Timeline April 1941

Events in April 1941 9

• 1941 Battle of Keren The decisive battle of the East African campaign British and Indian troops fought for eight weeks to take the mountain stronghold of Keren in Eritrea from Italian forces. Its fall opened the way to Asmara and Massawa.
• 1941 German invasion of Greece Operation Marita brings Greece under Axis control German forces attacked Greece from Bulgaria and quickly broke the Metaxas Line, turning back the British Commonwealth force sent to help. Athens fell on 27 April, and most Allied troops were evacuated to Crete and Egypt.
• 1941 Invasion of Yugoslavia Axis forces overrun Yugoslavia in eleven days Germany, Italy and Hungary invaded Yugoslavia after a coup there overturned its adherence to the Tripartite Pact, and the Luftwaffe bombed Belgrade heavily. The Yugoslav army capitulated on 17 April, taking effect the next day, and the country was partitioned.
• 1941 Independent State of Croatia proclaimed The Ustaše establish an Axis puppet state As German troops entered Zagreb, Slavko Kvaternik proclaimed the Independent State of Croatia under Ante Pavelić's Ustaše movement. The regime ran the Jasenovac camp system and persecuted Serbs, Jews and Roma.
• 1941 Siege of Tobruk Allied garrison holds out against Rommel Mostly Australian troops, nicknamed the "Rats of Tobruk", held the Libyan port against Axis forces for 241 days. The siege was lifted during Operation Crusader.
• 1941 – 1993 Bobby Moore (1941-1993) Died 24 February 1993, aged 51 Bobby Moore captained the England national football team to victory in the 1966 World Cup, the country's only World Cup title. He played the majority of his career at West Ham United and is regarded as one of the greatest defenders in the sport's history. He died of colon cancer in London.
• 1941 Soviet-Japanese Neutrality Pact Moscow and Tokyo agree not to fight each other Molotov and Japanese foreign minister Yosuke Matsuoka signed a five-year neutrality pact in Moscow. It let the Soviet Union move troops west against Germany and Japan turn south against the Western powers.
• 1941 Mother Courage and Her Children premieres Brecht's anti-war play opens in Zurich Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children had its first performance at the Schauspielhaus Zürich while the author was in exile. It became one of the most performed anti-war plays of the century.
• 1941 – 2024 Fethullah Gulen (1941-2024) Died 20 October 2024, aged 83 Turkish Islamic scholar and leader of the Hizmet movement, accused by Ankara of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt.