June 1942 Explained
The following events occurred in June 1942:
June 1, 1942 (Monday)
June 2, 1942 (Tuesday)
- During the Siege of Sevastopol, the German 11th Army began a massive five-day artillery barrage on the fortress city using 620 guns including the enormous 800mm Schwerer Gustav "Dora" gun.[3]
- German submarine U-652 was depth charged and damaged in the Gulf of Sollum by Fairey Swordfish aircraft and had to be scuttled.
- Born:
- Died: Bunny Berigan, 33, American jazz trumpeter and bandleader (hemorrhage)
June 3, 1942 (Wednesday)
- The Battle of Midway began. The Japanese sought to deliver another crushing blow to the U.S. Navy to ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific, but American codebreakers had uncovered the time and place of the Japanese attack in advance, enabling the U.S. Navy to prepare its own ambush.
- The Battle of Dutch Harbor began at Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears at Dutch Harbor on Amaknak Island, Alaska. The American passenger ship Northwestern was bombed and sunk.
- The British government announced that it would be taking over the country's coal mines and milk industry.[4] [5]
- The Australian ore carrier Iron Chieftain was torpedoed and sunk in the Tasman Sea by the Japanese submarine I-24.
- German submarines U-413 and U-521 were commissioned.
- British Commandos executed Operation Bristle, an overnight raid on a German radar site at Plage-Ste-Cecile, France.
- The stage musical By Jupiter by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers and starring Ray Bolger premiered at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.
- Born: Curtis Mayfield, soul, R&B and funk singer, songwriter, guitarist and record producer, in Chicago, Illinois (d. 1999)
June 4, 1942 (Thursday)
- The Japanese aircraft carriers Akagi, Kaga and Sōryū were crippled in the Battle of Midway and scuttled.
- The Battle of Dutch Harbor ended in Japanese tactical victory.
- The Hitler and Mannerheim recording is made when Hitler paid a secret visit to Marshal Mannerheim, ostensibly to congratulate him on his 75th birthday. The recording is the only existing one of Hitler speaking in an ordinary tone of voice.[6]
- The Australian ore carrier Iron Crown was torpedoed and sunk in Bass Strait by the Japanese submarine I-27.
- German submarine U-625 was commissioned.
- The wartime romantic drama film Mrs. Miniver starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon was released.
- Died:
- Died: (in the Battle of Midway)
- Robert Boyd Brazier, 25, American aviation radioman (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- Delbert W. Halsey, 22, American naval officer (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- Lofton R. Henderson, 39, American marine aviator (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- Severin Louis Rombach, 27, American naval aviator (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- Lloyd Thomas, 30, American aviator (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- Albert William Tweedy, Jr., 22, American Marine Corps aviator (killed in the Battle of Midway);
- John C. Waldron, 41, American aviator (killed in the Battle of Midway)
June 5, 1942 (Friday)
June 6, 1942 (Saturday)
June 7, 1942 (Sunday)
- The Battle of Midway ended in a decisive American victory, marking a turning point in the Pacific War.
- The American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown sank the day after being torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-168 at Midway.
- The American seaplane tender Gannet was torpedoed and sunk in the Caribbean Sea by German submarine U-159.
- British Commandos executed Operation Albumen, an overnight raid on German airfields on Axis-occupied Crete. The British managed to destroy 5 aircraft, damage 29 others and set fire to several vehicles and significant quantities of supplies.
- The Chicago Tribune published a front-page article titled "Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea", providing clues from which the Japanese might have figured out that the Americans had broken their codes ahead of the Battle of Midway. Navy Secretary Frank Knox demanded that the Tribune be prosecuted, but once the Navy realized that the Japanese did not change their codes after the article appeared, the case was quietly dropped to avoid bringing the enemy's attention to the story.[10] [11]
- Born: Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan politician, dictator of Libya (official date of birth) (d. 2011)
- Died: Alan Blumlein, 38, English electronics engineer and inventor (plane crash)
June 8, 1942 (Monday)
Japanese submarine I-21 shelled the Australian city of Newcastle, New South Wales but did little damage.
June 9, 1942 (Tuesday)
June 10, 1942 (Wednesday)
- The Germans crossed the Donets near Izium.[15]
- Axis forces launched the Kozara Offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans in northwestern Bosnia.
- The Czech village of Lidice was completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. All men older than 15 years were executed. Most children were executed later.
- The British cargo ship Empire Clough was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage by the German submarine U-94.
- Economist John Maynard Keynes was made a peer.
- Born:
June 11, 1942 (Thursday)
June 12, 1942 (Friday)
German submarine U-202 landed four saboteurs on American soil at Amagansett, New York, the first of many intended operations to sabotage economic targets within the United States.[16]
June 13, 1942 (Saturday)
After taking heavy losses, British and South African forces began to evacuate the Gazala Line.
June 14, 1942 (Sunday)
June 15, 1942 (Monday)
- The 21st Panzer Division reached Sidi Rezegh.
- In the Battle of Gazala, British forces withdrew from Knightsbridge.
- Exiled Greek King George II addressed the U.S. Congress in Washington.[20]
- Operation Harpoon ended with only two of the original six merchant ships completing the journey.
- The British destroyer Bedouin was attacked by Italian cruisers and aircraft and sunk off the island of Pantelleria.
- The British destroyer Hasty was scuttled near Crete the day after being torpedoed by German E-boat S-55.
- The British light cruiser Newcastle was torpedoed in the Mediterranean by the German E-boat S-66 and knocked out of the war until March 1943.
- During Operation Vigorous the Australian destroyer Nestor was bombed and severely damaged off Crete by Regia Aeronautica aircraft and had to be scuttled the next day.
- Died: Vera Figner, 89, Russian revolutionary
June 16, 1942 (Tuesday)
June 17, 1942 (Wednesday)
- Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was slightly wounded when a Korean nationalist shot him in the left arm outside the old war ministry building in Tokyo. Japanese police returned fire and killed the man identified as 31-year old Park Soowon. The incident was not revealed to the public for two months.[21]
- Axis forces gained control of the coastal road to Bardia, completing the isolation of Tobruk.[22] The Allies withdrew from Sidi Rezegh, Ed Duda and El Adem.
- The British destroyer HMS Wild Swan was bombed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe.
- President Roosevelt signed a bill raising the minimum pay of American servicemen to $50 a month.[23]
- German submarines U-466 and U-664 were commissioned.
- This is the cover date of the first issue of Yank, the Army Weekly.
- Born: Mohamed ElBaradei, Vice President of Egypt, in Cairo
- Died: Jessie Bond, 89, English singer and actress
June 18, 1942 (Thursday)
- Winston Churchill arrived in Washington, D.C. for talks with President Roosevelt.
- German forces besieging Sevastopol captured Fortress Maxim Gorky.[24]
- Axis forces reached Kambut, Libya.
- South of Jacksonville, Florida, the German submarine U-584 landed four more saboteurs as part of Operation Pastorius.[25]
- Charles de Gaulle gave a speech at the Royal Albert Hall in London praising the unity of the Resistance movements.[26]
- German submarines U-357[27] and U-627 were commissioned.
- Born:
- Roger Ebert, film critic, journalist and screenwriter, in Urbana, Illinois (d. 2013)
- Thabo Mbeki, 2nd President of South Africa, in Mbewuleni, South Africa
- Paul McCartney, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and member of the Beatles, in Liverpool, England
- Carl Radle, blues and rock bassist, in Tulsa, Oklahoma (d. 1980)
- Nick Tate, actor, in Sydney, Australia
- Hans Vonk, conductor, in Amsterdam, Netherlands (d. 2004)
- Died:
- Eliszewa Binder, 21 or 22, Polish-born Jewish Holocaust diarist and victim
- Jozef Gabčík, 30, Slovak soldier and one of Reinhard Heydrich's assassins (suicide)
- Adolf Hühnlein, 60, German soldier and Nazi official
- Jan Kubiš, 28, Czech soldier and one of Reinhard Heydrich's assassins (died of wounds sustained in a gun battle)
- Arthur Pryor, 71, American trombone player and bandleader
June 19, 1942 (Friday)
- The Second Washington Conference began.
- A light aircraft carrying German major Joachim Reichel crash-landed on the Eastern Front behind Russian lines. Reichel was killed in the crash and documents he was carrying pertaining to the upcoming German offensive fell into Soviet hands. German High Command debated over how much to revise their plans in light of the security breach but as it turned out, Stalin believed the documents were planted by the Germans in order to deceive the Soviets and ordered them to be ignored.[28] [29]
- Soviet submarine Shch-214 was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea by the Italian motor torpedo boat MAS-571.
- Died: Alois Eliáš, 51, Czechoslovak general and politician (executed)
June 20, 1942 (Saturday)
- Churchill and Roosevelt decided upon a North Africa campaign.
- Bombardment of Estevan Point Lighthouse
Japanese submarine I-26 shelled the Estevan Point lighthouse on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, but failed to hit its target.
June 21, 1942 (Sunday)
An Imperial Japanese submarine fired on Fort Stevens in Oregon on the west coast of the United States.
- The beached was torpedoed and destroyed near Cape Bon by British submarine Turbulent.
- The temperature in Tirat Zvi reached 54 degrees Celsius (129.2 degrees Fahrenheit), for what remains the highest temperature ever recorded in Israel.
June 22, 1942 (Monday)
- Vichy French Prime Minister Pierre Laval made a radio broadcast in which he stated, "I wish for a German victory, because, without it, Bolshevism tomorrow would settle everywhere." This speech shocked many of the French people who were still holding out hope that the Vichy regime was playing a waiting game with the Germans until France could be liberated in an Allied victory.[31]
- Erwin Rommel was promoted to the rank of field marshal as a reward for his victory in the Battle of Gazala.[32]
June 23, 1942 (Tuesday)
- Hitler wrote to Benito Mussolini with "heartfelt advice" recommending that he postpone Operation Herkules and instead "order the continuation of operations to seek the complete destruction of British forces to the very limits of what your high command and Marshal Rommel think is militarily possible with their existing troops. The goddess of fortune in battle comes to commanders only once, and he who fails to seize the opportunity at such a moment will never be given a second chance." Mussolini complied with Hitler's veiled order and postponed Herkules to September.[33] [34]
- Albert Speer told Hitler that nuclear science would reap benefits in the distant future, but no superbomb could be produced in time to affect the war. The German military decided to abandon nuclear research as a result. That same day, Werner Heisenberg almost died when his experimental reactor at Leipzig suffered a leak that started a fire. Heisenberg and his assistant Robert Döpel extinguished the fire but noticed the sphere was beginning to swell, and both men ran outside before the reactor exploded and the lab was destroyed. Rumor spread that the scientists had been killed in a uranium bomb explosion, and when word of it reached the scientists working on the Manhattan Project, they assumed that the Germans had achieved a sustained nuclear chain reaction and were considerably further ahead in their research than they actually were.[35]
June 24, 1942 (Wednesday)
- German and Italian forces crossed the border from Libya into Egypt.
- Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived in London to assume command of ETOUSA.[36]
- German submarine U-266 was commissioned.
- Born: Michele Lee, actress, singer and dancer, in Los Angeles, California
June 25, 1942 (Thursday)
June 26, 1942 (Friday)
- The German 11th Army opened its assault on the inner defenses of Sevastopol.[38]
- The Grumman F6F Hellcat had its first flight.
- President Roosevelt signed a new law prohibiting the making of unauthorized photographs or sketches of military property such as bases or ships.[39]
- Soviet destroyer Bezuprechny was sunk by the Luftwaffe at Sevastopol with the loss of 320 men.
- Born:
- Died: Gene Stack, 25, American baseball player (pneumonia)
June 27, 1942 (Saturday)
June 28, 1942 (Sunday)
June 29, 1942 (Monday)
June 30, 1942 (Tuesday)
- German submarine U-158 was bombed and sunk west of Bermuda by an American PBM Mariner flying boat.
- All remaining Jewish schools were closed in Germany.
- German submarine U-182 was commissioned.
- Died: William Henry Jackson, 99, American painter, Civil War veteran and photographer
Notes and References
- Book: Evans . A. A. . Gibbons . David . 2012 . The Illustrated Timeline of World War II . Rosen Publishing . 117 . 978-1-4488-4795-2 .
- Web site: War Diary for Monday, 1 June 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Tuesday, June 2, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1989 . Mercer . Derrik . Chronicle of the 20th Century . London . Chronicle Communications Ltd. . 567 . 978-0-582-03919-3 .
- Web site: 1942 . MusicAndHistory . February 1, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151030023845/http://musicandhistory.com/music-and-history-by-the-year/203-1942.html . October 30, 2015 .
- Web site: Only known recording of Hitler speaking in an unofficial tone - public version . . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: A Timeline of Diplomatic Ruptures, Unannounced Invasions, Declarations of War, Armistices and Surrenders . Doody . Richard . The World at War . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Gregory . Don A. . Gehlen . Wilhelm R. . 2009 . Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns . Philadelphia, PA . Casemate . 230 . 978-1-935149-74-3 .
- News: June 7, 1942 . Shut Out Beats Alsab 3 Lengths in Belmont Stakes . . Chicago . . Part 2, p. 1 .
- News: June 7, 1942 . Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea . . Chicago . . 1 .
- Book: Ritchie, Donald A. . 2005 . Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps . Oxford University Press . 22 . 978-0-19-534632-9 .
- Book: Mueller, Joseph N. . 1992 . Guadalcanal 1942: The Marines Strike Back . University Park, IL . Osprey Publishing . 91 . 978-1-85532-253-0 .
- Book: Benz, Wolfgang . 2006 . A Concise History of the Third Reich . Berkeley and Los Angeles . University of California Press . 205 . 978-0-520-23489-5 . registration .
- Web site: War Diary for Tuesday, 9 June 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Hosch, William L. . 2010 . World War II: People, Politics, and Power . Britannica Educational Publishing . 100 . 978-1-61530-008-2 .
- Web site: U-202 . uboat.net . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1990 . Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945 . Research Publications . 130–131 . 978-0-88736-568-3 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Sunday, June 14, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: The Bazooka Changes War - Today in History: June 14 . Connecticut History . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: King George II Addresses the U.S. Congress . . February 1, 2016 .
- August 13, 1942 . Tojo Reported Wounded by Korean Patriot . Schenectady Gazette . Schenectady, N.Y. . 1 .
- Book: Williams, Mary H. . 1960 . Special Studies, Chronology, 1941–1945 . Washington, D.C. . U.S. Government Printing Office . 42 .
- News: June 18, 1942 . President Signs Bill Increasing Army, Navy Pay . . Chicago . . 15 .
- Web site: The Siege of Sevastopol . Lone Sentry . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: U-584 . uboat.net . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Timeline of Charles de Gauelle's life . Charles-De-Gaulle.com . February 1, 2016 . March 28, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160328013759/http://www.charles-de-gaulle.com/charles-de-gaulle/chronology.html .
- Web site: U-357 . uboat.net . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Jukes, Geoffrey . 1985 . Hitler's Stalingrad Decisions . Berkeley and Los Angeles . University of California Press . 32–33 . 978-0-520-05130-0 .
- Book: Fritz, Stephen G. . 2011 . Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East . Kentucky University Press . 263 . 978-0-8131-3416-1 .
- Web site: Comics By the Date: January 1942 to July 1942 . Martin . Robert Stanley . June 7, 2015 . The Hooded Utilitarian . February 1, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151012135001/http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/06/comics-by-the-date-january-1942-to-july-1942/ . October 12, 2015 .
- Book: Beigbeder, Yves . 2006 . Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals and Commissions (1940–2005) . Leiden . Martinus Nijhoff Publishers . 193 . 978-90-04-15329-5 .
- Book: Mitcham, Samuel Jr. . 2007 . Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941–1942 . Westport, CT . Praeger Security International . 158 . 978-0-275-99436-5 .
- Book: Corvaja, Santi . 2008 . Hitler & Mussolini: The Secret Meetings . New York . Enigma Books . 205 . 978-1-929631-42-1 .
- Book: Castillo, Dennis Angelo . 2006 . The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta . Praeger Security International . 194 . 978-0-313-32329-4 .
- Book: Craig, Nelson . 2014 . The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era . New York . Scribner . 183–184 . 978-1-4516-6043-2 .
- Web site: Eisenhower to Command U.S. Forces in Europe . The Daily Chronicles of World War II . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Barr, Niall . 2005 . Pendulum Of War: Three Battles at El Alamein . Pimlico . 23 . 978-1-4464-1370-8 .
- Web site: War Diary for Friday, 26 June 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- News: June 27, 1942 . New Law Bans Taking Photos in War Zones . . Chicago . . 4 .
- Book: 1994 . Coast Guard Combat Veterans: Semper Paratus . Turner Publishing . 13 . 978-1-56311-104-4 .
- http://www.historyplace.com/pointsofview/white-rose2.htm Wittenstein, George J., M.D., "Memories of the White Rose" (Part 2, The Leaflets), 1979
- Web site: Events occurring on Monday, June 29, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Polmar . Norman . Allen . Thomas B. . 2012 . World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945 . Dover Publications . 23 . 978-0-486-47962-0 .