Today 21 April 2015. On this day in military history:
In 1941:
The warning of Winston Churchill about the impending German attack on the USSR, sent on 3 April, got, finally, to Joseph Stalin. And hit at the worst possible time: already capitulated Yugoslavia, practically ceased the resistance of Greece and the British troops began the evacuation from the territory of Greece. The message had the opposite impression of its design. "You see, - said Stalin Georgy Zhukov, - we are afraid of the Germans, and the Germans scare the Soviet Union and were egging us on each other. This is a delicate political game".
Deputy people's Commissar of foreign trade A. Krutikov gave in Berlin reports that Germany "does not provide sufficient rolling stock for transport, of the German-Soviet border supply of goods to the USSR", and hinted at the possibility of increasing deliveries of Soviet.
Recently arrived on a mission to Berlin the German Ambassador in the Soviet Union Schulenburg, long troubled by rumours of the impending attack on the Soviet Union and now having satisfied himself that this is not a rumor, persuaded the state Secretary of the Ministry of foreign Affairs Weizsacker (weizsäcker Schulenburg and always were opponents of the war with Russia)to meet with the Minister of foreign Affairs Ribbentrop. Weizsäcker had asked his boss an emergency admission, during which I tried to convince him to influence Hitler and warned that the war against Russia "would end in catastrophy". Ribbentrop nothing concrete is promised, but, not being a member of the Eastern companies have taken some steps.
In 1942:
Bet has created a major command of the troops of the North Caucasus front under Marshal Budenny. He obeyed the Crimean front, Sevastopol defense, the North Caucasus military district, black sea fleet and Azov military flotilla.
In connection with the defeat of our troops on the South, it was praznina 19 may 1942, Budenny demoted to commander of the North Caucasian front, and soon permanently removed from command positions.
In 1943:
As reported by the Soviet information Bureau, on this day of our aircraft in various parts of the front destroyed or damaged to 50 German trucks with troops and cargo, 2 blown up a munitions depot and a fuel depot . Broken train, suppressed the fire 6 artillery batteries of the enemy.
The USSR established diplomatic relations with Ethiopia.
In 1944:
South-East of the city Stanislav, our troops repulsed attacks by large forces of infantry and enemy tanks.
On the night of April 21, our long-range aviation bombed kanapienio plants at the railway station and Kohtla in the village lakes-Camp (Estonian SSR).
From the first days of the occupation of the town Czartoryski Volyn region the Germans started to make widespread looting and massacres. Killings of peaceful Soviet citizens took place in the ravine behind the cemetery, near the tract Kotelets. Especially dealt harshly with the Germans, the intellectuals. They shot teacher Gordius Twenty along with fourteen-year-old son, brutally tortured and killed his teacher Gregory of Cuba. At the end of January in the town came a detachment of the SS, which drove the inhabitants to the construction of defensive structures. When the work was finished, the German fascist fiends killed over 400 peaceful Soviet citizens, who worked on the construction of fortifications.
In 1945:
Troops of the 1st Belorussian front was cut by the County highway and entered the Northern outskirts of Berlin. Tank army of the 1st Ukrainian front broke into the southern outskirts of Berlin, and reached the southern outskirts of Potsdam.
The commander of 224 infantry regiment (2nd Belorussian front) 320летниц Afanasy Lavrentievich Budakov the run crossed West of the Oder, captured the bridgehead and the battles for its expansion captured a battery of antitank guns, antiaircraft installation and ensured crossing and enter into the battle of the tank army. 29 June 1945 became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The Deputy commander of the 22nd guards motorized rifle brigade (1st Ukrainian front), guards Colonel Ivan Petrovich Zarubin (1908-1982) on the outskirts of Berlin took command of the brigade, then (25 April), together with the soldiers crossed the Teltow canal, skillfully organized the crossing of the brigade.
In the premises of the Swedish Consulate in lübeck took place the meeting of the head of the SS Heinrich Himmler and the chief of German foreign intelligence Walter Schellenberg with Folke Bernadotte, the Vice-President of the red cross neutral Sweden and nephew of king Gustav svetskogo. However, it was too late, and the last desperate attempt of the Nazi bosses to bargain with the West, sacrificing the Fuhrer, nor to no avail.
Hitler ordered the Wehrmacht with the requirement immediately by the last effort to throw the Soviet troops from Berlin: "the Commander, who will retain his soldiers will pay with their lives after five o'clock."
On the eve of the 75 anniversary from the birthday of Lenin, in addition to numerous meetings and rallies across the country and celebrations in the schools, the MSU at a General meeting of students, professors and teachers read the report of "Lenin – the coryphaeus of science", and at LSU – report "Problems of modern physics in the light of works by V. I. Lenin's "Materialism and empiric".
In Moscow signed the Soviet-Polish Treaty of friendship, mutual assistance and postwar cooperation.
The newspaper "Pravda" reported: Population of the coastal areas of Holland occupied by the Germans, suffering from hunger. The food supply in this area is completely depleted by may 1. The normal weekly issue reduced to 400 grams. On the outskirts of Amsterdam were up to 1500 people died of starvation, not have the opportunity to bury because of lack of transport.
