http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/may41/f18may41.htm
German battleship Bismark sets sail
Sunday, May 18, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the North Atlantic... The German battleship Bismark leaves Gdynia with the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen for an Atlantic cruise under Admiral Lutjens. Various supply ships are already at sea.
In Occupied Yugoslavia... The Duke of Spoleto is proclaimed king of the Kingdom of Croatia. He will never visit his kingdom.
In the Mediterranean... German air attacks on the island of Crete continue. These are in preparation for the coming landing and are designed to subdue the garrison and compel the RAF to withdraw its few aircraft from Crete.
In Iraq... After outflanking an Iraqi blocking force the British relieving group, Kingcol, reaches the Habbaniyah airfield.
In Syria... General Dentz broadcasts, warning his troops in Vichy French controlled Syria to meet force with force. Airfields in Syria are bombed again by the RAF.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/18.htm
May 18th, 1941
POLAND: Gdynia: The German battleship BISMARK and heavy cruisers Prinz Eugen, under fleet commander Admiral Lutjens, put to sea to raid the Atlantic. A simultaneous sortie by the two battlecruisers from Brest is fortunately prevented by the damage inflicted by the RAF.
U-126 collided in Danzig Bay with the German Seeburg and suffered severe damages. (Dave Shirlaw)
ITALY: Rome: The Duke of Spoleto accepts the crown of Croatia from a Croatian delegation; he will be King Tomislav I.
Count Ciano writes: “The Croatians arrive with Pavelich at their head. They are in good humour and well-disposed toward us. I should say that they are better disposed than the Albanians when they offered the crown. The ceremony is more or less the same as that with the Albanians. In the streets, few and undemonstrative people. Not many realize the importance of the event. When His Majesty designated the Duke of Spoleto and the delegates saw him, there was a murmur of approval among them. Let us hope that it will be the same when they hear him speak. Everything went in due form; also the signing of the Acts, the content of which seemed to those who had knowledge of them to bear a better political meaning than was expected. It now remains to be seen if what we have built will be lasting. Maybe I am mistaken in my personal impression, but there is a feeling in the air that Italian domination in Croatia is to be temporary. And this is why the public is indifferent...” (Mike Yaklich)
Rome: The Italian High Command announced:
Our counteroperations against the Allies in North Africa have been completely successful. The enemy has been forced to retreat. Large numbers of prisoners and supplies have falled into our hands. Our aerial formations have attacked Tobruk. We bombed defence installations, troop assemblies and motor vehicles in the sector west of Sollum and shot down a British bomber and two enemy fighters in aerial combat. British aircraft in the Aegean raided Rhodes, causing insignificant damage. At Amba Alagi in East Africa, our troops have put up a heroic resistance under the personal command of the Duke of Aosta. Combat conditions are worsening hourly due to the lack of material, the losses we have suffered and the impossibility of tending and evacuating the wounded. An enemy assault was repelled in the area around Galla and Sidamo (Ethiopia).
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: PO Alfred Edward Sephton (b. 1911), remained at his post during an air attack on HMS Coventry, despite a terrible wound; he later died. (VC)
SYRIA: Damascus: The German News Bureau announced:
IRAQ: British forces reach Habbaniyah Air Field in Iraq.
On Friday the Iraqi air force successfully bombed several [British] ships outside the port of Basra.
ETHIOPIA: Amba Alagi: 18,000 Italian troops under the Duke of Aosta, finding themselves in a hopeless plight in the East African desert war surrender to the Allies.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Baddeck commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 2227, the unescorted Piako was hit underneath the bridge by one torpedo from U-107 about 130 miles southwest of Freetown, stopped, sent distress signals and was abandoned by the crew. A coup de grâce was fired at 2243, which hit in the after part, broke off the stern and caused the ship to sink. Ten crewmembers were lost. The master, 62 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by HMS Bridgewater and landed at Freetown. (Dave Shirlaw)
"The Bismark and the Prinz Eugen left Gdynia on May 18 , and their movement north was quickly learned by British intelligence.
But British planes sent to find them failed to, and on May 22 Churchill appealed to Roosevelt for help, saying,'Should we fail to catch them going out, your navy should surely be able to mark them down for us... Give us the news and we will finish the job.'
"Churchill dramatized his appeal by saying, if the Bismark and Prinz Eugen reached the Atlantic,
'they would alter the whole course of the war.'
"Roosevelt responded by sending navy patrol bombers and coast guard cutters stationed in Newfoundland toward Iceland to join the hunt."
Victor, Pearl Harbor Myth page 181
The point of course, is that any semblance of US "neutrality" is by "now" just fiction.