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Selected: June 12
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1937 — , June 12

  • Spain: Day 331 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.

1938 — , June 12

  • Spain: Day 696 of 985 of the Spanish Civil War.
  • CBI - China: Day 341 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
    • Day 2 of 139 of the Battle of Wuhan. The Chinese open dikes to flood the Yellow River in order to stop Japan's attack, but it will cause the death of 1 million Chinese peasants.

1939 — , June 12

  • CBI - China: Day 706 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • CBI - Mongolia: Day 33 of 129 of the Battle of Khalkhin Gol, a border dispute between the Soviet Union and Japan.

1940 — , June 12

  • Atlantic: Off Cape Finisterre, Spain, German sub U-101 sinks the British ship EARLSPARK and U-46 sinks the British ships BARBARA MARIE and WILLOWBANK.
  • ETO - France: Day 34 of 44 of the Battle of France. The Germans move in ever closer to Paris. Rommel's forces cut off and capture 4 French and 1 British divisions at St Valery-en-Caux.
  • Eastern Front: Stalin's troops are ready and in position to invade the Baltic states of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The USSR issues Lithuania an ultimatum demanding they allow the Soviet Army occupy their country.
  • MTO - Greece: The Italian sub BAGNOLINI sinks the British cruiser CALYPSO south of Crete.
  • MTO - Libya: The RAF bombs the docks in Tobruk.
  • East Africa: Day 3 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt.
  • CBI: Japan and Thailand sign a non-aggression pact, but Japan will invade and conquer Thailand in Dec 1941.
  • CBI - China: Day 1,072 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
    • Day 211 of 381 of the Battle of South Guangxi.
    • Day 43 of 49 of the Battle of Yichang.

1941 — , June 12

  • UK: The Inter-Allied Declaration is signed in London, the first step to creating the United Nations.
  • Atlantic: The German pocket battleship LUTZOW is attacked and damaged by the RAF off the southern coast of Norway.
  • Atlantic: The British cruiser HMS SHEFFIELD sinks the German tanker FRIEDRICH BREME in the Atlantic Ocean.
  • Atlantic: In the North Atlantic, German sub U-48 sinks the British ship Empire DEW, U-371 sinks the British ship SILVERPALM and U-558 sinks the British ship SUSAN MARSK and the Norwegian tanker RANELLA.
  • Atlantic: German sub U-552 sinks the British ship CHINESE PRINCE west of Ireland.
  • ETO - Germany: The RAF bombs targets in Germany's Ruhr and Rhineland regions.
  • MTO - Greece: British sub HMS TORBAY sinks the Italian schooner GESUE E MARIA off the island of Skiros.
  • MTO - Italy: The Dutch submarine O.24 sinks the Italian tanker FIANONA and auxiliary patrol ship CARLOFORTE 10 miles north of the island of Elba (Dutch submarines intended for home service had the prefix "O" for "onderzeeboot").
  • MTO: Day 64 of 246 of the Allied Siege of Tobruk, Libya. The British sub HMS TAKU sinks the Italian ship SILVIO SCARONI 70 miles west of Benghazi.
  • Middle East: Day 5 of 37 of the Battle for Syria and Lebanon. Indian and Free French forces capture Deraa, Sheikh Meskine and Ezraa in the southwestern French Mandate of Syria and Lebanon, but then get held up at Kissoué.
  • East Africa: Day 368 of 537 of Italy's East African campaign in the lands south of Egypt.
  • CBI - China: Day 1,437 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.

1942 — , June 12

  • Amsterdam: Anne Frank receives a diary for her thirteenth birthday and writes, "I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support."
    Spotlight...

    Anne Frank

    Anne Frank and her family will be betrayed and arrested in Amsterdam on 04 Aug 44 after two years of hiding in concealed rooms of an office building. She will die of typhus eight months later in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, but her diary will survive and make her perhaps the most renowned and discussed Jewish victim of the holocaust.

    Anne Frank related dates...

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  • USA - Bay Area: Fighter pilot Richard Bong, who will go on to become America's top fighter Ace, is reprimanded and temporarily grounded for buzzing the house of a just-married fellow pilot, for low-level flying down Market Street and for blowing the clothes off an Oakland woman's clothesline.
  • Atlantic: Day 150 of 169 of Germany's Second "Happy Time," during which U-boats sink 609 Allied ships with little risk.
    • U-158 sinks the US tanker CITIES SERVICE TOLEDO south of Abbeville, Louisiana.
    • U-584 lands a team of saboteurs near Long Island, New York. Another team will be landed by U-boat near Jacksonville, Florida on 16 Jun 42. All eight will be captured within a few weeks and six of them will be executed on 08 Aug 42.
  • Germany: At the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, 60 Polish prisoners are shot in retaliation for clandestine resistance organizations in the Silesia region.
  • Russian Front - North: Day 278 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
  • Russian Front - North: Day 39 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket.
  • Russian Front - Center: Day 15 of 31 of Operation KREMLIN, a German diversion to trick the Soviets into thinking Moscow is their main objective instead of Stalingrad and the Caucasus.
  • Russian Front - South: Day 226 of 248 of the Siege of Sevastopol, Crimean Peninsula. A Soviet counter-attack is caught in the open by the Luftwaffe, thus weakening their strength.
  • MTO - Romania: The US HALPRO unit, or Halverson Provisional detachment, sends its B-24s from Egypt to bomb the oilfields in Ploesti, Romania. Although they do little damage, they are the first long distance heavy bombers in the Mediterranean theater and their presence alone completely changes war strategies for both sides.
  • MTO - Libya: Day 18 of 27 of the Battle of Gazala. Axis troops push the British troops back toward Tobruk. The Allied defense line at Gazala is now in danger of being cut off.
  • East Africa: Day 39 of 186 of the Battle of Madagascar.
  • CBI - China: Day 1,802 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
    • Day 29 of 124 of Japan's Zhejiang-Jiangxi Campaign, launched to punish anyone suspected of aiding the Doolittle raiders in China. Roughly 250,000 Chinese will be killed.
  • PTO - Alaska: Day 6 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands. US 11th Air Force B-17s and B-24s bomb shipping in the harbor at Kiska Island. One Japanese cruiser is heavily damaged and the destroyer HIBIKI is left burning.
  • PTO - Malaya: Day 114 of 357 of the Battle of Timor Island.
  • PTO - New Guinea: US 5th Air Force bombs the building area and Vunakanau and Lakunai Airfields at Rabaul.

1943 — , June 12

  • ETO - UK: Luftwaffe bombers conduct a heavy night raid on Plymouth.
  • ETO - Germany: The RAF bombs at Bochum.
  • Germany: Germans liquidate the Jewish Ghetto in Berezhany in western Ukraine. 1,180 Jews are led to the city's old Jewish graveyard and killed.
  • Russian Front - North: Day 643 of 872 of the Siege of Leningrad.
  • Russian Front - North: Day 404 of 658 of the Siege of the Kholm Pocket.
  • MTO - Morocco: British King George VI lands in Morocco, his second sanctioned visit of the war, to see his troops overseas.
  • MTO: The Lampedusa Island in the Mediterranean surrenders unconditionally and the British Coldstream Guards go ashore and take charge.
  • CBI - China: Day 2,167 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
  • PTO: Day 17 of 47 adrift in a raft for the survivors of B-24 GREEN HORNET that crashed 850 miles from Hawaii.
  • PTO - Alaska: Day 371 of 435 of the Battle of Kiska, Aleutian Islands.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 52 of 148 of the 2nd Battle of Lae-Salamaua. US 5th and 13th Air Forces provide air support. Fighter Ace Dick Bong gets his 11th kill when he downs an "Oscar" (Ki-43 Hayabusa fighter) while escorting this raid.
  • PTO - Solomon Islands: Aircraft of Japanese 11th Air Fleet launches an attack on US positions in the Russell Islands, but are turned back by Allied fighters.

1944 — , June 12

  • USA: Major Clark Gable is relieved from active duty at his request, due to being overage for combat. His discharge papers are signed by Capt Ronald Reagan, future US President.
  • Atlantic: German sub U-971 sinks the Canadian destroyer HMCS HAIDA.
  • ETO - France: Day 7 of 49 of Operation OVERLORD, the Allied invasion of Normandy, France, known forever simply as D-Day.
  • ETO - France: Day 7 of 62 of the Battle of Caen.
  • ETO - France: Day 7 of 25 of the Battle of Cherbourg. Within this battle begins Day 3 of 5 of the Battle of Carentan. US troops fighting for Carentan link up with British troops, thereby completing a solid line along a 50-mile battle front.
  • Germany: Alfred Rosenberg, head of the Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories, orders Heu-Aktion, the kidnapping of 40,000 Polish children between the ages ten to fourteen for slave labor in Germany.
  • Russian Front - Finland: Day 3 of 11 of the Battle of Vyborg. The Soviets continue their offensive against the Finns on the Karelian Isthmus, north of Leningrad.
  • Russian Front - North: Day 132 of 191 of the Battle of the Narva Isthmus, Estonia. Both German and Soviet troops remain locked in their defensive positions.
  • MTO - Italy: Day 8 of 16 of the Battle of the Trasimene Line (north of Rome). Allied Air Forces provide air support.
  • CBI - Burma: Day 100 of 166 of the UK's Operation THURSDAY. Monsoon season bogs down all operations.
  • CBI - Burma: Day 95 of 147 of the Battle of Myitkyina. US 10th Air Force provides air support. Monsoon season bogs down all operations.
  • CBI - Burma: Day 73 of 302 of the Chinese Salween Offensive. US 14th Air Force provides air support. Monsoon season bogs down all operations.
  • CBI - China: Day 2,533 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
    • Day 57 of 259 of Japan's Operation ICHI-GO.
  • CBI - India: Day 97 of 118 of the Battle of Imphal-Kohima.
  • PTO - Caroline Islands: US 7th Air Force bombs targets in the Truk Atoll during the night and again during the day.
  • PTO - Mariana Islands: Fighters from US carriers attack various Japanese positions in the Marianas.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 17 of 83 of the Battle of Biak. 5th Air Force provides air support. Fierce ground fighting continues as Japanese planes attack the Allied ground forces and shipping offshore.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 181 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 13th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 52 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea. 5th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - Solomon Islands: Day 225 of 295 of the Battle of the Bougainville Islands. US 13th Air Force provides air support.

1945 — , June 12

  • UK: General Eisenhower is awarded the British Order of Merit, becoming its first US recipient.
  • CBI - China: Day 2,898 of 2,987 of the 2nd Sino-Japanese War.
    • Day 73 of 91 of the Battle of Zhijiang. US 14th Air Force provides air support. Japanese troops continue pulling out of China.
  • PTO - Alaska: US 11th Air Force B-25s strafe shipping off Paramushiru Island, near Arahata Cape.
  • PTO - Borneo: Day 3 of 67 of the Battle of North Borneo.
  • PTO - Dutch East Indies: Day 43 of 52 of the Battle of Tarakan Island.
  • PTO - Japan: Day 73 of 83 of the Battle of Okinawa. Japanese troops hopelessly surrounded in the Oroku sector request a ceasefire to allow them to commit suicide rather than surrender. Hundreds will blow themselves up with grenades or jump off cliffs.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 533 of 597 of the Battle of New Britain. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - New Guinea: Day 417 of 481 of the Battle of Western New Guinea. US 10th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - Philippines: Day 235 of 299 of the 2nd Battle of the Philippines, aka the Liberation of the Philippines or the Philippines Campaign.
  • PTO - Philippines: Day 180 of 244 of the Battle of Luzon. 5th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - Philippines: Day 95 of 159 of the Battle of Mindanao Island. 5th Air Force provides air support.
  • PTO - Philippines: Day 87 of 135 of the Battle of the Visayas region. US 5th and 7th Air Forces provide air support.

Day-By-Day listings for June 12 were last modified on Wednesday, June 13, 2018
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