During the Siege of Sevastopol, the German 11th Army began a massive five-day artillery barrage on the fortress city using 620 guns including the enormous 800mm Schwerer Gustav "Dora" gun.[3]
German submarine U-652 was depth charged and damaged in the Gulf of Sollum by Fairey Swordfish aircraft and had to be scuttled.
The Battle of Midway began. The Japanese sought to deliver another crushing blow to the U.S. Navy to ensure Japanese dominance in the Pacific, but American codebreakers had determined the time and place of the Japanese attack in advance, enabling the U.S. Navy to prepare its own ambush.
The Hitler and Mannerheim recording is made when Hitler paid a secret visit to Marshal Mannerheim, ostensibly to congratulate him on his 75th birthday. The recording is the only existing one of Hitler speaking in an ordinary tone of voice.[6]
The Australian ore carrier Iron Crown was torpedoed and sunk in Bass Strait by the Japanese submarine I-27.
The American aircraft carrier USS Yorktown sank the day after being torpedoed by Japanese submarine I-168 at Midway.
The American seaplane tender Gannet was torpedoed and sunk in the Caribbean Sea by German submarine U-159.
British Commandos executed Operation Albumen, an overnight raid on German airfields on Axis-occupied Crete. The British managed to destroy 5 aircraft, damage 29 others and set fire to several vehicles and significant quantities of supplies.
The Chicago Tribune published a front-page article titled "Navy Had Word of Jap Plan to Strike at Sea", providing clues from which the Japanese might have figured out that the Americans had broken their codes ahead of the Battle of Midway. Navy Secretary Frank Knox demanded that the Tribune be prosecuted, but once the Navy realized that the Japanese did not change their codes after the article appeared, the case was quietly dropped to avoid bringing the enemy's attention to the story.[10][11]
Born:Muammar Gaddafi, Libyan politician, dictator of Libya (official date of birth) (d. 2011)
Died:Alan Blumlein, 38, English electronics engineer and inventor (plane crash)
The Czech village of Lidice was completely destroyed by German forces in reprisal for the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich. All men older than 15 years were executed. Most children were executed later.
The British cargo ship Empire Clough was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean on her maiden voyage by the German submarine U-94.
Operation Pastorius: German submarine U-202 landed four saboteurs on American soil at Amagansett, New York, the first of many intended operations to sabotage economic targets within the United States.[16]
The British destroyer Grove was torpedoed and sunk off Egypt by German submarine U-77.
During the Battle of Gazala the Germans struck north to the Libyan coast in an effort to cut off British forces in the Gazala sector, but General Ritchie effected their withdrawal.[17]
During Operation Harpoon the British destroyer HMS Hasty was torpedoed off Sirte by a German motor torpedo boat and so badly damaged that she was scuttled the next day.
The British cruiser Liverpool was severely damaged in the Mediterranean by Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 bombers and knocked out of action until July 1943.
Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo was slightly wounded when a Korean nationalist shot him in the left arm outside the old war ministry building in Tokyo. Japanese police returned fire and killed the man identified as 31-year old Park Soowon. The incident was not revealed to the public for two months.[21]
Axis forces gained control of the coastal road to Bardia, completing the isolation of Tobruk.[22] The Allies withdrew from Sidi Rezegh, Ed Duda and El Adem.[17]
The British destroyer HMS Wild Swan was bombed and sunk in the Bay of Biscay by the Luftwaffe.
President Roosevelt signed a bill raising the minimum pay of American servicemen to $50 a month.[23]
German submarines U-466 and U-664 were commissioned.
A light aircraft carrying German major Joachim Reichel crash-landed on the Eastern Front behind Russian lines. Reichel was killed in the crash and documents he was carrying pertaining to the upcoming German offensive fell into Soviet hands. German High Command debated over how much to revise their plans in light of the security breach but as it turned out, Stalin believed the documents were planted by the Germans in order to deceive the Soviets and ordered them to be ignored.[28][29]
Soviet submarine Shch-214 was torpedoed and sunk in the Black Sea by the Italian motor torpedo boat MAS-571.
Died:Alois Eliáš, 51, Czechoslovak general and politician (executed)
Vichy French Prime Minister Pierre Laval made a radio broadcast in which he stated, "I wish for a German victory, because, without it, Bolshevism tomorrow would settle everywhere." This speech shocked many of the French people who were still holding out hope that the Vichy regime was playing a waiting game with the Germans until France could be liberated in an Allied victory.[31]
Erwin Rommel was promoted to the rank of field marshal as a reward for his victory in the Battle of Gazala.[32]
Hitler wrote to Benito Mussolini with "heartfelt advice" recommending that he postpone Operation Herkules and instead "order the continuation of operations to seek the complete destruction of British forces to the very limits of what your high command and Marshal Rommel think is militarily possible with their existing troops. The goddess of fortune in battle comes to commanders only once, and he who fails to seize the opportunity at such a moment will never be given a second chance." Mussolini complied with Hitler's veiled order and postponed Herkules to September.[33][34]
Albert Speer told Hitler that nuclear science would reap benefits in the distant future, but no superbomb could be produced in time to affect the war. The German military decided to abandon nuclear research as a result. That same day, Werner Heisenberg almost died when his experimental reactor at Leipzig suffered a leak that started a fire. Heisenberg and his assistant Robert Döpel extinguished the fire but noticed the sphere was beginning to swell, and both men ran outside before the reactor exploded and the lab was destroyed. Rumor spread that the scientists had been killed in a uranium bomb explosion, and when word of it reached the scientists working on the Manhattan Project, they assumed that the Germans had achieved a sustained nuclear chain reaction and were considerably further ahead in their research than they actually were.[35]
Winston Churchill arrived back in England. A joint Anglo-U.S. statement on the Washington Conference was issued reporting that subjects discussed included war production, shipping and plans to help China.[17]
^ abcdGregory, Don A.; Gehlen, Wilhelm R. (2009). Two Soldiers, Two Lost Fronts: German War Diaries of the Stalingrad and North Africa Campaigns. Philadelphia, PA: Casemate. p. 230. ISBN978-1-935149-74-3.
^Ritchie, Donald A. (2005). Reporting from Washington: The History of the Washington Press Corps. Oxford University Press. p. 22. ISBN978-0-19-534632-9.
^ abMueller, Joseph N. (1992). Guadalcanal 1942: The Marines Strike Back. University Park, IL: Osprey Publishing. p. 91. ISBN978-1-85532-253-0.
^Beigbeder, Yves (2006). Judging War Crimes And Torture: French Justice And International Criminal Tribunals and Commissions (1940–2005). Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. p. 193. ISBN978-90-04-15329-5.
^Mitcham, Samuel Jr. (2007). Rommel's Desert Commanders: The Men who Served the Desert Fox, North Africa, 1941–1942. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International. p. 158. ISBN978-0-275-99436-5.
^Corvaja, Santi (2008). Hitler & Mussolini: The Secret Meetings. New York: Enigma Books. p. 205. ISBN978-1-929631-42-1.
^Castillo, Dennis Angelo (2006). The Maltese Cross: A Strategic History of Malta. Praeger Security International. p. 194. ISBN978-0-313-32329-4.
^Craig, Nelson (2014). The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era. New York: Scribner. pp. 183–184. ISBN978-1-4516-6043-2.
^Polmar, Norman; Allen, Thomas B. (2012). World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945. Dover Publications. p. 23. ISBN978-0-486-47962-0.