was taken onto Gibraltar, reached by Force H at 1900." Wrote Sheffield's Captain Charles Larcom, "A young lieutenant, not fourteen days on board, took my aircraft to drop messages on Renown, and cutting a dash, as I guessed he would, killed himself, another young officer and two men. It is too much at once." Sheffield had lost three crew and five seriously injured while duelling with Bismarck.Bertke, Donald A., Smith, Gordon, and Kindell, Don, "World War II Sea War, Volume 3: The Royal Navy is Bloodied in the Mediterranean", Bertke Publications, Dayton, Ohio, 2012, , , p. 491. Early summer Junkers Ju 288 V4, D-AACS, crashed during one of its first test flights from Dessau, Germany. Fire starts in the port BMW 801MA radial engine nacelle during landing approach at Dessau, burning so fiercely that it cuts through the main longerons, virtually severing the forward fuselage from the center fuselage. Despite severe damage, airframe is rebuilt and resumes flight test programme in late November. 2 June First British Consolidated LB-30 Liberator II, AL503, on its acceptance flight for delivery from the Consolidated Aircraft Company plant at San Diego, California, crashes into San Diego Bay when flight controls freeze, killing all five civilian crew, CAC Chief Test Pilot William Wheatley, co-pilot Alan Austen, flight engineer Bruce Kilpatrick Craig, and two chief mechanics, Lewis McCannon and William Reiser. Craig, who had been commissioned a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve in 1935 following Infantry ROTC training at the Georgia Institute of Technology where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering, had applied for a commission in the Army Air Corps before his death. This was granted posthumously, with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant, and on 25 August 1941, the airfield in his hometown of Selma, Alabama, was renamed Craig Field, later Craig Air Force Base. Investigation into the cause of the accident causes a two-month delay in deliveries, so the RAF does not begin receiving Liberator IIs until August 1941. 8 June Fourth prototype Heinkel He 177A Greif V4, wrk.nr. 0000004, fails to pull out of a moderate dive during dive trials, crashes into the Baltic Sea, off Ribnitz-Damgarten. It was later discovered that the accident had resulted from the malfunctioning of a controllable-pitch propeller control mechanism. 16 June USAAF Douglas O-38F, 33–324, c/n 1177, first aircraft to land at Ladd Field, Alaska, in October 1940, this aircraft