http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
May 19th, 1941
GERMANY: In return for greater collaboration from the Vichy regime. 100,000 French PoWs are released.
The OKW calls upon soldiers to eliminate all resistance ruthlessly, particularly Bolshevik agitators, partisans, saboteurs and Jews.
CRETE: The last RAF fighters leave for Egypt.
MALTA: Lieut_General Sir William Dobbie appointed Governor and C-in-C.
ETHIOPIA: Sgt Nigel Gray Leakey (b. 1913), King’s African Rifles, halted an assault by taking one tank and leading an attack on others before being killed. (VC) [Any relation to Dr.Leakey, the famous anthropologist?]
Amba Alagi: The largest Italian army still fighting in Ethiopia formally surrendered today. 18,000 Italian and colonial troops have marched out of the fortifications into prison camps. Few Italian troops now remain to be “mopped up” in Ethiopia.
The Duke of Aosta surrenders with 7,000 more Italian troops. Of the 230,000 Italians that started this campaign in East Africa only 80,000 remain.
Many of the prisoners returned to India or Australia or aboard the ‘Queens’ passenger liners that had taken the commonwealth soldiers to the North Africa and the Middle East. About 20,000 were in Australia. The rest went to other Commonwealth countries. From May 1943 the Italian prisoners were employed as farm labourers without supervision but under the supervision of nearby control centres staffed by the army. They were paid a minimum of one pound and the scheme was generally considered a success by the Government the prisoners and the farmers. The prisoners were not repatriated immediately after the war because of shortages of shipping, but all had returned home by January 1947. (Jim Paterson)
IRAQ: British forces based at Habbaniya capture Fallujah.
Baghdad: Iraqi Headquarters announced:
Our bombers have attacked British tank units, which have suffered substantial losses in men and material. Our reconnaissance flights over Cineldebbana and other locations have proceeded without incident. Enemy aircraft overflew the area surrounding the capital and released several bombs over the base at Rashid without inflicting much damage.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Pirie laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Submarine HMS Talisman departed Halifax to escort Convoy SC-32. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: The New York Times reports an address by Dr. Fritz Reinhardt, German State Secretary of Finance in which states that, “with the German tax and other ordinary revenue estimated at the record sum of 40,000,000,000 marks for 1941 and the war debt considerably smaller than that of Britain, the finances of the Reich are in a healthier condition than ever and there can, therefore, be no question of using the printing press for the financing of the war.”
Destroyer USS Murphy laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-69 on her long voyage that paved the way for long-range U-boat operations off the US East Coast, refuelled from German tanker Egerland. At this time several German tankers and supply ships were at sea partly in preparation for the breakout of Bismarck and Prinz Eugen.
At 0324, the Empire Ridge, a straggler from Convoy HG-61, was torpedoed and sunk by U-96 90 miles west of Bloody Foreland. The master, 27 crewmembers and three gunners were lost. One crewmember and one gunner were picked up by destroyer HMS Vanquisher, transferred to HMS Legion and landed at Greenock. (Dave Shirlaw)
http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/
Day 627 May 19, 1941
At 11.15 AM, 4777 Italian and colonial troops formally surrender at Amba Alagi, Ethiopia. They march down the hill with their rifles passing British General Mayne, who takes their salute, and a guard of honour (1 officer and 25 men from each battalion of the 5th Indian Division). The pipe band of the 1st Transvaal Scottish plays. Duke of Aosta spends 1 more day in his mountain stronghold and formally surrenders next day. He will die from tuberculosis in a POW camp in Nairobi, Kenya, on March 3, 1942.
Luftwaffe again bombs anti-aircraft emplacements and RAF airfields on Crete, in preparation for the coming invasion. The last RAF aircraft are withdrawn to Egypt in the face of bombing and overwhelming numbers of German fighters.
Iraqis surrender the town of Fallujah after 57 RAF aircraft drop 10 tons of bombs and field guns bombard their positions (300 taken prisoner). Luftwaffe bombers attack RAF Habbaniya destroying several aircraft and inflicting casualties.
At 3.24 AM 50 miles Northwest of Ireland, U-96 sinks British SS Empire Ridge (31 killed, 2 rescued by destroyer HMS Vanquisher).