Sunday, June 12, 2011

Day 652 June 13, 1941

Operation Exporter, Lebanon. Australian 7th Division is held up by Vichy French defenders at the steep pass at Jezzine, halfway from the Palestinian border to Beirut.

At 5.45 AM 300 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, U-77 sinks British SS Tresillian (all 46 hands picked up by US Coast Guard cutter USS Duane and landed at St. Johns, Newfoundland). At midday 300 miles North of the Azores, U-107 sinks Greek SS Pandias carrying 4894 tons of coal and 1050 tons of military goods, including 11 Spitfire fighters, to Alexandria, Egypt (11 dead, 23 survivors in lifeboats given cigarettes, water & rum by the U-boat crew). 100 miles East of the Azores, Italian submarine Brin sinks British steamer Djurdjura (33 killed, 5 rescued) and Greek steamer Eirini Kyriakides (all 31 hands lost) in convoy SL75.

Operation Sommerreise. German heavy cruiser Lützow and escort cruisers Emden and Leipzig plus destroyers pass through the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway, escorted by twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf110 fighters. South of Lindesnes, Norway, a Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber inveigles into the fighter escort and attacks. Lützow is hit with a torpedo in the engine room and returns to Kiel under her own steam.

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