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• Kurt Daluege was named Deputy Protector of Bohemia and Moravia. ww2dbase [Kurt Daluege | CPC]
• The Nazi SS organization reported that 97,000 people had been killed in mobile gas vans. ww2dbase [CPC]
• US President Roosevelt threatened the use of poison gas against Japan if Japanese troops were to deploy poison gas in China. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• US Navy Task Force 1 with 6 battleships and carrier Long Island made rendezvous west of San Francisco, California. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Unternehmen Vogellied (Operation Birdsong): In the Roslavl and Bryansk region in Russia, 5,000 German security troops tracked down a destroyed a 2,500-strong partisan group. ww2dbase [TH]
• United States declared war on Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Joichi Tomonaga passed away. ww2dbase [Joichi Tomonaga | CPC]
• Tamon Yamaguchi went down with the sinking carrier Hiryu. He was promoted to the rank of vice admiral posthumously. ww2dbase [Tamon Yamaguchi | CPC]
• Ryusaku Yanagimoto passed away. ww2dbase [Ryusaku Yanagimoto | CPC]
• Tomeo Kaku passed away. ww2dbase [Tomeo Kaku | CPC]
• German submarine U-172 sank US ship Delfina 120 miles north of Puerto Rico at 0608 hours; 4 were killed, 27 survived. At 2210 hours, U-94 sank Portuguese sailing ship Maria da Glória with her deck gun 650 miles east of St. John's Newfoundland; 2 were killed, 42 survived, but only 8 of the survivors would be rescued. ww2dbase [Second Happy Time | CPC]
• German submarine U-158 sank US ship Velma Lykes 15 miles off Cancún, Mexico at 0332 hours; 15 were killed, 17 survived. 85 miles south of the Dominican Republic, U-159 sank Brazilian sail Paracury with her deck gun at 0527 hours. At 2010 hours, U-159 attacked again in the same area, sinking Honduran sailing vessel Sally with her deck. At 2049 hours, U-68 sank US tanker LJ Drake with 3 torpedoes off the Dominican Republic; all 40 aboard were killed. ww2dbase [Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico Campaigns | CPC]
• Free French submarine Rubis laid mines in the Bay of Biscay; they would later sink Vichy French ship Quand Meme, German minesweeper M-4212, and German minesweeper M-4448 in the weeks to come. ww2dbase [CPC]
• 520 Japanese-American internees, mostly from the neighboring state of Washington, arrived at the Portland Assembly Center in Oregon, United States. ww2dbase [Portland Assembly Center | CPC]
• USS S-29 was decommissioned from US Navy service and transferred to the British Royal Navy. ww2dbase [S-29/P556 | CPC]

• Lieutenant Teague, flying a B-17 aircraft, ran out of fuel and was forced to make a landing on a flat stretch of rocky terrain on the west coast of Greenland. It was soon determined that the site could be used as an airstrip. ww2dbase [Bluie West Four | South Greenland | CPC]

• Clarence Tinker led a group of B-24 Liberator bombers from Hawaii Islands to Midway Atoll. ww2dbase [Clarence Tinker | CPC]

• Japanese merchant raiders Aikoku Maru and Hokoku Maru sank British passenger liner Elysia 350 miles off Durban, South Africa. To the north on the same day, off Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique, Japanese submarine I-10 sank Panamanian ship Atlantic Gulf at 0231 hours, I-10 sank US freighter Melvin H Baker at 1044 hours, and I-20 sank Panamanian ship Johnstown. ww2dbase [Raids into the Indian Ocean | CPC]

• Captain Shinpei Asano was named the commanding officer of Tenryu while the ship was undergoing upgrades at Maizuro Naval Arsenal, Japan. ww2dbase [Tenryu | Maizuru Naval Arsenal | Maizuru, Kyoto | CPC]

• British troops mounted a large counter offensive south of Tobruk, Libya in Operation Aberdeen; it was met with initial success, but it was halted after German tanks penetrated into the area between British divisional field headquarters and disrupted communications. ww2dbase [Battle of Gazala | CPC]

• USS Ranger and Augusta arrived at Argentia, Newfoundland. ww2dbase [Ranger | Augusta | Argentia | DS]

• Akagi was scuttled by direct order of Combined Fleet chief Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. At 0520 hours, she sank bow first after two or three torpedo hits out of four fired into her starboard side by Arashio, Hagikaze, Maikaze and Nowaki. She sank in position 30-30 N, 178-40 W. More than 1,070 survivors were rescued, including her skipper Taijiro Aoki, who had replaced Hasegawa in the spring, though he had to be ordered off the ship. Only 263 petty officers and men were lost. Survivors were subsequently transferred from destroyers to Mutsu, one of the battleships in Yamamoto's Main Body. Akagi became the first Japanese capital ship to be scuttled by own ships in the Pacific War. ww2dbase [Akagi | CPC]
• At 0015 hours, Yamamoto ordered the night engagement at Midway to be canceled; at 0255 hours, he ordered the entire Operation MI to be canceled. In the battle zone, heavily damaged Japanese carriers Akagi and Hiryu were scuttled. To the west, heavy cruisers Mogami and Mikuma suffered a collision as they attempted to avoid submarine USS Tambor; Mogami suffered 92 killed and heavy damage in the collision. Far to the north, in the Aleutian Islands, aircraft from Japanese carriers Ryujo and Junyo attacked Dutch Harbor, US Territory of Alaska as Japanese troops occupied Attu. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | CPC]
• Portland took aboard 2,046 survivors of the stricken carrier USS Yorktown (Yorktown-class) in the Battle of Midway ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Portland | Yorktown (Yorktown-class) | DS]
• Tanikaze was ordered to search for the disabled carrier Hiryu and to rescue survivors, but she was not able to find Hiryu (which already sank). Tanikaze was in turn attacked by 32 US Navy dive bombers. One of the five near-misses caused an explosion in the after turret, killing six. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Tanikaze | CPC]
• Jack Kleiss, flying a SBD Dauntless dive bomber, dropped bombs on Japanese destroyer Tanikaze off Midway Atoll, but the bomb missed. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Jack Kleiss | CPC]
• Japanese cruiser Kumano was leading a column of sister Mogami-class cruisers Suzuya, Mikuma, and Mogami withdrawing from Midway. Kumano spotted the surfaced American submarine USS Tambor and ordered an emergency 45-degree turn to starboard, but Mikuma mistakenly made a 90-degree turn. Mogami rammed Mikuma on the portside below the bridge crumpling 40-feet of Mogami’s bow and piercing Mikuma’s fuel tanks, causing her to leak oil uncontrollably. This trailing oil slick led to Mikuma’s demise the following day. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Mogami | Mikuma | Suzuya | Kumano | Tambor | DS]
• Yugure escorted the Aleutian Guard Force. ww2dbase [Battle of Midway and the Aleutian Islands | Yugure | CPC]

• German troops continued the aerial and artillery bombardment of Sevastopol, Russia, using weapons including the 800mm railway gun Schwerer Gustav. ww2dbase [Battle of Sevastopol | Sevastopol | TH, CPC]

• The keel of submarine Bluefish was laid down by the Electric Boat Company in Groton, Connecticut, United States. ww2dbase [Bluefish | Electric Boat Company | Groton, Connecticut | CPC]
• Japanese submarine I-25 attacked a merchant ship estimated at 12,000 tons off Seattle, Washington. Two torpedoes were fired but both missed and the unidentified ship was undamaged. ww2dbase [Washington | DS]

• I-168 surfaced 1,100 yards southwest of Midway at 1024 hours and fired 6 shots with her 10-centimeter deck gun, inflicting no damage. When she was caught by American searchlights, she submerged and evaded American return-fire. She survived two subsequent attacks, one by a patrol vessel and another by PBY Catalina aircraft, incurring no damage. ww2dbase [I-68/I-168 | Midway Bases | Midway | CPC]

5 Jun 1942 Interactive Map