Saturday 7 June 1941

Firemen battle blazes in Chungking (Chongqing), China resulting from the devastating Japanese air raid of the previous night. 7 June 1941.

Syrian/Lebanon Campaign: Operation Exporter, the invasion of the Vichy French possessions of Syria and Lebanon from Palestine, unofficially begins when Australian troops infiltrate behind French positions beginning around 21:30. They are led by Jewish locals, including a young man named Moshe Dayan. The infiltrations are from the Hanita Kibbutz, and the sappers cut wires and clear mines.

In anticipation of the invasion, planned to begin in earnest on 8 June, Royal Navy units depart from Port Said (Force C of troopship Glengyle escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and destroyers Hotspur, Ilex and ISIS) and Alexandria (Force B of light cruisers Ajax and Phoebe, with destroyers Janus, Jackal, Kandahar and Kimberley). The Glengyle carries men of No. 11 Commando to seize a bridge at the mouth of the Litani River in Lebanon.

The main invasion will not start until the early hours of 8 June. It is divided into three columns or prongs - west, center, and east. The three prongs are isolated and not mutually supporting.

The main prize is the coast road. It is the most direct route into Syria and can be easily protected by the Royal Navy and RAF. British commandos from ‘C’ Battalion British Special Service Brigade are assigned to land at key points just behind the border in order to disrupt the French response, but seas are heavy and look like they may interfere with that. The Australian 21st Brigade advances to capture a key bridge over the Litani River.

Further inland in the center, the Australian 25th Brigade is to take the French picket line along the border and then proceed inland. Poor French morale is expected to prevent a major response.

In the eastern sector, the Indian 5th Brigade has the objective of advancing to seize Deraa and reach Kuneitra.

None of these objectives are considered especially difficult to achieve by commanding General Henry Maitland Wilson. This is one of the least-known major operations of World War II, perhaps because it is an unprovoked act of aggression by Allied forces against a neutral power which tends to undermine their moral authority - though, let's be clear, the Allies have loads of surplus moral authority relative to the Axis.

European Air Operations: RAF Fighter Command conducts a sweep over France, and RAF Bomber Command sends 22 planes to lay mines. After dark, RAF Bomber Command sends 33 planes to attack Prinz Eugen, recently arrived at Brest. It is in dry-dock for engine repairs and an easy target, but the bombers score no hits.

Vera Bushfield, the wife of Governor Harlan Bushfield of South Dakota, christens the ship at the New York Shipbuilding Corporation at Camden, New Jersey (South Dakota State Historical Society Archives).

U-38 (Kptlt. Heinrich Liebe), on its 9th patrol out of Lorient and operating off of the west coast of Africa, torpedoes and sinks 7628-ton British freighter Kingston Hill southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. There are 14 deaths. Some sources place this sinking on 8 June.

The Royal Navy shares the lingering concern about an invasion, and at 20:00 it receives erroneous reports of major German naval units at sea. The Home Fleet goes on one-hour notice, which is peak readiness one step short of actually going to sea, and remains on this alert through the night.

British 281-ton examination vessel No. 10 hits a mine and sinks at Milford Haven.

Newly commissioned destroyer HMCS Saguenay arrives at St. John's to join the new Newfoundland Escort Force (NEF).

Canadian corvettes HMCS Ville de Quebec (Quebec City) and HMCS Charlottetown (Kingston) are laid down, minesweeper Melville is launched at Levis, Quebec.

Battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57) is launched at Camden, New Jersey by the New York Shipbuilding Corporation. It is the lead ship of its class, with three more to follow, and is designed to fit within the limitations of the Washington Naval Treaty.

U-85, U-207 and U-332 are commissioned.

Soviet submarine Shchuka Class Serie X Bis Sub SHCH-405 is commissioned.

USS South Dakota is launched, 7 June 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: During the night, the Luftwaffe makes a major raid on the Royal Navy port of Alexandria, and also Suez. Flying from the Italian-held Rhodes, 31 Junkers Ju 88 bombers cause 230 deaths. Following the raid, the British authorities commence an evacuation from Alexandria that will include about 40,000 people. This aerial attack likely is a by-product of the massive shift of the Luftwaffe from west to east in contemplation of Operation Barbarossa. The Germans are accumulating about 2770 planes in Eastern Europe, and an occasional raid on British bases in the Mediterranean is good operational practice.

Italian bombers attack Tobruk.

The RAF, for its part, bombs Benghazi and Derna. RAF No. 830 Squadron, serving with the Fleet Air Arm on Malta, sends 7 Fulmar Swordfish against Tripoli Harbor to drop magnetic mines ("cucumbers").

An Italian convoy of three freighters escorted by destroyers Frescia, Strale, Marco Polo and Victoria depart from Naples bound for Tripoli. There also is distant support of two cruisers and three destroyers. While the Italian Navy has the resources to make an impact across the Mediterranean, it prefers to use its ships in these low-risk operations and retain its "fleet in being."

The ships of Operation Rocket - the ferry mission of Hawker Hurricanes to Malta - arrive back at Gibraltar without incident.

Operation Battleaxe, originally scheduled to begin today, has been pushed back to 15 June. The reason: delays in bringing tanks forward from Alexandria to General O'Moore Creagh's troops. The attack is to be a larger-scale version of Operation Brevity on 15 May.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill sends a message to Malta Governor Dobbie in reply to a pessimistic cable sent by the latter on the 5th:

I am entirely in agreement with your general outlook. It does not seem that an attack on Malta is likely within the next two or three weeks.  Meanwhile other events of importance will be decided, enabling or compelling a new view to be taken. You may be sure we regard Malta as one of the master-keys of the British Empire. We are sure you are the man to hold it and we will do everything in human power to give you the means.

The War Office also responds today to General Dobbie's request for more troops. It requests "further details" for defensive armaments. Dobbie responds immediately, listing a need for Bofors guns and anti-tank artillery.

There is an air raid on Malta during the early morning hours by Italian BR-20 bombers. The Italians bomb the Luqa, Manoel Island, Marsa, and Wardia areas, and in the process lose a bomber and perhaps two more at sea.

Students participating in a live national radio broadcast at the 1941 National High School Drama Conference of the National Thespian Dramatic Honor Society for High Schools. June 7, 1941. (Courtesy of the Educational Theatre Association).

Special Operations: Having arrived by parachute in France on the night of 11/12 May, the Commando team members of Operation Josephine B have spent most of the past month in Paris. There, they made contact with a Commando who had gone to ground there, Joël Letac, a member of the Commando team from failed Operation Savanna. Joining the team, Letac and the others have traveled to the site of their original objective: the transformer station at Pessac.

After dark, Sergeant J. Forman climbs the perimeter wall that had stymied their first attempt to blow up the station in May. He manages to get across without hitting any of the high voltage cables, then opens a door for his comrades. The team sets up plastic explosives within half an hour on each of the eight main transformers. Then, the team gets back on their bicycles and leaves. The mission turns from a failure into a success: six of the eight transformers blow up, and work on the Bordeaux submarine base is delayed by weeks. Electrified trains in the region have to be replaced with coal-burning locomotives. It will take an entire year to repair all the damage.

Damage at the Pessac Power station, 7 June 1941.

The team is well-funded - they have a quarter of a million francs for their mission, which converts to about a year's wages of £1,400 - and set out for Spain and thence Lisbon. They are in no hurry.

The Germans in the commune of Pessac take reprisals. They shoot twelve German guards, fine the commune one million francs, imprison 250 people, and impose a strict curfew (21:30 to 05:00).

For the British, it is a massive success and enhances the prestige of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) after some failures.

The US Asiatic Fleet in Manila Harbor, the 1930s. The Japanese began keeping close tabs on this fleet in early 1941.

Spy Stuff: Japanese Consul in the Philippine Islands Katsumi Nibro cables Tokyo that the US Navy has eight destroyers, fourteen submarines and two target towing ships in Manila Harbor.

Jockey Eddie Arcaro aboard Whirlaway at the Belmont Stakes, 7 June 1941. Whirlaway becomes the fifth horse to win the Triple Crown. According to a report in the Pittsburgh Press, Arcaro took an early lead and then turned back and yelled, "Go to Hell! We're off to the races!"

Japanese/Italian Relations: Japan recognizes the Independent State of Croatia, now led nominally by the Duke of Savoy. In actual fact, the Duke takes virtually no part in governance and leaves it to local leaders.

German/Bulgarian Relations: Hitler meets with King Boris of Bulgaria in Berlin.

German Military: In preparation for Operation Barbarossa, long columns of Wehrmacht troops are heading east in Poland. This is very noticeable to locals because the military vehicles clog the roads and all civilian vehicles are prohibited for hours at a time. Full vehicles are traveling east, empty ones back to the west. Of course, civilians see the military traffic on the roads, and it is fairly obvious to them what is in store. A local, Polish physician Zygmunt Klukowski, writes in his diary that it "is the same as during a war."

USS South Dakota at its Christening, 7 June 1941.

Soviet Military: The NKVD arrest General Boris Lvovich Vannikov for "failing to carry out his duties." Vannikov is the People's Commissar for Armament. It is unclear what he is really accused of, and it may, in fact, be nothing more than having unintentionally crossed Premier Joseph Stalin in some way (Stalin has a habit of arresting and torturing underlings, then at some point reinstating them). Vannikov will be released on 25 July 1941 and reinstated fully to essentially the same position in February 1942.

Despite increasing evidence of German troop buildups along the border, Stalin prohibits any "provocative" defensive precautions. Everything is to remain as is, with the Soviet Union continuing to fulfill its trade agreements with Germany and sending supply trains west across the border.

Former President Herbert Hoover, giving the Commencement address to the graduating class at Haverford College, 7 June 1941.

US Military: President Roosevelt reviews the two plans for the defense of the Pacific, ABC-1 and Rainbow 5, that have been worked up during the spring. The plans envisage cooperation with the British Commonwealth and the Dutch forces in the East Indies, with a heavy emphasis on defensive activities in the Pacific Theater while the main effort is against the Reich and Italy in Europe. Roosevelt neither approves nor disapproves of the plans, but familiarizes himself with them and suggests they be returned to him should war actually break out.

The US Maritime Commission is implementing the new ship-seizure law signed by President Roosevelt on 5 June. The inventory includes 39 Danish, 28 Italian and 2 German ships, along with random ships from Estonia, Lithuania, Romania, and other nations. The fast (Blue-Riband holder) 83,423-ton French liner Normandie remains docked at its berth in midtown New York and also is subject to seizure, but there are no plans at this time to use it.

US Government: President Roosevelt departs the White House at 11:30 for Annapolis and embarks on a weekend cruise on the USS Potomac. He is accompanied by Crown Princess Martha of Norway, Princess Ragnhild, Harry L. Hopkins, Robert Hopkins, Diana Hopkins, Capt. John R. Beardall.

Joe DiMaggio at the plate in Sportsman Park, St Louis, MO, June 7, 1941. Also visible is Hall of Fame catcher Rick Ferrell and umpire Bill Grieve, with Yankee Charlie Keller on deck to the left.

Iraq: The reinstated Monarchist Iraqi government under Regent Abdul Ilah (Abdullah) sets up a Committee of Enquiry to investigate the Farhud riots of 1-2 June.

Holocaust: There is an outbreak of typhoid at Zamość Prison in southeastern Poland. Unfortunately, the local doctors are inmates in the prison, too.

Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King places a wreath during an event in Kingston, Ontario, on June 7, 1941. This is to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Canada's first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald (Queens University Archives).

American Homefront: Former President Herbert Hoover gives the Commencement address at Haverford College. The CBS radio network broadcasts it. Hoover notes:

We have been told with monotonous repetition by the collectivists and left-wingers that our frontiers are gone. They say our industrial plant is built. They claim there is no safety valve for human energies. They assure us that we have come to an age of humdrum problems of underconsumption, overproduction, and the division of the existing pot. They say that new opportunity for youth has shrunken. That is not so. There was never in history a more glorious frontier for youth than today. Adventure and opportunity beckon in every avenue of science. They beckon from the great profession of men trained to research. They beckon from its thousands of applications. From it spring tens of thousands of new services and industries. In them human courage, character, and ability have an outlet that never came even with the two-gun frontiers.

Meanwhile, 24,000 people pack Chicago Stadium to hear speeches against the America First movement. Abraham Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg calls Charles Lindbergh President Roosevelt's new "Copperhead," a Civil War term for Democrats in the North who choose to oppose the war and advocate a negotiated settlement with the South.

Whirlaway wins the Belmont Stakes by three lengths and completes the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. It is the fifth horse to accomplish that rare feat.

Golfer Craig Wood wins the U.S. Open.

Joe DiMaggio hits in his 22nd straight game in Sportsman Park, St. Louis, Missouri. He gets three singles in an 11-7 win over the Browns.

"My Sister and I" by Jimmy Dorsey and his Orchestra reach No. 1 on the new Billboard singles chart.

The UAW strike at the North American plant in Los Angeles that began on 5 June continues. President Roosevelt is considering exercising emergency powers by taking over the plant unless the strike ends.

The New Yorker - Saturday, June 7, 1941 - Issue # 851 - Vol. 17 - N° 17 - Cover by Ilonka Karasz.

June 1941

June 1, 1941: Farhud Pogrom
June 2, 1941: Massacres on Crete
June 3, 1941: Kandanos Massacre
June 4, 1941: Kaiser Wilhelm Passes Away
June 5, 1941: Death in Chungking
June 6, 1941: Hitler's Commissar Order
June 7, 1941: Commandos Strike at Pessac
June 8, 1941: British Invade Syria and Lebanon
June 9, 1941: Litani River Battle
June 10, 1941: British Take Assab
June 11, 1941: Hitler Thinking Beyond Russia
June 12, 1941: St. James Agreement
June 13, 1941: Lützow Damaged
June 14, 1941: Latvian June Deportations
June 15, 1941: Operation Battleaxe
June 16, 1941: The Old Lion
June 17, 1941: British Spanked in North Africa
June 18, 1941: Turkey Turns Its Back
June 19, 1941: Cheerios Introduced
June 20, 1941: Birth of US Army Air Force
June 21, 1941: Damascus Falls
June 22, 1941: Germany Invades Russia
June 23, 1941: A Soviet KV Tank Causes Havoc
June 24, 1941: Kaunas and Vilnius Fall
June 25, 1941: Finland Declares War
June 26, 1941: Bombing of Kassa
June 27, 1941: Encirclement At Minsk
June 28, 1941: Minsk Falls
June 29, 1941: Brest Fortress Falls
June 30, 1941: Mölders Becomes Top Ace

2020

Sunday 11 May 1941

Ludgate Circus, London, 11 May 1941.

The Rudolf Hess mission to England in May 1941, as discussed below, is one of the most controversial and debated incidents of World War II. There are few "absolute" answers to the myriad questions raised. The official story is that Hess went insane, flew to Scotland, and was locked up by the British for the rest of his life. Everything else is subject to contrasting stories deriving from different sources of varying reliability. How far you are willing to veer from the official line depends upon how much credence you are willing to give to unofficial sources, and every deviation must be taken with a degree of educated skepticism.

Hitler Youth celebrating the Hour of Commemoration in front of the Town Hall in Tomaszow, occupied Poland, 11 May 1941 (US National Archives ARC 540131).

Anglo/Iraq War: The Arab Legion arrives at Rutbah Fort on 11 May 1941 and patrols show that the Arabs have abandoned the position. The British thus take possession without a fight. The Iraqis, however, remain nearby, and the British armored cars engage in firefights with them throughout the day. The commander of Kingcol, one of the main columns, arrives at Fort Rutbah and makes it his headquarters.

Fritz Grobba, the German representative to Baghdad, arrives there via Syria. The Luftwaffe liaison officer to Rashid Ali, Major Axel von Blomberg, though, is killed by mistake while trying to land at Baghdad when Arab tribesmen open fire on his transport.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe continues its latest reversion to previous failed bombing strategies, sending large aerial forces against RAF airfields during the night. The damage caused is insignificant because many of the airfields are dummies marked out precisely for this purpose. If there is one common characteristic of Luftwaffe bombing strategies to this point, it is their abandonment right when it appears they are making a real impact in favor of another, completely different strategy.

London remains barely functional following the massive air raid of 10 May. The House of Commons chamber is badly damaged, so the Members of Parliament now meet in the House of Lords. Streets are clogged with debris, some 150,000 London residents are without basic utilities, the main railway sheds such as Victoria Station are all damaged, and 5,000 homes are destroyed. Fires remain unextinguished, and incendiary bombs lie in many streets and parks. The mayors of Westminster and Bermondsey are dead, the city has the pungent aroma of the burning Palmolive soap factory west of downtown. The Paul Delaroche painting "Charles I Insulted by Cromwell's Soldiers" is presumed lost in the fires, but in fact is rolled up in a secure location and in perfect condition (this happenstance is not realized, though, until 2009).

Berlin radio reads the following communique from the OKW:

Over the last few nights the British air force has once again deliberately bombed the residential districts of German cities, including the German capital. In retaliation, strong German Luftwaffe forces carried out a major assault on London last night. Ground visibility was good and the British capital was bombed throughout the night by relay waves that dropped high-explosive bombs of all calibres and tens of thousands of incendiary bombs.

During the Luftwaffe operations over London, Royal Navy 261 ton auxiliary petrol base ship Gypsy sinks at Tower Pier. The Luftwaffe loses six Heinkel He 111 bombers from KG 55.

RAF Bomber Command, meanwhile, sends 92 aircraft to bomb Hamburg and 81 to attack Bremen.

The new Bf 109F is beginning to make more appearances over England, and today one is shot down.

The lobby of the House of Commons following the bombing of 10/11 May 1941.

East African Campaign: The South African 1st Brigade reaches Amba Alagi after a long march from Addis Ababa. This completes the encirclement of the Italian positions, though they have established a typically strong perimeter defense based on mountain-based machine guns with clear fields of fire.

The Gold Coast 24th Infantry Brigade continues advancing westward from Wadara toward Wondo in Galla-Sidamo, supporting the East African 21st Infantry Brigade.

British freighter City of Shanghai, sunk 11 May 1941 by U-103.

Battle of the Atlantic: After a 16-hour chase because his prey spotted his U-boat and tried to flee, Viktor Schütze in U-103 finally closes on the freighter City of Shanghai (Master Arthur Frank Goring) off St. Paul Rocks near Freetown. Taking the whole incident as a sort of challenge, Schütze writes in the U-boat's log:

Nun muss er fallen, wenn ich auch nur einen Aal im Rohr habe (Now he must fall, even if I have only one torpedo in my tube).

Using his last torpedo, Schütze hits the freighter and disables it, then surfaces and completes the destruction using his 105-mm deck gun. There are 6-8 deaths and 68 survivors.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 8790-ton British freighter Somerset in the Northwest Approaches. Everyone survives.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 4970-ton British freighter Caithness in St. George's Channel off Porthgain. The ship is able to make it to Belfast.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages three small ships at Brixham: 58-ton tug Dencade, 40-ton fishing trawler Silver Lining and 49-ton Belgian trawler Hernieuwen In Christus.

Convoy OB 321 departs from Liverpool.

The Royal Navy transfers a corvette to the Free French, and it is recommissioned as FFL Mimosa (Lt. Commander Roger R. L. Birot).

German troops using caiques to occupy the Aegean islands, May 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The Wehrmacht completes its low-key occupation of the Aegean islands, taking Kythera. These islands are of little strategic value to anyone and will become a pointless sideshow for the remainder of the war as both sides take and lose them over and over. Many soldiers on both sides will spend a lot of time whiling away the hours in beautiful surroundings while great events take place elsewhere.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Truant fails to return to Malta today as scheduled, and never will. Her fate is unknown, with one theory being that an Italian torpedo boat Pegaso sank it on 12 May.

Five Royal Navy destroyers bombard Benghazi Harbour as part of the Tiger Convoy operations.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual lays mines in the Gulf of Salonika.

Special Operations: The Free French and the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) launch Operation Josephine B (or Operation Josephine) when a sabotage team composed of six Polish volunteers parachutes into Occupied France during the night. The objective is a transformer station at Pessac, near Bordeaux. The team quickly finds that the station is heavily guarded and request to be picked up by a submarine.

"Members of the London Fire Brigade train their hoses on burning buildings in Queen Victoria Street, EC4, after the last and heaviest major raid mounted on the capital during the 'Blitz', 11 May 1941. For six hours on the night of 10-11 May 1941, aircraft of the Luftwaffe dropped over 1,000 tons of bombs on London, claiming 1,486 lives, destroying 11,000 houses and damaging some of the most important historical buildings, including the Houses of Parliament, the British Museum and St James Palace. The low tide and more than 40 fractured mains deprived the firefighters of water and many of the 2,000 fires blazed out of control." (© IWM (HU 1129)).

Anglo/German Relations: Having spent his night in a Scottish military hospital following his bizarre flight to Great Britain on the 10th, Rudolf Hess sleeps late and then is ready to discuss - something. British intelligence service spy Ivone Kirkpatrick flies up to visit Hess, who seems a bit confused about who he is actually dealing with. Hess tells Kirkpatrick that he has come to talk peace and spells out his proposal, and it is all taken down by a stenographer. Kirkpatrick is somewhat bemused by Hess' attitude, which is that of a victor making a generous offer. Whether Hess actually is communicating an offer from Hitler is debatable, although Hess is clear that he is an unofficial official emissary.

The "Hess Peace Plan," if it can be called that, is murky. Apparently, in essence, Hess offers an armistice wherein the Germans will evacuate all of France except for its traditional territories of Alsace and Lorraine. In addition, Germany would relinquish Holland, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark, while keeping Luxembourg. Furthermore, Germany under the right circumstances would agree to give up Yugoslavia and Greece and, apparently, North Africa. Everything depends on neutrality by Great Britain that is "benevolent."

It is unclear how specific Hess is about Hitler's plans in the East, but there seems little question that at the very least he drops very broad hints that the Soviet Union is Hitler's real military objective. Hess is very clear that Hitler wants peace in the West and will go to great lengths to achieve it so that the Reich can turn on the USSR. There is a sense that Hess (and presumably Hitler) want to turn the entire war into a crusade against Soviet communism, something that the Japanese also are hinting at in their secret negotiations with the Americans. Kirkpatrick nods and takes notes throughout the day, as Hess proves to be quite talkative, but Kirkpatrick is not a dealmaker and is simply there to get information.

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, staying at his country home at Ditchley near Oxford, is not interested enough in Hess to even interrupt a special screening of the latest Marx Brothers film. However, he does ask the Duke of Hamilton to report in person.

Dutch SS march in Utrecht, Netherlands, 11 May 1941.

Anglo/Canadian Relations: Churchill cables Canadian leader William Mackenzie King and arranges a conference "about July or August for a month or six weeks." He notes that Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, with whom King just met, is a "staunch comrade."

US/Japanese Relations: Ambassador Nomura and US Secretary of State Cordell Hull engage in private diplomacy, spending 40 minutes together. Hull states (as reported to Tokyo by Nomura):

As we are now conducting talks and negotiations, I have been exercising a great deal of secrecy in regard to them and have absolutely made no reference to them in my press conferences. Knowing Your Excellency's discreetness and astuteness you likewise, I am sure, are carefully guarding its secrecy.

Tokyo emphasizes that "It goes without saying that this matter should be handled in absolute secrecy."

Hull demands that Japan evacuate China, and Nomura indicates that Japan does expect to do so "with the exception of those troops stationed in North China and Inner Mongolia who are there to suppress Communism." Hull asks if Japan intends to strike to the south, and Nomura replies that "Our true intent is peaceful Southward penetration."

Regarding the war in Europe, both Nomura and Hull agree that a long European war would be ruinous for everyone. The true threat, they agree, is a war that saps the energies of the non-Communist states that allows the Soviet Union to expand.

Bethnal Green Road, London, looking west, after the raid of 10/11 May 1941.

German/Vichy French Relations: Vichy Vice-Premier François Darlan meets with Hitler at Berchtesgaden. The two reach an agreement (after much bluster and threats by Hitler) whereby Hitler will release French World War I veterans from POW camps in exchange for German transit rights in Vichy Syria. Of more lasting importance, Darlan agrees to cooperate in allowing German supplies to pass trough French Tunisia.

The timing of the agreement is fortuitous because the limits of German and French cooperation are tested during the day when 3 Bf-110's from No. 4 Squadron, 76 Destroyer Wing fly over French-occupied Syria. The French send up two Morane 406 fighter planes of 7 Squadron, 1st Fighter Group (GCI/7) to intercept them. The Luftwaffe planes land at Palmyra. The Germans have a much larger force on the way from Greece and expect to use Syrian airfields as a transit point to Iraq, but apparently, local Vichy French commanders have not been specifically told to allow Germany transit rights yet.

German Government: Hess' adjutant who had accompanied him to the airfield, Karlheinz Pintsch, acts upon Hess' final instructions and carries Hess' special letter addressed to Hitler to the Berghof, where the Fuehrer is enjoying a holiday. Accounts differ on exactly how Hitler responds, and the generally accepted view is that Hitler is shocked and immediately orders German state media to disavow Hess and claim that he has gone mad.

However, according to Pintsch's own account written in February 1948 (discovered in the 21st Century in the State Archive of the Russian Federation by German historian Matthias Uhl of the German Historical Institute Moscow), Hitler is not surprised at all when he reads the letter. In the account, Pintsch writes, "Hitler calmly listened to my report and dismissed me without comment." Pintsch also writes that the flight had been arranged in advance by Hitler with the British, a view supported by the presence at the Duke of Hamilton's airfield of secret service agents awaiting Hess.

Hitler's butler, Heinz Linge, also states (also after the war) that Hitler's "behavior told me that not only did he know about [the flight] in advance, but that [Hitler] probably even sent Hess to England." This interpretation of Hitler's reaction was echoed by two others at the Obersalzberg that day, Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, the head of the NSDAP's foreign organization, and Hermann Göring's liaison Karl Heinrich Bodenschatz.

In any event, Berlin Radio puts out the "Hess is insane" line throughout this and succeeding days.

China: The Japanese North China Front Army remains on the offensive, capturing Wufuchien and attacking Tungfeng.

Meanwhile, the Japanese puppet government of Ching-Wei attacks the Nationalist forces along the lower Yangtze River.

There is considerable tension between the Kuomintang and Communist Chinese forces. Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek meet at the latter's capital, Chungking, to clear the air.

American Homefront: Former President Herbert Hoover gives a radio address entitled "We Are Not Prepared For War: We Can Help England Better By Staying Out." Hoover states that "I do not need to express again my abhorrence of the whole totalitarian movement or its dangers to the world." He warns, though, that "We are not prepared to go to war," and notes that "we are a divided people." By staying out of the war, the US "can take more risks in parting with our tools of war." More ominously, he warns of "the sacrifice also of our own liberty to a dictatorship of our own, inevitable in total war." In sum, Hoover advocates retaining United States liberty by having the British fight Germany to defend it while using US war material.

Future History: Eric Burdon is born in Newcastle upon Tyne. Burdon will become a renowned singer/songwriter best known for his work with The Animals in the 1960s. The Animals' biggest hit is "The House of the Rising Sun," and they are key component of the British Invasion of the 1964-68 era.

Frederick Russell Burnham, the "Father of Scouting," on his eightieth birthday being honored by the Boy Scouts of America in Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico, 11 May 1941 (Martha Burnham Burleigh).

May 1941

May 1, 1941: British Hold Tobruk
May 2, 1941: Anglo-Iraq War
May 3, 1941: Liverpool Hammered
May 4, 1941: Hitler Victory Speech
May 5, 1941: Patriots Day
May 6, 1941: Stalin In Command
May 7, 1941: May Blitz
May 8, 1941: Pinguin Sunk
May 9, 1941: U-110 Captured
May 10, 1941: Hess Flies Into History
May 11, 1941: The Hess Peace Plan
May 12, 1941: Tiger Arrives Safely
May 13, 1941: Keitel's Illegal Order
May 14, 1941: Holocaust in Paris
May 15, 1941: Operation Brevity
May 16, 1941: Blitz Ends
May 17, 1941: Habbaniya Relieved
May 18, 1941: Croatia Partitioned
May 19, 1941: Bismarck at Sea
May 20, 1941: Invasion of Crete
May 21, 1941: Robin Moore Sinking
May 22, 1941: Royal Navy Destruction Off Crete
May 23, 1941: Crete Must Be Won
May 24, 1941: Bismarck Sinks Hood
May 25, 1941: Lütjens' Brilliant Maneuver
May 26, 1941: Bismarck Stopped
May 27, 1941: Bismarck Sunk
May 28, 1941: Crete Lost
May 29, 1941: Royal Navy Mauled Off Crete
May 30, 1941: Sorge Warns, Stalin Ignores
May 31, 1941: British Take Baghdad

2020