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• A German BV 138 seaplane shadowed Allied convoy PQ-17 in the Barents Sea from a distance, reporting in the convoy's position throughout the day. Seven He 115 seaplanes made a unsuccessful torpedo attack on the convoy, while German battleship Tirpitz, cruiser Admiral Hipper, four destroyers, and two torpedo boats departed Trondheim, Norway to intercept (Operation Rösselsprung). The German ships were spotted by Soviet submarine K21, which attacked and reported a hit, but in actuality the torpedo had missed. ww2dbase [Tirpitz | CPC]
• US Joint Chiefs issued the Joint Directives for Offensive Operation in Southwest Pacific Area, calling for invasions of the general New Britain-New Ireland-New Guinea region; invasions for Santa Cruz and Tulagi were scheduled to be on 1 Aug 1942. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Churchill easily passed a "no confidence" vote in the House of Commons; there were 475 votes in his favor compared to 25 against. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | TH]
• Large numbers of Soviet units were surrounded in the link-up of 4.Panzerarmee and 2.Armee near the city of Stary Oskol in Russia, but many of them manage to escape across the Don River. ww2dbase [TH]
• Generaloberst Alexander Löhr was named the commanding officer of the German 12th Army. ww2dbase [Alexander Löhr | CPC]
• The US 1st Marine Division's intelligence officer departed Wellington, New Zealand for Australia as part of the preparation efforts for the upcoming Guadalcanal-Tulagi landings in the Solomon Islands. ww2dbase [Guadalcanal Campaign | CPC]
• Benito Mussolini cabled Adolf Hitler in regards to the future administration of Egypt, in which he recommended Erwin Rommel as the military governor and a yet-unnamed Italian as the civilian administrator. ww2dbase [Benito Mussolini | CPC]
• German submarine U-129 sank Norwegian ship Gundersen in the Gulf of Mexico at 0617 hours; 1 was killed, 25 survived. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• 6 German aircraft attacked Allied convoy PQ-17 but was driven off without causing any damage. ww2dbase [Arctic Convoys | CPC]
• US Public Health Service inspector Philip J. Coffey measured a temperature of 107 degrees Fahrenheit (41 degress Celsius) in a residential unit at the Portland Assembly Center in Oregon, United States. ww2dbase [Portland Assembly Center | CPC]

• USS St. Louis arrived at Kodiak, Alaska. ww2dbase [St. Louis | Kodiak | DS]

• German submarine U-129 (Kapitänleutnant Hans-Ludwig Witt) fired two G7a torpedoes at 1,841-ton Norwegian merchant ship Gundersen in the Gulf of Mexico at 0616 hours, scoring one hit on the port side at 0617 hours, killing one. The 25 surviving crew boarded three lifeboats, but one of them was quickly wrecked by the propeller of the slowly sinking ship. At about 0630 hours the submarine surfaced, firing her deck guns at the ship. She finally sank at 0759 hours. The survivors were picked up by Norwegian merchant ship Dea within hours. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | Gulf of Mexico | CPC]

• Submarine USS Saury departed Fremantle, Australia bound for Albany, Australia. ww2dbase [Saury | Fremantle | DS]

• A group of Jews from Berlin, Germany were sent to Theresienstadt concentration camp in occupied Czechoslovakia. ww2dbase [Theresienstadt Concentration Camp | Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Terezín, Cechy | CPC]

• Erwin Rommel abandoned the southward tank sweep to have the tanks assist on the direct assault of El Alamein, Egypt, but not until the southern drive had already lost 2,000 men and 30 field guns. ww2dbase [First Battle of El Alamein | El Alamein | CPC]
• German aircraft sank Soviet destroyers Bditelny and Tashkent and damaged cruiser Komintern and two other destroyers at Novorossiysk, Russia. ww2dbase [Novorossiysk, Krasnodar Krai | CPC]

• 325 British bombers (175 Wellington, 53 Lancaster, 35 Halifax, 34 Stirling, and 28 Hampden) attacked Bremen, Germany, damaging 1,000 houses and 4 small industrial facilities, damaging 3 cranes in the port area, damaging 7 ships, and sinking transport ship Marieborg. The Germans suffered 5 deaths and 4 wounded while the British lost 13 bombers. ww2dbase [Bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, and Other Cities | Bremen, Weser-Ems | CPC]

• USS Plunger sank Japanese transport ship Unyo Maru No. 3 80 miles east of Shanghai, China. ww2dbase [Plunger | East China Sea | CPC]

• Submarine S-7 departed Moshchny Island near Leningrad, Russia. ww2dbase [S-7 | Leningrad | CPC]

• The New York Times reported via the London Daily Telegraph that over 1,000,000 Jews had already been killed by Nazis. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | New York | CPC]

2 Jul 1942 Interactive Map