Air Operations, Mediterranean

Vichy air forces again raid Gibraltar. Although a total of 600 tons of bombs are dropped, there is very little damage one either day.

Battle of Britain

Day 78

Weather - Fair conditions in most areas with some haze over the Channel.

Combat - The day starts relatively quietly with only a few reconnaissance raids until about 1100hrs when a large raid is plotted heading towards the coastline of Dorset. The He-111's, Me-110's and Me-109's attack the Bristol Aeroplane Company's factory in Filton while Ju-88's brea off and attack the oil tanks at Portland. Hurricanes of No: 229 and 238 Squadrons and Spitfires of No: 152 and 234 Squadrons are scrambled, with all successfully engaging the raiders. The He-111's of KG53 and KG55 suffer heavy losses to the Hurricanes of No: 238 Squadron, from Middle Wallop, with Pilot Officer John Urwin-Mann (a Canadian pilot) shooting down two of the bombers.

It was not until later in the day, at about 1600hrs, that a second raid is made, this time on the Plymouth and Isle of Wight areas. Both attacks are made by Me-110's before they are intercepted by Hurricanes of No: 238 and 607 Squadrons and Spitfires of No: 609 Squadron.

During the night more raids attack London while others are made on Derby, South Wales, Liverpool, the Midlands and East Anglia. Mines are dropped in the Thames Estuary.

R.A.F. Losses: 10 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 5 pilots were killed or missing and 1 wounded.

Luftwaffe Losses: 22 aircraft damaged or destroyed, 36 pilots and aircrew killed or missing and 5 wounded.

NOTE: Losses include non-combat patrols and accidents.

Battle of the Atlantic

• U-29 badly damages the British steamer Eurymedon (6223t) 366 miles west of Achill Head with the loss of 29 passengers and crew. She founders for 2 days before sinking on the 27th. 64 survivors are picked up by the Canadian destroyer Ottawa.
• U-32 sinks the British steamer Mabriton (6694t) west-southwest of Rockall. 25 survivors are picked up by the British minesweeper Jason and the sloop Rochester.
• U-43 sinks the British steamer Sulairia (5802t) from the dispersed Convoy OB-217 with the loss of 1 of her crew. 56 survivors are picked up by the Canadian destroyer Ottawa.
• The French trawler Findlande (1344t) is seized by Canadian forces in the Newfoundland area.

The Blitz

A major daylight raid hits London. During the night Bristol is hit by 27 bombers escorted by 30 Me-110s. 82 are killed and 170 injured.

Britain, Command

Charles Portal is appointed to become the RAF Chief of Air Staff.

French West Africa

The British battleship Barham is hit by 15-inch shell from Richelieu. The defense at Dakar continues to be very efficient. The British commanders along with de Gaulle realize that a landing may be too costly in men and material. After the setbacks of the past few days, Churchill orders the operation to be abandoned. The British ships withdraw to Freetown, the capital of the British colony of Sierra Leone.

Mediterranean

• Tobruk is raided by British aircraft and the Sidi Barrani region is hit by naval forces.
• The British anti-submarine trawler Stella Sirius (550t) is sunk by French bombing at Gibraltar with the loss of 12 crewmen. Survivors are picked up by the British trawler Arctic Ranger.
• The Italian steamer Rina Croce (569t) is lost on a mine off Brindisi from a mine laid by the British submarine Roqual on 14 June.

Norway

Josef Terboven, the Reichs Commissioner, deposes the King of Norway formally and appoints Vidkun Quisling to lead the new Norwegian government. In reality Quisling is a German puppet with limited authority.

Secret War

The US Signals Intelligence for the first time reads the Japanese Purple code. This is the diplomatic code used by Tokyo. The major breakthrough comes when, after three frustrating years and without any knowledge of what the original looks like or its operational principles, the encoding and decoding machine is duplicated. Col William Friedman, a U.S. army intelligence officer, finally is able to solve the problem of the proper cryptographic sequences. This breakthrough is the greatest intelligence coup of the war.

This machine, constructed in 1940 by U.S. cryptanalysts, was used to read "Purple," the Japanese diplomatic code (not, it should be noted, the Japanese naval code). Purple offered millions of cipher combinations. The Japanese considered the system unbreakable, but they made the mistake of phasing it in gradually while still employing the previous "Red" code, which U.S. intelligence had been reading for some time. The overlap helped U.S. cryptanalysts break the Purple code and reproduce the machine, which employed telephone stepping switches rather than the more traditional rotor system. The cryptanalysts were hailed as "magicians," and the intelligence derived from reading Purple was known as "Magic."

"Magic"