Obersturmbannführer Rudolf Höss was overall commandant of the Auschwitz complex from May 1940 – November 1943 ; Obersturmbannführer Arthur Liebehenschel from November 1943 – May 1944 ; and Sturmbannführer Richard Baer from May 1944 – January 1945.

He was tried on 3 May 1940.

Montgomery's training paid off when the Germans began their invasion of the Low Countries on 10 May 1940 and the 3rd Division advanced to the River Dijle and then withdrew to Dunkirk with great professionalism, entering the Dunkirk perimeter in a famous night-time march which placed his forces on the left flank which had been left exposed by the Belgian surrender.

The French president of the Ministerial Council, Reynaud, attributed the collapse in a speech on 21 May 1940:

Other areas damaged during World War II bombing included: in September 1940 two unexploded bombs hit the Edward VII galleries, the King's Library received a direct hit from a high explosive bomb, incendiaries fell on the dome of the Round Reading Room but did little damage ; on the night of 10 to 11 May 1941 several incendiaries fell on the south west corner of the Museum, destroying the book stack and 150, 000 books in the courtyard and the galleries around the top of the Great Staircase – this damage was not fully repaired until the early 1960s.

A German cavalry patrol in May 1940, during the Battle of France.

On May 5, 1940 Pope Pius XII named her a joint Patron Saint of Italy along with Saint Francis of Assisi.

In late 1939 he brought the Duke of Windsor back from self-impodsed exile in France and in early May 1940, Mountbatten led a British convoy in through the fog to evacuate the Allied forces participating in the Namsos Campaign during the Norwegian Campaign.

On the night 9 May / 10 May 1940, Kelly was torpedoed amidships by a German E-boat S 31 of the Dutch coast and Mountbatten subsequently commanded the 5th Destroyer Flotilla from the destroyer HMS Javelin.

* Spouses: Ruth Doreen Crick, née Dodd ( b. 1913, m. 18 February 1940 – 8 May 1947 ), now Mrs. James Stewart Potter ; Odile Crick, née Speed ( b. 11 August 1920, m. 14 August 1949 – 28 July 2004, d. 5 July 2007 )

Initially, in May 1940, 16, 700 people went to French Morocco.

On 10 May 1940 Nazi Germany invaded the country and, after destroying Rotterdam, occupied it.

When Germany had its hands free for an attack in the west, the Battle of France began in May 1940, and the same Blitzkrieg tactics proved just as devastating there.

In May 1940, without resigning his seat, Holt joined the Second Australian Imperial Force as a gunner, but a few months later three Cabinet ministers and several of Australia's top military staff were killed in an air crash in Canberra.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Alexander brought the 1st Infantry Division to France, where, in late May 1940, he successfully led the division's withdrawal to Dunkirk.

On 7 May 1940, Ribbentrop founded a new section of the Foreign Office, the Abteilung Deutschland ( Department of Internal German Affairs ), under Martin Luther, to which was assigned the responsibility for all anti-Semitic affairs.

On 10 May 1940, Ribbentrop summoned the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg ambassadors to present them with notes justifying the German invasion of their countries, several hours after the Germans had invaded those nations.

On 19 May 1940 Ribbentrop met the new Italian Ambassador Dino Alfieri, who described the meeting as follows :" He commented at length on the " dazzling " successes of the German armies, extolling the military genius of the Führer ... who had " revealed himself as the greatest military genius since Napoleon "... He spoke of the inevitable clash between the young nations and the old ; of the necessity of breaking the ring with which the Judaeo-democratic-plutocratic powers were trying to encircle Germany and Italy ; and of the need to create a new European civilization.

The German occupation of the Netherlands and France in May – June 1940 altered the situation for the Japanese government.

On May 10, 1940, the Luxembourgish government and monarchy was swept away into exile by the German invasion of that date.

Following the occupation of Luxembourg by Germany on the 10 May 1940, recruitment for the Company of Volunteers continued until the 4 December 1940 when they were moved to Weimar in Germany to be trained as German police.

On May 4, 2008, while Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen addressed the graduating cadets at West Point, a cadet asked what would happen if the next administration were supportive of legislation allowing gays to serve openly.

In May 1902 he was passed fit for sea duty and was appointed captain of the cruiser HMS Juno in June, spending two months in exercises with the Channel Fleet under Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson before joining the Mediterranean fleet.

On 1 May, he was promoted to Admiral of the Fleet.

* 1 January – 1 May 1919: Admiral Sir David Beatty, GCB, GCVO, DSO

* 1 May – 3 June 1919: Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Beatty, GCB, GCVO, DSO

* 1945 – World War II: Ratification in Berlin-Karlshorst of the German unconditional surrender of May 8 in Rheims, France, with the signatures of Marshal Georgy Zhukov for the Soviet Union, and for the Western Headquarters Sir Arthur Tedder, British Air Marshal and Eisenhower's deputy, and for the German side of Colonel-General Hans-Jürgen Stumpff as the representative of the Luftwaffe, Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel as the Chief of Staff of OKW, and Admiral Hans-Georg von Friedeburg as Commander-in-Chief of the Kriegsmarine.

Born in Burlington, Iowa, on May 15, 1874, Mason was the eldest son of Rear Admiral George Collier Remey and Mary Josephine Mason Remey, the daughter of Charles Mason, the first Chief Justice of Iowa.

On 7 May 1940 further modifications to rationalise the ranks system were made on the proposal by Marshal Voroshilov: the ranks of " General " and " Admiral " replaced the senior functional ranks of Combrig, Comdiv, Comcor, Comandarm in the RKKA and Flagman 1st rank etc.

On 18 May 1471, Richard was named Great Chamberlain and Lord High Admiral of England.

On 27 May 1905, during the battle of Tsushima, Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship, the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, had been gunned to a wreck by Admiral Togo's 12 inch gunned battleline.

The IJN deployed approximately 21 TBs during the conflict, and on 27 May 1905 the Japanese torpedo boat destroyers and TBs launched 16 torpedoes at the battleship Knyaz Suvorov, Admiral Rozhestvensky's flagship at the battle of Tsushima.

* May 29 – First Anglo-Dutch War: The opening battle is fought off Dover, between Lt .- Admiral Maarten Harpertszoon Tromp's 42 Dutch ships and 21 English ships divided into 2 squadrons, one commanded by Robert Blake and the other by Nehemiah Bourne.

He had been assigned to work with General Electric at Schenectady, New York State, to develop a nuclear propulsion plant for destroyers, but in May 1946, through the efforts of his wartime boss, Rear Admiral Earle Mills, who became the head of the Navy's Bureau of Ships that same year, Rickover was finally sent to Oak Ridge as the deputy manager of the entire project, granting him access to all facilities, projects and reports.

However, after his retirement — and only a few months later, in May 1982 — Admiral Rickover spoke more specifically regarding the questions " Could you comment on your own responsibility in helping to create a nuclear navy?

And finally, by 27 May 1905, Admiral Tōgō and his men had two battleship fleet actions under their belts, which amounted to over 4 hours of combat experience in battleship to battleship combat at Port Arthur and the Yellow Sea — experience which would eliminate the miscalculations and rash decisions made during those battles, while applying the learned lessons from those sea engagements with both finesse and ruthlessness at Tsushima.

The Navarin was lost during the night action, on 27 – 28 May, while the Sissoi Veliky, Admiral Nakhimov and Admiral Ushakov were either scuttled or sunk the next day.

Weygand acquired a reputation as an opponent of collaboration when he protested, in Vichy, against the Protocols of Paris of 28 May 1941 signed by Admiral Darlan, agreements which granted bases to the Axis in Aleppo ( Syria ), Bizerte ( Tunisia ), and Dakar ( Senegal ) and envisaged an extensive military collaboration with Axis forces in the event of Allied countermeasures.

In May 1945 Flensburg was the seat of the last government of Nazi Germany, the so called Flensburg government led by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz, which was in power from 1 May ( Hitler's death ) until its dissolution on 23 May.

The fortress under command of German Admiral Friedrich Frisius eventually unconditionally surrendered to the commander of the Czechoslovak forces, Brigade General Alois Liška, on 9 May 1945.

Famous people connected with the town include Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell, who lived at May Place between 1694 and 1707, and Sir Frederick Currie who also lived at the Manor House, May Place.