World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 7 Jun 1942

• Lieutenant Charles Conway Hartigan Jr. was made the commanding officer of the suvivors of sunken USS Hammann. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• USS Saratoga transferred aircraft to Enterprise and Hornet so that they could sail north to reinforce the Aleutian Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Tatsuta Maru arrived at Saipan, Mariana Islands. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]
• All Jews over the age of six were forced to wear the Star of David in occupied France. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• The B-24 Liberator bomber flown by Clarence Tinker plunged into the Pacific Ocean; no rescue mission was launched, and Tinker and eight other aboard were presumed lost. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-26 sank US freighter Coast Trader 35 miles west of Washington, United States; 1 was killed, 55 survived. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-107 sank Honduran ship Castilla 75 miles south of the western tip of Cuba at 0408 hours; 24 were killed, 35 survived. 50 miles north of the western tip of Cuba, U-158 sank Panamanian ship Hermis; 1 was killed, 46 survived. At 2224 hours, U-159 sank US ship Edith 200 miles southeast of Jamaica; 2 were killed, 29 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-653 sank destroyer USS Gannet 240 miles north of Bermuda at 0742 hours; 14 were killed, 62 survived. US liberty ship George Clymer, damaged on the previous day by speedboat Esau launched by German armed merchant cruiser Michel, was scuttled by British armed merchant cruiser HMS Alcantara in the South Atlantic; Michel approached to attack HMS Alcantara during the rescue operation, but would arrive far too late. 700 miles southwest of Freetown, British West Africa, Italian submarine Da Vinci sank Danish ship Chile; 5 were killed, 39 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• British PBY Catalina flying boats sank Italian submarine Veniero off Palma, Majorca, Spain. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Japanese troops occupied Kiska, Aleutian Islands, US Territory of Alaska. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• German engineers penetrated the minefield outside of Bir Hakeim, Libya, but the attack was repulsed by Free French fighters with British air support. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Hans-Joachim Marseille shot down the P-40 fighter piloted by South African Lieutenant Frewen over El Adem, Libya at 1610 hours. Three minutes later, he shot down the P-40 fighter piloted by South African Lieutenant Leonard James Peter Berragé. These were his 76th and 77th kills. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• USS Yorktown, having already been abandoned for hours, slowly rolled over to her side and sank north of Midway Atoll at 0458 hours. Destroyers that remained near her wreck lowered her flags to half mast as she sank beneath the sea. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• I-168 successfully evaded the hunt by American submarines and escaped the Midway area on only two engines to conserve fuel. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• Troops of German 11th Army began a 2-pronged assault on the city of Sevastopol in Russia, capturing Belbek at 1715 hours but also suffering 2,357 casualties. ww2dbase [Main Article | TH, CPC]

• Italian submarine Torelli was damaged by radar-equiped British aircraft in the Bay of Biscay. Her captain beached her in northern Spain to prevent sinking, and the crew performed enough repairs for her to get on her way again, but only to be discovered and attacked by British aircraft again (1 was killed, 2 wounded). She was beached again (near Santander, Spain), and this time the temporary repairs would take until 14 Jun 1942. ww2dbase [CPC]

• The American newspaper Chicago Tribune reported the Battle of Midway victory, hinting that the US Navy had knowledge of Japanese strengths prior to the engagement; this would later, in Aug 1942, trigger a Federal investigation. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

7 Jun 1942 Interactive Map