ASW trawler HMS Hornpipe launched.

NORTH SEA: U-8 encountered an enemy submarine, but neither boat attacked.

BELGIUM: CSM George Gristock (b. 1905), Royal Norfolk Regiment, led an attack to cover his company’s right flank, and put a machine-gun post out of action. He died of severe leg wounds. (Later awarded the VC).

L/Cpl Harry Nicholls (1918-75), Grenadier Guards, despite shrapnel wounds, led an assault over two ridges, knocking out three machine-guns and attacking infantry before his capture (VC).

FRANCE: Weygand flies to the north to come to an agreement with the Belgian, British and French leaders for carrying out an offensive to cut off the Panzer spearhead. He orders the Belgians to cover the French and British on the east, while the rest attack southwards on the Arras-Cambrai front, with as strong a force as possible "in order to take advantage of the fact that the Panzers had not been joined by their major infantry units.... It would be best to include the maximum number of British divisions as they are in good condition. They must be relieved by French and Belgian troops which are not in good enough condition to attack. The Somme army, meanwhile, would attack from south to north.
In the evening, General Weygand is involved in an auto accident trying to coordinate attacks for both north and south of the German advance. The attacks will never take place.

The 7th Panzer Division suffers early in a British attack. The Matilda tanks are finally halted with a few of the German 88s.

MAP

NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN:RAF 263 Sqn., equipped with Gladiator, flies off HMS Furious into Bardufoss. This is the first stage of the Allied plan to recapture Narvik.
The French, Polish and British forces reach Rombaksfiord near Narvik in Norway.

HMS Ark Royal, HMS Furious and HMS Glorious are in company off Narvik, intent on successfully ferrying the 18 Gladiator IIs of 263 Squadron, RAF from HMS Furious to Bardufoss landing ground.

At 0300, Ark Royal sends off a fighter patrol of six Skuas to cover the actual landings. The first section of three from 800 Squadron (Lt. K. V. V. Spurway, RN) and the second section from 803 Squadron (Lt. J. M. Christian, RN). All ran into fog, rain, and low cloud, but no German aircraft. While the Spurway's section managed to return intact, Christian's section became separated; two returned independently to the ship, but S-Lt. Easton, RN was forced to land in Norway.

Meanwhile, HMS Furious began dispatching the RAF fighters in sections, each led by a Swordfish of 818 Squadron. The process ended up being both dangerous and extended, but eventually 16 of the precious fighters reached the field successfully. Tragically, one Swordfish and the two Gladiator's following it crashed into a fog covered mountain, killing one Gladiator pilot, PO Walter Phillip Richards, RAFVR, and badly injuring the other, FL R. S. Mills DFC, RAF as well as the entire Swordfish crew, S-Lt. J. A. Welply, RN (p), S-Lt. G. P. Simpson, RN (O), and LA H. H. Simpson, RN (TAG). Considering the atrocious weather, the limited losses were somewhat miraculous. It certainly eliminated the expected aerial opposition.

At 0730, Ark Royal was able to welcome home a lost chick when Swordfish 2K, missing since 13 May, returned from a week of solitude at Skaanland landing ground. The aircraft had successfully force-landed there after being fogged in while executing a reconnaissance mission. Thereafter, the crew had waited for the field to dry out enough for a successful takeoff while Ark was in range.

At 1120, one more fighter patrol was sent off to Narvik,  but it was forced to return do to the low cloud base. By that point, Wells had received word that all the remaining Gladiators had successfully landed at Bardufoss, so flying was suspended for the day. The fleet then separated to return to Scapa Flow, Ark Royal, in dire need of replenishment of her ordnance stores sailing in one force, Furious and Glorious, the later still carrying the Hurricanes of 46 Squadron, RAF as Skaanland landing ground was not yet serviceable, proceeding in a second force.

Thus ended the second foray into Norwegian waters by the Fleet Air Arm.

During her two-week excursion off Norway, HMS Ark Royal's air group had flown some 250 sorties, some 60 percent of them by the three Skua Squadron's. 13 Aircraft had been lost, 8 Skuas and 5 Swordfish, though crew fatalities had been limited to two, the CO and Squadron Observer of 803 Squadron, Lt. W. P. Lucy and Lt. M. C. E. Hanson. For the next few days, the aerial defence of the troops ashore in northern Norway would rest solely in the hands of the Gladiator fighters of 263 Squadron.  

GERMANY: The Wehrmacht High Command announced:-

‘The greatest offensive operation ever to take place in the west, is achieving its first strategic success following upon a series of major individual tactical successes. The French Ninth Army on the Meuse between Namur and Sedan, whose duty it was to establish and maintain communication between the powerful enemy strategic group in Belgium, and the Maginot Line south of Sedan, has been smashed and is breaking up. The Luftwaffe has played an outstanding role in this victory march of the German Army. By its complete command of the air, its destruction of river crossings and transport installations, and its assaults on march and transport columns, it has hastened the dissolution of the French Ninth Army and nipped in the bud all attempts made so far to threaten the flanks of our breakthrough.’