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• New Zealand General Bernard Freyberg was appointed commander of Allied forces on Crete, Greece, commanding a garrison of poorly-armed 29,000 British, Australian, and New Zealand troops and 9,000 Greek troops. ww2dbase [Balkans Campaign | CPC]
• 6,000 Iraqi troops with 30 artillery pieces departed Baghdad, Iraq on an ostensibly training exercise before dawn. At first light, they reached a plateau overlooking the RAF airbase at Habbaniya 45 miles west of Baghdad. British Ambassador Kinahan Cornwallis warned British civilians to leave Baghdad; 230 of them would soon flee to Habbaniya while 350 and 150 would seek shelter in the British Embassy and the American Legation, respectively. ww2dbase [Campaigns in the Middle East | CPC]
• Friedrich Paulus gave Erwin Rommel the authorization to begin a ground assault on Tobruk, Libya, which was launched at 2000 hours after an entire day of artillery shelling at Ras el Madauar near Tobruk. German tanks broke through the defensive perimeter, and infantry overran several Australian positions, penetrating as far as 3 kilometers. ww2dbase [Siege of Tobruk | CPC]
• British gunboats HMS Aphis and HMS Ladybird bombarded Axis positions at Gazala, Libya and Sollum, Egypt. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-107 sank British ship Lassell 300 miles southwest of Cape Verde Islands at 2200 hours; 2 were killed, 51 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Adolf Hitler set the launch date of Operation Barbarossa to 22 Jun 1941. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | CPC]

• Franco Pittoni stepped down as the commanding officer of Alpino Bagnolini at Bordeaux, France. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | Bordeaux, Aquitaine | CPC]
• Morosini departed La Pallice, La Rochelle, France at 1607 hours, starting her fifth war patrol. ww2dbase [Morosini | La Rochelle, Poitou-Charentes | CPC]

• U-576 was launched at Hamburg, Germany. ww2dbase [U-576 | Hamburg | CPC]

• Georgios Tsolakoglou was named the Prime Minister of the German puppet Hellenic State. ww2dbase [Georgios Tsolakoglou | CPC]

• German aircraft bombed Malta; a bomb passed through British cruiser HMS Gloucester without detonating. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | CPC]

• Four old US Coast Guard Cutters were commissioned into British Royal Navy service at New York, New York, United States; they were christened HMS Banff, HMS Culver, HMS Fishguard, and HMS Hartland and were manned by crew members of battleship HMS Malaya, which was currently under repair. ww2dbase [New York | CPC]

30 Apr 1941 Interactive Map