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• » 9 May 1940

• Conscription maximum age in the United Kingdom was raised again to 36. ww2dbase [TH]
• British Prime Minister Chamberlain offered to form a coalition government with the opposition Labour Party, but the attempt was unsuccessful. In the afternoon, Chamberlain began to discuss with Halifax and Churchill, the two leading contenders to be his successor, about the possibility of his resignation. ww2dbase [Neville Chamberlain | CPC]
• Four Polish battalions arrived at Narvik, Norway. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | CPC]
• British troops occupied Iceland. ww2dbase [Invasion and Occupation of Iceland | CPC]
• Adolf Hitler and his staff arrived at the Felsennest headquarters in the Westwall fortifications on the German-French border. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | CPC]

• German submarine U-9 (Wolfgang Lüth) fired two torpedoes at French submarine Doris 40 miles off of the Dutch coast at 0014 hours. One struck amidships, blowing the boat in half and killing 42 French and 3 British men. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | North Sea | TH, HM]
• British destroyer HMS Kelly with Lord Louis Mountbatten aboard went on patrol in the Skagerrak between Sweden and Germany, escorted by cruiser HMS Birmingham and destroyers HMS Kandahar, HMS Bulldog, HMS Kimberley, and HMS Hasty. Five German torpedo boats attacked this fleet in the evening. Torpedo boat S-31 damaged HMS Kelly with one torpedo, killing 27; she would require HMS Bulldog to tow her back to port. ww2dbase [Kelly | Skagerrak | CPC]
• HMS Acasta began escorting the badly damaged light cruiser HMS Penelope toward the Clyde in Scotland, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Acasta | CPC]

• Belgium declared a state of emergency and placed the army on alert for the possible German invasion. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC]

• Adolf Hitler issued the order to commence the invasion of France and the Low Countries at dawn on the following day. At noon German meteorologists made a firm forecast of clear skies on the following morning; Adolf Hitler gave the meteorology officer a medal on the spot. In the afternoon, Hitler departed Berlin, Germany for this temporary forward headquarters codenamed Felsennest near Bad Münsereifel in the Rhineland region of Germany to observe the coming invasion. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Adolf Hitler | Berlin | CPC, AC]

• Grand Duchess Charlotte called an extraordinary meeting of her leading ministers, and they decided to place the grand ducal family and the government under the protection of France. She and her family would depart southward on the next day. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Charlotte | CPC]

• HMS Eagle completed her repairs at Singapore and departed for Colombo, Ceylon. ww2dbase [Eagle | Singapore | CPC]

• The first Vultee Model 48 Vanguard prototype aircraft collided with a Sirius aircraft at Vultee Field in Downey, California, United States. ww2dbase [P-66 Vanguard | Downey, California | CPC]

9 May 1940 Interactive Map