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May 4th, 1943 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: U-218 laid 15 mines in the North Channel, but without any result.
Submarine HMS Venturer launched.
Escort carrier HMS Vindex launched.
(Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: An RAF raid on Dortmund kills 693 people, the highest number of fatalities in a single raid so far.
General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland flies the 4th prototype ME-262 (code PC+UD werknummer 262 000004).
U-345 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: British destroyers sink the Italian merchant ship CAMPOBASSO, taking supplies to Tunisia.
U.S.A.:
Minesweeper USS Scuffle laid down.
Destroyer escort USS Steele commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Lorient, a straggler from Convoy ONS-5, was torpedoed and sunk by U-125 south of Cape Farewell. The master and 39 crewmembers were lost.
At 1418, the Panam was hit by one torpedo from U-129 off the coast of North Carolina. The ship had become a straggler from Convoy NK-538 since 0700 the same day due to engine troubles. The torpedo hit on the port side in the engine room, completely wrecking it and killing two crewmembers on watch below. Six minutes later a second torpedo struck on the port side amidships, wrecking the pumproom and caused the ship to sink at 1455. The remaining 35 crewmembers and 14 armed guards abandoned ship in three lifeboats and were picked up by submarine chaser USS SC-664 about 2000 and landed four hours later at Morehead City, North Carolina.
The II WO on U-601 was killed in a machine gun misfire.
U-109 sunk south of Ireland, in position 47.22N, 22.40W, by 4 depth charges from an RAF 86 Sqn Liberator. 52 dead (all hands lost).
U-439 sunk at 0030 in the North Atlantic, west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 43.32N, 13.20W, in a collision with U-659. 40 dead and 9 survivors.
U-659 sunk at 0030 after a collision with U-439. 44 dead and 3 survivors.
A Canso from RCAF 5 Sqn attacked and damaged U-209, Kptlt Heinrich Brodda, CO, in the North Atlantic, 270 NM south of Cape Farewell, in approximate position 52.00N, 032.00W. It is thought that U-209 was lost three days later, on 07 May, in a diving accident that may have been related to the damage inflicted in the earlier attack. There were no survivors from U-209’s crew of 46 men. U-209 was a medium-range Type VIIC U-boat, built by Germaniawerft, at Kiel. She was commissioned on 11 Oct 41. U-209 conducted nine patrols and compiled a record of four ships sunk for a total of 1,356 tons. Kptlt Heinrich Brodda was her only commanding officer. Heinrich Brodda was born in 1903, at Altenessen, Essen. He joined the navy in 1921. His first operational duty was from Jun 39 to Jan 40 in the U-boat tender Lech. Next, he was promoted to Kapitanleutnant and assigned as the commander of the R-class patrol boat depot ship Nettlebeck. In Nov 41 he was assigned as the commander of the escort vessel F-6. Kptlt. Brodda transferred to the U-boat force in Mar 41 and underwent conversion training until Jul 41, when he was immediately selected for command and assigned to the 24th U-Flotilla for his U-boat Commander’s Course. He was assigned to commission U-209 on 11 Oct 42, at the age of 39. Heinrich Brodda is officially listed as missing after U-209 disappeared east of Newfoundland. (Dave Shirlaw)
Tom Harmon is probably the best football player Michigan ever produced. He credited his "football legs" with giving him the strength to escape the South American jungle in which his plane crashed. He survived a second crash in China.
Harmon gave the NFL a try, but his wartime wounds had taken a toll. He went into a sportscasting career in Los Angeles.
He is the father of actor Mark Harmon.