In Great Britain, an island fortress is preparing to repel invaders expected at any moment. Sea fronts and sands on the south and east coasts are bare of visitors and children, while gun emplacements, barbed wire and pill boxes, disguised as chalets, tea stalls, even haystacks, spring up everywhere. Scaffolding and concrete blocks cover beaches, and piers have been cut off from the shore. To prevent troop gliders from landing, open spaces, downs and golf courses are strewn with obstacles – old cars and buses, carts even iron bedsteads. On the moors above Rochdale, old canal barges are floated on reservoirs to prevent landings by sea and float planes. All signposts have been removed and station names painted out. Motorists must lock and immobilize parked cars. Church bells are silent – to be rung if the invasion should come.
In the demilitarized Channel Islands, the remaining islanders are instructed to paint white crosses on the aerodromes and fly white flags. Five thousand children and their schools have been evacuated to England, in places such as Marple in Cheshire. Many of the children have been individually sponsored by wealthy Americans, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, who sponsors a girl named Paulette. They also have received clothing and school supplies. England itself, of course, may not be safer for much longer.
The Germans ready two battalions for an assault on the Channel Islands. The BBC has broadcast that the islands are “open towns,” but the Wehrmacht is taking no chances.
Operation Catapult: The British Admiralty gave Vice Admiral Somerville explicit instructions to secure the transfer, surrender, or destruction of the French warships at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria. Force H under his command consisted of battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution, battlecruiser HMS Hood, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Enterprise, and 11 destroyers. Admiral Somerville of Force H prepares to neutralize the French fleet anchored at Mers-el-Kébir, Algeria under Operation Catapult. He has several different methods to do so, but the French ships must not remain afloat under French control. He has battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Resolution, the battlecruiser HMS Hood, aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, cruisers HMS Arethusa and HMS Enterprise, and 11 destroyers. This is a “by any means necessary” operation.
British authorities arrested Diana Mitford, wife of fascist leader Oswald Mosley. The police had already arrested her husband under Defence Regulation 18B a month earlier, but they waited to arrest her as well since she had just given birth to their son Max. Mitford, wife of Sir Oswald Mosley and sister of Unity Mitford, was arrested and imprisoned as a public danger due to pro-Nazi views. Unity Mitford, Hitler’s former girlfriend, has recovered somewhat from her attempted suicide on 3 September 1939, but the bullet remains lodged in her brain. While mobile, she acts somewhat erratically.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles yesterday, Chancellor Adolf Hitler visited the “old German city of Strasbourg.” He was making a tour of the western battlefields of France.
Adolf Hitler arrived at his headquarters at Tannenberg in southern Germany.
The Germans release a “white paper” outlining Allied plans to occupy the Low Countries. This is another in a long line of such white books accusing the “other side” of nefarious plans.
Berlin travel agents begin offering tours of the newly conquered Maginot Line.
The French government departs Bordeaux for Clermont-Ferrand.
Wehrmacht forces on 29 June 1940 are relinquishing some areas allocated to the French government pursuant to the Armistice Agreement of 22 June 1940.
There was a mass execution of Polish citizens carried out by the German occupiers on 29 June 1940 in the Brzask Forest near Skarżysko-Kamienna. During the all-day massacre, German SS officers and Ordnungspolizei executed approximately 760 people. Among the murdered were members of Polish underground organizations and representatives of the social and intellectual elite from the area of the pre-war Kielce Voivodeship, arrested as part of the so-called AB-Aktion. Unlike the February execution in Bór, the Germans made no pretense of legality, executing all detainees without court verdicts. The crime at Brzask was the largest execution carried out in the Kielce Land during the German occupation.
Embattled Rumanian citizens fought Soviet Red Army troops for hours today in the border town of Cernauti as the Russian army of occupation swept into ceded parts of Rumania and moved beyond those areas into old Rumania itself. Scores of civilians were killed and wounded. The fighting at Cernauti started between Communists and anti-Communists hours before troops arrived in mid-afternoon and hurled tanks at barricades thrown up in the streets.
The Rumanian Government is mobilizing the armed forces because of new threats posed by Hungary and Yugoslavia, which smell weakness due to Rumania’s quick capitulation to the Red Army.
Another wave of refugees hits Europe, as inhabitants of Eastern Rumania flee westward to avoid living under the occupying Soviets. The number of refugees is estimated at 100,000.
Hungary was reported taking a cautious attitude toward Rumania tonight as a result of advices from Rome, but a flood of wild rumors continued to cloud developments in the Balkans.
An Italian attack across the Eritrean border is repelled by two British light tanks.
After a Heinkel He 111 of Aufklarungsgruppe Oberbefehlshaber der Luftwaffe (AufklGr. Ob.d.L.) (German air force high command) performs reconnaissance over the Bristol dockyards, several others from I/KG27 attack the port facilities at 01:00.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 12 Blenheims to attack Abbeville airfield during the day and all bombed. 6 Blenheims on reconnaissance. No losses.
The RAF attacks various points in Holland and western Germany, including the harbor at Willemsoord, a chemical factory at Hochst near Frankfurt, and the Dortmund-Ems Canal.
Malta, under daily air attack, has only four flyable Hurricanes with two Gloster Gladiators. Governor and Commander in Chief Lt. General William Dobbie requests more planes and ground support. He also requires planes if the island is to serve as a point of interdiction of Axis convoys from Sicily to North Africa.
RAF bombers attack Tobruk, Libya.
RAF Bomber Command dispatches 83 aircraft to various targets in Germany and the Netherlands overnight. 2 Hampden and 1 Whitley lost.
U-26, commanded by Heinz Scheringer, sank Greek steamer Frangoula Goulandris (6701grt) in 49 59N, 11 24W, and six crewmen drowned. The 6,701-ton Frangoula B. Goulandris was carrying ballast.
U-47, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien, sank British steamer Empire Toucan (4421grt) in 49 20N, 13 52W. At 0515 hours, U-47 stopped the unescorted Empire Toucan (Master Hywel Tudor Thomas) with the last five rounds of the deck gun about 190 miles southwest of Fastnet, Ireland. At 0538 hours, the U-boat fired one torpedo that hit aft and broke the ship in two. Prien admired the courage of the radio operator who still sent distress signals even after the torpedo hit. Both radio officers and a greaser were lost. The forepart was later scuttled by gunfire by HMS Hurricane (H 06) (LtCdr H.C. Simms, RN), which picked up the master and 30 crew members and landed them at Plymouth. The 4,127-ton Empire Toucan was carrying ballast and was headed for Port Sulphur, Louisiana.
U-51, commanded by Kapitänleutnant Dietrich Knorr, sank special service vessel (“Q-Ship”) HMS Willamette Valley (acting Cdr R. E. D. Ryder), which was disguised as RFA Edgehill (4724grt), southwest of Ireland at 49° 27’N, 15° 25’W. At 0012 hours the unescorted HMS Willamette Valley (X 39) (LtCdr R.E.D. Ryder, RN), disguised as Edgehill, was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-51 about 250 miles west-southwest of Cape Clear. The ship stopped but did not sink due to her buoyant cargo. The U-boat surfaced and fired a coup de grâce at 0106 hours, but it needed a third torpedo at 0124 hours to let the vessel sink slowly by the stern and capsizing to port. 23 survivors in a lifeboat were picked up by the French trawler Donibane on 4 July and landed at Penzance the next day. The commander stayed afloat on a piece of flotsam and was rescued by a passing ship on 2 July and eventually landed at Plymouth. Another crew member was also rescued from a piece of debris on 6 July. Lt E. F. M. Seymour, Temporary Lt Cdr W. Thomson RNR, Lt F. F. Balchin RNR, Lt D. G. Collins RNR, Temporary Lt Cdr (E) R. P. Beatty RNR, Temporary Lt (E) W. J. Walker RNR, Temporary Paymaster Lt L.W. Williams RNR, Temporary Lt J. H. Martin RNVR, Temporary S/Lt E. A. Dicks RNVR, Temporary Surgeon Lt H.A. Wallace, MRCS, LRCP RNVR, fifty six ratings were lost in the ship. Twenty-seven survivors were picked up by British tanker Inverlee (9158grt) on 3 July.
German U-boat U-99 was again subjected to friendly fire. Upon leaving Wilhelmshaven, Germany, she was attacked by a German aircraft with 3 bombs. She dove under the surface to avoid the bombs, but sustained minor damage when she hit the sea floor.
Italian submarine Rubino was sunk by aircraft of RAF 201 Group in the Ionian Sea in 39 10N, 18 49E. The flying boat picked up some survivors.
Italian submarine Sirena was damaged by aircraft of RAF 230 Squadron off Tobruk.
Italian submarines Uebi Scebeli was sunk and Salpa was damaged by destroyers HMS Dainty, HMS Ilex, HMS Defender, and HMAS Voyager west of Crete in 35 29N, 20 06E. The crew of the sunken submarine was rescued by destroyer Dainty which arrived in Alexandria at 1934/30th. A large number of secret documents were recovered by destroyer Voyager. The destroyer was ordered to return to Alexandria and destroyers HMS Hostile and HMAS Stuart departed to join the hunt. Destroyers Stuart and Hostile departed Alexandria to hunt submarines north of Derna. Early on 1 July, the destroyers attacked a submarine contact without result. Both destroyers arrived back at Alexandria on 2 July.
Battleship HMS Nelson departed the Clyde escorted by destroyers HMS Fury and HMS Fame and Canadian destroyers HMCS St Laurent and HMCS Skeena for Gibraltar. On 1 July at 0251, the ships were ordered to return to Scapa Flow. The ships, less destroyer St Laurent which was assisting British steamer Arandora Star, arrived at Scapa Flow at 0530 on 3 July.
At 2024, the ships at Scapa Flow were brought to immediate notice. Destroyer HMS Fortune was recalled to Scapa Flow. At 2121, notice was brought to one hour’s notice. At 0110/30th, the ships at Scapa Flow returned to normal notice.
Anti-submarine trawler HMS Wellard (514grt) was attacked by German motor torpedo boats fourteen miles east of Beachy Head at 0200. Destroyer HMS Codrington was ordered to search for these boats. At 0658, destroyer Codrington one mile 10° from Folkestone Gate Light Vessel was attacked by a single German Heinkel bomber. No damage or casualties were sustained by the destroyer.
Destroyers HMS Express, HMS Intrepid, and HMS Icarus with minelayers HMS Teviotbank and HMS Plover departed the Humber and conducted minelaying operation BS.19 during the night of 29/30 June.
Italian submarine Beilul conducted a reconnaissance of the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria.
Aircraft carrier HMS Hermes received orders to set sail toward Dakar, French West Africa.
Destroyer HMS Douglas, with convoy HG.36, stopped three French armed trawlers bound for Casablanca, but was unable to persuade them to proceed to Gibraltar. Two French destroyers, apparently for the same destination were also sighted.
Convoy FN.208 departed Southend, escorted by sloops HMS Lowestoft, HMS Stork, and HMS Weston, patrol sloop HMS Guillemot. The convoy arrived at the Tyne on 1 July.
Convoy FS.208 departed the Tyne, escorted by destroyers HMS Wallace and HMS Wolfhound. The convoy arrived at Southend on 1 July.
Convoy WS.1, consisting of liners Aquitania (45,647grt) and Mauretania (35,738grt) departed Liverpool for the Indian Ocean and ultimately North Africa, via Capetown, escorted by heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland. Liner Queen Mary (80,774grt) departed the Clyde at 1050 escorted by destroyers HMS Atherstone and HMS Fernie and joined the convoy at sea. The two destroyers returned to Liverpool. Local escort was given by destroyers HMS Highlander, HMS Harvester, HMS Volunteer, and HMS Whirlwind. The two H’s were detached to Plymouth and the two V’s to Liverpool. The convoy arrived at Freetown on 8 July and departed on 9 July. The convoy safely arrived at Capetown on 16 July and departed Simonstown on 19 July. Heavy cruiser HMS Kent departed Durban on 20 July to rendezvous with the convoy south of Durban. On 21 July, heavy cruiser Kent relieved heavy cruiser HMS Cumberland. The convoy safely arrived at Trincomalee on 28 July.
Convoy OA.176 departed Southend escorted by destroyer HMS Wolverine and corvette HMS Gardenia on 1 and 2 July when they were detached to convoy HX.52. Corvettes HMS Heartease and HMS Arabis escorted the convoy on 1 July.
Convoy OB.176 departed Liverpool escorted by sloop HMS Scarborough from 29 June to 2 July and destroyer HMS Vanoc on the 30th. The convoy was dispersed on 2 July. Destroyer HMS Vanoc returned to Liverpool on 1 July and sloop Scarborough to convoy HX.52.
Convoy HX.54 departed Halifax escorted by Canadian destroyers HMCS Assiniboine and HMCS Ottawa which departed Halifax on anti-submarine duties at 0730/29th. The local escort turned the convoy over to armed merchant cruiser HMS Rajputana at 2115 and arrived back at Halifax 0740/30th. The armed merchant cruiser was detached on 4 July.
Convoy BHX.54 departed Bermuda on the 28th escorted by ocean escort armed merchant cruiser Ascania. The convoy rendezvoused with HX.54 on 3 July and the armed merchant cruiser was detached. On 11 July, destroyers HMS Harvester, HMS Havelock, and HMS Wanderer and sloop HMS Sandwich joined the convoy. Destroyers Harvester and Wanderer were detached. Destroyer Havelock was detached on 13 July. Sloop Sandwich arrived with the convoy at Liverpool on 14 July.
The War at Sea, Saturday, 29 June 1940 (naval-history.net)
Battleship NELSON departed the Clyde escorted by destroyers FURY and FAME and Canadian destroyers HMCS ST LAURENT and HMCS SKEENA for Gibraltar.
On 1 July at 0251, the ships were ordered to return to Scapa Flow.
The ships, less destroyer ST LAURENT which was assisting British steamer ARANDORA STAR, arrived at Scapa Flow at 0530 on 3 July.
At 2024, the ships at Scapa Flow were brought to immediate notice.
Destroyer FORTUNE was recalled to Scapa Flow.
At 2121, notice was brought to one hour’s notice.
At 0110/30th, the ships at Scapa Flow returned to normal notice.
Anti-aircraft cruiser COVENTRY departed the Tyne for Scapa Flow where she arrived on the 30th.
Destroyer IMOGEN departed the Clyde for Liverpool arriving on the 30th.
Destroyers JAVELIN and JUPITER arrived in the Humber.
Escort vessel GLEANER arrived at Belfast.
Destroyer WALKER departed Greenock at 1400 with British steamers CITY OF AUCKLAND (8336grt), CITY OF FLORENCE (6862grt), MARINA (5088grt), DALLINGTON COURT (6889grt), LYCAON (7350grt) for Belfast.
Destroyer WALKER then returned to the Clyde.
Dutch submarines HNMS O.21 and HNMS O.22 arrived at Rosyth from Dundee.
Submarine L.23 and Dutch torpedo boat HNMS Z.5 arrived at Dundee from Scapa Flow.
Submarine TALISMAN completed diving trials.
Submarine NARWHAL departed Blyth for Immingham.
Destroyer GRIFFIN arrived at Dover at 0618 to join the 1st Destroyer Flotilla.
Anti-submarine trawler WELLARD (514grt) was attacked by German motor torpedo boats fourteen miles east of Beachy Head at 0200.
Destroyer CODRINGTON was ordered to search for these boats.
At 0658, destroyer CODRINGTON one mile 10° from Folkestone Gate Light Vessel was attacked by a single German Heinkel bomber.
No damage or casualties were sustained by the destroyer.
At 0430, destroyer BRILLIANT on OD.3 (Dungeness Patrol) investigate Very Lights four miles 135° from the Coast Guard Station at Sandgate.
Destroyers EXPRESS, INTREPID, and ICARUS with minelayers TEVIOTBANK and PLOVER departed the Humber and conducted minelaying operation BS.19 during the night of 29/30 June.
Convoy FN.208 departed Southend, escorted by sloops LOWESTOFT, STORK, and WESTON, patrol sloop GUILLEMOT. The convoy arrived at the Tyne on 1 July.
Convoy FS.208 departed the Tyne, escorted by destroyers WALLACE and WOLFHOUND. The convoy arrived at Southend on 1 July.
U-47 sank British steamer EMPIRE TOUCAN (4421grt) in 49‑20N, 13‑52W.
Three crew were missing from the steamer.
The bow section of the steamer was sunk on the 29th by destroyer HURRICANE which also rescued the survivors.
U-51 sank special service vessel WILLAMETTE VALLEY (acting Cdr R. E. D. Ryder), which was disguised as RFA EDGEHILL (4724grt), southwest of Ireland.
Lt E. F. M. Seymour, Temporary Lt Cdr W. Thomson RNR, Lt F. F. Balchin RNR, Lt D. G. Collins RNR, Temporary Lt Cdr (E) R. P. Beatty RNR, Temporary Lt (E) W. J. Walker RNR, Temporary Paymaster Lt L.W. Williams RNR, Temporary Lt J. H. Martin RNVR, Temporary S/Lt E. A. Dicks RNVR, Temporary Surgeon Lt H.A. Wallace, MRCS, LRCP RNVR, fifty-six ratings were lost in the ship.
Twenty-seven survivors were picked up by British tanker INVERLEE (9158grt) on 3 July.
Convoy WS.1, consisting of liners AQUITANIA (45,647grt) and MAURETANIA (35,738grt) departed Liverpool for the Indian Ocean and ultimately North Africa, via Capetown, escorted by heavy cruiser CUMBERLAND.
Liner QUEEN MARY (80,774grt) departed the Clyde at 1050 escorted by destroyers ATHERSTONE and FERNIE and joined the convoy at sea. The two destroyers returned to Liverpool.
Local escort was given by destroyers HIGHLANDER, HARVESTER, VOLUNTEER, and WHIRLWIND. The two H’s were detached to Plymouth and the two V’s to Liverpool. The convoy arrived at Freetown on 8 July and departed on 9 July. The convoy safely arrived at Capetown on 16 July and departed Simonstown on 19 July.
Heavy cruiser KENT departed Durban on 20 July to rendezvous with the convoy south of Durban. On 21 July, heavy cruiser KENT relieved heavy cruiser CUMBERLAND. The convoy safely arrived at Trincomalee on 28 July.
Convoy OA.176 departed Southend escorted by destroyer WOLVERINE and corvette GARDENIA on 1 and 2 July when they were detached to convoy HX.52. Corvettes HEARTEASE and ARABIS escorted the convoy on 1 July.
Convoy OB.176 departed Liverpool escorted by sloop SCARBOROUGH from 29 June to 2 July and destroyer VANOC on the 30th. The convoy was dispersed on 2 July. Destroyer VANOC returned to Liverpool on 1 July and sloop SCARBOROUGH to convoy HX.52.
Italian submarine RUBINO was sunk by aircraft of RAF 201 Group in the Ionian Sea in 39‑10N, 18‑49E. The flying boat picked up some survivors.
Italian submarine SIRENA was damaged by aircraft of RAF 230 Squadron off Tobruk.
Italian submarines UEBI SCEBELI was sunk and SALPA was damaged by destroyers DAINTY, ILEX, DEFENDER, and HMAS VOYAGER west of Crete in 35‑29N, 20‑06E.
The crew of the sunken submarine was rescued by destroyer DAINTY which arrived in Alexandria at 1934/30th.
A large number of secret documents were recovered by destroyer HMAS VOYAGER. The destroyer was ordered to return to Alexandria and destroyers HOSTILE and HMAS STUART departed to join the hunt.
Destroyers HMAS STUART and HOSTILE departed Alexandria to hunt submarines north of Derna.
Early on 1 July, the destroyers attacked a submarine contact without result. Both destroyers arrived back at Alexandria on 2 July.
Italian submarine BEILUL conducted a reconnaissance of the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria.
Destroyer DOUGLAS, with convoy HG.36, stopped three French armed trawlers bound for Casablanca, but was unable to persuade them to proceed to Gibraltar. Two French destroyers, apparently for the same destination were also sighted. (all destroyers going to Casablanca, already accounted for – me)
Convoy HX.54 departed Halifax escorted by Canadian destroyers HMCS ASSINIBOINE and HMCS OTTAWA which departed Halifax on anti-submarine duties at 0730/29th.
The local escort turned the convoy over to Armed merchant cruiser RAJPUTANA at 2115 and arrived back at Halifax 0740/30th. The armed merchant cruiser was detached on 4 July.
Convoy BHX.54 departed Bermuda on the 28th escorted by ocean escort armed merchant cruiser ASCANIA. The convoy rendezvoused with HX.54 on 3 July and the armed merchant cruiser was detached.
On 11 July, destroyers HARVESTER, HAVELOCK, and WANDERER and sloop SANDWICH joined the convoy. Destroyers HARVESTER and WANDERER were detached. Destroyer HAVELOCK was detached on 13 July. Sloop SANDWICH arrived with the convoy at Liverpool on 14 July.
The U.S. government, chalking up a deficit of $3,700,000,003, will end one fiscal year tomorrow and start a new one which, as a result of the new defense program, will be peacetime history’s costliest. The expiring fiscal year produced a new spending record of about $9,600,000,000, revenue totaled about $5,900,000,000, leaving a deficit exceeded in peacetime only in 1936 when the soldiers’ bonus was paid. (Exact figures on income and outgo will not be known until the middle of next week after year-end reports are received from field offices).
The Smith Act was enacted in the United States, setting criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government and requiring all non-citizen adult residents to be registered. The first peace-time requirement that all aliens in the United States submit to registration and finger-printing became law today when President Roosevelt signed the legislation to that effect passed by Congress.
Senator John E. Miller of Arkansas, a member of the Senate Military Affairs Committee, declared here today that rapid war developments in Europe might “force” the United States to occupy “some of the menaced Allied possessions in the Western Hemisphere.”
Admiral Emery S. Land, chairman of the United States Maritime Commission, was one of a large number of appointees to the staff of the National Advisory Defense Commission, announced today. The Admiral will coordinate shipbuilding activities, merchant and naval, in association with the Production Division of the Advisory Commission, in addition to carrying his present duties.
Senate isolationists threatened tonight to raise a row over the plans of two committees to hold secret hearings on President Roosevelt’s nomination of Colonel Frank Knox as Secretary of Navy and Colonel Henry L. Stimson as Secretary of War.
Congress “wasted a lot of time” before passing legislation to expand naval construction, Charles Edison, former Secretary of the Navy, declared today in an interview.
Warning that “our liberties stand in more danger from our own excitement than from our enemies,” Attorney General Robert H. Jackson declared tonight that “the greatest reliance of the law-enforcing authorities is upon sound and calm and dispassionate attitudes on the part of the American people and its press.” In an address before the annual convention of the New York State Bar Association, he said that he had at all times favored registration and identification of aliens which Congress had now authorized.
Predictions of conflict between the United States and Japan are “superficial and short-sighted,” Kensuke Horinouchi, Japanese Ambasador, declared yesterday at Japan Day ceremonies at the World’s Fair in New York.
Former President Herbert Hoover dismissed politics for fishing today and left by plane for his Palo Alto, California, home and the trout streams. Discussing the election prospects of Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie, Hoover said with a snap of his fingers “He will be elected just like that.”
The Republican National Committee, acting today under the instructions of the party’s Presidential nominee, Wendell L. Willkie, conferred on the nominee and a committee of eleven of its own members, broad powers designed to bring together all factions within the party, and to ensure adequate political direction of what they predicted would be a winning campaign.
Wendell L. Willkie, Republican nominee for President, left Philadelphia this afternoon on a two-day cruise on the 110-foot yacht Jamaroy, owned by Roy W. Howard, newspaper publisher.
The latest nation-wide survey of rank-and-file Democrats by the American Institute of Public Opinion shows that President Roosevelt is their overwhelming first choice for the party’s 1940 Presidential nomination, according to Dr. George Gallup, director of the institute.
U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt departed Washington D.C., United States aboard the yacht USS Potomac; the ship was accompanied by auxiliary vessel USS Cuyahoga.
Senator Wheeler of Montana is the only Democrat who can defeat Wendell L. Willkie at the polls in November, according to Senator Johnson of Colorado.
The War Department announced yesterday adoption of tank tactics on lines of the German Panzer units, revising the system followed since the World War. It created an armored corps of two divisions, 18,000 men and 1,400 tanks.
United States Army forces were preparing to repel a simulated surprise air attack on vital parts of the Panama Canal tonight or tomorrow, according to an announcement from military headquarters tonight.
In the Batman Comics, mobsters rub out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick (Robin) an orphan.
Major League Baseball:
In an old-fashioned slugfest of twenty-six assorted hits, including five homers, the world champion Yankees defeated Connie Mack’s Athletics, 12–9, for their third straight victory, and their second in a row over the hapless A’s. Joe Dimaggio has one of the homers, his 11th of the year, and adds a triple and a single, driving in three runs.
Bob Feller fans 11 White Sox in gaining his 12th win of the year, 7–3. Feller also doubled to drive in two runs. Thornton Lee takes the loss. The Tribe now lead the American League by 2 ½ games.
In St. Louis, the Tigers score 6 runs in the 1st inning, four on a grand slam by Hank Greenberg, to whip the Browns, 9–5. Game 2 ends in a 9–inning 9–9 tie. Walt Judnich homered for the Browns in both games.
Rapping out eighteen hits off five pitchers, the Senators won their second straight game from the Red Sox today, 9–7, despite home runs by Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr.
Bill Lohrman twirled a seven-hit shutout for the New York Giants, who piled on Kirby Higbe for nine hits, four of them ringing off the bat of Burgess Whitehead, as the Giants blanked the Phillies, 5–0. Two runs in the third and three in the eighth did the damage, while the Phils increased to nineteen straight innings their record of not having scored.
The Dodgers stay a half game behind the Reds, winners in Chicago, as they score 4 runs in each of their last two at-bats to rout Boston, 10–4. Dixie Walker accounts for half with a grand slam.
Jim Turner, who came here from Boston in a trade for a man now in the minors, pitched the Reds to a 4–1 triumph over the Cubs today. The Reds managed only five hits — but four of them were doubles.
Washington Senators 9, Boston Red Sox 7
Boston Bees 4, Brooklyn Dodgers 10
Cleveland Indians 7, Chicago White Sox 3
Chicago Cubs 1, Cincinnati Reds 4
Philadelphia Athletics 9, New York Yankees 12
New York Giants 5, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Detroit Tigers 9, St. Louis Browns 5
Detroit Tigers 9, St. Louis Browns 9
A broad program looking to joint action by the twenty-one American republics for their common defense was presented tonight by the Pan-American “Union for consideration by representatives of the republics at a meeting in Havana tentatively set for July 20.
Destroyer USS O’Brien departed Rio Grande du Sol, Brazil for Santos, Brazil.
Victor Hope, 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow, Governor-General and Viceroy of India, meets with Mohandas Mahama Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah of the Indian National Congress in an effort to build support for the British war effort. While Gandhi is no fan of Hitler and Germany, and in fact sent a letter to Hitler in 1939 pleading with him not to start a war, Gandhi is uninterested in cooperating with the Allies until India is granted full independence. Great Britain has no intention of doing that, so negotiations are at a standstill.
Japan continues its gradual campaign to assert dominion over the entire western Pacific. Japan’s Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita broadcasts that there is a “new order in Asia: unity into a single sphere revolving harmoniously around Japan.” This language echoes the future Japanese colonial organization, the “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.” Foreign Minister Arita in a broadcast to the Japanese Empire this afternoon pictured a new vast aggregation of satellite States in East Asia and the South Seas revolving harmoniously around Japan. They would be stabilized by Japan’s superior power but their individual characteristics, political. cultural and economic, would be respected.
American administration leaders received with cold disapproval Japanese Foreign Minister Hachiro Arita’s speech inferentially proclaiming a “Monroe doctrine” for Asia.
Battle of South Kwangsi: Japanese 22nd Army pushing toward Lungchin against minimal opposition.
Despite another Japanese air raid on Chungking today — the seventeenth of the Summer season — the Central Executive Committee of the Kuomintang, China’s highest political body, decided to go ahead with its plenary session.
Japanese troops are on the outskirts of Hong Kong, effectively blockading it from the landward side.
A special session of the Hong Kong executive council decided this afternoon that compulsory evacuation of British women and children would be made next week. The refugees first will go to Manila, then to Australia.
Japanese government insists it has special interests in the South Seas.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 121.87 (-0.19)
Born:
Nancy Ramey, American swimmer (WR 100m butterfly 1:09.1 1959; 200m butterfly 2:40.5 1958; Olympic silver 100m butterfly 1956), in Seattle, Washington.
Bill Kirchiro, NFL guard (Baltimore Colts), in Bernardsville, New Jersey.
Vyacheslav Artyomov, composer, in Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union.
Died:
Paul Klee, 60, Swiss-German painter.
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Bangor-class (Reciprocating-engined) minesweeper HMS Eastbourne (J 127) is laid down by Lobnitz & Co. Ltd. (Renfrew, Scotland).
The Royal Navy Flower-class corvette HMS Verbena (K 85) is laid down by Smiths Dock Co., Ltd. (South Bank-on-Tees, U.K.).
The Royal Navy “T”-class (First Group) submarine HMS Talisman (N 78) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Philip Stewart Francis, RN.
History Diaries 