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• 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]
• 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 [T8 | T10 | T30 | T31 | 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 [The Capture of the U-505 | 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 [RAF Thurleigh | Vergeltungswaffe 1 | Vergeltungswaffe 2 | 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 | Yorktown (Essex-class) | DS]

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

• Destroyer USS Saufley completed shore bombardments of several targets on Tinian, Mariana Islands as directed by fire control parties ashore. ww2dbase [Saufley | Tinian | DS]

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

• At dawn, flagship Taiho, Shokaku, and Zuikaku launched launched combat air patrol fighters. At 0756 hours, the first major strike force was launched (48 fighters, 53 bombers, and 27 torpedo bombers; led by Lieutenant Commander Akira Tarui). At 0810 hours, USS Albacore hit Taiho with a torpedo in the starboard bow, but Taiho's damage control team allowed the carrier to remain in formation; destroyer Hatsuzuki was left behind to hunt for USS Albacore. At 1020 hours, Zuikaku launched a second strike force (4 fighters and 4 bombers) to join the fourth big raid on on US Navy Task Force 58. Meanwhile, Taiho suspended flight operations due to gas vapor issues and Shokaku was busy with combat air patrol duties through well past 1100 hours. At 1100 hours, Shokaku began recovering 10 fighters; while the recovery process continued, at 1122, Shokaku 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 Shokaku 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. Carriers Zuikaku and Taiho were ordered to leave damaged Shokaku behind, while cruiser Yahagi and destroyer Urakaze remained with Shokaku. At 1350 hours, Shokaku strike planes returned, but were ordered away, redirected to Zuikaku and Taiho. By the time Taiho's aircraft returned, the gas vapor leak problem became extremely worrisome, and some of Taiho's aircraft were redirected to Zuikaku. At this time Captain Hiroshi Matsubara of Shokaku had ordered the carrrier abandoned 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. Shokaku 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 in the sinking of Shokaku. Light cruiser Yahagi and destroyers Urakaze and Hatsuzuki rescued Captain Hiroshi Matsubara among 570 other survivors. At 1432, another disaster struck as the gas vapor aboard Taiho detonated; the explosion engulfed the flagship. Zuikaku was ordered to proceed while Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa to transferred his flag to cruiser Haguro. At the end of the day, the Japanese Navy lost 244 of the 374 aircraft that it had launched during this battle. The US Navy had only lost 20 aircraft. ww2dbase [Jisaburo Ozawa | Albacore | Haguro | Zuikaku | Shokaku | Taiho | Cavalla | Mariana Islands Campaign | Philippine Sea | 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