Real time Discusion thread

Air War over Europe

Reichsmarschall Goring summoned the aircraft manufacturers Professor Willy Messerschmitt, Ernst Heinkel and Claude Dornier to a conference and accused them of their inability to develop a fighter to counter-act the RAF Mosquito. He decided that a special anti-Mosquito unit must be formed and started searching for the appropriate officer to lead the group. The seeds of a little known Luftwaffe unit, JG 50, were born.

It didn't take long for an oppourtunity. US Eighth AF Mission No. 45 was 76 B-17s of the US 1st BW and 27 B-24s of the US 2nd BW sent against the submarine yards at Vegesack and the Bremen Vulkan Schiffbau shipbuilding yards on the Weser near Bremen, dropping 268 tons of bombs on the target. This mission marked the first successful combat use of automatic flight control linked with bombsights. The pilots of I./JG 1 at Jever - including Lt. Knoke and Lt. Gerhardt who were unable to load their Bf 109s in time with bombs - were ordered to scramble and intercepted the bomber formations. Lt. Knoke led his flight in a head-on attack and badly damaged a B-24 from the US 93rd BG. Banking around, Lt. Knoke continued to attack until the Liberator exploded. It was Lt. Knoke's 5th kill. Lt. Gerhardt destroyed his first B-24 off Heligoland. Shortly after the B-24 fell from the sky, Lt. Gerhardt was shot down into the sea. He managed to bail out but died of his wounds, floating in his liferaft. The U-Boat pens were heavily damaged from the raid, destroying 7 U-Boat hulls and demolishing much of the shipyard.

Brazil

Riots occur in Buenos Aires, Argentina as a mob attack the German Legation and Consulate, as well as German newspapers.

Battle of the Indian Ocean

U.S. freighter John Drayton is torpedoed by Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci off the coast of South Africa, 34°00'S, 34°40'E, and abandoned. Leonardo da Vinci then surfaces, finishes off the freighter with gunfire, and temporarily detains a member of the crew on board for questioning before returning him to his shipmates.

INDIAN OCEAN

A U.S. freighter is torpedoed by the Italian submarine Leonardo da Vinci off the coast of South Africa and abandoned. Leonardo da Vinci then surfaces, finishes off the freighter with gunfire, and temporarily detains a member of the crew on board for questioning before returning him to his shipmates.

Battle of the Atlantic

A series of running battles, between German U-Boats and Convoy ONS-5, begin. These battles will last through 6 May. The convoy will lose 13 transports. 7 U-Boats are sunk with damage to others. The ratio of 2 transports to 1 U-boat is acceptable. This convoy is being protected by British escorts and PBY-5A Catalinas of the US Navy's Patrol VP-84 based as Naval Air Facility (NAF) Reykjavik, Iceland. The effective air escort during the main battle was RCAF No. 5 Squadron from Newfoundland which sank 'U-630' on 4th May. Earlier in the voyage, on 24 April, 'U-710' was sunk by RAF 206 Squadron. The surface escort accounted for the remainder of the U-boat losses. The weather from 28 May onwards was atrocious. (Syscom)