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• 56 British RAF Bomber Command aircraft deployed naval mines in the Bay of Biscay west of France. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Italian destroyer Strale was damaged by British Fleet Air Arm Swordfish torpedo bombers off Cape Bon, Tunisia; she ran aground to prevent sinking. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Milton Miles was promoted to the war time rank of captain. ww2dbase [Milton Miles | CPC]

• The crew of USS S-27 reboarded the submarine, which had run aground south of Amchitka in the US Territory of Alaska two days prior, and recovered supplies. ww2dbase [S-27 | Amchitka | CPC]

• Canadian minesweeper HMCS Georgia attacked a unidentified submarine by ramming off Newfoundland at 0300 hours, sinking what turned out to be British submarine HMS P-514, killing all 29 aboard. At 0400 hours, German submaine U-128 sank US ship West Ira 120 miles east of Barbados; all 49 aboard survived but 1 of them would die before being rescued. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• Leonardo da Vinci sighted a destroyer in the Atlantic Ocean at 0200 hours and took evasive action. At 1010 hours, she sighted a freighter and again avoided contact as she was out of torpedoes and was heading for her home port of Bordeaux, France. ww2dbase [Leonardo da Vinci | Second Happy Time | CPC]

• Captured coast watcher Cornelius Page was transferred to Kavieng, New Ireland. ww2dbase [Kavieng, New Ireland | CPC]

• USS S-44 sank converted gunboat Keijo Maru in northern Savo Sound, Solomon Islands. She was immediately counterattacked by Japanese aircraft, causing damage to her depth gauges, gyrocompass, and the ice machine due to flooding. ww2dbase [S-44 | Savo Sound | CPC]

• Gato-class submarine USS Silversides arrived at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Her commanding officer, LtCdr C.C. Burlingame, was awarded the Navy Cross for his actions during this patrol. ww2dbase [Silversides | Pearl Harbor, Oahu | DS]

• The "San Marco" naval infantry regiment of the Italian Navy formed the "Mazzuchelli" battalion; it would soon be renamed "N" (swimmer) battalion. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese hospital ship Hikawa Maru departed Hashirajima, Japan. ww2dbase [Hikawa Maru | Hashirajima, Yamaguchi | CPC]
• Naka arrived at Maizuru, Japan. ww2dbase [Naka | Maizuru, Kyoto | CPC]

• At dawn, Allied troops attempted a breakout from Tobruk, Libya, but was met with failure. At 0645 hours, South African minesweeping whalder HMSAS Parktown was disabled by four Italian MAS torpedo boats just outside the harbor, killing many; Parktown would be scuttled after all survivors were rescued. At 0800 hours, the 35,000-strong Allied garrison (19,000 British, 13,400 South African, and 2,500 Indian) surrendered. ww2dbase [Battle of Gazala | Tobruk | CPC]

• A US PBY Catalina aircraft rescued two airmen who had lost their TBD Devastator torpedo bomber during the Battle of Midway. They were the last survivors to be rescued from the battle. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | CPC]

• Adolf Hitler reluctantly decided to delay his summer offensive due to the heavy Soviet defense of Sevastopol, Russia. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | Sevastopol | TH]

• 50 German Luftwaffe aircraft conducted a raid on Southampton, England, United Kingdom. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | Southampton, England | TH, CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-25 approached close to the Oregon shoreline, careful to avoid any minefields by following some fishing boats. I-25 arrived within 1,100 yards of the mouth of the Columbia River. Intending to shoot over the Clatsop Spit and shell the Navy’s Tongue Point seaplane base at Astoria, Oregon, I-25 fired 17 rounds from her deck gun, but the shells fell well short and landed in undeveloped areas of Fort Stevens. This was Japan’s second and last naval bombardment of the continental United States during World War II. [Apparently, I-25's navigator was relying on an antiquated map of the area which showed a submarine and destroyer base on Tongue Point. Such a base was completed in 1924, but never used. In 1942, the military presence on Tongue Point was as a Navy seaplane base servicing a squadron of PBY Catalina patrol planes.] ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Warrenton, Oregon | CPC]
• In Washington, United States, President Franklin Roosevelt handed a telegram to Winston Churchill without comment. It announced that the 33,000-man garrison in Tobruk, Libya had surrendered. The American President immediately offered to send, by the fastest American ships, 300 new Sherman tanks and a hundred self-propelled guns to Egypt. ww2dbase [Battle of Gazala | Franklin Roosevelt | Washington | AC]
• Karl Bendetsen toured the Portland Assembly Center in Oregon, United States. ww2dbase [Karl Bendetsen | Portland Assembly Center | Portland, Oregon | CPC]

21 Jun 1942 Interactive Map