RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil storage depot at Bremen. 

10 Sqn. 14 aircraft. One crashed on take-off, 12 bombed primary target from low-level, one bombed secondary target. Severe opposition, 6 aircraft damaged by Flak. 

51 Sqn. 6 aircraft. 5 bombed primary, one bombed Delmenhorst airfield and was damaged by Flak. 58 Sqn. 6 aircraft. Five bombed successfully.

2 Group: 82 Sqn ( Blenheim) 12 aircraft bombing the Gembloux gap. 11 aircraft lost to Flak and fighters.

Destroyer HMS Blankney laid down.

BELGIUM:

Germany occupies Brussels, Louvain, Malines and Namur. The government of Belgium is evacuated to Ostend.
Lord Gort shores up his right flank which has been held by the Belgian Army.

FRANCE:

At dawn, Rommel and his armoured advance guard, thrust towards Landrecies. At 5.15 am the Germans enter Landrecies and make straight for the local headquarters; which they capture and then take the bridge over the Sambre.

On the upper Oise, Reinhardt’s advance-guard seizes the bridges between Hirson and Guise at about 8 am.

In the middle Oise between Guise and La Fere, posts manned by the French 2 Armoured Division were attacked at 5 am by forward elements of the 2nd Panzers, and resisted fiercely on the bridges of Moy, Bethenicourt and Mezieres. But farther to the south, the bridge of Ribemont was seized at 9am by the 1st Panzers.

Then the Panzers are halted. According to Guderian’s memoirs, this morning with his leading troops on the Oise, Von Kleist arrived by plane in a towering rage. Guderian was ordered to stop his columns at once, by the Fuhrer’s orders. he also stormed at him for having exceeded his instructions. Finally, he relieved him of his command, which he handed to his senior divisional commander. Guderian consequently sent orders to all his units to stop where they were, and handed over to General Veiel. Then by wireless he gave a full account to von Runstedt. In the afternoon the army group commander asked General List, commanding the 12th Army, to settle the quarrel. The latter went to see for himself, saw the position, re-established Guderian in his command, and even authorised him to send out "strong fighting reconnaissance patrols" on the next day, but without moving his command post. Guderian now used a succession of "advanced CP's" to pursue his advance.

On the French side, one positive action was the counter-attack by 4 Armoured Div., under Col. de Gaulle. he had only 150 tanks, one of Char-b's and two of R 35s. His intention was to reach Montcornet, on the Serre about 12 miles to the north., a junction of roads to Saint-Quentin, laon and Rheims, to block the German’s routes in those directions. They reached Montcornet, but the German’s were in strength on the Serre, and the unsupported tanks cannot cross it. In the evening, severely harassed by German artillery fire and continuous Stuka attacks, the group fell back to Laon, bring 130 prisoners with them.

 

NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN:

RN: Cruiser HMS Effingham runs aground on an unseen rock in Vestfjord between Briksvaer and Terra Islands, as she carries troops to Bodo to help block the German advance on Narvik. She is later torpedoed and abandoned. The rock was marked on the chart, but at the time was obscured by a pencil line which had been drawn by the navigator. HMS Cairo, Coventry, Echo and Matabele took off the crew. She was finally destroyed by gunfire to prevent her capture by the Germans on 21 May 1940. (Dave Shirlaw and Peter Beeston)

During the evening of the 16th, HMS Ark Royal had steamed to seaward to place herself in position to cover a troop convoy enroute to Norway. After reaching position 68.08N, 07.00E, four Fighter Patrols were dispatched between 1510 and 2200 but the only excitement was caused when HMS Coventry decided to fire on her supporting aircraft!

Meanwhile, with the junction with HMS Furious and HMS Glorious at hand, Vice Admiral Wells instructed Glorious to send off one of the Walrus amphibians of 701 Squadron to communicate with him. It arrived at 1500, and then flew on to Harstad at 1700. (Mark Horan)

U.S.A.: The USN announces that they will re-commission 35 more "four-stacker" destroyers for use on the Neutrality Patrol and to meet fleet requirements.