Two Sevens Clash, 75 Yrs. Ago

TUE 7 JUL 1942
Pacific
Japanese merchant cargo ship Haruna Maru founders and sinks near Omaesaki, Japan.

Atlantic
Naval Air Facility, Reykjavik, Iceland, is established.

USAAF A-29 sinks German submarine U-701 off North Carolina coast, 34°50'N, 74°55'W--the first submarine "kill" by a USAAF plane in World War II. [Better late than never, fly-boys!]

Gulf of Mexico
U.S. tanker Paul H. Harwood is torpedoed by German submarine U-67 off Southwest Pass, Louisiana, 29°26'N, 88°38'W; there are no casualties among the 40-man crew or 16-man Armed Guard, and the ship puts into Burrwood, Louisiana, under her own power. She returns to service in September.

Arctic
Ordeal of dispersed USSR-bound convoy PQ 17 to German submarines and planes continues: U.S. freighter Olopana is torpedoed by German submarine U-255 about 10 miles west of Novaya Zemlya, 72°10'N, 51°00'E, and abandoned; five merchant seamen and two Armed Guard sailors perish in the attack. U-255 then surfaces and shells the ship, after which time the Germans conduct a brief interrogation of some of the survivors before clearing the area (see 9 July). U.S. freighter Alcoa Ranger is torpedoed by German submarine U-255 at 71°38'N, 49°35'E, and abandoned by the 34-man crew and the 6-man Armed Guard. U-255 surfaces and conducts a brief interrogation of some of the survivors, as she had done in the case of John Witherspoon and Olopana earlier, before the U-boat shells and sinks the ship. Two of three lifeboats from Alcoa Ranger reach Novaya Zemlya later that day (see 14 July).