Sunday 28 April 1940
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| Dead British "Green Howards" after the battle at Otta, Norway on 28 April 1940. |
Lieutenant General Claude Auchinleck is appointed commander of the British forces in Norway, now named the North-Western Expeditionary Force. He will oversee the evacuation.
Norway Army Operations: General Paget at Otta and General de Wiart at Namsos both receive orders to evacuate.
Paget tells Norwegian Commander in Chief Ruge at 05:00. Ruge gets angry at both the decision and not being told previously. He still believes that the defensive 15th Brigade south of Dombås can establish a permanent line, but the decision is final. He offers to assist with the retreat as long as Norwegian troops are included in the evacuation.
The 15th Brigade at Otta holds its line during the day, destroying three German light tanks. During the night, it withdraws 25 north to Dombås, where it can protect its own flank. They conduct a scorched-earth policy, blowing bridges as they go.
General de Wiart in Namsos withdraws his forces into a tighter, more defensible perimeter as he prepares to depart. He faces Luftwaffe attacks only.
The French 27th Demi-Brigade de Chasseurs Alpins deploys on the mainland at Sjovegan, north of Narvik.
Norway Air Operations: The Luftwaffe continues bombing the British ports in northern Norway.
The Luftwaffe sends reinforcements and supplies to General Dietl's troops at Narvik with 89 Junkers Ju-52 transport planes.
Having downed a German Heinkel 111 the previous night, RAF pilot Captain Partridge has crash-landed nearby. He finds a hut, then hears someone outside - it is the crew of the bomber he shot down. He invites them in, they become friends and are picked up this morning by a Norwegian ski patrol.
Battle of the Atlantic: The Queen Mary, impressed into British military service, completes a record-breaking, 12-day trip from New York to Cape Town.
U-13 (Kapitänleutnant Max-Martin Schulte) torpedoes and damages 9,491-ton British tanker Scottish American west of Pentland, Firth.
Convoy OA 138 GF departs from Southend, Convoy OB 138 departs from Liverpool.
Italian battleship Vittorio Veneto completed.
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| John Cage performing with his "prepared piano" in Seattle, 28 April 1940. |
American Homefront/Future History: John Cage, described as an "Avante-Garde experimentalist," debuts his "Bacchanale." It features his "prepared piano. The Seattle Daily Times describes "Bacchanale" as being "breathtaking in its speed and rhythm as well as unusual in its piano accompaniment." The National Academy of Arts and Letters will award Cage a $1000 honorarium - good money in those days - for the invention.
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| BMW Sweeps the Mille Miglia, April 28, 1940. |
April 1940
April 1, 1940: Weserubung is a GoApril 2, 1940: British Subs On Alert
April 3, 1940: Churchill Consolidates Power
April 4, 1940: Missed the Bus
April 5, 1940: Mig-1 First Flight
April 6, 1940: Troops Sailing to Norway
April 7, 1940: Fleets At Sea
April 8, 1940: HMS Glowworm and Admiral Hipper
April 9, 1940: Invasion of Norway
April 10, 1940: First Battle of Narvik
April 11, 1940: Britain Takes the Faroes
April 12, 1940: Germans Consolidate in Norway
April 13, 1940: 2d Battle of Narvik
April 14, 1940: Battle of Dombås
April 15, 1940: British in Norway
April 16, 1940: Germans Cut Norway in Half
April 17, 1940: Trondheim the Target
April 18, 1940: Norway Declares War
April 19, 1940: Dombås Battle Ends
April 20, 1940: Germans Advancing in Norway
April 21, 1940: First US Military Casualty
April 22, 1940: First British Military Contact with Germans
April 23, 1940: British Retreating in Norway
April 24, 1940: British Bombard Narvik
April 25, 1940: Norwegian Air Battles
April 26, 1940: Norwegian Gold
April 27, 1940: Allies to Evacuate Norway
April 28, 1940: Prepared Piano
April 29, 1940: British at Bodo
April 30, 1940: Clacton-on-Sea Heinkel
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