April 12
Home Front, Poland
The German authorities announce that they have found a mass grave in Katyn Forest. They claim that it contains the bodies of some 10,000 Polish officers executed by the Soviet secret police in 1939. The Soviets claim that this is deliberate German propaganda aimed at discrediting them. Subsequent investigations reveal the Soviets were indeed responsible for the massacre of 4500 officers at Katyn Forest.

April 17
Air War, Germany
The US 8th Army Air Force attacks Bremen's aircraft factories from its bases in Eastern England. It is one of its largest raids to date. Sixteen of the 115 B-17 Flying Fortress bombers from the raid are lost.

April 18
Air War, Tunisia
An operation by 100 German transport aircraft to fly supplies to the Axis forces in North Africa suffers a devastating attack by US fighters. Over half the transport aircraft and 10 fighters are shot down.

April 19-22
Africa, Tunisia
General Bernard Montgomery, eager for his Eighth Army to seal victory in Tunisia, launches an offensive toward Enfidaville. The attack gains little ground and casualties are heavy.

April 19
Eastern Front, Poland
The destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto begins with German SS troops making a large-scale attack. The Jewish fighters construct a network of hiding places and fight with small-arms or improvised weapons. Up to 310,000 Jews have already been deported from the ghetto, to be executed or imprisoned in labor camps.

April 21
Politics, Japan
Admiral Minichi Koga succeeds Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto as commander-in-chief of the Combined Fleet. US codebreakers had learned that Yamamoto was visiting bases in the southwest Pacific and aircraft were deployed to intercept the fleet. The admiral was killed after his aircraft was destroyed by US fighters on the 18th.

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