Free Nazi Brandy

FRI 3 JUL 1942
Pacific
USAAF B-24s bomb and damage Japanese seaplane carriers Kamikawa Maru and Kimikawa Maru, and transport Fujisan Maru off Agattu Island.

British submarine HMS Truant sinks Japanese army cargo ship No.1 Tamon Maru in Strait of Malacca, 3°14'N, 99°48'E.

Atlantic
U.S. tanker Gulfbelle is torpedoed by German submarine U-126 about 21 miles north of Tobago, 11°43'N, 60°35'W; and is abandoned. Two crewmen perish on board in the explosion. The U-boat surfaces after torpedoing her quarry, but after the Armed Guard (all eight men of which have remained on board) lobs one shell over U-126, the enemy boat submerges and departs. British destroyer HMS Warwick subsequently tows the damaged Gulfbelle to Trinidad.

U.S. freighter Alexander Macomb, in convoy BA 2, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-215 at 41°40'N, 66°52'W; four of the ship's 41-man crew and six of the 25-man Armed Guard are killed in the attack. British trawler HMS Le Tiger rescues 31 survivors; Canadian corvette HMCS Regina 25.

Unarmed U.S. freighter Norlandia, steaming from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Nuevitas, Cuba, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-575 at 19°33'N, 68°39'W; nine crewmen lose their lives. U-575's commanding officer, Kapitanleutnant Gunther Heydemann, apparently genuinely solicitous of the needs of those whose ship he has just torpedoed, gives them a bottle of brandy before the boat departs (see 4 and 5 July).