June 28th, 1942...Lt. Gen. Lewis Brereton, whose contributions to the war so far have been the loss of the US Army Air Force in the Philippines, gets another chance to prove his ineptitude by being named commander of the US Army Middle East Air Force. His command consists initially of a few B-24s and B-17s. Brereton, a lackluster playboy with an aversion to staff work and a love of drink, will do little to distinguish himself in the annals of war.
Gen. John DeWitt, commanding the US Western defense area, issues a proclamation in San Francisco that abolishes all "prohibited and restricted areas within the Western defense command." Several thousand German and Italian aliens will be permitted to return to their homes from which they were removed in January and February. No such luck for Japanese-Americans, who continue to squat forlornly behind barbed wire in internment camps at Paradise Valley and Manzanar, whiling away the time by playing baseball, forming Boy Scout troops and baton-twirling groups. Among the children growing up behind the wire is George Takei, who will ultimately portray Star Trek's "Lt. Sulu" and later become a Los Angeles city councilman.
A major idea comes from Adm. Ernest J. King, the Navy's top seadog. He proposes that Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley's South Pacific command launch an offensive to seize the lower Solomon Islands and that Gen. Douglas MacArthur do the same in New Guinea. The primary objective of the Solomons thrust will be the seaplane base and piers at the island of Tulagi. The secondary objective will be an island just south of Tulagi, called Guadalcanal, where the Japanese are apparently building an airstrip.
Low scudding clouds cover the skies over the Ukraine, providing a suitably ominous overture to "Operation Blue." Field Marshal Fedor von Bock ("The Preacher of Death") hurls three armies and 11 panzer divisions east in a massive assault whose objective is nothing short of the Caucasus mountains and oilfields. In classic blitzkrieg style, the Germans fan out across open steppe and grassland, crushing the 40th Army, folding the 13th northward, and disintegrating the reeling 21st and 28th Armies.
Soviet troop command crumbles under the drive. Soviet logistics, exhausted by the Moscow counteroffensive, cannot keep up with the demand.
A German sergeant tells Propaganda Kompanie men: "It's quite different from last year. It's more like Poland. The Russians aren't nearly so thick on the ground. They fire their guns like madmen, but they don't hurt us!"
That evening, in Sevastopol, German troops cross North Bay under a smoke screen and seize the southern shore.
As British troops withdraw from Mersa Matruh, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel orders a concentric attack on the town, to cut off the British retreat. The British pull out slowly, but with skill -- one column zips through Rommel's own headquarters -- but the Germans claim more than 7,000 PoWs.
NZ Brig. Howard Kippenberger goes to see Gen. Strafer Gott, commanding 13th Corps, to find out what's going on. Gott tells him that the 8th Army is going to keep retreating. 2nd NZ Division will retire down the Nile, evacuating its rear bases. Gott says 2nd NZ will probably ultimately go all the way back to New Zealand. Kippenberger is infuirated. "We are perfectly fit to fight and it is criminal to give up Egypt to 25,000 Germans and 100 tanks, and to lose as helpless prisoners 200,000 base troops." Gott says that 2 NZ Division is battle-ready, but very few other people are.
All across the world, the Axis is on the advance. Despite the victory at Midway, the Allied picture is bleak. Egyptian leaders and nationalists ponder alliance with Hitler. Indian nationalists discuss offers from Japan of independence and alliance. American industrial power has yet to make itself felt. Allied military forces are in retreat or inferior to their Axis opponents. For the Allies, this is the darkest hour of the war.
June 29th, 1942...USS Washington encounters heavy Atlantic weather as it heads north to escort Convoy PQ 17. Aboard are 50 British shipyard people to study the battleship's engineering plant. Cdr. Ray Hunter recalls, "They did not eat too heavily because they were leaned down from years of privation. They were each allowed a small amount of ship's stores, and we thought they would likely load their bags with tobacco. Instead, they each took their full ration in chocolate and candy for their families."
SN Mel Beckstrand writes, "We have on board 140 lime juicers who missed their ship, HMS Victorious (an aircraft carrier) when she left Scapa. They were on leave, so they are going to be with us until we can rendezvous with Vic. They said they would like to stay here for the duration, as we eat so good. One doesn't realize how the other half lives until one sees. A guy I was talking with today has 22 years in the Royal Navy; he lives near Plymouth and has a son in the navy too. The first thing his wife does in the morning is turn on the radio to see if there were any sinkings. She is always fearful of receiving a notice form from the Admiralty. He mentioned that a year ago, the Jerries came over Plymouth for two nights and levelled the town. He was just home, and they are still recovering bodies. It's hideous, this war is, and we will never know the whole of it."
2nd New Zealand Division finally gets authorization to call itself that, instead of just being the New Zealand Division.
Field Marshal Rommel hurls the 90th Light Division forward, driving towards Daaba, yet another spot on the Egyptian map. British 1st Armoured Division screens the Allied retreat, which includes the 2nd NZ Division, sorting itself at Bab El Qattara, south of El Alamein. South of that, the regrouped 5th Indian Division digs in at Naqb Abu Dweis. 1st South African Division holds the El Alamein perimeter, and 18th Indian Brigade holds Deir el Shein. This is all Auchinlek has to defend Egypt against Rommel until 9th Australian Division arrives. The South Africans are down to 3,000 men, the other brigades are short of tanks, guns, and men.
British infantry lacks motorization, and is thus nearly immobile in the desert, while the 2-lbr. anti-tank gun is ineffective against German armor. British tank doctrine is inferior to the Germans, and the British Crusader tank, a rivetted monster, easily catches fire. The British have poor air- ground cooperation, and no equivalent of the Stuka dive-bomber. Most importantly, three years of defeat and casualties have stripped the British of experienced and skilled command officers.
Auchinlek deploys his men to defend Alamein in depth, so that a flanking maneuver will meet concentric fire.
By nightfall, 90th Light Division has reached Sidi Abd El Rahman, seven miles from Alamein, with the Italians hustling behind.
The drive on the Caucasus roars on. German columns kick up dust clouds that can be seen 40 miles away, and leave behind burning villages and town. "It is the formation of the Roman Legions, now brought up to date in the 20th century to tame the Mongol-Slav horde," exults German propaganda.
Chiang Kai-shek presents his Three Demands to Gen. Joseph Stilwell: three US divisions before September, 500 combat planes, and a guaranteed monthly aerial supply of 5,000 tons. Chiang berates Stilwell, and hints that he might pull out of the war. Stilwell, as Chiang's chief of staff, is responsible for planning, training, and operations in the field, not for procurement of supplies. The tension between the two grows.
In Sevastopol, German troops attack from their bridgehead, while more forces blast in across the Fedyukhin Heights. Soviet defenders reel.
June 30th, 1942...At Pearl Harbor, USS Enterprise is being refitted for its next duties, and is joined by a welcome sight, the fast battleship USS North Carolina, Washington's sister, which finally gives the Pacific Fleet a battleship capable of operating with the fast carriers.
2 NZ Division digs in at El Alamein with 6 Brigade in the Kaponga Box and 4 and 5 Brigades to the southeast at about Deir el Munassib. Casualties since its return to action are 950 killed, wounded, and captured.
The British 7th Motor Brigade ambushes the advancing Italian 20th Corps, slowing down the Axis. 1st Armoured Division clashes with the Littorio Armored Division, and then with 21st Panzer. The battle is called off due to sandstorm. 1st Armoured digs in for the night at Tell el Aqqaqir, near El Alamein. The division is down to 36 Grants, 60 Stuarts, 12 Valentines, and eight Crusaders. Rommel is hurt, too: the Afrika Korps is down to 55 tanks and 500 infantry, while 90th light has 1,500 infantry. German guns total 300, including some captured British 25-lbrs. and only 29 Krupp 88s. Three Italian corps muster 5,500 infantry, 30 tanks, and 200 guns. But Rommel believes he can continue to advance.
Auchinlek gives his army an "Order of the Day." 8th Army's mimeograph machines tell the troops "The enemy is stretching to his limit and thinks we are a broken army...He hopes to take Egypt by bluff. Show him where he gets off." Auchinlek's commanders are not impressed. Pienaar of the South Africans wants to abandon Egypt. De Larminat of the French thinks Auchinlek is insane to fight west of the Nile. Only Freyberg of the 2NZ Division seems ready to fight at Alamein.
British civilian casualties for June: 300 killed, 337 injured.
As the panzers roll eastward in Russia, they haul in hordes of Soviet PoWs. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht, telegraphs his troops, "In line with the prestige and dignity of the German army, every German soldier must maintain distance and such an attitude with regard to Russian PoWs as takes account of the bitterness and inhuman brurutality of the Russians in battle." Prestige and dignity will be maintained, Keitel continues, as follows: "Fleeing prisoners of war are to be shot without preliminary warning to stop. All resistance of Pows, even passive, must be entirely eliminated immediately by the use of arms."
Soviet PoWs are hurled into cages where the dead lie undisturbed for weeks on end, and are starved. German guards periodically enter the cages to get rid of bodies with flamethrowers. By war's end, recorded Soviet PoW deaths are 1.98 million. Another German document reads, "Exterminations; Not accounted for; Deaths and disappearances in transit." The total on this line is 1.3 million.
Army Group South rumbles on, with five German armies (two panzer), two Rumanian, one Italian (including a number of mountain divisions), and one Hungarian army in the van, 89 divisions on the offensive. While the panzers are fully motorized, the bulk of the remaining forces depend on horses for transport and supply. As the advance lengthens, so do the supply lines, and shortages soon begin to appear at the sharp end.
Four Australian platoons in New Guinea raid the Japanese position at Salamaua, killing about 100 enemy troops, bringing back three trucks and a portable bridge. The Japanese are irritated no end. Allied morale is boosted.
The Japanese decide that Port Moresby must be taken. There are two ways to do it: invade Milne Bay on New Guinea's south side and attack from there, or march over the Owen Stanley Range from Gona and Buna. The mountain range is almost impassible except for a narrow track that winds from Buna to Moresby. It cannot handle vehicles, and winds up and down mountains. Distances are marked off not in miles, but in hours. It can only be traversed on foot. It is called the Kokoda Track. It will become one of the critical routes of the war.
In Cairo, the endless stream of defeats has set off a panic later known as "The Flap." The new Mediterranean Fleet commander, Rear Adm. Sir Henry Harwood (victor over the Graf Spee) disperses his ships and supplies to Haifa, Beirut, and Port Said. The sunken HMS Queen Elizabeth (still a dockyard case from the December midget submarine attack) has her repairs expedited, so she can sail to the US for refit. Headquarters fire off "scorched earth" plans. Panic and fear sweep the Nile delta. Embassies of any nation that can offer the remotest chance of further escape are besieged. Roads and railways out of Cairo and Alexandria are choked with Egyptian, Jewish, Serbian, Croatian, and Montenegrin refugees.
The cotton market closes, the piastre wobbles, and Egyptians raid British supply dumps to loot for food. Egyptian policemen and troops vanish, and British troops out and about in Cairo and Alexandria wear their sidearms.
In Cairo, the main Allied headquarters holds "Ash Wednesday," burning all its records, sending a perpetual rain of charred paper into the streets of the city. Office staff obey the order to destroy vital records with great enthusiasm, disposing of all the ordinary administrative files. For months afterward, chaos reigns at ordinary levels of military life such as pay, promotions, and maintenance records. One South African officer boasts later that he burned documents relating to 19 Courts of Inquiry, thus bringing relief to a small army of wrongdoers.
July 1st, 1942...Nazi U-boats 235 and 456 pick off Convoy PQ-17 just east of Jan Mayen Island. At Trondheim, Norway, Vice Adm. Otto Schniewind reacts by putting to sea with the battleship Tirpitz, the pocket battleships Scheer and Lutzow, and the heavy cruiser Hipper, joined by a pack of destroyers. Lutzow and three destroyers run one after another onto an uncharted rock in Vestfjord, and miss the sailing, called "Operation Rosselsprung."
The heavy force, including USS Washington and HMS Victorious, gets a visit from a FW-200 Condor snooper plane, which evades five Sea Hurricane fighters. RM Chet Cox hears Nazi broadcaster "Axis Sally" (real name Midge Gillars) announce that Washington has just been sunk in the Indian Ocean.
New Zealand enlistments in the armed forces peak at over 150,000 (125,000 Army, 24,000 Air Force, and 6,000 Navy).
On Guadalcanal, Coastwatcher Martin Clemens and his colleagues debate by teleradio the Japanese intentions. The Japanese are burning grass and demolishing buildings on the Lunga plain. They are also building a wharf for loading meat. Perhaps it is to ship timber to Tulagi.
None of the Coastwatchers know that the airfield is to be Japan's next step in the isolation of Australia and conquest of New Zealand. As Japan has lost four aircraft carriers at Midway, it has to create new airbases for land-based planes, to replace them. Guadalcanal has been chosen as just such an unsinkable aircraft carrier.
To reinforce this operation, the 2nd Marine Division, escorted by the carrier USS Wasp, sails from California in five ships.
German troops capture tens of thousands of Soviet defenders in Sevastopol, overrun defenses, ending one of the most tenacious defenses of the war. The German 11th Army has been tied up for 230 days, trying to break through 10 miles of defended terrain, using everything from infantrymen to special one-ton mortar bombs, which smashed the "Fort Maxim Gorki I" turret with twin 12-inch guns.
Hitler promotes the victorious German general, Erich von Manstein, to field marshal.
Rommel launches his "final offensive" at 6:45 am in a state of exhaustion, running not into British troops, but instead a sandstorm. 90th Light moves to encircle the Alamein perimeter, but runs smack into the newly-arrived 4th Armoured Brigade, and is stopped. Rommel, with the 90th Light, writes, "Furious fire again struck our ranks. British shells came screaming in from three directions, north, east and south; anti-aircraft tracer streaked through our force. Under this tremendous weight of fire, our attack came to a standstill. Hastily we scattered our vehicles and took cover, as shell after shell crashed into the area we were holding. For two hours Bayerlein and I had to lie out in the open. Suddenly, to add to our troubles, a powerful British bomber force came flying up toward us."
Most of the Afrika Korps moves to grab Deil el Shein, held by 18th Indian Brigade, and also comes under a sandstorm, giving the British time to counterattack. The Afrika Korps finally subdues the place at 6 p.m, but loses 18 out of 21st Panzer's 55 tanks. 22nd Armoured Brigade hits 15th Panzer at 5 p.m.
German gains (except in their propaganda) are small. And 90th Light's War Diary notes, "A panic breaks out in the Division which is stopped just in time by the energetic action of the Divisional Commander and the Chief of Staff. Supply columns and even parts of fighting unit rush back under the ever-increasing enemy artillery fire. The commanders of battle groups, however, succeed in keeping the majority of their units facing the enemy and bring back the troops which have taken to flight."
A Japanese merchant ship off Luzon is torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine, but the American victory is hollow: the ship was carrying Australian PoWs captured at Rabaul. 849 drown.
Allied merchant ship losses in the North Atlantic for June total 124, the highest monthly toll of the shipping war.
July 2nd, 1942...British and East African troops land on the Vichy French island of Mayotte in the Mozambique channel and turn it into a seaplane base. The island, part of the Comoros, is a French overseas department to this day, protected from the Comoro Republic (which claims it) by a battalion of French Foreign Legionnaires.
The Australian 7th Brigade, back from North Africa, is ordered to move to Milne Bay in New Guinea. 7 Brigade, which has defeated Rommel at Tobruk, must now defeat the all-conquering Japanese.
Back at El Alamein, Rommel realizes that Auchinlek is a smarter general than Ritchie, but decides his worn-out 90th Light Division must continue to attack. At 4 a.m., the division musters in its laagers and all 600 vehicles form up and move north. Half a mile later, they run smack into a massive British artillery bombardment, and are stopped.
Rommel shuffles his plans, and attacks again, running into a counterattack by British 1st Armoured Division. 30 Grant tanks and New Zealand artillery stop the Afrika Korps in the afternoon. 21st Panzer is down to 20 tanks, 15th Panzer to 17. The Germans are near the limit of their endurance.
When the two sides' tank forces clash, the British, instead of making a cavalry charge, hold off the Germans at extreme range, staying in defilade. German casualties are heavy, supplies exhausted, and the advance is nil. Rommel believes his offensive can only continue for one more day at such a pitch.
Hitler orders the "Rosselsprung" warships to turn aside into Altenfjord, there to refuel before attacking PQ-17.
The US Joint Chiefs of Staff issue a directive ordering the occupation of New Britain, New Ireland, and New Guinea. First phase is the conquest of the lower Solomons. Second, the upper Solomons and northeast New Guinea. Third, Rabaul, New Britain, and New Ireland. Target date is August 1st, but postponed to August 7th.
Surviving defenders at Sevastopol evacuate their positions by sea, as the Germans mop up. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet establishes a "Defense of Sevastopol" medal for the city's defenders." Ilya Ehrenburg tells reporters, "The Germans boasted: 'We shall drink champagne on June 15th on the Grafsky Embankment.' Experts foretold: 'It's a matter of days, perhaps a week.' We knew how many planes they had, and how hard it was to defend a city with all its roads cut. But they forgot one thing: Sevastopol is not merely a city. It is the glory of Russia, the pride of the Soviet Union. We have seen the capitulation of town, of celebrated fortresses, of states. But Sevastopol is not surrendering. Our soldiers do not play at war. They fight a life- and-death struggle. They do not say 'I surrender' when they see two or three more enemy men on the chessboard."
A federal district court in San Francisco dismisses a suit by the Native Sons of the Golden West which seeks to deprive American-born Japanese of their US citizenship.
July 3rd, 1942...German troops in Yugoslavia launch yet another final assault on partisans, this time in the Kozara region. This time the final assault is 'final' more than 2,000 partisans are killed for 150 German dead. The Nazis also round up tens of thousands of peasants, and either shoot them or deport them for slave labor.
The same day, the Nazis murder 93 Gypsies in the village of Szczurowa, near Cracow.
Adolf Hitler flies down to Bock's headquarters at Poltava, pleased by the offensive. He tells Bock that the Red Army has "sapped its last reserves."
On the anniversary of Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg, Rommel launches his own last attack at Ruweisat Ridge. His two panzer divisions are down to 26 tanks in all. They move off from Deir el Shein to find the 4th and 22nd Armoured Brigades waiting with 38 Grants, 60 Stuarts, and a dozen Valentines. The British quickly check the German advance.
Italian tanks of the Ariete division on the right flank are halted by New Zealand artillery at Alam Nayil. 19th and 20th New Zealand Battalions, backed by 4th and 5th Field Artillery regiments, attack Ariete with the bayonet, and take 350 PoWs, 44 guns, including 11 Krupp 88s, and a large number of vehicles. The New Zealanders show their usual ferocity, and the Italians show their usual speed in retreat. By noon, Ariete is down to five M13 medium tanks and two guns, shocking Rommel. Ariete -- the best division in the Italian army -- is out of the game.
Rommel patches up his right, and orders one last assault at 12:50, signalling, "I demand energetic action by the whole of the Afrika Korps." The panzers attack one more time, backed by heavy artillery, and drive nine miles. But the two British tank brigades stop the advance, losing 17 Grants, 19 Stuarts, and three Valentines. Rommel's tanks are exhausted. At 10:56 p.m., Rommel orders his men to dig in and go to the defensive. He has run out of supplies, guns, fuel, tanks, and men. Operation Theseus has come to an end.
This is the time when Commando Supremo in Rome or the Oberkommando Wehrmacht in Berlin should end the offensive in North Africa, and tackle Malta. But Rommel remains optimistic about the offensive, and Mussolini himself - and his white charger - are waiting in Derna to lead the victory parade in Cairo. The Reich is cranking out victory medals for Egypt and occupation currency. Rommel is still accorded first place for supplies and men. The boxed gliders wait at Catania and Gela for assembly, the paratroopers of 7th Fliegerdivision clean their guns and do push-ups in Sicily, awaiting the order to invade Malta.
Rommel signals Kesselring "The intention now is in the first place to hold the front and regroup in such a manner that the 2nd NZ Division can be encircled and destroyed."
As the battle at El Alamein dies down, so does the panic in Cairo. Sheepish refugees (the richer ones lacking their expensive luggage) return home, and street cleaners scrub off the soot from "Ash Wednesday." The Royal Navy returns to Alexandria to find their bases looted and gutted. The Royal Navy simply hoists White Ensigns, posts guards, and resumes work as if nothing had happened.
July 4th, 1942...At 4 a.m., Marine LT Jonas Platt mans his station at the battleship USS Washington's starboard 5-inch director, when he sees the nearby battleship HMS Duke of York signal "Happy Birthday."
German Admiral Schniewind's force drops anchor in Altfenfjord, just south of North Cape.
Ahead of the big ships, Convoy PQ-17 plods through calm seas, north of Altenfjord. The Luftwaffe pops out of the heavy mist, and torpedoes the brand-new Liberty ship Christopher Newport, killing three men. Abandoned by her crew, she floats for several hours until sunk by U-457.
The Luftwaffe returns to hammer the convoy, which maintains formation and discipline. 24-hour sunlight aids the German attacks. Luftwaffe FW-200s torpedo four more ships, sinking two. Next, 25 He-111 torpedo bombers pound Liberty ship William Hooper, which is abandoned by her crew without orders, and sunk by escorting destroyers.
The convoy is now 240 miles from North Cape, 450 miles from the nearest Soviet landfall.
In London, consternation and uncertainty reigns. The British know Tirpitz and her 15-inch guns can intercept the convoy in 10 hours time. Washington, the best chance to sink Tirpitz, is west of Bear Island, in no position to meet Schniewind. The worst-case scenario, of Tirpitz savaging PQ-17's escorts, while Scheer and Hipper rip up the freighters, looks likely.
At 9:11 p.m., First Sea Lord Sir Dudley Pound orders his cruiser force to withdraw. At 9:23, he orders PQ-17 to disperse and proceed to Russian ports. That would mean the convoy breaks formation and heads to Russian ports. At 9:36, Pound sends his third order, "Most immediate. Convoy is to scatter." The force is on its own. The merchant ship captains watch as their escorts turn around and head home. A disaster is in the making.
"We hate leaving PQ-17 behind," writes Lt. Doug Fairbanks Jr., on board USS Wichita. "It looks so helpless now since the order to disperse has been circulated. The ships are now going around in circles, turning this way and that, like so many frightened chicks. Some can hardly go at all. If only our men knew the details they would not feel so badly about it."
But Schniewind is not at sea. Despite his pleas to Berlin, Hitler will not commit the big ships. "On land I am a hero, at sea I am a coward," the Fuhrer says, and he fears the destruction of his small Navy.
Washington and Tirpitz will never meet.
The SS drive 4,000 Jews from their homes in Lutsk in Poland to the outskirts of town, and shoot them.
Auchinlek orders 13 Corps to drive northwestward through El Mreir to wreck Rommel's coordination. Only Kippenberger's 5 NZ Brigade obeys, its 21st and 23rd Battalions attacking Italian 10 Corps' Pavia Division. 5 NZ meets German Stukas, and retires to its startline. Kippenberger calls it a "most disappointing day." However, the Kiwis only lose 17 dead for the enemy's 100.
Rommel observes this move, and moves 21st Panzer Division down and back towards El Mreir. The British see these moves, and 1st Armoured Division attacks with two squadrons of Grant tanks. They overrun 15th Panzer's Rifle Regiment. 200 Germans are captured.
The Germans have used up the last of their 88 mm ammunition, and 1st Armoured is also exhausted. The Afrika Korps is down to 36 tanks, 1st Armoured about the same. Both sides are battered to pieces, and Auchinlek sees that 13th Corps commander Strafer Gott has lost confidence and energy. 1st Armoured's boss, Gen. Lumsden, is asking for his division's relief in "almost insubordinate" terms. Auchinlek fires Gott.
In the Aleutians, the US Navy celebrates the 4th of July in dramatic fashion. The submarine USS Growler, under Lt. Cdr. Howard W. Gilmore, slides into Kiska Harbor at periscope depth to find three anchored Japanese destroyers. Gilmore fires one-two- three. Miraculously, the Mark 14 torpedoes work. The destroyer Arare, hit amidships, explodes when her boilers are hit. Kasumi's bow is smashed, and Shiranuhi's hull breaks in half. Gilmore sneaks out of harbor, but it takes him three days to shake off the enemy. Arare is a total loss, but the other two are refloated and rebuilt in Japan.
The same day, USS Triton stalks a silhouette for 10 hours, and launches two fish, that sink the destroyer Nenohi.
The four destroyers maimed are escorts to a convoy bringing in 1,200 new Japanese troops to Kiska and six midget submarines. The Japanese, realizing that Kiska and Attu are not the highways to Alaska, start digging in, despite their shortage of construction equipment and transports. The Japanese build fortifications, midget submarine drydocks, and seaplane ramps with hand tools amid Arctic tundra. They also whip up a traditional Torii gate that still stands 50 years later, a mute memorial to Japanese occupation.
Back in the US, German-American Bund leader Gerhard Kunze is arrested near Veracruz, Mexico, while trying to escape in a fishing boat. Kunze was indicted on June 10 on espionage charges. The Mexican cops ship Kunze to Brownsville, Texas, where the FBI is waiting.
The 70-ton Mars patrol bomber, Glenn Martin's latest, is officially tested over Chesapeake Bay. The flying boat, world's largest, has a 200-foot wingspread, four 2,000-horsepower engines, and an unofficial range of more than 7,000 miles at more than 200 miles an hour.
To entertain the civilians, the revue "This is the Army" opens at the Broadway Theater in New York, featuring songs by Irving Berlin. Also debuting that day is the movie "Yankee Doodle Dandy," starring Jimmy Cagney as performer George M. Cohan. Cagney will win an Oscar for the movie.
The US Army Air Force celebrates America's 166th birthday by assigning six aircraft to join an RAF strike on German airfields in Holland.
