Monday 23 December 1940

Reich Minister for Armaments and Ammunition Fritz Todt greets Adolf Hitler during the latter's inspection tour of German coastal fortification in France, 23 December 1940. Todt's "Organisation Todt" built the autobahns and gravitated into war work after the invasion of Poland.

Italian/Greek Campaign: Having taken Himara on the 22nd, the Greeks on 23 December 1940 continue pushing the Italians back along the coast. Or, more accurately, the Greeks chase the Italians up the coast. In addition, Greek II Corps is in action further east, but the weather is horrendous in the mountains and little progress is possible. Fierce and inconclusive battles rage around Klisura Pass.

Mussolini has been despondent ever since the Italian offensive in Albania failed in early November, and recent events only have made it worse. During a private discussion with Count Ciano, his brother-in-law and Foreign Minister, Mussolini moans:

I must nevertheless recognise that the Italians of 1914 were better than these. It is not very flattering for the regime, but that’s the way it is.

Of course, "the Italians of 1914" were on the British side, not the German, a point which Winston Churchill makes during his evening broadcast (see below).

European Air Operations: German propagandist Lord Haw-Haw brazenly reveals the Luftwaffe's plans to bomb Manchester for the second night in a row, and then the attack takes place as he describes. Throughout the night, 171 German bombers drop 195 more tons of high explosives and 893 incendiary bombs on the city. Overall, through the two nights, there are 363 dead and 1183 other major casualties.

RAF Bomber Command attacks Boulogne, Dunkirk, and Ostend. It also hits Ludwigshafen in the Rhineland.

Hitler during his inspection tour, 23 December 1940 (Leitstand of the Marine-Küstenbatterie "Großer Kurfürst" in Cap Gris Nez).

Battle of the Atlantic: There is another engagement in the North Sea involving German motor Torpedo Boats. The 1st MTB Squadron attacks Convoy FN 366, which had departed from Southend earlier in the day. MTB S-28 sinks 358-ton British trawler HMT Pelton north of Aldeburgh (off Lowestoft), while S-59 badly damages 6552-ton Dutch tanker Stad Maastricht east of Clacton-on-Sea, Essex. There are 19-20 deaths on the Pelton, but everyone on the Stad Maastricht survives. The freighter is taken in tow by three other ships, but it later sinks. One of the German craft also is reported sunk by the British, but there is no verification.

The Luftwaffe (either Heinkel He 111s or Focke-Wulf Fw 200 of I,/KG 40, sources vary) bombs and badly damages 6941-ton Dutch freighter Breda off Oban in Loch Etive. The Breda is taken in tow and beached, but ultimately is written off. Everyone survives.

During the attack near Oban, the Luftwaffe also damaged 2022-ton British freighter Flynderborg, 88-ton drifter Lupina and 4652-ton Dutch freighter Tuva.

The Luftwaffe (IX Air Corps) also drops an aerial mine on and sinks 400-ton Dutch trawler Ystroom in Liverpool Bay near Southport, Lancashire. Everyone survives

The Luftwaffe attacks on Manchester damage 6734-ton British freighter Pacific Pioneer.

The Luftwaffe also damaged 314-ton British freighter Iwate.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Warwick hits a mine off Liverpool (near the Bar Lightship) and has to be towed to shore, where it is beached prior to repair. The damage is severe and repairs will take well over a year.

Royal Navy anti-aircraft ship HMS Alynbank hits another ship (not identified) in the night and is damaged. It proceeds to Rosyth for repairs.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Havock collides with battleship HMS Valiant and is put out of action for two months.

Royal Navy minelaying cruiser HMS Adventure lays minefield ZME 9 in the North Sea.

Convoy OB 263 departs from Liverpool, Convoy FN 366 departs from Southend, Convoy SC 17 departs from Halifax.

U-553 (Kapitänleutnant Karl Thurmann) is commissioned, U-558 launched.

Royal Navy corvette HMS Aubretia (K 96) and anti-submarine warfare trawler HMT Hamlet (T 167) are commissioned).

US submarine USS Grampus is launched.

Hitler inspecting the coastal guns in France, 23 December 1940. He is talking with Friedrich-Wilhelm Fleischer, Marinebefehlshaber Kanalküste at the Marine-Küstenbatterie "Großer Kurfürst" in Cap Gris Nez.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Italian Commander-in-chief Rodolfo Graziani sacks the commander of the Italian 10th Army, General Mario Berti, and replaces him with 10th Army Chief of Staff General Giuseppe Tellera. Operation Compass is at a standstill at this point, with the Italians holding firm in Bardia and Tobruk while the British Army brings up Australian units to assault those long-standing Italian fortresses. The British continue sorting out Italian prisoners, with the number evacuated from Sidi Barrani numbering 35,949, including 1704 officers. The RAF raids Tripoli and Castel Benito.

Italian destroyer Fratelli Cairoli hits one of the mines laid by HMS Rorqual off Tripoli on 5 November and sinks near Misrata, Libya.

German/Vichy French Relations: Jacques Bonsergent, a 28-year-old civil engineer, was one of the protestors against German rule on 10 November 1940 (they were laying wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier). Arrested (along with 122 others), Bonsergent was convicted on 5 December by a German military tribunal of violating the occupation rules by fighting with a Wehrmacht sergeant. In fact, Bonsergent was only visiting Paris and had no interest in the protest, but got caught up in the melee.

Today, the Germans execute Bonsergent. Jacques Bonsergent is believed to be the first Frenchman executed by the Germans under the occupation. He is buried at Malestroit, Brittany, and a station of the Paris Métro on line 5, which has its entrance on Place Jacques Bonsergent, is named after him.

Hitler emerging from the coastal bunker of the Marine-Küstenbatterie "Großer Kurfürst" in Cap Gris Nez, 23 December 1940. Friedrich-Wilhelm Fleischer is on his left, to his right is Fritz Todt (in Luftwaffe uniform for some reason).

Anglo/Italian Relations: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcasts a speech to the Italian people. He reminds them that Italy and Great Britain were allies during World War I against the "barbarous Hun," and blames the two countries' current struggle on Mussolini:

It is all one man – one man, who, against the crown and royal family of Italy, against the Pope and all the authority of the Vatican and of the Roman Catholic Church, against the wishes of the Italian people who had no lust for this war; one man has arrayed the trustees and inheritors of ancient Rome upon the side of the ferocious pagan barbarians.

Italians are forbidden from listening to any BBC broadcasts, so few are likely to hear it - or at least admit to hearing it. However, people all across Occupied Europe surreptitiously listen to the BBC despite the regulations, and this is a clever way for Churchill to reach them and demoralize them, too.

US/Sino Relations: Claire Chennault's talks with President Roosevelt bear fruit when the US government agrees to provide the American Volunteer Group with 100 P-40B Tomahawk fighters - which are America's front-line fighters. This will enable Chennault to begin battling the Japanese over China with American pilots. Everything, however, is strictly unofficial - there is no direct government involvement, and Chennault's AVG is to be managed by a private company.

Hitler during his inspection tour in France, 23 December 1940. He is at the Leitstand of the Marine-Küstenbatterie "Großer Kurfürst" in Cap Gris Nez.

German Military: Today is the first flight of the Messerschmitt Me 261, flown by Karl Baur. This is a long-range, twin-engine aircraft originally designed to break the world long-distance flight record and carry the Olympic Flame from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany (site of the 1936 Winter Olympics) to Tokyo, Japan for the 1940 Summer Olympics. This would be a flight of 5870 miles (9445 km), powered by Daimler-Benz DB 606 "power systems" (two DB 601 engines coupled in pairs, a difficult mechanism some German designers favored but which caused all sorts of heating and other problems).

With the 1940 Olympics canceled and no real need for long-range transport, the Me 261 is a plane without a purpose - but it is an advanced design, so the design and manufacturing process continues. It does not hurt its state backing that the Me 261 has acquired the nickname "Adolfine" in honor of the Fuhrer, who likes the long-range concept. The test flight goes well, and development continues.

Soviet Military: The Red Army begins a conference at the Kremlin. Attending are all the top Generals, including Meretskov, Zhukov, Timoshenko, Voroshilov, and Pavlov.

US Military: The Army absorbs the National Guard's 35th Division. This division is populated by men from Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska.

The US Navy establishes NAS Key West.

Japanese Military: The Japanese navy determines that aircraft carrier Hōshō, the world's first commissioned ship designed from the keel up to be an aircraft carrier, was obsolete. The ship is found to be too small to carry the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, the Aichi D3A "Val", and/or the Nakajima B5N "Kate" in combat, and in any event it cannot carry enough aircraft to make it useful. However... the Japanese keep it in service anyway, used mainly to provide air cover for capital ships.

German Government: Hitler makes a rare tour of coastal fortifications in France. Riding in his train "Amerika," Hitler inspects railway guns at Audruicq, Rinxent, the Siegfried/Todt bunkers at La Sence, Pointe aux Oies near Wimereux, Wimereux itself, Boulogne, and the defense zone Grosser Kurürst. Hitler will continue his inspection on the 24th, spending the night in his train (parked in a tunnel north of Boulogne). This is as close as he ever gets to England - and one of his closest visits to the enemy until 1945.

Adolf Hitler touring coastal fortifications in France, 23 December 1940. With him are Friedrich-Wilhelm Fleischer, commander of the coastal guns, and labor boss Fritz Todt. Todt's men have built massive fortifications, and some are grandly engraved with "Batterie Todt" in giant letters.

British Government: The appointments of Lord Halifax as Ambassador to the United States and Anthony Eden to be the new Foreign Secretary are announced.

Singapore: Some units of the 2/15 Punjab arrive in British Borneo from Singapore as garrison troops. Air Marshal Brooke Popham, the British Commander-in-Chief in the Far East, takes the opportunity to give a press conference in which he touts the increase British forces in the Far East. The Japanese, however, are in possession of the Top Secret military assessment of British defenses in that theater by the Churchill War Cabinet. The Japanese thus know that any claims of British strength not only are spurious but evidence of mere puffery designed to mislead them and conceal British weakness.

China: Due to clashes between Communist and Nationalist forces, Chiang Kai-Shek demands that the  Communist Party of China (CPC) army evacuate Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces, where they recently have been battling the Japanese with some success. After some hesitation, the Communist New Fourth Army complies. However, Chiang is not happy with the overall situation despite the CPC bowing to his demand, and he or his minions plot reprisals. This is the start of a brewing civil war in the middle of the far more important war against the Japanese.

American Homefront: Eddie August Henry Schneider, a famed 1930s aviator who set several transcontinental speed records and became the youngest certified pilot in the United States, perishes at age 29 in an airplane crash. His plane crashes while Schneider is training another pilot at Floyd Bennett Field. The other plane, piloted by a US Naval Reserve pilot, clips his tail and sends his private plane into the sea. Both the Naval Reserve pilot and the air traffic controllers are held accountable for the tragedy. Schneider had flown with the Yankee Squadron supporting the Spanish Loyalists in the Spanish Civil War.

Lana Turner is profiled in Life Magazine today, illustrating why she is known as the "Sweater Girl." Source: Niven Busch, "Lana Turner: She Was Sipping a Strawberry Malt When Fame Walked in to Make her the Movie Sweater Girl," Life, December 23, 1940, pp. 62-67.

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Monday 24 June 1940

Italy's Army chief Marshal Rodolfo Graziani on the cover of the 24 June 1940 Life magazine.

Franco/Italian Relations: General Huntziger and Marshal Badoglio sign an armistice agreement at Villa Olgiata in the Roman suburbs at 07:15 on 24 June 1940, to take effect early on the 25th. The terms reflect the reality that Italy, the "victor," is actually the weaker party. The parties establish demilitarized zones along both their European and African borders, with French troops to be evacuated from those zones within 10 days and all French naval and air bases in the Mediterranean to be demilitarized within 15 days. There are no big territorial changes or indemnities.

The whole Franco/Italian Armistice accomplishes virtually nothing useful. France never had threatened Italian colonies or the country itself, and France under German domination is becoming virtually an ally of the Axis powers anyway. The armistice, if anything, is simply a welcome by Italy to France into the Axis fold - although Gallic motivations in this area remain quite murky.

It is unfair to say that the entire border war was a "comic opera" and silly; many people died in the naval and air attacks during the short conflict. There also is the not-so-minor detail that Italy and Great Britain remain at war. That conflict shows no signs of ending any time soon even though that war, at least at first, will only be carried out in the two nations' colonies and at sea. This "loose end" from Mussolini's "piling on" of the Battle of France continues to fester.

Western Front: The British commandos, still styled No. 11 Independent Company, launch their first raid during the night in the Boulogne area. Operation Collar sends 115 men across the Channel to land on beaches at Neufchâtel-Hardelot, Stella Plage, Berck, and Le Touquet. It is almost a live-fire war game exercise because the men get ashore around 02:00 on the 25th and do little but muddle about on the beaches without accomplishing anything of note. There is a brief firefight with a German patrol at Stella Plage and the killing of two unfortunate German sentries at Le Touquet who are in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The landing does provide useful practice on beach landings. It allows the fine-tuning of things like ship-to-air communication (the RAF, uninformed about Operation Collar, almost attacks the landing craft before being warned off) and ship-to-shore coordination (one of the landing parties returns to the beach and finds its ride home is gone, but they get off later).

The British Ministry of Information quickly puts out a communique that quietly overstates the actual minimal result of the entire operation for propaganda purposes. The German high command does notice the incident and puts out its own propaganda that the commandos "acted outside the Geneva convention." The whole incident does feed into Hitler's paranoia about the danger of British naval landings all along the lengthy coastline now occupied by the Wehrmacht, which affects decisions about the Atlantic Wall.

The Italian offense on the Riviera ends after having occupied 5 miles of territory at the cost of an estimated 5,000 casualties. Foreign Minister Count Ciano notes in his diary, "We sent men to useless deaths two days before the armistice. If we go on like this, bitter disappointments await."
The French military headquarters at Bordeaux issues its final military communique about the war with Germany, announcing that the Wehrmacht had occupied Angoulême and Aix-les-Bains. "The military phase of the war of 1939-1940 is over." The government does not disclose where the new government will be located but does say it won't be in German-occupied Paris. The Germans announce that they have reached La Rochelle and Rochefort. The panzers continue down the Rhone Valley.

Operation Ariel continues at St. Jean de Luz. There still are numerous troops from the Polish, Belgian and other Allied armed forces wishing to be taken off.

Admiral Darlan reiterates his orders that French warships are not to surrender to the Germans. The main problem in controlling the French Navy is that it is dispersed not just at multiple European ports, but also at Dakar (French West Africa), Alexandria (Egypt), Casablanca (Morocco), Algiers and Mers-el-Kébir (Algeria) and Plymouth & Portsmouth (England) - and also at ports overseas. The British, particularly Prime Minister Winston Churchill, remain deeply skeptical about the ability and long-term willingness of the French to fulfill this promise.

The 24 June 1940 New York Times highlights the diplomatic split between the British and French.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe raids the southeast and southwest regions of England.

RAF Bomber Command sends 103 planes against German targets during the night.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-47 (Kapitänleutnant Günther Prien) stops 1,885-ton Panamanian freighter Cathrine in the eastern Atlantic and, after disembarking the crew, sinks it by gunfire. All 19 aboard survive after Prien gives the men food and red wine.

Italian torpedo boats sink Royal Navy submarine HMS Grampus off Syracuse.

Kriegsmarine S-boots (fast torpedo boats) are active in the English Channel and sink British ships Kingfisher and Albuera.

Convoy OA 173G departs from Southend, Convoy OB 173 departs from Liverpool, Convoy HG Z departs from Gibraltar.

British corvette HMS Geranium (K 16, Lt. Alan Foxall) is commissioned.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: British sloop HMS Falmouth sinks Italian submarine Luigi Galvani in the Gulf of Oman. The Galvani had just sunk a British ship on the 23rd. The British make the interception based upon documents retrieved from the Italian submarine Galilei captured on 19 June 1940.
North Africa: The RAF attacks Asmara Aerodrome and Biri el Boggi in Eritrea. RAF bombers also attack Italian positions around Bir el Gubi. French bombers make their last attack of the war in Libya.

Georges Mandel arrives in French Morocco aboard the Massilia and tries to rally the local authorities to continue the war. He is accompanied by only 25 other deputies and one senator, and the locals do not recognize his "authority," continuing to recognize the existing government.

China: Japan, having closed off the Allied supply route to China via French Indochina (Vietnam), demands that the British stop using the Burma Road over the Himalayas and the port of Hong Kong to supply Chiang Kai-shek's military.

In the Battle of South Kwangsi, the Japanese 22nd Army captures Peichianghsu. This puts them astride the strategic Nanning - Lungtou highway.

USS Enterprise (CV-6) at Naval Air Station North Island, San Diego, California (USA), 24 June 1940. Shown are 65 planes on deck, including: 16 Grumman F3F-3 fighters; 18 Curtiss SBC-3 Helldivers; 15 Northrop BT-1s; and 16 Douglas TBD-1 Devastators. Official U.S. Navy photo 80-G-185303 from the U.S. Navy Naval History and Heritage Command

US Navy: Charles Edison resigns as Secretary of the Navy. Lewis Compton, Assistant Secretary of the Navy since February 9, 1940, becomes Acting Secretary. Edison wants to become Governor of New Jersey.

Rear Admiral Charles A. Blakely replaces Rear Admiral Joseph R. Defrees as Commandant, Eleventh Naval District and Commandant Naval Operating Base, San Diego, California.

US Government: President Roosevelt issues a secret order to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to infiltrate Central and South American governments to gauge their degree of German sympathies.

Holocaust: Dr. Nahum Goldmann of the World Jewish Congress warns that a German victory would mean the deaths of 6 million Jews. He advocates a "defense program" staffed by Jewish people.

French Homefront: The Germans impose various restrictions over the 60% portion of the country they occupy. Among other things, civilians are banned from owning radios or telephones without a license, and there is a 19:00 curfew.

American Homefront: The Republican National Convention opens in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is scheduled to nominate Wendell Willkie of Indiana for President and Senator Charles McNary of Oregon for Vice-President.

Nahum Goldmann predicts on 24 June 1940 that six million people of the Jewish faith will lose their lives during the war.

June 1940

June 1, 1940: Devastation at Dunkirk
June 2, 1940: Hitler Visits France
June 3, 1940: Operation Paula
June 4, 1940: We Shall Fight
June 5, 1940: Fall Rot
June 6, 1940: Weygand Line Crumbling
June 7, 1940: British Evacuating Narvik
June 8, 1940: Operation Juno
June 9, 1940: Norway Capitulates
June 10, 1940: Mussolini Throws Down
June 11, 1940: Paris an Open City
June 12, 1940: Rommel at St. Valery
June 13, 1940: France Goes Alone
June 14, 1940: Paris Falls
June 15, 1940: Soviets Scoop Up Lithuania
June 16, 1940: Enter Pétain
June 17, 1940: The Lancastria Sinks
June 18, 1940: A Day of Leaders
June 19, 1940: U-boats Run Wild
June 20, 1940: Pétain Wilts
June 21, 1940: Hitler's Happiest Day
June 22, 1940: France Is Done
June 23, 1940: Hitler in Paris
June 24, 1940: Six Million Jews
June 25, 1940: German Celebrations
June 26, 1940: USSR Being Belligerent
June 27, 1940: Malta in Peril
June 28, 1940: Channel Islands Bombed
June 29, 1940: Gandhi Insists on Independence
June 30, 1940: Channel Islands Occupied

2020

Saturday 16 June 1940

A German officer in the French heavy tank Char 2C №90 'Poitou' (Poitou), destroyed on a railway platform near the village Meuse in Lorraine. This is a tank of the 1st company of the 51st battalion of heavy tanks. Battalion commander, Major Fournet. On June 16, 1940, the tank was blown up by its crew in the village Meuse because of the inability to disembark from the train platform without special lifting equipment.

French Government: French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud on 16 June 1940 loses his argument that the French nation should continue to resist. The final straw is an offer contained in two telegrams from London that are presented by British Ambassador Sir Ronald Campbell (Churchill apparently feeling relations are now too touchy to risk a visit of his own). The telegrams demand the retreat of the French fleet to UK harbors and a Franco-British Union - which would make the two countries into one.

Reynaud wants to agree to both proposals, but the rest of the Cabinet wishes for an Armistice, many because they think that the UK is finished, too. Reynaud loses the vote on the proposals and resigns, asking President Lebrun to form a new government.

Reynaud's replacement is Philippe Pétain, the recent ambassador to Spain and a Great War hero. Pétain is an odd choice unless you recognize that the government was tired of trying to resist the unstoppable Wehrmacht onslaught. Pétain is an 84-year-old defeatist, but he is a highly respected war hero and the perfect noble figure to get the public to accept an armistice. Basically, he is a figurehead. Commander-in-chief Weygand is vice president of the council.

Among those who wish to continue to resist is General de Gaulle, who is not included in the new cabinet. He flies to London during the day and begins to plot his next move.

Pétain reviews the situation throughout the day and decides that the situation is hopeless. At midnight, he instructs his Cabinet Secretary, Henry du Moulin de Labarthète, to request France's ambassador to Spain to seek terms from Hitler.

Generalleutnant Franz Landgraf (16 July 1888 – 19 April 1944). Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on 16 June 1940 as Oberst and commander of 4. Panzer-Brigade.

Western Front: While certain people in various headquarters have a clear picture of the situation, for the vast majority of troops and civilians, the entire situation is completely unknown. About all that anyone knows is that the Germans are in Paris. Other than that, they basically could be in the next town over for all anyone knows. This results in panic throughout the country.

Panzer Group Guderian reaches Besancon, near the Swiss border. He is in position to link up with troops advancing through the Maginot Line from the direction of Colmar and encircle the entire French fortress system. Guderian is astounded at the poor condition of the fleeing French forces, noting: "Exhausted French soldiers fall from their truck to be crushed by the next. The Middle Ages were more humane than this."

German troops cross the Seine near Melun and Fontainebleau. Other troops occupy Auxerre in the direction of Clamecy and Avallon.

German 4th Army approaches Alencon, while the 18th Army reaches Orleans. German 2nd Army and 9th Army reach Dijon. German 1st, 7th, and 16th Armies attack French 3rd Army Group.

General Erwin Rommel, fresh off his spectacular operation north of Le Havre, receives orders to head south and take the key embarkation port of Cherbourg. It is 150 miles to the south, but French resistance is collapsing.

Operation Ariel, the evacuation of the BEF from France, continues. While a smaller operation than Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk, tens of thousands of British and Canadian soldiers are taken off from the ports of Brest, St. Malo, Nantes and St. Nazaire. British ships Arandora Star, Strathaird and Otranto are active in the operation.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-boat UA (Kapitänleutnant Hans Cohausz) torpedoes and sinks British armed merchant cruiser HMS Andania northwest of the Faroe Islands. All 347 aboard survive when they are picked up by the Icelandic trawler Skallagrímur. The UA has been tracking the ship for three days.

U-101 (Kapitänleutnant Fritz Frauenheim) torpedoes and sinks 13,212-ton British freighter Wellington Star 300 miles off Cape Finisterre, Spain at 16:45. All 69 aboard survive when they either are picked up by French freighter Pierre L.D. or reach shore in lifeboats after 8 days.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Tetrarch sinks German boat Samland.

A French warship approaches German vessel Konigsberg, whose crew scuttles it.

Convoy HG 34 departs from Gibraltar.

Battle of the Mediterranean: French sloop La Curieuse depth charges Italian submarine Provano, forcing it to the surface 30 miles south of Cabo de Palos, Spain. The French ship rams the Italian submarine, sinking it.

Italian torpedo boats catch British submarine HMS Grampus with depth charges, sinking it 105 miles east of Sicily. All 59 crew perish.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: Italian submarine Galilei sinks Norwegian tanker James Stove.

European Air Operations: The French air force raids Cagliari, Sardinia with six bombers. The Italians launch a raid on Porto Vecchio and Bonifacio, Corsica. The RAF sends 22 planes to attack Genoa and Milan.

Italian Savoia Marchetti SM 75 "Ala Littoria" - Tobruk - 16 June 1940.

North Africa: A British force including the 7th Hussars under the command of Lt. Colonel G. Fielden ambushes a column of Italian vehicles east of Bardia. It captures the Italian Tenth Army's Engineer-in-Chief, Lt. General Romolo Lastucci. Perhaps more importantly than his capture, the Italian has"up to date plans for the Bardia defenses."

The Regia Aeronautica attacks Sollum, Sidi Barrani, and Mersa Matruh, British outposts in Egypt. It also attacks Malta again. Italian bombers based in Sardinia attack Bizerte.

A tank battle takes place at Sollum in which the Italian light tanks come off worse.

The South African Air Force attacks Iavello and Mega, bases in Italian East Africa.

The RAF raids Tobruk, causing extensive damage.

Baltic States: The Soviet Union, having occupied Lithuania after an ultimatum, now issues similar ultimatums to Estonia and Latvia.

In occupied Lithuania, Prime minister Antanas Merkys deposes the absent Antanas Smetona from the post of president. Without constitutional authority, he assumes the presidency himself.

Applied Science: British ship SS Broompark leaves the Gironde (western France). It carries 26 containers of "heavy water." The heavy water was imported from the only source of that water, a plant in Norway that is now under German control, by atomic physicist Joliot-Curie.

German/Spanish Relations: Franco's personal envoy, General Vigon, chief of General Staff, meets with Hitler at Acoz Castle. They discuss possible Spanish entry into the war, which would be strategically devastating to the Allies due to Spain's ability to close the Mediterranean.

Iceland: Canadian Z Force arrives to supplement the British occupation force.

China: At the Battle of Tsaoyang-Ichang, the Chinese 5th War Area opens an offensive against the Japanese 11th Army near Ichang.

British Homefront: Local Defence Volunteers shift into high gear, as fears of a German invasion mount.

Destroyed French superheavy (69 t) tank, the Char 2C "Alzac" Meuse in Lorraine train station, June 16, 1940.

June 1940

June 1, 1940: Devastation at Dunkirk
June 2, 1940: Hitler Visits France
June 3, 1940: Operation Paula
June 4, 1940: We Shall Fight
June 5, 1940: Fall Rot
June 6, 1940: Weygand Line Crumbling
June 7, 1940: British Evacuating Narvik
June 8, 1940: Operation Juno
June 9, 1940: Norway Capitulates
June 10, 1940: Mussolini Throws Down
June 11, 1940: Paris an Open City
June 12, 1940: Rommel at St. Valery
June 13, 1940: France Goes Alone
June 14, 1940: Paris Falls
June 15, 1940: Soviets Scoop Up Lithuania
June 16, 1940: Enter Pétain
June 17, 1940: The Lancastria Sinks
June 18, 1940: A Day of Leaders
June 19, 1940: U-boats Run Wild
June 20, 1940: Pétain Wilts
June 21, 1940: Hitler's Happiest Day
June 22, 1940: France Is Done
June 23, 1940: Hitler in Paris
June 24, 1940: Six Million Jews
June 25, 1940: German Celebrations
June 26, 1940: USSR Being Belligerent
June 27, 1940: Malta in Peril
June 28, 1940: Channel Islands Bombed
June 29, 1940: Gandhi Insists on Independence
June 30, 1940: Channel Islands Occupied

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