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June 13th, 1942

UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyer HMS Rockwood launched.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Fiaray launched. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Peenemunde: A prototype rocket-propelled bomb, the A4, is fired for the first time; it is a failure.

U-304, U-449 are launched.
U-185 commissioned.

U-676, U-677 laid down.

U-1019, U-1020, U-1021, U-1022, U-1023, U-1024, U-1025, U-1274, U-1275, U-1276, U-1277, U-1278, U-1279 ordered.

(Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: Submarine “Sch-405” of the Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas - is sunk by a Soviet mine, East of Seskar Is. (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

Black Sea Fleet and Azov Flotilla: Shipping loss: MS “TSch-405 “Vzrivatel”” - by field artillery, close to Eupatoria (later raised) (Sergey Anisimov)(69)
NORTH AFRICA: British and South African troops pull out of the Gazala Line.

The Guards abandon the area known as “Knightsbridge” under pressure from Rommel, who has destroyed over 100 British tanks.

After days in which Rommel’s army has withstood constant attacks from the air and from British armour in a series of piecemeal assaults, his tanks have broken out from their defensive Gazala positions. The Desert Fox had deliberately allowed the British - in his words - to “use up their strength in the process.”

A German battle group with Italian air support is now seeking to outflank the British at Bir Hakeim. Resistance by the Free French garrison is tougher than the Germans had anticipated and Rommel has flown in to take charge, seeking to encircle two British divisions.

AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Ipswich commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: In the Aleutian Islands, the sighting of the seaplane tender, destroyer USS Gillis (AVD—12) at Atka Island by a Japanese seaplane yesterday, causes the US Navy to withdraw the ship and the Consolidated PBY Catalinas that have been attacking Kiska Island. The 11th Air Force continues the bombardment of Kiska by sending five Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and three Consolidated B-24 Liberators to bomb the island however, two of the aircraft had to turn back.

German submarine U-159 sinks an armed U.S. merchant freighter in the Caribbean east of the Panama Canal. (Jack McKillop)

U-157 (Type IXC) is sunk at 1600hrs northeast of Havana, Cuba, in position 24.13N, 82.03W, by depth charges from the US coastguard cutter USS Thetis. 52 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)

CANADA:
LCdr William Edward Slade RCNR, LCdr Edgar George Skinner RCNR, LCdr George Hay Stephens RCNR awarded DSC.

LS Joseph George Charrier RCN, AB James Arthur Sharpe RCN, SPO Wallace Harold Chandler, Lt Thomas Gilmour, LS Frederick Joseph Morgan RCNR, Lt Gilbert Goodwin Fraser RCNVR, CPO/ERA John Charles Griffiths RCNVR awarded Mention in Dispatches.

Fairmile HMCS ML 085 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Long Range Navigation (LORAN) equipment was given its first airborne test by the US Navy. The receiver was mounted in the K-2 non-rigid airship and, in a flight from Naval Air Station Lakehurst, New Jersey, accurately determined position when the airship was over various identifiable objects.

The test culminated with the first LORAN homing from a distance 50 to 75 miles (81 to 121 km) offshore during which the LORAN operator gave instructions to the airship’s commanding officer which brought them over the shoreline near Lakehurst on a course that caused the commanding officer to remark, “We weren’t [just] headed for the hangar. We were headed for the middle of the hangar.” The success of these tests lead to immediate action to obtain operational LORAN equipment.

The German submarine U-584 puts four agents ashore at Amagansett, Long Island, New York during the night. But they are seen by a young U.S. Coastguardsman who reports the incident which alerts U.S. officials. (Jack McKillop)

The Office of War Information is created by an executive order of President Roosevelt. Radio news commentator Elmer Davis is appointed to head this organization tasked with controlling the release of information to the public. (Jack McKillop)

CARIBBEAN SEA: U-157 sunk NE of Havana in position 24.13N, 82.03W, by depth charges from USCGC Thetis. 52 dead (all hands lost). (Dave Shirlaw)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0412, the unescorted Sixaola was hit on the starboard side by two torpedoes from U-159, while making a right-hand zigzag at 12.5 knots about 50 miles off Bocas del Toro, Panama. The first torpedo struck in the bow and the second in the centre of #2 hold. The most of the eight officers, 79 crewmen, six armed guards (the ship was armed with one 3in and two .50cal guns) and 108 passengers on board abandoned ship in five lifeboats and six rafts two minutes after the hits and stopping the engines. 29 crewmen died in the explosions, most of them lay sleeping in the quarters of the crew in the bow. Just after the master and chief officer left the ship, she was hit on the port side amidships by a coup de grâce at 0431 and sank by the stern about 0615. The Germans questioned the survivors, offered medical aid, gave exact course and distance to the nearest land and two packages of German cigarettes and then left the area. 32 survivors in one boat were picked up by the American SS Carolinian and later transferred to the American gunboat USS Niagara, which also picked up 75 survivors in two other boats that had been spotted by aircraft and landed them all in Cristobal. 23 survivors in another boat were rescued by the US Army tug Shasta, after their boat landed on Bocas del Toro on 16 June. The remaining 42 survivors made landfall in their lifeboat in the delta of Coloveboran River after four days and were brought to Cristobal by the American submarine chaser USS PC-460.

SS Solon Turman sunk by U-159 at 10.45N, 80.24W.

ASW trawler HMS Farouk sunk by U-83 at 34.19N, 35.44E. (Dave Shirlaw)