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• Captain Teijiro Yamazumi was named the commanding officer of battleship Mutsu. ww2dbase [Mutsu | CPC]
• Light carrier Hosho was assigned to the 1st Air Fleet; she disembarked all her aircraft. ww2dbase [Hosho | CPC]
• German submarine U-67 damaged Norwegian tanker Nortind with a torpedo 90 miles south of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States at 1125 hours, killing 1. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]

• The crew of USS S-27 established a camp in the abandoned buildings on the shores of Constantine Harbor, Amchitka Island, US Territory of Alaska. ww2dbase [S-27 | Constantine Harbor, Amchitka | CPC]

• Leonardo da Vinci made rendezvous with fellow Italian submarine Giuseppe Finzi in the Atlantic Ocean at 1856 hours. Between 2000 and 2300 hours, Giuseppe Finzi transferred 14 tons of fuel to Leonardo da Vinci. ww2dbase [Giuseppe Finzi | Leonardo da Vinci | CPC]

• Acting on orders from US Commander of Submarines Southwest Pacific Area Rear Admiral Charles Lockwood, and against standing orders from the Bureau of Ordnance, submarine USS Skipjack fired one Mark XIV torpedo with an exercise head from a distance of 850 yards at a net hanging in the water. The torpedo’s depth setting was 10 feet but the torpedo went through the net at a depth of 25 feet. ww2dbase [Skipjack | Mark XIV | Frenchman Bay, King George Sound | DS]

• Japanese troops aboard Seki Maru No. 3 found and captured coast watcher Cornelius Page on Simberi, New Ireland. ww2dbase [Simberi, New Ireland | CPC]

• Japanese submarine I-26 surfaced off the Estevan Point light, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada with the intent of shelling the nearby Hesquiat radio direction finding station. The submarine fired 17 shells (including two exercise rounds filled with sand) but rough seas reduced the accuracy. None of the shells landed near the radio station with most falling short into the sea and some landing around the lighthouse. This bombardment was the first enemy attack on Canadian soil since 1870. ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Vancouver Island, British Columbia | CPC]

• About 1,000 Austrian Jews arrived at Theresienstadt Concentration Camp in occupied Czechoslovakia; they were the first Austrian Jews to arrive at this camp. ww2dbase [Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• 185 British bombers attacked Emden, Germany, causing little damage; 7 bombers were lost. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Emden, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• Axis troops launched what would be the final attack on Tobruk, Libya, preceded by a heavy artillery and air bombardment at 0530 hours. At 0700 hours, 100 German and Italian tanks rushed through a gap in Tobruk's southeastern lines. The port facilities were captured by 1900 hours, and British troops destroyed stocks of fuel and supplies to prevent capture. ww2dbase [Battle of Gazala | Tobruk | CPC]

• Tatsuta Maru departed Taroa, Marshall Islands and arrived at Wotje, Marshall Islands. ww2dbase [Tatsuta Maru | Wotje | CPC]

• USS Ranger and USS Augusta departed Argentia, Newfoundland bound for Quonset Point, Rhode Island. ww2dbase [Ranger | Augusta | Argentia | DS]

• Polish prisoners of Auschwitz Concentration Camp Kazimierz Piechowski, Stanislaw Gustaw Jaster, Józef Lempart, and Eugeniusz Bendera broke into a SS store room and stole uniforms and weapons and then made their escape from the concentration camp in disguise. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Oswiecim | CPC]

• German 24th Infantry Division attacked Fort Lenin and Fort North (held against German attacks for the whole day) near Sevastopol, Russia starting at 0900 hours; while Fort Lenin was captured with minimal resistance, Soviet troops at Fort North held their ground, repulsing German attacks all day. ww2dbase [Battle of Sevastopol | Sevastopol | TH, CPC]

• Winston Churchill arrived at Franklin Roosevelt's home at Hyde Park, New York, United States to discuss US-UK cooperation. The two leaders agreed to give the crossing of the English Channel a priority, and that the two nations would assist each other in atomic weapons research. ww2dbase [Second Washington Conference | Hyde Park, New York | CPC]
• Acting on information given by defected saboteur George Dasch, United States Federal Bureau of Investigation agents captured three German saboteurs in New York, New York, United States. ww2dbase [New York | CPC]
• The US Navy Office of Naval Intelligence in Washington DC, United States proposed to take over Joseph Rochefort's cryptanalytic team based in Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii, which currently reported to the US Navy Office of Naval Communications. ww2dbase [Joseph Rochefort | Washington | CPC]
• The American newspaper New York Times published the report from the World Jewish Congress that the Germans had, to date, killed 1,000,000 Jews in "vast slaughterhouse for the Jews" located in Eastern Europe. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-25 torpedoed the 7,000-ton Canadian steamer SS Fort Camosun 70 miles south of Cape Flattery, Washington. As the freighter’s crew took to the lifeboats, I-25 surfaced and fired 18 shells from her deck gun. Fort Camosun did not sink, however, and was kept afloat by her cargo of plywood and timber. The crew was later rescued by Canadian corvette HMCS Edmundston and tugs towed Fort Camosun to shore where she was later repaired. (After repairs, Fort Camosun sailed with her cargo to England, narrowly escaping another submarine attack by a German U-Boat in the Atlantic. Even later, she evaded a third submarine attack in the Gulf of Aden in the Indian Ocean. Thus, Fort Camosun earned the dubious distinction of surviving submarine attacks in all three ocean theaters of World War II.) ww2dbase [Japanese Attacks on the Continental United States | Cape Flattery, Washington | DS]

20 Jun 1942 Interactive Map