30 May 1941 | World War II Database

30 May 1941

Erich Raeder recommended Adolf Hitler an attack on the Suez Canal in Egypt. ww2dbase [Erich Raeder | CPC]
Before dawn, a force of British cruiser and destroyers embarked 6,029 troops and departed Sphakia, Crete, Greece for Egypt. En route, they were attacked by Axis aircraft; a bomb hit on cruiser HMS Perth killed 13, but RAF fighter escorts prevented Axis aircraft from dealing the kind of damage they did on the previous day against a different evacuation convoy. Destroyer HMS Kelvin, sailing north from Egypt, was damaged by a bomb en route, killing 1. On land, German aircraft strafed evacuation beaches at and near Sphakia. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
British and Indian forces reached the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, causing Rashid Ali's government to collapse. ww2dbase [Campaigns in the Middle East | CPC]
German submarine U-106 sank British ship Silveryew near Cape Verde Islands at 0036 hours, killing 1. ww2dbase [CPC]
German submarine U-38 sank British ship Empire Protector off Sierra Leone, British West Africa at 1407 hours, killing 5. ww2dbase [CPC]

Japan

Soviet spy Richard Sorge, a reporter in the German Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, informed Moscow that the Germans planned to invade in late June. Joseph Stalin, as he had done in so many other reports by his agents, still refused to believe this important intelligence. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | Tokyo | AC]

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis

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