This day in the war in Europe 65 years ago

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ATALNTIC: Four U.S. merchant vessels are sunk by German submarines in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. In the Gulf of Mexico, an unarmed tanker is sunk 50 miles off Louisiana by U-506 and an armed freighter is sunk by U-752 near the Yucatan Channel. U-103 sinks two armed freighters in the Caribbean; the first is sunk about 40 miles off the south coast of Cuba and the second is sunk north of the first sinking.

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ATLANTIC: German submarine U-588 sinks an unarmed U.S. merchant
freighter off the coast of New Jersey. The Germans provide the Americans with rum and cigarettes and help righting a capsized lifeboat.

GERMANY: Rastenburg: Hitler postpones the planned invasion of Malta until
after Egypt has been conquered by the Axis.

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May 22, 1942

EASTERN FRONT: Two Soviet armies attacking toward Kharkov were stopped and destroyed by the German 6. Armee (von Paulus);241,000 prisoners were taken.

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MEXICO: Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

ATLANTIC: German submarine U-558 torpedoes an unarmed U.S. tanker south of Jamaica in the Caribbean but the ship makes port under her own power.

U.S.: Last year, Ted Williams batted .406. Today, after the Red Sox return to Boston from a road trip, Williams enlists in the U.S. Navy Air Corps to train to become a fighter pilot.
He passes the complete physical examination (his eyesight is 20-15) and is sworn into the service, immediately becoming Seaman Williams, second class. Upon his call to active duty, he will automatically become Air Cadet Williams.
Behind him are the months of wonder and indecision that followed his deferment from the draft by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in February on the grounds that he is the sole support of his mother.
The $32,000-a-year ballplayer will become a cadet at the salary of $106 a month. This won't happen for a while, though. Williams won't be called to active duty until after the baseball season ends.
He will win the Triple Crown, leading the American League with a .356 average, 36 homers and 137 RBI. He will miss the next three seasons as well as most of the 1952 and 1953 seasons, serving as a fighter pilot in World War II and the Korean War.

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May 23, 1942

ENGLAND: Erg.u.Lehr. Kdo 100 which, was re-designated Erg.u.Lehr. Kdo 17, was still undertaking experimental daylight attacks in addition to its nocturnal duties. Typical of these was the attempt against Avonmouth docks by 7 He 111s, using both X- and Y-Verfahren, in poor weather on the afternoon of 23 May. Although the operation was not a great success - one aircraft being lost and the nearest bombs falling at Severn Tunnel Junction, some six miles from the objective - it was the first occassion when the British first definately detected supersonic modulation on the X- signals allowing countermeasures to be immediately put into action.

EASTERN FRONT: Thee Hs 129B-1s belonging to II./SchG 1 were shot down by Russian flak, a severe blow at this relatively early stage of the war for this newly formed unit.
....Major Gordon Gollob, Geschwaderkommodore of JG 77, was awarded the Schwertern (Swords to his Knights Cross, No.# 17) for achieving 107 aerial victories.

NORTH AFRICA: Two of the twelve Tomahawks and Kittyhawks claimed by II./JG 27 this day were credited to the new Gruppenkommandure, Oblt. Gustav Rodel, taking Rodel's total to 41 kills. I./JG 27's Oblt. Marseille was also regularly scoring daily doubles during this period. The two bombers he downed southeast of Tobruk on 23 May - victories 63 and 64, claimed as Douglas DB-7s - were in reality, a pair of No. 223 Sqdn Martin "Baltimores" flying that unit's first operational mission with the new aircraft.

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RUSSIA: The Russian 6th and 57th Armies are being encircled west of
the Donets by the German 6th, 17th and 1st Panzer Armies.

ATLANTIC: Another unarmed U.S. merchant tanker is sunk in the Caribbean south of the Yucatan Channel by a German submarine (U-103).

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ATLANTIC: The German submarine U-558 fires a torpedo at an unarmed U.S.
freighter in the Caribbean but it fails to explode and the sub surfaces to sink
the ship by gunfire. The crew abandons the freighter but a U.S. Navy PBY
Catalina arrives and the sub submerges. The freighter sinks the following
morning.

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EASTERN FRONT: Oblt. Anton "Toni" Hackl of 5./JG 77 was awarded the Ritterkreuz. He has 51 victories at this time. Lt. Gerhard Krems of 2./KG 27 was also awarded the Ritterkreuz becoming the first KG 27 pilot so honored.

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AFRICA: Rommel begins a new offensive on the Gazela Line.

ATLANTIC: German submarine U-106 attacks two U.S. merchant ships in the Gulf of Mexico. The first is an unarmed tanker which is sunk by a torpedo.
Later in the day, the sub surfaces and begins shelling an armed freighter but the freighter's Armed Guard drives the sub off with gunfire before much damage is done.

UK: Lieutenant General Henry H "Hap" Arnold, Commanding General USAAF; Rear Admiral John H Towers, USN, Chief of the Bureau of Aeronautics; and RAF Air Chief Marshall Sir Charles F Portal attend an Anglo-American air
conference in London. Topics of discussion include allocation of aircraft and the establishment of US air forces in the UK. The meeting begins at 10 Downing Street with Prime Minister Winston S Churchill.

US: The feasibility of jet-assisted takeoff is demonstrated in a successful flight test of a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo at NAS Anacostia, D.C., using five British antiaircraft solid propellant rocket motors. The reduction in takeoff distance is 49 percent.

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NORTH AFRICA: Generaloberst Erwin Rommel launched the offensive that would take his Afrika Korps all the way to El Alamein. But first he had to smash a breach in the Allied lines, which were stretched from Gazala, on the coast, some 40 miles (65km) inland down into the desert to the fortress of Bir Hacheim. From Gazal, Rommel started his advance toward Egypt with a main attack against the British Gazala line (Unternehmen "Theseus") but was held up at Bir Hacheim, which was defended by Free French forces. Heavy fighting broke out between there and Gazala; around areas that were to be known as the "Cauldron" and "Knightsbridge".
....Released from their Gefechtsverband "Woldenga" duties, JG 27's fighters -reinforced by Gerlitz's III./JG 53 - played a decisive role in the first six weeks of chaotic fighting that was the battle of Gazala.

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NORTH AFRICA: The position at Bir Hacheim came under attack from the Italian "Ariete" armoured division and was engaged in fierce fighting that even reached into the interior of the stronghold.
....For the first time the British were using the Grant (M3 medium) tank from America with its useful, though limited, 75mm gun. In this battle 21st Panzer nearly succeeded in taking the key "Knightsbridge" box, but lost too many tanks due to the unexpected encounter with the Grants.

NORTH SEA: Off the northern coast of Norway, Luftwaffe bombers sank 5 ships from Convoy "PQ-16".

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AFRICA: Rommel's panzers defeat the British 3rd Infantry and 7th Motor Brigades. The British however are better able to sustain the armor losses than the Germans.

ATLANTIC: German Operation "Drumbeat" continues as U-502 sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter in the Caribbean enroute from Trinidad to Mobile, Alabama.

GERMANY: The Nazi Reichsprotektor of Bohemia-Moravia, SS Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich is mortally wounded in an attempted assassination at Prague. He will die on 4 June from infected wounds.

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EASTERN FRONT: I./SchG 1 transferred north to Konstantinovka to stem a Soviet offensive launched from the Izyum Salient and directed at Kharkov. The Gruppe was heavily engaged in ground attacks against Soviet armour, troop concentrations and supply columns until the salient was eliminated on 28 May. 4(Pz)./SchG 1 moved north to Konstantinovka with the rest of II Gruppe and took part in the heavy fighting against Soviet incursions in the Barvenkovo-Izyum-Chuguyev-Kupanysk sector to the south and southeast of Kharkov.

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AFRICA: As supplies, especially fuel, run low the German attack is disrupted, but fighting continues on Rigel Ridge, and dear Bir Harmat, North Africa.

ATALNTIC: German submarine U-103, part of Operation Drumbeat, sinks an armed U.S. merchant tanker southwest of the Cayman Islands in the Caribbean.

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RUSSIA: The Germans complete encirclement west of the Donnets. 250,000
Russian soldiers are lost.

AFRICA: British fail to develop a coordinated attack in North Africa today.
The German antitank guns are very effective.