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• The Americans launched their first attack on Cherbourg, France. ww2dbase [Normandy Campaign, Phase 1 | TH]
• Soviets captured Viipuri on the Karelian Isthmus. ww2dbase [TH]
• Bernard Montgomery was awarded the title of Grand Commander of the Order of King George I of Greece. ww2dbase [Bernard Montgomery | CPC]
• USS Astoria departed Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States for her shakedown cruise. ww2dbase [Astoria (Cleveland-class) | CPC]
• Light carrier Ryuho was slightly damaged by US TBF aircraft at 1810 hours during the Battle of the Philippine Sea. ww2dbase [Ryuho | CPC]
• Destroyer Yukikaze rescued survivors of transport Seiyo Maru during the Battle of the Philippine Sea then scuttled the transport with a torpedo. ww2dbase [Yukikaze | CPC]
• The US Tenth Army, consisting of the XXIV Corps (US Army) and the III Amphibious Corps (US Marine Corps) was activated under the command of Lieutenant General Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr. ww2dbase [Simon Buckner | AC]
• Oberleutnant Rudolf Arendt was named the commanding officer of U-23, relieving Kapitänleutnant Rolf-Birger Wahlen. ww2dbase [U-23 | CPC]

• Major General Kanemasa Akiyama was named the commanding officer of Japanese Unit 516 chemical weapons research unit based in Qiqihar, Nenjiang Province, China, replacing Major General Yamawaki Masao. ww2dbase [Kanemasa Akiyama | Qiqihar, Nenjiang | CPC]

• Viipuri, Finland was captured by the Soviets. ww2dbase [Battle of Tali-Ihantala and Battle of Vuosalmi | Viipuri | CPC]

• The USAAF 306th Bomb Group flying from RAF Thurleigh launched a bombing raid against rail facilities in Hamburg, Germany. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | RAF Thurleigh | Hamburg | DS]

• Japanese troops captured Forest Hill near Imphal, India but failed to capture Plum Hill, another nearby objective. ww2dbase [Battle of Imphal-Kohima | Imphal, Manipur | CPC]

• British troops captured Perugia, Italy. ww2dbase [Advance to the Gothic Line | Perugia, Umbria | TH]

• Destroyer Yuzuki completed her refitting at Sasebo, Japan. She received a Type 13 radar on her main mast, exchanged twin 13-mm machine gun mounts for single 25-mm machine gun mounts. ww2dbase [Yuzuki | Sasebo Naval Arsenal | Sasebo, Nagasaki | CPC]

• USS Bluefish pursued a Japanese transport in the Makassar Strait, expending 5 torpedoes., ww2dbase [Bluefish | Makassar Strait | CPC]
• At 1130 hours, the Japanese Mobile Fleet, withdrawing west from the losses sustained on the previous day during the Battle of the Philippine Sea, paused to refuel from tankers while Vice Admiral Jisaburo Ozawa transferred his flag aboard Zuikaku. At 1500 hours, cruiser Atago reported seeing an American scout plane, and Ozawa ordered the refueling to be stopped and the fleet was to sail to the northwest at the speed of 24 knots. At 1725 hours, a large incoming American strike was detected. The Japanese mustered 17 fighters for defense, while the Haguro, Myoko, Yahagi, and seven destroyers formed a tight circle around Zuikaku. 95 American fighters, 54 torpedo bombers (most of which were armed with bombs rather than torpedoes), and 77 dive bombers from USS Hornet, USS Yorktown, and USS Belleau Wood arrived at 1730 hours, hitting Zuikaku once with a bomb, causing some damage. ww2dbase [Belleau Wood | Hornet (Essex-class) | Myoko | Yorktown (Essex-class) | Haguro | Yahagi | Atago | Zuikaku | Mariana Islands Campaign | Philippine Sea | DS]

• Patrol Boat No. 102 arrived at Manila, Philippines at 0925 hours. At 1447 hours, she departed for Cavite. ww2dbase [Stewart | Manila | CPC]

• Jakob Edelstein, the former senior Jewish elder ("Judenaeltester") of the Theresienstadt Concentration Camp, and his family were shot in Auschwitz Concentration Camp in occupied Poland. ww2dbase [Auschwitz Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Oswiecim | CPC]
• The underground Directorate of Civil Defense in Warsaw, Poland sent a radio message to London, England, United Kingdom: "Since May 15, mass murders have been carried out in Auschwitz. Jews are taken first, then Soviet prisoners of war, and the so-called sick. Mass transports of Hungarian Jews arrive. Thirteen trains per day, 40-50 cars each. Victims convinced [that] they will be exchanged for [German] POWs or resettled in the East. Corpses are burned in crematoria and out in the open. Over 100,000 people from Hungary have been gassed to date." ww2dbase [Warsaw | CPC]

• The airfield at Biggin Hill, south-east London, England, United Kingdom had now become the centre for the defence of South London. 700 balloon personnel including 170 WAAFs were stationed there. Early in the morning one of the recently raised balloons brought down a V-1 flying bomb that exploded in an orchard. Tempest V aircraft pilots from 3 Squadron at RAF Newchurch in Kent brought down 9 bombs and the New Zealand pilots of 486 squadron who shared the airfield brought down a further 3. An American pilot 1st Lieutenant D. W. Johnston of 356th Fighter Squadron of 358th Fighter Group USSAF flying a P-47 aircraft brought down one over the British Channel; he was returning to his base at High Halden, Kent from a fighter/bomber raid against rail traffic in occupied France. ww2dbase [V-Weapons Campaign | London, England | HM]
• German Type IXC U-Boat U-505’s cipher material arrived at Bletchley Park allowing the Allies to break most of the remaining Enigma settings. ww2dbase [The Capture of the U-505 | U-505 | Milton Keynes, England | DS]

• Clifton Cates stepped down as the commandant of Marine Corps Schools in Quantico, Virginia, United States. ww2dbase [Clifton Cates | Quantico, Virginia | CPC]

20 Jun 1944 Interactive Map