May 8th, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:London: Churchill writes to Ismay:
"I must have the advice of the Staffs upon the Syrian business available for Cabinet this morning. A supreme effort must be made to prevent the Germans getting a foothold in Syria with small forces and then using Syria as a jumping-off ground for the air domination of Iraq and Persia. ... We ought to help in every way without minding Vichy."
RAF Bomber Command: 359 bombers led the strongest mission yet against Germany. Of these aircraft, 317 attacjed Hamburg and Bremen.
RAF Fighter Command: During the night German forces made simultaneous raids on 20 British airfields.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Silicia mined and sunk off the Humber.
Submarine HMS Sickle laid down.
GERMANY:
ITALY: "Acquarone", [the King's secretary and special assistant] says the Duke of Spoleto is proud of the task which awaits him, but concerned about losing his liberty. "When we looked for him, to give him the news, we managed to find him, only after twenty-four hours, in a Milan hotel, where he was hiding in the company of a young girl."" (Mike Yaklich)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Tiger Convoy comes under air attack, first by the Italian Air Force, then the Luftwaffe. Over the day, Ark Royal's twelve Fairey Fulmars drove off over fifty aircraft, with the assistance of targeting information from HMS Sheffield's radar and anti-aircraft fire from the escorts. During the initial waves, one Fulmar is lost, killing Flight Lieutenant Rupert Tillard and Lieutenant Mark Somerville, Admiral Somerville's nephew; another is destroyed with the aircrew recovered, while others are damaged.
INDIAN OCEAN: On patrol north of the Seychelles, heavy cruiser HMS Cornwall finds and sinks the raider 'Pinguin'. This is the first raider to be hunted down, having accounted for 28 ships of 136,500 tons.
Alex Gordon adds:
"Pinguin" (ship 33) under Cmdr. Ernst-Felix Krüder began her war cruise on 15 June 1940. Pinguin sank 12 ships, captured 16 as prizes, whilst another four ships were attributed to her mines. The 136 550 tons referred to, is the aggregate of both sinkings and captures. However, the biggest prize of all was taken when "Pinguin" captured the entire Norwegian Antarctic Whaling fleet, including two factory ships, eleven whalers, and a tanker without firing a shot! After the war ended both of the factory ships were found damaged by Allied bombing in a French Atlantic port.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USAT Washington arrived in Manila with 39 more fliers. (Marc Small)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Warrnambool launched.
CANADA: Training ship HMCS Millicette assigned to HMCS Montcalm.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0800 on 7 May, U-97 spotted two merchantmen on westerly course SE of Cape Farewell and four hours later two others that followed the first group. All ships had been dispersed from Convoy OB-317. The U-boat chased the first ships and fired at 1704 hours a torpedo at the Ramillies, but missed and was not able to fire at the ships of the second group because they were too far away. So the U-boat had to overtake the first group again during the night and fired at 1214 hours on 8 May another torpedo at the same ship but again missed. At 1813 a third torpedo was fired which hit the Ramillies and stopped her but did not sink. At 1848 a coup de grāce was fired that malfunctioned, but the second at 1903 hit the ship in the stern and caused her to sink fast in the vertical. The master, 25 crewmembers and three gunners were lost. Eleven crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by the British merchantman Geddington Court and landed at Halifax.