The Australian medical ship, AHS Centaur, depicted being attacked, presumably by the Japanese. To order a copy of this picture, click here.
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.
The U.S. Army’s Eighth Air Force destroys three U-boats during a raid on Kiel, Germany, on May 14. Off Queensland, Australia, the Australian hospital ship AHS Centaur — well-lit, and marked with red crosses — is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine, most likely I-177. Centaur sinks within five minutes; of the 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard, only 64 survive, including only one of 12 nurses. The survivors are discovered and rescued after spending 36 hours in the water. In Burma, Japanese troops capture Maungdaw, at the Indian border.
In Moscow, Joseph Stalin on May 15 announces the dissolution of the Comintern (the Communist International), an organization that had been working for world communist revolution since 1919. (Observers feel Stalin makes the move to ease the worries of the Allies, and to reduce suspicions that the Soviet Union is attempting to foment revolutions in other countries.) In the Atlantic, roughly midway between Newfoundland and Ireland, the neutral Irish freighter SS Irish Oak, carrying phosphate fertilizer between Tampa, Florida, and Dublin, is torpedoed and sunk by German sub U-607, despite being well-lit and marked with large Irish flags and the word “EIRE” in large letters painted on her sides. All of Irish Oak’s crew of 13 survive and are rescued from lifeboats 8 hours later.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ends on May 16. The ghetto is destroyed; burned-out buildings are razed. Some 14,000 Jews have been killed in the fighting, 22,000 sent to concentration camps, and 20,000 more to labor camps. German troops destroy Warsaw’s synagogue, and seek out any remaining Jews still in hiding. German casualties number 17 dead and 93 wounded. Over Germany, RAF Wing Commander Guy Gibson leads a night attack by 19 aircraft of No. 617 Squadron (“The Dam Busters”) against dams in Germany’s Ruhr Valley. Specially developed “bouncing bombs” breach the Mohne and Edersee Dams causing severe flooding. Over 1,600 civilians are killed, but little damage is done to industrial installations. Gibson is later awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award in the British military honors system.
The Germans on May 17 launch a fifth offensive in Yugoslavia to destroy Partisans led by Josip Broz Tito. The crew of the “Memphis Belle” — a B-17F Flying Fortress heavy bomber — becomes the first aircrew of the U.S. Army Air Forces’ Eighth Air Force to complete its 25-mission tour of duty. Both the plane and the men return to the U.S. to assist in the sale of War Bonds.
The Japanese on May 18 launch a new offensive along the Yangtze river, 250 miles northeast of the Nationalist capital of Chungking. With Tunisia captured, the Allies begin the bombing of Pantelleria, an island in the Mediterranean 100 miles from Tunis and 60 miles from Sicily. From the Vatican, Pope Pius XII appeals to President Roosevelt to have American bombers spare Rome from destruction, citing the city’s many “treasures of religion and art.”
The U.S. Army Medical Corps on May 19 clears the antibiotic penicillin for use in all military hospitals. The drug had been in limited use since 1942, but technical developments enable higher production levels, allowing wider availability. In Germany, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels announces that, after two months of work, Berlin is “Judenfrei” (cleansed of Jews). In Washington, D.C., British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses a joint session of Congress. In his speech, broadcast nationwide over the radio, he says, “We will wage war at your side against Japan while there is breath in our bodies and while blood flows in our veins.”
On May 20, the U.S. Navy forms the Tenth Fleet, the mission of which is anti-submarine operations in the Atlantic. In Asia, the Chinese launch a counteroffensive along the Yangtze River.
