Battle of the Atlantic

• In a special operation mounted for the purpose, the German trawler München, a weather ship, is captured northeast of Iceland. A boarding party from the British destroyer Somali find an intact German naval Enigma coding machine and cipher book. The cryptographic equipment proves useful in breaking the German naval code through Ultra interepts.
• During the night the British destroyer Hurricane is sunk in a German air attack in the shallow waters off Liverpool. The destroyer is salvaged and returned to service January 1942.
• In an attack on Convoy OB-319 U-94 sinks the British steamer Ixion (10,263t) and the Norwegian steamer Eastern Star 200 miles southwest of Reykjavik. All 105 crew of the Ixion are rescued by the British corvette Marigold and the entire crew of 40 from the Eastern Star are picked up by the British anti-submarine trawler Daneman.

The Blitz

The Humber area suffers a major night bombing raid. This is the first of 2 consecutive night raids on Hull. In the 2-hour attack 110 tons of high explosives and about 10,000 incendiaries are dropped. 40,000 people are left homeless. Food supplies and marine engineering works are also hit.

Liverpool and Merseyside are hit for the seventh night in a row. During the week 860 tons of high explosives and 106,000 incendiaries are dropped. During the first 2 nights there is not only damage to industry, utilities and transport services but also to private and commercial property. Several public shelters are hit on the second night causing many casualties. The third night is the heaviest with almost 300 aircraft hitting Liverpool. There is heavy damage in the docks area. A big disaster occurs at Hudkisson No. 2 where the SS Malakand was moored carrying 1,000 tons of ammo blows up. The dock area is devastated. After the raids half of the 144 shipping berths are unusable and the ability to handle cargo is reduced by three-fourths. 57 vessels of various sizes are sunk or destroyed. On land railways are shattered and roads blocked. During the week 1,900 are killed, 1,450 are seriously injured and 70,000 people are left homeless as about 66,000 houses are destroyed. The Germans do lose 38 bombers during the week mostly to Beaufighters and Defiants.

German Raiders

The British tanker British Emperor (3663t) is sunk by the German raider Pinguin in the Indian Ocean with the loss of 45 of the crew.

Victorious Axis troops parade through Athens, May 7, 1941. German Field Marshal Wilhelm List is saluting at the reviewing stand.

Field Marshal List Reviews the Troops

Britain, Home Front

Churchill wins a Parliamentary vote of confidence by 447 votes to 3. 2 Labor members and a Communist oppose him.

Iraq

Gen Edward P. Quinan takes command of the British forces in Iraq.

Mediterranean

• During the night part of Cunningham's force shells the harbor at Benghazi, sinking 2 ships.
• The Italian submarine Tazzoli sinks the Norwegian steamer Ferlane (4310t) west of French Guinea. The entire crew are rescued.
• The British minesweeper Stoke is sunk by German bombing at Tobruk with the loss of 21 of her crew. The British gunboat Ladybird rescues the survivors.
• The Greek steamer Katina P. (1216t) is sunk in a German air attack at Astakos.
• The Italian steamer Pascoli (2939t) sinks on a mine off Saseno.

North Africa

On the Tobruk front there are exchanges of artillery fire, and the British positions are bombed.