June 14th, 1942...At 26S, 77E in the Indian Ocean, the disguised
German merchant raider Thor gets a radar contact early in the
morning, and closes to 1,760 yards of the Dutch Shell tanker
Olivia, hitting it with the first 5.9 cm salvo. Olivia looks like
a "floating wall of flame" to Thor's gunnery officer Hermann
Kandeler. Only one man of Olivia's 46 crew is picked up. Most die
in the blazing wreck, but Third Officer W.A. Vermoet, with three
wounded Dutchmen and eight Chinese, escapes in a lifeboat for a
hell of 30 days in an open boat -- little food, intense heat, and
insubordinate crewmen -- before reaching Madagascar.

     German troops of the 16th Regiment of the 22nd Airlanding
Division take Fort Stalin in Sevastopol.

     In Libya, Gen. Neil Ritchie faces facts and orders the 8th
Army to abandon the remains of the Gazala Line before Rommel can
destroy his army in detail. The 1st South African and 50th
Divisions pull out. The question is whether or not to hold
Tobruk. Gen. Sir Claude Auchinlek, theater commander, insists on
holding the port. Help is on the way, the Australian and New
Zealand Divisions, three Indian divisions, and the new 10th
Armoured Division. After a period of crossed signals and
confusion, Ritchie agrees.
     Meanwhile, Rommel's weary Afrika Korps tries to cut the
coast road, but is stopped by point-blank fire from 25 lbr. guns.
Rommel signals: "It is my intention to take Tobruk by a coup de
main."
     The South African 1st Division destroys as many stores as
possible, then pulls out amid dust-storms, losing only 27 men
killed and 366 wounded and missing. 50th Northumbrian Division,
having lost one brigade (150th) already, is delayed 10 hours in
its withdrawal by the command muddle. Its withdrawal is novel, to
head west through the Italians, then make a wide swing south
around Bir Hacheim and high-tail it east. Navigation through the
desert will be difficult. Each truck is loaded with 300 miles
worth of gasoline.
     The withdrawal begins during a dust-storm. The 5th East
Yorks advance to within 10 yards of an Italian position singing
"Rule Britannia," then scatter the Italians with a bayonet
charge. Pvt. Albert Robinson earns a Military Medal by worming
his way forward between two enemy machine gun posts, and picking
off the crews with masterly precision.

     The Luftwaffe bounces the Malta convoy "Harpoon" 120 miles
southwest of Sardinia, hammering it with 20 bombers and 50
torpedo planes. The British have only 16 Sea Hurricanes and four
outdated Fulmars to throw at the Germans. They shoot down 17
enemy planes for a loss of seven, but the Germans sink the
freighter Taminbar and cripple the cruiser Liverpool, which is
towed back to destroyer.
     That evening the convoy enters the narrow Skerki Channel,
known as "Bomb Alley," passing through it by night.
     Convoy "Vigorous," coming from Egypt, also meets the
Luftwaffe, which damages the Dutch ship Aagtekirk. She has to be
sent home, and the Luftwaffe polishes off the Dutchman. The
convoy loses the freighter Bhutan. Late in the day comes word
that the Italian battlefleet has put to sea.
     That evening German E-boats attack and torpedo the destroyer
Hasty and cruiser Newcastle. The former is sunk, the latter stays
in the game.
     RAF Wellingtons chase down the Italian Navy, joined by
torpedo-laden Beaufighters and British submarines. The cruiser
Trento is hit in the melee and finished off by the submarine
Umbra.

     Early in the Syrian morning, Brig. Howard Kippenberger, head
of New Zealand's 5th Brigade, gets a message from Division base:
"Division moving. Return to headquarters forthwith." With the
British 8th Army defeated in Egypt, Gen. Auchinlek has summoned
the first team, the 2nd New Zealand Division, to cope with the
disaster. 9th Australian Division will soon join them.

     In Wellington Harbor, 5,000 Leathernecks of the 1st US
Marine Division arrive on the transport USS Wakefield, formerly
the liner Manhattan. They arrive a day after the USS Uruguay
reaches Auckland, bearing the 145th Infantry Regiment of the 37th
Infantry Division, Ohio National Guard. They are the first non-
British Empire troops ever to enter New Zealand. The Americans
are greeted by New Zealand arm bands, who play American music.
The Americans bring out their band, which plays "The Beer Barrel
Polka."
     The 145th marches through Auckland streets to the railway
station, where they are jammed into tiny railway coaches. The
conductor blows his whistle, and the train steams off at 20 miles
an hour for Papakura Camp, periodically stopping to shoo sheep
off the right-of-way.
     US-New Zealand relations are changed forever.

     Mitsuo Fuchida arrives in Japan on a stretcher. He is
smuggled off his ship like a load of contraband at Yokusuka, and
isolated in hospital with other wounded Midway survivors, under
armed guard. Contact with family, including phone calls and
letters, are forbidden, as the Japanese try to hide the defeat.
Newspaper photographer Teiichi Makajima is told that if he goes
to Tokyo, he will be arrested by the secret police.

     In the Aleutians, US Army Air Force Col. Squeaky Eareckson
leads his bombers to attack Kiska and Attu. Eareckson heckles the
Japanese by radio, and soon "Little Orphan Annie" -- later known
to American radio listeners as "Tokyo Rose" heckles Eareckson by
name.
     The Americans try to keep the loss of Kiska and Attu under
wraps, but give up when Radio Tokyo blares reports of the
invasion of the Aleutians.

     27 Japanese bombers hit Darwin in northern Australia, but do
little damage.

     War Production Board boss Donald Nelson warns Americans of
more hardships to come.

June 15th, 1942...Erwin Rommel writes his wife, "Enemy resistance
crumbled, and more and more British troops give themselves up.
Black dejection showed on their faces. The battle has been won,
and the enemy is now breaking up. We're now mopping up encircled
remnants of their army. I needn't tell you how delighted I am."
     At 4 a.m. in Libya, 50th Division's breakout is complete,
and the Northumbrians swing around Bir Hacheim, their navigation
assisted by the burning lights of German field workshops.
Division HQ runs into a party of 30 Italian officers who want to
surrender. 96 percent of the division's vehicles reach the
Libyan-Egyptian frontier. All ranks arrive exhausted, lacking
most of their equipment. A great feat, but 50th Division is out
of the game.
     The South Africans withdraw as well, one unit driving past a
group of sleeping Germans. When Rommel hears of this, he gives
the unit a "violent, picturesque, and to the point" lecture.
     Even so, Rommel is jubilant. "The battle has been won and
the foe is breaking up," he signals. Now he wants to take Tobruk,
which will require supplies and Luftwaffe support. However, the
Axis high command wants to leash Rommel while they carry out the
invasion of Malta. Rommel attacks anyway. "The time has come to
put a lid on Tobruk!" he says.

     A Jewish representative in Switzerland, Richard Lichteim,
notes "The destruction of the Jewish communities is continuing.
The whole of Europe is anxiously awaiting the day when the Allied
nations will liberate this tortured Continent." More than 52,000
Slovak Jews have been deported to Auschwitz that summer, bringing
the Jewish death toll in June to 150,000 before month's end.

     The Iroquois Confederacy declares war on the Axis. All six
nations, Onondaga, Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca, Tuscarora, and Oneida,
present the formal declaration to Vice President Henry Wallace.
If the Nazis ever heard of this, they would have been amazed,
because Hitler commented that the Indians should back the Axis.


June 16th, 1942...In Lebanon, NZ Division forms up to move to
Egypt. The convoys will take four days to trek down the roads. 28
Maori Battalion takes the train to Haifa, cutting the travel time
in half. Division base moves 1,200 kilometers in four-and-a-half
days to Matruh.

     The British continue to withdraw, and accept that Tobruk
will have to withstand another siege. The port is defended by 2nd
South African Division under Maj. Gen. H.B. Klopper, who, like
his staff and men, lack desert experience. Klopper himself has
only held the command a month. The division has plenty of
supplies, and is beefed up by the 201st Guards Brigade, 11th
Indian Brigade, the 32nd Army Tank Brigade's 60 tanks, two
regiments of field and two of medium artillery -- 35,000 men and
2,000 vehicles in all. Klopper has 1.5 million gallons of
gasoline, 130,000 rounds of 86mm ammunition for 25-lbr. guns, and
several million rations, all for the planned 8th Army offensive.
     But his defenses, including the anti-tank ditch, are in a
terrible state of repair, his minefields have gaps, and the RAF
has fled. Most importantly, Klopper has only 16 6-lbr. anti-tank
guns and 40 out-classed 2-lbr. guns.
     Rommel's tanks run rings around the British to seal off
Tobruk, moving to cut off the port from the south and east. 21st
Panzers knifes through the desert, smashing the 3rd/12th Frontier
Force Rifles and Point 650 in three hours, taking 700 PoWs. 21st
Panzer takes vast quantities of supplies and vehicles.
     Italian infantry divisions move in on Tobruk from the west.
Rommel now has to deal with the 20th Indian Brigade and 4th
Armoured Brigade before he can seal off Tobruk.

     The seven Czechs who were involved in the assassination of
Reinhard Heydrich are betrayed to the Germans by a Czech traitor.
The agents are found hiding in a church in Prague. None have any
connection with the martyred village of Lidice. The Germans move
in SS troops, but the Czechs fight back. The Nazis shove fire
hoses into the building, to flood the basement. The Czechs slice
the hoses. The Germans bring up more firepower. 14 Germans die
before the church is taken. Jan Kubis, Heydrich's killer, is
wounded in battle, and dies in hospital. The other four
parachutists and three Czech resisters die in the fighting.
     British codebreakers crack a Luftwaffe East Front code named
"Skunk."

     Convoy "Harpoon" meets up with two Italian cruisers,
Montecuccoli and Eugenio di Savoia, and five destroyers at 6:30
a.m. The Italian cruisers outrange the British, and open fire.
Five British destroyers sprint into battle while four destroyers
and the AA cruiser Cairo hang back with the merchant ships. Cairo
takes two hits, and two British destroyers (Bedouin and Partridge
are disabled), while the Italian tincan Vivaldi is set on fire.
The Italians decide to retreat at 8:40 a.m. to lie in wait for
the slower-moving convoy off Pantelleria.
     The Luftwaffe arrives after that, and Ju 88s sink the
destroyer Chant, disable the tanker Kentucky and freighter
Burdwan. Captain C.C. Hardy, commanding "Harpoon," orders his two
cripples sunk, and cracks on top speed.
     The Italian ships show up again and find only the destroyer
Hebe trying to sink Kentucky. The Italians scare off Hebe and
sink the two cripples, then run into Bedouin and Partridge,
sinking the former. Hardy manages to get 15,000 tons of supplies
to Malta.

     Convoy "Vigorous," still marching and countermarching
towards Malta, gets hammered by Ju 87s, who sink the destroyer
Airedale and damage the cruiser Birmingham. American and British
planes attack the Italian fleet, which runs away.
     Unfortunately for "Vigorous," it's practically out of anti-
aircraft ammunition. At 6:30 p.m., it turns around and goes home.
Not one ship reaches Malta.
     The 15,000 tons from "Harpoon"'s two ships are just enough
to keep Malta alive. The Royal Navy is at its lowest fortunes in
the Mediterranean.

     The House of Representatives votes to expand the US Navy by
$8 billion, with 500,000 tons of aircraft carriers, 500,000 tons
of cruisers, 900,000 tons of destroyers.

June 17th, 1942...Just to make life difficult for British
intelligence, the Germans capture a British agent in The
Netherlands, and his wireless transmitter. Using the radio, the
,X send messages back to England. The British do not realize
they are being deceived. The Germans mount Operation North Pole,
organizing German reception committees for the continuing drop of
British agents, radio operators, and supplies, including arms and
ammunition. The RAF drops all kinds of supplies and more than 50
Dutchmen to the Germans. 47 are murdered in concentration camps.
     Even so, the British score a success when a brand-new Focke-
Wulf 190 fighter aircraft is force-landed almost intact in
Britain, providing British designers with a model to copy. The
result will be late-model Spitfires that can tackle the beast.

     Fort Siberia in Sevastopol falls to Nazi troops.

     4th Armoured Brigade advances in the Libyan desert to
counterattack Rommel and runs smack into the German 50mm anti-
tank guns, who have the sun behind them. The battle turns into a
fierce fight. 21st Panzer calls for artillery support. Then it
calls off the artillery, as the shells are raining down on German
vehicles. In the end, coordinated Nazi tactics destroy 32 British
tanks. British 30 Corps in ow out of the game.
     That evening, 21st Panzer swings north to face the coast
road and the coast. Rommel himself leads the drive, which reaches
the RAF Gambut base by 10 p.m., catching 15 serviceable aircraft
and their fuel on the ground. Half an hour after midnight,
Rommel's tanks reach the coast. Tobruk is cut off.

June 18th, 1942...German troops seize Fort Maxim Gorky in
Sevastopol, digging out Soviet naval infantry (in their black
Sailor hats) with flamethrowers.

     George Dasch, the unwilling Nazi saboteur sent to destroy
Newark's Pennsylvania Station, hops a train to go to Washington,
to surrender to J. Edgar Hoover personally. The same evening, the
second Nazi sabotage team lands in the United States, on Ponte
Vedra Beach, 25 miles southeast of Jacksonville. They bury their
crates, head into town, and are soon enroute to their targets in
Cincinnati and Chicago.

     To add insult to injury, a worker's acetylene torch on the
liner Normandie, lying on its side at a New York pier, sets off
yet another fire, the third in less than three months.

     Prime Minister Churchill arrives in the US for a series of
conferences with President Roosevelt.

     At dawn in Tobruk, 20th Indian Brigade tries to breakout,
but run into 5th Panzer Regiment. The brigade is captured almost
to a man. Rommel's troops spend the day clearing out pockets of
resistance outside the Tobruk perimeter. One such defender is a
single company of Transvaal Scots from South Africa, who use a
captured German 88mm gun, lacking sights, to hold the Germans off
all day.
     The Germans capture 8th Army's dumps at Belhammed, just
outside Tobruk, and Afrika Korps troops trade their tattered gear
for fresh British uniforms and English leather boots. They also
find soft, elegant suede shoes for officers. More useful are the
vast stocks of 25-lbr. shells found in place, as much of Rommel's
guns are captured weapons. In addition, Rommel's tanks overrun an
old supply depot, left over from October, 1941, that is
completely intact.
     Rommel moves his two German and one Italian armored division
up to attack Tobruk. His plan is to attack from the southeast,
the same direction the British used in 1940, when they first
conquered the town from the Italians.
     Meanwhile British 8th Army is still on the run. 30 Corps,
utterly shattered, is put into reserve.

     Gen. Carl "Tooey" Spaatz takes over command of the US Army
Air Force in England.

June 19th, 1942...Thor strikes again in the Indian Ocean,
ambushing the Norwegian motor tanker Herborg. As the Norwegians
have only a 3-inch gun manned by a Chinese crew, they surrender.

     6 NZ Brigade leaves Aleppo area for the Libyan Desert.

     "Groups of crouching figures huddled in woollen blankets in
a little wadi at Ed Duda. There was almost no conversation, and
that in whispers, as though the enemy, who was, perhaps, miles
away, might hear us. What chatter there was seemed flippant and
irrelevant: it was characteristic of talk before battle." So
writes Lt. Schmidt of the Afrika Korps outside Tobruk.
     "Net to each group -- combat engineers and infantry storm-
troops -- lay the arms and other paraphernalia gathered during
the day: explosives, grenades, mine detectors, wirecutters,
flamethrowers, smokescreen candles, machine guns, ammunition.
     "A few minutes to zero hour. A few minutes for thought --
especially for those of us who had taken part, during April and
May of the year before, in the futile assaults on this almost
hated fortress."
     The most concentrated bombardment the desert has yet seen is
unleashed at dusk, following an all-day air bombardment. 

     Roosevelt and Churchill discuss the problems of the second
front, and the atomic bomb. They consider action in North Africa.

     George Dasch arrives in Washington, checks into the
Mayflower Hotel, and calls the FBI. Special Agent Duane Traynor
thinks the call is bogus, but sends a man to pick up Dasch. Dasch
is shunted from office to office, until he gets to Special Agent
D.M. "Mickey" Ladd, who is leading the spy hunt. At first, Ladd
thinks Dasch is trying to cash in on the spy hunt, until Dasch
dumps his $84,000 money belt on the FBI desk.
     Dasch tells Ladd he wants to see Hoover, and be treated as a
hero. Dasch gets five minutes with Hoover, 13 hours with Ladd,
and spills 254 pages. The FBI arrests Dasch's partner, Ernest
Burger.

     In Auckland, Vice Adm. Robert Ghormley assumes command of
the South Pacific Area. Ghormley has a fine mind but is a
lackluster leader. He is offered the use of the Auckland War
Memorial Museum as a headquarters, but declines, thinking a
museum as an HQ is not warlike enough. He sets up headquarters in
a sweatbox of an office aboard the overcrowded headquarters ship
Argonne.

     The neat rows of Japanese tents on the Lunga plain of
Guadalcanal are reinforced by more men and supplies, as the
Japanese are about to build a wharf. They are also building an
airfield, part of the next phase of their campaign to isolate
Australia.

June 20th, 1942...On Guadalcanal, coastwatcher Martin Clemens,
observing the Japanese construction efforts, writes, "It looks as
if the Nips are going to stay." He and his coastwatchers are now
behind enemy lines.

     The Japanese sub I-26 torpedoes a Canadian lumber ship off
Cape Flattery and shells a telegraph station at Vancouver Island,
in Canada. On the East coast, German mines claim a merchant ship
off the Virginia coast.

     To curb the increasing number of military weddings abroad,
the War Department forbids American soldiers in foreign countries
from getting married without the approval of the commanding
officer.

     In Sevastopol, Fort Lenin falls to the Germans.

     "At 5 a.m. I stood with Rommel on the escarpment to the
northeast of El Adem. Promptly at 5:20 the Stukas flew over.
Kesselring had been as good as his word and sent hundreds of
bombers in dense formations; they dived on to the perimeter in
one of the most spectacular attacks I have ever seen. A real
cloud of dust and smoke rose from the sector under attack, and
while our bombs crashed on to the defenses, the entire German and
Italian Army artillery joined in with a tremendous and well-
coordinated fire. The combined weight of the artillery and
bombing was terrific, and as we soon realized, had a crushing
effect on the morale of the Mahratta battalion in that sector,"
writes Gen. F.W. Von Mellenthin.
     Rommel's attack is on time and on target. By 6:30 a.m., the
2/5th Mahrattas have collapsed at Strong Point 69. At 7:45, 10
strongpoints have fallen, and tanks can cross the anti-tank
ditch. The defenders cannot fire out of the Italian-built
concrete shelters, and can only huddle under the bombing. 
     Rommel goes forward to command the assault. By 8:30, 21st
Panzers tanks are into the bridgehead, joined by 15th Panzer soon
after. Gen. von Bismarck, who commands 15th, leads the battle
from his motorcycle-and-sidecar. Rommel himself supervises the
first crossings of the anti-tank ditch.
     The 2nd Camerons and Gurkhas counterattack, but it's not
enough. The German assault is superbly coordinated and led, and
is inexorable.
     At 11 a.m., the Germans are at the inner minefield, where
they meet Matilda tanks with heavy armor and tiny 2-lbr. (40 mm)
guns. The Germans open fire, and the British crews abandon their
tanks and flee.
     At noon, 21st Panzer runs into 30 25-lbr. guns drawn up in
defense in a wide fan. The panzers slow down, reload with high
explosives, and attack, shelling the guns until each crew is dead
or wounded. By 12:30, the gunline is chased away.
     The South African defense is poor because Klopper is
expecting the main attack to come from the West. They ignore
repeated reports from forward positions. Klopper decides to
investigate the situation himself, but his staff officers
dissuade him from leaving the "Pink Palace" headquarters building
in Fort Solaro.
     At 2:45, Rommel's tanks are down the escarpment to the east
of King's Cross intersection, and aiming for the NAAFI stores of
chocolate and magazines. But now Rommel runs into British 3.7-
inch AA guns, being (finally) used as anti=tank weapons. They
wreck two tanks and slow the Germans down. The guns are only put
out of action by a storming party led with enormous gallantry by
Rommel's own driver.
     Now Rommel can crash into Tobruk. His tanks blast through
roadblocks, machine gun strongpoints into surrender or shell
them. By 5:20, the area's headquarters is taken, with its
commander, Brigadier Thompson, taken PoW while firing a machine
gun from the roof of a nearby house, along with some Royal Navy
Sailors trying to stop tanks at Navy House with rifles just
issued to them. By 6 p.m., German fire is pouring into the harbor
as the last ships leave. Amid it all are the explosions of South
African troops destroying stores and depots.
     In the chaos the crack 201st Guards Brigade, blasted by
enemy fire that has destroyed their 6-lbr. guns, is forced to
surrender.
     Klopper himself is completely out of touch, not knowing
where his men are or what is happening. Disasters crowd in on him
at a huge rate. His headquarters men seem to be in a fog. One
brigade's staff is having lunch when a bomb lands near their
tent, without going off. They send a team of engineers to destroy
the bomb so they can finish their lunch, while the battle rages.
     Finally, Klopper orders his men at 4 p.m. (while all at HQ
are having tea) to destroy their documents, codes, and ciphers.
His men also destroy the phone exchange and wireless sets, which
only make things worse.
     Klopper decides things are hopeless and orders a mass
breakout at 10 p.m. 4th South African Brigade's CO tells Klopper
that it will be quite impossible for his brigade to get out of
Tobruk on "their flat feet." Where is the transport?