Air Operations, CBI

2 7th Heavy Bomb Group B-17s attack Rangoon, but they themselves are attacked by Japanese fighters. 1 of the B-17s is lost and the other heavily damaged.

Air Operations, Europe

• 12 Bostons raid the Boulogne and Dunkirk docks with accurate bombing results. 1 Boston is lost.
• In minor operations, 20 aircraft raid Dieppe, 13 Blenheims to the Schiphol airfield and 2 aircraft make leaflet flights over France. There are no losses.

Aleutian Islands

Japanese carrier-borne aircraft attack Dutch Harbor on Unalaska Island, damaging an American ship and hitting gasoline tanks. American reconnaissance aircraft and bombers search all day for the Japanese fleet but without success.

On June 3, 1942, a Japanese aircraft carrier strike force launched air attacks over two days against the Dutch Harbor Naval Base and Fort Mears in Dutch Harbor, Alaska. In this photo, bombs explode in the water near Dutch Harbor, during the attack on June 4, 1942. (U.S. Navy)

Japanese Air Strike on Dutch Harbor, Alaska

Axis Diplomacy

Hitler visits Marshal Mannerheim in Finland to offer congratulations on the Finn's 75th birthday, and to strengthen the mutual relationships between Germany and Finland. The two men meet near the quiet Finnish border town of Imatra. The meeting is not a success: at one point Hitler demands that Finnish Jews be deported; Mannerheim answers, 'over my dead body'.

Caribbean

The US freighter Velma Lykes (2572t) is torpedoed and sunk by U-158 south of the Yucatan Channel. The ship sinks so fast no lifeboats are launched. 15 of the ship's complement die in the attack.

North Africa

The 8th Army counterattacks at nightfall to reduce the salient made by the Axis forces in the central sector of the British line. During the night the German 15th Panzer Div digs in at Bir el Harmat and repels the British attacks.

Occupied Czeshoslovakia

Heydrich dies of the wounds he received in the attempt on his life on May 27. The German retaliate by ordering the execution of many Czech patriots held in prison. They also massacre all the male inhabitants of Lidice while the women and children are interned in a concentration camp.

Heydrich dies from septicemia - caused by foreign bodies - in Prague at the Bulov hospital. Himmler's first act after he has recovered from the shock of Heydrich's death is to locate the key to the safe in which Heydrich kept his 'personal' files.

Heydrich's coffin lay in state in the many courtyard of Hradcany Castle and the people of Prague filed by in resemblance of homage, some giving the Nazi salute.

Battle of Midway

Believing that the Americans will not yet have left Hawaii, 14 Japanese submarines patrol between Midway and Hawaii. The Japanese operations around Midway begin according to plan with 108 aircraft from the carrier force being sent to attack the island. The American forces on the island detect the strike on the way in and send off one of their own.

The Japanese massacre the defending fighters but in their commander's view, fail to inflict sufficient damage on the island. He signals for a second strike to be prepared. The mixed bag of aircraft attacking the Japanese carriers are also roughly handled, losing 17 of 52 and scoring no hits.

The US carriers begin searching for Nagumo at dawn and the first strikes are launched around 0800. At 0700 the Japanese begin to rearm their reserve planes for a second attack on Midway but, reports of the American Fleet, vague at first, begin to arrive during the next hour and a quarter. When the presence of an enemy carrier is finally confirmed. Nagumo is presented with a terrible problem. His decks are cluttered with aircraft, torpedoes and bombs, his defending fighters need fuel, having just finished repelling the attack from Midway, and his first strike force is shortly due to return. He decides to recover all his aircraft first and then send a coordinated strike against the American ships.

At about 0930, the first American carrier planes come into action. The American strike is badly coordinated and at this stage only the 41 torpedo bombers attack. 35 are shot down and no hits achieved. They have managed, however, to lure almost all the Japanese Zeros down to low level and the tight cruising formation of the Japanese ships has been disrupted, weakening their AA defense. Just before 1030, when the Japanese have at last organized their strike, the American dive-bombers arrive, and within 5 minutes Akagi, Kaga and Soryu, their decks packed with aircraft ready to take off, have all been fatally hit. Hiryu is at this stage undamaged and launches strikes which find and critically damage the Yorktown (CV-5).

Late in the afternoon planes from Enterprise (CV-6) and Hornet (CV-8) inflict similar damage on the Hiryu. All 4 Japanese carriers sink or are scuttled within the next 24 hours.

TBD-1 torpedo bombers of Torpedo Squadron Six unfold their wings on the deck of USS Enterprise prior to launching an attack against four Japanese carriers on the first day of the Battle of Midway. Launched on the morning of June 4, 1942, against the Japanese carrier fleet during the Battle of Midway, the squadron lost ten of fourteen aircraft during their attack. (U.S. Navy)

Torpedo Bombers Ready to Launch from Enterprise

A Grumman F4F-4 "Wildcat" fighter takes off from USS Yorktown on combat air patrol, on the morning of 4 June 1942. This plane is Number 13 of Fighting Squadron Three, flown by the squadron Executive Officer, Lt(jg) William N. Leonard. Note .50 caliber machine gun at right and mattresses hung on the lifeline for splinter-protection. (Photographer Second Class William G. Roy/U.S. Navy)

Grumman F4F-4 Fighter Takes Off from Yorktown

The Japanese carrier Hiryu maneuvers to avoid bombs dropped by Army Air Forces B-17 Flying Fortresses during the Battle of Midway, on June 4, 1942. (NARA)

Japanese Carrier Hiryu Maneuvers to Avoid Bombs

U.S. Navy LCdr Maxwell F. Leslie, commanding officer of bombing squadron VB-3, ditches in the ocean next to the heavy cruiser USS Astoria, after successfully attacking the Japanese carrier Soryu during the Battle of Midway, on June 4, 1942. Leslie and his wingman Lt(jg) P.A. Holmberg ditched near Astoria due to fuel exhaustion, after their parent carrier USS Yorktown was under attack by Japanese planes when they returned. Leslie, Holmberg, and their gunners were rescued by one of the cruiser's whaleboats. Note one of the cruiser's Curtiss SOC Seagull floatplanes on the catapult at right. (U.S. Navy)

US Navy LCdr Maxwell F. Leslie Ditches in the Ocean

Black smoke rises from a burning U.S. oil tank, set afire during a Japanese air raid on Naval Air Station Midway on Midway Atoll, on June 4, 1942. American forces maintained an airstrip with dozens of aircraft stationed on the tiny island. The attack inflicted heavy damage, but the airstrip was still usable. (AP Photo)

Oil Tank Burning from Japanese Air Raid on Midway

A VB-8 SBD lands far off center, flying right over the head of the Landing Signal Officer aboard USS Hornet during the Battle of Midway, on June 4, 1942. (U.S. Navy)

A VB-8 SBD Lands Far Off Center Aboard Hornet

Japanese Type 97 shipboard attack aircraft from the carrier Hiryu amid heavy anti-aircraft fire, during the torpedo attack on USS Yorktown in the mid-afternoon of June 4, 1942. At least three planes are visible, the nearest having already dropped its torpedo. The other two are lower and closer to the center, apparently withdrawing. Smoke on the horizon in right center is from a crashed plane. (U.S. Navy)

Japanese Attack Aircraft Amid Heavy Anti-Aircraft Fire

Smoke rises from the USS Yorktown after a Japanese bomber hit the aircraft carrier in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. Bursts from anti-aircraft fire fill the air. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)

Smoke Rises from the Yorktown

Black smoke pours from the aircraft carrier Yorktown after she suffered hits from Japanese aircraft during the Battle of Midway, on June 4, 1942. (U.S. Navy)

Black Smoke Pours from the Yorktown

The heavily damaged, burning Japanese aircraft carrier Hiryu, photographed by a plane from the carrier Hosho shortly after sunrise on June 5, 1942. Hiryu sank a few hours later. Note collapsed flight deck over the forward hangar. (U.S. Navy)

The Heavily Damaged Japanese Carrier Hiryu

Flying dangerously close, a U.S. Navy photographer got this spectacular aerial view of a heavy Japanese cruiser of the Mogima class, demolished by Navy bombs, in the battle of Midway, in June of 1942. Armor plate, steel decks and superstructure are a tumbled mass. (AP Photo)

Aerial View of a Heavy Japanese Mogima Class Cruiser

The USS Yorktown lists heavily to port after being struck by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes in the Battle of Midway on June 4, 1942. A destroyer stands by at right to assist as a salvage crew on the flight deck tries to right the stricken aircraft carrier. (AP Photo/U.S. Navy)

Yorktown Listing Heavily to Port

After Japanese bombers damaged the USS Yorktown, crewmen climb down ropes and ladders to small boats that transferred them to rescue ships, including the destroyer at right, on June 4, 1942 in the Pacific Ocean. Later, a salvage crew returned to the abandoned ship and as she made progress toward port, a torpedo from a Japanese submarine destroyed and sank the Yorktown. (AP Photo/US Navy)

Abandoning the Yorktown

The United States destroyer Hammann, background, on its way to the bottom of the Pacific after having been hit by a Japanese torpedo during the battle of Midway, in June of 1942. The Hammann had been providing auxiliary power to damaged USS Yorktown while salvage operations were underway. The same attack also struck the Yorktown, which sank the following morning. Crewmen of another U.S. warship, foreground, line the rail as their vessel stands by to rescue survivors. (AP Photo)

Sinking of the US Destroyer Hammann

Navy fighters during the attack on the Japanese fleet off Midway, in June of 1942. At center a burning Japanese ship is visible. (NARA)

Navy Fighters During the Attack on the Japanese Fleet