulsed a Japanese counterattack that saw heavy casualties on both sides. To the east, Japanese 55th Infantry Division captured Pyinmana.
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Slim, Wavell, and Alexander met to start discussing plans for a major retreat of Allied personnel out of Burma.
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James Johnson shot down a German Fw 190 fighter.
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Chiang Kaishek, Song Meiling, and Joseph Stilwell met at Maymyo, Burma.
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US and Filipino prisoners of war were loaded onto cramped freight trains from San Fernando to Camp O'Donnell at Capas, Tarlac, Philippine Islands; many died en route.
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General Mikhail Grigoryevich Yefremov committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a pistol as his Soviet 33rd Army was on the brink of total destruction at Vyazma, Russia.
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British submarine HMS Umbra sank Italian ship Assunta de Gregori off Sfax, Tunisia.
Off Palestine, German submarine U-81 sank a sailing vessel by gunfire at 1651 hours and sank sailing vessel Hefz el Rahman by ramming at 2200 hours.
Less Carrier Division 5, which detached with screen to head for New Guinea for Operation MO, Akagi and the Striking Force departed Mako in high speed attempted pursuit of the carriers that had launched the Doolittle Raiders which had just struck the Tokyo Bay area on the previous day.
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Shokaku departed Mako, Pescadores Islands to participate in Operation MO in the Coral Sea commencing 20 Apr 1942.
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USS Gar began her second war patrol.
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HMS Edinburgh arrived at Murmansk, Russia.
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1942

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19 Apr 1943

Waffen-SS used tanks and other heavy weapons to counter the uprising at the Jewish ghetto in Warsaw, Poland, killing and deporting at least 50,000 during the following 27 days.
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At the Bermuda Conference, US and UK representatives discussed Jewish refugee issues in occupied Europe with little result.
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Belgian and Jewish underground movements attacked a transport of Jews from the Mechelen transit camp in Belgium. 150 Jews were rescued, but 220 died in the process. It was the only resistance effort during the Holocaust that had attacked a transport train.
HMS Seraph departed Holy Loch, Scotland, United Kingdom with the body of Glyndwr Michael, dressed as Major William Martin and planted with false documents intended to mislead the Germans.
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I-168 arrived at Kiska, Aleutian Islands with a cargo of ammunition and mail.
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USS Hoe departed for Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
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USS Scorpion arrived off Nakaminato, eastern Honshu, Japan; after sundown, she deployed naval mines.
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1943

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19 Apr 1944

In order to forestall the bombing of the homeland by American B-29 bombers from bases at Guilin and Liuzhou in China and to seize the Beiping-Hong Kong railroad, Field Marshal Shunroku Hata, Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Army China Expeditionary Force launched the Ichi-Go (Number one) offensive with a force of some 620,000 men, which was the largest force ever assembled by Japan for a single campaign. The main thrust was a powerful drive southwards from Hankou by the 11th Army, designed to link up with a push westward by 23rd Army from Guangdong.
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Thomas Hitchcock was killed while test-flying a P-51 Mustang aircraft.
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After sundown, the Japanese launched three separate attacks against Anglo-Indian positions near Imphal, India, some supported by medium tanks; none of the attacks achieved their objectives.
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USS Finback sank a small Japanese vessel in the Pacific Ocean with her deck gun.
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1944

19 Apr 1945

US First Army takes Halle and Leipzig in Germany.
US 5th Army reached the Po plateau in Italy.
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British Second Army attacked Bremen, Germany across the Elbe River while Canadian troops captured the Luftwaffe base of Stade, 40 kilometers west of Hamburg, without opposition.
Goebbels' speech for Hitler's birthday promised that Germany would ultimately prevail in the face of all misfortune and Allied strength.
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617 Lancaster, 332 Halifax, and 20 Mosquito aircraft attacked Helgoland, Germany; 3 Halifax bombers were lost. The attack prompted Germany to evacuate civilians from the island to the mainland.
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A major attack was launched against Japanese positions on Okinawa, Japan.
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American B-24 bombers attacked Japanese shipping off Saigon, Indochina.
A Royal Canadian Air Force Catalina crashed in Labrador in northeastern Canada. In the following operation to rescue the seven crewmen, a US Coast Guard HNS1 helicopter would be deployed to assist. This was one of the first rescue operations undertaken by a rotary wing aircraft.
British troops wiped out 500 Japanese troops at Mount Popa, Burma west of Meitkila after 20 days of heavy fighting.
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Aleksandr Vasilevsky was awarded the Order of Victory for the second time.
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USS Macabi entered a floating drydock for transit the Chicago Canal to the Mississippi River.
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USS Dragonet departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her second war patrol.
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USS Sennet sank Japanese cargo ship Hagane Maru and an escorting vessel south of Japan, hitting them with 2 of 3 torpedoes fired.
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1945

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19 Apr 1946

USS Makin Island was decommissioned from service at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Washington, United States.
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Escort carrier Wake Island was sold for scrap to the Boston Metals Company of Baltimore, Maryland, United States.
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19 Apr 1951

Douglas MacArthur addressed the US Congress, noting that Japan had undergone "the greatest reformation recorded in modern history".
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1951

19 Apr 1974

Zuoyi Fu passed away.
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19 Apr 1987

Maxwell Taylor passed away.
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19 Apr 1989

USS Iowa suffered an accidental turret explosion at 0955 hours, killing 47. It was the US Navy's worst loss of life during peace time.
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Photos dated 19 Apr 1989