Monday, June 25, 2012

Day 1030 June 26, 1942

At 9.13 AM in the middle of the Atlantic 500 miles West of Bermuda, U-107 damages Dutch cargo/passenger ship MV Jagersfontein with a torpedo. MV Jagersfontein makes a run for Bermuda, forcing the U-boat to submerge with the 105mm gun, but sinks at 12.15 PM. All 108 crew, 14 gunners and 98 passengers (86 US Army officers and 12 civilians, among them women and children) abandon ship in 4 lifeboats and are rescued next day by Swiss steamer St. Cergue.

U-203 sinks British MV Putney Hill with a torpedo and 53 rounds from the deck gun at 5.44 AM 450 miles Northeast of Puerto Rico (3 killed, 35 survivors picked up after 10 days by British corvette HMS Saxifrage) and neutral Brazilian SS Pedrinhas with a torpedo and 22 rounds from the deck gun at 11.17 PM 150 miles closer to Puerto Rico (all 48 hands survive).

At Sevastopol, German troops reach the North shore of Severnaya Bay, having silenced the last of the Soviet forts including anti-aircraft batteries. With control of the skies, Luftwaffe blasts out Soviet 386th Rifle Division dug in on Sapun Ridge to the East of the city. In the Black Sea 30 miles Southeast of Sevastopol, German Ju88 dive bombers sink Soviet destroyer Bezuprechny (320 killed) and submarine S-32 (all 45 hands lost). Soviet submarines D-6 and A-1 are scuttled at Sevastopol to prevent capture by the Germans.

Egypt. British 8th Army begins to pull back to El Alamein, leaving a delaying force at Mersa Matruh. Rommel throws the full strength of Panzerarmee Afrika (German 15th and 21st Panzer and 90th Light Divisions, plus 3 Italian Divisions) South of Mersa Matruh after them.

Overnight, Luftwaffe bombs Norwich in Southeast England.

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