War in Europe, this April 11, 1941:
Starting with Coventry and Birmingham among the places attacked by German bombers last night in raids the British government acknowledge had caused considerable damage and probably heavy casualties. It was the second raid on Birmingham, big Midlands industrial center, many nights. Coventry, still recovering from a devastating raid last November 14, was bombed heavily Tuesday night. The British reported their night fighters had destroyed nine of the Nazi raiders, which also kept London under alert for five hours and stabbed at the south coast. An additional raider was said to have been shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
The British claim to have shot down 29 German planes over and around Britain in the 48 hours from Wednesday morning to this morning. Many casualties were believed caused in Coventry. The number of dead and injured still was unknown at midday today, but several shelters received direct hits and numerous persons were trapped. Following the usual blitz pattern the Nazis dropped hundreds of incendiary bombs, which caused numerous fires. Most of these were under control, however, in a few hours.
Meanwhile – A state of emergency was declared throughout Hungary today as Hungarian troops marched into the Bacza region of Yugoslavia between the Danube and Tisza Rivers. “Under orders of the Regent, Admiral Nicholas Horthy, the Hungarian armies today crossed the Trianon Treaty frontier between the Danube and the Tisza as well as the opposite triangle of the Baranya area of the Danube.” The Baranya area Is a small body of land which lies to the West of the Danube on the frontier. The old Austro-Hungarian Empire lost the Bacza area, about 8,500 square miles, and the smaller Baranya triangle to the kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918 as the result of the last war. Admiral Horthy announced in a formal proclamation that he had ordered the occupation of the area. The march into Yugoslavia came not quite four months after the signature December 12 of a treaty of constant peace and perpetual friendship between Hungary and Yugoslavia.
And finally – The Rumanian oil fields at Ploesti have been, and still are, one of the principal German sources of supply. The British have had air bases in Greece since last Fall, yet the Rumanian fields have uninterruptedly pumped their “black gold” into refineries, whence it has been shipped by rail and river to Germany. This failure to bomb the German oil supply has puzzled many persons; yet there are definite reasons for the British restraint. For a time there were diplomatic and political reasons, but these were quickly removed by Germany’s sweep eastward into the Balkans, and for many months now technical reasons, and technical reasons alone, have been responsible for the British abstention. A primary reason has been lack of enough bombers adequate for the Job.
The distance from Greek air bases to the Ploesti oil fields in Rumania is 400 to 500 miles one way, about the extreme radius of many British bombers, and a distance at which, heretofore in the war, few definite results have been obtained by bombing.
And that’s just a small slice of what happened, this April 11, 1941 as reported by NBC Red Network News.
