World War II Database

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

• Weather data for 27 Jun 1942

• USS Nautilus sank Japanese auxiliary minesweeper Musashi Maru 60 miles south of Tokyo Bay, Japan. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• Dr. Heinisch, the German administrator in the Przemysl area in occupied Poland, declared that anyone interfering with the deportation, looting Jewish homes, or helping Jews hide would be shot. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Allied convoy PQ-17 under Commodore J. C. K. Dowding sailed from Hvalfjord, north of Reykjavik, Iceland, where it had assembled. One ship grounded on leaving harbour and another was damaged by ice in the Denmark Strait, so the convoy that set course for Arkhangelsk, Russia comprised 33 ships plus a tanker, escorted by six destroyers, two anti-aircraft ships, four corvettes, three minesweepers, four trawlers and two submarines; which it was hoped would discourage enemy attacks. On the same date, convoy QP-13 set sail from Arkhangelsk, Russia; it was consisted of 35 merchant ships and was escorted by 3 destroyers, 1 minesweeper, 4 corvettes, 1 anti-aircraft vessel, and 2 trawlers. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC, CPC]
• German submarine U-404 sank Norwegian ship Moldanger 300 miles southeast of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; 14 were killed, 30 survived. 650 miles east of the Virgin Islands, U-153 sank US ship Potlatch; 8 were killed, 47 survived; Potlatch was carrying a cargo of tanks, trucks, and supplies for the British forces fighting in Egypt. 250 miles east of Trinidad, U-128 sank US ship Polybius; 10 were killed, 34 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]
• German submarine U-129 sank Mexican tanker Tuxpam with torpedoes (1 of 2 hit) and her deck gun 50 miles north of Veracruz, Mexico; 8 were killed, 31 survived. 20 miles west of Barbados, U-126 sank Norwegian tanker Leiv Eiriksson at 1055 hours; 4 were killed, 40 survived (2 of the survivors would die of their wounds at a hospital at Barbados). At 1525 hours, U-129 struck again, sinking Mexican tanker Las Choapas with a torpedo also about 50 miles north of Veracruz, Mexico; 4 were killed, 28 survived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Two Australian Catalina flying-boats, on a night mission over the Lae-Salamaua area of Australian New Guinea lasting four hours, dropped eight 500-pound bombs, twenty 20-pound fragmentation bombs and four dozen empty beer bottles. The beer bottles falling through the air made a screeching sound which helped to terrorise the enemy and spoil his sleep. ww2dbase [Main Article | AC]

• German 90th Light Division cut off the Allied forces at Mersa Matruh, Egypt as its troops reached Ras Hawala at 1900 hours. British commander Claude Auchinleck ordered his forces to fall back to Fuka 48 kilometers to the east; the withdraw was conducted with much confusion. German 21st Panzer Division surrounded New Zealand 2nd Infantry Division at Minqar Qaim, Egypt before sundown, but the New Zealand troops would be able to break out of the envelopment after dark with a bayonet charge. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• 144 British bombers (55 Wellington, 39 Halifax, 26 Stirling, 24 Lancaster) attacked Bremen, Germany, damaging the Atlas Werke and the Korff refinery, killing 7, and wounding 80; 9 bombers were lost on this mission. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• The first two of many US Army instructors for the newly established Ramgarh Training Center in India arrived. ww2dbase [Main Article | CPC]

• Shokaku left drydock. ww2dbase [Main Article | Tabular Record of Movement | CPC]

• German Bf 109 fighters misidentified and shot down two friendly He 111 bombers of 8. Staffel of KG 55 over Volchansk, Kharkov Oblast, Ukraine. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Acting on information given by defected saboteur George Dasch, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents captured two German saboteurs in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The FBI would soon announce to the public the capture of eight German saboteurs. ww2dbase [CPC]

27 Jun 1942 Interactive Map