Having spent his night in a Scottish military hospital following his bizarre flight to Great Britain on the 10th, Rudolf Hess sleeps late and then is ready to discuss — something. British intelligence service spy Ivone Kirkpatrick flies up to visit Hess, who seems a bit confused about who he is actually dealing with. Hess tells Kirkpatrick that he has come to talk peace and spells out his proposal, and it is all taken down by a stenographer. Kirkpatrick is somewhat bemused by Hess’ attitude, which is that of a victor making a generous offer. Whether Hess actually is communicating an offer from Hitler is debatable, although Hess is clear that he is an unofficial official emissary.
The “Hess Peace Plan,” if it can be called that, is murky. Apparently, in essence, Hess offers an armistice wherein the Germans will evacuate all of France except for its traditional territories of Alsace and Lorraine. In addition, Germany would relinquish Holland, Belgium, Norway, and Denmark, while keeping Luxembourg. Furthermore, Germany under the right circumstances would agree to give up Yugoslavia and Greece and, apparently, North Africa. Everything depends on neutrality by Great Britain that is “benevolent.”
It is unclear how specific Hess is about Hitler’s plans in the East, but there seems little question that at the very least he drops very broad hints that the Soviet Union is Hitler’s real military objective. Hess is very clear that Hitler wants peace in the West and will go to great lengths to achieve it so that the Reich can turn on the USSR. There is a sense that Hess (and presumably Hitler) want to turn the entire war into a crusade against Soviet communism, something that the Japanese also are hinting at in their secret negotiations with the Americans. Kirkpatrick nods and takes notes throughout the day, as Hess proves to be quite talkative, but Kirkpatrick is not a dealmaker and is simply there to get information.
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, staying at his country home at Ditchley near Oxford, is not interested enough in Hess to even interrupt a special screening of the latest Marx Brothers film. However, he does ask the Duke of Hamilton to report in person.
Hess’ adjutant who had accompanied him to the airfield, Karlheinz Pintsch, acts upon Hess’ final instructions and carries Hess’ special letter addressed to Hitler to the Berghof, where the Fuehrer is enjoying a holiday. Accounts differ on exactly how Hitler responds, and the generally accepted view is that Hitler is shocked and immediately orders German state media to disavow Hess and claim that he has gone mad.
However, according to Pintsch’s own account written in February 1948 (discovered in the 21st Century in the State Archive of the Russian Federation by German historian Matthias Uhl of the German Historical Institute Moscow), Hitler is not surprised at all when he reads the letter. In the account, Pintsch writes, “Hitler calmly listened to my report and dismissed me without comment.” Pintsch also writes that the flight had been arranged in advance by Hitler with the British, a view supported by the presence at the Duke of Hamilton’s airfield of secret service agents awaiting Hess.
Hitler’s butler, Heinz Linge, also states (also after the war) that Hitler’s “behavior told me that not only did he know about [the flight] in advance, but that [Hitler] probably even sent Hess to England.” This interpretation of Hitler’s reaction was echoed by two others at the Obersalzberg that day, Ernst Wilhelm Bohle, the head of the NSDAP’s foreign organization, and Hermann Göring’s liaison Karl Heinrich Bodenschatz.
In any event, Berlin Radio puts out the “Hess is insane” line throughout this and succeeding days.
Adolf Hitler summoned top Nazi Party officials to discuss how to handle Rudolf Hess’s unauthorized flight to the United Kingdom.
German forces completed the occupation of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. The Wehrmacht completes its low-key occupation of the Aegean islands, taking Kythera. These islands are of little strategic value to anyone and will become a pointless sideshow for the remainder of the war as both sides take and lose them over and over. Many soldiers on both sides will spend a lot of time whiling away the hours in beautiful surroundings while great events take place elsewhere.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Truant fails to return to Malta today as scheduled, and never will. Her fate is unknown, with one theory being that an Italian torpedo boat Pegaso sank it on 12 May.
Five Royal Navy destroyers bombard Benghazi Harbor as part of the TIGER Convoy operations.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual lays mines in the Gulf of Salonika.
Convoy ANF.30 departs from Alexandria bound for Suda Bay, accompanied by the 10th MTB (Motor Torpedo Boat) Flotilla, composed of MTB.67, MTB.68, MTB.213, MTB.214, MTB.215, MTB.216, and MTB.217. The MTBs have many mechanical issues, and two turn back while two more struggle to make it. Their eventual destination is Tobruk.
A large German/Italian convoy, delayed since 8 May, departs from Naples bound for Tripoli. It is composed of six freighters and has a heavy destroyer escort with additional Italian forces giving distant support.
British Brigadier Kingstone departed Haifa, Palestine with a column of horse cavalry and armored cars to reinforce RAF Habbaniyah, Iraq. Meanwhile, the first 3 German Luftwaffe aircraft from Greece landed at Mosul, Iraq.
The Assault on Rutbah Fort in Iraq ended in Allied victory. In the morning on the day of the 11 May, the Arab Legion column arrived and garrisoned the fort whilst Squadron Leader Michael Casson’s armoured cars continued to fight remnants of the Iraqi Desert Police’s forces. During the day, James Joseph Kingstone, the commander of Kingcol, along with some of his staff and a protective troop of the Blues and Royals and Life Guards, departed H3 for the fort at Rutbah. Leaving his protective troop at the edge of the town, Kingstone and Somerset de Chair, his assistant, proceeded on to the fort and met with Glubb Pasha. The Arab Legion arrives at Rutbah Fort on 11 May 1941 and patrols show that the Arabs have abandoned the position. The British thus take possession without a fight. The Iraqis, however, remain nearby, and the British armored cars engage in firefights with them throughout the day. The commander of Kingcol, one of the main columns, arrives at Fort Rutbah and makes it his headquarters.
Fritz Grobba, the German representative to Baghdad, arrives there via Syria. The Luftwaffe liaison officer to Rashid Ali, Major Axel von Blomberg, though, is killed by mistake while trying to land at Baghdad when Arab tribesmen open fire on his transport.
The South African 1st Brigade reaches Amba Alagi after a long march from Addis Ababa. This completes the encirclement of the Italian positions, though they have established a typically strong perimeter defense based on mountain-based machine guns with clear fields of fire.
The Gold Coast 24th Infantry Brigade continues advancing westward from Wadara toward Wondo in Galla-Sidamo, supporting the East African 21st Infantry Brigade.
Vichy French Vice-Premier François Darlan meets with Hitler at Berchtesgaden. The two reach an agreement (after much bluster and threats by Hitler) whereby Hitler will release French World War I veterans from POW camps in exchange for German transit rights in Vichy Syria. Of more lasting importance, Darlan agrees to cooperate in allowing German supplies to pass trough French Tunisia.
The timing of the agreement is fortuitous because the limits of German and French cooperation are tested during the day when 3 Bf-110’s from No. 4 Squadron, 76 Destroyer Wing fly over French-occupied Syria. The French send up two Morane 406 fighter planes of 7 Squadron, 1st Fighter Group (GCI/7) to intercept them. The Luftwaffe planes land at Palmyra. The Germans have a much larger force on the way from Greece and expect to use Syrian airfields as a transit point to Iraq, but apparently, local Vichy French commanders have not been specifically told to allow Germany transit rights yet.
Churchill cables Canadian leader William Mackenzie King and arranges a conference “about July or August for a month or six weeks.” He notes that Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, with whom King just met, is a “staunch comrade.”
British and Free French forces began Operation Josephine B with the objective of destroying an electrical transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux. The transformer station in Pessac, near Bordeaux, had long been recognized by the SOE as a target of particular interest but difficult to reach by air. The plan was to drop a team of saboteurs by parachute; they were to break into the transformer station, attach bombs and incendiaries with delay timers. The bombs would wreck the transformers and the incendiaries would set fire to the transformer cooling oil to complete the destruction. The team was parachuted into France on the night of 11/12 May 1941; a full moon. They hid their container of equipment and reconnoitered their target. They were dismayed to discover a high tension wire just inside the top of the 9-foot-high (2.7 m) perimeter wall and the sound of people moving about inside. They also failed to obtain bicycles on which they had planned to make a silent getaway. Discouraged, they lost heart and gave up. They would later return and complete their mission successfully.
In the Warsaw ghetto, 2,000 Jews a month are now dying from hunger and disease. Emanuel Ringelblum writes that “Death lies in every street. The children are no longer afraid of death. In one courtyard, the children played a game of tickling the corpse.”
The Luftwaffe continues its latest reversion to previous failed bombing strategies, sending large aerial forces against RAF airfields during the night. The damage caused is insignificant because many of the airfields are dummies marked out precisely for this purpose. If there is one common characteristic of Luftwaffe bombing strategies to this point, it is their abandonment right when it appears they are making a real impact in favor of another, completely different strategy.
London remains barely functional following the massive air raid of 10 May. The House of Commons chamber is badly damaged, so the Members of Parliament now meet in the House of Lords. Streets are clogged with debris, some 150,000 London residents are without basic utilities, the main railway sheds such as Victoria Station are all damaged, and 5,000 homes are destroyed. Fires remain unextinguished, and incendiary bombs lie in many streets and parks. The mayors of Westminster and Bermondsey are dead, the city has the pungent aroma of the burning Palmolive soap factory west of downtown. The Paul Delaroche painting “Charles I Insulted by Cromwell’s Soldiers” is presumed lost in the fires, but in fact is rolled up in a secure location and in perfect condition (this happenstance is not realized, though, until 2009).
John Colville, secretary to Winston Churchill, observed great fires burning on the southern shore of River Thames in London, England, United Kingdom, result of the previous night’s bombing. During the day, German Luftwaffe aircraft bombed RAF Feltwell in England.
The Wehrmacht High Command announced: “Over the last few nights the British air force has once again deliberately bombed the residential districts of German cities, including the German capital. In retaliation, strong German Luftwaffe forces carried out a major assault on London last night. Ground visibility was good and the British capital was bombed throughout the night by relay waves that dropped high-explosive bombs of all calibers and tens of thousands of incendiary bombs.”
The new Bf 109F is beginning to make more appearances over England, and today one is shot down.
At night the Luftwaffe attack 45 RAF airfields — although two-thirds of the airfields hit are dummy installations.
Adolf Galland was ordered by Hermann Göring to dispatch his pilots to search for and shoot down Rudolf Hess’s Me-110 aircraft somewhere over the North Sea.
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 11/12 May 1941
Hamburg
92 aircraft — 91 Wellingtons, 1 Stirling. 3 Wellingtons lost.
Bremen
81 aircraft — 48 Whitleys, 31 Hampdens, 2 Manchesters. 1 Hampden lost. 62 aircraft claimed good bombing results. Bremen reports many bombs in the harbour area. A floating dock at A.G. Weser was sunk when hit by 2 bombs; several industrial premises in the dock area were damaged. The report goes on to stress, however, that most of the damage was in the general town area where 24 houses were destroyed, 49 seriously damaged and nearly 1,000 damaged. An office building at the Focke-Wulf factory was hit, by chance the Bremen report suggests. 8 people were killed and 31 injured.
Minor Operations: 4 Wellingtons to Dieppe, 2 Wellingtons to Rotterdam, 1 Stirling to Bordeaux. No losses.
Total effort for the night 180 sorties, 4 aircraft (21 percent) lost.
At Malta, heavy Luftwaffe raids hit Luqa Airfield. It lasts for almost six hours and destroys planes and buildings. In addition, the Germans destroy dozens of nearby houses.
Two French Morane 406 fighter planes of 7 Squadron, 1st Fighter Group (GCI/7), forced 3 Me110’s from 4 Squadron, 76 Destroyer Wing to land in the Syrian city of Palmyra because the German planes had crossed French territory without announcing their presence.
U-103, commanded by Korvettenkapitän Viktor Schütze, sank British steamer City of Shanghai (5828grt) in 6-40N, 27-50W. On 10 May 1941 the unescorted City of Shanghai (Master Arthur Frank Goring), dispersed on 28 April from the convoy OB.313, was spotted by U-103, but the lookouts of the vessel also spotted the U-boat and tried to escape. Schütze wrote in the KTB: Nun muss er fallen, wenn ich auch nur einen Aal im Rohr habe (Now he must fall, even if I have only one torpedo in my tube). At 0130 hours on 11 May, after a hunt of over 16 hours, the U-boat fired its last torpedo and hit the City of Shanghai amidships, which was then finished off with the deck gun off St. Paul Rocks. Six crew members were lost and two more died of wounds in one of the lifeboats. 28 crew members were picked up by the Dutch steam merchant Stad Arnhem and landed at Freetown. The master and 17 crew members were rescued by the Richmond Castle and landed at Glasgow. 22 crew members were picked up by the Argentinian steam merchant Josefina S. and landed at Pernambuco. The 5,828-ton City of Shanghai was carrying government cargo and deck cargo and was bound for Turkey.
Heavy cruiser HMS Suffolk relieved heavy cruiser HMS Exeter on Denmark Straits patrol.
Destroyers HMS Inglefield, HMS Intrepid, HMS Impulsive, and HMS Escapade departed Scapa Flow at 1800 for Hvalfjord to act as a special anti-submarine striking force. The destroyers arrived at Hvalfjord on the 13th.
Destroyer HMS Churchill arrived at Scapa Flow at 1600 escorting steamer Ben My Chree. After refueling, the destroyer departed Scapa Flow at 2000 for Hvalfjord.
Auxiliary petrol base ship Gypsy (261grt) was sunk by German bombing at Tower Pier, London.
British steamer Somerset (8790grt) was sunk by German bombing in 54-54N, 16-20W. The entire crew was rescued.
British steamer Caithness (4970grt) was damaged by German bombing in 52-03N, 5-24W. The steamer arrived in Belfast on the 12th.
Tug Dencade (58grt) and fishing vessel Silver Lining (40grt) and Belgian trawler Hernieuwen In Christus (49grt) were damaged by German bombing at Brixham.
Submarine HMS Rorqual, which departed Port Said on the 5th, laid mines in the Gulf of Salonika.
Submarine HMS Pandora made an unsuccessful attack on a tanker off Naples.
The 10th MTB.Flotilla (Lt Cdr E. C. Peake) of MTB.67, MTB.68, MTB.213, MTB.214, MTB.215, MTB.216, and MTB.217 departed Alexandria for Suda Bay, refueling at Mersa Matruh and Tobruk, en route. MTB 68 and MTB.215 broke down at Mersa Matruh and were sent back to Alexandria. Two more were defective, but were able to arrive with the other three at Tobruk. MTB.67, MTB.213, MTB.214, MTB.216, and MTB.217 refueled during the night of 12/13 May and sailed for Suda Bay.
Convoy OB.321 departed Liverpool, escorted by destroyer HMS Reading and corvettes HMS Campanula, HMS Freesia, HMS Hibiscus, and HMS Pimpernel. Destroyers HMS Vanquisher and HMS Winchelsea, sloop HMS Londonderry, and corvettes HMS Gentian and HMS Rhododendron joined on the 12th. Destroyer Winchelsea, sloop Londonderry, and corvettes Campanula, Freesia, Hibiscus, and Pimpernel were detached on the 16th. Destroyers HMS Mashona and HMS Tartar were with the convoy on the 16th only. The remainder of the escort was detached on the 17th when the convoy was dispersed.
Convoy ANF.30 departed Alexandria escorted by destroyers HMAS Stuart and HMAS Vendetta. Early on the 12th, anti-aircraft cruisers HMS Dido and HMS Calcutta and destroyers HMS Janus and HMS Isis joined the convoy. On the 14th, cruisers Dido and Calcutta and destroyers Stuart, Vendetta, Janus, and Isis arrived at Suda Bay with the convoy.
A German-Italian convoy departed Naples with steamers Preussen (8230grt), Wachtfels (8467grt), Ernesto (7272grt), Giulia (5921grt), Tembien (5584grt), and Col Di Lana (5891grt) escorted by destroyers Aviere, Geniere, Grecale, Camicia Nera, and Dardo. Distant cover was given by light cruisers Bande Nere, Cardona, Duca Degli Abruzzi, and Garibaldi and destroyers Alpino, Fucliere, Scirocco, Bersagliere, Maestrale, Da Recco, Usodimare, Pessagno, and Pancaldo. The convoy arrived at Tripoli on the 14th.
A showdown this week on the question of United States naval vessels convoying lease-lend aid to Britain is expected by many members of Congress. Wednesday may be the day when such a turn will be reached, for then the Senate will probably get the bill which would permit the President to acquire foreign ships now lying idle in United States ports. And on that day the President is scheduled to make an address before the Pan American Union here. Many Administration supporters believe that Mr. Roosevelt will make this speech an occasion for clarifying his views on the convoy question and perhaps on other points of foreign policy.
While it was thought that the President’s illness might prevent the talk, this belief is being dissipated as he continues to improve. Today Representative George H. Tinkham, Republican of Massachusetts, challenged Mr. Roosevelt to ask Congress for a declaration of war and “abide by the decision of Congress on this issue.” The ship-seizure bill will be considered tomorrow by the Senate Commerce Committee. Senator Josiah W. Bailey of North Carolina, chairman of the committee, has said that he hopes to report it to the Senate by Wednesday in the form that it passed the House.
Former U.S. President Herbert Hoover gives a radio address entitled “We Are Not Prepared For War: We Can Help England Better By Staying Out.” Hoover states that “I do not need to express again my abhorrence of the whole totalitarian movement or its dangers to the world.” He warns, though, that “We are not prepared to go to war,” and notes that “we are a divided people.” By staying out of the war, the U.S. “can take more risks in parting with our tools of war.” More ominously, he warns of “the sacrifice also of our own liberty to a dictatorship of our own, inevitable in total war.” In sum, Hoover advocates retaining United States liberty by having the British fight Germany to defend it while using U.S. war material.
Senator Byrd, Virginia Democrat, asked today that the government release to the public figures on the dollar value of lease-lend supplies sunk on their way to Britain. Byrd said that because of the public interest aroused by recent demands that the United States “deliver the goods,” he had addressed a telegram to Harry Hopkins, lease lend administrator, requesting information on the value of equipment lost in transit. “The argument has been advanced,” Byrd told reporters, “that we have appropriated $7,000,000,000 to furnish aid to Britain and we ought to see that aid gets there. The people should know how much of the equipment they have paid for is being sunk. They will then be in a position to decide what ought to be done about it.”
From Representative Tinkham, Massachusetts Republican, came a demand that President Roosevelt “repudiate these covert declarations of war by those around him” or “avow them and be prepared to face the American people with the greatest betrayal of trust in the history of our republic.” Referring to recent speeches and statements of members of the president’s cabinet and the remark of his son, Capt. James Roosevelt, that except for sending troops, the United States is already in the war, Tinkham said in a statement: ‘The time has come when the American people are entitled to have from the president a truthful and unequivocal statement of his own position and his own intent.”
Police of San Francisco and Oakland, California, tonight were ordered to duty on an emergency basis to prevent any possible trouble tomorrow at 11 shipyards against which more than 1,700 A.F.L. and C.I.O. machinists have struck. At the same time government officials apparently took a hand in the situation, but the nature of their efforts remained unannounced. Rear Admiral John W. Greenslade, commandant of the twelfth naval district, told reporters that “Washington is in charge of the situation.” Employers contend the strike will tie up about $500,000,000 worth of defense contract work. Union representatives said they would picket the five largest plants beginning tomorrow.
The United Automobile Workers, C.I.O. today set Thursday for a strike at sixty-one plants of the General Motors Corporation, which has defense orders totaling $750,000,000, unless an agreement upon demands for wage increases and a union shop is reached by that time.
Major League Baseball:
The Boston Red Sox bludgeoned four of Joe McCarthy’s hurlers for seventeen hits, starting with Spud Chandler and going right on through Steve Peek, Charley Stanceu and Red Branch. No other club has hit as extensively against New York pitching this year, and the Yankees lost by 13–5, their worst setback of the young campaign. A gangling rookie southpaw checked the Yankees with seven hits. His name is Earl Johnson and his fork-hand flipping brought him his third straight victory, as the Sox bagged their third in a row through a seven-run splurge which chased Chandler in the second inning. Everybody on the Sox with the exception of Bobby Doerr took part in the attack on the Yankee pitchers. Jim Tabor’s home run and double proved the most damaging blows, for they drove in five runs. Dom DiMaggio outshone brother Joe, whose three singles led the feeble Yankee attack, with a triple, single, and double. Manager Joe Cronin chimed in with a double and two singles, as did Ted Williams, while. Jimmy Foxx and Frankie Pytlak contributed two singles each.
A rookie’s mistake gave the White Sox a 2–1 victory over the Tigers today, the decisive run coming in the ninth inning. Ned Harris, outfielder who replaced Hank Greenberg, caught Billy Knickerbocker’s foul fly and Mike Tresh scored from third after the catch with the vital tally. Tresh had doubled and advanced to third on Ted Lyons’s sacrifice. Harris, however, had sent the Tigers ahead in the third when his line drive went through Taft Wright in right field for a homer inside the park, preventing the 40-year-old Lyons from blanking the visitors.
The Cubs, described only yesterday by Manager Jimmy Wilson as weak in hitting, broke out in a rash of 12 hits today to smother the Reds, 9–1. While Chicago was blasting four pitchers Claude Passcau kept the world champions hitless except for the sixth, when they got a run on three singles. Johnny Vander Meer was slapped for seven hits in three and one-third innings and gave way to Elmer Riddle in the fourth, when the Cubs chased in three runs to boost their lead to 5–0. Riddle and Johnny Hutchings fared little better before giving way to pinch-hitters and Fireman Joe Beggs hurled the final frame.
At the Polo Grounds, the Giants down the Braves, 8–3, as Bill Jurges and Burgess Whitehead each drive in 3 runs. For the light-hitting Whitehead, it is his last homer: all 17 of his homers have been hit at the Polo Grounds. The Giants spotted the Braves three runs, permitted Casey Stengel to lick his chops in high glee for a few fleeting moments and then proceeded to make life miserable for the genial professor for the balance of the afternoon. In the second inning they routed two hurlers, Richard Merriwell Erickson and Frank Lamanna, for a cluster of four tallies, three riding home on a triple by Jurges. Later Whitehead hit a homer with one aboard off Joe Sullivan, Joe Orengo clubbed a mile-long triple, effervescent Morrie Arnovich prodded the opposition with two annoying singles, and all this hefty clouting, together with eight innings of gilt-edge relief pitching by Cliff Melton, added up to a win.
Scoring all their runs in one big burst in the fourth inning, but otherwise failing in rather painful fashion, the Dodgers just managed to nose out the Phillies, 6–5, today and extend their latest winning streak to five games. An unusually large crowd, for a Philly game, of 10,305, several hundred of whom were loyal and leather-lunged rooters from Flatbush, saw Jimmy Wasdell cap the big inning with a blast off Silas Johnson over the right-field wall for his first homer of the season. It was well that Jimmy connected, too, because the Phillies, held hitless and scoreless until then by their former team-mate, Kirby Higbe, touched off an explosion of their own in the home fourth. Two singles in rapid succession by Joe Marty and Danny Litwhiler were followed by Nick Etten’s third homer of the campaign for three runs.
Ira Hutchinson turned in a fine relief pitching chore today and guided the Cardinals to a 7–4 victory over the Pirates. After Rookie Sam Nahem weakened in the eighth and gave a single to Elbie Fletcher and a walk to Maurice Van Robays, Hutchinson entered the game, fanned Vince DiMaggio and converted Pinch Hitters Debs Garms and Ripper Collins into easy outs. Then he retired Pittsburgh in order in the ninth to help Nahem to his third pitching triumph. Trailing when the sixth started, St. Louis belted Max Butcher from the mound in’ a four-hit, four-run assault. Johnny Mize started it with a single and Jimmy Brown’s two-run single completed the job. St. Louis added another tally in the ninth.
The league-leading Indians won the first game of, a double-header from the Browns, 7–5, and were sailing along smoothly toward a twin victory today when trouble started. The Brownies rallied in the ninth to send the nightcap into extra innings and finally win, 6–5, with one out in the tenth. A triple by Johnny Lucadello and a single by Alan Strange decided. Johnny Allen’s wildness enabled the Indians to coast to a three-run lead in the second inning on three singles and a couple of wild pitches. The Browns caught up for a brief time in the sixth. But Ken Keltner blasted out a double and Denny Galehouse, who had relieved Allen, let loose another pair of wild ones to enable him to score what appeared to be the winning run for the Tribe. The Indians added another one in the ninth, but Lucadello, Chet Laabs, Roy Cullenbine and Roberto Estalella came through with rapid-fire singles for the runs necessary to tie the count, 5–5. The Indians encountered little difficulty in taking the first game and Jim Bagby was credited with his first triumph of the year despite his removal in the seventh. Home runs by Hal Trosky and Ray Mack accounted for the two-run margin.
The Athletics won a ten-inning battle today, 10–8, to make it two straight over Washington. Buddy Lewis was first the hero, then the goat of the contest. He put the Senators back in the game with a triple in the ninth inning, sending in two runs, and then scored the tying run himself. But in the tenth he booted Chubby Dean’s easy roller, allowing Sam Chapman to tally, the winning run. Bob Johnson in the second and Sam Chapman in the fourth hit homers for Philadelphia. In the big fourth, twelve Athletics came to bat, collected eight hits and scored seven runs.
New York Yankees 5, Boston Red Sox 13
Detroit Tigers 1, Chicago White Sox 2
Chicago Cubs 9, Cincinnati Reds 1
Boston Braves 3, New York Giants 8
Brooklyn Dodgers 6, Philadelphia Phillies 5
St. Louis Cardinals 7, Pittsburgh Pirates 4
Cleveland Indians 7, St. Louis Browns 5
Cleveland Indians 5, St. Louis Browns 6
Philadelphia Athletics 10, Washington Senators 8
If the friendly Pacific powers will give war materials and financial aid, China will be able to handle the Japanese aggressor alone, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek said in a speech made last night at a farewell dinner given by him and Mme. Chiang in honor of United States Ambassador Nelson T. Johnson.
The Japanese North China Front Army remains on the offensive, capturing Wufuchien and attacking Tungfeng.
Meanwhile, the Japanese puppet government of Ching-Wei attacks the Nationalist forces along the lower Yangtze River.
There is considerable tension between the Kuomintang and Communist Chinese forces. Zhou Enlai and Chiang Kai-shek meet at the latter’s capital, Chungking, to clear the air.
Ambassador Nomura and US Secretary of State Cordell Hull engage in private diplomacy, spending 40 minutes together. Hull states (as reported to Tokyo by Nomura):
“As we are now conducting talks and negotiations, I have been exercising a great deal of secrecy in regard to them and have absolutely made no reference to them in my press conferences. Knowing Your Excellency’s discreetness and astuteness you likewise, I am sure, are carefully guarding its secrecy.”
Tokyo emphasizes that “It goes without saying that this matter should be handled in absolute secrecy.”
Hull demands that Japan evacuate China, and Nomura indicates that Japan does expect to do so “with the exception of those troops stationed in North China and Inner Mongolia who are there to suppress Communism.” Hull asks if Japan intends to strike to the south, and Nomura replies that “Our true intent is peaceful Southward penetration.” Regarding the war in Europe, both Nomura and Hull agree that a long European war would be ruinous for everyone. The true threat, they agree, is a war that saps the energies of the non-Communist states that allows the Soviet Union to expand.
The Japanese Government today inaugurated anti-espionage week. All national and local government officials, private enterprises and neighborhood organizations will participate. The entire government publicity machine will concentrate on the problem of warning the people.
Born:
Eric Burdon, English singer-songwriter (Animals — “House of the Rising Sun”; “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood”; War — “Spill The Wine”), in Walker, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, United Kingdom.
Died:
Peggy Shannon, 34, American actress (heart attack).
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Industry (AMc-86) is laid down by the F. L. Fulton Shipyard (Antioch, California, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy MMS I-class motor minesweeper HMS MMS 5 (J 505) is commissioned.
The Forces Navales Françaises Libres (Free French Naval Forces) Flower-class corvette FFL Mimosa (K 11), launched as the Royal Navy HMS Mimosa (K 11), is commissioned. Her first and only commander is Lieutenant Commander Roger Richard Louis Birot, FNFL.
History Diaries 