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• Weather data for 4 May 1940

• German He 115 aircraft bombed British submarine HMS Seal in the Kattegat at 0230 hours. Seal dove from the surface to the depth of 30 meters in response while continuing to deploy mines, her primary mission. While evading anti-submarine trawlers at 1830 hours, she hit a mine and began to settle to the sea floor. ww2dbase [CPC]
• 30,000 Allied troops were present near Narvik, Norway, including units of the French Foreign Legion, French mountain troops, Polish troops, the British 24th Brigade, and Norwegian troops, aiming to take Narvik from the Germans. Meanwhile, German 2nd Gebirgsjäger Division's mountain troops began marching 350 miles north from Trondheim, Norway to relieve the German 139th Gebirgsjäger Regiment in Narvik; detecting this, the Allies deployed 300 to 500 men each at Mosjöen, Mo, and Bodö in an attempt to stop this movement. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The keel of Shinano was laid down at the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Yokosuka, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | Facility | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• The 5,995-ton British steam tanker San Tiburcio owned by the Eagle Oil & Shipping Co Limited of London was carrying 2,193 tons on fuel and a dozen Sunderland aircraft floats when she struck a mine at 2010 hours; the mine had been laid on 10 Feb 1940 by German submarine U-9. This occurred four miles from Tarbett Ness in the Moray Firth in northern Scotland, United Kingdom. A tug and a destroyer, HMS Codrington (65) were sent out to give assistance, but the tanker broke in half after 45 minutes. The Master, Walter Fredrick Flynn and 39 of the crew were picked up by her escort HMS Leicester City (FY 223) and the anti-submarine trawler took them to Invergordon, in the Cromarty Firth north of Inverness, Scotland. Walter Flynn would lose his life on 31 Jan 1942 when his new command, the San Arcado was torpedoed and sunk by U-107 north of Burmuda. ww2dbase [Main Article | HM]

4 May 1940 Interactive Map