18 June 1942

June 18th, 1942 (THURSDAY)

UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS P-48 commissioned.

Minesweeper HMS Stawell laid down.

Submarine HMS Stoic laid down.

Destroyer HMS Urania laid down.

GERMANY: The "Guidelines for Detecting and Combating Fatigue" in soldiers are issued by the Reich's Ministry for Health. About the use of Perivitin, a restricted amphetamine, "Two tablets taken once eliminate the need to sleep for three to eight hours, and two doses of two tablets each are normally effective for 24 hours." (Andreas Ulrich, Der Spiegel. May 6, 2005)(Henry Sirotin)

U-226 launched.

U-357, U-627 commissioned.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: Heydrich's assassins died today after a six-hour battle in the church of St. Cyril, on Resslova Street. Three men on look-out above the altar fell to a grenade and machine-gun attack after two hours; the four hiding in the crypt held out for another four hours. They used their last four bullets on themselves. The Germans lost 14 dead and 21 wounded. The seven were betrayed by one of their comrades, Karel Curda, who had arrived with them from Britain to carry out the assassination. His reward: a new name and a German wife.

U.S.S.R.: Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Shipping loss: MS "TSch-405 "Vzrivatel"" - by field artillery, close to Eupatoria (later raised) (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

Sevastopol: Only one of the 12 fortifications still holds firm against the German attack as bitter fighting continues for the Crimea port.

Moscow: The Supreme Soviet ratifies the mutual assistance treaty with Britain.

LIBYA: German forces lay siege to Tobruk.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The 11th Air Force dispatches three B-17s, four B-24s and an LB-30 to precision bomb Kiska Island in the Aleutian Islands from high altitude. The Japanese oiler Nissan Maru is hit and sinks; 1 B-24 crashes. The Japanese fleet tanker Nissan Maru is sunk, another ship is hit and two scout planes are possibly shot down. A B-24 runs out of fuel and crashes at sea; part of the crew is saved.

U.S.A.: British Prime Minister Churchill arrives in Washington, DC for a US-UK summit meeting. Discussions concern the second front in 1942. Churchill raises the idea of invading French North Africa when it becomes obvious that "Sledgehammer" will not be possible during 1942, due to restrictions is shipping resources necessary to take men and materials into action. A White House spokesman said it would be "perfectly justifiable" to assume that Churchill came to the US to talk about a second front in Europe.

The future of Atomic Research is also discussed. Decisions are made for both the US and UK to share the research.

This is Churchill's third meeting in ten months with President Roosevelt">Roosevelt. Most of Churchill's ministerial colleagues, except those in the war cabinet, were not told about the visit. The Labour leader, Clement Attlee, as deputy prime minister, is chairing cabinet meetings.

The U.S. Navy commissions its first black officer, Harvard University medical student Bernard Whitfield Robinson.

A United States-Cuba agreement was announced whereby the Cuban Government granted facilities to the United States War Department for training of aviation personnel and for operations against submarines.

After crossing the Atlantic (submerged at day, surfaced at night) U-584 landed a saboteur team of 4 men on the shore just south of Jacksonville, Florida. This was one of two such teams that landed within a week of each other on the US East Coast; the other team came aboard U-202.

The Swedish ship MS Gripsholm departs New York with 1,083 Japanese nationals on board, bound for Japan. They are mostly diplomats and their families, but also some Japanese businessman, journalists, who were in the United States when war was declared. Some were American relatives of Japanese deportees, who didn't wish to go to Japan, but wouldn't abandon their husbands or fathers. Some of the young passengers on the ship were students, and later those intellectuals would become influential leaders in Japan's post-war society.

The Gripsholm also picked up 417 Japanese passengers in Rio de Janeiro, among them the Japanese Embassy staff. The embassy's picture of the Emperor was covered by cloth when it was carried on board, and all the Japanese passengers kneeled and bowed before it. No one was allowed to go ashore in Rio. There was Brazilian military on the pier with machine guns. Gripsholm was anchored in the harbor, and was only allowed to dock for a short while for embarkation.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: The submarine U-124 sinks an armed U.S. merchant freighter in the Atlantic east of Newfoundland.

At 0621 and 0622, U-124 fired two spreads of two torpedoes at three ships in Convoy ONS-102 in rough seas and observed two hits on the first ship and heard further detonations. Mohr claimed two ships sunk and another damaged, however the only ship hit was Seattle Spirit in station #112. One torpedo struck the Seattle Spirit on the port side amidships in the engine room and quickly flooded the ship, causing a boiler explosion and killing one officer and two crewmen on watch below. The most of the nine officers, 28 crewmen, eleven armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four .50cal and four .30cal guns) and seven passengers (Canadians) on board abandoned ship in three lifeboats. One sailor died of shock and exposure after jumping into the water. Corvette HMCS Agassiz picked up the 51 survivors, but 45 of them were later transferred to the British rescue ship Perth and landed at Halifax on 24 June, while the remaining men on the corvette were landed at St. Johns. The Seattle Spirit was shelled by the corvette after an officer, who had boarded the ship about four hours after the attack, had determined she could not be salvaged and the vessel sank at 2030 hours. The master Edward W. Myers already experienced another sinking when his previous ship, the Robin Moor had been sunk by U-69 on 21 May, 1941.

On 13 Jun 1942, the Flora picked up the occupants of two lifeboats, they were survivors from three vessels and were since four days in the lifeboats. Because they did not have enough drinking water on board, she had to go to Cristobal, arriving the next day. After landing the survivors and taking on some additional cargo, they left for Curaçao.

At 0245 on 18 June, one of the gunners spotted a faint light over the port side and shortly thereafter, U-159 began shelling the vessel, hitting with the first shell. The ship changed course and returned fire unsuccessfully. Shellfire caused a fire, damaged one lifeboat, stopped the engine, destroyed the steering gear and seriously injured the third engineer Van Voorthuisen. The 31 crewmembers and six passengers quickly abandoned ship in a motorboat and one lifeboat. Witte questioned the survivors and misunderstood the name of the ship as Flomar, an American steam merchant of 5551 tons. The survivors headed for the coast of Colombia, which was about 12 miles away. They landed the next night near La Pajaro, but the injured man already died of wounds and was buried there.

At 0500, U-172 sank the unescorted Motorex with 40 rounds from her deck gun NW of Colon.

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18 June 1942