5 June 1942

Yesterday Tomorrow

June 5th, 1942 (FRIDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Bletchley Park: A new type of Bombe deciphering machine nicknamed the "Robinson" is installed to process data using paper-tape loops.

Operation HARPOON commences as convoy WS 19Z (Force "X") sails from the River Clyde enroute to Malta.

Submarine USS S-29 loaned to RN as HMS P-556.

Corvettes HMCS Galt and Wetaskiwin arrived Londonderry with Convoy HX-191.

FRANCE: Pierre Laval issues an eloquent radio broadcast on his vision for a new Europe. (Glenn Steinburg)

U.S.S.R.: German troops start a major operation to flush out partisans.

LIBYA: The British attack Rommel's defensive position at the "Cauldron".

Alam Hamza: Sgt. Quentin George Murray Smythe (b.1916), South African Forces, was wounded but led his men to take an anti-tank position. (Victoria Cross)

INDIA: The largest military convoy ever to leave Britain has reached India safely. It has reinforced the country's defences with thousands of soldiers, airmen, scientists and medical staff as well as vast quantities of military equipment.

Many big liners with famous names sailed in the giant convoy which was escorted by a battleship and a strong force of destroyers. It was dispersed to different ports in the sub-continent when it arrived about a month ago. For security reasons news about it was delayed until today.

 

MIDWAY: Off Midway Island, the Japanese 1st Mobile Fleet is retiring westward while being pursued by carrier aircraft of Task Force 16 and Midway-based USAAF and USMC aircraft. USAAF B-17s make two attacks on three ships but do not hit the ships.

The aircraft carriers HIJMS Akagi and HIJMS Hiryu, which were damaged yesterday and left drifting, are scuttled by Japanese destroyers. While turning to avoid the submarine USS Tambor (SS-198), the heavy cruisers HIJMS Mogami and HIJMS Mikuma collide and are damaged. Later in the day, six SBD-2 Dauntlesses and six SB2U-3 Vindicators of Marine Scout Bombing Squadron Two Hundred Forty One (VMSB-241) attack HIJMS Mikuma but do not score any hits.

A salvage party of 29 officers and 141 enlisted men return to the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) in an attempt to save her. Five destroyers form an antisubmarine screen while the salvage party boards the listing carrier.

TERRITORY OF HAWAII: Pearl Harbor: Admiral Chester Nimitz, USN announces the defeat of the Imperial Japanese Naval fleet at the Battle of Midway. (Denis Peck)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: At 0920 hours local, Japanese Combined Fleet Operational Order Number 155 is issued, directing the 2nd Mobile Force, i.e., the light aircraft carriers HIJMS Junyo and HIJMS Ryujo which have been attacking Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands for the past two days, to join the 1st Mobile Force off of Midway Island and this temporarily postpones the invasion of the Aleutian Islands. At 2355 hours, the Midway attack is abandoned.

The US Army Air Forces 11th Air Force searches for the two aircraft carriers of the Japanese 2nd Mobile Force using ten Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, 18 Martin B-26 Marauders and two Consolidated LB-30 Liberators without success. One radar equipped B-17E locates the "targets" on radar and bombs; the "targets" were actually the Pribilof Islands.

Vice Admiral Boshiro Hosogaya, the Naval Commander of Operation AL (the invasion of the Aleutian Islands), orders the 1,200 Japanese troops of the Adak-Attu Occupation Force to head for Attu Island.

CANADA: HM MTB 315, 15th MTB Flotilla is commissioned, and Minesweepers HMCS Digby and Truro are launched.

U.S.A.: Washington: The US declares war on Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria.

1,432 members of the Hawaii Provisional Infantry Battalion depart Honolulu for San Francisco. (Gene Hanson)

CARIBBEAN SEA: U-68 sinks an armed U.S. tanker. All hands are lost.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-172 sinks an unarmed U.S. freighter.

Yesterday Tomorrow

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5 June 1942