Air Operations, Europe

• Stukas attack shipping at Murmansk.
• The first of 4 attempted night raids by the Luftwaffe on Birmingham during 1942. Only 2 find the target, the raids on the nights of July 27 and July 29.

21 aircraft are sent to bomb St Nazaire. There are no losses.

Air Operations, New Guinea

5th Air Force B-17s from the Bismarcks attack the Rabaul/Vunakanau airfield with general-purpose and incendiary bombs.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The unarmed tug John R. Williams (396t), bount for Cape May, New Jersey, is sunk by a mine laid by U-373 on 11 June. Only 4 men of the 18-man crew survive. They are picked up by district patrol craft YP-334 and taken to Lewes, Delaware.
• The US freighter Manuela (4774t) is torpedoed by U-404 and abandoned. 3 of the 36-man crew die in the attack. Survivors are rescued by the British armed trawler HMS Norwich City and the Coast Guard cutter CG-483.

Eastern Front

Troops of Army Group South secure their positions east of the Donets River and reaches the line of the Oskol River, the objective set for it by the headquarters in the Izyum area. The battle at Sevastopol still rages, but the end is in sight.

Vlassov orders the break out of his army. Small bands of men try to fight their way east but 2nd Shock has shot its bolt and organized resistance ends. During the confused fighting, Vlassov surrenders. In later years Vlassov will be the main impetus behind the formation of a free Soviet army to fight for the overthrow of Stalin and his regime.

North Africa

Rommel launches his assault on Egypt, sending his armored columns east and northeast, 50 miles into Egypt, and throwing the British rearguards into confusion in the area of Sidi Barrani. The X Corps, which has only just arrived in Egypt from Syria, relieves the XIII Corps, which is sent to El Alamein to set up a new defense line.

Occupied Yugoslavia

In Yugoslavia 2 major offensives, lasting from January to June 1942, by German, Italian and 'puppet' troops force Tito's partisans to retreat 241 km from Serbia into Croatia.

Thailand

600 Allied POWs begin work on what will be a 294-mile extension to the Singapore-Bangkok railway. The Japanese intend to connect the existing rail line with Rangoon in southern Burma, and are relying on vast numbers of Allies POWs and Asian slave workers to perform the manual labor. This is acceptable under the Geneva Convention, but not the brutal regime they will work under.