May 1st, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Westminster: Frederick Leathers, an industrialist who started work as an office boy in the coal trade, was tonight appointed head of a new ministry of wartime communications by Mr Churchill. He will amalgamate the ministries of shipping and transport, and gets a peerage on joining the government. Another change is the move of Lord Beaverbrook to be Minister of State - a rank without precedent. Lord Brabazon now takes over a Minister of Aircraft Production.Liverpool: The Luftwaffe raids the city and continues for the next 7 nights. 76,000 people are made homeless and 3,000 killed or injured. 69 out of 144 berths are put out of action, and for a while the tonnage landed was down 75%.
Destroyer HMS Haydon laid down.
GERMANY: Day and night fighter interceptor controls are united under a single command post. German flak units remain under the control of the individual air district headquarters (Luftgaukommandos), but in other respects German air defence now makes up a single unified military organisation.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Around this time two submarines operating our of Malta are lost, possibly due to mines - HMS Usk in the Strait of Sicily area and HMS Undaunted off Tripoli, Libya. HMS Usk may have been sunk by Italian destroyers west of Sicily while attacking a convoy.
MALTA: In one of their almost daily attacks, Axis aircraft raid Valetta; the destroyer HMS Jersey sinks after hitting a mine in the harbour entrance.
LIBYA: The British Reuters News Agency reported from the headquarters of General Wavell:
An extremely violent battle ignited Wednesday night around Tobruk. After a vigorous
bombardment lasting several hours, German and Italian infantry attacked the Tobruk
fortifications, deploying heavy tanks and flamethrowing tanks simultaneously. Early this
morning another attack ensued by large numbers of German Stuka dive bombers which dropped
heavy calibre bombs on the defence installations. Until 10:00 A.M. the British garrison
succeeded in preventing any breach in the Tobruk defences. After that, a strong panzer
force successfully penetrated the outer perimeter along a 2-mile front. British and
Australian troops are at this moment engaged in hand-to-hand fighting in the defensive
installations outside the city.
Mike Yaklich adds: The flamethrower tanks were Italian flamethrower L3's. These had
already been in service for a couple of years by 1941, and the Italian Ariete
armoured
division was heavily involved in many of the Axis assaults on the Tobruk perimeter in
April- early May '41. Confusion is often generated by the reference to "Ansaldo
cars" or "armoured cars," no doubt a too-literal translation of the
"carro armato," the Italian word for "tank" (often further shortened
to simply "carro"). The small size of the L3, and its lack of a turret, helped
further this confusion, as it was something of a stretch to call the L3 a tank in the
conventional sense. The flamethrower L3 was a rather distinctive vehicle. The flame
projector (maximum range about 100 meters) replaced the twin machineguns mounted in the
left side of the hull, and flame fuel came directly from a special two-wheeled
trailer
which the tank pulled behind it when in action.
IRAQ: Iraqi forces attack British forces at Rutba west of Baghdad.
CANADA: Examination vessels
HMCS Marvita and Shulamite commissioned.
U.S.A.:
Joint Army-Navy Board completes
Rainbow-5 calling for abandonment of the Philippines upon the outbreak of war
and the sacrifice of the garrison.
Hart advised by Navy Department that
he would be given at least four days’ notice prior to the start of
hostilities. Hart instructs his
staff to base all plans on a two days’ warning.
Commander H D
Linder, RNethN, joins Hart in Manila as a liaison officer. (Marc Small)
Admiral Ernest J. King assumes command of the USN's Atlantic Fleet.
The fifth Lake class US Coast vessel, USCGC Chelan (CGC-45), is transferred to the Royal Navy under Lend Lease and is renamed HMS Lulworth.
The motion picture "Citizen Kane" is released in the U.S. Directed by Orson Welles, this drama stars Welles, Joseph Cotten, Everett Sloane, Agnes Moorehead and a bit part by Alan Ladd. The film has been rank Number 1 on the American Film Institute's list of Top 100 films. The plot centres on the rise of a William Randolph Heart-like newspaper publisher and was Welles first and best film. It was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won the award for original screenplay, crediting Welles and Herman Mankiewitz.
Destroyers USS Bancroft, Beatty, Endicott, Kendrick, Laub, McCook and Tillman laid down.
Light fleet carrier USS Independence laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1834, the unescorted Samsų was hit near the aft mast by one torpedo from U-103 SW of Freetown and sank slowly in 50 minutes. One crewmember was lost. The master and 18 crewmembers in three lifeboats landed at Los Island, French Guinea on 3 May and were taken to Conakry and thence to Freetown on 16 May.
At 0027, the Nerissa, a straggler from Convoy HX-121, was torpedoed and sunk by U-552 SE of Rockall. The master, 82 crewmembers and 124 passengers were lost. 23 crewmembers, six gunners, three stowaways and 51 passengers were picked up by HMS Veteran, transferred to HMS Kingcup and landed at Londonderry.