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• Australian troops launched a counterattack at Tobruk, Libya. Italian troops repulsed the counterattack, losing only one bunker. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]
• Alexander Löhr was promoted to the rank of colonel general. ww2dbase [Alexander Löhr | CPC]

• Allied and Italian troops engaged in heavy fighting at Amba Alagi, Abyssinia. ww2dbase [Invasion of Italian East Africa | Amba Alagi | CPC]

• Alessandro Malaspina sighted British merchant ship British Lycaon in the Atlantic Ocean at 2110 hours at the range of 6,000 meters. At 2138 hours, she submerged. At 2215 hours, she attempted to fire a torpedo, but it failed to leave the tube, and manual attempts to fire it also failed. After losing contact with the target, she was sighted again at 2345 hours at the range of 2,000 meters. British Lycaon fired two rounds at Alessandro Malaspina and transmitted a radio message for help, which also identified her for the Italian submarine. ww2dbase [Alessandro Malaspina | CPC]

• The Panama Canal Zone was placed under the Panama Sector of the US Caribbean Defense Command. ww2dbase [CPC]

• General Jan Smuts announced to the House of Assembly the deployment of South African troops to Egypt. ww2dbase [AC]

• A bomb penetrated the basement shelter of Wilkinson's Lemonade factory in North Shields, England, United Kingdom. One hundred and seven people, more than half of those in the shelter, were killed. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | North Shields, England | AC]

3 May 1941 Interactive Map