The Official Chronology of the U.S. Navy in World War II. Robert J. Cressman
of the Navy, “to serve as liaison between the people and their Navy and, within the limits of military security, to keep the public informed of the activities of the Navy.”
2 Friday
ATLANTIC. Admiral Ernest J. King breaks his flag as Commander in Chief Atlantic Fleet in heavy cruiser Augusta (CA 31) at Newport, Rhode Island.
Fifth Lake-class Coast Guard cutter, authorized for transfer on 10 April under Lend-Lease, is turned over to the Royal Navy. Chelan becomes HMS Lulworth (see 12, 20, and 30 May).
5 Monday
ATLANTIC. Interior Department motorship North Star (U.S. Antarctic Service) reaches Boston, Massachusetts, winding up her work in support of the 1939–1941 expedition to the South Polar Region.
6 Tuesday
CANAL ZONE. Carrier Yorktown (CV 5) suffers slight damage (a long dent and scraped paint) when the ship’s prominent “knuckle” rubs one side of Miraflores Lock, during night transit of Panama Canal.
9 Friday
ATLANTIC. TG 1, comprising carrier Ranger (CV 4) (VF 41, VS 41, and VS 42), heavy cruiser Vincennes (CA 44), and destroyers Sampson (DD 394) and Eberle (DD 430), sets out from Bermuda to begin a 4,675-mile neutrality patrol that will conclude at Bermuda on 23 May.
German submarine U 110 is damaged in action with British destroyers HMS Bulldog and HMS Broadway [ex-U.S. destroyer Hunt (DD 194)] and corvette HMS Aubretia. Boarding party from Bulldog recovers a veritable cryptanalysis windfall, including an intact ENIGMA machine and important current codes. Broadway is damaged in the encounter by collision with U 110, which sinks the following day. U 110’s commanding officer, Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp (who had been in command of U 30 when she had sunk British passenger liner Athenia on 3 September 1939), is not among the survivors.
12 Monday
UNITED STATES. Ambassador Nomura Kichasaburo presents Secretary of State Cordell Hull with Japanese proposal for establishment of “just peace in the Pacific.”
ATLANTIC. Three Lake-class Coast Guard cutters, authorized for transfer on 10 April under Lend-Lease, are turned over to the Royal Navy. Champlain becomes HMS Sennen, Sebago becomes HMS Walney, and Cayuga becomes HMS Totland (see 20 and 30 May).
14 Wednesday
PACIFIC. Pacific Fleet Exercise No. 1 commences off coast of California. The maneuvers involve a landing on San Clemente Island and a bombardment exercise in which heavy cruisers and destroyers bombard shore targets (see 18 June).
15 Thursday
PACIFIC. During paratroop training at Camp Kearney, California, Second Lieutenant Walter A. Osipoff, USMC, becomes fouled in static cable and ripcord lines and dangles 100 feet to the rear of the R2D from which he was to jump. Efforts to bring him into the plane are unsuccessful. Seeing his plight, Lieutenant William W. Lowrey and Aviation Chief Machinist’s Mate John R. McCants, test pilots attached to the Naval Air Station, San Diego, California, take off in an SOC and effect a daring midair rescue.
18 Sunday
ATLANTIC. Auxiliary Bear (AG 29) reaches Boston, Massachusetts, her work in support of the U.S. Antarctic Service’s 1939–1941 expedition coming to a close.
20 Tuesday
MEDITERRANEAN. German airborne troops invade Crete.
ATLANTIC. TG 2 (Rear Admiral Robert C. Giffen), comprising carrier Wasp (CV 7) (VF 71, VS 72, and VMB 2), heavy cruiser Quincy (CA 39), and destroyers Livermore (DD 429) and Kearny (DD 432), departs Bermuda to conduct a 4,170-mile neutrality patrol that will conclude at Bermuda on 3 June.
Ninth Lake-class Coast Guard cutter, authorized for transfer on 10 April under Lend-Lease, is turned over to the Royal Navy. Shoshone becomes HMS Languard (see 30 May).
21 Wednesday
ATLANTIC. Unarmed U.S. freighter Robin Moor, en route to South Africa and Mozambique, is stopped and sunk by German submarine U 69 (torpedo and gunfire) about 700 miles off the west coast of Africa, 06°10′N, 25°40′W. Robin Moor—her nationality prominently reflected in the U.S. flags painted on her sides—is the first American merchantman sunk by a U-boat in World War II. There are no casualties among her 38-man crew and eight passengers, and U 69’s commanding officer, Kapitänleutnant Jost Metzler, provides rations to the Americans (see 3, 8, and 20 June).
24 Saturday
UNITED STATES. Construction or acquisition of 550,000 tons of auxiliary shipping for the Navy is authorized.
ATLANTIC. Battle of Denmark Strait: British battle cruiser HMS Hood is sunk and battleship HMS Prince of Wales is damaged by German battleship Bismarck (which is damaged by a shell from the latter) and heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen. British Home Fleet elements at sea then pursue the German battleship; carrier HMS Victorious launches FAA Swordfish that in the prevailing poor visibility conditions almost attacks Coast Guard cutter Modoc, which is in the vicinity searching for survivors of ships sunk in convoy HX 126.27 Bismarck, although damaged by an aerial torpedo, eludes her shadowers and disappears, while detaching her consort, Prinz Eugen, to conduct independent operations.28
PBYs (VP 52) operating from seaplane tender Albemarle (AV 5) at Argentia, Newfoundland, and braving foul weather and dangerous flying conditions, search for Bismarck in the western Atlantic.
25 Sunday
UNITED STATES. State Department informs German Chargé d’Affaires Hans Thomsen that an investigation into the incident concerning the tearing down of the Reich flag over the German consulate in San Francisco, California, on 18 January has yielded the fact that the individual involved was a U.S. Navy enlisted man who was tried and found guilty by court-martial for the offense, and was serving “an appropriate sentence.”
26 Monday
ATLANTIC. Naval observer Ensign Leonard B. Smith, USNR, flying an RAF Catalina (Coastal Command No. 209 Squadron) sights Bismarck. British fleet units alter course accordingly and converge on the lone German capital ship. The same day, another naval observer, Lieutenant James E. Johnson, flying another RAF Catalina (Coastal Command No. 240 Squadron) maintains contact with the German battleship as well (see 27 May).
27 Tuesday
ATLANTIC. President Roosevelt issues proclamation that an unlimited national emergency confronts the United States, requiring that American military, naval, air, and civilian defenses be readied to repel any and all acts or threats of aggression directed toward any part of the Western Hemisphere. In a separate address to the nation to acquaint it with the “cold, hard fact” that the conflict in Europe has developed into a “world war for world-domination,” the President announces that the Atlantic Neutrality Patrol has been extended and that the Atlantic Fleet, greatly increased during the past year, is being constantly built up. He also mentions the dangers posed by “Nazi battleships of great striking-power” that pose “an actual military danger to the Americas,” undoubtedly a reference to the recent operations of German battleship Bismarck. The President states the national policy is two-fold: active resistance “to every attempt by Hitler to extend his Nazi domination to the Western Hemisphere, or to threaten it” and his every attempt to gain control of the seas, and giving “every possible assistance to Britain and to all who, with Britain, are resisting Hitlerism or its equivalent with force of arms.” The delivery of supplies to Britain, Roosevelt tells the nation, “is imperative. This can be done; it must be done; it will be done.”
German battleship Bismarck is overwhelmed and sunk by British naval force, 300 nautical miles west of Ushant, France, 48°10′N, 16°12′W.
29 Thursday
ATLANTIC. In the event that Germany invades Spain and Portugal, the Joint