July 4th, 1942 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Six USAAF bombers join an RAF attack on airfields in Holland. The aircraft actually RAF Boston III's of RAF No. 226 Squadron based at Swanton Morley, Norfolk flown by members of the Eighth Air Force's 15th Bombardment Squadron (Light). This unit had been sent to England as a night fighter unit to operate Turbinlite aircraft. These were unarmed Douglas Havocs with a huge searchlight in the nose which was used to illuminate enemy aircraft at night and a companion Havoc would shoot them down. By the time the 15th arrived in England, the RAF had given up on the Turbinlite project and concentrated on equipping their night fighters with radar. USAAF_attack.htm">More....Submarine HMS Tantivy laid down.
ASW trawler HMS Grayling commissioned.
GERMANY: U-450 is launched.
U-167 is commissioned.
Lutsk: German troops murder 4,000 Jews.
BARENTS SEA: British Admiral Sir
Dudley Pound, Admiral of the Fleet and First Sea Lord, orders convoy PQ17 to
scatter believing the German capital ships Tirpitz and Admiral Hipper will
attack sooner or later. He believes that the Home Fleet cannot protect it since
it is in range of land based German aircraft. The truth is that ALL Russian
convoys are going to be within range of land based German aircraft at some
point.
The significant feature of PQ17 being ordered to scatter, and its RN escort
ordered away, was that Admiral Pound believed that the German battleship Tirpitz,
in company with the heavy cruiser Admiral Hipper, might have put to sea, and
that they would been able to destroy the entire naval escort and the merchant
convoy before the Home Fleet could reach the scene. It was only this evening
that Bletchley Park cracked the German Naval messages for the 24
hour period ending at midday, and knew that Tirpitz and Admiral Hipper had been
due to enter Altenfjord, Norway, located about 400 nm (740 km) south southeast
of Spitsbergen Island, that same morning, and their accompanying destroyers
ordered to refuel immediately. Admiral Pound calculated that if the German fleet
sailed out within a few hours of their arrival, and made 28 knots, they would be
able to reach the convoy within six hours, that is by 0200 hours on
5 July.
However, the issue depended on whether Tirpitz and her support had sailed or
not. British Naval Intelligence maintained that Tirpitz had not sailed because
of absence of any messages or reports to the contrary;
(1) no radio traffic
between Tirpitz and Naval command had been heard, as might be expected if the
ships had put to sea,
(2) messages to the shadowing U-Boats had not warned of
the presence of German surface forces in the area,
(3) RN submarines watching
the approaches to Altenfjord had not reported the German fleet sailing and
(4)
the Norwegian coast watcher had not reported any enemy movement.
Admiral Pound,
however, asked his intelligence officer not for the reasons behind his
presumption, but rather, if he could "assure him that Tirpitz was still at
anchor in the Altenfjord", which he could not do, as he would have no
information until the ships had actually sailed out.
At around 2000 hours, Admiral Pound called a meeting of the naval
operations staff (about a dozen officers), and asked each of them to make a
recommendation for the convoy. The Vice Chief of the Naval Staff recommended
that if it was to be dispersed, that it should be done immediately, whilst all
others present said that they did not recommend dispersal. After a period of
consideration, Admiral Pound then made the decision that PQ17 should scatter,
and this action was taken by 2215 hours. The merchant ships fanned
outwards to scatter, whilst the RN escort withdrew at high speed to the west,
under the impression that the Tirpitz was about to appear over the horizon,
although in fact, the German fleet was impatiently awaiting the order to sail.
The subsequent mauling of the unescorted convoy was performed by aircraft and
submarines, and of the 35 ships that sailed from Hvalfjord, Iceland on
27 June,
only 11 reached Archangelsk with their cargo. Tirpitz had won a victory, without
firing a shot.
In Convoy PQ-17 US freighter SS WILLIAM HOOPER is sunk by U-334 is sunk before midnight after it had been damaged by Luftwaffe He 111s at 75.57N, 27.15E.
SS Christopher Newport, in Convoy PQ-17 station #81, when
German He 115 aircraft of the Küstenfliegergruppe 906 attacked the convoy with
torpedoes in the Barents Sea about 35 miles NE of Bear Island (75°49N/22°15E).
One aircraft dropped a torpedo about one-half mile away. It passed between the
Carlton and the Samuel Chase but struck the Christopher Newport amidships on the
starboard side. The ship was armed with one 4-in, four .50cal and two .30cal
guns, but the armed guards were unable to fire on the attacking aircraft because
it flew in a direct line of fire of another ship in the convoy. The explosion
tore a large hole in the hull, completely flooded the engine room, killed one
officer and two men on watch below and destroyed the steering gear. The ship
continued veering to port crossed the bows of ships in two other columns and
headed in the opposite direction before being stopped. Seven officers, 29
crewmen and 11 armed guards abandoned ship in the two port lifeboats because the
two starboard lifeboats had been destroyed. They were picked up by British
rescue ship Zamalek within 15 minutes and were taken to Archangel. The badly
damaged Christopher Newport, which was on her maiden voyage, was then hit by a
coup de grāce from submarine HMS P-614, which was part of the convoy escort, but
still remained afloat. At 0808,
U-457 came across the abandoned ship and sank her with one coup de grāce.
The master Charles Ernest Nash was also the master of the Marore, which had been
sunk by U-432 on
27 Feb 1942
(John Nicholas, Alex Gordon and Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Soviet submarine M-176
based with the Northern Fleet is lost off the Norwegian coast near Varangerfjord.
(Mike Yared)(146 and
147)
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: US Army, Middle East Air Force (USAMEAF) B-24s attack a convoy during the night of 4/5 July, setting 1 tanker aflame.
EGYPT: The Australian 9th Division arrives to reinforce Allies resistance, as the exhausted German Panzer units start to run out of ammunition.
CHINA: The 10th Air Force in India activates the China Air Task Force (CATF) under command of Brigadier General Clare L Chennault. This new command is the successor to Chennault's American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Chinese Nationalist Air Force, which was named the Flying Tigers by the Chinese people (FEI HU); which had attained 300 confirmed victories over Japanese aircraft at a cost of less than 50 aircraft and 9 pilots. Only 5 pilots and a few ground personnel of the AVG choose to join the USAAF, although 20 other pilots agree to stay until replacements arrive in Kunming, China.
Of the 318 AVG veterans 38 choose to go into the Army Air Force in China. (Chuck Baisden)
Combat elements of CATF are the 11th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), the 16th Fighter Squadron and the 23d Fighter Group.
U.S.A.: The USAAF's Air Transport Command, which was established on 30 April 42, is redesignated I Troop Carrier Command at Stout Field, Indianapolis, Indiana and made responsible for training and preparing units and personnel for troop carrier (airborne) operations. The USAAF Ferrying Command, which was established on 29 May 41, is redesignated Air Transport Command and made responsible for air transport and ferrying operations.
San Francisco: At the second Cominch-Cincpac conference, King again told Nimitz to look into stationing a division of old battleships in the South Pacific, but Nimitz took no action.
Irving Berlin's (1888-1989) musical review "This Is the Army," "the biggest and best-known morale-boosting show of World War II," opens at the Broadway Theater in New York.
Minesweeper USS Herald launched.
Destroyer USS David W Taylor launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-701 (German) at 60' from Aerial depth charges; 18 self escape, 15 without Dräger gear, no rescue at hand, but only 7 survive until rescue, as POWs.
Motor tanker Tuapse sunk by U-129 at 22.13N, 86.06W.
At 0338, the unescorted and unarmed Norlandia was torpedoed by U-575 about 25 miles NE of Cape Samana, San Domingo. The torpedo struck on the starboard side between the engine room and the #3 hatch. The explosion tore up the deck, destroyed the radio room, jammed the machinery and caused the ship to flood rapidly, sinking by the stern after 15 minutes. The 21 survivors among the crew of eight officers and 22 crewmen abandoned ship in two lifeboats and were later questioned by Heydemann, who expressed regret at having to sink an American ship and gave them a bottle of German brandy before leaving. He reported the ship erroneously as the Panamanian merchant Portland. One boat with 14 survivors landed after 18 hours at Samanį, Dominican Republic, while the other boat arrived 12 hours later.