Tuesday, April 6, 2021

April 6, 1941. A Wider War.

On this day in 1941 Germany invaded Greece, in order to bail out its failing ally Italy, and also invaded Yugoslavia as part of that overall effort. As part of that latter event, the Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade.

Today in World War II History—April 6, 1941

Yugoslavia entered a treaty of friendship with the USSR, which was backdated to April 5 at the suggestion of the Soviets thus giving the appearance that the Soviet Union was not entering an alliance with a nation at war.

The U.S. Secretary of State, on Yugoslavia, issued this statement:

The barbaric invasion of Yugoslavia and the attempt to annihilate that country by brute force is but another chapter in the present planned movement of attempted world conquest and domination.

Another small nation has been assaulted by the forces of aggression and is further proof that there are no geographical limitations or bounds of any kind to their movement for world conquest.

The American people have the greatest sympathy for the nation which has been thus so outrageously attacked and we follow closely the valiant. struggle the Yugoslav people are making to protect their homes and preserve their liberty.

This Government with its policy of helping those who are defending themselves against would be conquerors is now proceeding as speedily as possible to send military and other supplies to Yugoslavia.

The German advances, here and in North Africa, reinforced the image that German ground forces were unbeatable. It also gave rise to the the second example of a pattern in the early and mid war of German forces advancing during the Spring. But by taking Yugoslavia, as Germany was about to do, it was about to take the first nation in which the civilian population would never accept their presence and therefore Germany would find itself for the first time in a guerilla war against resistance forces.

The British took Addis Ababa, the capitol of Ethiopia, as the Italian effort there collapsed, which is also noted in the above. British Commonwealth forces had advanced 120 miles in two days to take the city, which was unoccupied.

Northwest of there, however, by quite some margin, Commonwealth forces were retreating in panic towards Tobruk.

The Gneisenau was damaged by British aircraft while undergoing repairs in France, which you can read about here:

Kenneth Campbell attacks the Gneisenau

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Lex Anteinternet?

This blog has been around since 2009. In the very first post, we asked the question: "What the heck is this blog about?"

Our answer to the question was: "The intent of this blog is to try to explore and learn a few things about the practice of law prior to the current era. That is, prior to the internet, prior to easy roads, and the like. How did it work, how regional was it, how did lawyers perceive their roles, and how were they perceived?"

We also noted: "Part of the reason for this, quite frankly, has something to do with minor research for a very slow moving book."

All of this is still true, but the focus of the blog has changed somewhat. It now focuses on the era from 1890 to 1920 in general, rather than on the law and lawyers specifically, although that may be far from obvious. It's also become the location where we comment on anything we feel moved to comment on.

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