Diary May 15, 1941

05-1941, War Diary, Year 1941 / 1 minute of reading

Matilda tank Operation Brevity — Pictured from a British trench: Matilda II tanks are moving forward against positions of the Afrika Korps during Operation Brevity.

Diary for Thursday, May 15, 1941:

North Africa

First British Offensive against Afrika Korps (Operation Brevity): Halfaya Pass and Sollum recaptured.

Air War

British Government authorizes counter-measures against German aircraft refuelling on Syrian airfields (Vichy France) en route to Iraq.

Home Fronts

Britain: First British jet aircraft – Gloster E.28/39 Pioneer – tested at Cranwell, Lincs.

Neutrals

USA: US coast guards board every French merchant ship in American ports, including liner Normandie.
Battleship Washington (launched June 1940) joins the fleet 5 months ahead of schedule.

Occupied countries

Channel Islands: Mrs. Sybil Hathaway, Dame of Sark (Channel Is.), deported to German concentration camp as reprisal for anti-Nazi activities on Guernsey.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.

1 thought on “Diary May 15, 1941”

Steven Carleton
August 14, 2022 at 5:46 am

Another failure of the British to deal with Rommel in 1941. He had isolated Tobruk and was defending the Egyptian frontier, yet British attempts to break the siege failed time and again. According to von Mellenthin in “Panzer Battles” the British never really solved mobile warfare in the dessert. They just relied on their enormous economic advantage allied with the US.

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