May 27th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: The first catapult equipped merchantman, the steamship 'Michael E' puts to sea, with its complement of two Hurricanes. It is later sunk by torpedo.FRANCE: Paris: The Vichy vice-premier, Admiral darlan, signs the "Paris Protocols", giving Germany access to Syrian and Lebanese military facilities and naval bases at Tunis and Dakar.
GREECE: CRETE: The Allied commander General Freyberg receives orders to evacuate the island.
The town of Chania falls.
As HMS Barham covers a supply mission, she is damaged by air attack to the northwest of Alexandria. Canea and Suda fall to the Germans.
EGYPT: Rommel recaptures the Halfaya Pass from British troops who have held the Pass for the last two weeks. He sent in three battle groups. The Coldstream Guards lost 100 men.
U.S.A.:
Washington: Roosevelt today warned America of Nazi designs on the Americas. He promised
to extend US patrols in the Atlantic to protect the sea-lanes to Britain, and announced
that he had proclaimed an "unlimited national emergency." requiring that its
military, naval, air and civilian defenses be put on the basis of readiness to repel any
and all acts or threats of aggression directed toward any part of the Western Hemisphere.
the US was rearming only for self-defence, he said.
He also declares that labour and capital must defer to government mediation processes "without stoppage of work."
Joseph Grew, US Ambassador to Japan, writes Hull to advise that war was inevitable if the diplomatic talks between the US and Japan broke down. (Marc Small)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The Bismarck is sunk by ships and planes of the Royal Navy with
the loss of some 2300 lives and 110 survivors. The loss of this ship will be debated. The Germans maintain the scuttled, the British of course maintain the BISMARK was sunk. (Ray Cresswell) King George V, Rodney and BISMARK all open fire around 08.45. Only the German ship is hit and by 10.15 she is a blazing wreck, after being pounded with 16-inch and 14-inch guns from ever-decreasing range. BISMARK still remained afloat thanks to her honeycomb pattern of watertight compartments which her designers claimed made her unsinkable. The big ships were running out of fuel and were ordered home. Heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire, having left convoy SL74 the previous day, fires torpedoes to finish her off, but the BISMARK's captain has already ordered her to be scuttled. BISMARK sinks at 10.35 to the southwest of Ireland, the 2,200 men who died included Admiral Lutjens and her captain, Ernst Lindemann. HMS Norfolk is there at the end. The Dorsetshire and other British ships stood by to pick up survivors - but made off when told a U-boat was in the vicinity. 110 of the BISMARK's crew survived.HMCS St Clair (ex USS Williams) and HMS Mashona attacked by 5 German bombers, west of Galway Bay, Ireland. Mashona capsized and sunk, survivors picked up by St Clair. (Tom Carlson)
At 0101, the Colonial, dispersed from Convoy OB-318, was hit by one torpedo from U-107 and sank after a coup de grāce at 0146 about 200 miles WNW of Freetown. The master, the convoy commodore (Rear Admiral W.B. Mackenzie RN), 88 crewmembers, six naval staff members and four gunners were picked up by target ship (ex-battleship) HMS Centurion and landed at Freetown. (DS)