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• Weather data for 30 Apr 1940

• At Greenock, Scotland, French destroyer Maille Breeze suffered an accidental detonation of two of her torpedoes in the forward section of the ship and sank. 25 men were killed while 48 were wounded. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British minesweeper HMS Dundoon hit a mine at Smith's Knoll near Great Yarmouth and sank, killing 27. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Nikolaus von Falkenhorst was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross medal. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Firefighters from the US Navy Sixth Naval District fought off a fire that had broken out on the Norwegian tanker Willy, which was carrying a load of aviation gasoline, in the Cooper River off Charleston, South Carolina, United States. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Italian "Barfile" naval infantry battalion landed on Cephalonia, Greece. ww2dbase [CPC]

• HMS Glorious provided air cover for troops fighting on land in Norway. ww2dbase [Main Article | Event | CPC]
• The German 196th Division arrived at Dombås, Norway on foot as their vehicles had been rendered useless after encountering blown bridges; their initial attacks were held off by the British 15th Brigade; despite causing heavy casualties to the Germans, the British withdrew their defensive line at dusk by train toward Åndalsnes. Near Oslo, RAF bombers conducted attacks on German-controlled airfields in Stavanger and Fornebu, escorted by naval fighters launched by HMS Ark Royal and HMS Glorious; Germans detected the location of the British carriers and successfully launched a fighter attack that drove off the carriers. Off Namsos, Norway, German Ju 87 aircraft attacked British anti-submarine sloop HMS Bittern, hitting her with a bomb and starting a fire on the stern that killed 20; destroyer HMS Janus rescued the survivors and scuttled HMS Bittern to prevent capture. Off Trondheim, Norway, German aircraft sank British trawler HMS Warwickshire; her wreck was later raised by the Germans and put into service. In the United Kingdom, a British fleet consisted of cruisers HMS Manchester and HMS Birmingham and destroyers HMS Inglefield, HMS Diana, and HMS Delight, under the command of Vice Admiral Layton, departed Scapa Flow, Scotland for Norway; its mission was to evacuate the British 148th and 15th Brigades from Åndalsnes and Molde. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The first guarded Jewish ghetto was established at Lodz, Poland; it was later sealed off with 230,000 Jews inside. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• A German Heinkel bomber crashed into a house in Clacton, Essex, England, United Kingdom and its mines exploded, killing two civilians and injuring 132 others. They were the first civilian casualties of the war in England. ww2dbase [AC]

30 Apr 1940 Interactive Map