military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (05/29/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Sunday, 1 June, 1941 The Luftwaffe continues to dominate the Mediterranean skies as Ju 88 bombers sink the cruiser HMS Calcutta north of Alexandria. The Allied evacuation of Crete ends. Commonwealth forces have lost 1742 dead and as many wounded, with 11835 taken as prisoners of war and 46 aircraft destroyed. In addition, the Royal Navy has sustained heavy losses: 3 cruisers and 6 destroyers sunk, and 3 battleships, a carrier, six cruisers, and 7 destroyers damaged. German losses amount to nearly 4000 dead and missing, 2130 wounded, and 220 aircraft lost (Numerous transport aircraft were crash-landed on damaged runways.) In England, a new point system for clothes rationing is introduced, in which each civilian may purchase 66 points worth of clothing per year. A raincoat is valued at 16 points, and stockings at 2 points. Air Vice-Marshal Tedder is appointed commander of the RAF in the Middle East. Violence erupts in Baghdad over the renewed British occupation and Arab mobs rampage through the city's Jewish quarter, killing 600 Jews. The German cruiser Prinz Eugen arrives in Brest after its abortive sortie with the Bismarck. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "I should think that a little inventive genius could produce an autogiro (sic) able to carry a number of bombs deadly to submarines and also not too bulky to be placed on the decks of the convoy ships." - Lloyd Taylor, in a letter to the New York Times