May 31st, 1942...USS Enterprise sits northeast of Midway with USS Hornet, and tops off fuel from oilers Cimarron and Platte.
The New Zealand War Cabinet approves the establishment of the Women's Royal New Zealand Naval Service in April. 500 women subsequently enlist and serve as plotters, coders, cooks, drivers, telegraph operators and in a range of other duties.
To keep the Allies on their toes, the Japanese launch 3 midget submarines from the I-22, I-24 and I-27 in a co-ordinated attack against Sydney, Australia. The target for this operation is the glorious cruiser USS Chicago. The midget submarine from I-24 fire their torpedoes at the parked cruiser, and the fish race under the ship, hitting far less glorious ferryboat Kuttabul, which is serving as a depot ship, killing 19 Australian and 2 British sailors. One submarine is sunk by harbor defenses, the other two-man crew commits Hara-kiri. All four bodies are cremated with full military honors and returned to Japan.
The third mini-sub credited with the attack on 'Kuttabul' escapes and disappears, and is not found until 2007. Of the two torpedoes fired, one strikes the Kuttabul, the other runs aground.
Things start to go wrong for the Japanese at Midway. That evening, two Kawanishi flying boats are scheduled to refuel from submarines at French Frigate Shoals, and fly on to Pearl Harbor for a final reconnaissance mission, but when I-168 pokes its periscope up at French Frigate Shoals, it finds the US seaplane tender USS Ballard standing there. The plan, "Operation K," is scrubbed. The Japanese will not know if the American carriers are still in Hawaii.
On the battleship Yamato, Adm. Yamamoto, suffering diarrhea, nibbles at rice porridge, when he gets the word that "Operation K" is off. He also has word that American radio traffic is unusually heavy, most messages marked "urgent." He shows the messages to Capt. Kameto Kuroshima, his chief of staff, who has drafted the Midway plan, and says, "These must be sent to Admiral Nagumo and the carrier force immediately."
Kuroshima protests. "He must have picked them up -- and we can't risk breaking radio silence."
Yamamoto disagrees, but Kuroshima is firm. The messages are not sent. Radio silence is maintained. And Nagumo has not picked up the messages (Akagi's antenna is smaller and weaker than Yamato's), so Nagumo steams along, ignorant of the American carriers' location.
At Hawaii, thanks to decryption, the American top brass know a Japanese reconnaissance flight is due. Cdr. Edwin Layton reports to work that evening with a tin hat, in case the recce planes drop bombs, but nothing happens. Layton takes much ribbing for his overzealousness.
U-boat warfare is also raging off the US Eastern seaboard, in its fifth month. The Germans note 111 ships sunk in May, for a year-to-date total of 377, more than 100 between New York and Miami.
British civilian casualties for May: 399 killed, 425 wounded.
In Europe, news of the Cologne raid spreads almost as fast as the flames in the battered city. Warsaw ghetto Jews hear of the attack on BBC radio. Emanuel Ringblum writes "Cologne was an advance payment on the vengeance that must and shall be taken on Hitler's Germany for the millions of Jews they have killed. So the Jewish population of tortured Europe considered Cologne its personal act of vengeance. After the Cologne affair, I walked around in a good mood, feeling that, even if I should perish at their hands, my death is prepaid!"
Hermann Goering gets the reports on Cologne, and says, "The effects of aerial warfare are terrible if one looks at individual cases, but one has to accept them."
Josef Goebbels, meanwhile, is concerned with the critically injured Reinhard Heydrich. "The more (Jews) we eliminate, the better things will be for the security of the Reich."
US West coast cities San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, and Seattle, issue gas masks and steel helmets to firemen, police, and auxiliary services.
In North Africa, Gen. Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps attacks the British 150th Brigade. The outnumbered defenders give ground grudgingly...Lt. Farmiloe engages a German Mark IV tank in single combat with his 6 lb. gun at a range of only 400 yards until a German shell hits his gun, wounding the whole crew. But the brigade uses up its supplies quickly. By dusk, the brigade is holding on, but exhausted. A captured British officer asks Rommel for more water. "You are getting as much as we are, half a cup per day. But I agree that we cannot go on like this. If we don't get a convoy through tonight, I shall have to ask General Ritchie for terms. You can take a letter to him for me."
At Bir Hacheim, a supply convoy arrives with congratulations for the French defenders. It takes out the 600 Indians from 3rd Motor Brigade, 170 Italian PoWs, and various wounded men.
June 1st, 1942...Rear Adm. Raymond A. Spruance briefs Task Force 16 on the impending battle of Midway, putting his Sailors in the picture at last. "The successful conclusion of the operation now commencing will be of great value to our country."
The RAF launches another 1,000-bomber raid on Essen, which does less damage than the attack on Cologne. Essen, the headquarters of the mighty Krupp empire. Essen is a hard target, being in a valley, often covered by fog and industrial smoke. Joining Bomber Command on this strike (as in the Cologne raid) is No. 75 Squadron from New Zealand.
The Liberty Barricade, a clandestine publication of the Polish Socialist Party in Warsaw, publishes an extensive account of Nazi gassings. "Bloodcurdling news has reached us about the slaughter of Jews," it opens.
Aboard the Nagumo task force, carrier pilots, instead of training or going over targets, listens to records and relaxes. Overconfidence is rampant.
The Germans open the day in North Africa by hurling Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers at the 150th Brigade, covering the sky with a dense pall of smoke. British gunners man their 25-lbr. guns until the last man is left...he fires each gun in turn until he is shot down. 150th is out of everything but determination, and the Germans overrun their posts. Brigadier Haydon orders his men to destroy their 25-lbr. field artillery pieces. The last stand is by B Company, 5th Green Howards, at 2 p.m. Rommel himself drives to the scene to honor Haydon's gallantry, but finds the brigadier lying dead among his men, killed by a shellburst. Rommel has opened his supply route to his rear. 150th Brigade has held out for three days. During that time, Ritchie had ample opportunities to attack with his 8th Army, but has not. Gen. Auchinlek, in overall command, prods Ritchie to attack, but Ritchie does not.
Also cut up in the battle are 10th Indian Infantry Brigade and 22nd Armoured Brigade's support group. The 8th Army loses 6,000 men and 150 tanks.
Six months later, a British artillery officer passing the Cauldron sees the guns still in position and the bodies of their crews sprawled around them.
At Bir Hacheim, the French advance with probes, their Marine-manned Bofors AA guns shooting down four Ju 87 Stukas.
The US Supreme Court invalidates a 1935 Oklahoma law for the sterilization of criminals with three felony convictions on the grounds that it is discriminatory. The law excludes liquor violations, embezzlers, and political offenders.
June 2nd, 1942...Amid cold and wet rain, with visibility down to 100 feet, USS Yorktown joins up with carriers Enterprise and Hornet off Midway. All the US has to throw at Japan are three carriers, seven heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, and 15 destroyers. The Japanese are moving in towards them behind weather fronts.
A thousand Jews are deported from Vienna to Maly Trostenets concentration camp near Minsk, and shot.
The British finally attack the Cauldron and run into a ring of German 88mm guns, all freshly resupplied. Rommel despatches two motorized divisions, the German 90th Light and the Italian Trieste, to take Bir Hacheim.
There, the French find 50 tanks and 100 other vehicles heading towards them, so the French dig in. No attack comes. Instead, two Italian officers show up under flag of truce, who are taken to headquarters. One gives a long speech in Italian. Nobody can speak Italian. The French officers figure out that the Italians are demanding the French surrender. Gen. Phillippe Koenig answers the demand by saying, "Gentlemen, thank your generals for their pleasant conduct, but tell them that there is no question of surrender." The Italians are led back to their lines.
Koenig sends a message to his troops about the incident, saying, "General Rommel has asked us to surrender and threatened us with extermination. I have refused. Do your duty."
The RAF hits the Luftwaffe hard, too. Koenig signals RAF Air Vice Marshal Coningham, a New Zealander, "Merci pour la RAF." Coningham signals back, "Merci pour le sport."
Well-placed French defenses minimize the effect of German artillery. Rommel applauds the French defenses, saying, "All a direct hit can do is destroy one small slit trench or so. A very high expenditure of ammunition is needed to inflict real damage."
The Italians start shelling Bir Hacheim later that day, and before the artillery duel can get properly started, war is called off due to sandstorm.
The Germans open up a massive five-day artillery bombardment on besieged Sevastopol, with everything they can muster.
Filipino President Manuel Quezon, racked by tuberculosis, addresses the US House of Representatives, and tells them that the Filipino people will fight alongside the Americans until the Axis is defeated. The same day, the Western Defense Command announces that Japanese-Americans and Japanese aliens will be removed from 60,000 square miles of California. That affects 10,000 people.
June 3rd, 1942...USS Washington and all of Task Force 99 spend the day cleaning, burnishing, polish, and painting their ships, amid heavy rain. Teak decks are scrubbed, lifelines get a new coat of white paint, brightwork gets polished (even though they are polished every four hours anyway). "We really have been cleaning," writes SN Mel Beckstrand. "I have never in my life seen cleaning like this, even in the most scrupulous homes."
William Joyce, better known to his listeners as Lord Haw- Haw, broadcasts from Berlin on the Cologne raid. "Mr. Churchill boasts of the attack on Cologne as an instalment of the hell that Germany is to receive. The German attitude is 'Give us more hell, as much as you can, and we shall repay the hell with interest."
The Nazis round up 110 Jews in Warsaw, and shoot them, including two pregnant women.
At 9 am, an American PBY Catalina, near the end of its patrol arc, spots 27 ships heading towards Midway. "Do you see what I see?" asks pilot Ens. Jack Reid. "You're damned right I do," answers co-pilot Howard Ady. "It must be the whole Jap Navy!"
Actually, it isn't. It's the transport and seaplane force, escorted by destroyers and the light cruiser Jintsu. But the Americans react with vigor, hurling nine B-17 bombers at the force. They claim to sink "two battleships or heavy cruisers" and two transports. They in fact hit nothing. The Japanese ships plod on towards Midway.
At Bir Hacheim, the Germans move in 105 mm guns, superior to the French 75s. Rommel sends in two captured British officers with a surrender demand, reading "To the troops at Bir Hakim. Any further resistance will only serve to shed more useless blood. You will suffer the same fate as the two British brigades which were exterminated at Got el Ualeb (the Cauldron) two days ago. We shall cease fire when you raise the white flag and come towards us without arms." Koenig does not reply, and tells his men "Our task is to hold the ground, whatever the cost, until our victory is complete. This order must be clearly conveyed to all ranks. Good luck to you all."
Rommel sends in the Stukas at 11:30 am and 12 of them arrive just as RAF Hurricanes do, which is bad timing. The Luftwaffe loses seven dive bombers.
Despite the chaos of the campaign, the British 8th Army shows ample determination in keeping Bir Hacheim supplied. Truck drivers race their vehicles through cold desert nights, trackless wastes, past German patrols, with great valor.
The House of Representatives unanimously sends to the Senate formal declarations of war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania, all Axis allies. The same day, the Office of Price Administration issues tougher gasoline rationing, to curb bootleggers. Six types of ration coupon books will be issued.
170 miles from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians, the Japanese carriers Ryujo and Junyo crack on 25 knots to break out of a storm. On the flight decks, crews roll 1,000-lb. bombs into place while pilots squeeze into their life jackets. In charge of launching the strike is Lt. Cdr. Masatake Okumiya, the man who sank the gunboat USS Panay in 1937. Weather delays launching until 2:43 am, when the ships steam out of the fog. Okumiya swings his green launching lamp in a wide semicircle, and Lt. Masayaki Yamaguchi, the strike leader, rolls his Aichi "Val" dive bomber down the deck, into the air, and banks into a spiral to await the rest of his team, beneath 400-foot cloud cover.
At Dutch Harbor, the target of this assault, the town and base have a dawn air-raid drill. "After the drills," Ensign Marshall Freerks recalls, "everybody went back to bed and then the Japs bombed us."
The Japanese strike is picked off by radar on the seaplane tender Gillis, which alerts the harbor. Soldiers race to their foxholes, slapping on WW1-era tin hats. Lt. Jack Litsey guns his engines on his PBY Catalina flying boat. At the comms center, a radioman taps out a message to Cold Bay and Umnak airfields to alert Army P-40 fighters. Cold Bay gets the message, but Umnak doesn't, and the pilots there play poker through the attack.
At 5:45 am, 15 Ryujo planes break out of the cloud, and swoop into attack. Two Zeros shoot up Litsey's Catalina, killing both passengers and setting it on fire. Litsey crashes his burning plane on the beach, scrambles out, and just makes cover before the plane explodes.
Japanese Zeros swoop in to strafe other PBYs, while the bombers rake the town for 20 minutes, smashing a tank farm and destroying an Army barracks, killing 25 inside. A bomb hits the old Russian Orthodox Church of Unalaska, but nobody is inside. Yamaguchi's planes are gone before the Cold Bay P-40s arrive. 52 Americans are dead, but the Japanese have done little damage. Yamaguchi's planes struggle back. The Junyo team loses its bearings in the fog and never finds Dutch Harbor. The storm is worse than anything Yamaguchi has ever seen, visibility practically zero. With little fuel, Yamaguchi skims 50 feet off the water, about to crash -- when he sees Ryujo ahead of him, and Yamaguchi lands his plane. Thanks to good luck and skillful pilots, the Japanese have lost only one aircraft.
Aside from a PBY being shot down by the Japanese, the first day of the battle of Dutch Harbor is over.
Operation Kottbus kicks off in the Soviet Union with more than 16,000 troops attacking the partisan redoubt called the "Republic of Palik" near Polotsk.
