2 Apr in WW2 History | World War II Database

2 Apr 1860

Zheng Xiaoxu was born in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
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2 Apr 1936

J2F Duck aircraft took its first flight; deliveries were made to the United States Navy later on the same day.
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2 Apr 1940

Germans attacked Scapa Flow and North Sea convoys. .
In the afternoon, Adolf Hitler issued the directive for the invasion of Denmark and Norway, with the planned launch date to be 9 Apr 1940. Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was made aware of the invasion for the first time so that his office could help develop excuses for the invasion. Meanwhile, Dutch border guards were placed on full alert due to the detected German deployments.
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German submarine U-38 sank Finnish steamer Signe of convoy HN-23A at 0021 hours, killing the entire crew of 19.
British submarines began to patrol waters that Vice Admiral Max Horton suspected to be routes of German invasion of Norway. For example, HMS Unity patrolled the Heligoland Bight while HMS Sunfish patrolled the Kattegat between Denmark and Sweden.
Werner Mölders shot down Flight Lieutenant C. D. Palmer's Hurricane fighter of No. 1 Squadron RAF. On this date, he also received the Iron Cross 1st Class award.
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2 Apr 1941

German troops captured Agedabia and Zuetania in North Africa.
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In Eritrea, Italian East Africa, British troops offered surrender terms to Italian Admiral Mario Bonetti's fleet which had sortied out of Massawa on the previous day; Bonetti chose to press on with his planned attack on Port Sudan in British Sudan. British armored cars under Colonel Bernard Fletcher cut off the Italian retreat from Eritrea at Adigrat. Finally, in Abyssinia, 22nd East African Brigade of the British 11th African Division reached the Awash River.
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German submarine U-48 sank British ship Beaverdale with one torpedo and deck gun 300 miles southwest of Iceland at 0150 hours; 21 were killed and 58 survived.
Canadian armed merchant cruiser Prince Henry intercepted two German merchant ships off Peru; the German ships were scuttled by their own crews to prevent capture.
German bombers attacked Allied convoy AS23 25 miles south of Crete, Greece, sinking 2 freighters and damaging 2 others.
Allied convoy SC-26 ran into a patrol line formed by eight German submarines 460 miles southwest of Iceland. Overnight, German submarines U-46, U-69, U-73, and U-74 sank 6 merchant ships, damaged 1 merchant ship, and damaged the escorting British armed merchant cruiser HMS Worcestershire; 110 men were killed.
Subhash Chandra Bose arrived in Berlin, Germany.
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Battleship Bismarck received two aircraft.
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USS Astoria departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
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2 Apr 1942

USAAF B-17 bombers attacked the Japanese fleet at the Andaman Islands.
The first flight echelon of US Marine Aircraft Group 13 arrived at Tutuila, American Samoa.
Japanese submarine I-6 sank British ship Clan Ross 350 miles west of India; 11 were killed, 38 survived.
40 British Wellington and 10 Stirling bombers attacked the Ford factory at Poissy, France.
German bombers attacked Dover and Weymouth, England, United Kingdom.
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German submarine U-123 damaged US tanker Liebre with her deck gun 17 miles off Cape Fear, North Carolina, United States at 0718 hours; 9 were killed, 25 survived. After British motor torpedo boat MTB-332 chased off U-123, Liebre would be towed back to port for repairs.
Japanese troops drove Indian 17th Division out of Prome, Burma.
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Three B-17 bombers of US 10th Air Force based in Calcutta, India attacked Japanese shipping in the Andaman Islands, claiming hits on one cruiser and one transport.
USS Hornet departed Naval Air Station Alameda near San Francisco, California with James Doolittle and his 16 US Army B-25 bombers on board.
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Submarine USS Searaven departed with ammunition for Corregidor, Philippine Islands, but she would be unable to deliver the cargo before the American garrison surrendered.
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USS Astoria departed from Nouméa, New Caledonia.
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Light cruiser Voroshilov bombarded Axis troop positions Feodossiya, Ukraine.
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Photos dated 2 Apr 1942

2 Apr 1943

Allied bombers conducted raids across Italy, hitting Messina, Crotone, Villa San Giovanni, Naples, Augusta, and Palermo. Some of the missions were aborted due to cloud cover.
HMS Black Swan and HMS Stonecrop sank German submarine U-124 in the Atlantic Ocean.
The Italian Semovente 105/25 tank destroyer design entered production.
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Near El Guettar, Tunisia, US 9th Infantry Division was moved to attack Hill 772; its original objective of Hill 369 was now left to US 1st Infantry Division to capture.
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USS S-31 crossed the equator in the Pacific Ocean.
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USS Gar ended her sixth war patrol.
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In the later afternoon, USS Tunny made radar contact with Japanese transport Toyo Maru Number 2 off Alet Island, Caroline Islands. She fired three torpedoes at the distance of 880 meters and observed a hit on the transport before diving to avoid attack by the escorting Momo-class destroyer; depth charges caused minor damage.
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Destroyer Yukikaze made a troop transport run to Rekata, Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands.
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2 Apr 1944

Troops of the German 12th SS Panzer Division "Hitlerjugend" massacred 86 Belgians in retaliation of the bombing of their train by resistance fighters.
Soviet troops entered Romania.
Soviets threaten to shoot one third of all German prisoners of war if the German 1.Panzerarmee's 18 divisions would not surrender.
General Rikichi Ando was named the governor-general of Taiwan.
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USS Tunny departed Palau Islands.
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USS Guitarro departed Balboa, Panama Canal Zone.
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Photos dated 2 Apr 1944

2 Apr 1945

With assistance from Bulgarian units, Soviet 3rd Ukrainian Front captured the main Hungarian oil production area near Nagykanizsa.
Soviet 2nd Ukrainian Front captured the Hungarian industrial zone of Mosonmagyarovar.
Martin Bormann ordered Germany to fight until victorious or until death.
US troops landed on Sanga Sanga, Sulu, Philippine Islands without resistance; Filipino guerrilla fighters had already secured the island prior to the landing.
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In Japan, 100 American B-29 bombers conducted a raid on the Nakajima aircraft factory near Tokyo, while 15 B-29 bombers mined waters off Kure and Hiroshima.
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American B-24 bombers conducted a raid on Hong Kong.
American B-24 bombers conducted a raid on Marcus Island.
The American Mk II and Mk IIA1 hand grenades were redesignated Mk 2 and Mk 2A1, respectively.
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Soviet troops captured Wiener Neustadt, Eisenstadt, Neunkirchen, and Gloggnitz in southern Germany, thus now threatening Vienna.
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Louis Mountbatten announced that the planning for Operation Dracula against Rangoon, Burma was to be resumed, with a target execution date of 5 May 1945 at the latest.
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USS Gar departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for the Mariana Islands.
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USS Dragonet arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii.
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USS Sennet completed refitting from USS Apollo at Guam, Mariana Islands.
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Photos dated 2 Apr 1945

2 Apr 1947

Rudolf Höss was sentenced to death by Polish authorities.
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2 Apr 1952

Commander Arthur Turn Decker was named the commanding officer of USS Ticonderoga to prepare her for decommission.
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Photos dated 2 Apr 1952