27 May 1939

May 27th, 1939

U.S.A.: Lieutenant Colonel Alfred A. Cunningham, first U.S. Marine Corps aviator, died at his home in Sarasota, Florida. He reported for flight training at Annapolis, Maryland, on 22 May 1912, a day now celebrated as the birthday of United States' Marine Corps aviation; and in a relatively short aviation career, served with distinction in many capacities. During World War I, he organized and commanded the first United States Marine aviation unit, was among those proposing operations later assigned to the Northern Bombing Group and was commanding officer of its Day Wing. In the post-war period, he served as the first administrative head of United States Marine Corps aviation and then commanded the 1st Air Squadron in Santo Domingo.

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Yesterday Tomorrow

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27 May 1940

Yesterday Tomorrow

May 27th, 1940

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - Dortmund, Duisburg, Dusseldorf and Cologne.
10 Sqn. Eleven aircraft. Ten bombed. One enemy aircraft claimed destroyed by tail gunner. One bombed Bassingbourn in error.
51 Sqn. Nine aircraft. Eight bombed, one attacked by enemy aircraft but evaded undamaged.
58 Sqn. Five aircraft, all bombed. One damaged by Flak. 77 Sqn. Nine aircraft. One returned early U/S, eight bombed. 102 Sqn. Two aircraft. One returned early U/S, one bombed.

[The 11th crew from 10 Sqn, failed to find their primary target and bombed what was thought to be an airfield in Holland. This was not the case. After carrying out their bomb-run they set course for home, but after flying for some time, and when the Dutch coast failed to show up, it was thought that something was amiss. This was confirmed when W/T bearings indicated that the aircraft was over England and flying on a westerly course. With the aid of further W/T assistance they were able to scramble back to base. A re-plot of the sortie was instigated and the unfortunate conclusion was reached that the airfield they had bombed must have been British! This was confirmed when communications with Air Ministry revealed that the RAF airfield at Bassingbourn, near Cambridge had been attacked at the same time the No. 10 Squadron crew presumed they were bombing an enemy airfield. Luckily there had been no casualties and only slight damage at Bassingbourn. Subsequently the story got around that one of the bombs had hit the W/T rest hut at the side of the airfield, passing through one wall, over the top of a sleeping airman and out the over side before exploding. The said airman then woke up!

Repercussions followed. The unfortunate skipper was demoted to second pilot and he and his crew subjected to much leg-pulling by the other crews. This included the dropping of a home-made 'Iron Cross' constructed from a tea-chest lid and some brown coloured cloth, by one of the other 4 Group squadrons. It was addressed to 'Herr von (name withheld) from a grateful Führer.'

During subsequent investigation it was discovered that the magnetic compass had been rendered U/S when the aircraft had flown through an electrical storm after crossing the English Channel on its outbound flight.]

London: Dill takes over from Ironside as Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

The butter ration is cut back to four ounces per person per week.

FRANCE: German panzers attack near Lille trying to cut the route to Dunkirk. The French 1st Army conducts a valiant defence which enables many to continue to retreat..

Calais falls to the German army, which now surrounds the Allies at Dunkirk; only 8,000 men are evacuated today.

La Paradis: A farm outside this sleepy village was a scene of horror this afternoon when the SS wiped out a company of the Royal Norfolk Regiment left behind in the rush for Dunkirk.

Surrounded by Germans and cut off in a cowshed, Major Lisle Ryder opted to surrender with his 80 men. The SS unit (4th Company, I. Battalion, 2nd [TK] Inf. Rgt. of the SS-Totenkopf Division) led by 'SS-Obstf. [section commander], Fritz Knoechlein (CO of 3.Kompanie), marched them into a barn. Machine-guns set up opposite the long, low wall opened fire on the column of soldiers; many were killed instantly. At a signal, the firing stopped and the Germans moved in on the pile of bodies, finishing the job with bayonets and pistols. Incredibly, Albert Pooley and William O’Callaghan survived, though seriously injured. More....

Abbeville: 7 Army (French) had been ordered to destroy the Somme bridgeheads. Today General Grandsard makes a determined attack on the bridgehead at Amiens with 7 and 4 Colonial Infantry Divisions. After sustaining heavy losses, an enemy counter-attack forced them back to the forming up point.

Opposite Abbeville, the enemy in the villages and woods south of the Somme are disposed in three lines, as far as Huppy, Bailleul and Bray.

Destroyers HMCS Restigouche, Skeena and St Laurent were engaged in Operation DYNAMO, the Dunkirk evacuation.

HMS Grafton ferried 860 men to Dover and returned the following day to pick up another 800. On passage back to England, Grafton stopped to assist with the rescue of survivors from another destroyer that had been sunk, but whilst doing so was herself torpedoed by a U-Boat. Despite being packed with troops, Only 4 people were killed and other vessels took on the remaining troops and ship's company. Grafton was scuttled by gunfire. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-379 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

NORWAY: The first assault wave of Legionnaires and Norwegians embarked well inside Herjangs Fjord, which was concealed from Narvik by high ground behind the town of Oyjord. While every available warship pounded the Narvik-Ankenes area, the first wave swept into and across Rombakken Fjord. Legionnaires poured ashore and cleared a beachhead. The Norwegians passed through them and started up the beaches behind Narvik. A second wave began mustering at Oyjord to cross the fjord. Hurricanes and Gladiators swept overhead providing local air superiority. By 3:30 a.m., 1,250 men were ashore.

A German gunner got the range of the second assault wave and began slamming shells into the boats. The embarkation point had to be shifted back to Herjangs Fjord, and the undertaking threw the attack off schedule. Then a sea fog began rolling in over the airfield at Bardufoss. Planes on the ground could not take off; those in the air had to hurriedly return while they still had a place to land. At this point the Luftwaffe arrived in force to harry the British warships westward down Ofot Fjord. German infantry, which had been hidden in a crease in the bluff above the bridgehead, came down the slope throwing hand grenades. They pushed the Norwegians into the Legionnaires, and drove both groups back onto the beach.

Lieut. Commander S. H. Balfour, serving as Naval liaison officer to the French, lost his signal lamps and was unable to call for naval gunfire support. Resourcefully, he commandeered a beached landing craft and went after the dodging British ships, finally reaching the destroyer ‘Beagle’. Coming about amid Luftwaffe attacks, the Beagle ran in close to the beach, firing at short range. The Germans returned toward their ridge, rallying on the high ground behind Narvik until their comrades in the town could withdraw.

Driving at Ankenes, the Poles lost both of their tanks to mines, but broke through. Beyond Ankenes, a German counterattack caught them in the flank and threw them back. Rallying, they found the enemy withdrawing and managed to sink the last boatload of Germans escaping across Narvik harbour. The day ends with rear-guard fighting as the Germans extricate themselves, keeping their front intact.

The Poles and the Legionnaires link up at the head of Beis Fjord in the evening, then push the Germans back. At 5 p.m. the Allies enter Narvik, General Bethouart putting the Norwegians who had fought with him at the head of the column.

HMS Glorious remains off Narvik. HMS Ark Royal remains at Greenock loading stores and ammunition. (Mark Horan)

CANADA:

Corvette HMCS Galt laid down Collingwood, Ontario.

Patrol vessels HMCS Caribou (ex-yacht Elfreda), Reindeer (ex-yacht Mascotte) and Renard (ex-yacht Winchester) commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The Secretary of the Navy directed that six Fletcher-Class destroyers be equipped with catapult, plane, and plane handling equipment. The destroyers Hutchins (DD-476), Pringle (DD-477), Stanly (DD-478), Stevens (DD-479), Halford (DD-480), and Leutze (DD-481), were selected subsequently. Shortcomings in the plane hoisting gear led to removal of the aviation equipment from the first three ships prior to their joining the fleet in early 1943. In October 1943, after limited aircraft operations by USS Stevens and USS Halford, aviation equipment was ordered removed from them and plans for its installation on Leutze were cancelled. (Jack McKillop)

Roosevelt declares a full emergency following the sinking of the SS Robin Moor. (Gordon Rottman)

AA cruiser USS Juneau laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1551, the unescorted Sheaf Mead was hit in the stern by one torpedo from U-37 and sank capsizing after a boiler explosion at 1554 about 180 miles from Cape Finisterre. The Germans tried questioning the survivors on a raft, but they did not answer the questions. The master, 30 crewmembers and one gunner were lost. Five crewmembers were picked up by Frangoula B. Goulandris and landed at Queenstown, Cork on 31 May.

SS Uruguay sunk by U-37. (Dave Shirlaw)

27 May 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: The first catapult equipped merchantman, the steamship 'Michael E' puts to sea, with its complement of two Hurricanes. It is later sunk by torpedo.

FRANCE: Paris: The Vichy vice-premier, Admiral darlan, signs the "Paris Protocols", giving Germany access to Syrian and Lebanese military facilities and naval bases at Tunis and Dakar.

GREECE: CRETE: The Allied commander General Freyberg receives orders to evacuate the island.

The town of Chania falls.

As HMS Barham covers a supply mission, she is damaged by air attack to the northwest of Alexandria. Canea and Suda fall to the Germans.

EGYPT: Rommel recaptures the Halfaya Pass from British troops who have held the Pass for the last two weeks. He sent in three battle groups. The Coldstream Guards lost 100 men.

U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt today warned America of Nazi designs on the Americas. He promised to extend US patrols in the Atlantic to protect the sea-lanes to Britain, and announced that he had proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency." requiring that its military, naval, air and civilian defenses be put on the basis of readiness to repel any and all acts or threats of aggression directed toward any part of the Western Hemisphere. the US was rearming only for self-defence, he said.
(Jack McKillop)

He also declares that labour and capital must defer to government mediation processes "without stoppage of work."

Joseph Grew, US Ambassador to Japan, writes Hull to advise that war was inevitable if the diplomatic talks between the US and Japan broke down. (Marc Small)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The Bismarck is sunk by ships and planes of the Royal Navy with the loss of some 2300 lives and 110 survivors. The loss of this ship will be debated. The Germans maintain the scuttled, the British of course maintain the BISMARK was sunk. (Ray Cresswell)

King George V, Rodney and BISMARK all open fire around 08.45. Only the German ship is hit and by 10.15 she is a blazing wreck, after being pounded with 16-inch and 14-inch guns from ever-decreasing range. BISMARK still remained afloat thanks to her honeycomb pattern of watertight compartments which her designers claimed made her unsinkable. The big ships were running out of fuel and were ordered home. Heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, having left convoy SL74 the previous day, fires torpedoes to finish her off, but the BISMARK's captain has already ordered her to be scuttled. BISMARK sinks at 10.35 to the southwest of Ireland, the 2,200 men who died included Admiral Lutjens and her captain, Ernst Lindemann. HMS Norfolk is there at the end. The Dorsetshire and other British ships stood by to pick up survivors - but made off when told a U-boat was in the vicinity. 110 of the BISMARK's crew survived.

HMCS St Clair (ex USS Williams) and HMS Mashona attacked by 5 German bombers, west of Galway Bay, Ireland. Mashona capsized and sunk, survivors picked up by St Clair. (Tom Carlson)

At 0101, the Colonial, dispersed from Convoy OB-318, was hit by one torpedo from U-107 and sank after a coup de grâce at 0146 about 200 miles WNW of Freetown. The master, the convoy commodore (Rear Admiral W.B. Mackenzie RN), 88 crewmembers, six naval staff members and four gunners were picked up by target ship (ex-battleship) HMS Centurion and landed at Freetown. (DS)

27 May 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: ASW trawler HMS Arctic Pioneer sank after collision with battleship HMS King George V off Portsmouth.

Minesweeper HMS Parrsborough commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Cadmus launched.

Destroyer HMS Myngs laid down.

HMC ML 079 and ML 082 commissioned.

Corvette KNM Montbretia (ex-HMS Montbretia) launched.

Corvette HMS Vetch launched.

ASW trawler HMS Coverley launched.

Rescue tug HMS Frisky launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: U-631 and U-632 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: The dark-green Mercedes failed to appear at the usual time, and the four men waiting at the tram stop at the bottom of Kirchmayerstrasse began to worry. Trams came and went, collecting and setting down passengers. Time dragged by. At last look-outs, Josef Valcik and Adolf Opalka, gave the signal.

Jan Kubis and Josef Gabcik were at the corner, when the Mercedes appeared. Gabcik whipped a Sten gun from beneath his raincoat and aimed at the man in the front passenger seat: SS Obergruppenführer Reinhardt Heydrich, the deputy Reich "protector" of Bohemia and Moravia, also known as the "butcher of Prague". The gun jammed; as the car went past, Kubis hurled a grenade.

It blew a huge hole in the bodywork. Heydrich and the driver climbed out. The four Czech resistance fighters, parachuted in from Britain for the assassination attempt, fled. Heydrich was now holding his back and staggering, clearly in great pain. Taken to hospital, he was found to have a bomb splinter in his spleen, a broken rib and pierced diaphragm.

NORTH AFRICA: Rommel's panzers defeat the British 3rd Infantry and 7th Motor Brigades. The British however are better able to sustain the armour losses than the Germans.

LIBYA: The American Grant M3 tank makes its operational debut with the Eighth Army.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: Timor: In order to supply the Australians holding out in the hills with their required 40 tons of supplies per month, the Australian navy takes over the job of resupply. Today the patrol vessel HMAS KURU (55 tons) arrives at a beach in Betano Bay on the south coast of East Timor, with ten tons of ammunition, medical supplies, food and clothing. It is unloaded at midnight. On her return trip KURU took some wounded men and David Ross (the British Consul General) who had escaped the Japanese in late May. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)

PACIFIC OCEAN: TF 6814, on New Caledonia, is redesignated as the Americal Division.

The Japanese Invasion Fleet sails from the Marianas toward Midway. A second invasion force heads for the Aleutians from Ominato.

U.S. Marines and Navy Seabees occupy the Wallis Islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean in position 13.18S, 176.10W. (Jack McKillop)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, the Japanese submarine HIJMS I-19 is preparing to launch a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," for a reconnaissance mission over Bogoslof Island, located in the Bering Sea about 60 miles (96.6 km) west of Unalaska Island, when a U.S. destroyer is sighted. The sub submerges causing irreparable damage to the aircraft.

Meanwhile, the submarine HIJMS I-25 launches a "Glen" to fly a reconnaissance mission over Kodiak Island in the Gulf of Alaska.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: The USS Yorktown arrives at Pearl Harbor from the South Pacific. She limps into harbour trailing a ten-mile long oilslick.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Louisburg launched Quebec City, Province of Quebec.

Minesweeper HMCS Lockeport commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.:

Minesweeper USS Swerve laid down.

Destroyer USS McCalla commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German Operation "Drumbeat" continues as U-502 sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter in the Caribbean enroute from Trinidad to Mobile, Alabama. (Jack McKillop)

At 2000 hours on 26 May, the unescorted Atenas spotted a periscope one point off the port beam about 175 miles south of the entrance to the Mississippi River. It moved slowly toward the vessel, so the master changed course so that the 4in stern gun (the only other guns on the ship were two .30cal guns) could be cleared and fired. After four shots on the periscope, it disappeared. The Atenas proceeded with southerly course in a zigzagging pattern. At 0400 on 27 May, U-106 began rapidly shelling the Atenas from about 2000 yards for about two minutes. Rasch tried unsuccessfully to bring down the radio antenna. Seven shells hit the port side and started two small fires but did little damage. There were no casualties among the eight officers, 46 men, eight armed guards and ten passengers. Again the master changed course and the stern gun fired at the U-boat. After the first shot, U-106 submerged and left the area. At daylight, the Atenas hove to while the holes in the hull were plugged. She continued on her voyage zigzagging constantly and arrived safely.

At 0319, the Athelknight, dispersed from Convoy OS-28, was torpedoed and sunk by gunfire by U-172 SE of Bermuda. Four crewmembers and five gunners were lost. The master, 39 crewmembers and three gunners were rescued - the master and 24 survivors after 28 days by the British merchantman Empire Austin and landed at Capetown; the second officer and 17 survivors landed on St. Bartholomew Island, Leeward Islands on 23 June, after sailing in a lifeboat for about 1200 miles.

At 1051, the unescorted USAT Jack (Master Serge Burrack) was hit by one torpedo from U-558 about 100 miles SW of Port Salut, Haiti. The torpedo struck on the starboard side between the foremast and #2 hold. The explosion opened a large hole in the hull, blew the hatch covers off, stopped the engines, and damaged the radio, the starboard lifeboat and a raft. The ship sank quickly within four minutes and the suction swamped the port lifeboat, which had been successfully launched. The badly damaged starboard boat was launched with two men. 14 survivors transferred into this boat from a raft. These survivors were picked up by submarine USS Grunion on 31 May and landed at the submarine base in Coco Solo on 3 June, after the submarine conducted a fruitless search for other survivors. Two armed guards and five crewmembers spent 32 days on a raft before being picked up. Five others on a makeshift raft were never seen again. 27 crewmembers, three armed guards and seven passengers of her complement of 43 crewmembers, nine armed guards and eight passengers (US Army personnel) were lost, including the master.

At 0018, the unescorted Polyphemus was hit in the stern by two torpedoes from U-578 about 340 miles north of Bermuda and sank by the stern at 0101. On 25 November, the ship had picked up 14 survivors from a lifeboat of Norland, which had been sunk by U-108 five days earlier. 15 Chinese crewmembers were killed in the explosions and the survivors abandoned ship in five lifeboats. The U-boat surfaced and questioned the first officer H. Brandenburg. He gave information about the name of the vessel and the cargo, but not the name of the port of destination. Some cigarettes and the heading for New York were given to the survivors before the U-boat left. Rehwinkel obviously did not like the Dutch master, because he wrote in the KTB "ein typisch vollgefressener Holländer." The survivors in three lifeboats landed at Nantucket Island, Connecticut. The men in the two remaining boats were rescued by a Portuguese ship after one week and landed at New Bedford. One of these lifeboats had been spotted in grid CB 5757 on 29 May by U-566 and was provided with water and the actual position.

At 1103, the unescorted Hamlet was hit by one torpedo from U-753. The torpedo struck in the front part of the #10 tank. The engines were stopped and the guns manned, while the lifeboats were made ready for lowering. But the tanker did not sink and they tried to bring her to port. The radio antenna had been destroyed, so they had to rig up an emergency antenna, but before the work could be finished another torpedo hit at 1128. The ship now started to sink quickly and all crewmembers abandoned ship in the lifeboats. The men observed U-753 on the surface at this time. At 1142, a third torpedo struck between #13 and #15 tank, causing her to sink down to the poop deck. The boats stayed alongside the ship until daylight two hours later to make sure no more men were in the water, whereupon course was set for closest land. The poop of the tanker could still be seen in a 45° angle above the water. Three hours later, some fishing vessels took the lifeboats in tow and arrived Morgan City, Louisiana in the late evening. (Dave Shirlaw)

27 May 1943

UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Grenville commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Middlesex launched.

Patrol vessel HMS Kilchatten launched.

(Dave Shirlaw)

FRANCE: Paris: Looted works of art deemed "Unfit for sale" are brought by military trucks to the Jeu de Paume, and in the garden within the courtyard there, a bonfire is lit and the paintings burnt. Between five and six hundred works by amongst others, Masson, Miro, Pacabia (whose daughter Jeannine is in the resistance network with which Samuel Beckett has contact), Suzanne Valadon, Klee, Max Ernst, Picasso, Kisling (the man himself, a Jew, has been denounced by the model he so delighted in painting), Léger, La Fresnaye and Mané-Katz are destroyed.

The Comité National de la Resistance meets secretly in Paris for the first time. This meeting is primarily the work of de Gaulle's lieutenant, Jean Moulin. Because this group represents resistance groups nationwide it increases the stock of General de Gaulle in the eyes of the Allies.

GERMANY: Mosquitoes of Nos. 105 and 139 Squadrons RAF, attack the Zeiss Optical Factory and the Schott Glass Works at Jena. (22)

U-980 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

ITALY: Rome: For the first time since Italy came into the war, the Italian government admitted to the world today that its people are rebelling against the Mussolini regime and staging strikes. Strikes were forbidden years ago by the Fascist government, and a public decree today ordered all strikers to return to work at once. Fear of an Allied invasion is driving thousands of Italians away from the south of the country.

YUGOSLAVIA: The British SOE (Special Operations Executive) drops officers to Tito's Partisans.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Destroyer FS Leopard stranded and wrecked North of Benghazi. The wreck was destroyed on 19 June 1943. (Dave Shirlaw)

BURMA: Havildar Gaje Ghale (b.1922), 5th Gurkha Rifles led his platoon in storming a strong enemy position after three days in which, despite serious wounds, he had shown tireless courage. (Victoria Cross)

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Cowra launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: On Attu Island in the Aleutians in the late afternoon, a U.S. Army assault force attacks up a 60 degree incline in the Fishhook Ridge sector and cuts off the Japanese escape route to Chichagof Valley. The final Japanese defensive line, Buffalo Ridge, is almost taken by the Americans.

About half of the 2,300 Japanese on Attu have been killed to date.

The USAAF's Eleventh Air Force dispatches a B-25 Mitchell to fly ground support, bomb and strafe troops and drop photos taken on the previous day to friendly forces; a B-24 Liberator and six P-38 Lightnings provide air cover. Six P-40s fly an attack and reconnaissance mission to Kiska Island, concentrating on the Main Camp area and Little Kiska Island. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Lavallee launched Vancouver, British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: PM Churchill and General Marshall leave Washington, DC for North Africa. There they will meet with General Eisenhower about Italy.

The 101st Infantry Battalion (Separate), personnel of Austrian ancestry is inactivated at Camp Atterbury, Indiana. (Nick Minecci)

The 53-minute U.S. government documentary "Prelude to War," the first instalment of a multi-part documentary called "Why We Fight" is released in the U.S. Directed by Frank Capra and Anatole Litvak, this propaganda film that was used in training for the U.S. Army, compares the various governments of the world. The film is narrated by Walter Huston and features film of (in alphabetical order) Chiang Kai-Shek, Josef Goebbels, Herman Göring , Rudolph Hess, Heinrich Himmler, Hirohito, Adolf Hitler, Herbert Hoover, Pierre Laval, Benito Mussolini, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Haile Selassie, Henry L. Stimson, among others. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0611, the Sicilia was stopped by U-181 by shots across her bow and was sunk by torpedo at 0829 after the crew had abandoned ship. (Dave Shirlaw)

27 May 1944

UNITED KINGDOM: London: The Allies abandon plans to land paratroopers on the central Cotentin peninsula following "Ultra" intelligence of heavy German reinforcements in the area.

Frigate HMS Enard Bay laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies three missions:

- Mission 373: 1,126 bombers and 710 fighters in six forces are dispatched against rail targets in France and Germany and gun batteries in France; 24 bombers and 7 fighters are lost; the fighters claim 35.5-1-5 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 9-0-2 on the ground:

1. 344 B-17 Flying Fortresses are dispatched to marshalling yards at Ludwigshafen (150 bomb) and Mannheim (125 bomb); 18 hit Lachen/Apeyerdorf, 19 hit the Mannheim area and 6 hit targets of opportunity; 12 B-17s are lost.

2. 269 B-17s are dispatched to marshalling yards at Karlsruhe (98 bomb) and Strasbourg, France (49 bomb) and aviation factory at Strasbourg/Meinau, France (53 bomb); seven B-17s are lost.

3. 69 of 86 B-24s bomb an aviation factory at Woippy, France; three others hit targets of opportunity.

4. 369 B-24s are dispatched to marshalling yards at Saarbrucken (145 bomb), Neunkirchen (66 bomb) and Kons/Karthus (72 bomb); 3 others hit targets of opportunity; five B-24s are lost.

5. 36 of 40 B-17s bomb Fecamp gun battery, France without loss.

6. 18 of 18 B-24s bomb St Valery, France without loss.

Escort is provided by 170 P-38s, 238 P-47 Thunderbolts and 302 P-51 Mustangs; one P-38 is lost; P-47s claim 1-0-1 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 2-0-0 on the ground without loss; P-51s claim 34.5-1-4 aircraft in the air and 7-0-2 on the ground with the loss of six P-51s. 425 Ninth Air Force aircraft also support the mission; they claim 4-0-0 with the loss of one.

- Mission 374: 24 P-47s hit a barge convoy between Willenstadt and Meerije,

The Netherlands; two barges are destroyed.

- Mission 375: three B-17s drop leaflets in Belgium and France without loss.

The USAAF's Ninth Air Force in England dispatches about 590 B-26 Marauders to attack railroads, bridges, and marshalling yards in France. P-47s bomb targets in northwestern Europe. (Jack McKillop)

HMCS Rosthern departed Londonderry to begin training ship duties in Halifax. (Tom Carlson)

GERMANY:

U-3003 laid down.

U-327 launched.

U-881 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

BALTIC SEA: U-24 fought a surface battle with 2 Soviet patrol boats, losing 1 man dead and 2 wounded. [Matrosenobergefreiter Johann Wölbitsch]. (Dave Shirlaw)

ITALY: Artena is held by the 3rd Division in the face of German counterattacks.

The USAAF's Fifteenth Air Force dispatches almost 700 bombers to hit France; B-17s bomb the marshalling yard at Avignon while B-24s bomb airfields at Montpellier and Salon and marshalling yards at Nimes, Marseille/St Charles and Marseille/La Blancharde; escort is provided by P-38s and P-51s. (Jack McKillop)

NEW GUINEA: The US 41st Division lands at Biak.

Operation HORLICKS commences. The USAAF's Fifth Air Force dispatches 170+ B-24s and B-25s to bomb Babo Airfield and Biak Island. This is followed by a naval bombardment by heavy and light cruisers and destroyers of the U.S. Navy's Task Groups 77.2 and 77.3. The U.S. 41st Infantry Division (minus) then lands on Biak Island in Geelvink Bay. The first wave lands exactly as planned, but strong currents carry subsequent units well west of their designated landing beaches. Fortunately, only nominal Japanese resistance is encountered because the landings catch the Japanese flat-footed. After securing the beachhead, the soldiers gain control of a trail over ridges to the inland plateau to the north. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA:

HMCS Rosthern departed Londonderry to begin training ship duties in Halifax

Frigate HMCS Fort Erie (ex-HMCS La Tuque) launched Levis, Province of Quebec.

Tug HMCS Beaverton commissioned Montreal, Province of Quebec.

Corvette HMCS St Lambert commissioned.

Tug HMCS Luceville assigned to Pictou , Nova Scotia.

Tug HMCS Colville assigned to Sydney , Nova Scotia.

Corvette HMCS Rosthern departed Londonderry for training ship duties Halifax

U.S.A.: Coast Guard manned Army vessel FS-178 was commissioned. On 1 August 1945, she had finished discharging a cargo of chemical warfare equipment from Morotai, and was ordered dry-docked in ARD-9, Humboldt Bay, Hollandia, New Guinea, to clean and paint the hull. She departed drydock on the 3rd and on the 8th was underway for Milne Bay, New Guinea, where she arrived on the 12th and loaded 39 tons of life rafts for Finschaven and Hollandia arriving at the former place on the 14th to discharge 20 rafts and pick up mail and at the latter place on the 18th to unload the remainder before anchoring until the 28th at Challenge Cove, Hollandia. On that date she received a cargo of mail for Biak and proceeded there independently arriving at Sorido Lagoon on the 30th to discharge mail and load ammunition for Zamboanga, Philippine Islands. She departed next morning for Zamboanga, Philippine Islands. (The above is believed to furnish a fairly representative cross section of the day-to-day operations of Coast Guard manned FS's in the Southwest Pacific area.) The FS-178 was decommissioned on 16 October 1945.

Destroyer USS Southerland laid down

Submarine USS Toro laid down

Escort carriers USS Attu and Munda launched

Destroyer escorts USS Halloran and Hodges commissioned

Frigates USS Pueblo and Grand Island commissioned

Submarine USS Becuna commissioned

Minesweeper USS Counsel commissioned.

Submarines USS Besugo, Blackfin and Spadefish laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Amick and Atherton launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-292 sunk west of Trondheim, in position 62.37N, 00.57E, by depth charges from an RAF 59 Sqn Liberator. 51 dead (all hands lost). (Dave Shirlaw)

27 May 1945

UNITED KINGDOM: HMS DIPPER, RNAS Henstride, 761 RN Sqn Seafire a/c, S/Lt(A) Wilfred Adris "Nip" OWEN RNVR, Canadian, Lost, flying accident, dove into ground SE, of Abbotsbury, Dorset, UK, Interred, KEMPSTON CEMETERY, UK.

HMCS Lockeport departed Canada for UK.

HMCS Nene arrived Sheerness in preparation for return to RN.

Departed UK, with ON-305, last westbound convoy WW.II. a. HMCS Jonquiere and HMCS St Stephen. (Dave Shirlaw)

CHINA: Nanning: Japan has suffered a major setback in southern China with the the loss of Nanning. The southern gateway city only 78 miles from the Indochina border has been a vital link in Japan's main overland supply lifeline to its armies in Burma, Thailand, Malaya and Indochina. Nationalist troops advancing from the north and west recaptured Nanning, Kwangsi province's capital. They also cut the north/south highway linking Indochina with the rail junction at Liuchow. The road, which has been recently improved, has served as the main route for moving Japanese troops and supplies.

BURMA: An entire army is moved by air for the first time ever, when US aircraft fly the Chinese Sixth Army from Burma to China.

JAPAN: The USAAF's Twentieth Air Force in the Mariana Islands flies Mission 185: During the night of 27/28 May, nine B-29 Superfortresses drop mines in Shimonoseki Strait and in the Moji area of Japan; one B-29 is lost. (Jack McKillop)

The slow meticulous US advance on Okinawa is met by fierce resistance from the Japanese.

American marines today claimed to have crossed the Asato and captured part of the Okinawan capital of Naha as forces of the US Tenth Army battle to complete the conquest of this strategically important island just 340 miles south of mainland Japan. The north of the island has been under Allied control since 20 April, but heavy rains - and fierce resistance by General Ushijima's Thirty-Second Army - have slowed the US advance in the south. Infantry of the 7th Division is embroiled in a particularly tough fight for Shuri Castle, the key position on Japan's defensive line in the south.

Japan launches a heavy air offensive against the US fleet. Japanese submarines make unsuccessful attacks on US convoy routes to Guam and Leyte.

Off Okinawa, Japanese suicide craft damage nine U.S. Navy vessels:

- The destroyer USS Braine (DD-630) is hit in quick succession by two suicide planes. The first hits forward seriously damaging the bridge and the second hits amidships blowing number two funnel overboard and demolishing the amidships superstructure. Braine retires to Kerama Retto for emergency repairs.

- The destroyer USS Anthony (DD-515) is slightly damaged by a kamikaze.

- The destroyer escort USS Gilligan (DE-508) is hit by a dud torpedo from a kaiten carried by submarine HIJMS I-357.

- High-speed minesweeper USS Southard (DMS-10, ex DD-207) is slightly damaged by a kamikaze which crashed 15-yards (13.7 m) ahead of the ship.

- Minesweeper USS Gayety (AM-239) is damaged by a near-miss from a 500-pound (230 kg) bomb which explodes just astern. Five men were killed and two wounded by flying debris, and the fantail bursts into flames. The fire is extinguished and the ship heads to Kerama Retto for repair. - High-speed transport USS Loy (APD-56, ex-DE-160) shoots down three suicide planes during two attacks. The third aircraft exploded close aboard the starboard beam and sprayed the ship with fragments and 18 of her crew are wounded and there is some internal damage.

- High-speed transport USS Rednour (APD-162, ex-DE-592) is struck by a kamikaze on the stern, starting fires and blowing a 10-foot (3.0 m) hole in her main deck killing three and wounding 13 of her crew. After driving off yet another suicide plane, Rednour entered Kerama roadstead for temporary battle damage repairs.

- Surveying ship USS Dutton (AGS-8, ex-PCS-1396) is struck by a Japanese plane which crashes the ship, carrying away part of the bridge, blowing one of her crew overboard, and holing her, fortunately above the water line. She heads for Kerama Retto for repairs.

- Large support landing craft LCS-52 is damaged by kamikaze that misses. (Jack McKillop)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Santa Fe on Luzon is liberated by US forces.

Heavy fighting continues on Mindanao.

CANADA: Departed UK, with ON.305, last west bound convoy WW.II. a. HMCS Jonquiere and HMCS St Stephen

Departed St. John's with convoy HX.358, for UK. last eastbound convoy of WW.II: a. HMCS Arrowhead, HMCS Eastview, HMCS Hepatica, HMCS Trillium, HMCS Peterborough and HMCS ST Lambert.

Minesweeper HMCS Lockeport departed Canada for UK.

Corvette HMCS Norsyd commenced refit Halifax , Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Sarsfield launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

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