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• » 12 Jul 1940

• USS Phoenix arrived at Valparaiso, Chile on a mission "to cultivate friendly relations". ww2dbase [Phoenix | CPC]
• USS O'Brien departed Pará, Brazil for La Guaira, Venezuela. ww2dbase [O'Brien | CPC]
• Destroyers USS Walke and USS Wainwright arrived at Pará, Brazil with Marines for cruisers USS Wichita and USS Quincy. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Turkish Prime Minister stated that Turkey intended to remain faithful to her friendships, but that any threat to her independence would be met by resort to arms. ww2dbase [AC]

• German submarine U-56 attacked British transport ship Dunera with a torpedo in the North Channel between England, United Kingdom and Ireland; the torpedo glanced off the ship without exploding; the commanding officer of U-56 did not realize that Dunera was carrying, among others, Italian and German prisoners of war bound for Australia. To the southwest, 160 miles southwest of Ireland, German submarine U-99 sank Greek ship Ia at 0200 hours; 3 were killed and 27 were later rescued. At 2300 hours, U-99 struck again and fired a torpedo at Estonian ship Merisaar, but missed; with shots from the deck gun, she stopped the Estonian ship and forced her to sail into the German-occupied French port of Bordeaux (before reaching Bordeaux, however, a German aircraft would sink her on 15 Jul). ww2dbase [First Happy Time | CPC]

• Operation Fish: British ships arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with US$1,750,000,000 worth of gold and securities from the Bank of England was destined for the Bank of Canada's vault in Ottawa. ww2dbase [Halifax, Nova Scotia | CPC]

• Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong ordered his troops to move against Nationalist positions in Jiangsu Province, China. ww2dbase [Battle of Huangqiao | CPC]

• Jean de Lattre de Tassigny was made a Grand Officier of the Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur. ww2dbase [Jean de Lattre de Tassigny | CPC]

• In the Mediterranean Sea, Italian bombers attacked British battleship HMS Warspite and cruiser HMS Liverpool between 0850 and 1150 hours. HMS Liverpool was hit by a dud, but it still killed 1 and wounded 2. One Italian bomber was shot down by a Sea Gladiator carrier biplane fighter from HMS Eagle. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | Warspite | CPC]

• Graf Zeppelin was towed to Gotenhafen (Gdynia), occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Deutsche Werke Gotenhafen | Graf Zeppelin | Gdynia, Pomorskie | CPC]

• US passenger liner Manhattan departed Lisbon, Portugal with about 800 American citizens and their families fleeing the European War. ww2dbase [Lisbon | CPC]

• German He 111 and Do 17 bombers attacked Allied convoy code named Booty off of Essex and Suffolk, England, United Kingdom; 2 British Spitfire fighters and 1 British Hurricane fighter were lost in the battle, but they prevented sinkings. In southern England, German Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacked Portland and Exeter, losing two aircraft. At Aberdeen, Scotland, a He 111 bomber on a reconnaissance mission was intercepted and shot down, but was able to release one bomb on the city before crashing into the city's ice rink. ww2dbase [Battle of Britain | England | CPC]

12 Jul 1940 Interactive Map