5 Jun 1941
  • Germany announced that 15,000 British and Commonwealth prisoners of war were captured at Crete, Greece. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | TH]
  • Japanese luxury ocean liner Hikawa Maru departed Yokohama for Vancouver, with some Jewish refugees on board. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
  • German submarine U-48 sank British ship Wellfield 670 miles north of the Azores at 0131 hours; 8 were killed, 30 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • The German Kriegsmarine issued orders for 102 new submarines to be constructed. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British submarine HMS Triumph sank Italian gunboat Valoroso and two small transports, Frieda and Trio Frassinetti, off the coast of Libya with her deck gun. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British cruiser HMS London and destroyer HMS Brilliant, using Ultra intercepts, intercepted and attacked German tanker Egerland 700 miles southwest of Cape Verde islands. Egerland's crew scuttled the ship; all 94 aboard survived. ww2dbase [London | CPC]
  • Before dawn, German bombers attacked Birmingham, England, United Kingdom in the early hours of the day; the bombs mostly missed their targets and fell outside the city. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | CPC]
China
  • Japanese aircraft flew more than 20 sorties against Chongqing, China over a 3-hour period, dropping bombs on civilian sections of the city. In the Jiaochangkou air raid shelter tunnel, more than 1,000 Chinese died from asphyxiation. ww2dbase [Bombing of Shanghai, Chongqing, and other Cities | Chongqing | CPC]
Germany
  • Libelle was recommissioned into service. ww2dbase [F1 | CPC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Worker with a newly completed Bren gun at the John Inglis and Company factory, Toronto, Canada, 1940s


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