On This Day ... in 1940 & Others
With the port once again knocked out at Dunkirk, the focus for the evacuation reverted to the beaches. Bad weather, particularly rain and fog, proved a blessing, with the Luftwaffe unable to find its targets.
The following is taken from Three Weeks to La Panne: A Diary of Dunkirk by Lieut-Col R L Clarke
30 May: All quiet in the morning. Our infantry neighbours have left in the night. The doctor goes off with the wounded man. HQ 59 Fd Coy pull out.
By midday no lorry has arrived to pick up the material so I send Leeming off to find the CRE. He comes back two hours later to say that he can find nothing and nobody in Coxyde. Outside the wood everybody has gone. The countryside is silent and empty except for all sorts of abandoned vehicles. I decide to get ready to move. Destroy three of our trucks including the office truck, burn papers discreetly, put on my best service dress and boots, pocket my razor and toothbrush and throw the rest of my things with the stores down a pit in the wood. Load the food, ammunition and weapons into the remaining two trucks and the Humber Snipe, and marshal them so we can pull out at a moments notice. The doctor arrives, a welcome sight, to say that 4 Div HQ has moved to La Panne but we are definitely not going to embark tonight. Sauervein is to report immediately to the French Liaison Mission.
We relax and offload for supper. I tell the section we shall not be moving that night, but set off on a motor cycle afterwards for La Panne to prospect. I find the CRE in a house on the front. While I am there a message comes through from G Branch about embarking the following night. The sea is calm and the tide is falling revealing a long sandy beach. In the mist offshore the dark shapes of ships can be seen, blue lights winking from mastheads. Outside I run into Brigadier Phipps. He tells me that the II Corps engineers are to act under his orders to embark the Corps. I am to move my section down to the beach bringing all floating equipment possible. Back to the wood by midnight.
1942: Sir Arthur Harris, wishing to prove the potential of Bomber Command as a war-winning weapon, launched the first Thousand Bomber Raid - Operation Millennium. The target was originally planned to be Hamburg, but poor weather there dictated a change, to Cologne, Germany's third largest city.
The operation was in many ways an unashamed propaganda stunt - Harris' true effective front-line strength in Bomber Command at this time was just over 400. But, by drawing on all the spare aircraft and aircrew that could be found, and some 370 training aircraft, a force of 1,047 medium and heavy bombers was assembled.
Of that total, some 860-900 reached their target, dropping an estimated 533 tons of high explosive and 920 tons of incendiaries, including 456,000 of the small but deadly 4lb incendiary bombs.
Over 3,300 buildings were destroyed in the city, with up to another 10,000 damaged, including many factories. German records report 469 people died, with 5,000 injured and 45,000 made homeless. 41 RAF aircraft failed to return.
One of these, a Manchester bomber, was piloted by Flying Officer Manser.
Although badly damaged by flak on the approach to the target, Manser managed to hold the aircraft steady for an accurate bombing run, then, despite more anti-aircraft damage, coaxed the stricken bomber back towards England. However, the Manchester steadily lost height and it became clear that it would not make it home.
Over Belgium, Manser ordered his crew to bail out, but stayed at the controls to hold it steady while his colleagues escaped. They all parachuted safely, but Manser had no chance to jump before the bomber crashed. He was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross.
1982: In the Falklands, Elk and Tidepool remained in San Carlos Water, unloading ammunition and refuelling the guardships. HMS Penelope was forced to return to the Carrier Battle Group due to mechanical problems. As the Elk and Tidepool left the Sound on their way to rejoin HMS Andromeda, they passed Uganda who was on her way in. The hospital ship was on her way to a new anchorage in Grantham Sound.
During the night of 29th/30th May HMS Arrow had fired 100 rounds at targets in the Fox Bay area, while HMS Ambuscade and Glamorgan bombarded targets in the Port Stanley area.
The seas were still heavy but the wind had decreased and visibility had improved. CAP missions were able to begin from before dawn but the first strike mission was not flown off until later in the morning.
HMS Antrim was detached from the Battle Group for South Georgia.
The Argentine Navy used the last of its air launched Exocet's that day, fired by Capitain de Corbeta A Francisco.
That night, HMS Alacrity headed for the Fitzroy area to provide gunfire support in the Mount Kent area & an RAF Harrier damaged by ground fire during attack on Stanley, ditched at sea, thirty one miles from HMS Hermes. The pilot was rescued by one of the screening helicopters.