What happened today? Part two.

MAY 1 , 1943

Lancaster 'H'

Self / Crew
S/L Young

To Manston - Base

2.00 Hrs.

 

MAY 2, 1943

Lancaster 'B'

Self/Crew

Low Level Recco

1.25 hrs.

 

MAY 3, 1943

Lancaster 'B'

Self / Crew

Low Level Bombing

Special attack

1.55 hrs.

[ 04. May 2003, 12:27 AM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ]

 

MAY 4, 1943

Lancaster 'B'

Self / Crew

Manston - low level - Base

1.50 hrs

 

MAY 5, 1943

Lancaster 'D'

Self / crew ( Dinghy )

Base - Grantham - Base

0.3 hrs.

======

Lancaster 'G'

Self / crew

Special Night Attack

3.00 hrs

 

MAY 6, 1943

Lancaster 'G'

Self / crew

Spotlight Flying at 60ft at night.

1.30 hrs.

 

MAY 6th, 1942

US fortress of Corregidor falls. All US forces in Phillipines surrender.

 

MAY 7, 1943.

Lancaster 'V'

Self / usual crew

To Manston - Base

1.50 hrs.

 

May 7th: VE-DAY

Germany surrenders. Peace-treaty signed.

 

Indeed, Erwin!



cover illustration from Time 1945/05/07

And this:

Before Trinity: The 100 Ton Test
May 7, 1945:

To help in preparing the instrumentation for the Trinity shot the "100 Ton Test" was fired on 7 May 1945. This test detonated 108 tons of TNT stacked on a wooden platform 800 yards from Trinity ground zero. The pile of high explosive was threaded with tubes containing 1000 curies of reactor fission products. This is the largest instrumented explosion conducted up to this date. The test allowed the calibration of instruments to measure the blast wave, and gave some indication of how fission products might be distributed by the explosion.

http://nuketesting.enviroweb.org/hew/Usa/Tests/Trinity.html

 

MAY 8, 1943

Oxford 'U'

Self / S/L Smith
To Hendon

1.30 hrs.

======

Vega ?

Self / F/Lt Cox
Hendon - Manston

1.00 hrs.

======

Oxford 'U'

S/L Smith / self.
Manston - base.

1.30 hrs.

 

10 Mai 1940

Germany attacks the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Belgium.

 

MAY 11, 1943

Lancaster 'G'

Self / usual crew

Low Level. Upkeep.
Dropped at 60ft. Good run of 600 yds.

3.00 hrs.

 

Ostfront

1942

Tuesday 12th : The Red Army falls back towards Kerch in the Crimea. Timoshenko’s offensive grinds forward into Army Group South with two pincer attacks, one Northwest out of the Izyum bulge by the 6th Red Army and the other West then Southwest by the 28th army from the Volchansk area, designed to converge west of Kharkov

1944

Friday 12th : The remains of German Seventeenth Army in Crimea are destroyed, with the Russians taking 36,000 Axis troops prisoner.

 

On 12th May, 1941, five weeks before the invasion of the Soviet Union the OKW urged upon Hitler a directive of the OKH that political commissars be liquidated by the Army. Keitel admitted the directive was passed on to field commanders. And on 13th May Keitel signed an order that civilians suspected of offences against troops should be shot without trial, and that prosecution of German soldiers for offences against civilians was unnecessary.

Afrika Korps:

13th May all Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered and over 150,000 were taken prisoner.

 

MAY 14, 1943

Lancaster 'G'

Self / usual crew

Bombing low level and V.H.F. test.

3.00 hrs.

======

Lancaster 'G'

Self / usual crew / G/C Whitworth D.S.O. D.F.C.

Full dress rehearsal on Uppingham Lake and Colchester reservoir.
Completely successfull.

3.05 hrs.

 

14th May 1940

The city of Rotterdam was bombed by 84 Heinkel HE-111. This action led General Winkelman, the Dutch CinC, To surrender after the Germans threatened to do the same to other cities.

 

May 14, 1945

Five days after the official cease-fire, the final German forces surrender. Encircled in East Prussia, the few remaining soldiers under general Saucken surrender to the Soviets.

 

Thursday, May 15, 1941 www.onwar.com

In North Africa... Wavell begins an operation code named Brevity. It is designed to capture Halfaya Pass and gain ground leading to the more open areas of the Cyrenaica Plateau. The information which has been received from the interception of German signals, especially from the recent reports of General Paulus on the situation in Africa, has convinced Churchill that the German forces are weak and overextended. General Gott commands the Brevity operation. His plan calls for mixed columns to advance to Halfaya Pass and Fort Capuzzo and for a tank force to move to Sidi Aziz. On the first day the forces on the coast reach and capture Halfaya, but the 22nd Guards Brigade is held up in heavy fighting at Capuzzo. The tank force on the left makes good ground initially but the approach of the German 8th Panzer Regiment causes the British to decide to withdraw during May 16th.

In the Mediterranean... There are powerful German air attacks on the island of Crete. 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.

 

15th May 1940

2nd Lt Richard Wallace Annand,2nd Btn Durham Light Infantry won the first Victoria Cross of WW2 at the River Dyle in Belgium.

Although he survived the action and is still alive at 88 yrs old,he was left profoundly deaf due to the close exposure to Artillery,Grenades and Machine Gun Fire.

Paul