World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 19 Jun 1944

• Yamato fired Sanshiki-dan anti-aircraft shells in combat for the first time against incoming aircraft, but it was discovered that they were friendly. ww2dbase [Yamato | CPC]
• The US Mulberry Harbor at Omaha Beach off Normandy, France was wrecked by a storm. By this date, however, the Allies had 20 divisions ashore in France, while the Germans fielded only 16 in the region. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 1 | TH]
• US carrier aircraft won a decisive victory over their Japanese counterparts in the Mariana Islands, shooting down over 200 planes with only 20 losses in what became known as the Marianas Turkey Shoot, or, officially, Battle of the Philippine Sea. ww2dbase [Mariana Islands Campaign and the Great Turkey Shoot | TH]
• USS Guitarro arrived at Darwin, Australia. ww2dbase [Guitarro | CPC]
• Following a massive public outcry, US Commander-in-Chief General Dwight Eisenhower announced that he considered the conviction of Leroy Henry to be unsafe due to lack of evidence. Henry, a black truck driver from Missouri, United States, had been accused and sentenced to death by hanging for the supposed knifepoint rape of a white British woman at Combe Down, a suburb of Bath, England, United Kingdom. Henry was sent back to his unit. ww2dbase [Dwight Eisenhower | AC]

• German torpedo boats T8, T10, T30, and T31, carrying Finnish forces, sailed towards Narvi (Nerva) Island in the Gulf of Finland. En route, they engaged a Soviet force consisted of four gunboats, 10 submarine chasers, and 14 torpedo boats. The Germans opened fire first, damaging gunboat MBK-503, gunboat MBK-505, and submarine chaser MO-106. The Soviet torpedo boats counter attacked without success, and TK-53, TK-63, and TK-153 sustained damage. Yet another attack by Soviet torpedo boats failed, with TK-101 and TK-103 sustaining damage. A third attack by Soviet torpedo boats TK-37 and TK-60 successfully hit and sank German torpedo boat T31; 76 were killed, 6 survivors were picked up by the Soviet ships, and 23 survivors were picked up by Finnish ships. The German force turned back and abandoned to operation at Narvi after midnight on the next date. German torpedo boat T30 also sustained damage in this engagement. ww2dbase [T10 | T31 | T30 | T8 | Gulf of Finland | CPC]

• USS Guadalcanal's anti-submarine hunter-killer group with the captured German Type IXC submarine U-505 in tow arrived in Bermuda where the U-Boat would remain for the rest of the war to preserve the secret of its capture. ww2dbase [U-505 | The Capture of the U-505 | DS]

• Joseph Stilwell inspected the troops at Myitkyina Airfield in northern Burma. ww2dbase [Myitkyina | CPC]

• In a report to Gerd von Rundstedt, Erwin Rommel predicted that a further Allied landing could be expected on the English Channel coast of France on both sides of Cap Gris Nez or between the Somme and Le Havre. The landing was to coincide with a general offensive from the Normandy Bridgehead. ww2dbase [Erwin Rommel | AC]
• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a raid against rocket launching sites in the Pas-de-Calais region of France but returned without bombing due to weather. ww2dbase [Vergeltungswaffe 2 | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | RAF Thurleigh | Pas-de-Calais | DS]

• USS Yorktown (Essex-class) began strikes on Japanese air bases on Guam, Mariana Islands in order to deny them to their approaching carrier-based aircraft and to keep the land-based planes on the ground. During this, the first day of the Battle of the Philippine Sea, Yorktown aircraft claimed 37 enemy planes destroyed and dropped 21 tons of bombs on the Guam air bases. ww2dbase [Mariana Islands Campaign and the Great Turkey Shoot | Yorktown (Essex-class) | DS]

• Nachi deprated Ominato Guard District, Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, Japan. ww2dbase [Nachi | Mutsu, Aomori | CPC]

• USS Nashville entered floating drydock ABSD-1 at Espiritu Santo for 15 days of repairs following battle damage. ww2dbase [ABSD-1 | Nashville | Sarautou Bay, Espiritu Santo | DS]

• At dawn, Shokaku launched 17 A6M fighters for combat air patrol duties. At 1100 hours, she recovered 10 fighters; while still recovering fighters, at 1122, she was hit by three torpedoes from USS Cavalla on the starboard side; two forward near the switchboard and generator room, one aft of amidships. Large fuel fires were ignited in the hangar and No. 1 boiler room went offline. Shokaku remained underway, but began to list to starboard. Counterflooding over-compensated, giving her a port list. Meanwhile flooding and heat of the fires forced shutting down of the boiler rooms. She continued to settle forward. Though damage control initially hoped to save her, the flooding forward and the fires intensify in the following hours. By 1210 hours she had come to a halt when fires detonate an aerial bomb on the hangar, setting off volatile gases from a cracked forward tank. Large induced explosions wrecked the carrier, and hope began to fade. The list to port and bow trim both increased. At 1350 hours, her strike planes returned, but were ordered away, having to be directed to Zuikaku and Taiho. At this time Captain Matsubara had ordered abandon ship and the crew mustered on the flight deck for flag lowering. However, before the evacuation can proceed far, the bow dipped under and water pours into No. 1 elevator well, causing the carrier to corkscew to port and up-end. She went down by the bow at 1401 hours, stern raised high. Between 1408 and 1411, four underwater explosions were registered. 58 officers, 830 petty officers and men, 376 members of Air Group 601, and 8 civilians were killed, totalling 1,272 deaths. Light cruiser Yahagi and destroyers Urakaze and Hatsuzuki rescued Captain Hiroshi Matsubara among 570 other survivors. ww2dbase [Shokaku | CPC]

• Haroki Isayama stepped down as the Chief of Staff of the 14th Army stationed in the Philippines. ww2dbase [Haruki Isayama | CPC]

• Gato-class submarine USS Silversides arrived at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California for a thorough overhaul lasting two-and-a-half months. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Silversides | Vallejo, California | DS]
• Casablanca-class escort carrier USS Steamer Bay arrived at San Diego, California. ww2dbase [Steamer Bay | San Diego, California | DS]

19 Jun 1944 Interactive Map