Editorials
The Invasion of Crete
Troops by Glider
Railway Wage Demand
WPA vs. Defense
China Week
Thanksgiving Day Restored
Werner Sombart
Uncle Sam’s Travel Bureau
Topics of the Times
http://www.hmshood.com/history/timeline4.htm
22–24 May: (HMS Hood) At sea with the battleship Prince of Wales, and destroyers Acates, Antelope, Anthony, Echo, Electra and Icarus. The force proceeded to waters off southern Iceland in case Bismarck and the accompanying cruiser Prinz Eugen attempted a breakout into the Atlantic in that vicinity.
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/may41/f22may41.htm
British retreating on Crete
Thursday, May 22, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the Mediterranean... On Crete, in the face of the growing strength and complete German air superiority, the British commander Freyberg cancels a counterattack against Maleme for the night of May 22-23rd and orders a withdrawal instead. A second German convoy is turned back but is not pursued far because the Luftwaffe intervenes. In various actions during the day the battleship Warspite is badly damaged and two cruisers and one destroyer are sunk. Admiral Cunningham, ashore in Alexandria, orders the fleet to return after being wrongly informed that ammunition for the battleship’s antiaircraft guns is in very short supply. During the night of May 22-23rd the Maleme airfield is bombarded by Lord Mountbatten’s 5th Destroyer Flotilla. King George of Greece is evacuated from the island to Egypt during the night.
In the North Atlantic... British planes report correctly that the German ships Bismark and Prinz Eugen have also put to sea and the Commander in Chief of the British Home Fleet, Admiral Tovey, therefore, sets out with the battleship King George V and the carrier Victorious. The battle cruiser Repulse joins this force later in the day. Tovey plans to reinforce the patrols watching the Faeroes-Iceland passage while Holland in the Hood goes to give further strength to the forces in the Denmark Strait.
Hood Enroute to Meet Bismarck, 22 May 1941
This photo was taken by a British aircraft southwest of the Faeroe Islands on the afternoon of 22 May 1941. Hood is shown on her very last mission, her ill-fated sortie to intercept the German battleship Bismarck. This is one of the two last clear photos taken of Hood. This photo kindly provided to the website by Douglas Wales-Smith.
According to the 1944 testimony of Navy Captain Laurence F. Safford of the security (intelligence) section of the Navy’s communications division, in Washington:
Safford "was able to recall in considerable detail many of the important Japanese dispatches that had been intercepted, deciphered, translated, and read by top military and administration officials in Washington before the attack."As early as the spring of 1941 (May 22), they had received
'positive proof of Japanese plans for the conquest of Southeastern Asia and the Southwest Pacific.'
"Further indications of Japan’s plans for aggression in the southwest Pacific and against southeast Asia were picked up in September and October...."
quoted from: Greaves Jr, Percy (2010). Pearl Harbor: The Seeds and Fruits of Infamy Chapter 21
Capt. Safford worked in the Communications Division under Rear Adm. Leigh Noyes, who reported to the CNO Admiral Harold Stark.
Major Claussen lists Safford in his rouge's gallery of "who's to blame" for December 7, for Safford's failure to go into work that Sunday morning, even though Safford thought something was up.
Claussen does not find fault with Safford's boss Noyes, nor Noyes' boss Stark, nor Stark's boss, Secretary Knox.
As for President Roosevelt, Claussen calls FDR: "the ultimate victim of Pearl Harbor"
So much for Claussen.