Air Operations, Europe

In minor operations, 27 Stirlings and Wellingtons are sent to bomb St Nazaire. Because of bad weather only 6 drop their bombs. 46 aircraft are involved in mine-laying operations off St Nazaire and in the Frisians and 2 Stirlings make leaflet flights. There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

A 35th Fighter Group P-400 shoots down a Japanese Navy bomber 50 miles northeast of Port Moresby at 0950 hours.

Atlantic

The British destroyer Wild Swan is damaged by German bombers south of Ireland. She shoots down 6 of the bombers but is crippled and finally sinks after colliding with a Spanish trawler. 31 of her crew are lost.

The Manhattan Project Begins

On June 17, 1942, President Roosevelt signed off on a $90 million research proposal from a team of scientists and military personnel to pursue research, design, and testing of the world’s first nuclear bomb as part of the Manhattan Project. By June 1944, the project employed around 129,000 workers, most of whom were construction workers, plant operators, and military personnel. Over the course of the project, chemists and physicists would pursue five different techniques, numerous design concepts, and eventually settled on a method that led to them conducting the first ever nuclear explosion, codenamed “Trinity,” on July 16, 1945. The explosion created an energy equivalent of around 20 kilotons of TNT, left a crater 250 feet wide, created a shock wave felt over 100 miles away, and produced a mushroom cloud 7.5 miles high.

Battle of the Atlantic

• A US ship carrying 11,000 tons of coal is sunk by a German mine outside Hampton Roads, Virginia. 3 crewmen of the SS Santore (7117t) are killed.
• The US freighter Millinocket (3274t) is torpedoed and sunk by U-129 off the north coast of Cuba with the loss of 11 men of the 35 on board.

Diplomatic Relations

Churchill makes a 27-hour non-stop flight from Stranraer, Scotland to Washington to confer with Roosevelt.

Eastern Front

In the Crimea the Germans and Rumanians in the Sevastopol siege storm the 'Siberia' fortress, an important strong point in the defensive perimeter.

The 29th Tank Brigade punches a 400-yard corridor through to the 2nd Shock Army at Myasnoi Bor. The men of the 2nd Shock rush for the slender lifeline in a desperate bid to escape the pocket. German fire inflicts massive casualties upon the tightly massed ranks of Soviets.

The LIV Corps takes Fort Siberia after a fierce battle. German troops have to wipe out each pocket of resistance with artillery fire and flamethrowers, the Soviets fighting to the last man. The LIV Corps has driven a deep wedge into the Soviet secondary defense line. The XXX Corps' 72nd Infantry Division captures the heavily defended North Nose, Chapel Mount and Ruin Hill strong points, and its 170th Infantry Division takes Kamary. The 28th Light Division encounters particularly strong resistance as it attempts to advance along the Crimean coast.

Vessels of the Black Sea Fleet try to bring reinforcements in, landing 3,000 soldiers together with ammunition, but this is not enough to replace the heavy losses of the past few days.

Army and RAF Personnel Refuelling and a Spitfire Mk V, Malta, 17 June 1942

North Africa

The 20th Indian Brigade, isolated at Belhamed, is in great danger. In the afternoon the 4th Armored Brigade tries to move up to assist but is met by both the 15th and 21st Panzer Divs, and loses 32 tanks. Brig George W. Richards, short of fuel, then retires southward. During the evening the Desert Air Force is compelled to withdraw from its advanced airfields at Gambut. The 20th Brigade then evacuates Belhamed at 2135, but in the morning are attacked by German tanks and most are captured. Rommel's troops also captures some 8th Army supply depots and swings his forces to the northeast.

Under cover of night the 8th Army withdraws east of Tobruk. Axis forces move on to the coast road from inland and secure control of the road to Bardia cutting off Tobruk.

Secret War

• Kornilov and Pavlov, 2 Russian NKVD agents, are sentenced to 20 years' impisonment at Ankara for the attempted assassination of von Papen. (see February 14, 1942.)
• 4 German agents are landed by submarine at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.