Ho Chi Minh around the time he developed a communist nationalist and Indochinese party at the outset of World War II. He called his party Viet Minh.
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.
Lt. Gen. Rommel receives instructions from the High Command in Berlin on May 16, 1941, to concentrate the German Afrika Korps against the British at Sollum, Egypt, near the Libyan border, 95 miles away, and to leave Italian troops to maintain the siege at Tobruk. That night, the Luftwaffe bombs Birmingham and the West Midlands in England, while the RAF attacks Cologne, Germany, leaving fires burning on both banks of the Rhine River.
The German battleship Bismarck and the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen set sail from the German naval base at Gdynia, in Occupied Poland, on May 18 on a cruise to raid Allied shipping in the Atlantic. German supply ships are already at sea, ready to replenish the two vessels. In Iraq, a British relief column, outflanking an Iraqi blocking force, reaches the Habbaniyah air base.
At Pác Bó, Vietnam, on May 19, a coalition of the country’s Nationalist Party and the Indochina Communist Party, led by Ho Chi Minh, renames itself Viet Minh, with the goal of overthrowing French rule in the country. At Amba Alagi, Ethiopia, the Duke of Aosta, the Viceroy of Italian East Africa and the commander-in-chief of Italian military forces in Eritrea, Ethiopia and Italian Somaliland, surrenders his remaining force of 7,000 soldiers, effectively ending significant Italian resistance in East Africa. The Allies have killed or captured some 230,000 of the Italian East Africa force, Another 80,000 Italian troops continue to fight on in increasingly isolated pockets. In Iraq, the British forces at Habbaniyah, now reinforced, begin operating more aggressively, attacking and capturing Fallujah. In turn, the Habbaniyah airfield is attacked by German planes coming from Syria, controlled by the Vichy French.
The Battle of Crete begins on May 20 with a German airborne invasion by 23,000 paratroops commanded by Gen. Kurt Student. They are opposed by around 32,000 British and Commonwealth troops and some 10,000 Greeks, all under the command of Maj. Gen. Bernard Freyberg. Elements of the British Mediterranean Fleet cruise off the island in an effort to deter the Germans from moving troops in by sea. In Berlin, Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring refers to “the Final Solution” in orders banning the emigration of Jews from France and Belgium.
German submarine U-69 on May 21 sinks the U.S.-flagged merchant vessel SS Robin Moor in international waters off the West African coast after allowing the 38 crew members and eight passengers to disembark into four lifeboats. The German captain tells the ship’s master that Robin Moor was destroyed “because it was carrying materials to Germany’s enemies.” Left adrift, the survivors are discovered several days later by friendly vessels and rescued. President Roosevelt describes the sinking of Robin Moor as “an act of intimidation” to which “we do not propose to yield.” In the far North Atlantic, British reconnaissance aircraft spot Bismarck and Prinz Eugen off the coast of Bergen, Norway. In response, the battleship HMS Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser HMS Hood put to sea from the Royal Navy base at Scapa Flow, in Scotland. Off Crete, the Luftwaffe bombs and sinks the British cruisers HMS Gloucester and HMS Fiji and the destroyers HMS Kelly, HMS Kashmir and HMS Greyhound. Over 1,150 crewmen are lost.
Because of the growing number of Germans on Crete and the complete air superiority of the Luftwaffe, Maj. Gen. Freyberg on May 22 cancels a planned counterattack against the German airfield at Maleme and orders a withdrawal southward. Greece’s King George II is evacuated from Crete to Egypt. In the Atlantic, Acting Adm. John Tovey, Commander in Chief of the Royal Navy’s Home Fleet, joins in the hunt for Bismarck, bringing the battleship HMS King George V, the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious and the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. His force will guard the Faeroes-Iceland passage, while Prince of Wales and Hood watch the Denmark Strait. In Croatia, all Jews are ordered to wear yellow badges.
