May 30th, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: During conferences with RAF Air Chief Marshall Sir Charles F Portal, Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF, presents "Programme of Arrival of US Army Air Forces in the United Kingdom" providing for 66 combat groups, exclusive of observation squadrons, by March 1943.
Corvette HMS Balsam launched.
Frigate HMS Test launched.
BELGIUM: F/O Leslie Thomas Manser (b.1922), of No. 50 Squadron flew his badly-shot-up Avro Manchester bomber as far as he could from Germany before telling his crew to bale out; he went down with his plane. (Victoria Cross)(22)
GERMANY:
ARCTIC OCEAN: Three Russian destroyers joined up with convoy, PQ-16 today to help escort it through the last stage of what has been the most hazardous Arctic journey so far.
The convoy - with 35 ships - the biggest yet on this run, set sail on 21 May for Murmansk and Archangel. For the last three days it has been hammered by no fewer than 260 German aircraft.
The convoy was joined on 25 May by a force of four British cruisers, HMS Norfolk, HMS NIGERIA, HMS KENT and HMS LIVERPOOL, for the earliest part of its journey. The cruisers left early on 27 May, before the main attacks, led by Heinkel He-111 torpedo-bombers and Junkers JU87 dive-bombers, began. Only one ship has been sunk by U-boat, but six have succumbed to air attack.
At this time of year there is virtually 24-hour daylight in the Arctic, and there has been no respite from the devastating air attack for 72 hours. Nevertheless, 93,000 tons of new war material have been delivered to the USSR, including 320 tanks, 125 aircraft and 2,500 military vehicles.
NORTH AFRICA: Rommel pulls his panzers into a tight defensive position that becomes known as the "Cauldron", a small area between Sidra and Aslagh, and continues to fight.INDIAN OCEAN: The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-10 launches a Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 Small Reconnaissance Seaplane, Allied Code Name "Glen," to fly a reconnaissance mission over Diego Suarez, Madagascar.
The Harbor of Diego Suarez: Nightfall on with the sky clear, bright and a full moon. Some reports suggest that the midget submarine from I-16 was unsuccessful in getting into the harbour. This statement is not supported by eyewitness reports from crewmembers on both the British Loyalty and HMS Ramillies. Both reported seeing the conning towers of two small submarines in the harbour around the time of the attack. The midget submarine from I-20 was definitely in the harbour and at 2025 hours started a torpedo attack. It almost immediately scored a hit on HMS Ramillies, which blasted a 30ft by 30ft hole in her port bulge.
It caused severe flooding to a number of decks as well as power and communication failures within the vessel. In spite of HMS Ramillies' severe damage there were no fatalities on board and injuries were limited to one broken arm and some bumps, bruising and concussion. The torpedo had passed very close to the stern of the tanker British Loyalty on its path to the Ramillies.
Having witnessed the attack on the Ramillies, the Master of the British Loyalty ordered her crew to get all the boats out and heave up the anchor. He then rang the Engine Room Telegraph signalling "standby". It was now nearly an hour since the first attack and the Loyalty was just beginning to move aft, away from her original forward anchor point.
Signalman Harry Barnet was watching from the deck of HMS Ramillies and was horrified to see the track of a second torpedo, which appeared to be
heading directly towards his ship. As he looked out he could see British Loyalty, just underway, going astern and directly into the torpedo's path. It was now 2120 hours and the tanker was hit in the after part of the engine room and caught the full blast of the weapon that had been intended for the Battleship. The crew on the midget from I-20 had fired their second torpedo.
The stern of British Loyalty began to sink rapidly and her Master, R. Wastell, gave the order to "Abandon Ship". If this second torpedo had hit the already badly damaged Ramillies, this elderly battleship would have certainly sunk.
Nearly all the Ramillies' crew were engaged in stemming the flow of water through the damaged hull and pumping out the flooded decks.
They also had the delicate task of removing bombs, shells and bullets from the flooded ammunition stores.
In the meantime the British Loyalty had sunk to the bottom of the harbour in around 67 feet of water with only part of her funnel visible above the surface. Her stern was now firmly embedded in the harbour mud.
After the attack, the two-man crew of the midget submarine from I-20 attempted to leave the harbour, but in their haste and due to defective steering, grounded the midget on a reef. They abandoned their craft, swam ashore and started to walk across the barren countryside of Northern Madagascar in an attempt to reach the agreed rendezvous point with their mother submarine I-20 near the thickly wooded hills of Cape Amber. They also knew I-20 would wait for two days at the pick up point before finally departing. (Denis Peck)
JAPAN: A Japanese task force consisting of two light aircraft carriers and two troop transports departs northern Honshu Island for the Aleutian Islands.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: U.S. Navy Task Force 17, consisting of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), departs Pearl Harbor to join Task Force 16 northeast of Midway Island. The Yorktown Air Group consists of Bombing Squadron Three (VB-3) with Douglas SBD Dauntlesses, VB-5 with SBDs, Fighting Squadron Three (VF-3) with Grumman F4F Wildcats, and Torpedo Squadron Three (VT-3) with Douglas TBD Devastators.
The USAAF's 7th Air Force in the Territory of Hawaii dispatches six B-17 Flying Fortresses to Midway Island to reinforce the fifteen that are already there.
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMCS Noranda arrived Halifax from builder Quebec City, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Fred T. Korematsu, a welder from Oakland, California, is jailed in San Leandro for refusing to join family members who had reported to a nearby racetrack that is being used as a temporary detention centre. He will later take the United States' government to court over internment of Americans of Japanese descent.
Submarine USS Runner launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: An unarmed U.S. merchant freighter is sunk by the submarine U-404.
At 0651, the unescorted Baghdad was hit by a torpedo from U-155, the gun fell over and eight men were killed and several badly injured. Shortly after two lifeboats had been lowered, another torpedo hit in the middle of the ship and she sank within minutes east of Martinique. One of the injured men died later in a lifeboat.
At 1024, lookouts on the unarmed and unescorted Alcoa Shipper spotted the U-404 surfacing about 500 miles east of Cape Charles, Virginia. Despite using two different zigzag patterns, just then one torpedo struck the starboard side at the fireroom and caused the boiler to explode. The vessel immediately stopped and settled within five minutes, so fast that the two lifeboats being launched became fouled and went down with the ship. Three men were killed on the watch below and four others drowned. 25 out of a total crew of eight officers and 24 crewmen abandoned ship on three rafts that released themselves. The U-boat approached the survivors; the Germans questioned them and then gave several bottles of rum, cigarettes and a pair of dungarees for a man who had escaped with little clothing. 56 hours later five officers and 20 men were picked up by the Norwegian SS Margrethe Bakke and landed in New York on 3 June.
The Canadian Markland Shipping coastal freighter Liverpool Packet (1,188 GRT), Captain N.E. Smith, Master, was torpedoed and sunk west of Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, in position 43.20N, 066.20W, by U-432, OLtzS. Heinz-Otto Schultze, Knight's Cross, CO. Two men were lost from her crew of twenty-three men. Liverpool Packet was proceeding alone from New York City for Newfoundland with a cargo of ‘US Government supplies’ when she was torpedoed. The ship broke in two and sank quickly. The crew was questioned about their cargo and destination by the bridge staff of U-432, which derisively sang ‘There’ll Always Be An England’ as they departed. The survivors rowed to Cape Sable Island, where they were rescued.