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• Georg von Küchler was born in the Philippsruhe castle in Hanau in the Province of Hesse-Nassau, Kingdom of Prussia. ww2dbase [Georg von Küchler | Hanau | CPC]

30 May 1881 Interactive Map

• Xia Chuzhong was born in Wutang, Taojiang County, Hunan Province, China ww2dbase [Xia Chuzhong | Wutang, Hunan | CPC]

• Richard O'Connor was Mentioned in Despatches. ww2dbase [Richard O'Connor | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell was made the Assistant Executive at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | Columbus, Georgia | CPC]

30 May 1924 Interactive Map

• The colourful radical nationalist Moeller van den Bruck (author of the 1923 book "The Third Reich" - soon to be utilised to describe Germany under the Hitler Regime) shot himself whilst confined in a psychiatric hospital. ww2dbase [AC]

• USS S-26 departed Hawaii. ww2dbase [S-26 | CPC]
• USS S-29 departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [S-29/P556 | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell stepped down as the Assistant Executive at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | Columbus, Georgia | CPC]

30 May 1925 Interactive Map

• Reinhard Heydrich's discharge from the German Navy became legally binding. ww2dbase [Reinhard Heydrich | CPC]

• German President Paul von Hindenburg met with Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | CPC]

• He Yingqin stepped down as a member of the treasury committee. ww2dbase [He Yingqin | CPC]

• Joseph Stilwell stepped down as the Chief of First Section (Tactics) at Fort Benning, Georgia, United States. ww2dbase [Joseph Stilwell | Columbus, Georgia | CPC]

30 May 1933 Interactive Map

• Rejecting the authority of the new Reich Bishop, representatives of almost half of the Evangelical Churches in Germany met at Barmen in Westphalia where they declared a break-away Confessing Church (Bekenntniskirche) founded upon a theological declaration drafted by Karl Barth and two other young clergymen in a hotel room in Frankfurt-am-Main a few days before. ww2dbase [AC]

• 1,500 Uyghurs led by Kichik Akhund captured the Old City district of Kashgar, Xinjiang, China. ww2dbase [Xinjiang Wars | Kashgar, Xinjiang | CPC]

30 May 1937 Interactive Map

• German generals updated the Case Green military scenario, which was now being used as an invasion plan for Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Munich Conference and the Annexation of Sudetenland | CPC]

• Hideki Tojo stepped down as the chief of staff of Kenkichi Ueda (Japanese Kwantung Army in northeastern China). ww2dbase [Hideki Tojo | CPC]

• Chinese Ambassador to Germany Cheng Tianfang's resignation was accepted by the Chinese foreign ministry. ww2dbase [Cheng Tianfang | Berlin | CPC]

30 May 1939 Interactive Map

• The British Admiralty ordered all modern destroyers to leave Dunkerque, France due to the previous day's losses by German Luftwaffe, leaving 18 older destroyers to continue the evacuation; 24,311 were rescued from the harbor and 29,512 were rescued from the nearby beaches on this date. Despite poor weather, German aircraft damaged destroyers HMS Anthony and HMS Sabre, minesweeper HMS Kellet, armed boarding vessel HMS King Orry, and steamers St. Julien & Normannia. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC]
• Allied troops began pushing German troops from the Narvik, Norway region back toward the Swedish border. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | CPC]
• President Roosevelt rejected a request from US Ambassador to France William Bullitt of 28 May 1940, which asked for an American fleet to move into the Mediterranean Sea. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, who communicated the rejection to Bullitt, added that the "presence of the fleet in the Pacific at this time is a very practical contribution to the maintenance of peace in the Pacific". ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• US Minister in Uruguay Edwin C. Wilson reported to his superiors Washington DC, United States noting Nazi German leanings in the public sentiment. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The 1,298-ton French destroyer Bourrasque was steaming away from the French coast with 600 French soldiers that it had picked up. A captured coastal gun section at Nieupoort, Belgium opened fire and hit the ship as she steered five miles from the harbour buoy. The Bourrasque took on water rapidly after an explosion in the stern area. Panic broke out amongst the overcrowded soldiers and many had to jump into the sea after lifeboats either failed to launch or capsized. Ships in the area came in to help and some 550 sailors and soldiers were pulled to safety, many covered in oil and injured. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC, HM]

• German submarine U-101 struck unescorted 4,831-ton British merchant steamer Stanhall on the starboard side under the bridge with one torpedo 35 miles north-northwest of Ushant, Finistère, Bretagne, France at 1925 hours, killing 1. She sank within eleven minutes. 36 survivors, including the master, were rescued by British steamer Temple Moat, and they would later be landed at Weymouth, England, United Kingdom. The ship was carrying 7,630 tons of raw sugar and 350 tons of onions. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | Ushant, Bretagne | CPC, HM]
• The 3,236-ton French steamship Monique Schiaffino was bombed and sunk by German aircraft on at Dunkerque, France. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | HM]
• The 393-ton former Royal Mail Steam Packet Company paddle steamer Gracie Fields, serving in the capacity of a minesweeper since 1939 and damaged off Dunkerque, France on the previous day, sank while under tow early in the morning. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | HM]
• The Devonia, a side paddle steamer that had previously been requisitioned by the British Admiralty, came under heavy artillery fire and bombs from Stuka dive bombers as she approached the embarkation jetty by the beaches at Dunkerque, France. The ship had to be abandoned and beached. Her wreckage is still to be found on the beach. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Dunkerque, Nord-Pas-de-Calais | HM]

• Benito Mussolini advised Adolf Hitler that Italy was ready to enter the war. ww2dbase [Benito Mussolini | TH]

• The keel of unnamed transport ship No. 74 was laid down at Kawasaki Shipbuilding Corporation's shipyard at Kobe, Japan. ww2dbase [Irako | Kobe, Hyogo | CPC]

• The 291-ton German armed trawler V-1109 (ex-Antares, built 1929) sank after hitting a mine laid by the British submarine HMS Narwhal on 11 May 1940 off Bud, Norway. Eighteen men were rescued but seventeen were missing, including the Norwegian pilot. ww2dbase [Bud, Romsdal | HM]

• Operation Fish: British battleship HMS Revenge, troop transport HMS Antonia, and troop transport HMS Duchess of Richmond with £40 million, £10 million, and £10 million in gold, respectively, departed from Britain for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The gold was destined for the vaults of the Bank of Canada in Ottowa for safe keeping during war time. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The 338-ton British Boom defence vessel Cambrian, built in 1924 by Cochrane & Sons Shipbuilders Ltd. and owned at the time of her loss by British Royal Navy, was sunk by a mine at Spithead roadstead in southern England, United Kingdom whilst attending the Solent Boom. 23 people lost their lives. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | Spithead, England | HM]

30 May 1940 Interactive Map

• Erich Raeder recommended Adolf Hitler an attack on the Suez Canal in Egypt. ww2dbase [Erich Raeder | CPC]
• Before dawn, a force of British cruiser and destroyers embarked 6,029 troops and departed Sphakia, Crete, Greece for Egypt. En route, they were attacked by Axis aircraft; a bomb hit on cruiser HMS Perth killed 13, but RAF fighter escorts prevented Axis aircraft from dealing the kind of damage they did on the previous day against a different evacuation convoy. Destroyer HMS Kelvin, sailing north from Egypt, was damaged by a bomb en route, killing 1. On land, German aircraft strafed evacuation beaches at and near Sphakia. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
• British and Indian forces reached the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, causing Rashid Ali's government to collapse. ww2dbase [Campaigns in the Middle East | CPC]
• German submarine U-106 sank British ship Silveryew near Cape Verde Islands at 0036 hours, killing 1. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-38 sank British ship Empire Protector off Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 1407 hours, killing 5. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Guglielmo Marconi sank British tanker Cairndale 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of Gibraltar; four were killed. ww2dbase [Guglielmo Marconi | CPC]

• Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a reporter in the German Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, informed Moscow that the Germans planned to invade in late June. Joseph Stalin, as he had done in so many other reports by his agents, still refused to believe this important intelligence. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | Tokyo | AC]

30 May 1941 Interactive Map

• The Japanese intercepted, but could not decode, a report by USS Cuttlefish returning from patrol near Saipan, Mariana Islands. Around midnight, the Japanese Navy 6th (Submarine) Fleet at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands also reported monitoring messages exchanged by two American task groups located 170 miles north-northeast of Midway Atoll, moving westwards. Aboard battleship Yamato, Admiral Yamamoto suggested that the information be relayed to the First Air Fleet flagship carrier Akagi, but senior staff officer Captain Kuroshima cautioned not to break radio silence. Elsewhere, the transport fleet of the Japanese Aleutian invasion fleet set sail from the main island of Honshu of the Japanese home islands; it was consisted of 8 transports. In the northern Pacific Ocean, Japanese submarine I-25 surfaced for the launching of her floatplane for a reconnaissance missiong over Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands; an American cruiser sailed near by luck but failed to spot the submarine; I-25 would continue with the reconnaissance mission after a short while. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | CPC]
• British Royal Air Force Flying Officer Leslie Manser, from 50 Squadron at Skellingthorpe, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for remaining with his doomed Manchester bomber while his crew parachute to safety. ww2dbase [AC]
• German submarine U-155 sank Norwegian ship Baghdad in the center of the Atlantic Ocean at 0651 hours; 9 were killed, 21 survived. At 1024 hours, U-404 sank US freighter Alcoa Shipper further north, killing 7 of 32 aboard. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• Escort carrier Activity was launched. ww2dbase [Activity | CPC]
• The Chinese 38th Division completed its move to India. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British submarine HMS Proteus sank Italian ship Bravo 70 miles west of Benghazi, Libya. ww2dbase [CPC]
• USS Pompano sank Japanese troop transport Atsuta Maru 80 miles east of Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Pompano | CPC]

• USS S-35 reached the western Aleutian Islands and began patrolling the area. ww2dbase [S-35 | CPC]

• Comandante Cappellini sighted British Royal Fleet Auxiliary landing ship RFA Dinsdale in the Atlantic Ocean at 1130 hours and pursued her for the remainder of this date. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• Joseph Stalin finally approved the establishment of a Central Staff for Partisan Warfare under the direction of Byelorussian Communist Party Secretary Panteleimon Ponomarenko. The irregulars would now be organized along military lines with Red Army Commanders and NKVD officials to run them. ww2dbase [Panteleimon Ponomarenko | AC]

• By adding 367 training aircraft, British Air Marshal Harris managed to mount the first thousand-plane raid against Germany (the actual count was 1,046), Operation Millennium. Originally targeted for Hamburg, it was switched to Köln due to weather. Over 1,400 tons of explosives were dropped on that city during the night of 30-31 May 1942, killing 500, injuring 5,000, and making nearly 60,000 homeless. 40 British bombers failed to return. The German government estimated that Köln received 900 tons of high explosive and 110,000 incendiary bombs, and about 400 were killed. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Köln, Köln-Aachen | TH]
• Paul von Kleist was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Paul von Kleist | CPC]
• Alexander Löhr was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Alexander Löhr | CPC]

• USS Yorktown, having received rushed repairs from 1,400 dock workers, departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Yorktown (Yorktown-class) | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Astoria departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Astoria (New Orleans-class) | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]
• USS Hammann departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii. ww2dbase [Hammann | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Axis forces attacked westward in Libya, the direction the offensive originated from, in order to consolidate territories recently taken. ww2dbase [Battle of Gazala | CPC]
• Hans-Joachim Marseille shot down the RAF P-40 fighter piloted by Australian Flight Sergeant George Buckland at 0605 hours over El Adem, Libya, which was his 65th kill. After the mission, he drove to the site of the crash after hearing from his comrades that his victim bailed but the parachute did not open; he found the remains, retrieved identification papers, and made a flight over a British airfield to let the British know what happened to Buckland. ww2dbase [Hans-Joachim Marseille | El Adem | CPC]

• Before dawn, the floatplane of Japanese submarine I-10 conducted a reconnaissance mission over Diego-Suárez harbor, Madagascar, spotting British battleship HMS Ramillies, a tanker, a freighter, and an ammunition ship. At 1740 hours, I-16 and I-20 launched midget submarines M-16b and M-20b 10 miles from Diego-Suárez. M-20b fired her torpedo at 2025 hours, damaging HMS Ramillies and putting her out of action for a year. At 2120 hours, corvettes HMS Genista and HMS Thyme counterattacked with depth charges but failed to hit the Japanese midget submarines. Shortly after, M-20b fired her second torpedo, sinking British tanker British Loyalty. ww2dbase [Madagascar Campaign | Japanese Midget Submarine Warfare in World War II | Type A-class | Diego-Suárez | AC, CPC]

• Togo departed Rotterdam, Netherlands. ww2dbase [Togo / Coronel | Rotterdam | CPC]

• 21 ships of the Allied convoy PQ-16 arrived in the Kola Inlet near Murmansk, Russia at 1600 hours. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Murmansk | CPC]

• Submarine Runner was launched at Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, United States, sponsored by the wife of John H. Newton. ww2dbase [Runner (Gato-class) | Kittery, Maine | CPC]
• Fred Korematsu was arrested in San Leandro, California, United States and was placed in a jail in nearby San Francisco. ww2dbase [Fred Korematsu | San Leandro, California | CPC]
• Wu Chien-Shiung and Luke Yuan were married at the home of Robert Millikan in California, United States. ww2dbase [Wu Chien-Shiung | California | CPC]
• Captain Calvin Durgin relieved Captain Harrill as commanding officer of USS Ranger at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. ww2dbase [Ranger | Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island | DS]

30 May 1942 Interactive Map

• Yekaterina Budanova shot down a Bf 109 fighter, sharing the credit with other pilots. ww2dbase [Yekaterina Budanova | CPC]
• Duguay-Trouin joined the Allied fleet; she would be re-armed in Jul 1943. ww2dbase [Duguay-Trouin | CPC]
• Suffren was rearmed for military service. ww2dbase [Suffren | CPC]

• General Charles de Gaulle arrived in Algeria to become, with Henri Giraud, co-Presidents of the French Committee of National Liberation (FCNL) but soon used his superior political skills to become sole leader of the organization. ww2dbase [Charles de Gaulle | AC]

• Japanese and Chinese troops clashed at Gaojialing in the Hubei-Hunan border region in China; the Japanese used chemical weapons during this engagement. On the same day, Chinese 6th War Area commander Chen Cheng ordered a full scale counter offensive to be launched. ww2dbase [Battle of Exi | CPC]

• Kamoi was attacked by three four-engined aircarft at Kendari, Celebes, Dutch East Indies; she suffered no damage. ww2dbase [Kamoi | Kendari, Celebes | CPC]

• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Part of Army 19th Fighter Squadron departed. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]
• USS Grayback arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her seventh war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Grayback | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Yamato undocked from the drydocks at Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Yokosuka Naval Arsenal | Yamato | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• Submarine USS Saury attacked a convoy of four cargo ships and three tankers off Shanghai, China. Japanese army cargo ship Takamisan Maru (1,992 tons) was sunk and also a tanker of greater size. With only one torpedo left (and it was possibly damaged), Saury left her patrol are bound for Midway. ww2dbase [Saury | East China Sea | DS]

• SS-Hauptsturmführer Josef Mengele became the doctor for the Gypsy Family Camp (Sector BIIe) of Auschwitz II-Birkenau camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Submarine Hackleback was launched at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, sponsored by the wife of W. L. Wright. ww2dbase [Hackleback | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania | CPC]

30 May 1943 Interactive Map

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Manila, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• Royal Sovereign was decommissioned from service. ww2dbase [Royal Sovereign | CPC]
• USS Guitarro sank the heavily-escorted cargo ship Shisen Maru off Taiwan, hitting her with two of the three torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• USS Finback completed refitting at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii and departed for her ninth war patrol. ww2dbase [Finback | CPC]
• USS Pompon sank cargo ship Shiga Maru off Murotosaki, Shikoku, Japan, hitting her with 1 of 3 torpedoes fired. ww2dbase [Pompon | CPC]
• Destroyers USS Nicholas, USS Hopewell, USS O'Bannon, and USS Taylor arrived at Blanche Harbor, Treasury Islands, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Nicholas | DS]

• Brigadier General Haydon Boatner relieved John McCammon as the commanding officer of all American and Chinese units in the area of Myitkyina, Burma. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | John McCammon | Haydon Boatner | Myitkyina | CPC]

• At Pearl Harbor, submarine USS Spearfish experienced a change of command with Lieutenant Commander Cyrus C. Cole relieving Lieutenant Commander Joseph Williams. ww2dbase [Spearfish | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• Major General Nobuo Tanaka canceled his offensive in the Imphal region in India after incurring heavy losses. To the north at Kohima, the Indian 7th Division assault on Dyer Hill, Pimple Hill, and Big Tree Hill, which began on 24 May, was repulsed with heavy casualties. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Kohima, Assam | CPC]

• British troops captured Arce, Italy; US 36th Infantry Division penetrated between German 1st Parachute Corps and LXXVI Panzer Corps on the Caesar C Line. Also on this day, after seven German divisions successfully withdraw along Route 6 in Italy, Albert Kesselring allowed his troops in the Velletri gap to slowly fall back. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | Lazio | TH, CPC]

• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay arrived at Espiritu Santo, New Hebrides. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | Pallikulo Bay, Espiritu Santo | DS]

• Remnants from a test launch of a German A4 rocket at Blizna, Poland were recovered by Polish resistance fighters. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | Blizna, Podkarpackie | CPC]

• In a Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle the word "Mulberry" appeared as one of the answers. This caused considerable consternation among Allied invasion planners as "Mulberry" was the codename for the floating harbours and facilities to be used during the invasion landings in France. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 1 | AC]

30 May 1944 Interactive Map

• USS Blenny reported sinking a small Japanese craft with the deck gun in the morning and a transport with torpedoes in the afternoon. ww2dbase [Blenny | CPC]
• US P-47 aircraft from Ie Shima attacked Japanese shipping and the lighthouse at Amami Oshima, which was part of the Ryukyu Islands north of Okinawa, Japan. ww2dbase [Okinawa Campaign | CPC]
• USS Croaker attacked a small Japanese convoy consisted of three small oilers and an armed escort; firing a total of 21 torpedoes, 3 of them made contact, and she claimed to have sunk two oilers and the escort vessel, but the sinkings were not confirmed. ww2dbase [Croaker | CPC]
• USS Chub attacked a Japanese convoy in the Java Sea; both torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Chub | CPC]
• USS Ray sank a small Japanese patrol vessel west of Japan with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Ray | CPC]

• The remainder of General Seiei Yamamoto's troops in Burma was effectively wiped out. ww2dbase [Battle of Rangoon | CPC]

• Gao Youxin, flying a P-51 Mustang fighter, led 15 others for a fighter sweep over Nanjing, China. He was credited with one victory, a Ki-43-II aircraft. ww2dbase [Gao Youxin | Nanjing | CPC]

• French guns shelled the centre of Damascus in Syria-Lebanon, damaging the Syrian government building and Government House. In addition there was much street fighting between French and Syrian troops. That evening General Charles de Gaulle ordered a cease fire; some hours prior Winston Churchill sent him a note demanding an immediate French cease fire and return to barracks. ww2dbase [Damascus, Syria | AC]

• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam. Composite Squadron VC-90 aboard Steamer Bay was relieved and Composite Squadron VC-93 came aboard. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | Apra Harbor | DS]

• Submarines USS Silversides, USS Quillback, and USS Redfin departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii bound for Saipan in the Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Silversides | Redfin | Quillback | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• USS Bergall attacked a group of small Japanese vessels in the Gulf of Thailand with her deck gun, sinking seven. ww2dbase [Bergall | Gulf of Thailand | CPC]

• Allied convoy RA-67, the last returning Allied arctic convoy, arrived at Clyde, Scotland, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | Clyde, Scotland | CPC]

30 May 1945 Interactive Map

• Canadian Manhattan Project Louis Slotin, after receiving a fatal dose of radiation during an accident on 21 May, passed away in a hospital. ww2dbase [Louis Slotin | CPC]

• The wreck of USS Arizona was made a national shrine. ww2dbase [Arizona | CPC]

• Mitsuo Fuchida passed away from complications caused by diabetes in Kashiwara, Japan. ww2dbase [Mitsuo Fuchida | CPC]

• US President Ronald Reagan, Vice President George Bush, and other high level officials posthumously awarded Joseph Rochefort the Navy Distinguished Service Medal at the White House in Washington DC, United States. ww2dbase [White House | Joseph Rochefort | Washington | CPC]

30 May 1986 Interactive Map

• James Lacey passed away at Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [James Lacey | Bridlington, England | CPC]