15 days to BARBAROSSA.
Behind the screen of the continuing raids on Britain, the Luftwaffe is being switched to the east. The powerful air fleet which destroyed Belgrade and blasted the way clear for the Wehrmacht to march through the Balkans is being transferred to Poland, where it is being joined by squadrons taken there from France. There are now 2,770 German aircraft, formed into three fleets, facing the Soviet Union.
In preparation for Operation BARBAROSSA, long columns of Wehrmacht troops are heading east in Poland. This is very noticeable to locals because the military vehicles clog the roads and all civilian vehicles are prohibited for hours at a time. Full vehicles are traveling east, empty ones back to the west. Of course, civilians see the military traffic on the roads, and it is fairly obvious to them what is in store. A local, Polish physician Zygmunt Klukowski, writes in his diary that it “is the same as during a war.”
British Operation BATTLEAXE, an offensive against Axis positions in Libya, was delayed. The reason: delays in bringing tanks forward from Alexandria to General O’Moore Creagh’s troops. The attack is to be a larger-scale version of Operation Brevity on 15 May.
An Italian convoy of three freighters escorted by destroyers Frescia, Strale, Marco Polo and Victoria depart from Naples bound for Tripoli. There also is distant support of two cruisers and three destroyers. While the Italian Navy has the resources to make an impact across the Mediterranean, it prefers to use its ships in these low-risk operations and retain its “fleet in being.”
The ships of Operation ROCKET — the ferry mission of Hawker Hurricanes to Malta — arrive back at Gibraltar without incident.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill sends a message to Malta Governor Dobbie in reply to a pessimistic cable sent by the latter on the 5th:
“I am entirely in agreement with your general outlook. It does not seem that an attack on Malta is likely within the next two or three weeks. Meanwhile other events of importance will be decided, enabling or compelling a new view to be taken. You may be sure we regard Malta as one of the master-keys of the British Empire. We are sure you are the man to hold it and we will do everything in human power to give you the means.”
The War Office also responds today to General Dobbie’s request for more troops. It requests “further details” for defensive armaments. Dobbie responds immediately, listing a need for Bofors guns and anti-tank artillery.
Churchill telegraphs to de Gaulle: “…best wishes to our joint enterprise in the Levant. ….At this hour when Vichy touches fresh depths of ignominy, the loyalty and courage of the Free French save the glory of France.”
The Allied invasion of Syria, Operation EXPORTER, begins this night. On the coastal axis, Palestinian Jewish guides (including a young Moshe Dayan from the Hanita Kibbutz) lead Australian forces who infiltrate the frontier at 21:30 before hostilities are declared. From a kibbutz at Hanita they cross the border at 9.30 pm to cut signal wires and probe for mines. Heavy seas prevent British commandos from ‘C’ Battalion British Special Service Brigade from landing behind the border to prevent the French blocking the narrow coastal road. The advance of 21 Australian Brigade is halted by heavy French fire short of the bridge over the Litani River. On the central axis, 25 Australian Brigade sweeps aside the French frontier posts but is then halted by determined French troops in well-chosen positions. On the desert (eastern) axis, 5 Indian Brigade seize Deraa (site of Lawrence of Arabia’s torture in WWI) and penetrate to Kuneitra.
In anticipation of the invasion, planned to begin in earnest on 8 June, Royal Navy units depart from Port Said (Force C of troopship Glengyle escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and destroyers Hotspur, Ilex and ISIS) and Alexandria (Force B of light cruisers Ajax and Phoebe, with destroyers Janus, Jackal, Kandahar and Kimberley). The Glengyle carries men of No. 11 Commando to seize a bridge at the mouth of the Litani River in Lebanon.
The main invasion will not start until the early hours of 8 June. It is divided into three columns or prongs — west, center, and east. The three prongs are isolated and not mutually supporting.
The main prize is the coast road. It is the most direct route into Syria and can be easily protected by the Royal Navy and RAF. British commandos from ‘C’ Battalion British Special Service Brigade are assigned to land at key points just behind the border in order to disrupt the French response, but seas are heavy and look like they may interfere with that. The Australian 21st Brigade advances to capture a key bridge over the Litani River.
Further inland in the center, the Australian 25th Brigade is to take the French picket line along the border and then proceed inland. Poor French morale is expected to prevent a major response.
In the eastern sector, the Indian 5th Brigade has the objective of advancing to seize Deraa and reach Kuneitra.
None of these objectives are considered especially difficult to achieve by commanding General Henry Maitland Wilson. This is one of the least-known major operations of World War II, perhaps because it is an unprovoked act of aggression by Allied forces against a neutral power which tends to undermine their moral authority — though, let’s be clear, the Allies have loads of surplus moral authority relative to the Axis.
The British remain extremely jittery about a possible German invasion despite all the military intelligence they have been receiving about Hitler’s plans in the East. In fact, a cross-Channel invasion would make great sense from a military standpoint — but Hitler apparently is not operating at this time from a standpoint of pure military logic. The weather is perfect, the entire summer lies ahead, London, Liverpool, and other cities lie largely in ruins, the U-boats are operating at peak efficiency — execution of Operation SEA LION at this time would have some prospects. But, the Germans have no interest in England and are barely even pretending at this point to retain an interest in a Channel crossing.
The Royal Navy shares the lingering concern about an invasion, and at 20:00 it receives erroneous reports of major German naval units at sea. The Home Fleet goes on one-hour notice, which is peak readiness one step short of actually going to sea, and remains on this alert through the night.
Hitler meets with King Boris of Bulgaria in Berlin.
Martin Bormann informs the Gauleiters that the influence of the churches will have to be curtailed as much as possible, for National Socialism and Christianity are irreconcilable.
Operation JOSEPHINE B ended in Allied success when a sabotage team blew up an electrical transformer station in Pessac, France. The French team initially had failed in the attempt and missed their 20 May rendezvous with the submarine sent to retrieve them and so set out for Paris. Sergeant Jean Forman had been given a couple of possible addresses before he left England; at one of these he met Joël Letac. Letac had been forced to abandon Operation SAVANNA, but he would not hear of giving up on JOSEPHINE B. Letac rallied the team and travelled with them back to the Bordeaux region. In the night they seized a truck to go up to Pessac; the truck broke down, so they resorted to bicycles. They quickly found their explosives where they had hidden them on the first night — 100 metres from the transformer station. Varner quickly verified that the detonators would still work in spite of the moisture.
On the night of 7/8 June 1941, Forman climbed the perimeter wall and jumped down into the yard while carefully avoiding any contact with the high voltage cable. Then he simply opened the door to his comrades who brought in all their equipment. In less than half an hour plastic explosive in boxes and connected to magnetic incendiary bombs was placed on each of the eight main transformers. The four men made their get-away, pedaling with all their might, as explosions sounded and flames rose into the sky. Searchlights vainly probed the sky for bombers. The mission turns from a failure into a success: six of the eight transformers blow up, and work on the Bordeaux submarine base is delayed by weeks. Electrified trains in the region have to be replaced with coal-burning locomotives. Repairs took a full year. The commune of Pessac was fined one million francs, 250 local people were imprisoned and a curfew was imposed from 9:30 pm to 5 am. Twelve German soldiers were shot for failing to protect the station against the saboteurs. General de Gaulle named Joel Letac, who survived many exploits, Compagnon de la Liberation (Companion of the Liberation), the highest honour of the French Resistance.
The team is well-funded — they have a quarter of a million francs for their mission, which converts to about a year’s wages of £1,400 — and set out for Spain and thence Lisbon. They are in no hurry.
For the British, it is a massive success and enhances the prestige of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) after some failures.
Chemists Archer John Porter Martin and Richard L. M. Synge give the first demonstration of partition chromatography (separation of mixtures) at a meeting of the Biochemical Society held at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hampstead.
The reinstated Monarchist Iraqi government under Regent Abdul Ilah (Abdullah) sets up a Committee of Enquiry to investigate the Farhud riots of 1-2 June.
There is an outbreak of typhoid at Zamość Prison in southeastern Poland. Unfortunately, the local doctors are inmates in the prison, too.
The NKVD arrests General Boris Lvovich Vannikov for “failing to carry out his duties.” Vannikov is the People’s Commissar for Armament. It is unclear what he is really accused of, and it may, in fact, be nothing more than having unintentionally crossed Premier Joseph Stalin in some way (Stalin has a habit of arresting and torturing underlings, then at some point reinstating them). Vannikov will be released on 25 July 1941 and reinstated fully to essentially the same position in February 1942.
Despite increasing evidence of German troop buildups along the border, Stalin prohibits any “provocative” defensive precautions. Everything is to remain as is, with the Soviet Union continuing to fulfill its trade agreements with Germany and sending supply trains west across the border.
RAF Fighter Command conducts a sweep over France.
RAF Bomber Command, Day of 7 June 1941
22 Blenheims on shipping searches from the Frisians to Norway. A ship was set on fire off Terschelling. 3 aircraft lost.
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 7/8 June 1941
Brest
30 Wellingtons and 3 Stirlings to bomb the Prinz Eugen, which had now come into Brest from the Atlantic. No hits were scored and no aircraft were lost.
During the night, the Luftwaffe makes a major raid on the Royal Navy port of Alexandria, and also Suez. Flying from the Italian-held Rhodes, 31 Junkers Ju 88 bombers cause 230 deaths. Following the raid, the British authorities commence an evacuation from Alexandria that will include about 40,000 people. This aerial attack likely is a by-product of the massive shift of the Luftwaffe from west to east in contemplation of Operation Barbarossa. The Germans are accumulating about 2770 planes in Eastern Europe, and an occasional raid on British bases in the Mediterranean is good operational practice.
Italian bombers attack Tobruk.
The RAF, for its part, bombs Benghazi and Derna. RAF No. 830 Squadron, serving with the Fleet Air Arm on Malta, sends 7 Fulmar Swordfish against Tripoli Harbor to drop magnetic mines (“cucumbers”).
There is an air raid on Malta during the early morning hours by Italian BR-20 bombers. The Italians bomb the Luqa, Manoel Island, Marsa, and Wardia areas, and in the process lose a bomber and perhaps two more at sea.
Battlecruiser HMS Repulse departed Conception Bay for Halifax, and arrived on the 9th to escort convoy TC.11.
Fleet units at Scapa Flow went to one hour’s notice at 2000 on a report of German main fleet units. The notice was subsequently cancelled on the 8th.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank departed Methil at 1100 and escorted convoy EC.29 from May Island. Ship Alynbank arrived at Scapa Flow at 0100/9th after having parted company with the convoy off Cape Wrath.
Examination vessel No.10 (281grt) was sunk in mining off Milford Haven.
Destroyer HMS Hero departed Port Said on the 6th for Haifa to complete final arrangements with the Army for EXPORTER. Force B of light cruisers HMS Phoebe and HMS Ajax and destroyers HMS Kandahar, HMS Kimberley, HMS Jackal, and HMS Janus departed Alexandria on the 7th to be off the Syrian coast at daylight on the 8th for Operation EXPORTER. Force C of British troops ship Glengyle, escorted by anti-aircraft cruiser HMS Coventry and destroyers HMS Ilex, HMS Hotspur, and HMS Isis departed Port Said on the 7th to land troops in Syria.
Battlecruiser HMS Renown, aircraft carriers HMS Ark Royal, HMS Furious, light cruiser HMS Sheffield and destroyers HMS Faulknor, HMS Fearless, HMS Foxhound, HMS Forester, and HMS Fury departed Gibraltar to meet aircraft carrier HMS Victorious.
Submarine HMS Regent departed Gibraltar for Malta.
Submarine HNLMS O.24 departed Gibraltar for patrol in the Gulf of Genoa.
Submarine HMS Severn arrived at Gibraltar after patrol.
President Roosevelt reviews the two plans for the defense of the Pacific, ABC-1 and Rainbow 5, that have been worked up during the spring. The plans envisage cooperation with the British Commonwealth and the Dutch forces in the East Indies, with a heavy emphasis on defensive activities in the Pacific Theater while the main effort is against the Reich and Italy in Europe. Roosevelt neither approves nor disapproves of the plans, but familiarizes himself with them and suggests they be returned to him should war actually break out.
Reports military leaders favor limiting army conscription to men from 21 through 24 years old circulated at the U.S. Capitol today. For this reason, administration leaders said they favored amending the selective service law to leave President Roosevelt a free hand in deciding the top age limit at which men would be inducted. Their proposal would mean revision of a bill approved by the senate military committee which would permit the president to defer from active service only those draft registrants who had reached or passed their twenty-eighth birthday.
U.S. President Roosevelt learned that Germany was unlikely to invade the Iberian Peninsula, and suspended the planning for the occupation of the Portuguese Azores islands.
The U.S. Maritime Commission had begun to commandeer foreign vessels and allocate them to whatever service deemed to be most useful for national defense. They included 39 Danish, 28 Italian and two German ships as well as others in Lithuanian, Estonian, and Romanian registry. The pride of the catch is the 83,423-ton French liner Normandie, the former holder of the Blue Riband for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic.
President Roosevelt departs the White House at 11:30 for Annapolis and embarks on a weekend cruise on the USS Potomac. He is accompanied by Crown Princess Martha of Norway, Princess Ragnhild, Harry L. Hopkins, Robert Hopkins, Diana Hopkins, Captain John R. Beardall.
Former President Herbert Hoover gives the Commencement address at Haverford College. The CBS radio network broadcasts it. Hoover notes:
“We have been told with monotonous repetition by the collectivists and left-wingers that our frontiers are gone. They say our industrial plant is built. They claim there is no safety valve for human energies. They assure us that we have come to an age of humdrum problems of underconsumption, overproduction, and the division of the existing pot. They say that new opportunity for youth has shrunken. That is not so. There was never in history a more glorious frontier for youth than today. Adventure and opportunity beckon in every avenue of science. They beckon from the great profession of men trained to research. They beckon from its thousands of applications. From it spring tens of thousands of new services and industries. In them human courage, character, and ability have an outlet that never came even with the two-gun frontiers.”
Meanwhile, 24,000 people pack Chicago Stadium to hear speeches against the America First movement. Abraham Lincoln biographer Carl Sandburg calls Charles Lindbergh President Roosevelt’s new “Copperhead,” a Civil War term for Democrats in the North who choose to oppose the war and advocate a negotiated settlement with the South.
America must fight now “while Great Britain and China are still powerful allies,” Rear Admiral Harry E. Yarnell, former commander in chief of the United States Asiatic Fleet, urged today in his commencement address at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Ranks of the C.I.O. in the North American Aircraft Corp. strike split wide open tonight as Richard T. Frankensteen, national head of the United Automobile Workers’ aircraft division, charged that the walkout was without authorization or approval. Bitterly censuring the local membership in a nationwide broadcast, Frankensteen said: “I take this opportunity of serving notice on the Communists that they must keep their hands off the policies and affairs of the aircraft division of the C.I.O. here on the west coast.” His rebuff, delivered first at a conference with the local’s strike committee, a few hours after President Roosevelt had ordered the plant reopened voluntarily Monday with the alternative of army action, brought the following comment from Elmer Freitag of the committee: “It is the unanimous opinion of the committee that the workers stay out until the 75-cent (per hour) minimum wage and the 10 cents an hour general raise are obtained.” After the broadcast, Freitag, saying he spoke for the negotiating committee, issued a statement charging Frankensteen was “attempting to sell out the North American workers, by advocating a back to work movement and this committee repudiates him.”
An initial detachment of troops from the 15th infantry regiment left the Hunter-Leggett army camp tonight for Los Angeles, and authoritative sources said they had been assigned to strike duty at the North American Aircraft Corp. plant in Inglewood. These sources said that probably the entire regiment, numbering 3,100 men, would be sent south and that the movement would be completed by tomorrow night. President Roosevelt issued an ultimatum today to the North American Aviation Corp. strikers go back to work Monday or the government will seize the plant and the army will operate it.
Ford Motor Company officials said tonight that assembly of automobiles and trucks in all Ford plants would be resumed Monday despite an alleged slow-down strike affecting engine production at the River Rouge plant. The shutdown of final assembly operations today at River Rouge and twelve branch plants gave the motor assembly line enough time to build up a surplus of engines, according to Ray Rousch, superintendent of production at River Rouge. Company spokesmen charged that a slow-down strike organized by the United Automobile Workers (C.I.O.) to bring pressure into current contract negotiations with Ford was centered in the motor building from which about 5,000 engines daily are turned off assembly lines. The alleged slow-down, noticeable only in production figures and an excess of waste time by the workers, has been in progress two weeks and twice earlier this week forced branch plants to suspend final operations for a day, the company said.
Immediate steps will be taken to establish new teachers’ union locals in New York and Philadelphia, to replace the three locals ousted in the national referendum held by the American Federation of Teachers, Dr. George S. Counts, president, disclosed yesterday.
The Federal Government is moving in the direction of requiring income tax returns from all recipients of income, whether they are so-called tax-exempt associations or not, it was learned today. One of the immediate defense purposes of such a move, it was pointed out, would be to detect subversive activities by un-incorporated associations.
Epitomizing what Colonel Frank Knox, Secretary of the Navy, called “the first essential of defense — the importance of time,” the New York Shipbuilding Corporation launched today the 35,000-ton battleship South Dakota and quickly put in her place on the ways a section of keel on which will rise the 10,000-ton cruiser Santa Fe.
“My Sister and I” by Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra hit #1 on the Billboard singles charts.
US Open Men’s Golf, Colonial CC, Fort Worth: In sweltering heat, Craig Wood wins by 3 strokes ahead of runner-up Denny Shute
Whirlaway with jockey Eddie Arcaro won the 73rd Belmont Stakes and completed the U.S. Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing.
Major League Baseball:
Scoring six unearned runs in the eighth inning, the Cincinnati Reds beat the Dodgers, 8–3, the Brooklyn team falling to second place in the National League standing. Bucky Walters was the winning pitcher. An error by brilliant young shortstop Peewee Reese in the eighth inning on what should have proved the third out opened the gates for the world champions to score six unearned runs off Luke (Hot Potato) Hamlin. The big blow of the frame, after the misplay, was Cyrano Lombardi’s sixth home run of the campaign with two mates aboard, a wallop deep into the lower left-field stands.
The Cubs got only five hits today but their timing was perfect as they took the series opener from the Braves, 5–1. Clyde McCullough led the Cubs with a homer in the sixth that accounted for three runs and a long fly that brought home Augie Galan with another run in the eighth. Claude Passead, in registering his fourth victory for the Cubs, kept the seven hits he gave up well scattered. Boston’s only run came in the third on Lloyd Waner’s double and Buddy Hassett’s single.
Chicago’s White Sox repulsed the Boston Red Sox challenge for second place in the American League by turning back Joe Cronin’s slugging crew today, 5–4. The victory evened the series at one game apiece and snapped Boston’s winning string at six. The second-place White Sox virtually won the game in the sixth with a three-run outburst that drove Jack Wilson from the box.
Jim Bagby Jr. did the unusual today. He held the Athletics to four hits for a 6–2 triumph to become the first Cleveland pitcher other than Bob Feller to win a game in two weeks. The result kept intact the Indians’ two-game margin over the second-place White Sox. Irving Hadley, Yankee cast-off, was shelled in a thirteen-hit Cleveland attack led by Hal Trosky’s fifth home run of the season, a fourth-inning drive over League Park’s centerfield wall. Nelson Potter and Chubby Dean also were pounded.
The Tigers tagged Steve Sundra and Vern Kennedy for nine runs in two innings to erase an early deficit and take a 10–6 decision today from the Senators. It was their second victory in a row over Washington. The Senators, who have been on the short end of the score in eighteen of twenty games, were ahead, 3–1, after five and a half innings and Sundra apparently was in control. Then Detroit pushed six runs over on five hits, including doubles by Pinky Higgins and Frankie Croucher, and registered three more in the seventh frame off Kennedy, Sundra’s successor.
The Cards regain the National League lead by pounding out 19 hits and beating the Giants, 11–3. Jimmy Brown, Coaker Triplett, and Terry Moore each collect four hits. Enos Slaughter has a triplpe and Frank Crespi homers for St. Louis. The Cardinals advantage over the Dodgers is half a game.
The veteran Cy Blanton yielded eight scattered hits and fanned three batters as Philadelphia took a 2–0 game from the Pirates at Shibe Park today before 3,802 fans. Danny Litwhiler scored first for the Phils in the second inning when he reached base on Arky Vaughan’s error, advanced on Bob Bragan’s single, and scampered home later on Harry Marnie’s fly to Vincent DiMaggio. The second run came in the eighth when Marnie, who opened the inning by greeting relief pitcher Lloyd Dietz with a single to left, scored on Merrill May’s fly to Maurice Van Robays in left.
The Yankees score 5 in the 9th to beat host St. Louis 11–7. Joe DiMaggio hits in his 22nd straight game in Sportsman Park, St. Louis. DiMaggio has 3 singles and Charley Keller belts a 3rd-inning grand slam that gives the Yankees a five-run lad which the Browns whittle away, eventually taking a 7–6 lead before the final Yankees rally..
Cincinnati Reds 8, Brooklyn Dodgers 3
Chicago Cubs 5, Boston Braves 1
Boston Red Sox 4, Chicago White Sox 5
Philadelphia Athletics 2, Cleveland Indians 6
Washington Senators 6, Detroit Tigers 10
St. Louis Cardinals 11, New York Giants 3
Pittsburgh Pirates 0, Philadelphia Phillies 2
New York Yankees 11, St. Louis Browns 7
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 118.89 (+0.89)
The completeness of Canadian union and the loyalty of the Dominion to the cause for which it is fighting alongside Britain were shown today when all political parties and all the Provinces were represented at the commemoration here of the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Sir John A. Macdonald, the great artisan of national union and the first Prime Minister of united Canada.
Sixty Japanese planes bombed Chungking this afternoon in two waves and burned dozens of buildings in the heart of the provisional Chinese capital. The British Embassy was damaged for the second time in five days.
Japan diplomatically recognized the Independent State of Croatia.
Japanese Consul in the Philippine Islands Katsumi Nibro cables Tokyo that the U.S. Navy has eight destroyers, fourteen submarines and two target towing ships in Manila Harbor.
The Netherlands Indies’ reply to Japan’s “final” note in the trade negotiations with the Netherlands Indies, Which is long and detailed, is now the subject of careful scrutiny by the Tokyo authorities. A whole series of conferences is already being announced to determine the Japanese response.
Born:
(Cecil) Hotep Idris Galeta, South African jazz pianist, composer, and educator, in Crawford, Cape Town, South Africa (d. 2010).
Jaime Laredo, Bolivian violinist (Queen Elisabeth of Belgium Prize, 1959), conductor (Vermont Symphony, 1999-), and educator, in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
Tony Ray-Jones, photographer, in Wells, Somerset, England, United Kingdom (d. 1972).
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Isles-class minesweeping trawler HMS Westray (T 182) is laid down by J. Lewis & Sons Ltd. (Aberdeen, Scotland).
The Royal Indian Navy Basset-class minesweeping trawler HMIS Poona (T 260) is laid down by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (Calcutta, India).
The U.S. Navy Acme-class coastal minesweepers USS Pluck (AMc-94) and USS Positive (AMc-95) are laid down by the Noank Shipbuilding Co. (Noank, Connecticut, U.S.A.).
The Royal Indian Navy Bangor-class (Reciprocating-engined) minesweepers HMIS Oudh (J 245) and HMIS Bihar (J 247) are laid down by Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (Calcutta, India).
The Royal Australian Navy Bathurst-class minesweeper-corvette HMAS Bundaberg (J 231) is laid down by Evans Deakin Ltd. (Brisbane, Queensland, Australia).
The Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvette HMCS Ville de Quebec (K 242) [ex Quebec] is laid down by the Morton Engineering and Dry Dock Co. (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada).
The Royal Canadian Navy Flower-class corvette HMCS Charlottetown (K 244) is laid down by the Kingston Shipbuilding Co. (Kingston, Ontario, Canada).
The U.S. Navy Gato-class submarine USS Barb (SS-220) is laid down by the Electric Boat Co. (Groton, Connecticut, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy Cleveland-class light cruiser USS Santa Fe (CL-60) is laid down by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. (Camden, New Jersey, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Skimmer (AMc-53) is launched by the Snow Shipyards Inc. (Rockland, Maine, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Adamant (AMc-62) is launched by the Greenport Basin and Construction Co. (Greenport, Long Island, New York, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-375 is launched by Howaldtswerke AG, Kiel (werk 6).
The Nihon Kaigun (Imperial Japanese Navy) Kaidai KD7-type (I-176 class) submarine I-76 (later I-176) is launched by the Kure Naval Arsenal (Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan).
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type II) escort destroyer HMS Wheatland (L 122) is launched by Yarrow Shipbuilders Ltd. (Scotstoun, Scotland).
The U.S. Navy battleship USS South Dakota (BB-57), lead ship of her class of 4, is launched by the New York Shipbuilding Corp. (Camden, New Jersey, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy patrol yacht USS Carnelian (PY-19) [ex-Trudione; ex-Seventeen] is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander G. L. Hoffman, USNR.
The U.S. Navy patrol yacht USS Tourmaline (PY-20) [ex-Sylvia] is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant Commander Charles E. Judge, USNR.
The Вое́нно-морско́й флот СССР (ВМФ) (Soviet Navy) “ShCh” (ShChuka)-class (6th group, Type X-modified) submarine ShCh-405 is commissioned.
The Вое́нно-морско́й флот СССР (ВМФ) (Soviet Navy) “ShCh” (ShChuka)-class (6th group, Type X-modified) submarine ShCh-406 is commissioned.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIB U-boat U-85 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Oberleutnant zur See Eberhard Greger.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-207 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Oberleutnant zur See Fritz Meyer.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-332 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kapitänleutnant Johannes Liebe.
The Вое́нно-морско́й флот СССР (ВМФ) (Soviet Navy) Project 7U-class (Storozhevoy-class) destroyer Soobrazitelny (Сообразительный, “Astute”) is commissioned.
History Diaries 