28 June 1939

U.S.A.: Joe Louis, the "Brown Bomber" fights Tony Galento at the New York Yankee Stadium.

The move follows the formation by de Gaulle of a French National Committee in London on 23 June. Two days ago the general, who was under-secretary for national defence in the Reynaud administration which handed over to Petain, also announced the creation of a French volunteer legion in Britain and of a French centre for armament and scientific research. It is de Gaulle’s belief that the Petain government gave in too easily to the Germans, "before all means of resistance had been exhausted," as he said in a broadcast on 23 June.

He went on: "The French National Committee will take under its jurisdiction all French citizens at present on British territory, and will assume the direction of all military and administrative bodies which are now, or may be in the future in this country."

De Gaulle ended on a defiant note: "The war is not lost, the country is not dead, hope is not extinct. Vive la France!"

Pulborough, Sussex: Montgomery holds a commanders conference on the proposed invasion of Southern Ireland and seizure of Cork and Queenstown by the 3rd Division. The plan is shelved by the War Office, (along with the proposals to invade the Azores and Cape Verde Islands).

RAF Coastal Command: First delivery of Blackburn Bothas to No. 608 Sqn. to replace Avro Ansons.

Steam trawler Castleton was reported missing in the Orkneys. The only U-boat operating in that area was U-102, which was lost during the patrol and did not report her successes.

GERMANY: The first success of ‘helle Nachtjagd’ (night interception with searchlights) occurs when the crew of a Do17 succeed on their first operation in shooting down a bomber captured by the searchlights.

LUXEMBOURG: Gauleiter Gustav Simon assumes direct command of the civil administration of the former Grand Duchy. (Russell Folsom)

ROMANIA: Bucharest: The Soviet Union has forced the Rumanians to give up the rich provinces of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina. Throughout the day motorised units and tanks of the Red Army have been entering the areas. King Carol has ordered general mobilisation. This, however, is a move aimed not at Russia but at Romania’s smaller neighbours. The fear here is that Bulgaria and Hungary will take advantage of Romania’s weakness. Hungary has claims on Transylvania, and Bulgaria has already demanded the return of its former Black Sea territory, Dobruja.

LIBYA: AIR MARSHAL ITALO BALBO,* commander-in-chief of the North African theatre, and also highest-ranking officer in the Italian Air Force (former Air Minister). Killed by "friendly fire" of Italian AA gunners while piloting his own plane, coming in for a landing at Tobruk. Balbo had the misfortune to be approaching a few minutes after a British air raid on Tobruk, and from the same direction in which the enemy planes had last been seen. Furthermore, his landing approach led him to come in low right over the old First World War cruiser San Giorgio, stationed in Tobruk as a floating harbour defence/AA battery. His plane was hit in the fuel tank by one or more 20mm shells, either from the San Giorgio or from a nearby land-based Navy AA battery, and crashed on the rocky headlands with no survivors. A second plane coming in behind him was flown by General Felice Porro, commander of the Italian air force units in North Africa (officially known as 5th Squadra), but he managed to land safely. (Michael F. Yaklich)

USA: The Alien Registration Act is passed by Congress. The Act requires the immediate registration of all aliens resident in the United States. (Drew Halevy)

The Grumman Model G-44 Widgeon, amphibian flies for the first time. It can accommodate a pilot and four passengers.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0202, the unescorted Llanarth was torpedoed by U-30 about 220 miles SW of Ushant and sank after two hours and 30 minutes in 47°39N/10°17W. The master and 15 crewmembers were picked up by corvette HMS Gladiolus and landed at Plymouth. The chief officer and 18 crewmembers were rescued by a Spanish trawler and landed at San Sebastian.

U-25 encountered a British submarine in the North Atlantic, but neither boat attacked.

U.S.S.R.: Finnish troops push towards Murmansk. A joint Finish-German attack starts on 29 June at 3 am. The attackers are German 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divisions of General Dietl's Mountain Corps and Finnish Detachment Petsamo (Maj. Pennanen) which protects the attack's right flank. Soviet resistance is initially quite light and the Finns' and 2nd Div.'s advance is rapid.

Kovno, LITHUANIA: Local police and freed convicts beat hundreds of Jews to death.

SYRIA: After withstanding French counter-attacks all day and without reinforcements (being presumed lost) a company of 2/3 Bn. is forced off the summit of the Jebel Mazar (dominating the Damascus-Beirut road). Australian patrols find mountain-top positions of 11/6 Bn. FFL and I/17 Senegalese north of Jezzine abandoned after days of intense artillery fire. Over Palmyra nine Tomahawks of 3 Sqn RAAF claim six French aircraft shot down, three by Flt-Lt A. C. Rawlinson. Glubb Pasha’s Arab Legion captures Seba Biyar to secure communications of British force besieging Palmyra. 21st Indian Bde (10 Ind Div) enters Syria from Iraq. They advance along the Euphrates but are delayed by French air attacks, dust and shortage of petrol and water. (Michael Alexander)

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Hart moves his quarters ashore from USS HOUSTON.

U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt">Roosevelt signs the papers to create the Office of Scientific Research and Development. Included in its organization are the National defence Research Committee and the newly established Committee on Medical Research.

In the second and final game of the series in Shibe Park, Philadelphia, New York Yankee's centre fielder Joe DiMaggio goes 2-for-5 (single and double) against Philadelphia Athletics' pitchers Johnny Babich and Lum Harris. DiMaggio's hitting streak now stands at 40-games.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0207, the unescorted Pluto was torpedoed by U-146 and sank after 30 minutes about 100 miles NNW of Butt of Lewis. The ship had been stopped in the North Atlantic by HMS Suffolk and was first sent to Iceland with ten Royal Marines on board and then to Kirkwall. HMS Northern Duke rescued 26 crewmembers and the ten marines.

The British Home Fleet sails from Scapa Flow as part of the cover for PQ-17 which sailed yesterday from Iceland. HMS Duke of York, USS Washington are accompanied by carrier Victorious and an assortment of cruisers and destroyers.

U.S.S.R.: Bock's Army Group South drives east from Kursh toward Voronezh as the main German Eastern Front summer offensive.

The Germans have unleashed their Blitzkrieg again, attacking on both sides of Kursk in the ideal tank country of the rolling Ukrainian plain. The assault, codenamed Fall Blau [Plan Blue], was opened by a storm of fire from guns and Stukas, hurried north from the siege of Sevastopol. Then the tanks struck.

General Hermann Hoth's 4th Panzer Army, has already shattered the Russian Fortieth Army, and the Germans are heading for their first objective, the city of Voronezh which controls crossings of the Don and is a vital communications link.

The plan of Fall Blau, one of Hitler's military visions, is extremely ambitious. It calls for an advance along the whole of the German front in south Russia, from the coast near Taganrog along the river Donets towards Kharkov and Kursk.

The units around Kursk are to make the first move, taking Voronezh and then heading down the river Don towards the city of Stalingrad. The second phase is then to come into operation with an advance into the Caucasus. The next stage envisages another double drive, one to take the oilfields of Baku and the other to reach the Turkish border at Batumi; the lack of oil is a major strategic worry for the German general staff.

To accomplish this grand vision of conquest, reinforcements have been poured into Field Marshal von Bock's Army Group South, and it now contains almost half of the Wehrmacht's strength in the east. Those troops are now driving forward, raising clouds of dust and leaving behind them burning villages and dead Russians. Yet it could all have ended in disaster.

Nine days ago, on 19 June, a German light aircraft carrying Major Reichel, a staff officer, was forced down over the lines. He had with him detailed orders for Fall Blau. They were rushed to Stalin. But the Soviet premier brushed them aside, dismissing them as "planted evidence."

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: At 1316, U-97 fired a spread of two torpedoes at a convoy of three merchants with escorts (codenamed Metril) 14 miles SSW of Haifa and hit the Zealand, which sank within seconds. At 13.24 hours, a stern torpedo was fired which hit the Memas.

NORTH AFRICA: In Cairo, Egypt, Major General Lewis H Brereton arrives and is placed in command of US Army, Middle East Air Forces (USAMEAF), which is activated immediately. USAMEAF is comprised of the Halverson Detachment (HALPRO), Brereton's detachment [9th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy) and other personnel which Brereton brought from India], and the Air Section of US Military North African Mission. Also activated is Air Service Command, USAMEAF, under Brigadier General Elmer E Adler.

B-24s of the HALPRO Detachment bomb the harbour and shipping at Tobruk, Libya.
It was the 98th Heavy Bombardment Group, consisting of HQ, and the 343rd, 344th, 345th and 415th Squadrons.

The Afrika Corps 90th Light captures Mersa Matruh and a large store of supplies and munitions from the retreating British. The British are heading for El Alamein. General Auchinleck has decided to take a stand at the end of the rail line from Alexandria.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: A detachment of the USN's Patrol Squadron Fourteen (VP-14) based at Noumea, New Caledonia with PBY-5 Catalinas, bombs the Japanese base at Tulagi Island.

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: A US 11th Air Force B-17 weather aircraft flies over Kiska Island. A solid weather front cancels bombing. On this and the following day US advanced reconnaissance parties land on Adak Island from submarines.

The Tillie Lykes was reported missing after leaving Galveston and was considered lost by U-154 18 Jun 1942 in 19°N/85°W.

CARIBBEAN SEA: The Canadian Lemuel J. Ritcey Co. fishing vessel Mona Marie (126 GRT), was sunk in the Caribbean Sea, south-west of Barbados, in position 12.22N, 060.10W, by gunfire from U-126, KptLt. Ernst Bauer, Knight's Cross, CO. There were no lives lost in this incident. U-126 was a long-range Type IXC submarine built by AG Weser, at Bremen. She was commissioned on 22 Mar 41, KptLt. Ernst Bauser, CO. U-126 conducted six patrols and compiled an impressive record of 26 ships sunk for a total of 125,837 tons and five ships damaged for a further 37,501 tons. U-126, OLtzS. Siegfried Kietz, CO, was sunk 03 Jul 43, north-west of Cape Ortegal, Spain, in position 46.02N, 011.23W, by depth charges from a British ‘Wellington’ patrol aircraft from RAF 172 Squadron. All of U-126’s 55 crewmembers were lost. Ernst Bauer was born in 1914, at Fürth, in Bavaria. He joined the navy in 1933 and, after more than a year in the light cruiser Königsberg, transferred to the U-boat force in 1938. He served as a Watch Officer in U-10 and U-37 before commissioning the Type IIB training boat U-120, on 20 Apr 40. Bauer left U-120 in November 1940 and then commissioned the long-range Type IXC boat U-126 on 22 Mar 41, at the age of 27. He conducted five successful patrols with U-126, operating mostly in Caribbean and African waters. He was awarded the Knight’s Cross on 16 Mar 42 (the 47th presented in the U-boat force). Bauer completed his tour of duty in U-126 in March 1943 and was assigned as a training officer in the 27th U-boat Flotilla. In October 1944, he was appointed to command the 27th Flotilla. Bauer was promoted to KKpt. on 01 Apr 45 and during the last days of war he was transferred to the 26th U-Flotilla. In 1955, Bauer joined the German Bundesmarine and held several staff positions, retiring in 1972 in the rank of Kapitän zur See. He died on 12 Mar 1998, at Westerland/Sylt. Ernst Bauer sank 25 ships for a total of 118,660 tons and damaged four ships for a further 31,304 tons, making him the 25th highest U-boat ace of the war.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-67 encountered an enemy submarine in the North Atlantic, but neither boat attacked.

U-332 helped some shipwrecked seamen with water and food in the West Atlantic.

On U-596 a battery explosion forced the boat to return to base.

Five U.S. merchant vessels are sunk by German submarines in the Atlantic.

U-201 sinks a freighter east of Puerto Rico;

U-153 sinks an armed freighter 100 miles (161 km) off Cuba; the sub crew rescues one survivor and places him in a lifeboat with three shipmates. These are the only survivors of the 38 men aboard.

At 1538, the unescorted Sam Houston, on her maiden voyage, was hit by one torpedo from U-203 about 160 miles NE of the Virgin Islands. The torpedo struck the bulkhead between the engine room and the #4 deep tank, killed one officer and two men on watch below and caused fires in the cargo. As the #4 hold and the engine room flooded the ship first developed a slight list but the ship righted herself and remained on even keel with the deck only two feet above water. The survivors among the eight officers, 29 crewmen and nine armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in and four 20mm guns) aboard abandoned ship after 15 minutes in three lifeboats. At 1600, the U-boat surfaced and sank the ship with 43 rounds from the deck gun. The Germans took the master on board for questioning and put him later back into a boat. Four crewmen died from burns in the lifeboats before the survivors were picked up after two days by minesweeper USS Courier and landed at St. Thomas, where another crewman died of burns in a hospital.

At 1030, the unescorted and unarmed Raphael Semmes was hit on the starboard side by two torpedoes from U-332 when steaming on a non evasive course at 9 knots about 875 miles east of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The torpedoes struck at the #2 and #4 hatch and caused the ship to sink within two minutes. The nine officers, 26 crewmen and two passengers unsuccessfully tried to launch boats but had to jump overboard and swim away from the ship. 18 survivors clung to wreckage and eventually climbed onto two rafts, ten of them with the help of the U-boat that circled the wreck and picked them up. The Germans took care of their wounds and gave them tobacco, cigarettes, water and food before leaving the area. The 18 survivors were picked up on 16 July by the American steam merchant Explorer and landed them two days later at Jersey City, New Jersey. The master, six officers, eleven crewmen and one passenger were lost.

At 1855, the unescorted Sea Thrush was hit on the port side forward of the collision bulkhead by one torpedo from U-505 about 425 miles NE of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The eight officers, 33 crewmen, eleven armed guards (the ship was armed with one 4in, four 20mm and two .30cal guns) and 14 passengers (US Army officers and technicians) abandoned ship in four lifeboats. At 2000, the U-boat fired a coup de grâce that hit on the starboard side in the #2 hold and caused the ship to break in two and sink immediately. The survivors in three of the boats were picked up after 48 hours by USS Surprise and landed in San Juan. The remaining 16 survivors in the last boat were spotted by a patrol aircraft about 8 miles off St. Thomas, Virgin Islands and were brought to the island by a rescue craft on 3 July.

Armed steam tanker William Rockefeller sunk by U-701 off North Carolina at 35.07N, 75.07W.

A change in the design of the US National Star Insignia applied to US aircraft added white rectangles on the left and right sides of the blue circular field to form a horizontal bar, and a red border stripe around the entire design. This replaces the white star in blue circle insignia.

The prototype Hawker Tempest MK II (LA 602) flies today. With a 2,526-h.p. Bristol Centaurus engine it will be the RAF's most powerful piston-engined fighter. With extra fuel tanks it has a range of 1,640 miles. (22)

WESTERN EUROPE: Cologne, Leghorn, and Messina each receive a Heavy Allied air raid. (Glenn Steinberg)

During the night of 27/28 June, Northwest African Strategic Air Force (NASAF) Wellingtons bomb the Messina, Sicily marshalling yards and Villa San Giovanni. The following day, 97 B-17s hit Leghorn with 261 tons of bombs severely damaging industrial and railway installations; B-25 Mitchells hit airfields near Olbia, Sardinia and Alghero, Sicily, B-26 Marauders attack the landing ground at Milis, Sardinia, and fighters hit the airfield at Decimomannu, Sardinia.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: USAAF bombers attack Livorno, in Italy, and Messina in Sicily.

ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Six Eleventh Air Force B-25s bomb Kiska Island hitting Gertrude Cove, the southern Main Camp area and Little Kiska Island through holes in the overcast. The mission is partly ineffective because of faulty bomb-release mechanisms.

30 of 50 P-47s fly a fighter-bomber mission against La Perthe Airfield without loss.

Personal Memory: My first mission in four whole days! We went off to Bedford and only missed one mission while we were gone. On June 25 our 303rd group flew two missions, both of which were fairly long. In the morning mission one of our B-17s ran out of fuel over England and they all bailed out to become members of the Caterpillar club. In the afternoon the group did bridge busting with mixed results. One group dropped 23 of those one ton bombs with only one bomb striking the bridge which remained standing. Another group had personnel problems. The lead Bombardier forgot to turn off the salvo switch and when he turned on the internal bomb rack switches his bombs automatically fell from the plane and one other plane followed suit. Four others held on to their bombs and dropped their eight bombs on a bridge at Sens, France with good results.

The next day, June 26 a mission headed to Munich was scrubbed because of weather information. But, today's mission would be rough on me. My diary tells it all. "Reims, France- airfield south (Juvincourt.) CAVU. Caught every flak gun in France. Led high squadron. Lost our wing man who went down in flames. (Lt Wardowski.) Lost one other also. Weather so bad on return we had to land at coast at B-24 base. 5 hour trip carrying 38 X 100 pound bombs." We followed the lead group as it cut short of the IP and took aim at a dummy airport. we discovered our error and did a 360 turn to the left and picked up the IP again. Four minutes after bombs away a flak battery at Laon, France scored a direct hit near the right wing root of "Old Crow" flown by Lt Wardowski. The plane became a great fireball and rolled onto its back in a left turning dive. It soon exceeded its design speed and blew up into thousands of pieces. My new friend in the cockpit, Lt Wardowski, was not able to get out . Nor was the navigator, W.C. Birnbaum or the tail gunner D.G.Wagner. this was their fifth mission. Remarkably the Co-pilot, N. E. Hainlin was able to team up with the two waist gunners, Sgt. A. Willard and Sgt. John I. Snede and they all evaded capture with assistance of the French underground. Bombardier C. F. Eisel was captured as was engineer R.J. Kowatch and the ball turret gunner Sgt. B. L. Hope. Of course at that time I didn't know who lived and who died. Of our 26 B-17s only six escaped damage. Six had major damage and 14 had minor damage, one being lost. The chaff that we dropped did very little good as the Germans preferred to aim visually. Going home we were driven down to 300 feet by scud and we nearly collided with another B-17 before we landed a Debach, a B-24 base. The weather eased enough that we were able to get to Molesworth before dark. Nine of us had landed at Deback, ten at Hardwick, two at Seething, one at Downham Market and one made it to Bradwell Bay on three engines, literally since the engine had been blown off his plane. It's to his credit that he didn't bail his crew out. When E.C. (Al) Lehmann landed at Downham Market he had two wounded men on board. He had been flying behind and below Wardowski. Score, Milk runs 13: Others 10 (Dick Johnson)

Submarine USS Argonaut (later HMCS Rainbow) laid down Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: At 2130, the Maid of Orleans in Convoy FXP-18 was torpedoed and sunk by U-988 SE of St Catherine's Point, Isle of Wight. The ship had brought troops to the Normandy beachhead and was on her return trip. Five crewmembers were lost. The master, 72 crewmembers, 18 gunners and two passengers (Observer Corps personnel) were picked up by frigate HMS Hotham, destroyer HMS Eglinton and British tug Empire Roger and landed at Portsmouth1

FRANCE: Paris: Philippe Henriot is shot at dawn. He and his wife had spent the night at the Ministry of Information in the rue Solférino, when members of the resistance, disguised as police, tricked the concierge and made their way in.
Henriot, before the war an extreme right-wing deputy, was particularly hated for his propaganda broadcasts, denouncing the Resistance as "criminal assassins" and its leaders as "cowards".

The US 9th Division prepares for the final attacks in the direction of Cap de la Hague, France.

The USAAF's Ninth Air Force dispatches 220+ fighters, based in France, to attack railroad facilities, bridges, fuel and ammunition dumps, artillery, troop concentrations, vehicles, and other targets; bad weather cancels bomber and fighter operations from the UK.

ITALY: The Fifteenth Air Force dispatches 229 B-24s to bomb marshalling yards and two oil refineries at Bucharest, Romania; 138 others hit Karlovo Airfield, Bulgaria; 40 fighters carry out a sweep over the Bucharest area while other fighters fly 230+ sorties in escort of the B-24s; 20+ enemy fighters are claimed shot down, mostly by the fighters during the sweep over Bucharest.

Col. Albert Puroma's Jäger Brigade starts at 12.45 am. one more attempt to cut from west the Soviet salient east of Lake Leitimonjärvi. After an artillery bombardment fired by eight artillery battalions. After advancing a short distance, the attack bogs down in fierce Soviet resistance. At 4 am. the attacking force withdraws back to its starting positions.

During the early morning hours Lt. Col. E. Polón's IR 30 (minus its I battalion which remained in the 11th Division's reserve) of the 11th Division arrives to the Jäger Brigade's rear and is subordinated to the Armored Division. During its march the IR 30 has taken serious losses from the Soviet artillery and aerial attacks. Maj. Gen. Ruben Lagus now decides to use his reserve, Maj. V. Sarta's I/IR 50, in a final attempt to isolate the Soviet salient. Four artillery battalions fire a preparation, and the attack commences at 8.45 am, but manages to reach only the same level Jäger Brigade's attack had reached earlier the same morning. The I/IR 50 is ordered back to its starting positions. This was the last attempt to close the salient from west.

During the day the Armored Division is subjected to constant and intense artillery fire and aerial bombardment. This afternoon the division's command post is hit, and among others chief of the operations section Lt. Col. Paavo Rasi is killed. The Armored Division, particularly its Jäger Brigade, is reaching the end of its endurance. It is rightly considered a crack formation, and has been used as a fire brigade during the long withdrawal across the Isthmus. It has spent its strength in numerous counter-attacks in the last three weeks, and its units have only 10-20 % of their strength left. It's a testimony to their spirit that the morale remained high despite the severe losses they had suffered.

On the eastern side of the Soviet salient Col. Sven Björkman's forces try to reach the Jäger Brigade in the early morning hours. Capt. Petäjä's Border Jäger Battalion 2 is again at the front of the attack, but cannot overcome the Soviet resistance. Capt. Petäjä is wounded. The gap between Col. Björkman's detachment in east and Col. Puroma's Jäger Brigade in west is less than one kilometre wide, but that's the closest Finns come to closing it. Their strength is spent, and there's no fresh reserves present.

Col. Björkman's men east and Col. Väinö Forsberg's men north of the salient are subjected to a fierce artillery and aerial bombardment, and the Soviet forces, supported by tanks, attack around 11 am. Col. Björkman's men are forced back, but prevent the enemy from achieving a breakthrough. In Col. Forsberg's sector the situation soon becomes critical. Forsberg's forces have suffered heavy losses in yesterday's counter-attacks, and are now unable to resist long. The enemy achieves a breakthrough, and around noon is only a kilometre from Ihantala. The situation is extremely dangerous, but again the reinforcements arrive in the nick of time. Maj. Gen. Einar Wihma's 6th Division is reaching Ihantala.

At 12.30 pm. commander of the IV Corps Lt. Gen. Laatikainen subordinates Col. Y. Hanste's IR 12 (6th Division) to Gen. Lagus for a counter-attack south from Ihantala. The attack starts at 6.30 pm. IR 12 is able to push the enemy back and stabilize the situation by midnight. But the enemy has broken out from the salient, and the Jäger Brigade, IR 50 and IR 30 are in danger of being isolated.

This day and tomorrow are the most critical in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala. There's no more attempts to isolate the Soviet salient and recapture the old positions at the VKT-line around Tali. It's now the question of withdrawing the troops to a new line around Ihantala and stopping the enemy there. The task would be much more difficult without the support given by artillery and air forces, esp. the bombers of Aviation Regiment 4 and Obstlt. Kuhlmey's Stukas and Fw 190's. Finnish fighter and AA-units claim 49 enemy aircraft shot down today around Tali-Ihantala.

Marshal Mannerheim nominates the first two men to receive the Mannerheim Cross, 2nd Class, for the second time. Both are fighter pilots. WO Ilmari Juutilainen (1914-99) will become the highest scoring Finnish fighter ace of the WWII with 94 1/6 kills. Capt. Hans Wind (1919-95) just today raises his score to 75, but is badly wounded, and spends the rest of the war in military hospitals.

U.S.S.R.: The northern wing of the Russian advance reach Petrozavodsk. They also cross the Murmansk rail line to the north.

Zakharov's troops capture Mogilev and cross the Dnieper in Belorussia.

Busch is dismissed by Hitler from the command of Army Group Centre. Field Marshal Model is his replacement.

NEW GUINEA: On Biak Island the western caves have been cleared. Remaining Japanese troops are scattered and the remaining operations are scattered.

MARIANA ISLANDS: US Navy carrier aircraft begin preinvasion strikes against Guam. During the night of 28/29 June, the Japanese dispatch aircraft from Truk Atoll and Iwo Jima against shipping off Saipan but they hit nothing.

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Buctouche damaged by grounding Hamilton Inlet, Labrador. She was able to make Pictou, Nova Scotia, on her own power, where she underwent repairs that took two months to complete. Skr/Lt. was an abbreviation for Skipper-Lieutenant, a rank granted to emergency wartime direct-entry officers with prior experience commanding civilian vessels.
Submarine USS Argonaut (later HMCS Rainbow) laid down Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

U.S.A.: Thomas Dewey is nominated by the Republicans as their nominee for US President with John Bricker as his Vice President.

From the CINCPAC Press Office: NAVAL ADVANCE TO THE WESTWARD The advance of our Naval forces to the westward began with the reoccupation of Attu and Kiska in the far north, and the capture of the most important islands in the Solomons group in the far south.

From our far northern bases we began attacking the Japanese Kuriles from the air. We have also made several surface vessel bombardments against the enemy's shore installations in the Kurile chain.

In the south, the successful termination of the Solomons campaign made possible air and surface raids against Japanese garrisons in the Bismarck Archipelago and along the northern New Guinea Coast.

With our positions in the far north and in the south firmly established the next step was the squeeze made in the middle of the enemy's perimeter. This resulted in the capture of the Gilbert Islands. Following that, the Marshall campaign then gave us Kwajalein, Majuro; and Eniwetok. .Farther to the south we took the Admiralty Islands and also important positions on New Britain. Then strategic areas along the northern New Guinea coast fell to us with the. result that we were then able to launch air and. surface attacks against Truk, Ponape, Kusaie and other islands in the Caroline group, from several directions. We also were able to strike from Australia in the far south against Japanese positions in Java. But it was the capture of certain of the Marshalls group that permitted us to launch our surface and air attacks as far west-as Palau, Guam, Saipan, Rota and the Bonin Islands.

Our last offensive blow, aimed in the ultimate capture of Saipan, already has permitted our air and surface fleets to strike still farther westward. The final occupation of Saipan will enable us to project surface and air operations that will include the mainland of Japan, the Philippines and a greater part of the Dutch East Indies.

CINCPAC COMMUNIQUÉ NO. 65, 1. United States Marine and Army troops have made further gains on Saipan Island, pushing north nearly two miles along the east coast, passing the villages of Donnay and Hashigoru: On the west coast, further penetrations have been made into Garapan Town. Enemy troops broke through our lines containing them on Nafutan Point on the night of June 26 (West Longitude Date), and attempted to drive northward. Two hundred enemy troops were killed in this counterattack. The next day further attacks were launched by our forces against Nafutan Point and the enemy now holds only the extreme tip of the point.

Close support is now being given our troops by shore-based aircraft operating from Aslito Airdrome. Tinian Island has been subjected to protracted daily bombardment to neutralize enemy positions there.

On the night of June 25 several enemy torpedo planes attacked a carrier group screening our transports. Several torpedoes were launched, but no hits were obtained. One enemy plane was shot down, and another probably shot down. During the night of June 26-27 enemy aircraft again attacked our transports, but all bombs landed in the water. One near miss on a transport injured a member of the crew.

2. Surface units of the Pacific Fleet bombarded Kurabu Zaki at the southern tip of Paramushiru in the Kuriles on the night of June 25-26.

Paramushiru and Shimushu Islands were bombed by Liberators of the Eleventh Army Air Force and Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Four before dawn on June 25 and 26. Several fires were started in these raids. Antiaircraft fire was intense. Eleven enemy fighters attacked a single Ventura of Fleet Air Wing Four near the airfield at Paramushiru before dawn on June 26. Two of the attacking planes were damaged, and one disappeared into a fog bank trailing smoke. The Ventura returned with superficial damage.

3. Carrier aircraft swept Guam and Rota Islands in the Marianas on June 26. Fuel reservoirs and coastal defence gun positions were bombed. three small craft in Apra Harbour at Guam were destroyed. The cargo vessel damaged in previous strikes was observed to have sunk. At Rota the airstrip was strafed and buildings were set afire. There was no enemy air opposition during these attacks.

4. Truk Atoll was bombed by Seventh Army Air Force Liberators on June 25. One of five enemy fighters which intercepted our force was shot down. We suffered no damage. Army and Marine aircraft attacked enemy objectives in the Marshalls on June 25.

5. An enemy twin-engine bomber was shot down south of the Hall Islands by a search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two, Group One, on June 26. The same day an enemy torpedo plane was damaged by another search plane northwest A Truk. (Denis Peck)

Coast Guard-manned Army vessel FS-389 was commissioned at Los Angeles, CA. LT C. N. Brown, USCGR, was her first commanding officer. She was assigned to and operated in the Southwest and Western Pacific areas during the war.

POLAND: Warsaw: The Government of National Unity is formed; it includes several members of the old London-based Polish government in exile.

Mission 234: 138 B-29s attack Okayama destroying 2.13 square miles (5.52 square km), 63% of the city area; one B-29 is lost.

Mission 235: 141 B-29s hit Sasebo destroying 0.97 square miles (2.51 square km), 48% of the city area; 2 other B-29s hit alternate targets.

Mission 236: 91 B-29s attack Moji destroying 0.302 square miles (0.782 square km), 26.9% of the city area; 3 B-29s hit alternate targets.

Mission 237: 117 B-29s hit Nobeoka destroying 0.52 square miles (1.35 square km), 36% of the city area.

39 P-47s from Ie Shima attack shipping at Koniya, Japan with rocket and bombing and hit Tokuno Island with rockets and machinegun fire; 26 more hit targets of opportunity in the Sakishima Archipelago including vessels, docks, an airfield, floatplane, and village.

US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateers based on Okinawa continue mining operations off Korea.

BORNEO: During the night, the bombardment flotilla for the Balikpapen, Borneo invasion is attacked by five to seven land-based Japanese torpedo bombers but they score no hits and three aircraft are shot down.

CANADA: Corvettes HMCS La Malbaie and Sherbrooke paid off Sorel, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Blood on the Sun" is released in the U.S. This war drama, directed by Frank Lloyd, stars James Cagney, Sylvia Sidney and Rosemary DeCamp. Cagney is a newspaper reporter in Japan during the 1930s who writes stories that the officials do not like. When they think he has some valuable information, they decide to "interrogate" him. The film won a technical Academy Award.