May 4th, 1941 (SUNDAY)
Blackpool: Squires' Gate Aerodrome: The first mission of the North Atlantic Return Ferry Service flies from Montreal to Blackpool using the Consolidated LB-30A.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Ben Gairn mined and sunk off Lowestoft.
GERMANY:
Berlin: Flanked by
Göring and
Hess, the Fuhrer today strode into the Kroll Opera House - where Reichstag deputies have
met since the fire of 1933 - to deliver a speech marking German victories in the Balkans.
"In this
Jewish-capitalist age", Hitler declared, "the National Socialist state stands
out as a solid monument to common sense. It will last for a thousand years." The
greater part of the speech consisted of an attack on Churchill, who was portrayed as a
blood-thirsty warmonger lacking the qualities needed to fight a war.
"The gift Mr Churchill
possesses is the gift to lie with a pious expression on his face and to distort the truth
until finally glorious victories are made of the most terrible defeats," Hitler
declared. Meanwhile Grand Admiral Raeder is urging Hitler to exploit the victories in
Greece and Yugoslavia and launch a major offensive to capture Egypt and Suez. "This
stroke", Raeder says, "would be more deadly to the British Empire than the
capture of London." But Hitler is obsessed with Operation Barbarossa.
LIBYA: Rommel's attacks on Tobruk stall.
IRAQ: Allied forces make bombing
raids on Baghdad.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES:
Claggett
and George arrive by Boeing 314
Clipper (Pan-American Air Lines) (Marc Small)
CANADA: MV Kipawo arrived Montreal for refit and conversion to HMCS Kipawa.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1829, the Japan, dispersed from Convoy OB-310, was shelled by U-38 249 miles NW of Freetown and caught fire. At 1915 the ship was hit by a coup de grâce and sank in grid ET 2461. No casualties among the 44 crewmembers and four passengers.