![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]()
May 1st
1941: The Luftwaffe begins a series of 8 consecutive night raids against Liverpool. 1942: In the East, the siege of the Crimean fortress of Sevastopol by 11.Armee (von Manstein) continues with a ceaseless bombardment by batteries of heavy guns (up to 800mm: Big Dora) and hundreds of bombers (up to 1,000 sorties a day) of Luftflotte 7 (von Richthofen). Heavy fighting also continues on the front around besieged Leningrad whose inhabitants are suffering from bombing, disease and starvation. 1945: Cessation of hostilities and surrender of all German forces in Italy as a result of unauthorized secret negotiations with the Allies by the German C-in-C, General von Vietinghoff. and SS General Wolff. Grossadmiral Dönitz, following the death of Hitler, assumes his duties as the new German head of state. He orders utmost resistance on all fronts, especially in the East where tens of thousands of German civilians are still trying to escape from the stampeding Red Army. In the battle of Berlin, the remaining pockets of German resistance in the center of the city are crumbling. General Krebs, head of the OKH after Guderian's dismissal on March 26, begins negotiations with General Chuikov, CO of Eighth Guards Army, about the Soviet terms for a surrender. Goebbels and his wife, after poisoning their six children, commit suicide in the Führerbunker. source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html 1898 - Battle of Manila Bay, Adm Dewey defeats Spanish at Manila, Philippines 1934 - LT Akers demonstrates blind landing system at College Park, MD in OJ-2 aircraft 1945 - VADM Barbey lands Australian troops on Tarakan Island, Borneo, supported by naval gunfire 1951 - USS Princeton aircraft attack Hwachon Dam using aerial torpedoes, only use of this weapon in Korean War source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm 1941: Allied evacuation of Greece complete - The Greek campaign, involving forces from Greece, Britain, New Zealand and Australia, resulted in heavy losses to the 6th Australian Division and ultimately an evacuation of Allied forces from beaches in southern Greece. 1942: Townsville put on invasion alert - We now know that Japan did not intend to invade Australia. In 1942, however, fear of such an invasion was almost universal, particularly after their early successes in the war. 1945: 26 Brigade troops invade Tarakan - General MacArthur instructed Lieutenant-General Sir Leslie Morshead to seize and hold Tarakan Island and destroy the enemy forces there. The Netherlands East Indies Government was to be re-established, Tarakan's oil producing capacity was to be conserved and the island's airfields put into use. The operation was codenamed Oboe 1. source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/may.htm 1951: Korea - 25th Canadian Infantry Brigade Group sent to join United Nations forces in Korea. source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=May&day=01 1328 - Wars of Scottish Independence end: Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton – England recognises Scotland as an independent nation. 1778 - American Revolution: The Battle of Crooked Billet begins in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. 1941 - World War II: German forces launch Operation Mercury the largest airborne invasion to date in their bid to capture Crete. German forces launch a major attack on Tobruk. 1945 - Soviet troops raise the Soviet Flag over the Reichstag, in Berlin. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1 1898: The U.S. Navy under Dewey defeats the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in the Philippines. 1944: The Messerschmitt Me 262, the first combat jet, makes its first flight. source: http://www.historynet.com/today_in_history ![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
![]() |
|
![]() |
May 6th
1945: The US Third Army (Patton) occupies Pilsen in Bohemia and halts all further advances. After an 82-day siege, the remaining defenders of Breslau finally surrender to Soviet forces. source: http://www.feldgrau.com/may.html 1909 - Great White Fleet anchors in San Francisco 1916 - First ship-to-shore radio telephone voice conversation from USS New Hampshire off Virginia Capes to SECNAV Josephus Daniels in Washington, DC 1942 - CAPT Milton Miles arrives in Chungking, China, to begin building an intelligence and guerilla training organization, Naval Group China 1945 - Naval landing force evacuates 500 Marshallese from Jaluit Atoll, Marshall Islands. source: http://www.history.navy.mil/wars/datesmay.htm 1917: Corporal G.J. Howell, VC - Corporal G.J. Howell, 1st Battalion, originally of Enfield, NSW, wins the Victoria Cross near Bullecourt. 1945: Tarakan town and airstrip captured - General MacArthur instructed Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead to seize and hold Tarakan Island and destroy the enemy forces there. The Netherlands East Indies Government was to be re-established, Tarakan's oil producing capacity was to be conserved and the island's airfields put into use. The operation was codenamed Oboe 1.source: http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/thismonth/may.htm 1777: Quebec Quebec - British General John (Gentleman Johnny) Burgoyne arrives in Quebec as field commander of the British forces against the American rebels; his plan is to march down the Hudson River via the Richelieu River and Lake Champlain through Albany, with a secondary advance through the Mohawk Valley, and divide the rebels at New York. 1877: Wood Mountain Saskatchewan - Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads 1,500 of his followers into Canada to ask protection from the Queen; after defeating General George Custer and the US 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. source: http://www1.sympatico.ca/cgi-bin/on_this_day?mth=May&day=06 1527 - Spanish and German troops sack Rome; some consider this the end of the Renaissance. 147 Swiss Guards, including their commander, died fighting the forces of Charles V during the Sack of Rome in order to allow Pope Clement VII to escape into Castel Sant'Angelo. 1757 - Battle of Prague - A Prussian army fought an Austrian army in Prague during the Seven Years' War. 1942 - On Corregidor, the last American forces in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese. 1945 - Axis Sally delivers her last propaganda broadcast to Allied troops (first was on December 11, 1941). 1945 - The Prague Offensive, the last major battle of the Eastern Front, begins. source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_6 1915: After a first attempt to capture the village of Krithia, on the Gallipoli Peninsula, failed on April 28, 1915, a second is initiated on May 6 by Allied troops under the British commander Sir Aylmer Hunter-Weston. Fortified by 105 pieces of heavy artillery, the Allied force advanced on Krithia, located at the base of the flat-topped hill of Achi Baba, starting at noon on May 6. The attack was launched from a beach head on Cape Helles, where troops had landed on April 25 to begin the large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula after a naval attack on the Dardanelles failed miserably in mid-March. Since the first failed attempt on the village, Hunter-Weston’s original force had been joined by two brigades of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) to bring the total number of men to 25,000. They were still outnumbered, however, by the Turkish forces guarding Krithia, which were under the direct command of the German Major-General Erich Weber. Weber had been promoted from the rank of colonel after supervising the closure and mining of the Dardanelles six months earlier. source:http://www.history.com/tdih.do?actio...ryId=worldwari |
![]() |