June 15, 1942: Great Day For The Italian Navy

Monday 15 June 1942

Royal Navy Tribal-class destroyer HMS Bedouin sinking during Operation Harpoon, 15 June 1942 (Ministero Della Difesa-Aeronautica, Regia Aeronautica). 

Battle of the Mediterranean: The Italian military gets a lot of grief from post-war armchair generals, but the navy proves it can fight and inflict heavy damage on 15 June 1942. This becomes known as the Battle of Pantelleria and merits a later visit (25 June) by Mussolino to congratulate the crews. Of course, the Battle of Pantelleria (In Italy, "Battaglia di Mezzo Giugno") is not played up in Allied post-war histories, rarely mentioned except occasionally as just another convoy battle.

The disaster that is Operation Julius, a conventional British resupply of Malta from both ends of the Mediterranean simultaneously, continues with more Allied losses. The situation has become so chaotic and untenable that the eastern half of the operation, Operation Harpoon, is temporarily called off, but then the order is reversed due to the "fog of war" - overly optimistic reports from Allied aircrews sent to attack the Italian fleet. 

It is a day of repeated Axis air attacks, many near misses and bombers shot down, and lost opportunities. After dark, Admiral Harwood finally cancels Operation Vigorous. Most of the ships are lost due to mines and the Italian surface fleet - two of the original six freighters make it to Malta despite the cancellation, delivering 15,241 tons of supplies. The failure of the tanker Kentucky to make port causes a fuel crisis on the island.

Italian Regia Aeronautica aircraft, which have been particularly effective during these attacks, bomb and severely damage Australian destroyer Nestor off Crete. It survives until the 16th, when it must be scuttled.

German E-boat S-56 (some sources say S-66) torpedoes Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Newcastle, severely damaging it. Newcastle does not become operational again until March 1943. British destroyer Hasty, damaged in the same way by E-boat S-55 before dawn, must be scuttled off Crete.

The Italian surface fleet also gets into the act. At dawn, Italian cruisers aided by the Regia Aeronautica hit the British off Pantelleria south of Sicily. Air attacks disable British tanker Kentucky (9457 tons) and freighters Chant, Bedouin, and Burdwan - all eventually sink due to naval gunfire or torpedoes.   

The British are able to strike back, though the weight of arms is heavily against them. Four Wellingtons out of Malta attack the Italian ships and score a torpedo hit on the cruiser Trento. Royal Navy submarines Maydon and Ultimatum spot battleship Vittorio Veneto and attempt attacks, but with no success due to the effective screen of cruisers. Submarine Umbra later finds Trento, dead in the water, and sinks it with two torpedoes.

Damage to battleship Littorio from a 500-lb bomb hit by a USAAF B-24. The bomb apparently hit Turret No. 1, killing one man and injuring 12 but causing only superficial damage to the turret.

The Italian fleet, less Trento, continues south and is attacked by B-24 bombers, with battleship Littorio taking a hit from a 500-lb bomb and, much later, a torpedo hit that causes little damage. A later RAF attack and a dogfight ensues, the Luftwaffe shooting down two Beauforts and badly damaging five others (one crashes).

Ships Lost:

• Trento (Italian cruiser) - 570 dead, 581 survivors.
• HMS Airedale (destroyer) - 45 dead, 133 survivors
• HMS Bedouin (destroyer) - 28 dead, 213 survivors
• HMAS Nestor (destroyer) - four dead, scuttled 16 June.
• Burdwan (6,069-ton British freighter)  
• Chant (5601-ton U.S. freighter) - four dead, 81 survivors.
• Kentucky (9308-ton British tanker) - damaged by Stukas, finished off by Italian surface fleet.
• Burdwan (6069-ton British freighter) - damaged by Stukas, finished off by Italian surface ships.
• HMS Newcastle (Town-class cruiser) - torpedoed and damage by S 56, towed to port and returned to service in March 1943.
• Italian 215-ton minesweeper RD 7 - hits a mine and sinks off Saronikus, Greece.

On land, the situation is even worse for the British. Their struggling forces are pushed out of Knightsbridge, the Point 650 box lost, and General Erwin Rommel's 21st Panzer Division reaches Sidi Rezegh. The 15th Panzer Division cuts the road east of Tobruk, but the South African Division escapes before then. The struggling British Eighth Army does get some relief because the Luftwaffe is occupied with the convoys out at sea. This is one of the darkest days of the Mediterranean campaign for the British, with the certainty of more bad days to follow as they draw back on Tobruk.

The Fuhrer's staff apparently is pleased, and in any event he is still at the Berghof, so it is a good day at headquarters in East Prussia. General Franz Halder notes in the war diary that "Army Corps 'Africa' has broken through to the coast west of Toburk. Cheering success!

Colonel-General Erwin Rommel with Major-General Georg von Bismarck, commander of the 21st Panzer Division, ca. 15 June 1942 (Otto, Albrecht Heinrich, Federal Archive Picture 101I-785-0286-31).

Eastern Front: General Manstein's attack toward Sevastopol continues making good progress, especially in the north. The Soviets are still fighting hard, though, and have plenty of ammunition remaining. Heavy operations continue on land, air, and sea, where an Italian mini-submarine has an unusual success when it torpedoes and sinks a surfaced Soviet submarine sailing off Cape Sarych. at Fuhrer Headquarters, General Franz Halder notes blandly in his war diary, "Advancing in southern and northern sector Sevastopol, and at Volchansk."

The German 132nd Division is leading the main attack in the north and now is within 900 meters of the Maxim Gorky fortress perimeter. The Soviet defenders of the 95th Rifle Division and 7th Naval Brigade are down to just 1000 men - basically, a single regiment. However, the Wehrmacht also has taken a staggering number of casualties just to get this far.

In the south, the Germans are stopped before Balaklava and the Soviets still hold the critical Sapun Ridge. Somewhat dismaying for the Germans is that they have captured only about 1000 Soviet soldiers but a staggering 1500 mortar projectiles, suggesting the defenders have plenty of ammunition while they themselves are always short.

The Luftwaffe, though, is making up for the German deficiencies on the ground. It has been averaging about 780 sorties a day since the start of the offensive with virtually no let-up. Attacks on Sevastopol cause first that can be seen in Feodosiya, 150 km away. From 13-17 June, the planes drop 3,086 tons of bombs.

Luftwaffe General Wolfram von Richtofen, a chief architect of the brewing German success at Sevastopol (and who rightfully deserves as much credit as Manstein), gets news that disgusts him. Reichsmarschall Goering phones him - usually quite an honor - and informs him that he is to be transferred north to Kursk to prepare for Case Blue - the summer attack toward Stalingrad. He will retain control of Fliegerkorps VIII, but his chief of staff, Oberstleutnant Torsten Christ, will remain behind and guide operations henceforth. 

Battle of the Baltic: Soviet submarine M-95 hits a mine east of Suursaari Island around this date, when she is declared missing. All hands are lost, the wreck is discovered in 2015. Also lost on this date is Soviet G-5-class motor torpedo boat No. 61.

The crew of Italian cruiser Raimondo Montecuccoli watches tanker Kentucky and freighter Burdwan burn, 15 June 1942 (Regia Marina).

Battle of the Pacific: Following the decisive victory at Midway, the Americans are reorganizing and making new plans. Admiral Nimitz reorganizes his carrier force, making Admiral Fitch temporarily commander of Task Force 11 in place of Admiral Fletcher, who takes a badly needed break for a couple of weeks. The first plan for Task Force 11 is to resupply Midway with aircraft. Later it is to head to the Southwest Pacific in July.

In the Aleutian Islands, bad weather aborts a bombing mission to Kiska Island by 3 B-17 and 2 B-24 bombers of the 11th Air Force.

US Navy submarine USS Seawolf torpedoes and sinks Japanese auxiliary gunboat Nampo Maru off Corregidor.

European Air Operations: Major General Carl Spaatz, new Commanding General of the USAAF's 8th Air Force, arrives to take up his command in the UK. The VIII Bomber Command establishes the 1st Bombardment Wing (Provisional) at Brampton Grange, England.

U-751 commander Gerhard Bigalk at St. Nazaire, 15 June 1942. He has just this day returned from U-751's sixth war patrol, during which it has sunk two American ships totaling 4555 tons of shipping (Federal Archive Bild 101II-MW-6433-39).

Battle of the Atlantic: U-172 (Kptlt. Carl Emmermann), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 2438-ton Norwegian freighter Bennestvet in the Caribbean. There are 12 dead and 13 survivors, who are rescued by USS PC-458.

U-552 (Kptlt. Erich Topp), on its ninth patrol out of St. Nazaire, has a big day against a British convoy, with five ships sunk. This is one of the top totals of the war. He sinks 15,858 tons of shipping in one day in one convoy not too far from his base and then quickly heads back to port to stock up again on torpedoes.

First, it torpedoes and sinks 2759-ton British freighter City of Oxford west of Cape Finisterre, Spain. It is part of convoy HG 84. There are one death and 42 survivors, who are picked up by freighter Stockport.

U-552 gets another one in the same convoy in the same general vicinity west of A Coruña, Spain. This victim is 1943-ton British freighter Etrib. There are four deaths and 41 survivors, who are rescued by HMS Marigold.

U-552's third victim in the convoy is 1346-ton British freighter Pelayo. There are 17 deaths and 30 survivors, rescued by freighter Copeland.

U-552's fourth ship is the 2436-ton British freighter Thurso. There are 13 deaths and 28 survivors, rescued by HMS Marigold.

U-552 also gets a fifth victim, Royal Navy 7374-ton tanker Slemdal, also 400 nautical miles northwest of A Coruña. All 37 crew survive. It is unconfirmed whether this was by U-552.

Italian destroyers watch Allied ships burn, 15 June 1942. Photo taken from destroyer Oriani, with Ascari and Oriani ahead.

U-502 (Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, also has a big day. It sinks three ships to end its patrol with 54,045 tons of shipping sunk.

First, it torpedoes and sinks 5010-ton Panamanian freighter Cold Harbor 100 nautical miles (190 km) northwest of Trinidad. There are seven deaths and 44 survivors, who are rescued by U.S. ships Exmouth and Kahlua and U.S.S. Opal.

U-502 also torpedoes and sinks 8001-ton U.S. freighter Scottsburg 90 nautical miles (170 km) west of Grenada. There are five dead and 46 survivors, rescued by U.S. ship Kahuku.

U-502 also torpedoes and sinks 5702-ton U.S. Freighter West Hardaway 30 nautical miles (56 km) west of Grenada. All 50 crew are rescued by Venezuelan ship Maracaibo.

U-68 (KrvKpt. Karl-Friedrich Merten), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 9242-ton Vichy French tanker Frimaire northeast of Santa Maria, Columbia. All 60 crewmen perish.

U-126 (Kptlt. Ernst Bauer), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, shells and sinks 125-ton British sailing freighter Dutch Princess east of St. Lucia and northwest of Barbados. All nine crewmen survive.

In the South Atlantic off the coast of Brazil, Italian submarine Archimede torpedoes and sinks 5586-ton Panamanian freighter Cardinia.

U-701 (Kptlt. Horst Degen), on its third patrol out of Lorient, recently has laid mines at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, and today they pay off dramatically with multiple hits.

Royal Naval trawler HMT-Kingston Ceylonite hits a mine and sinks in the Chesapeake Bay off Virginia Beach, Virginia while with Convoy KN 109. There are 18 deaths and 14 survivors. U.S. 11,615-ton tanker Robert C. Tuttle also hits a mine in the same vicinity and sinks, with one dead and 46 survivors. Tuttle, however, is later raised, repaired, and returned to service.

U.S. 9310-ton tanker F.W. Abrams sinks after hitting a U.S. mine off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on 11 June. The tanker had been hiding in the minefield for safety when it blundered into one in heavy rain, then drifted into a second one. Attempts to salvage have failed, and it finally sinks today about 20 km off Ocracoke. Every one of the 36-man crew survives, with one injured.

Royal Navy motor torpedo boat (MTB) 201 is badly damaged by German surface warships off Dover and sinks while under tow.

U.S. tanker F.W. Abrams sinking off Cape Hatteras, 15 June 1942 (The Mariner's Museum).

Spy Stuff: The leader of the German spy ring that is staying at a Manhattan hotel, George Dasch, has called the New York office of the FBI and told them about his operation in an effort to surrender. Displeased at the result, however, he sits and brews, waiting until the weekend to take a train down to Washington, D.C., to surrender.

U.S. Military: 63d Bombardment Squadron, 43d BG, 5th Air Force moves from Sydney to Charleville with its B-17s.

American Homefront: Exiled Greek King George II addresses the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C.

Coogee Beach, Sydney, Australia, 15 June 1942, taken 13,000 feet by an Adastra Airways plane as part of a survey (Royal Australian Historical Society).

2022

June 9, 1942: Nimitz Changes Strategy

Tuesday 9 June 1942

Adolf Hitler at Reinhard Heydrich's funeral (Narodowe Archiwum Cyfrowe, sygn. 2-13241).

Battle of the Pacific: Learning of the Japanese capture of Kiska on 9 June 1942, Admiral Chester Nimitz cancels his orders to Admiral Jack Fletcher to take his three aircraft carriers (USS Enterprise, Hornet, and Saratoga) north to the Aleutians. Nimitz now does not want them exposed to Japanese land bombers operating from Kiska and Attu. This unknowingly frustrates a Japanese plan to ambush them with the reinforced fleet of Admiral Boshirō Hosogaya.

Nimitz now is thinking offensively (as is General Douglas MacArthur in Melbourne, who submitted his own proposal for an advance led by the Army on 8 June 1942). He wants to keep his carrier force intact for a thrust due west across the central Pacific. This Nimitz and his team in Hawaii see as the main Allied strategy from now on. This is contrary to MacArthur's proposal to advance north from Australia, setting up a classic "turf war" between the US Army and Navy.

The Japanese high command, despite the minor successes in the Aleutians, is reeling from the early June results at Midway. The solution is denial and a coverup. The Imperial Japanese Navy prepares a vague and unrealistic summary of the battle to the military liaison conference. Admiral Chūichi Nagumo takes his time preparing an accurate summary of Japanese losses. He remains completely unaware that the Americans knew his complete battle plan in May and thinks his force was only discovered on the 5th. The Japanese public is kept completely in the dark, with media focusing entirely on the Aleutians.

Artwork depicting "The Swoose" on the B-17D aircraft that carried Lyndon Baines Johnson to Port Moresby on 8 June 1942. The aircraft is currently being restored in Dayton, Ohio (U.S. Air Force photo courtesy of the National Museum of the United States Air Force).

Navy Reserve Lieutenant Lyndon B. Johnson, the future President, makes an aerial inspection tour from his location in Townsville, Australia. Johnson already has had an interesting time Down Under, having helped to quell a mutiny by African-African troops on 22 May 1942. The B-26 Marauder flying the mission has engine trouble after departing from Port Moresby and has to return to base, but the USAAF 19th Bombardment Squadron of the 22nd Bomber Group completes its mission (flying from Townsville to Port Moresby for refueling) to bomb Lae, New Guinea. The Port Moresby stage of the mission has to be delayed for an hour to accommodate LBJ, who arrives from Townsville in General Brett's VIP B-17D "The Swoose." 

The mission is hazardous even though Johnson misses out on the actual bombing run. LBJ narrowly escapes death because he switches bombers at the last minute due to a pilot change, and the plane he leaves crashes into the sea off Salamaua, killing everyone on board. LBJ then also escapes potential harm when the B-17 on the flight back to Townsville gets lost and almost runs out of fuel. It has to make an emergency landing at remote Carisbrooke Station near Winton. This B-17D, incidentally, survives and is the property of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The strange sequence of events results in General MacArthur awarding Johnson a Silver Star, the Army's third-highest decoration. Johnson soon after heads back to D.C. in accordance with FDR's requirement that all members of Congress return to their legislative duties. He remains in the US Naval Reserve until January 1964.

The Japanese complete their occupation of the Philippines and declare it secure.

US 24-ton freighter Husky founders two miles off Cape Constantine in Nushagak Bay, Aleutian Islands. Everyone survives.

US submarine USS Trout (SS-202) picks up two survivors of the sunken Japanese heavy cruiser Mikuma.

There is fierce fighting near the town of Chuhsien, China. Both sides take heavy casualties.

Crash site of a B-17 near Whenuapai Aerodrome, Auckland, New Zealand, 9 June 1942. All 11 men on board are killed (Archives New Zealand Reference: ADQA 17211 AIR1 572 25/2/588).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: The Japanese Divine Dragon Operation No. 2 submarine force, in which the Japanese high command placed high hopes, remains operational in the Mozambique Channel. However,  it is now clear to the local commanders that the operation now has turned into a standard submarine patrol and that initial plans to target the British Far Eastern Fleet are obsolete. Accordingly, Lieutenant Commander Otani Kiyonori of I-18 has his men destroy and jettison mini-submarine M-18b, effectively ending the operation.

Around this time, British divers discover the remains of M-20b, which carried out the most successful attack at Diego Suarez. It is sitting upright on a reef in heavy surf (remnants remain there to this day). They salvage the propellers, now on display at the gravesite of its occupants, Lieutenant (j.g.) Akieda Saburo and POIC Takemoto Masami. They were killed on 2 June 1942 by a British patrol on the mainland while attempting to rendezvous with I-20.

The Japanese have not given up on the Indian Ocean by any means. On 5 June 1942, auxiliary cruisers Aikoku Maru and Hokoko Maru caught 6757-ton British passenger ship Elysia 350 miles northeast of Durban. They torpedoed it, and today it sinks, causing 22 deaths. 

Battleship HMS Ramillies, previously damaged by a Japanese mini-submarine in late May 1942, arrives in Durban for repairs accompanied by light cruiser Emerald and three destroyers. The damage ultimately will require a return to the UK at Portsmouth on 8 September that will last until the summer of 1943.

A new recruit, age 62, joins the Royal Navy, 9 June 1942. ""Owd Bob" drawing his petty officer's rig on board the Armed Merchant Cruiser Depot ship HMS MERSEY. Behind him is Tommy Harding, age 18, another new entry who volunteered for this special naval service." © IWM A 8807.

Eastern Front: German General Erich von Manstein's assault on Sevastopol has shown signs of turning into a battle of attrition, exactly what he didn't want. The priority is to take Sevastopol before the Case Blue offensive on the main front begins, and that now is looking doubtful. Luftwaffe General Wolfram von Richtofen begins changing attack priorities from assisting the front-line troops to attacking Soviet supply lines, a bad sign that the plan is faltering. The Luftwaffe is fully committed, flying 1044 sorties and dropping 954 tons of bombs, putting a strain on men, equipment, and logistics.

However, the German offensive is not dead, not by any means. General Franz Halder, remaining in East Prussia while the Fuhrer attends the Reinhard Heydrich funeral (see below), comments:

At Sevastopol, good progress despite strong enemy counter-attacks. Otherwise, all quiet. Army Group Center reports breakout of Cavalry Corps Belov to the south.

Halder does have his own grips about the Storfang operation. Writing about a meeting during the day with General Buhle, he comments acidly, "Report on Sevastopol. My suspicion that the Artillery Command is not of the best is confirmed."

The Red Navy is doing what it can to help its comrades ashore. Early in the morning, Soviet destroyers spot Axis mini-submarines operating from Yalta on their radar screens and unsuccessfully attack them. This new development induces Vice-Admiral Oktyabrskii to order his naval captains to concentrate less on offshore gunfire support of the army and more on keeping the sea lanes to Sevastopol clear. He also tells them to switch to area fire rather than targeted fire and cuts back on the number of surface vessel supply missions. This forces an increase in submarine supply missions. While they don't know it, the Axis mini-submariners thus achieve a tactical victory without sinking a single ship.

LIV Corps continues to make slow progress in the north, assisted greatly by an intense artillery bombardment laid down by the biggest guns ever used in combat. The 132nd Infantry clears a key obstacle, the Haccius Ridge, and the 22nd Infantry Division destroys the elite Soviet 79th Naval Infantry Brigade.

General Paulus' Sixth Army counterattacks against Red Army forces in the Kharkov sector. Paulus has plenty of troops because Sixth Army is fated to lead the Case Blue offensive toward Stalingrad. During this attack, Uffz. Wilhelm Crinius of 3./JG 53 shoots down two Soviet Il-2 Shturmovik ground-attack planes for his first two victories.

European Air Operations: Weather is poor on the Channel Front, with 10/10ths cloud cover down to 1500 feet and getting worse as the day proceeds.

A Polish squadron raids Essen. British Wellington IV R1725 crashes into the North Sea, 20 km west of Texel, Netherlands, while en route to bomb Essen. All six crewmen perish. Another Wellington targeting Essen, IV Z1412, is shot down by the nightfighter pilot Oblt. L.Fellerer of II/NJG 2. it crashlands on the beach 2 km west of St. Maartensvlotbrug. The five crewmen survive. A Wellington manages to make it back for a crashlanding after being attacked three times by Me-110 night fighters from below and astern, and the odds of survival are so iffy that the copilot bails out 20 miles west of Essen after the bombing run.

"36th Bombardment Squadron LB-30 Liberator and a Boeing B-17E Fortress (41-9126) at Fort Glenn Army Air Base, Alaska, June 1942. 9126 was lost Aug 28, 1942." USAAF photo via Chloe, John Hale, (1984), Top Cover for America. the Air Force in Alaska. 1920–1983, Pictorial Histories Publishing Company, ISBN 0-933126-47-6.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-124 (Kptlt. Johann Mohr), on its ninth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 940-ton French corvette FFL Mimosa (K11, Captain Roger R.L. Birot) 600 miles southeast of Cape Farewell in the British Isles. The Mimosa is an escort for Convoy ONS-100 and sinks within three minutes because the depth charges falling off the ship explode. The other escorts don't even notice the ship is missing until dawn breaks. There are 65-67 deaths and only four surviving French sailors, who are picked up by HMCS Assiniboine.

U-502 (Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes 6589-ton US tanker Franklin K. Lane 35-40 miles (65 km) northeast of La Guiara and Cape Blanco, Venezuela. It is scuttled by the British destroyer HMS Churchill. The ship, a member of Convoy TO-5, is carrying 73,000 barrels of crude oil to Aruba for processing. There are four deaths and 37 survivors.

U-502 also gets another victim from the same convoy today, 5085-ton Belgian freighter Bruxelles. The ship manages to evade two torpedoes, but a third one blows a seven-meter (yard) hole in the side and the ship sinks within four minutes. The crew acts quickly and manages to launch lifeboats. Destroyer Churchill picks them up quickly. There are 53 survivors and one death.

U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz-Otto Schultze), on its fifth patrol out of La Pallice, torpedoes and damages 7073-ton Norwegian freighter Kronprinsen of Convoy BX-23A south of Cape Sable. The ship is taken in tow and beached at West Pubnico, Nova Scotia. Ultimately, the ship is repaired and returned to service.

U-432 also damages 8593-ton British freighter Malayan Prince with a torpedo that misses the Kronprinsen. The ship manages to remain with the convoy and is later repaired and returned to service in July 1942.

Four-stack destroyer USS Southard (DMS-10), Mare Island, 9 June 1942. She has just been converted into a minesweeper (Rickard, J (15 September 2018), USS Southard (DMS-10), Mare Island, 9 June 1942).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Early in the morning, the Luftwaffe sends 20 Junkers Ju 88 and 40 Ju 87 Stukas escorted by 50 Bf 109 and Me 110 fighters against the Free French in Bir Hakeim. However, thick smoke and dust force them to turn back. A second attack around noontime by 124 Stukas and 76 Ju 88s, escorted by 168 Bf 109s, has more luck. During this attack, Oblt. Hans-Joachim Marseilles of 3./JG 27 downs four RAF planes.

German artillery also opens up on the fortifications in the morning as General Erwin Rommel readies a final assault. After the planes and big guns have softened up the defenses, units of the 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions, the 90th Light Division, and Italian infantry launch a two-pronged attack.

Rommel's objective is the "high ground" near the fortress, a small rise called Point 186. The Italian Trieste Division makes good progress, overrunning a reinforced French force that is hampered by supply issues. The German advance gains steam in the afternoon when the 15th Panzer breaches the French line in the center, forcing a desperate counterattack with Bren Carriers that succeeds. Oberstleutnant Ernst-Günther Baade leads the Rifle Regiment 115 to within 200 meters (yards) of the fortress by dusk.

Overhead, the Luftwaffe establishes dominance due to previous losses in the RAF Desert Air Force despite frantic pleas for cover from French General Kœnig. The French are low on supplies and everyone can see the writing on the wall. British Major-General Frank Messervy, commander of the 7th Armoured Division, reports that a breakout should be attempted, and at 23:00 Kœnig signals for permission to evacuate the fortress. Lieutenant-General Neil Ritchie, commander of the 8th Army, replies that he'll prepare a thrust from the south but the fortress will have to hold out for another day or two. 

With water and ammunition running out and casualties mounting, Kœnig orders a breakout anyway. The French formation quickly loses coherence in the darkness and the Axis forces react quickly. The retreat turns into desperate hand-to-hand combat but does make progress into the early morning hours of the 10th.

Italian Caproni bombers catch 1584-ton Swedish freighter Stureborg in the eastern Mediterranean and sink it with torpedoes and bombs. There are 20 deaths and only one survivor, whose raft reaches land near Gaza. Ten men in total started out on the raft but nine perished because it drifted for 19 days and they had no food or water.

U-83 (Kptlt. Hans-Werner Kraus), on its eighth patrol out of Salamis, shells and sinks 175-ton Palestinian sailing ship Typhoon four miles southeast of Sidon, Lebanon. Everyone survives.

RAF Catalinas of No. 240 Squadron sinks Italian submarine Zaffiro in the western Mediterranean southeast of Palma de Mallorca, Balearic Islands. There are no survivors.

Survivors of the destroyer USS Hammann (DD-412), torpedoed and sunk on 6 June 1942 at the Battle of Midway, are brought ashore at Pearl Harbor, 9 June 1942 (Naval History and Heritage Command 80-G-312064).

Joint Allied Planning: The United States and British governments form the Combined Production and Resources Board. The purpose is to plan and coordinate production in each country to best serve war needs. It operates independently and competes with the Combined Munitions Assignment Board, which is under the jurisdiction of the Combined Chiefs of Staff. President Roosevelt's crony Harry Hopkins is the American leader behind the scenes, though Donald Nelson is the chair. 

While sometimes criticized as ineffective, the Board changes the military procurement process based on statistical analysis and perceived priorities. It provides some order to the former chaotic ordering system directly to industry used by the militaries of the respective countries. British representatives tend to feel the Board favors the US and prefer to exert their influence through the Munitions Board because they feel the Combined Chiefs give them more of an equal say. Canada feels left out and eventually is admitted to the Board as an equal partner. 

The real weakness of the Board is that its leaders don't really have much of an idea themselves of what the war effort needs or where the war is going until it is really too far along to matter. As the military strategy and objectives change - sometimes at the last minute - the Board must follow along and thus always is a step behind actual needs. Its findings also have to be implemented by the respective governments which may not necessarily agree completely with its decisions and thus may not treat them with a sense of urgency.

US Military: The Navy establishes a naval operating base at Kodiak, Alaska.

Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler leads the procession at Reinhard Heydrich's Berlin funeral on 9 June 1942. Visible in the front row from left are Robert Ley, Karl-Hermann Frank, Erhard Milch, Sepp Dietrich, Sergeant Heinz Heydrich (Reinhard's younger brother), police chief Kurt Daluege (Heydrich's successor in Bohemia and Moravia), and Wilhelm Frick (Federal Archive Picture 121-1344).

German Homefront: The government holds the second funeral for Reinhard Heydrich, who was shot by British agents on 27 May 1942. This second funeral is in Berlin (the first, on 7 June, was in Prague). All of the top Reich officials attend, including Adolf Hitler and Hermann Goering. Hitler awards Heydrich the German Order, the highest honor in the Third Reich, posthumously. After the ceremony, Heinrich Himmler tells his subordinates to ramp up the Holocaust.

Heydrich is interred in a plot at the Invalidenfriedhof in Berlin. The location, once well known, since the war has become secret to prevent fascist gatherings.

Privately, Hitler blames Heydrich's own lax security precautions on his demise. He tells his cronies that a man as important to the war effort as Heydrich never should have been driving in an unguarded open-air car through streets filled with people. Hitler, of course, is (rightly) paranoid about his own personal security and routinely changes his routes and timing to frustrate would-be assassins. This already has saved his life at least once, when he evaded a bomb planted at the Munich Brown House (Braunes Haus) on 8 November 1939.

Due to the Gestapo's mistaken belief that the Heydrich assassins operated from the town of Lidice, the local German authorities begin to obliterate it today. Today and tomorrow, they kill 199 men and deport 195 women to the Ravensbrück concentration camp. There are 95 children in the town, 81 of whom later perish at the Chelmno camp. Eight are adopted by German families. The German security forces also prepare to destroy the town of Ležáky.

The two agents who assassinated Heydrich, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, remain at large despite a massive German manhunt. The local authorities make it clear to the Czech people that if they are not turned over, more blood will be spilled. They also promise a bounty of a million Reichsmarks. Since everyone knows the German threats are not just empty words and Lidice is the proof, this reaches some receptive ears.

Platforms 2 and 3 of Paddington Station, London, UK, 9 June 1942 (Science & Society 10442395).

American Homefront: Lord Louis Mountbatten, Chief of the British Commandos, arrived in Washington for tactical conversations with US officers. Also returning from London are Generals Dwight D. Eisenhower, Henry "Hap" Arnold, and Mark Clark.

Ronald Reagan, who enlisted in the USAAF on 15 May 1942 as a private, receives a transfer to become the public relations officer for the First Motion Picture Unit in Burbank, California, under director John Ford. In this role, Reagan will be instrumental in "discovering" a young aviation worker in Burbank who will turn into film star Marilyn Monroe. He ends the war with the rank of Captain.

Future History: Heydrich's death leads to a series of prolonged court cases in the 1950s by his widow, Lina. She successfully argues to the West German government that she is entitled to a full pension as she widow of a German general. She writes a 1976 memoir, Leben mit einem Kriegsverbrecher (Living With a War Criminal), remarries, and passes away in 1985. Three of their four children survive the war.

Raymond "Ossie" Clark is born in Warrington, Lancashire, England. He becomes a top fashion designer during the "Carnaby Street" height of British fashion in the Swinging Sixties. He passes away on 6 August 1996 after being stabbed by a former lover.

Adolf Hitler gives a memorial address at the funeral of Reinhard Heydrich in the New Reich Chancellery, 9 June 1942 (Federal Archive Image 146-1969-052-69).

2021

June 3, 1942: Start of Battle of Midway

Wednesday 3 June 1942

Fires burning at Dutch Harbor after the 3 June 1942 Japanese air raid (US Army).

Battle of the Pacific: At 09:04 on 3 June 1942, Ensign Charles R. Eaton, patrolling 470 miles from Midway Island, spots three Japanese ships. The Japanese quickly fire on him with anti-aircraft guns but he escapes and radios in his sighting. This is the first encounter of what will become the Battle of Midway.

At about the same time, another airman, Ensign Jack Reid, is patrolling 500 nautical miles (580 miles, 930 km) southwest of Midway in his PBY-SA when he also spots some ships in the distance. At 09:25, he radios in, "Sighted main body." He follows up with more details, ultimately reporting 11 ships at 11:00 before being ordered to return to base. Reid has not spotted the main Japanese force but rather transport ships commanded by Admiral Tanaka.

Lt. Col. Walter C. Sweeney leads a force of nine B-17 bombers stationed at Midway against the ships spotted by Reid at 12:30. Sweeney's force scores no hits and barely makes it back to Midway, landing at 21:45.

Another U.S. strike departs at 21:15, this time four PBY Catalinas bent on a night attack. Arriving over the target at 01:00 on 4 June, they score one hit on the Japanese force, a torpedo strike on the bows of tanker Akebono Maru that kills 13 sailors. Transport Kiosumi Maru also sustains some strafing damage that kills four crewmen. This attack features the only successful U.S. air-launched torpedo strike of the Battle of Midway.

"Battle of Midway, 3 June 1942" - "US Navy aircraft carrier USS Yorktown and its escorts defend themselves from incoming Japanese aircraft, one of which has splashed down into the ocean" (Rodolfo Claudus ca. 1950) (Naval History and Heritage Command).

The second prong of the Japanese strategy (Operation AL) is an invasion of some of the Aleutian Islands. The Americans know about this from their codebreaking but have concentrated the bulk of their naval forces at Midway. Planes from two light Japanese aircraft carriers (Ryujo and Junyo) under the command of Vice-Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya take off in a dense fog and rough seas to raid the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, Alaska. Only about half of the planes make it to the target. Despite some heavy anti-aircraft fire, the Japanese Nakajima B5N, Navy "Kate," Bombers drop 16 bombs on Fort Mears, then get clean away before P-40s stationed at Cold Bay arrive. There are 25 dead and many other casualties, while the Japanese lose only one plane.

The attack on Dutch Harbor is only a distraction from the main Japanese objective in the Aleutians, which is to occupy islands Kiska and Attu further down the chain. During this raid, the Japanese planes sink the 3497-ton U.S. passenger ship Northwestern (no casualties). Japanese cruisers launch four Nakajima E8N2 Navy Type 95 reconnaissance seaplanes, Allied Code Name "Dave," to fly over Umnak, losing one to U.S. ground fire. A PBY-5A Catalina of VP-42 locates the Japanese ships, while the Japanese shoot down another PBY and take three of its crew as prisoners aboard the cruiser Takao. A Japanese "Zeke" bomber crashlands in a bog on Akutan Island and U.S. forces later recover it and the dead pilot.

The five Japanese submarines waiting off the coast of Australia near Sydney to pick up the crews of the mini-submarines that attacked Sydney Harbour give up hope and disperse. The mini-sub crews are all dead, though two men nearly made it to the rendezvous point before being killed by troops. I-24, one of these five submarines, then torpedoes and sinks 4812-ton Australian ore carrier Iron Chieftain in the Tasman Sea 35 miles east of Manly (there is a monument to the 12 dead crewmen of Iron Chieftain outside Newcastle railway station). There are 27 survivors. The sinking of Iron Chieftain helps lead to the formation of convoys along the Australian coast between New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.

I-20 is the last of the five Japanese submarines to depart from the recovery area. During the afternoon, it surfaces and fires flares and sends radio signals, but nobody appears. Finally, at 18:00, it, too, departs.

U.S. Navy 115-ton patrol boat Vagabond collides with patrol craft PC-569 while patrolling west of the Golden Gate Bridge and sinks. There are no casualties.

U.S. 16-ton fishing trawler sinks in Sitka Sound in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska near Saint Lazaria Island off of Cape Edgecumbe in Kruzof Island. The cause of the sinking is unidentified, but it may be due to enemy action.

B-17 bombers of the 5th USAAF Air Force bomb Rabaul. They hit a wharf, a warehouse area, and a military camp.

"Japanese attack on Dutch Harbor, June 3, 1942. Group of Marines on the "alert" between attacks. Smoke from burning fuel tanks in the background had been set afire by a dive bomber the previous day. Alaska." (National Archives 80-G-12076).

Battle of the Indian Ocean: The 10th USAAF Air Force sends 6 B-25s of the 11th Bombardment Squadron, 7th Bomber Group, from Dinjan, India, to bomb Lashio, Burma. They then continue on to Kunming in perhaps the first example of "shuttle bombing." The mission turns into a disaster when three bombers crash into the Himalayas at 10,000 feet in heavy overcast conditions and a fourth runs out of fuel and crashes near Chan-i, China. Only two of the bombers actually reach Kunming, where they are fired upon by Chinese fighter planes that have not been informed of the operation and one radio operator is killed..

At Diego Suarez, the British complete emergency repairs to the 30x30-foot hole blown in battleship HMS Ramillies from a mini-sub attack and it departs for more permanent repairs at Durban.

Finnish Lahti L-39 anti-tank gun in use on 3 June 1942 (Military Museum of Finland (Kuva)).

Eastern Front: The German artillery fire and air assault on Sevastopol continue today as the Germans try to weaken the Soviet defenses for a full-scale assault. The target area today for the rolling bombardment is the defensive area facing the German 30th Army Corps south of the city.

General Franz Halder at Fuhrer Headquarters notes in his war diary: 

The enemy has reacted to our artillery attack on Sevastopol with counterbattery fire. Work on fortification in progress. Ship movements. No important changes on the other fronts.

General von Manstein, commander of 11th Army, plans to begin his attack on Sevastopol (Operation Sturgeon Catch (Störfang)) on 7 June. He is quickly redeploying troops from the eastern half of Crimea, where some Soviet holdouts in caves are causing trouble, to the west to participate in the Sevastopol assault. It is a very peculiar situation for the Germans on the Eastern Front where the hot spot is to the west and not the east.

Oblt. Siegfreid Freytag of 6./JG 77 claims his 50th victory. He soon will transfer to the Mediterranean Theater.

"Siems Drake warehouse afire, following the attack by Japanese carrier aircraft. Note fire fighting parties at work, and S. S. NORTHWESTERN burning at left." Dutch Harbor, 3 June 1942. (Naval History and Heritage Command 80-G-12056).

European Air Operations: The weather over the Channel Front is clear and warm. There are no major attacks today. RAF No. 403 Squadron (RCAF) moves from Southend to Martlesham. At RAF Chelveston, a small Hotspur glider of the Airborne Forces Experimental Establishment (AFEE) 14th Operational Training Unit breaks up mid-air near Greetham Village, Ruland, and the crew bales out (one killed and one uninjured).

U.S. ore freighter City of Alma, sunk by U-172 on 3 June 1942.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-404 (Kptlt. Otto von Bülow), on its third patrol out of Brest, torpedoes and sinks 1345-ton Swedish freighter Anna 210 miles northwest of Bermuda. Von Bülow begins his attack with two torpedoes at 03:09 and 04:50 but misses with both. Finally, at 05:10, he surfaces and uses his deck gun. The attack is a little controversial because von Bülow's crew clearly sees Swedish (neutral) markings, but he decides to attack anyway because the ship is acting suspiciously (zig-zagging and without navigational lights). There are no dead among the 32-man crew, though two men are wounded in the attack. The survivors take to the boats and are picked up within 13 hours by Swiss freighter Saentis, which also picks up survivors of freighter West Notus, sunk by the same U-boat on 1 June.

U-172 (Kptlt. Carl Emmermann), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks the 5446-ton U.S. freighter City of Alma 400 miles northeast of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship is carrying manganese ore and sinks within three minutes. The radio operator remains on board to send a distress call but the ship sinks so quickly that he goes down with the ship without sending any messages. There are 29 dead and 10 survivors, who survive in a lifeboat and are picked up by U.S. patrol boat USS YP-67. Third Mate Hugh Parks Brown, Jr. the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for saving other crewmen.

U-156 (Kptlt. Werner Hartenstein), on its third patrol out of Lorient, stops 80-ton British schooner Lillian near Grenada and Barbados (40 miles south of Barbados) after the ship first ignores a command to stop (warning shot through the rigging). A few crew remain aboard the ship and attempt to sail away while others take to the boats. The U-boat chases the fleeing ship after questioning the men in the boats and finally sinks it with gunfire. Hartenstein apparently uses the incident for target practice, or maybe he is just angry (and tired, as he already has sunk or damaged 11 ships on this patrol), as he uses an astounding 52 rounds of 37mm and 270 rounds of 20 mm) to sink the wooden ship. There are three dead and 22 survivors.

U-502 (Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 6940-ton U.S. freighter M.F. Elliott 150 miles northwest of Trinidad (west of St. George's Island). The ship, carrying just water ballast, sinks within six minutes. There are 13 dead and 32 survivors, who are picked up by Brazilian tanker Santa Maria after five days adrift.

Die Wehrmacht Magazine, 3 June 1942.

U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz-Otto Schultze), on its fifth patrol out of La Pallice, spots two fishing trawlers 170 miles east of Thatchers Island in the Bay of Fundy (northeast of Boston) and surfaces. After allowing the crewmen to leave their vessels, Schultze uses his deck gun on the trawlers. Sunk are 41-ton Aeolus and 102-ton Ben and Josephine. All of the fishermen (14 men total) survive, making landfall at Mount Desert Coast Guard Light Station after 36 hours.

U-126 (Kptlt. Ernst Bauer), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 10,990-ton Norwegian tanker Høegh Giant 400 miles east of Guiana. Bauer attacks at 11:24 and hits with one of three torpedoes, but the ship continues sailing. He then surfaces, but the tanker crew use the deck gun to fire at the U-boat, forcing Bauer to submerge and chase it. A long ordeal results, with Bauer finally getting into firing range at over 14 hours later 01:40 on 4 June. Two torpedoes hit, and the crew abandons the ship. The tanker finally sinks at 04:24 after Bauer has to fire a coup de grâce. Bauer clearly is furious about the entire incident. He surfaces and, when he does not get the answers he wants from the men in the lifeboats, he has his men fire over the boats, wounding one survivor with a stray bullet. The survivors spend at least ten days at sea, with most landing at Devil Island after ten days and the rest being picked up after 15 days. While the survivors are being transported to New Orleans aboard freighter Robert E. Lee, that ship also is sunk (by U-166), but all the survivors of Høegh Giant survive that sinking, too.

U.S. 5686-ton freighter Steel Worker hits a mine and sinks 3000 yards from Mishayampi, Murmansk. The ship has traveled all the way from Philadelphia with foodstuffs only to be sunk less than two miles from its destination. There are no casualties.

German Navy whaler V-1510 Unitas VI, being used as a patrol boat, strikes a wreck and sinks at the entrance of Dieppe, France. No known casualties. This incident is sometimes claimed to have occurred on 2 June 1942.

RAF Vickers Wellington bombers of No. 172 Squadron damage Italian submarine Luigi Torelli near Aviles, Spain. The ship is towed to Aviles and beached. After temporary repairs, it is refloated and taken to Spain for permanent repairs.

Freighter Orari having a temporary patch installed at Malta on 3 June 1942. © IWM A 10774.

Battle of the Mediterranean: German General Erwin Rommel and the bulk of the Afrika Korps remain bottled up in The Cauldron, a defensive position west of Tobruk. However, while no longer on the offensive, they now have cleared supply lanes to the west and are receiving reinforcements. The siege of Free French forces at the fortress of Bir Hakeim continues with little change in the situation today as the Axis forces bombard the entrenched French with artillery and Luftwaffe attacks.

The air war is going surprisingly poorly for the RAF. The pilots of III./JG 53 claim three victories over the British in the vicinity of El Alamein. One of the issues is that the Luftwaffe has brought elite units to North Africa.

Air activity over the front is ferocious. Oblt. Hans-Joachim Marseille of 3./JG 27 claims 6 Tomahawks of SAAF No. 5 Sqdn. and damage to two others in 12 minutes. Among his victims is an ace with five victories, Captain Botha, who himself had just shot down three Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers. Marseilles and the other planes clear the skies, opening them up for more Stuka attacks on Bir Hakeim. Joachim Marseilles now has 75 victories and will receive the Eichenlaub (oak leaves) to his Iron Cross on 6 June as a reward. He quickly is becoming a legend, and one of the men in his unit, Hans-Arnold Stahlschmidt, writes in a letter home, "Marseille is able to shoot like a young God. Above all, he is able to do what only a few can - to shoot with perfection while turning."

U-331 (Kptlt. Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen), on its seventh patrol out of Messina, torpedoes and sinks Royal Navy trawler HMT Cocker off Bardia, Libya. There are 15 missing/dead, with one wounded man (Ty/Lt D M Engeler RANVR) surviving.

Battle of the Black Sea: German Navy ferry barge (Marinefahrprahm) F 145 hits a mine and sinks in the Black Sea southeast of Odesa. there are nine deaths.

Greek destroyer Pindos being commissioned at Swan Hunters, Wallsend on Tyne, 3 June 1942. © IWM A 8677.

Special Operations: British special forces (No. 6 Commando) stage an overnight raid on the German radar site at Plage-Ste-Cecile, France (between Le Touquet and Boulougne). This is Operation Bristle, one of a number of Commando missions during 1942 designed to give the special forces training and experience. The Germans, however, prevent the Commandos from achieving their objectives. Empty-handed, the Commandos depart and are still at sea at dawn when the Luftwaffe appears overhead and causes damage to two motor launches and a motor gunboat. One Commando and two naval personnel are killed and 19 others are wounded. The force manages to make it back to port only due to the fortuitous arrival of RAF forces to scatter the attacking Luftwaffe planes.

Reinhard Heydrich, shot by British/Czech Special Operations Executive agents on 27 May during Operation Anthropoid, appears to be recovering from the attack when he suddenly collapses while eating lunch around noon. He lapses into a coma from which he never recovers. One theory is that this relapse is caused by a systemic infection, another by a pulmonary embolism.

Chaskel Bittner, shown, is transferred from Montelupich prison in Cracow to Auschwitz on 3 June 1942. Bittner becomes No. 37249. He perishes at the camp on 26 June (Auschwitz Memorial).

British Homefront: The British government nationalizes the milk industry and coal mines.

American Homefront: The Rodgers & Hart (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart) musical "By Jupiter" premieres at the Schubert Theater on Broadway. Starring Ray Bolger and Vera-Ellen, the play is set in the land of the Amazons, who do battle with a Greek army led by Theseus and Hercules and then engage in romantic complications. Nanette Fabray later joins the cast. The play is a big hit and runs for 427 performances until 12 June 1943. While little remembered, "By Jupiter" is Rodgers and Hart's longest-running Broadway hit and final original full-length work.

Future History: Curtis Lee Mayfield is born in Chicago, Illinois. He begins a musical career in a gospel choir, then joins the vocal group The Impressions in the mid-1950s. He also becomes a songwriter, including the hit "People Get Ready" in 1965. Mayfield turns solo in 1970 and engages in various projects, including creating the soundtrack to the film "Super Fly" in 1972. While performing in 1990, Mayfield is paralyzed during an accident involving lighting equipment, but he continues recording. Curtis Mayfield passes away on 26 December 1999.

Flak batteries shown in the 3 June 1942 Die Wehrmacht Magazine.

2021

May 28, 1942: German Victory At Kharkov

Thursday 28 May 1942

Kittyhawk fighters of the American Volunteer Group flying near the Salween River Gorge on the Chinese-Burmese border, 28 May 1942.

Battle of the Pacific: Two US Navy carriers, the USS Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8), leave Pearl Harbor on 28 May 1942 for the vicinity of Midway Island. A third carrier, Yorktown, continues to under frantic repairs in dry dock to damage caused at the Battle of the Coral Sea and is scheduled to follow them on within the next two days. Yorktown's air units, depleted by casualties, are replaced by fresh units (Bombing Three (VB-3), Torpedo Three (VT-3), and Fighting Three (VF-3)).

Naval Intelligence has determined from decoded Japanese transmissions that the Japanese intent to invade Midway on June 4th, and American Admiral Chester W. Nimitz is planning to give them a hot welcome by all of his carrier forces. Taskforce commander Vice Admiral William Halsey has been replaced by Rear Admiral Raymond A. Spruance due to illness. Unfortunately, carrier Saratoga remains on the West Coast for repairs and is unavailable for the battle, but some of its aircrews wind up on Yorktown. Admiral Nimitz has ordered 25 submarines to patrol around Midway.

The US 11th Air Force has secretly constructed an airfield on Unmak, Aleutian Islands, in preparation for the anticipated Japanese invasion in conjunction with the Midway operation. The field becomes operational today when a B-17 flies armed reconnaissance over the Aleutian chain. The Japanese are not there yet, so the bomber crew spots nothing amiss. 

USS Salmon (Lt.Cdr. E.B. McKinney) torpedoes and sinks 4382-ton Japanese freighter Ganges Maru 250 nautical miles southeast of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina. There are seven deaths.

B-26 bombers of the 5th Air Force attack the airfield at Lae, New Guinea.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: After a long journey across the Indian Ocean, a Japanese naval force composed of submarines designated "Divine Dragon Operations No. 2" nears Madagascar. Its mission is to launch midget submarines against the British Far Eastern Fleet in the vicinity of East Africa. Training for this mission has taken place throughout 1942 and has had the attention of top Japanese leadership, including Admiral Yamamoto. This is one of the few Japanese military activities designed specifically to aid their German allies, though how much aid attacks on the British Far Eastern Fleet would be to the Reich is an open question.

German tanks crossing a river on the Russian Front, World War II. Illustration from Illustrierte Zeitung (Leipzig, 28 May 1942).

Eastern Front: In a crushing defeat, the Soviet 6th and 57th Armies and 21st Tank Corps are annihilated southeast of Kharkov by defending German forces after being encircled. Red Army General Timoshenko still has not grasped the true state of play and only today orders a halt to Soviet offensive operations. Scattered and sporadic attempts by individual units continue, but very few succeed. Mass surrenders by an estimated 250,000 men begin today and continue for several days. The Germans, meanwhile, have lost perhaps 20,000 casualties all told. 

A Soviet salient to the southwest by Red Army forces attempting to reach Kharkov from the northeast is eliminated with help from the Luftwaffe first group of Schlachtgeschwader 1. It is flying the new Henschel HS-129 ground attack aircraft, which have proven quite durable and effective. During May, SchG 1 has flown 1467 sorties, with 1,028 Bf 109 missions, 259 by Hs 123s and 180 by the Hs 129s

At Fuhrer Headquarter in East Prussia, General Franz Halder writes in his war diary: 

The battle at Kharkov and on the Donets is brought to a close with a large take of prisoners and booty. Army Group South has issued the orders for the next phase of the offensive "Volchanak" and "Izyum."

The stage is now set for the opening stages of the grand German offensive that Hitler has decided will "sweep the deck" of the remaining Soviet forces and finally bring a successful conclusion to the campaign in the USSR. This, however, will take some time to prepare and is subject to the whims of the weather.

European Air Operations: Weather on the Channel Front remains unsettled, with winds from the southwest gusting to 40-45 mph and visibility poor, especially in the morning. This obviously is not good flying weather, so it is mainly an "off" day for the RAF. The men spend such days entertaining themselves during the day and then often attending Entertainments National Service Association (ENSA) shows in the evening.

HMS MTB-77 - Vosper 72 feet-type Motor Torpedo Boat, British Navy. Commissioned 28 May 1942, Bombed by German aircraft off Vibo Valentia, Calabria, Italy on 8 September 1943.

Battle of the Atlantic: After losing half a dozen ships to Luftwaffe attacks south of Bear Island on the 27th, Convoy PQ 16 is joined by a Soviet escort composed of three destroyers and four minesweepers. These warships enable the convoy to proceed toward the Soviet Union without losing any more vessels.

U-502 (Kptlt. Jürgen von Rosenstiel), on its fourth war patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 6759-ton US freighter Alcoa Pilgrim about 150 miles south of the Mona Passage (southwest of St. Thomas). The ship, carrying 9500 tons of bauxite ore, sinks within 90 seconds and the crew has no time to launch lifeboats. There are 31 dead and 9 survivors, who are picked up by US freighter Thomas Nelson.

U-106 (Kptlt. Hermann Rasch), on its sixth patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 7383-ton British freighter Mentor north of Cabo Catoche, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico. Rasch surfaces and questions the crew, who misinform him that the ship was the Bengloe. There are four dead and 82 survivors, who are rescued after three days by British freighter Antilochus.

U-103 (Kptlt. Werner Winter), on its seventh patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 6414-ton US tanker New Jersey 90 miles southwest of Grand Cayman Island. The crew is able to launch two lifeboats before Winter fires a coup de grace torpedo and then surfaces and uses his deck gun to finish off the tanker. All 42 crewmen survive, picked up by USS Tattnall (DD 125) and Biddle (DD 151) within a few days.

U-155 (Kptlt. Adolf Cornelius Piening), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks 1928-ton Dutch freighter Poseidon east of Barbados. Piening engages in a somewhat unusual night surface attack. After firing four torpedoes, one finally hits and sinks the ship quickly. All 32 men on board perish.

Panamian 7797-ton tanker Sylvan Arrow, torpedoed on 20 May by U-155, finally sinks. There are 43 survivors and one dead.

British freighter Yorkmoor, sunk by U-506 on 28 May 1942.

U-506 (Kptlt. Erich Würdemann), on its second war patrol out of Lorient, uses its deck gun to sink 4457-ton British freighter Yorkmoor northeast of the Bahamas. Würdemann uses his gun because he is out of torpedoes, having used them all in a successful patrol in the Gulf of Mexico. Yorkmoor has a 4-inch gun and eight machine guns, so an unusual gun battle emergest between the freighter and the U-boat. However, it is a night attack and the Yorkmoor's gunners have difficulty aiming at the submarine so they score no hits. The attack takes just over half an hour, during which the U-boat gunners fire 55 shells and score several hits at extreme range. The ship's crew abandons ship in four lifeboats after the radio operator has sent distress calls. All 45 crewmen survive, picked up within about a week by British freighter Laguna and a US Coast Guard cutter. U-506, although out of torpedoes and having used up a lot of shells, still has one more victory in store for it on the way back to base during an extremely successful patrol.

Italian submarine Barbarigo torpedoes, shells, and sinks 4836-ton British freighter Charlbury off the east coast of Brazil. There are two deaths.

German 1337-ton minesweeper Sperrbrecher-174 (Tindefjell) hits a mine and sinks west of Buoy 11W, west of Dunkirk. There is one dead.

Canadian 70-ton sailing vessel Carmen Nina runs aground and is wrecked off Sheet Harbor, Nova Scotia. Casualties are unknown.

The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Nicholas (DD-449) flying Bath Iron Works' house flag on acceptance trials off Rockland, Maine (USA), 28 May 1942, a week before she was commissioned (Naval History and Heritage Command 19-N-36881).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Fierce tank battles continue in Libya as German General Erwin Rommel continues his offensive into the British Gazala Line. The British 4th Armoured Brigade arrives at El Adem and stops the German 90th Light Division, pushing it back to the southwest.

While his forces have made impressive advances, Rommel's main headache is at the fortress of Bir Hakeim. There, the Italian IX Tank Battalion of the 132nd Tank Infantry Regiment, Ariet Division, has failed to dent strong Free French fortifications and lost heavily in the attempt. 

Supplies are critical in the desert, as the panzers eat up fuel during Rommel's sweeping maneuvers and the men need water and rations. Italian supply vehicles operated by the Trieste and Ariete divisions are slowed by minefields near Bir Hakeim but continue to make progress toward the advancing panzers. 

While the Afrika Korps retains the initiative, quick British responses have blunted the attacks and ended chances of a quick German victory. The Desert Air Force (DAF) bombs the French at Bir Hakeim by mistake. The French under General Kœnig are surrounded at Bir Hakeim, so Kœnig attempts to break the encirclement by sending a column north toward the 150th Infantry Brigade. A fierce battle ensues during which the French destroy seven Italian half-tracks, but Italian artillery prevails and the breakout attempt fails.

The New York Times of 28 May 1942 notes that "Heydrich of Gestapo Hurt: Big Reward Up for Assailant."

Special Operations: German leader Reinhard Heydrich remains alive at a Czech hospital, kept alive by quick surgical intervention following the assassination attempt on 27 May 1942. The medical prognosis remains grim, but Heydrich's condition has stabilized. His two assassins, Jozef Gabčík and Jan Kubiš, remain at large in a local safe house. SS-Reichsfuhrer Heinrich Himmler has dispatched his personal SS physician, Karl Gebhardt, by plane to the hospital to supervise Heydrich's care.

Wojciech Biernat, was born in Jodłówka. A Catholic priest who perished at Auschwitz on 28 May 1942 (Auschwitz Memorial).

Holocaust: The first convoy of Nacht und Nebel (Night and Fog) detainees, composed of 43 men and 9 women, leave Paris from the Gare de l’Est. The male detainees are taken to a camp at Hinzert and the females to Aachen. While technically they are supposed to be taken before a German court and tried, this does not always happen. The Nacht und Nebel arrests stem from a 7 December 1941 directive issued by Adolf Hitler to arrest political activists secretly ("in the night and fog"), leaving their families and friends uncertain about their fates. Invariably aside from rare situations, those arrested were to be executed.

American Homefront: US Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson issues a warning to the citizens of the West Coast to prepare for a Japanese bombing attack in retaliation for the Doolittle Raid.

Italian opera singer is released from FBI custody after three months of custody for being a suspected enemy alien. The FBI alleged that Pinza supported the Axis and have held him at Ellis Island since March 1942. A fellow opera singer, Norman Cordon, claimed to have told the FBI that Pinza was a fascist sympathizer, though there never was any proof of that. Why Cordon did that is unproven, though perhaps out of professional jealousy. Pinza quickly goes from captivity to singing onstage at the Metropolitan Opera.

Future History: Tien Chun is born in Guangdong, China. As James Tien, he becomes a prominent actor in 70 Hong Kong martial arts films such as "Hands of Death" (1976) until retiring in 1996. 

Stanley Benjamin Prusiner is born in Des Moines, Iowa. He goes on to win numerous awards and accolades in the fields of neurology and biochemistry, including the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physiology for prion research. As of this writing in 2021, Prusiner is director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases research laboratory at the University of California, San Francisco.

Vought Test Pilot team, 28 May 1942 -Lt-Rt Boone Guyton, Charlie Sharpe, Dick Burroughs, Bill Boothby & Lyman Bullard with SB2U.

May 1942

May 1, 1942: Japanese Take Mandalay

May 2, 1942: Cruiser Edinburgh Sunk

May 3, 1942: Japanese Take Tulagi

May 4, 1942: Fletcher Attacks at Tulagi

May 5, 1942: British Invade Madagascar

May 6, 1942: Corregidor Falls to Japan

May 7, 1942: Scratch One Flattop!

May 8, 1942: Lexington Sunk in the Coral Sea

May 9, 1942: Manstein on the Attack in Crimea

May 10, 1942: Spitfires Rule Over Malta

May 11, 1942: First Japanese Retreat at Deboyne

May 12, 1942: Soviets Attack At Kharkov

May 13, 1942: Crisis at Kharkov

May 14, 1942: Where in the World is AF

May 15, 1942: Germans Take Kerch

May 16, 1942: Sobibor Begins Operation

May 17, 1942: Germans Counterattack at Kharkov

May 18, 1942: Soviet Command Confusion 

May 19, 1942: Soviet Panic at Kharkov

May 20, 1942: Churchill and Molotov Negotiate

May 21, 1942: U-106 Sinks the Wrong Tanker

May 22, 1942: AF is Midway!

May 23, 1942: German Forces Surround Soviet Armies at Kharkov

May 24, 1942: German Anti-Partisan Operations in Full Swing

May 25, 1942: Soviet Breakout at Kharkov Fails

May 26, 1942: Rommel Pounces in North Africa

May 27, 1942: Heydrich Fatally Wounded in Prague

May 28, 1942: German Victory At Kharkov

May 29, 1942: Japanese at Madagascar

May 30, 1942: First RAF Thousand-Plane Raid

May 31, 1942: The Attack on Sydney Harbour

2021