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• German submarine U-110 and U-201 attacked Allied convoy OB-318, sinking 3 British freighters. U-201 was damaged by 99 depth charges but was able to return to her home port for repairs. U-110 was forced to surface by 10 depth charges from British corvette HMS Aubretia, then shelled by destroyers HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway. The German crew thought the submarine had already been fatally damaged and sinking, and abandoned ship. Recognizing the opportunity to capture the ship, the commanding officer of HMS Bulldog quickly rescued many of the German crew and put them belowdecks so they could not observe (but submarine commander Lemp died in the water, possibly shot as he attempted to swim back to the submarine), and sent a boarding party to capture her. The capture was completed at 1245 hours, yielding an Enigma cipher machine and code book. ww2dbase [Enigma Code Broken | CPC]
• Adolf Hitler disembarked battleship Bismarck. ww2dbase [Bismarck | CPC]
• German intelligence intercepted a British radio transmission containing weather information in the Libyan-Egyptian border region; this gave suspicion that an offensive was about to be taken place. ww2dbase [Operation Brevity | CPC]
• British transport ship Empire Song hit two mines and sank in off Malta; in addition to the 18 men killed, 57 tanks aboard were also lost. ww2dbase [CPC]
• After nightfall, Australian destroyer HMAS Vendetta departed Alexandria, Egypt and arrived in Tobruk, Libya to embark wounded troops. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]
• German submarine U-103 sank British ship City of Winchester 700 miles west of Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 2309 hours; 6 were killed, 92 survived. In the same area, Italian submarine Tazzoli sank Norwegian tanker Alfred Olsen; the entire crew survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Soviet Union declared that it no longer recognised the diplomatic standing of Belgium, Norway and Yugoslavia. ww2dbase [AC]

• Alessandro Malaspina detected a target via hydrophones in the Atlantic Ocean at 0645 hours. She observed more than 40 depth charges between 1230 hours and 1440 hours, followed by individual depth charge detonations at odd intervals. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]
• Comandante Cappellini was informed that the Germans detected an Allied convoy near her position in the Atlantic Ocean, about 300 miles away, on the previous date. The Italian submarine moved toward the reported location. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• Task Group 1, comprised of aircraft carrier USS Ranger, heavy cruiser USS Vincennes, and destroyers USS Sampson and Eberle, sailed from Bermuda on a 4,675-mile Neutrality Patrol in the Atlantic. ww2dbase [United States Neutrality Patrol | Vincennes | Ranger | Port Royal Bay | DS]

• A peace treaty was signed between Thailand and France in Tokyo, Japan, officially ending the Franco-Thai War; the French was coerced by the Japanese to relinquish their hold on the disputed border territories. ww2dbase [Franco-Thai War | Tokyo | CPC, AC]

• At RAF Waddington in Waddington, Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom, a direct hit by a German bomb on the Navy, Army and Air Force Institutes (NAAFI) station and a nearby air-raid shelter killed three airmen and seven women who worked in the NAAFI, including Mrs. Raven, the manageress. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | Waddington, England | AC]

9 May 1941 Interactive Map