6 May 1940
  • Fall Gelb, the German invasion of France, was once again postponed by Hitler. Meanwhile, Pope Pius XII shared the intelligence gathered by Vatican agents that Germany was planning on invading the Low Countries with the Princess of Piedmont Marie José, who was the sister of King Leopold III of Belgium and wife of Italian Crown Prince Umberto. On the same day, a massive German armoured motorised column many miles long was spotted driving west through the Ardennes forest but the Belgian Army did not respond. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | AC]
  • British submarine HMS Sealion attacked German transports Moltkefels and Neidenfels in the Skagerrak at 1400 hours. All 6 torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [CPC]
  • British submarine HMS Snapper attacked German armed merchant cruiser Widder 30 miles east of Denmark at 1525 hours. Both torpedoes missed. ww2dbase [Widder | CPC]
  • Littorio was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Littorio | CPC]
  • John Steinbeck won the Politzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath. ww2dbase [AC]
Norway
  • German mountain troops of the 2nd Gebirgsjäger Division continued their slow march north from Trondheim, Norway to Narvik, where South Wales Borderers of the British 24th Brigade, French Chasseurs Alpins mountain infantry, and French colonial artillery troops continued to assert pressure on the German troops. Off Narvik, British cruiser HMS Enterprise was slightly damaged by a near miss by an aerial bomb, killing one Royal Marine. Meanwhile, the Norwegian gold reserves arrived in London, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | CPC]
Photo(s) dated 6 May 1940
Osami Nagano (front row, center), Nobutake Kondo (front row, third from left) at a luncheon at the Tokyo Naval Club, Tokyo, Japan, 6 May 1940

Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis




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Floating Drydock YFD-2 with destroyer USS Shaw in flames following the explosion in Shaw’s forward magazine, Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii, Dec 7, 1941.


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