June 1941
US MARINE CORPS
UNITED STATES—First Joint Training Force (JTF-1),
consisting of the 1st Marine Division, the 1st Marine Aircraft Group, and the
U. S. Army 1st Infantry Division organized at Quantico, Virginia, under the
command of Major General Holland M. Smith.
1 June 1941, Sunday
US NAVY
ATLANTIC—South Greenland Patrol (Commander Harold G.
Belford, USCG), is established to operate from Cape Brewster to Cape Farewell
to Upernivik; Coast Guard cutters Modoc, Comanche and Raritan,
together with unclassified auxiliary vessel Bowdoin (IX‑50) make up the
force.
MEDITERRANEAN—Crete capitulates to the Germans.
2 June 1941, Monday
UNITED STATES—Rear Admiral Edward J. Marquart becomes
Commandant New York Navy Yard.
ATLANTIC—Aircraft escort vessel Long Island (AVG 1)
is commissioned at Newport News, Virginia. Converted from Maritime Commission C‑3
type freighter Mormacmail in just 67 working days, Long Island is
the first of a type of what come to be classified as "escort
carriers" that will prove invaluable in the prosecution of the war in both
Atlantic and Pacific theaters.
3 June 1941, Tuesday
ATLANTIC—Cape Town, South Africa‑bound British ship rescues
35 survivors of U.S. freighter Robin Moor, sunk by German submarine U‑69
on 21 May (see 8 June).
6 June 1941, Friday
UNITED STATES—Bill is signed authorizing the government to
requisition foreign merchant ships lying idle in U.S. ports.
CANAL ZONE—Naval Air Station, Balboa, Canal Zone, is
established.
8 June 1941, Sunday
ATLANTIC—Brazilian freighter Osorio rescues 11
survivors of U.S. freighter Robin Moor, sunk by German submarine U‑69
on 21May.
9 June 1941, Monday
UNITED STATES—Intelligence sources having indicated that
Germany has no plans for invading Spain and Portugal, the President suspends
planning for the joint occupation of the Azores.
12 June 1941, Thursday
UNITED STATES—All members of the U.S. Naval Reserve, not in
a deferred status, are called to active duty.
14 June 1941, Saturday
ATLANTIC—Central North Atlantic patrols commence with
battleship/destroyer task groups; Texas (BB‑35) and accompanying
destroyers inaugurate these patrols (see 20 June).
15 June 1941, Sunday
PACIFIC—Japanese land attack planes bombing Chungking,
China, drop their ordnance near river gunboat Tutuila (PR‑4), U.S. military
attaché's office and U.S. Navy canteen. Japanese Admiral Shimada Shigetaro
expresses regret over the incident and assures U.S. representatives that the
bombing is "wholly unintentional." U.S. military and naval attachés
privately concur, however, that the bombing "was either criminal
carelessness or [with] deliberate intent to bomb Embassy and gunboat..."
Naval Air
Station, Kodiak, Alaska, is established.
ATLANTIC—TF 3 (Rear Admiral Jonas H. Ingram) begins patrol
operations from Brazilian ports of Recife and Bahia; the force consists of four
Omaha (CL‑4) ‑class light cruisers and five destroyers.
16 June 1941, Monday
UNITED STATES—State Department requests that the German
government "remove from United States territory all German nationals in
anywise connected with the German Library of Information in New York, the
German Railway and Tourist Agencies, and the Trans‑Ocean News Service,"
and that those agencies and their affiliates "shall be promptly
closed." In addition, all German consular officers, agents, clerks and
employees thereof of German nationality shall be removed from American
territory and that the consular establishments be promptly closed. The German
government is given until 10 July to comply. This move is made because of
suspicion that the agencies aforementioned "have been engaged in
activities...of an improper and unwarranted character" and "wholly
outside the scope of their legitimate duties."
Rear
Admiral Joseph K. Taussig is detached as Commandant Fifth Naval District and
Commander Naval Operating Base, Norfolk, Virginia.
18 June 1941, Wednesday
PACIFIC— Fleet Exercise No. 1, which commenced off coast of
California on 14 May, concludes.
19 June 1941, Thursday
EUROPE—Germany and Italy request closure of U.S.
consulates.
20 June 1941, Friday
UNITED STATES—President Roosevelt addresses message to
Congress concerning the German sinking of U.S. freighter Robin Moor on21
May. The President notes that Robin Moor's destruction is a
"warning to the United States may use the high seas of the world only with
Nazi consent. Were we to yield on this we would inevitably submit to world‑domination
at the hands of the present leaders of the German Reich. We are not
yielding," the President declares, "and we do not propose to
yield."
Undersecretary
of State Sumner Welles sends this message to the German Embassy for the
information of the German government (see 24 June, 19 and 26 September and 3
November).
ATLANTIC—Battleship Texas (BB‑35) and destroyers Mayrant
(DD‑402), Rhind (DD‑404), and Trippe (DD‑403) are sighted by
German submarine U‑203 within what the German navy regards as the war,
or "blockade" zone in the Atlantic. The American force, however,
unaware of the U‑boat, outdistances the submarine and frustrates its attempted
attack. In the wake of this incident, the commander in chief of the German navy
(Grossadmiral Erich Raeder) orders that American warships can only be
attacked if they cross the western boundary of the blockade area by 20 or more
miles, or within the 20‑mile strip along the western edge of the blockade zone.
TG 2.6,
comprising carrier Wasp (CV‑7) (VF 71, VS 72, and VMB 1), heavy cruiser Tuscaloosa
(CA‑37), and destroyers Anderson (DD‑411) and Rowan (DD‑405),
departs Hampton Roads for a 4,320‑mile neutrality patrol that will conclude at
Bermuda on 4 July.
Submarines
O 6 (SS‑167), O 9 (SS‑170) and O 10 (SS‑171) conduct deep
submergence trials out of Portsmouth, N.H. while O 6 and O 10 conduct
their test dives without incident, O 9, the last boat to make the test
dive, accidentally sinks (cause unknown) off the Isles of Shoals, southeast of
Portsmouth, 42°59'48"N,
21 June 1941, Saturday
UNITED STATES—State Department requests closing of all
Italian consulates in U.S. territory; the "continued functioning of
Italian consular establishments in territory of the United States,"
Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles informs Italian Ambassador Don Ascanio
dei principi Colonna, "would serve no desirable purpose." The Italian
government is informed that such withdrawals and closures be effected before 15
July.
22 June 1941, Sunday
EUROPE—Germany, Italy, and Rumania declare war on the
Soviet Union and invade along a front from the Arctic to the Black Sea.
ATLANTIC—After all hopes of finding any survivors from the
sunken submarine O 9 (SS‑170) are lost and continued diving operations
in the vicinity deemed hazardous, Secretary of the Navy Knox personally
conducts memorial ceremony, held on board submarine Triton (SS‑201),
over last known location of the lost boat.
24 June 1941, Tuesday
UNITED STATES—German Chargé d'Affaires Hans Thomsen replies
to Undersecretary of State Sumner Welles's 20 June note concerning the Robin
Moor sinking. "I have the honor to advise you," Thomsen writes,
"that I do not find myself in a position to pass on...the text of a
message to Congress from the President of the United States for the information
of my government" (see 19 and 26 September and 3 November).
25 June 1941, Wednesday
EUROPE—Finland declares war on the Soviet Union.
ATLANTIC—TG 2.7, comprising light cruisers Philadelphia (CL‑41)
and Savannah (CL‑42) and destroyers Lang (DD‑399) and Wilson (DD‑408),
depart Hampton Roads for a 4,762‑mile neutrality patrol that will conclude on 8
July at Bermuda.
27 June 1941, Friday
EUROPE—Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union.
ATLANTIC—During German submarine attacks on convoy HX 133,
Dutch steamship Maasdam is torpedoed and sunk by U‑564 approximately
300 miles south of Iceland; among the survivors are marines under Major Walter
L. Jordan, USMC, the advance detail for the Marine Detachment at the American
Embassy in London.
28 June 1941, Saturday
EUROPE—Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
UNITED STATES—President issues executive order creating the
Office of Scientific Research and Development (Dr. Vannevar Bush, chairman)
which will replace the National Defense Research Committee. The new office will
coordinate and supplement scientific research relating to the defense effort.
ATLANTIC—Destroyer Madison (DD‑425) is damaged when
she runs aground on the southeast tip of Moratties Shoal, Placentia Harbor,
Argentia, Newfoundland.
29 June 1941, Sunday
ATLANTIC—TG 2.8, comprising carrier Yorktown (CV‑5)
(VF 42, VS 42, VMO 1, and half of VMS 1), heavy cruisers Quincy (CA‑39)
and Vincennes (CA‑44), and destroyers Wainwright (DD‑419), Hammann
(DD‑412), Mustin (DD‑413), and Stack (DD‑406), departs
Hampton Roads for neutrality patrol. Yorktown, accompanied by Wainwright
and Stack, depart the patrol on 10 July, returning to Hampton Roads
on the 12th; Quincy, Vincennes, Hammann, and Mustin continue
the cruise, putting in to Bermuda on 15 July.
30 June 1941, Monday
WORLDWIDE‑‑Naval vessels on hand (all types)‑‑1,899.
Personnel: Navy‑‑284,427; Marine Corps‑‑54,359; Coast Guard‑‑19,235. Total
personnel‑‑358,021.
EUROPE—Vichy France severs relations with the Soviet Union.
No comments:
Post a Comment