JUNE 1942
  • June 1. Saratoga (CV-3) sorties San Diego for Pearl Harbor.
  • June 2. Yorktown (CV-5, TF 17, RAdm Fletcher) and Enterprise (CV-6 TF 16, RAdm Spruance) with Hornet (CV-8) rendezvous 350 miles NE of Midway;
    • RAdm Fletcher is officer in tactical command; force consists of three carriers, seven heavy cruisers, one light cruiser, 16 destroyers.
    • U.S. deploys 25 fleet submarines west of Midway.
  • June 3. Japanese submarine cordon arrives Hawaii, but the two US task forces have already passed.
    • Japanese forces bearing down on Midway with five fleets and 200 ships: Strike Force is lead by 4 carriers, 2 battleships.
    • Midway-based B-17's attack Japanese transports 600 miles west of Midway Island; inflict no damage. Four PBYs set out to attack the approaching Occupation Force.
    • Attempting to divert forces from Midway, a 2nd carrier force, Ryujo and Junyo, bomb Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
    • In an event whose importance only becomes clear later, a Mitsubishi A6M2 Type 0 carrier fighter, damaged over Dutch Harbor, makes an emergency landing on Akutan Island. The Zero flips over, killing the pilot
    • Task force of 5 cruisers and 4 destroyers leave Pearl for Alaska.
  • June 4. Battle of Midway
    • PBYs attack Occupation Force northwest of Midway; one PBY torpedoes fleet tanker Akebono Maru.
    • Japanese carrier fleet - Akagi, Kaga, Soryu, and Hiryu - sends its aircraft against defensive installations on Midway. Although defending USMC F2A's and F4F's suffer disastrous losses, damage to facilities on Midway is comparatively slight.
    • Japanese carrier fighters and antiaircraft fire annihilates the USMC SBD's and SB2U's, Navy's new TBF's, and USAAF torpedo-carrying B-26's sent from Midway Island to attack the Japanese carriers. USAAF B-17's likewise bomb the Japanese carrier force without success.
    • Concentrating on the destruction of Midway air forces, the Japanese carriers were caught unprepared for the U.S. carrier air attack.
    • Torpedo bombers (TBD's) from American carrier striking force Hornet (CV-8), Enterprise (CV-6), and Yorktown (CV-5) attack the enemy carriers. Although mauled by the defending combat air patrol and antiaircraft fire, they draw off the former and leave the skies open for dive bombers (SBD's) from Enterprise and Yorktown.
    • SBD's from Enterprise sink carrier Kaga and bomb Akagi (flagship) SBD's; SBD's from Yorktown bomb and sink carrier Soryu.
    • Submarine Nautilus (SS-168) torpedoes carrier Kaga but her "fish" do not explode.
    • Hiryu escapes destruction that morning, launches dive bombers that temporarily disable Yorktown. Fletcher transfers flag to Astoria (CA-34) .
    • A second Japanese counter attack 2 hours later, damages Yorktown with bombs and torpedoes so severely that she was abandoned.
    • In the late afternoon, SBD's from Enterprise, including Yorktown planes, hit the Japanese Force again, striking Hiryu, the fourth and last of the Japanese carriers.
    • TF-16 (Spruance) released at dusk.
    • With control of the air irretrievably lost, the Japanese are compelled to abandon Midway invasion plans and the invasion force retires westward.
  • June 4-5. Overnight
    • Three Japanese fleets, with ten battleships, including Yamato, the world's largest battleship, two escort carriers, cruisers, and destroyers race to engage the U.S. carriers.
    • The U.S. fleet withdraws till midnight, then returns to the protective air cover of Midway.
    • Finding nothing, the Japanese battle fleets also withdraws.
  • June 5. Battle of Midway continues as U.S. seeks retiring Japanese fleets.
    • Salvage underway on crippled carrier Yorktown
    • Japanese carriers Akagi and Hiryu are scuttled. Heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma are damaged in collision while avoiding submarine Tambor (SS-198).
    • Planes from Japanese carriers Ryujo and Junyo again attack Dutch Harbor, Alaska.
    • Japanese troops occupy Attu, Aleutians, without opposition.
    • U.S. Task Force 1 of 6 battleships link up west of San Francisco.
    • Long Island (AVG-1) arrives San Francisco, joints TF 1 of battleships as scout.
    • FDR promises in-kind retrobution if Japan continues to use poison gas in China.
  • June 6. Battle of Midway concludes as carrier planes sink damaged heavy cruiser Mikuma.
    • Meanwhile, Japanese submarine I-168 finds Yorktown (CV-5) under tow, torpedoes Yorktown and destroyer Hammann (DD-412) alongside.
    • Carrier TF 16 changes course to eastward to refuel and breaks contact with the enemy.
    • The Battle of Midway, one of the most decisive battles in naval history, marks the turning point of the Pacific War. The decisive defeat administered to the Japanese put an end to their successful offensive and effectively turned the tide of the Pacific War.   Japanese losses totaled four fleet carriers, one heavy cruiser, 258 aircraft, and a large percentage of their experienced carrier pilots.   United States losses were 40 shore-based and 92 carrier aircraft, and the destroyer Hammann and the carrier Yorktown, the result of a single submarine attack.   The significance of the victory was not completely recognized at the time.
  • June 7. Carrier Yorktown (CV-5) sinks as the result of heavy damage incurred on 4 and 6 June.
    • In the wake of the battle, efforts to locate downed aviators persist over the ensuing days.
    • Japanese troops occupy Kiska, Aleutians, without opposition.
    • Saratoga replenishes Enterprise and Hornet with aircraft to go intercept Japanese Alaska task force.
  • June 8. Part of Japanese Midway force is sent to reinforce Alaska force : 2 BB, 1 CVE, 2 CA.
  • June 9. USAAF claims victory at Midway ; in fact, no land-based aircraft hit any warships.
  • Jun 10. Wasp (CV-7), North Carolina (BB-55), Quincy (CA-39), San Juan (CL-54 ) and 6 destroyers transit the Panama Canal became TF 18 (RAdm Noyes).
  • Jun 10. Patrol planes discovered the presence of the enemy on Kiska and Attu -- the first news of Japanese landings that had taken place on the 7th.
  • Jun 11-13. PBY Catalinas, operating from the seaplane tender Gillis in Nazan Bay, Atka Island, hit ships and enemy positions on Kiska in an intense 48-hour attack which exhausted the gasoline and bomb supply aboard the Gillis but was not successful in driving the Japanese from the Island.
  • Jun 12. Japanese Alaska force further reinforced with fleet carrier Zuikaku, and 2 heavy cruisers in a last attempt to trap the U.S. carriers which has withdrawn.
  • Jun 12. B-17's and B-24's raid Kiska, damaging Japanese destroyer Hibiki.
  • Jun 13. Saratoga, Enterprise, Hornet return to Pearl.
  • Jun 14. First echelon of 1st Marine Division (MGen Vandegrift), 5th Reg arrives at Wellington, New Zealand.
  • Jun 15. Copahee ACV-12 was commissioned at Puget Sound Navy Yard, first of 10 escort carriers of the Bogue Class converted from merchant hulls.
  • Jun 15. Seven US ships torpedoed or mined by U-boats in Caribbean this day.
  • Jun 16. Congress authorized an increase in the airship strength of the Navy to 200 blimps.
  • Jun 17. Pelican antisubmarine guided missile undertaken - glide bomb homes on a radar beam.
  • Jun 17. FDR approves Bush report on construction of an atomic weapon.
  • Jun 17. Four German agents put ashore from U-202 at Jacksonville, Fla.
  • Jun 18. B-17's, B-24's, and an LB-30 (Navy B-24) bomb Japanese shipping in Kiska harbor, sinking fleet tanker Nissan Maru
  • Jun 19. VAdm Ghormley assumes command of South Pacific Area at Auckland, New Zealand.
  • Jun 19. Ballard (AVD-10) rescues 35 survivors (found by PBY) from Japanese carrier Hiryu scuttled 5 June. They had been left below for dead.
  • Jun 20. Japanese submarine I-26 shells Estevan Point, Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
  • Jun 21. PBY recovers two-man crew from TBD; these are the last survivors recovered from the Battle of Midway.
  • Jun 21. Japanese submarine I-25 shells Fort Stevens, Oregon.
  • Jun 22. Carrier Saratoga (CV-3) departs Pearl to ferry planes to Midway.
  • Jun 25. Saratoga delivers 25 P-40's and 18 SBD's to Midway to replace heavy losses of 4 June.
    • Pres Roosevelt and PM Churchill reach decision in Washington to combine R&D of atomic bomb.
    • U.S. Army establishes European Theater of Operations under MGen Dwight D. Eisenhower.
    • PBYs bomb Japanese base at Tulagi, Solomon Islands
  • Jun 26. Rommel advances half-way across Egypt.
  • Jun 28. Eleven U.S. ships sunk off Atlantic coast by U-boats this week.
  • Jun 29. Saratoga returns to Pearl from ferrying planes to Midway.
  • Jun 30. XPBS Excalibur with Adm Nimitz and his staff to San Francisco crashes upon landing off Alameda, CA; pilot killed.
  • June 30. Japanese convoy escorted by 4 carriers to Kiska, Aleutians, Alaska.
  • June . Conference on bomb design led to central laboratory for the atomic bomb project.
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