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• » 3 May 1943

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru arrived at Kavieng, New Ireland departing later on the same day. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | CPC]
• 487 Squadron of the New Zealand air force attacked a power station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. All 10 bombers dispatched were lost to German fighters. Squadron Leader Leonard Trent won the Victoria Cross for his leadership in this attack. ww2dbase [Ventura | CPC]
• US troops captured Mateur, Tunisia. ww2dbase [Conclusion of the Desert War | CPC]
• The British 6th Airborne Division was established with Major General Richard Gale in command. ww2dbase [AC]
• Captain Takeo Shimizu was named the commanding officer of Kamoi. ww2dbase [Kamoi | CPC]

• Destroyer Yukikaze departed Truk, Caroline Islands to escort carrier Zuikaku and Zuiho to Japan. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | Truk | CPC]

• The headquarters of the Japanese 11th Army was moved to Shashi, Jingzhou, Hubei Province, China in preparation for a planned offensive. ww2dbase [Battle of Exi | Jingzhou, Hubei | CPC]

• Light cruiser Nürnberg arrived at Kiel, Germany; Jaguar, Greif, and Z4 Richard Beitzen had escorted her to Kiel from Norway. Later that day, Jaguar, Greif, and Möwe escorted minelayers out of Kiel for the North Sea. ww2dbase [Jaguar | Greif | Nürnberg | Z4 Richard Beitzen | Möwe | Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein | CPC]

• Lieutenant General Frank M. Andrews, who President Franklin Roosevelt had nominated to command all American forces in the European theatre, was killed in a plane crash on Mount Fagradalsfjall on the Reykjanes peninsula in southwestern Iceland. 14 were killed aboard the B-24D bomber; 1 survived. He would later be succeeded by Jacob Devers and then Dwight Eisenhower ww2dbase [Suðurnes | TH, AC]

• Royal Navy began bombarding Pantelleria Island near Sicily, Italy. ww2dbase [Battle of Pantelleria and Pelagie Islands | Pantelleria, Sicilia | TH]

• Nachi arrived at Yokosuka, Japan for repairs. ww2dbase [Nachi | Yokosuka, Kanagawa | CPC]

• Having failed to make port call at Balikpapan, Borneo, Dutch East Indies, the Japanese realized that the troop carrier Kamakura Maru might had been lost while en route from Manila, Philippines (she was indeed sunk by submarine USS Gudgeon on 28 Apr 1943). Search and rescue efforts were launched immediately, but after more than 4 days in the water, many had already perished. Only 28 out of the 176 crew and only 437 of the about 2,500 passengers were rescued. ww2dbase [Sulu Sea | HM]

• Soviet NKVD/NKGB official Viktor Il'in was arrested in Vsevolod Merkulov's office on false charges of treason, conspiracy, and spreading anti-Soviet propaganda. ww2dbase [Vsevolod Merkulov | CPC]

3 May 1943 Interactive Map