June 3, 1942. The High Water Mark for Japan.

On this day in 1942, at approximately 09:00, a PBY from Navy patrol squadron VP-44 spotted the Japanese Occupation Force heading towards Midway, some 580 miles distant.  Thinking, erroneously, that this was the main Japanese naval task force, he reported it as such.

At 12:30 Nine B-17s took off from Midway Island, found the occupation force, and attacked it unsuccessfully.

The Battle of Midway was on.

Part of the Japanese plans involved a diversionary attack in the Aleutians, which also served as a Japanese effort to block a possible invasion route into Japan via the northernmost portion of the Pacific..  Not surprisingly, that began on this day with carrier launched air raids on Dutch Harbor.

This day can be regarded as the high water mark of the war for the Japanese.  I.e, this is the last day of the war in which they would not be, effectively, losing the war in a strategic sense.

The British government announced it was taking over the coal and dairy industries for the balance of the war.