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• Captain Samuel Evans was named the commanding officer of New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, United States. ww2dbase [New York Navy Yard | Brooklyn, New York | CPC]

16 May 1813 Interactive Map

• Manton Eddy was born. ww2dbase [Manton Eddy | CPC]

• Andrew McNaughton was promoted to the rank of captain. ww2dbase [Andrew McNaughton | CPC]

• The Sykes-Picot agreement was signed in which Sir Mark Sykes of Great Britain and George Picot of France obtained from Russia agreement as to how the Ottoman Empire would be divided up after the war. In exchange for British and French territorial gains, Russia would take control of the Turkish Armenian provinces and northern Kurdistan. ww2dbase [AC]

• Joseph Rochefort took a test at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, United States for transferring to the regular navy. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Joseph Rochefort | Vallejo, California | CPC]

• The keel of HMS York was laid down by the Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company in Jarrow, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [York | Jarrow, England | CPC]

• USS Pennsylvania departed Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. ww2dbase [Puget Sound Navy Yard | Pennsylvania | Bremerton, Washington | DS]

16 May 1928 Interactive Map

• Alpo Marttinen was promoted to the rank of 2nd lieutenant in the regular Finnish Army. ww2dbase [Alpo Marttinen | CPC]

• Hiroaki Abe was transferred out of Japanese Navy Destroyer Division 1. ww2dbase [Hiroaki Abe | CPC]

• Adolf Hitler asked his top commanders how many German divisions were on the border with Czechoslovakia and were ready to move within a twelve hour window. The answer he received was twelve. ww2dbase [Munich Conference and the Annexation of Sudetenland | CPC]

• Alpo Marttinen was promoted to the rank of captain. ww2dbase [Alpo Marttinen | CPC]

• A numbers of prisoners arrived at the newly established Flossenbürg Concentration Camp in southern Germany. On the same day, Heinrich Himmler and Oswald Pohl arrived at the camp for an inspection. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Flossenbürg Concentration Camp | Flossenbürg, Bayreuth | CPC]

16 May 1938 Interactive Map

• Cruiser Köln completed training in the North Atlantic. ww2dbase [Köln | CPC]
• Admiral Erich Raeder presented to Adolf Hitler German Navy's plan for conducting war against Poland in the Baltic Sea and against Britain and France in the Atlantic Ocean. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | CPC]

• HMS Birmingham arrived at Gulangyu island, an international settlement off Xiamen, China in response to the arrival of a Japanese Special Naval Landing Force detachment nearby. She disembarked a contingent of sailors and marines. ww2dbase [Birmingham | Xiamen, Fujian | CPC]
• USS Marblehead arrived at Gulangyu island, an international settlement off Xiamen, China in response to the arrival of a Japanese Special Naval Landing Force detachment nearby. She disembarked a contingent of US Marines. ww2dbase [Marblehead | Xiamen, Fujian | CPC]

• German 6th Army broke through the Dyle Line; British troops withdrew west of Brussels and the Belgian government evacuated to Ostend. From its Meuse River bridgeheads, German Army Group A tanks broke through the French lines, capturing thousands of surrendering French troops. Guderian's units reached Montcornet, while Rommel's units reached Avesnes-sur-Helpe. Fearful that this advance into France would expose the invasion's flanks, the German High Command ordered Army Group A to halt its spearheads so that the infantry could catch up. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | TH]
• French Prime Minister Reynaud ordered Maxime Weygand to return from Syria to Paris, France. ww2dbase [Maxime Weygand | CPC]
• Remy Van Lierde was shot down while flying a reconnaissance mission over Belgium, becoming captured. ww2dbase [Remy Van Lierde | CPC]
• US President Roosevelt requested the US Congress to appropriate US$546,000,000 for the US Army, US$250,000,000 for US Navy and US Marine Corps, and US$100,000,000 for his own office for national defense purposes. He also requested the authorization for the military and his own office to issue contracts in the amount of US$186,000,000 and US$100,000,000, respectively. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• US President Roosevelt responded to British Prime Minister Churchill's telegraph from the previous day, noting that any military aid to Britain must have the authorization from the US Congress, and that the US fleet would remain concentrated at Hawaii in the Central Pacific for the time being. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | CPC]

• British Prime Minister Winston Churchill flew to Paris, France to meet with his French counterpart Paul Reynaud; witnessing the burning of government archives, he inquired about the strategic reserve, and received the answer "Aucune" ("There is none"). On the same day, Churchill also sent his Italian counterpart Benito Mussolini a message, urging him to keep Italy out of the European War. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | Paris | TH, CPC]

16 May 1940 Interactive Map

• RAF aircraft conducted raids on Köln (Cologne) and Bramsfield in Germany; at the latter target the Atlantik rubber works was damaged. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | TH]
• German bombers sank British troopship Archangel 10 miles off Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom; 52 were killed, 435 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The damaged port side crane aboard Bismarck was repaired. ww2dbase [Bismarck | CPC]
• Brigadier Gott withdrew British tanks and infantry from the desert around Sollum and Fort Capuzzo, Libya to consolidate a hold on Halfaya Pass on the Egyptian-Libyan border. ww2dbase [Operation Brevity | CPC]
• The final British reinforcements arrived on Crete, Greece. On the same day, German aircraft bombed various British positions on Crete (including airfields) as well as the shipping in Suda Bay (sinking several freighters and damaging HMS York). ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | York | CPC]
• German Me 110 and He 111 bombers attacked RAF Habbaniyah in Iraq, surprising the British; the British and the Germans each lost one aircraft during the attack. Meanwhile, German aircraft strafed British reinforcements traveling eastward from Palestine. ww2dbase [Campaigns in the Middle East | CPC]
• German submarine U-105 attacked British ship Rodney Star 400 miles west of Sierra Leone, British West Africa between 0548 and 0930 hours, hitting her with torpedoes and gunfire; Rodney Star sank; the entire crew of 83 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-109 stumbled upon an American fleet containing a battleship and several destroyers. She dove and avoided attack. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Vsevolod Merkulov reported to Joseph Stalin regarding the final deportation plan for the Baltic States, which targeted political leaders, land owners, officers, and others, plus their families. He recommended 8-year imprisonment in labor camps for them, and the exile to faraway lands in the Soviet Union for their families. ww2dbase [Vsevolod Merkulov | CPC]

• Alessandro Malaspina sighted a destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean at 0425 hours; she dove and escaped being sighted in return. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]
• Alessandro Malaspina remained under water in the Atlantic Ocean as she had been under attack by three Allied destroyers and a number of aircraft, which escorted a convoy upwards of 20 freighters. At 0114 and 0308 hours, Alessandro Malaspina detected depth charges being launched at her. At 0405 hours, the Italian submarine surfaced and found that the Allied convoy, along with its escorts, had already departed the area. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]

• With drinking water fouled in the Italian stronghold of Amba Alagi, Ethiopia, the Italian Viceroy Duke of Aosta requested the British to send in fresh water. When the British refused, he called for a ceasefire in order to begin surrender negotiations. By this point, his forces had suffered incurring 289,000 casualties. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Amba Alagi | CPC]

• Italian sappers cleared barbed wires and mines near Tobruk, Libya. The subsequent attack on Tobruk, Libya by the Italian Ariete Armoured Division saw the Italians capturing several bunkers, but the assault was deemed unsuccessful. 90% of the division's tanks failed mechanically before the main action was engaged and the division was moved back to Gazala to refit and regroup. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | Tobruk | CPC, AC]

• German bombers damaged British destroyer HMS Encounter in drydock at Malta. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | CPC]
• Wing Commander J. Warfield was named the commanding officer of RAF Station Takali on Malta. ww2dbase [RAF Takali | Ta' Qali | CPC]

• German bombers conducted what would turn out to be the last major raid against London, England, United Kingdom, as most Luftwaffe units were being transferred to the Eastern Front. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | London, England | TH]

• The first P-43 Lancer fighter delivery was made to the United States Army. ww2dbase [P-43 Lancer | CPC]
• US President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared the defence of China to be vital to the United States. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | AC]

16 May 1941 Interactive Map

• USS Enterprise received orders to return to Pearl Harbor. ww2dbase [Enterprise | CPC]
• USS Hornet received orders to return to Pearl Harbor. ww2dbase [Hornet (Yorktown-class) | CPC]
• German submarine U-751 sank US freighter Nicarao 50 kilometers east of the Bahamas at 0415 hours; 8 were killed, 31 survived. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• German submarine U-507 sank Honduran ship Amapala in the Gulf of Mexico at 0000 hours; 1 was killed, 56 survived. German submarine U-506 damaged US tankers Sun and William C. McTarnahan (killing 18 of 38 aboard) and sank US tanker Gulfoil (killing 21 of 40 aboard) 50 kilometers south of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• Destroyer Yuzuki departed Ocean and Nauru Islands area for Truk, Caroline Islands. ww2dbase [Yuzuki | CPC]
• Corsaro was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Corsaro | CPC]
• The first operational use of "Kittybombers" in the western desert (P-40 Kittyhawk fighters equipped with a bomb rack for a 500-lb bomb) occured when six aircraft of No. 112 squadron RAF attacked an enemy camp east of the main road near Bomba, Libya. ww2dbase [P-40 Warhawk | AC]
• USS Tautog damaged Japanese cargo ship Goyo Maru in the Caroline Islands, forcing her to beach to prevent sinking. ww2dbase [Tautog | CPC]
• Pressured by the United States, the French Navy placed Émile Bertin out of service at Fort-de-France, Martinique. ww2dbase [Émile Bertin | CPC]
• No. 112 Squadron RAAF was declared operational in North Africa. It would the Allied Desert Air Force's first Kittybomber unit. ww2dbase [P-40 Warhawk | CPC]

• U-576 arrived at Saint-Nazaire, France, ending her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [U-576 | Saint-Nazaire, Pays de la Loire | CPC]

• Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii intercepted a Japanese radio message containing Chuichi Nagumo's request for weather reports to be submitted to him at a location 50 miles northwest of AF starting from three hours prior to the pre-determined time of attack. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Japanese bombers attacked Imphal, India. ww2dbase [Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• Hans-Joachim Marseille shot down two Australian P-40 fighters, Sergeant T. V. Teede at 1805 hours and Pilot Officer Dudley Parker at 1815 hours, near Ain el Gazala, Libya, raising his kill score to 60. When Parker's fighter went down, it crashed into another fighter piloted by W. J. Metherall, causing Metherall to crash and become killed; this was not witnessed by the Germans and thus did not count toward Marseille's score. ww2dbase [Hans-Joachim Marseille | Gazala | CPC]

• Prinz Eugen departed Trondheim, Norway for Kiel, Germany to receive further repairs. ww2dbase [Prinz Eugen | Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag | CPC]

• Sobibór concentration camp in occupied Poland was deemed fully operational. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Sobibór Concentration Camp | Sobibór, Lublin | CPC]

• German troops captured the city of Kerch and the namesake peninsula in Russia; Soviet troops in the area began a 5-day evacuation under heavy fire. ww2dbase [Battle of Sevastopol | Kerch, Krym | TH, CPC]

• Near Kharkov, Ukraine, the Soviet 28th Army's offensive was halted. To the south, Soviet 6th Guards Cavalry Corps reached Krasnograd, but their support tanks were 15 miles behind the front lines and could not arrive at the front fast enough to maintain the forward momentum. ww2dbase [Second Battle of Kharkov | Krasnograd, Kharkov | CPC]

16 May 1942 Interactive Map

• USS Snook sank a Japanese trawler with her deck gun. ww2dbase [Snook | CPC]
• Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary that Kiel, Germany was heavily damaged in an Allied bombing. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | CPC]

• Japanese 3rd Division attacked Songzi, Hubei Province, China. ww2dbase [Battle of Exi | Songzi, Hubei | CPC]

• Reginaldo Giuliani departed Bordeaux, France. ww2dbase [Reginaldo Giuliani | Bordeaux, Aquitaine | CPC]

• Nachi refueled from oiler Teiyo Maru in Kataoka Bay, Paramushiro (Paramushir), Kurile Islands. ww2dbase [Nachi | Paramushiro, Hokkaido | CPC]

• USS Whale took station 56 kilometers east of Wake Atoll and guided US Army B-24 bombers toward Wake. She was spotted by a Japanese aircraft, but sustained no damaged in the subsequent attack. ww2dbase [Whale | CPC]
• USS Grayback damaged a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific, hitting her with 2 of 6 torpedoes. ww2dbase [Grayback | CPC]

• The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising ended in Poland with the destruction of the Warsaw synagogue at 2015 hours. In Jürgen Stroop's final daily report, he noted that 180 Jewish fighters were killed on this final day. ww2dbase [Warsaw Ghetto Uprising | Jürgen Stroop | Warsaw | TH]

• Wing Commander Guy Gibson's Dambusters took off from Lincolnshire, England, United Kingdom for an attack on the Ruhr River dams in Germany. ww2dbase [Dambuster Raid | England | TH, CPC]

• USS Mingo departed New London, Connecticut, United States for the Panama Canal. ww2dbase [Mingo | New London, Connecticut | CPC]

16 May 1943 Interactive Map

• USS Sea Cat was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Sea Cat | CPC]
• H Force arrived at the village of Namkwi, Burma, 4 miles north of the airstrip at Myitkyina. Colonel Hunter ordered his troops to intern the villagers in case any were informants for the Japanese. In the evening. Hunter sent the code phrase Strawberry Sundae to Joseph Stilwell to indicate the offensive would begin in 24 hours. After dark, he ordered Sergeant Clarence Branscomb to sneak onto the Japanese-held airfield to see how many defensive structures were manned and whether the airstrip had any unepaired bomb craters; Hunter gave Branscomb his opened bottle of Canadian Club whiskey as a gesture of appreciation. Branscomb recruited Tom Frye and Walter Clark, who finished the whiskey before moving out in the dark. The group would successfully complete the reconnaissance mission. ww2dbase [Battle of Myitkyina | Charles Hunter | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho arrived at Tawi-Tawi, Mindanao, Philippine Islands. ww2dbase [Ryuho | CPC]
• Patrol Boat No. 102 experienced trouble with her No. 2 boiler while at sea. ww2dbase [Stewart | CPC]

• After three days of bombardment exercises, USS Honolulu and USS St. Louis departed Hathorn Sound bound for Tulagi, Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Honolulu | St. Louis | New Georgia, Solomon Islands | DS]

• Tan Kun, flying a P-40N fighter, conducted a reconnaissance mission over Luoyang, Henan Province, China. He shot down one Ki-44 aircraft of Japanese 9th Sentai and another Ki-44 aircraft of a different unit between Luoyang and Longmen to the south. Suffering a punctured fuel tank, he crash landed successfully in friendly territory. He was given credit to the two victories by the Chinese Air Force but not by the US Army Air Forces. ww2dbase [Tan Kun | Luoyang, Henan | CPC]

• Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel issued Adolf Hitler's directive for Operation Kirshkern ("Cherry Stone") to commence the bombardment of England, United Kingdom by long-range weapons. ww2dbase [Wilhelm Keitel | AC]

• USS Pintado departed Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii for her first war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Pintado | Honolulu, Oahu | CPC]

• Major General Nobuo Tanaka ordered a two-pronged offensive toward Bishenpur and the plains near Imphal in India. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• British fusilier Frank Jefferson used a PIAT anti-tank launcher to destroy a German Panzer IV tank along the Gustav Line in Italy, which led to his unit repulsing a German counterattack which was spearheaded by the tank. He would later be awarded the Victoria Cross for this action. ww2dbase [Battle of Anzio | PIAT | CPC]
• US Army personnel Captain Young-Oak Kim and Private First Class Irving Akahoshi captured two German soldiers near Cisterna, Italy for intelligence. ww2dbase [Young-Oak Kim | Cisterna, Lazio | CPC]

• A transport of Jews from Hungary arrived at Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. Adolf Eichmann, in charge of all transports to the camps, arrived to oversee and speed up the extermination process personally. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Adolf Eichmann | Oswiecim | CPC]

• Detached from the USS Ranger group while at sea and diverted to Norfolk, Virginia with engine difficulties, escort carrier USS Card arrived at Norfolk and began a period of maintenance and upkeep. ww2dbase [Card | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]
• USS Ranger arrived at the Army Base, Staten Island, New York. ww2dbase [Ranger | New York | DS]

16 May 1944 Interactive Map

• Alderney of the Channel Islands was reoccupied by British troops; the garrison of 3,200 German troops became prisoners of war. ww2dbase [TH]
• USS Segundo departed for her fourth war patrol. ww2dbase [Segundo | CPC]
• After not responding to communications since 9 Apr 1945, USS Snook was presumed lost. ww2dbase [Snook | CPC]
• USS Hawkbill arrived off British Malaya to serve on lifeguard station. ww2dbase [Hawkbill | CPC]
• US Army Colonel Albert Caswell Metts, Jr. assisted the five daughters of Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, who had been liberated from Dachau Concentration Camp by the American army, to return to Luxembourg. ww2dbase [AC]
• USS Bailey arrived at Tarakan Roads, Borneo, Dutch East Indies. ww2dbase [Bailey | DS]

• William Slim and Aung San met at Meiktila, Burma; Slim later noted that although Aung San had an anti-British history, he was a promising candidate to lead Burma after the war. ww2dbase [Aung San | Meiktila | CPC]

• Exiled Czechoslovakian President Eduard Beneš returned to Prague, Czechoslovakia to a rapturous welcome. ww2dbase [Edvard Beneš | Prague | AC]

• Submarine USS Tinosa arrived at Apra Harbor, Guam at the conclusion of her tenth war patrol. ww2dbase [Tinosa | Apra Harbor | DS]

• USS Sennet arrived at Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, ending her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Pearl Harbor Navy Base and Ford Island Naval Air Station | Sennet | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | CPC]
• Barbers Point Naval Air Station: Inspection of engine overhaul facilities by Vice Admiral JH Newton, USN; Commodore HE Overesh, USN; Captain RE Farnsworth, USN; Commander GC Briant, USNR; Captain EA Tarbutton, USN. ww2dbase [Barbers Point Naval Air Station | Ewa, Oahu | DS]

• Aircraft from escort carrier HMS Emperor attacked Japanese cruiser Haguro at the entrance of the Malacca Strait. ww2dbase [Haguro | Malacca Strait | CPC]
• Kamikaze was lightly damaged by British destroyers in the Strait of Malacca; 27 were killed, 14 were wounded. She arrived at Penang, Straits Settlements later on the same day. ww2dbase [Kamikaze | Strait of Malacca | CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Maizuru, Japan. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Maizuru, Kyoto | CPC]

• USS Boarfish departed Subic Bay, Philippine Islands for her third war patrol. ww2dbase [Boarfish | CPC]

• The Kukutsu Prisoners of War Camp in northern Taiwan was opened. ww2dbase [CPC]

16 May 1945 Interactive Map

• Lardner was decommissioned from service. ww2dbase [Lardner | CPC]

• Allied repatriation ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Morotai, Moluccan Islands and embarked Japanese personnel. She departed later on the same day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Morotai, Maluku Islands | CPC]

• Zhang Linfu committed suicide in his command cave in Menglianggu, Mengyin County, Shandong Province, China. ww2dbase [Zhang Lingfu | Mengyin, Shandong | CPC]

• Zhao Chengshou surrendered to the Chinese Communist forces at Jinzhong, Shanxi, China. ww2dbase [Zhao Chengshou | CPC]

• USS Segundo entered Mare Island Naval Shipyard, California, United States for overhaul. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Segundo | Vallejo, California | CPC]

• Convicted German war criminal Karl Kosch was transferred to the Vladimir Prison in Vladimir, Russia. ww2dbase [Vladimir | CPC]

16 May 1952 Interactive Map

• Kirill Meretskov was awarded the In Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of Leningrad medal. ww2dbase [Kirill Meretskov | CPC]

• Escort carrier Card was reactivated as an aircraft transport as part of the Military Sea Transportation Service as USNS Card operating with a civilian crew. ww2dbase [Card | Norfolk, Virginia | DS]

16 May 1959 Interactive Map

• The Yad Vashem of Israel declared Anton Schmid a Righteous Among the Nations. ww2dbase [Anton Schmid | CPC]

16 May 2005 Interactive Map