August 6th, 1941 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: ASW trawler HMS Agate lost after grounding off Cromer, Norfolk.
GERMANY:
U-187 laid down.
U-404 commissioned.
U-589 and
U-590 launched.
U.S.S.R.: General Wladyslaw Anders is appointed C-in-C of the new Polish army to be formed in Russia.
JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan proposes concessions to the US in China and Indochina and asking for the end to the freeze on assets by the US. These proposals are rejected. They respond with a request for Konoye to meet with President Roosevelt. The question of this meeting is not resolved until after Roosevelt and Churchill meet at Placentia Bay.
TERRITORY OF HAWAII: An executive order transfers the U.S. Coast Guard's Honolulu District from the Treasury Department to the U.S. Navy in the first step toward shifting the USCG to USN control.
CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Wasaga and Cowichan departed Esquimalt, British Columbia, for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-562 sinks SS RT-70 ex Kapitan Voronin.
At 1900, Soviet dispatch vessel PS-70 was hit by one torpedo from U-652 and sank seven miles off Cape Teriberka. This was the first U-boat success in the Arctic.
ICELAND: USN Task Force 16 consisting of the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41), heavy cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS Wichita (CA-35) and 5 destroyers delivers US Army troops to Reykjavik, Iceland. Accompanying TF 16 are the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA-44) and 2 destroyers. The Army troops are in the Army transport American Legion while stores ship USS Mizar (AF-12) and cargo ship USS Almaack (AK-27) bring supplies and equipment. During the morning, USS Wasp, the heavy cruiser USS Vincennes and their 2 destroyers part company from TF 16 and soon thereafter, the carrier turned into the wind and commenced launching the 30 P-40s and 3 PT-17 Kaydets of the USAAF's 33d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) which land at Reykjavik Airport.
As the P-40's and the trainers droned on to Iceland, Wasp heads home for Norfolk, her three escorts in company. Also at Reykjavik, Iceland, are detachments of USN Patrol Squadrons 73 (VP-73), with PBY-5A Catalinas, and VP-74, with PBM-1 Mariners; both squadrons, which are serviced by the seaplane tender, destroyer USS Goldsborough (AVD-5), begin routine air patrols over the North Atlantic on this date.