World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 27 Mar 1941

• The US Congress approved US$7,000,000,000 for the Lend-Lease program. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-98 sank British ship Koranton 400 miles southwest of Iceland at 1350 hours, killing the entire crew of 34. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Adolf Hitler ordered Operation Barbarossa to be postponed due to changing political situations in the Balkan Peninsula. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | CPC]
• Allied tanks and infantry captured heights beyond the Dongolaas Gorge in Eritrea, Italian East Africa. By 1000 hours, Keren was captured without opposition as Italian troops fled toward Asmara. The Battle of Keren ended with 536 Allies killed and 3,229 wounded, while the Italians suffered 6,500 casualties. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | CPC]
• Battleship HMS Warspite, battleship HMS Barham, battleship HMS Valiant, carrier HMS Formidable, and nine destroyers of the British Mediterranean Fleet departed Alexandria, Egypt to hunt for an Italian fleet known to have departed bases in Italy. Four cruisers and four destroyers also departed from Piraeus, Greece, launching spotter planes to search for the Italian fleet, locating it at noon. ww2dbase [Battle of Matapan | Warspite | CPC]
• Oberleutnant zur See Helmut Pöttgen of German submarine U-46 fell overboard from the submarine and was lost. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka met with German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop in Berlin, Germany in the morning; Ribbentrop noted to Matsuoka that the United States was intimidated by the Axis alliance thus would not enter into the war even if Japan joined in to strike at British possessions in Asia. In the afternoon, Matsuoka met with Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [Yosuke Matsuoka | Berlin | CPC]
• The first transfers of prisoners out of Oflag IV-C camp at Colditz Castle in Germany took place; 27 Polish officers were moved to Oflag VII-B in Eichstätt, Germany. ww2dbase [Colditz Castle | Colditz, Sachsen | CPC]

• Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrived at the US Territory of Hawaii aboard the passenger liner Nitta Maru, under the guise of a diplomat. ww2dbase [Takeo Yoshikawa | CPC]

• American and British representatives met at Washington DC, United States. ww2dbase [ABC-1 Conference | Washington | CPC]
• Earl Browder, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the United States began a four-year prison sentence at Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in Georgia, United States on his conviction on the charge of passport fraud. ww2dbase [Atlanta, Georgia | AC]

• General Dusan Simovic and other anti-German officers overthrew the pro-Axis government in Yugoslavia, placing Regent Prince Paul with King Petar II and intending to back out of the Tripartite Pact. Upon hear the news, Adolf Hitler ordered an invasion of Yugoslavia; the German foreign ministry prepared messages to Hungary, Bulgaria, and Italy for them to join in the partition Yugoslavia. On the same day, 500 German military aircraft were dispatched for Bulgaria and Romania. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | TH]

27 Mar 1941 Interactive Map