Air Operations, Mediterranean
Aircraft from the carrier Formidable attack the Stuka base at Scarpanto in the Italian Dodecanese. The carrier is hit twice by air attacks. Damage is severe enough that the carrier is sent to the U.S. for repairs.
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]Battle of the Atlantic
Force H has been hurrying north over the past few days searching for Bismarck when on this day at 7:36am a Catalina aircraft finds Bismarck only 700 miles from Brest and about 130 miles from Adm Tovey's King George V. it is clear that the aircraft of the Ark Royal offer the best chance of slowing the German ship so that she can be caught. At 2:30pm 15 torpedo-carrying Swordfish take off from the aircraft carrier Ark Royal to try to finish off the Bismarck before she can seek protection under the umbrella of German bombers from bases in France.
RAF-Manned Catalina Spots the Bismarck |
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The Bismarck Takes a Pounding |
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The weather is very bad with low, dense cloud that makes observation almost impossible. Suddenly the British aircraft find a gap in the clouds and spot a ship. They launch their torpedoes, but their target turns out to be the British cruiser Sheffield. The attack fails because of evasive action taken by Sheffield and defects in the magnetic exploders of the torpedoes, so simple contact type are substituted for a second strike. At 7:00 pm the 15 Swordfish find the correct target and score 2 hits. One hit wrecks the German battleship's steering and practically brings her to a halt. During the night the Bismarck is further harried by torpedo and gunfire attacks by 5 British destroyers. It is not clear whether they score any torpedo hits.
[ | ]Crete
Seeing how the situation has deteriorated near the end of the day, Freyberg raises the question of a withdrawal from the island. During the night most of the Allied forces withdraw from the Galatas position amid some confusion about the exact nature of their orders.
[ | ]Indian Ocean
The Dutch gunboat Van Kinsbergen captures the Vichy French steamer Winnipeg (8379t) east of Madagascar.
[ | ]Mediterranean
The Greek steamer Rokos is sunk by German bombing in Suda Bay.
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