30 April 1941

Frigates HMS Mourne and Barle commissioned.

Corvette HMS Celandine commissioned.

Tug HMS Peuplier sunk off Plymouth.

A RAF Wellington crashes in St. Andrews Park, Bristol. Three of the six man crew die, but three are saved by amongst others a young probationary police officer, Bruce Westlake, who entered the burning plane. More...

GERMANY: A small Argus pulse-jet of 265lb static thrust flies for the first time suspended beneath a Gotha Go 145 biplane. This is the ancestor of the engine that powers the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb.

During the evening and night hours of 29 April, German bombers and dive bombers made a very effective raid on the port of Valetta on the island of Malta. They scored direct hits on a light cruiser and on antiaircraft positions, wharves and fuel tank depots, and set a destroyer on fire. Additional raids were made on the Luqa and Valetta airfields. The enemy lost two Hurricane fighters in aerial combats over the island. There were no German losses. In North Africa German and Italian dive bombers bombed Tobruk harbour, artillery positions at Fort Pilastro, and fortifications south of Via Balbia, with the heaviest calibre bombs.

Munich: Bavarians are outraged by a ban on crucifixes in their schools. The state culture minister, Adolf Wagner, has declared that crucifixes, church decorations and religious pictures "have no place in our schools" and ordered their gradual removal. Bavaria was the breeding ground of Nazism, but it is also intensely Catholic. Farmers have refused to deliver milk in protest, and parents have blocked school entrances or withdrawn their children. Michael von Faulhaber, the cardinal of Munich and Freising, has protested about the Nazis' continued "destruction of Christianity in public life."

ITALY: Count Ciano writes on a meeting with the King on "the Croatian question", "He is very happy, on the other hand, about the bestowal of a crown on a prince of his house. If the Duke of Aosta had been in Italy the King would have designated him without hesitation; as things stand, the only choice is between the Duke of Spoleto and the Duke of Pistoia. The King favours the first, because of his physical appearance and also, up to a certain point, because of his intellectual capacities...The Duce replies to Pavelich's letter, accepting the crown..."

GREECE: The last British, Australian, New Zealand and Polish troops were taken on board ship today from Kalamata in the Peloponnese after a fighting ten-day retreat from Thermopylae. About 7,000 men were captured at Kalamata by a German Panzer force before they could be evacuated.

However, 50,732 men were taken from harbours and beaches in this "second Dunkirk", called Operation Demon, and many have been transported to Crete for the island's defence. There was too little time however, to take off all their heavy weapons, trucks and aircraft. As the Allies left the Germans began occupying islands in the Aegean.

British and Empire forces lost 900 men in battle, 1,200 wounded and 9,000 taken prisoner. The Germans suffered 1,518 dead and 3,360 wounded in Greece, in addition to the 151 dead, 15 missing and 392 wounded in the Yugoslav campaign.

CRETE: Major-General Bernard Freyberg takes command of British and Imperial forces.

NORTH AFRICA: General Paulus allows a further attack against Tobruk. The artillery bombardment is supplemented by Stuka raids. This is the heaviest attack yet. The defence is not to be overcome.

IRAQ: The new pro-German Iraqi government ordered approximately 9,000 troops to march on the RAF station at Habbaniya, a few miles northwest of Baghdad, and to set up their 28 cannon in artillery positions on the surrounding plateau. There are 2,000 British troops and 9,000 civilians sheltering at the airbase.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Trail commissioned.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "My Gal Sal" is released in the U.S. Directed by Irving Cummings, this musical stars Rita Hayworth, Victor Mature, Carole Landis, James Gleason and Phil Silvers. Gay 90s musical of songwriter Paul Dresser (Mature) in love with singer Hayworth. The film was nominated for two technical Academy Awards and won one.

The motion picture "That Hamilton Woman" is released in the U.S. Directed by Alexander Korda, this action adventure film stars Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Alan Mowbray and Gladys Cooper and depicts the ill-fated romance of Lord Admiral Nelson and Lady Emma Hamilton. The film was nominated for four technical Academy Awards and won one.

The first four of the ten Lake-class U.S. Coast Guard cutters are transferred to the Royal Navy. USCGC Pontchartrain (CGC-46) becomes HMS Harland; USCGC Tahoe (CGC-47) becomes HMS Fishguard; USCGC Mendota (CGC-49) becomes HMS Culver; and USCGC Itasca (CGC-50) becomes HMS Gorleston. USCGC Itasca was the ship at Howland Island during the Amelia Earhart flight in 1937.

SS Nerissa sunk by German U-boat, off Ireland, 73 Canadian Army personnel and 6 RCN personnel lost.

At 2155, the Lassell was hit by one torpedo from U-107 and sank about 300 miles SW of the Cape Verde Islands. The ship had been in Convoy OB-309, which was dispersed on 19 April in 50°00N/23°50W. 17 crewmembers were lost. The master, second officer, 22 crewmembers and one passenger were picked up on 9 May by the Benvrackie, which was herself sunk four days later by U-105. 15 survivors from Lassell were lost. The master, nine others and the survivors of Benvrackie were rescued after 13 days in lifeboats by HMHS Oxfordshire and landed at Freetown. The chief officer, W.H. Underhill, four officers, 13 crewmembers and eight gunners were picked up on 10 May in 10°57N/29°13W by the British merchantman Egba and landed at Freetown five days later.