Posted on 05/03/2011 5:11:01 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
#1 – “Amapola” ((Pretty Little Poppy) - Jimmy Dorsey, with Bob Eberly and Helen O’Connell
#2 - “Oh Look at Me Now” - Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#3 - “Dolores” – Bing Crosby and the Merry Macs
#4 - “G’Bye Now” – Horace Heidt, with Ronnie Kemper
#5 - “I’ll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time” – The Andrews Sisters
#6 – “Alexander the Swoose,” - Kay Kyser, with Harry, Ginny, Jack and Max
#7 - “Intermezzo” – Wayne King
#8 - “Perfidia” - Xavier Cugat
#9 - “Everything Happens to Me” – Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
#10 – “Do I Worry” – Tommy Dorsey, with Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/may41/f03may41.htm
Allies attacking in Abyssinia
Saturday, May 3, 1941 www.onwar.com
In East Africa... The British forces begin attacks from the north against the Italian positions at Amba Alagi. These positions guard passes in the road between Asmara and Addis Ababa. They are based on a number of steep and rugged hills and there are numerous caves. The position is very strong.
In Iraq... There are British attacks on the Iraqi positions around Habbaniyah and by air on the Iraqi Rashid airfield.
At least back in the day the USA HAD an industrial base to run 24/7. Free Trade™ has made sure in the next big one, we will be defenseless.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
May 3rd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Belfast: The city suffers a heavy night bombing raid.
Liverpool: The city’s worst night of bombing leaves the city centre a field of brick and rubble, killing over 400.
An ammunition ship, the Malakand, loaded with 1,000 tons of bombs and shells intended for the Middle East, was set on fire by a blazing barrage balloon which fell onto her decks. The resulting explosion blew Huskisson Dock to pieces and sank six other ships. Parts of the ship’s plates were found over two miles away. An ammunition train also caught fire and was shunted to a siding by railwaymen as the ammunition was exploding.
SS Europa (10,224 GRT), Canadian Government passenger-freighter an ex-Danish registered ship, was sunk by Luftwaffe bombers while alongside in Liverpool, England. There were no casualties. Europa was being employed as a troopship at the time of her loss. The vessel was raised and moved to a drydock for repairs. A few days after entering the dock, she was hit by bombers again and totally destroyed, along with the dock. The ship was buried when the dock was filled in with rubble and abandoned. Luftwaffe night raids on Liverpool began on 01 May and continued for the next seven nights. Seventy-six thousand people are made homeless and 3,000 were killed or injured, leading to charges of terror bombing and retaliation by the RAF. However, the docks, which were the actual target, did suffer extensive damage. Sixty-nine out of 144 deep water berths were put out of action, and the total tonnage of cargo landed was down by 75 percent by the end of the seventh night, an impressive result considering the accuracy of such attack at the time. German naval analysis of the British economic dependence on imported goods had identified port infrastructure and distribution systems as critical vulnerabilities, in addition to the shipping itself. The Luftwaffe did assign some assets to attack these targets early in the war and scored some significant successes. The pressure was not maintained and the effects were only transient. Herman Goering had a strong dislike for the Kriegsmarine and resisted any efforts at joint target co-ordination. Luftwaffe support to Kriegsmarine operations was poor throughout the war, despite the obvious accuracy of naval staff assessments. (Dave Shirlaw)
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: Two Blenheims of 101 Sqn are lost attacking shipping off Boulogne for no result.
The Daily Express editorial berates the ‘fairy tales’ circulating the popular press, ie ‘1. The German army is rotting in Holland; 2. there is mutiny among U-boat crews; 3. Russia is going to fight Germany.’
Minesweeping trawler HMS ALBERIC sunk in collision off Scapa Flow.
Minesweeping trawler HMS ROSALIND launched.
Submarine HMS P-32 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: U-205 and U-451 are commissioned.
U-116 and U-654 are launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
MALTA: Submarine HMS USK sailed for a patrol off the northwest coast of Sicily on 19 April 1941. ASW activity was intense and USK was ordered to alter her position. What happened to Usk is not known but she is most likely mined in the vicinity of Cape Bon some time after 25 April 1941. She was reported overdue today. (Dave Shirlaw)
ETHIOPIA: Heavy fighting between the Allies and the Italians breaks out in Amba Alagi.
IRAQ: British troops attack on Iraqi positions around the Habbaniyah Airfield.
Air attacks are mounted against the Rashid airfield.
The German ambassador in Baghdad received his orders. He was to obtain permission from the Vichy French government to transport aircraft and equipment to Iraq via Syria. The Vichy government not only gave transit permission but immediately transported almost all the French war material stored in Syria, to Iraq.
The American United Press News Agency reported:
A reliable source confirmed tonight in London that Rashid Ali al Gailani has asked Hitler for help against the British troops in Iraq, but he is believed to have initiated hostilities prematurely so that he is unlikely to play a role in future German war plans. The special military significance of Iraq lies in its oil, which supplies the British Mediterranean fleet and the Mediterranean based units of the Royal Air Force with a large part of their fuel.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS BROOME is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The motion picture “Meet John Doe” is released in the U.S. Directed by Frank Capra, the film stars Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington, James Gleason and Gene Lockhart. Cooper plays a naïve man who is hired to head a national goodwill drive that will promote Arnold, a corrupt politician. The film was nominated for a Best Writing Academy Award. (Jack McKillop)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS WRAY CASTLE is sunk by U-103 at 06.48N, 13.55W, off Sierra Leone.
MS Taranager sunk by U-95 at 61.07N, 25.20W in the North Atlantic southwest of Iceland. On May 5 the Icelandic motor boat Sigurfari MB 95 saved 17 men of the Norwegian freighter that had been torpedoed 2 days before. The men had manned two lifeboats that and all survived except the captain who had been hit during the attack. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 611 May 3, 1941
Libya. Italian torpedo boat Canopo and Italian steamers Birmania & Citta D’ Bari are sunk by RAF bombing at Tripoli. British submarine HMS Triumph sinks Italian coastal steamer Tugnin F. with gunfire off Mersa Brega but submarine HMS Usk does not return from patrol between Sicily and Tunisia (all 30 hands lost). General Morshead’s defense in depth has contained the German breakthrough at Tobruk and he goes onto the offensive to pinch out the German salient. After dark, Australian troops and British light tanks attack under a creeping barrage from artillery and British destroyers HMS Decoy & Defender in the Mediterranean. Their advance is held up by German machinegunners (preventing the infantry from keeping up with the barrage) and the attack is called off at 3.30 AM with 150 Allied casualties.
Iraq. Iraqi artillery on the plateau begins shelling RAF Habbaniya at dawn. The muzzle flashes allow spotters to locate the guns which are then bombed and strafed. RAF again bombs the air force base at Rashid airfield near Baghdad (previously RAF Hinaidi) and an Iraqi Savoia SM 79 bomber is shot down heading for Habbaniya.
Ethiopia, East Africa. 29th Indian Brigade, 5th Indian Division (which has advanced South from Eritrea) attacks up the Falaga Pass towards Italian fortifications at Amba Alagi. Although the attack is a feint, Italian troops are diverted from other approaches and British artillery causes several hundred Italian colonial troops surrender.
At 3.25 AM 200 miles Southwest of Iceland, U-95 sinks Norwegian MV Taranger (1 killed, 32 survivors escape in lifeboats). At 10.23 PM 75 miles off Sierra Leone, U-103 sinks British SS Wray Castle (1 killed, 56 survivors).
At 2.24 AM, British cruiser HMS Gloucester hits a mine and at 1.25 PM she is attacked by Italian bombers (a bomb hits the stern but does not explode). HMS Gloucester suffers only minor damage and will arrival at Gibraltar tomorrow.
Liverpool Blitz. Overnight, Germans bomb Merseyside docks, sinking numerous freighters. A deflated barrage balloon ignites freighter SS Malakand, loaded with 1000 tons of shells and bombs. The explosion completely destroys part of Huskisson Dock (4 killed). The ship’s anchor weighing 2 tons lands 1.5 miles away outside Bootle General Hospital. Luftwaffe also bombs Portsmouth, damaging cruiser HMS Sirius which is under construction.
Goering had been in a long running argument with Raeder over a proposed Naval air arm, regarding both long range and,Stuka, and fighter planes [for the GRAF ZEPPELIN aircraft carrier]. It took Hitler’s personal intervention to get some Luftwaffe assets put under Naval control [FW Condors for recon over the Atlantic -and some attacks; torpedo squadrons for Norway].
But Goering won his fight. All air assets remained his. He won. Germany lost.
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