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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/31.htm

May 31st, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Blackburn: Preston North End win the Cup Final replay against Arsenal, 2-1.
The voyage of the SS Dunera, a troopship which sailed to Australia last July with 2,700 internees aboard, has led to the court martial of their British Army escort, including the commanding officer, after repeated questions in parliament.

After the ship reached Australia in September, it was reported that the internees, most of them Jews who had fled from Hitler, has been brutally searched; their luggage had been confiscated and ripped open with bayonets, their valuable removed and never returned by their army guards. They themselves were confined below deck during the two-month journey in squalid conditions. Some were physically assaulted. One jumped overboard.

The court martial found three men guilty, including Major William Patrick Scott, the CO, who was severely reprimanded. His regimental sergeant major was jailed for 12 months.

The voyage was the worst incident of several which followed a series of decisions between 12 May and 26 June 1940 to intern anyone from Germany, Austria and Italy who was in Britain, although the great majority were eager to help the war against Hitler. All were out into transit camps - on racecourses, at holiday camps, in a derelict mill - until transferred to camps and boarding houses on the Isle of Man. At a peak there were 27,000 in custody.

Four ships left for Canada including the SS Arandora Star which was sunk by a U-boat with the loss of 175 Germans and 486 Italians. Soon afterwards the tide of opinion turned in favour of the internees. In a Commons debate wholesale internment was denounced as callous and called a “bespattered page in our history”. Over 15,000 internees have been released and more will be, including many from the Dunera.

Tug HMS Dart commissioned.
Sloop HMS Gorleston (ex-USCGC Itasca) commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Himmler has approved Sigmund Rascher’s request to submit prisoners at Dachau to pressure-chamber experiments.

The German government has urged parents in areas most affected by the war to send their children to country camps where they will be cared for by specially-trained teachers. But the church is unhappy about this evacuation and says that the camps are being used to separate children from their parents and institute “education by the state.” Artur Axmann, the Reich youth leader, recently visited camps in Slovakia in an attempt to reassure parents.

U-219, U-617 laid down.
U-502 commissioned.

U-435 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

SWITZERLAND: Rationing of coffee, tea and cocoa, starts today. (William Jay Stone from http://www.geschichte-schweiz.ch/en/worldwar2.html)

U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine SC-411 launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GREECE: CRETE: The last British contingent is evacuated from Sphakia.

IRAQ: A British-Iraqi armistice is signed at Baghdad. Rashid Ali flees Baghdad. The Regent is restored. (Michael Alexander)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Sudbury launched Kingston, Ontario.

HMCS Trail departed Esquimalt for Halifax. (Dave Shirlaw)

NEWFOUNDLAND: Commodore L.W. Murray RCN was appointed Commander of the Newfoundland Escort Force, later the Mid-Ocean Escort Force. He reported directly to the British Commander-in Chief, Western Approaches, Admiral Sir Percy Noble. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: The U.S. Navy’s Task Group 1 consisting of the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5), the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44) and the destroyers USS Sampson (DD-394) and USS Gwin (DD-433) begin a 4,500+ mile (7,424+ km) neutrality patrol voyage which concludes at Hampton Roads, Virginia on 12 June. The Yorktown Air Group consists of Fighting Squadron Forty One (VF-41), Scouting Squadrons Forty One and Forty Two (VS-41 and VS-42) and Torpedo Squadron Five (VT-5) (Jack McKillop)

BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC:

Merchant Shipping Losses in European waters:

99 ships of 101,000 tons.

Merchant shipping losses in the MEDITERRANEAN SEA:

19 ships of 71,000 tons.

Losses in the ATLANTIC OCEAN:

60 ships of 336,000 tons, 1 battlecruiser, 1 destroyer and 1 armed merchant cruiser.

BISMARK and U-110.

U-69 torpedoes MV Sangara in Accra.

At 0313, the unescorted Clan MacDougall was torpedoed by U-106 north of the Cape Verde Islands. The vessel was sunk by a coup de grâce at 0345. Two crewmembers were lost. The master, 74 crewmembers and ten gunners landed at St Antonio, Cape Verde Islands.

At 0739, the Sire, dispersed from convoy OB-320, was hit on the starboard side in the bow by one torpedo from U-107 and sank after 10 minutes WSW of Freetown. Three crewmembers were lost. The master and 45 crewmembers were picked up by HMS Marguerite and landed at Freetown on 6 June.
Gravelines, a straggler from Convoy HX-127, was torpedoed by U-147 NW of Bloody Foreland and broke in two. The master and 10 crewmembers died. 23 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by sloop HMS Deptford and landed at Liverpool. The afterpart of the Gravelines sank and the forepart was towed to the Clyde and beached at Kames Bay on 3 June. The vessel was declared a total loss and was broken up in Rothesay in 1942.

At 0515, the Holmsteinn was sunk by gunfire by U-204 NNW of Dyrafjord, Iceland. No survivors from crew of four.
At 0024, the unescorted Rinda was hit by two torpedoes from U-38 off Liberia. The torpedoes struck at hatch #4 and #5 and blew off the funnel and the entire after deck. Four men on deck and the master and another seaman on the bridge were killed. The survivors attempted to lower the lifeboats but the ship sank before they were free and the men were pulled down by the suction, drowning some of them. Only one lifeboat with one man hanging on to it and four rafts floated free. A few survivors righted the boat and picked up others during the night in the light of burning cotton. Finally, it contained 18 survivors (four of them badly burned) and set sail for Freetown. On 1 June, they were picked up by HMS Pict after being located by aircraft and taken to Freetown, where the wounded men were taken to a hospital ship. Bernt Gustavsen, who had been seriously burnt, stayed in the hospital for 11 months after the sinking. He then joined the Norwegian Navy and died when KNM Montbretia was torpedoed and sunk by U-262 on 18 Nov 1942. Among the survivors of Rinda was also the cat that was found swimming in the ocean by the lifeboat during the night. She remained on board the armed trawler that rescued the survivors and was renamed Rinda.

At 0025, U-69 fired one torpedo at the Sangara lying at anchor in the roads of Accra (arrived on 30 May). She sank by the stern in 33 feet of water with her bow still visible above the water. The master was the only casualty. At 2110 hours on 12 Aug 1941, the Italian submarine Enrico Tazzoli fired a torpedo at the bow of Sangara but missed. On 1 Apr 1943, the wreck of Sangara was sold to two locally based engineers for the sum of 500 pounds Stirling, was refloated and towed to Lagos roads, but it was not clear what should happen with her and she was then towed to Douala at the mouth of the Cameroon River where the cargo was salvaged and sold. Much later Elder Dempster repurchased the ship and towed her back to Lagos where a berth had been prepared just above Wilmot Point. After the war’s end, the engines were overhauled, all woodwork fittings were renewed and the torpedo damage repaired. In 1946, Sanagara was towed from Lagos to the Middle Docks, South Shields by the tug Seaman. At a speed of 2.5 knots they were underway for 62 days. After permanent repairs the ship returned to service in 1947. On 14 Sep, 1960, she was sold to British Iron and Steel Corporation and arrived three days later at Preston for scrapping.

(Dave Shirlaw)