Benito Mussolini, left, and Adolf Hitler, center, meet at Brenner Pass in 1940. Associated Press.
By: Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.
On May 30, 1941, the main British force in Iraq is stalled at Ur and the small British force from Habbaniyah is only slowly making its way toward Baghdad. Despite this, Iraqi leader Rashid Ali al-Gaylani gives up the fight, abandons the country and flees to Iran.
The next day, May 31, British troops complete the re-occupation of Iraq. The Hashemite monarchy is restored, with Prince ’Abd al-Ilah to serve as regent for King Faisal II, a minor. An armistice is signed between the countries, confirming Great Britain’s right to station troops in Iraq. Over the British Isles, a Luftwaffe flight en route to bomb Bristol and Liverpool, England, gets lost and mistakenly bombs Dublin, in neutral Ireland, killing 29 and seriously injuring 87. In Belgium, expropriation of Jewish property begins.
In Greece on June 1, German forces complete their takeover of Crete. The Luftwaffe sinks the light cruiser HMS Calcutta off Alexandria, Egypt. In Iraq, British troops enter Baghdad. In the North Atlantic, the U.S. Coast Guard begins patrolling the southern coastline of Greenland. In the Middle East, Air Marshal Arthur Tedder takes command of the RAF Middle East Command, responsible for operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa. In the United Kingdom, the rationing of clothing is imposed. In Germany, all Catholic publications are banned by the Nazis.
On June 2, Hitler and Mussolini meet at the Brenner Pass, on the Italian-Austrian border. Despite spending five hours together, Der Führer never tells Il Duce about his plans to invade the Soviet Union. On Crete, German Gen. Kurt Student orders his paratroopers to massacre the male residents of several villages in reprisal for civilian participation in the recent fighting on the island. Around 112 men are summarily executed by firing squads. Vichy France grants the Axis powers permission to use the port of Bizerte, Tunisia, for the unloading of non-military supplies for their forces in North Africa. In the U.S., Baseball Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig — “The Iron Horse” of the New York Yankees — dies of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (to become widely known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease) at the age of 37.
British forces enter Mosul, Iraq, on June 3, capturing a few German pilots they find there. (The Germans, supporting the Iraqi anti-British coup, had established an airbase in Mosul for flying in supplies for Rashid Ali’s forces.) On Crete, German occupation troops enter the village of Kandanos, kill 180 of the residents, slaughter all the animals and then burn all houses and barns to the ground. They erect signs in German and Greek on each road entering the village: “Here stood Kandanos, destroyed in retribution for the ambush murder of 25 German soldiers by armed men and women . . .” Finland’s military command gives the German High Command permission to use northern Finland as a staging area for the attack on the Soviet Union.
British Intelligence on June 4 intercepts and decodes a message sent to Tokyo by the Japanese ambassador in Berlin. The communication includes details of the German plan to invade the Soviet Union. Inexplicably, the message is not forwarded to the British Cabinet’s Joint Intelligence Committee for eight days. President Roosevelt transfers overall command of U.S. Coast Guard ocean-going cutters to the Navy.
On June 5, the Japanese conduct a three-hour bombing raid of the provincial capital of Chungking, China. Over 4,000 residents are asphyxiated in a tunnel in which they have taken shelter. On the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbia, an ammunition dump explodes, killing 2,500 and injuring another 4,500. In the Middle East, Vichy French planes bomb Amman, the capital of Transjordan.
