Sunday, May 2, 2010

Day 244 May 1, 1940

At 1.15 AM, 15th Brigade’s train from Dombås crashes into a bomb crater (8 dead, 30 wounded). British troops march 17 miles through deep snow, arriving 9 AM at Åndalsnes.

In the evening, Admiral Layton’s flotilla arrives at Åndalsnes to evacuate 148th & 15th Brigade. Destroyers HMS Inglefield, Diana & Delight ferry troops from the dock to cruisers HMS Manchester & Birmingham. They embark 5084 men overnight, leaving for Scapa Flow by 2 AM the following day (May 2) unnoticed by the Lutfwaffe. British leave behind 1301 men killed, missing or captured. Norwegian General Ruge and his staff leave on destroyer HMS Diana to join the King and government at Tromsø. http://ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/UK/UK-NWE-Norway/UK-NWE-Norway-9.html

Mountbatten’s 4 destroyers arrive at Namsos to evacuate General de Wiart’s 146th Brigade. Overnight fog prevents them all entering Namsenfjord, so only 850 French Chasseurs Alpins are embarked. Anti-submarine trawler St. Goran is dive bombed and sunk.

In the Kattegat, British submarine HMS Narwhal fires six torpedoes at a German merchant convoy carrying parts of 2nd Gebirgsjager Division to Norway. German steamer Buenos Aires sinks (62 men, 240 horses killed) and Bahia Castillo is badly damaged (10 men, 26 horses killed).

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