May 4th, 1940 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Corvette HMS Amaranthus laid down.
GERMANY:
U-355 laid down.
NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN: As preparations continue in the north for the attack on Narvik, Polish destroyer 'Grom' is bombed and sunk with the loss of 56 lives.
Von Falkenhorst orders the
German 2nd Mountain Division, currently assembling at Trondheim, to move overland through
Grong, Mosjoen and Bodo to reinforce Narvik. The straight-line distance from Grong was
about 300 miles through a thinly settled, snow-covered region of high mountains. Roads are
poor and broken by fjords that require ferry hauls up to 10 miles long. For the last 85
miles there are no roads whatever.
Mark Horan adds: HMS Ark Royal departs Scapa Flow at 1620, escorted by the AA cruiser HMS
Curlew, and six destroyers, HMS Inglefield, HMS Sikh, HMS Mashona, HMS Tartar, HMS Jaguar,
and HMS Encounter. Enroute she flies aboard the replacement aircraft (six Swordfish, seven
Skuas) and the regrouped 803 Squadron, giving her the following
air group:
810 Squadron: 11 x Swordfish
820 Squadron: 8 x Swordfish
800 Squadron: 9 x Skua
801 Squadron: 9 x Skua
803 Squadron: 9 x
Skua
Her mission will be to provide air support for the besieged Allied Group Forces in the area of Narvik and Trondheim.
Meanwhile HMS Glorious arrives at Greenock at 1630, for reprovisioning, rearming, and to prepare for her new mission - ferrying 18 Hurricane Is of 46 Squadron, RAF, to Norway. At the same time, HMS Furious, completing the repairs on her battered turbines, is preparing to re-embark the reconstituted 263 Squadron, RAF with 18 Gladiator IIs for the same task.
NETHERLANDS:
Twenty-one suspected saboteurs
and Nazi fifth-columnists are arrested in a crackdown on anti-government elements.
GERMANY: Hitler once more puts off the attack in the west until May 7.
AUSTRALIA: Boom defence vessel HMAS Kangaroo launched.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Camellia launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: San Tiburcio struck a mine laid on 9 February by U-9. She broke in two after 40 minutes and sank 4 miles SE of Tarbett Ness, Moray Firth. The master and 39 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Leicester City and landed at Invergordon. The master Walter Frederick Fynn died when his next ship, the San Arcadio was sunk by U-107 (Gelhaus) on 31 Jan 1942.