World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 10 Apr 1940

• German submarine U-4 sank HMS Thistle at Stavanger, Norway at 0213 hours, killing the entire crew of 53. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Tarpon attacked a German armed merchant vessel with torpedoes 50 miles off of the Danish coast, which fought back with depth charges. Tarpon was sunk during the counterattack, killing the entire crew of 53. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-37 torpedoed Swedish motor tanker Sveaborg 10 miles north of the Faroe Islands between Scotland and Iceland at 0215 hours, killing 5. Norwegian merchant vessel Tosca arrived to rescue the 29 survivors on and around the burning Sveaborg. At 0323 hours, U-37 returned and sank Tosca with one torpedo, killing 2. Survivors from both ships were later rescued by British armed boarding vessel HMS Northern Chief. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Henry Tizard established the Military Application of Uranium Detonation (MAUD) Committee in the United Kingdom to investigate the feasibility of an atomic weapon. ww2dbase [Operation Trinity and Manhattan Project | CPC]
• Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Nikolaus von Falkenhorst | CPC]
• Fleet Air Arm Skua dive bombers sank the German cruiser Königsberg in Bergen harbour in Norway. She was the first major warship to be sunk by dive bombing in the war. ww2dbase [Königsberg | AC]
• U-23 completed her eighth war patrol. ww2dbase [U-23 | CPC]

• The Icelanic parliament, Althing, granted full powers of government to the Icelandic cabinet, thus effectively declaring independence from Denmark, which was then under German occupation. ww2dbase [CPC]

• At the First Battle of Narvik, 10 German destroyers were attacked in the Ofot fjord by 5 British destroyers. 2 German destroyers, 11 merchant ships, and 1 supply ship were sunk. 2 British destroyers were lost. Both commanding officers, British Captain Bernard Warburton-Lee and German Commodore Friedrich Bonte, were killed in the action. Warburton-Lee was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross and Bonte the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | Narvik | CPC]
• Emden entered the port of Oslo, Norway and began serving as a communications ship coordinating messages between German Army, Navy, and Air Force units. ww2dbase [Emden | Oslo, Østlandet | CPC]
• Albatros escorted merchant ship Curityba as she unloaded troops on the Norwegian island of Rauøy. Upon completion of the escort mission, Albatros sailed southeast and struck the Gyren shoal southwest of Frederikstad, Norway at the speed of 20 knots. She was lost, and the survivors were taken aboard auxiliary ship V707 Arthur Dunker. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | Albatros | Fredrikstad, Viken | CPC]

10 Apr 1940 Interactive Map