Posted on 06/23/2012 5:04:27 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1942/jun42/f23jun42.htm
Axis forces reach Egypt
Tuesday, June 23, 1942 www.onwar.com
In North Africa... Axis troops cross into Egypt. The British 8th Army retreats in disarray to Mersa Matruh.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/frame.htm
June 23rd, 1942
UNITED KINGDOM: Germany’s latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190, is captured intact when it mistakenly lands in Wales.
Corvette HMCS St Thomas (ex HMS Sandgate Castle) laid down at the Cammel Laird shipyard, South Bank, Stockton-on-Tees.
Escort carrier HMS Emperor laid down.
Submarine HMS Storm laid down.
(Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Rastenburg: Hitler is fascinated by the report of Albert Speer, the arms minister, on the latest atomic weapons research.
POLAND: Auschwitz: The first selections for the gas chamber take place, on a trainload of Jews from Paris.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The Malta based Beauforts are in action again.
BLACK SEA: Soviet destroyer Smishlionny mined and sunk in Black Sea. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORTH AFRICA: The leading German troops cross into Egypt behind the withdrawing British 8th Army. Rommel captures Mersa Matruh with relative ease. His depleted armour, now down to 60 tanks, against a force of 160 British tanks, won through by relying on surprise.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Kapunda launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: The survivors of the sinking of the submarine USS S-27 (SS-132) which ran aground and sunk on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians on 19 June, are sighted by a PBY Catalina crew. The aircraft lands and takes off with 15 of the crew. The remainder of the crew are rescued by three PBYs tomorrow. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.A.: Washington: After a weekend of talks, Roosevelt and Churchill announced that they were preparing “the earliest maximum concentration of war power upon the enemy.” They refused to go into details, but Harry Hopkins, the head of the US munitions assignment board, promised “a second, third and fourth front if necessary to pen the German army in a ring of steel.” He said he was “getting tired of hearing people say the British cannot fight”. They had fought against “almost unbelievable odds. We owe Britain a great debt which we intend to repay in full.”
Submarines USS Pogy and Sawfish launched.
Minesweeper USS Sustain launched.
Submarine USS Sawfish launched.
Minesweeper USS Sustain launched.
Destroyer USS Knight commissioned.
Corvette HMCS Trillium completed refit in Galveston, Texas.
(Dave Shirlaw)
CARIBBEAN SEA: At 0720, the Andrea Brøvig (Norwegian but in RFA service) was torpedoed, shelled and sunk by U-128 off Trinidad. The survivors later reported that the U-boat fired on the lifeboats with machine guns, but missed (Perhaps some shots fired at the tanker hit the water near the boats and the crew thought they were the target.) On 25 June, the survivors reached Trinidad and get aboard the American passenger ship Robert E. Lee, which was sunk by U-166 enroute to New Orleans with 268 passengers (mostly survivors of other sinkings) on 30 July. All Norwegian passengers were saved. The engineers from Andrea Brøvig worked later on the Norwegian motor merchant Balla (2565grt), which was equipped with two German motors from 1930, a type meant for U-boats. This vessel had to be laid up in the USA during 1942, due the continuous problems with her engines, but the engineers from the tanker kept them running.
At 0840, the unescorted Major General Henry Gibbins was torpedoed and sunk by U-158 about 375 miles west of Key West, Florida. The torpedo struck the port side at #2 hold, causing the ship to take a sharp port list. 20 minutes later, a second torpedo struck amidships between #3 hold and the engine room, causing the ship to sink shortly after the hit. The 47 crewmembers and 21 US Army armed guards abandoned ship after the first hit in three lifeboats. A flying boat directed the schooner Dolphin to two of the lifeboats. The survivors in these boats were picked up and flown to Pensacola, Florida on 26 June. The survivors in the third boat were picked up the next day and also taken to Pensacola.
The Arriaga had left Baltimore in convoy to the Yucatan Channel, where the convoy was dispersed on 18 Jun 1942. At 1933 the unescorted Arriaga was struck by a torpedo from U-68 on the port side just forward of the after house ripping a huge hole in the side of the ship, destroying the port lifeboat, killing the Chief Engineer Harry L. Hovland and blowing a hole in the engine room bulkhead. Also the steering gear was out of action causing the ship to swing 90° before stopping. U-68 surfaced 100 yard from the Arriaga and shelled her for a short time. The two armed guards on board returned fire with the old 6-pdr gun on the after part of the ship with no results. The tanker was abandoned by the remaining 22 crewmen and two armed guards in the starboard lifeboat and one raft, before she sank 10 minutes after the attack about 50 miles off the coast of Colombia. On 25 June, a Colombian fishing vessel took the boat in tow and later dropped the tow near the small town Pajaro. The crew rowed the distance to the beach and was then towed to Rio Hacha by another Colombian fishing vessel. At this place the British consul took care of the survivors and they were eventually taken to Barranquilla and then by plane to Miami. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1710, U-172 stopped the Resolute with 2cm gunfire and sunk the abandoned vessel with hand grenades near Saint Andrews and Old Providence. The survivors claimed that they were machine-gunned after abandoning the ship, but this was apparently a misinterpretation of shots that missed the vessel. More explanations about such incidents can be found in the following article: Treatment of Merchant Ship Survivors by U-boat Crews 1939 - 1945 written by Ken Dunn.
SS Torvanger sunk by U-84 at 39.40N, 41.30W. (Dave Shirlaw)
We are about to see one of the greatest ‘bluff’ victories in warfare. Rommel is in his opponent’s head to a degree unseen since Austerlitz, and Hannibal.
I didn’t realize fallout from the Teapot Dome scandal reached this late.
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