May 16th, 1941 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Mr Percy Barnard Weller (d. 1979), a worker in an explosives plant, rescued a man from a blazing building after a blast. Unfortunately the man died. (Edward Medal)Frigate HMS Exe laid down.
LIBYA: The British withdraw from gains achieved yesterday near Halfaya
Pass on the border of Egypt and Cyrenaica.Rommel is ordered to attack Sollum and leave Tobruk to the Italian army.
ETHIOPIA: Amba Alagi: The Italian army is seeking terms of surrender. The Duke of Aosta and his 18,000 troops had made a last stand here in the arid mountains of Tigre. The defences seemed unscaleable, but the morale of the Italians weakened. The Eritrean levies deserted them when they learnt of Britain's promise to give self-determination to Eritrea.
With over-stretched defences, and believing that the main attack would come through the Falaga Pass in the east, the Italian western defences crumbled when attacked by Indian and British troops.
TURKEY: Iraqi-Soviet exchange of notes at Ankara establishing diplomatic relations.
IRAQ: Baghdad: Iraqi Headquarters announced:
No change on the western front. on the southern front, three British aircraft released several bombs over an Iraqi city. The ground defenses succeeded in shooting down one Wellington bomber. The Iraqi air force undertook reconnaissance flights over enemy bases and all aircraft returned undamaged. Our aircraft overflew the area around Ar Rutbah and successfully bombed enemy armoured vehicles. British aircraft attacked our military barracks but no major damage was done. One enemy aircraft was probably shot down. Our troops in the desert fought throughout the day and are continuing to keep the situation under control.
3 German He-111s of the special Junck unit, bombed the British at Habbaniya. Then the aircraft of the British Fleet Air Arm raided the Iraqi airfield at Mosul and destroyed one He 111 bomber and 2 Me 110 destroyers of the Junck force.
CANADA:
ICELAND: Iceland severs personal union with Denmark.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0548, the unescorted Rodney Star was hit in the stern by one of two torpedoes from U-105 about 420 miles WSW of Freetown. The ship was hit in the bow and amidships by two coup de grāce at 0620 and 0746, but remained afloat. The U-boat surfaced and fired 91 high explosive rounds and 22 incendiary rounds from the deck gun into the waterline. During this action, the deck gun on U-105 exploded, wounding six crewmembers. Shortly before the ship sank by the stern in 05°08N/19°15W at 0930, a shell exploded in the barrel which was tore apart and wounded six men of the gun crew. The survivors were picked up after six days by HMS Boreas and Batna and landed at Takoradi on 23 May.