UNITED KINGDOM: The USAAF VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 57.

- 113 B-17s are dispatched against various targets in Germany as well as airfield and naval installations on Helgoland Island and the naval base and submarine construction works at Wilhelmshaven; 76 bomb the targets at 1050-1055 hours local and claim 29-20-30 Luftwaffe aircraft destroyed; five B-17s are lost. 80 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yard, marshalling yard and airfield at Emden; 59 bomb at 1056-1103 hours local and claim 14-3-1 Luftwaffe aircraft; one B-17 is lost.

- 116 P-47 Thunderbolts are dispatched on a high altitude sweep of the Amsterdam/Rotterdam area in the Netherlands prior to the bombing raids; they claim two Luftwaffe aircraft damaged; one P-47 is lost.

Submarine HMS Verve laid down.

FRANCE: General Delestraint, chief of the Secret Army (AS) moves to the Vercors area. He starts to organize a vast partisan area, with the co-operation of Pierre Dalloz. (Yanni Karadi)

GERMANY:

YUGOSLAVIA: Axis forces in Yugoslavia today launched their fifth offensive against aimed at smashing local resistance. Operation Black, as it is called, is the biggest offensive so far against the partisans, and promises to be the most savage.

Axis troops have been ordered to move "with utmost brutality" against "the hostile population". Four German and Italian divisions are supported by Bulgarian troops and the Ustachi, the notorious Croatian irregulars. In all 120,000 men are lined up against a much smaller force of guerrilla fighters.

The Germans and their allies are using new tactics. Until now they have advanced along main roads; but now they are using Tito's methods, advancing across the countryside, often by night.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Stalin has decided to disband the Comintern, the Communist International organization which controls foreign communist parties. The timing of the announcement, which will take effect in a  week, is significant. The Grand Alliance against the Axis powers came under strain last month when Moscow broke with the Polish government in exile in London over the Katyn atrocity.

This row still simmers, despite attempts to patch it up ten days ago, and observers believe that Stalin wishes to reassure the west that notions of exporting revolution have been abandoned, and that any countries liberated by the USSR will be allowed to choose their own regimes, undisturbed by Moscow.

Soon after the German invasion in 1941, Comintern offices were moved from Moscow to Ufa, just west of the Urals, and rumours surfaced in Moscow suggesting that the organization was being disbanded. But it continued its activities under the veteran Bolshevik Dmitry Manuilsky, the Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov and the Italian Palmiro Togliatti. Many westerners familiar with Stalin's methods doubt whether the Comintern will in fact now be dissolved.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: On Attu in the Aleutians, the fog lifts at 1100 hours and elements of the Northern Landing Force move forward. They find that the Japanese has withdrawn from the reverse slope of Hill X to Moore Ridge in the center of Holtz Valley leaving food and ammunition behind. This pullback permits the Provisional Battalion, which has been pinned down since D-Day, to link up with the 1st Battalion, 17th Infantry and the 3d Battalion, 32d Infantry. 

As the American troops enter the valley to the north of Moore Ridge, the clear skies permit Japanese troops to place accurate fire on them. The Southern Landing Force again attacks Jarmin Pass but is repulsed. On Adak, the reported situation on Attu appeared grim. Of special interest was the exposed position of theUSNships supporting the Army on the island; a Japanese submarine has already fire torpedoes at a battleship and there are reports that a Japanese task force is enroute to challenge the landings. The Navy advises the Army that the support ships will be withdrawn no later than 17 May.

Weather again curtails air operations. The air-ground liaison B-24 observes and directs air operations at Attu throughout the day as visibility permits and directs a supply drop for ground forces by another B-24 in two air-ground support missions. Six B-24s bomb Holtz Bay and Chichagof Harbor and 6 P-38s strafe AA installations in the Holtz Bay area.

CANADA: Destroyer HMCS Athabaskan laid down Halifax, Nova Scotia.

U.S.A.: Washington: The TRIDENT Conference between President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill and the Combined Chiefs of Staff begins in Washington, D.C.

CARIBBEAN SEA: The Cuban subchaser CS-13, with the assistance of a US Kingfisher, sank U-176 off the north coast of Cuba. (Keith Allen)(68)

A task force of Cuban sub chasers formed by CS-11, CS-13 and CS-12 was sailing from Isabela de Sagua in the Sabana Archipelago en route to Havana escorting the Honduran merchant ship SS Wanks and the Cuban SS Camagüey, both transporting sugar. The crews were on maximum alert. Shortly before casting off they had received communication that a submarine had been seen surfacing north of Matanzas. The merchant ships were sailing side by side 500 yards apart, with the Camagüey closer to shore. The escorts were 750 to 1,000 yards away. At the vanguard was the CS-12, followed by the CS-11, which was the flagship, and the CS-13 at the rear of the small convoy. At 17:15, when the ships were sailing by Mégano Key, a US Navy Kingfisher flew over them. The plane dived and flying at low altitude circled twice gunning and killing its engine in order to signal in the pre-established code the presence of an enemy submarine. The leader of the sub-chaser task force ordered the captain of the CS-13, Ensign Mario Ramírez Delgado, to explore the area pointed at by the plane. Years ago Ramírez told me about his actions at the time. The CS-13 sped to the area. After some minutes the hydro acoustics equipment gave a sounding of a loud and clear contact 900 yards away. It was the sub taking evasive action. The attack was on. At the proper range three depth charges were dropped aft of the sub-chaser, set to explode at 100, 150 and 250 feet, according to the calculated immersion rate of the submarine. Four explosions were detected. The fourth one "probably by proximity of one or more of the submarine’s torpedo warheads" was so potent that the Cuban sub chaser’s stern was submerged and water flooded the engine room through the hatch. At that moment through the hydrophones a noise similar to liquid entering a submerged recipient was heard. Immediately a slowly diminishing whistling was also heard. They were the evidence that the sub had been hit. To finish it off, the CS-13 dropped a couple of more charges set for 250 feet and continued exploring. After a few minutes a lookout discovered a dark stain on the water. A black and viscous substance reeking of diesel oil surfaced from the bottom. Ramírez ordered a hand to take a sample as proof of the sub’s sinking. After patrolling the area and failing further detection, the sub chaser went back to the convoy, which had continued its route. For reasons unknown, the Cuban government at the time decided to silence the action. That was the last thing that Ensign Mario Ramírez told me. At the end of the Second World War when the German Navy files were captured, it was known that the U-Boat that had been operating in the area in those days had been the U-176, commanded by Kapitänleutenant Reiner Dierksen. In 1946 Ramírez Delgado, who had been promoted to Lieutenant Jr. Grade, was decorated with the Medal of Naval Merit. His success was also acknowledged by Rear Admiral Samuel E. Morrison, the US Navy’s official historian in his book History of US Naval Operations in World War II¸ where he also praised the expertise and efficiency of Cuban seamen. CS was small wooden boats with a length of 83 ft, a 45-ton displacement and a crew of 12. Maximum speed was 18 knots. They were armed with a 20-mm cannon and 8 depth charges of 325 lb. The boats had been recently leased to Cuba by the US government and the crews had been trained in the United States. The U-176 commanded by Captain Reiner Dierksen was an IXC Class 1,540 ton submarine with a little over 250 ft. Maximum speed was 18.2 knots on the surface and 7.3 submerged. It could go down to 775 ft. The submarine could load 22 torpedoes (other sources say 12) and 44 mines. It was armed with one cannon and two antiaircraft machine guns. At the time it was sunk there were 53 men aboard, three short of its full crew. None survived. The U-176 had sunk 11 ships for a total tonnage of 53.307 tons. By the end of the war the German submarine fleet had lost three out of four of its vessels. It was the service with the greatest losses.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-266 sunk in the North Atlantic in position 45.28N, 10.20W, by depth charges from an RAF 58 Sqn Halifax. 47 dead (all hands lost).

At 2043, the unescorted Maroussio Logotheti was hit by two torpedoes from U-105 and sank immediately. The ship had been missed by a first torpedo, which detonated prematurely. The second officer was taken prisoner by the U-boat, transferred four days later to U-460 and landed at Bordeaux on 25 June.

At 1219, U-607 fired a spread of two torpedoes at the unescorted Irish Oak and hit her twice under the bridge after 2 minutes 10 seconds. After the crew had abandoned ship, she was sunk by a coup de grâce at 1331.

U-591 was hit with machine gun fire from an RAF 10 Sqn Whitley that wounded the Commander and one seaman. The boat had to abort its 3 day-old patrol and returned to St Nazaire 2 days later.