Atlantic

• The British steamer Sequacity (870t) is sunk by German shellfire 6 miles northeast of Calais. Her crew is rescued by the British steamer Yewdale.
• Sunk by German bombing at Dunkirk are the French steamer Aden (8033t) and the British steamer Worthtown (868t)

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-37 sinks the Argentine SS Uruguay (3225t) 160 miles off Cape Villano with the loss of 15 of her crew. 13 crewmen are landed at Corunna. Argentina issues a protest on June 1 and later forbids its merchant ships to enter European waters.
• U-37 also sinks the British steamer Sheaf Mead (5008t) about 180 miles from Cape Finisterre with the loss of 31 crewmen. 7 survivors are rescued by the Greek steamer Frangoula B. Goulandris.
• The French submarine Rubis lays a minefield near Haugesand at Bleivik.

Diplomatic Relations

Roosevelt offers to mediate in talks between Italy, France and Britain in another bid to keep Italy from entering the war.

Norway

The Allied assault on Narvik gets under way. The attacking troops are led by the French Gen Emile Bethouart. The town is taken after a brisk fight. When bad weather at the Bardufoss airfield grounds the Allied fighters, the attack is briefly held up because the ships providing bombardment support then have to fight off the Stukas alone.

Western Front, Dunkirk

Guderian is permitted, by his superiors, to continue his advance from the Aa River towards Dunkirk, employing motorized infantry with his tanks held in reserve. The evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk (Operation Dynamo) officially gets under way. The RAF provides massive air cover. By the end of this day 7,669 troops have been evacuated from Dunkirk. There is a Franco-British counterattack against the German XXXVIII Corps holding the Abbéville bridgehead south of the Somme. These attacks gravely threaten the Germans on May 29 but run out of steam on May 30.

Dunkirk Evacuation Continues

When the planned evacuation was announced to the British public on May 27, 1940, a fleet of fishing boats, pleasure craft, merchant marine vessels, and other small boats rushed across the English Channel to help. They retrieved the British, French, and Belgian troops from the bombed-out harbor, which the larger ships could not enter, and ferried those troops to the big ships. These "Little Ships" quickly gained legendary status, and the "Spirit of Dunkirk" became a British rallying cry.[MORE]

Dunkirk Evacuation Continues

In the late afternoon King Leopold of the Belgians sends an envoy to the German general headquarters offering to capitulate. A few hours later the Germans respond to Leopold's emissary that the Führer demands unconditional surrender.

Le Paradis Massacre: 90 captured British soldiers from 2nd Bn Royal Norfolk Regt are shot by a detachment of the SS Totenkopf Div in a meadow near the hamlet of Le Paradis, Pas-de-Calais.[MORE]