Replies

As Bette Davis once almost said, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy week.”

Big Air-Borne Push – 2-3
Germany is Vague on Drive in Crete – 3
Text of Churchill Address – 4
German Equipment for ‘Glider Invasion’ of Crete (photo) – 5
An Invasion Rehearsal? – 6
Lane, In Budapest, En Route to U.S. – 6
The International Situation – 7
Egyptian Ship Sunk – 7-8
Baltic Protection Expounded by Nazi – 8
British Capture Euphrates Bridge – 8-9
Big German Force Near Soviet Line – 9
£23,300,000 Opens War Weapons Week – 9
Cuban Envoy Hails Americas’ Liberty – 9
Japanese Empress at a Service of Prayer (photo) – 10
Reich Adds Benefits to Health Insurance – 11

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/may41/f21may41.htm

Roosevelt bellicose over sunken ship

Wednesday, May 21, 1941 www.onwar.com

In Washington... Roosevelt describes the sinking of the Robin Moor the day before as “an act of intimidation” to which “we do not propose to yield.”

In the North Atlantic... British reconnaissance aircraft find the German ships Bismark and Prinz Eugen near Bergen. Later in the day the battleship Prince of Wales and the battlecruiser Hood put to sea from Scapa Flow.

In the Mediterranean... On Crete, the Germans consolidate their hold on Maleme. The first troops of the 5th Mountain Division are flown in. During the night the nearby New Zealand forces counterattack and although they have some success they do not penetrate to the airfield. Also during the night, a German convoy attempting to reach the island is intercepted and turned back without loss by a force of cruisers and destroyers. Meanwhile, the carriers Ark Royal and Furious fly off a cargo of 48 Hurricanes to Malta. In the air fighting since January the Germans have lost 62 aircraft and the Italians 15. The British losses in the air have been 32 machines, as well as an equal number destroyed on the ground. A British destroyer is lost to air attack.

http://www.kbismarck.com/histoperi.html

21 May 1941 (Wednesday):

0800-0900. The German battle group enters the Korsfjord near Bergen.

1100. Bismarck anchors in the Grimstadfjord. Position 60º 19’ 48” North, 05º 14’ 48” East.

1315. Sighted and photographed by a British Coastal Command Spitfire.

2000. Leaves the Korsfjord together with the Prinz Eugen and the three destroyers.

2340. Course 0º.

http://www.2ndhmsmanchesterassoc.org.uk/1937-42_Cruiser_Page_2.html

21st May 1941 - MANCHESTER and her sister ship BIRMINGHAM detailed to establish a patrol line between Iceland and the Faroe Islands to intercept any possible breakout of the German battleship BISMARCK into the Atlantic.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S of A:

"By this time, demands for war materiel were being submitted to the United States from all over the world.
Requests for supplies and equipment were coming in from the British, beleaguered in the Atlantic and in Singapore; from the Chinese under pressure by the Japanese; and from our own forces in the field.
Effective coordination was needed.
"On May 21, Marshall, under pressure from the War Department, the Office of Production Management, and especially the White House, sought a
'complete statement of Army needs—not for 1941 and 1942 but for the actual winning of a war not yet declared.'
He asked the various divisions of the War Department general staff to make strategic estimates of our ground, air, and naval situations, and to list items of equipment needed
“as an aid to industry in its planning.”

The War Plans Division assigned Major (later Lt. Gen.) A.C. Wedemeyer the immense task of researching and assembling from widely scattered sources the necessary data on military requirements, supplies, reserves, and production."

Greaves Jr, Percy (2010). Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy Chapter 4

And in the Atlantic:

"The first U.S. ship to be torpedoed by a German submarine was a freighter, the Robin Moor, sunk in the South Atlantic on May 21.
News of the event reached the world only when survivors finally landed in Brazil on June 11.
Roosevelt was outraged.
But, although some British officials in Washington, as well as the President’s close friend and adviser, Harry Hopkins, wished for decisive U.S. retaliation, FDR did no more than remonstrate."

Greaves Jr, Percy (2010). Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy Chapter 3