Friday 28 June 1940

The  Luftwaffe's bombing by three planes of Weighbridge, St. Peter Port, Guernsey, on 28 June 1940.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-102 (Kptlt. Harro von Klot-Heydenfeldt) torpedoes and sinks 211-ton British trawler Castleton in the North Sea off the Orkney Islands on 28 June 1940. All 10 crew perish. It is assumed that U-102 sank the Castleton because the U-boat did not return from this patrol.

U-30 (Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp) torpedoes and sinks 5,053 ton British ship Llanarth 250 miles west of Ushant, France at 0200 hours. All 35 aboard survive: 16 crew wind up on British corvette HMS “Gladiolus” on June 30, 19 others are picked up by a Spanish trawler.

Convoy HG 36 departs from Gibraltar.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Five British cruisers intercept the Italian destroyers Espero, Zeffiro and Ostro as they carry supplies to Tobruk. They sink the Espero. Royal Navy cruiser HMS Liverpool suffers damage from a shell which destroys its degaussing wire, leaving it vulnerable to magnetic mines.

Air raids on Malta continue. Malta continues to be an important refueling stop for Sunderland flying boats operating between London and Cairo.

British flying boats sink Italian submarine Anfitrite.

The Admiralty confirms that it is unable to send convoys to Malta via Gibraltar. Supplies remain possible via the perilous route from the Suez Canal. Malta is seriously short of supplies such as sandbags, goat fodder, coke, coal, and medical supplies. Malta requests this from Cairo, and the problem is only going to get worse. The island is projected to need 23,000 tons of supplies for the army, 10,000 for the dockyards, and 2000 for the RAF.

Battle of the Pacific: In response to Australian calls for an increased naval presence in the western Pacific, the British refuse to send any ships. They blame the Italian entry to the war.

The church clock stopped at 19:00 hrs when the Luftwaffe bombed Guernsey.

European Air Operations: Luftwaffe bombers attack the harbors of Saint Helier and La Roque on the island of Jersey and Saint Peter Port Harbour on Guernsey as the Wehrmacht makes preparations to invade. There are 33 killed, 40 injured. Luftwaffe reconnaissance has mistaken tomato trucks for troop carriers.

The RAF continues its raids on Holland, blowing up ammunition stocks at Willemoord. It also sends 20 bombers against Merville airfield in France.

Douglas Bader becomes commanding officer of No. 242 Squadron, based at RAF Coltishall at Norwich.

Western Front: The British cabinet decides that the Channel Islands, very close to France, are indefensible. The British government demilitarizes them and evacuates 26,700 inhabitants who wish to avoid German occupation. A large fraction of the population, however, remains.

Mussolini and Badoglio tour the area occupied by Italian troops during the brief conflict with France. It is a short tour.

Soviet/Romanian Relations: Soviet paratroopers and armored formations of General Zhukov's Kyiv Special Military District begin entering Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina without waiting for the end of the minimal grace period granted by Molotov.

The Soviets also occupy the Hertza Region, part of the Romanian Old Kingdom, which was not part of the ultimatum. There are armed clashes and some casualties, but the Romanians withdraw. Romania responds by ordering a general mobilization.

The pretext for the invasion is liberating ancestral Russians from foreign domination. The liquidation squads follow the troops, armed with lists of "subversives" such as lawyers, doctors, and teachers. One of the goals is swiftly accomplished: blowing up churches.

Anglo/French Relations: In line with gradual but inexorable British distancing from the current French government in Bordeaux, the British government formally recognizes Charles de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French. He is not quite a government-in-exile, but the closest thing that there is to one.

Admiral Decoux and General Catroux meet with British Admiral Sir Percy Noble in Saigon to discuss any assistance that the British might be able to offer against the Japanese. Sir Percy says none is available.

French soldiers surrendering at the Place de Jaude in Clermont-Ferrand, France on 21 June 1940. The Germans leave the town, which under the terms of the Armistice remained French, on 28 June 1940.

North Africa: Marshal Italo Balbo, long-time Italian commander of Italian forces in North Africa, perishes when his SM-79 transport blunders into the aftermath of an air raid over Tobruk. His plane is shot down by friendly anti-aircraft fire who mistake it for a British bomber returning. Marshal Graziani replaces him.

British Blenheim bombers attack Tobruk.

The Regia Aeronautica raids the British base at Mersa Matruh.

The Italians attack a small British garrison of the King's African Rifles at Moyale on the Kenyan/Ethiopian border, with inconclusive military results.

British General Wavell visits French General Mittelhauser in the Levant. The latter confirms that he continues to report to the French government in Bordeaux.

Albanian Government: Exiled King Zog and his family settle in London.

French Government: Former French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud is injured in an auto accident near Bordeaux. His mistress, Countess de Portes, a strong voice against further French resistance, perishes.

British Government: Prime Minister Winston Churchill declines an offer to make a radio broadcast in the United States, noting that only events, not words, will move public opinion for good.

US Government: President Roosevelt signs the Smith Act aka The Alien Registration Act of 1940. It requires non-citizen adult aliens to register with the government and makes it unlawful for anyone to advocate or teach the overthrow or destruction of any U.S. government by force or violence or to be a member of a group that advocated such goals.

"Wild Bill" Donovan buttonholes Allen Dulles at the Republican National Convention and begins working him to join the organization that will turn into the OSS.

Vatican: Pope Pius XII offers to mediate, which he has done before secretly. Nobody takes him up on his offer. Winston Churchill tartly responds: "We desire no inquires as to peace term with Hitler."

American Homefront: The Republicans nominate Wendell Willkie as their candidate for the upcoming Presidential campaign. Charles L. McNary of Oregon is the VP pick. He states:

“I stand before you without a single pledge or promise or understanding of any kind except for the advancement of your cause and the preservation of American democracy."

Wendell Wilkie accepts the Republican nomination for President.

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

Thursday 20 June 1940

Coldstream Guards running an assault course in full kit on 20 June 1940 (War Office Official Collection, Catalogue No.  H 1887, War Office Official photographer Lt. E.G. Malindine).

Western Front: French Prime Minister Pétain on 20 June 1940 broadcasts to the nation. He states that defeat is "inevitable" and references his own experience during World War I, when 185 Allied divisions faced the Germans as compared to 10 in May 1940.

The cadets at the Saumur military academy are forced to surrender when they run out of ammunition. 200 cadets perish.

There are continued German advances throughout the country. The Maginot Line remains a strong point for the French, despite numerous penetrations, but elsewhere the defense is "fluid." There is heavy fighting around Thionville. The Wehrmacht 12th Army captures Lyons and Vichy.

French XLV Corps crosses the border into Switzerland and is interned.

Italy masses 32 divisions divided into two armies on the French border in the Alps. The French see no reason to fight Italy when it already is trying to sue for peace with Germany and request an armistice. Mussolini, however, wants to occupy French territory to improve his bargaining position, not necessarily in France, but in North Africa. The Italians stand ready to launch their long-awaited offensive against French positions in the Riviera north to Mount Blanc.

Operation Ariel continues at a rapidly dwindling pace, picking up scattered troops in southern France. At La Pallice, a few more Polish troops and assorted embassy and consular staffs are taken off, and the ships proceed south to find more evacuees. At Bordeaux and the nearby ports on the Garonne River in the Gironde départment in Aquitaine, the Polish ships Batory, Sobieski and the Ettrick and Arandora Star complete their operations and head south as well. The main port for evacuation from this point forward is St Jean-de-Luz on the Spanish border.

As Bordeaux is no longer a focus of evacuation, the British destroyer HMS Beagle lands a demolition team to disable the port facilities.

French plenipotentiaries, led by General Huntziger, leave Bordeaux by car to meet with the Germans at Compiegne. Hitler has chosen that location due to its symbolism as the spot where Germany surrendered to the Allies in World War I. German engineers are sent to a French museum to prepare the same French railway coach for the proceeding.

Realizing that France is about to surrender, French fighter pilot James Denis loads an Armee de l'Air Farman F.222 at an airbase near Saint-Jean-d'Angély with 20 of his friends. They fly to Great Britain to carry on the fight.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-122 torpedoes (Korvettenkapitän Hans-Günther Looff) and sinks 5,911-ton British freighter Empire Conveyor about 50 miles south of Barra Head in the Hebrides. There are 38 survivors, while 3 perish.

U-30 (Kapitänleutnant Fritz-Julius Lemp) torpedoes and sinks 4,876-ton British freighter Otterpool 130 miles west of Ushant, France. There are 16 survivors and 23 perish. The ship is sailing with Convoy HG-34F.

U-38 (Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Liebe) torpedoes and sinks 1,776-ton Swedish freighter Tilia Gorthon in the eastern Atlantic. There are 11 survivors, while 10 perish.

U-48 (Korvettenkapitän Hans Rudolf Rösing) torpedoes and sinks 7,493-ton Dutch tanker Moordrecht in the eastern Atlantic. There are 4 survivors, 25 perish.

The 7,638-ton French tanker Brumaire, torpedoed and damaged on 19 June 1940 by U-25, is sunk by a Luftwaffe attack.

Admiral Günther Lütjens sails heavy cruisers Gneisenau, Admiral Hipper, and four destroyers toward Iceland as part of an elaborate decoy mission as Scharnhorst, previously damaged by a torpedo, limps back to Germany. About 40 nautical miles (74 km; 46 mi) northwest of Halten, submarine HMS Clyde torpedoes Gneisenau. This causes extensive damage to the bow area, flooding two compartments, and the squadron returns to Trondheim for repairs.

Polish submarine Wilk accidentally rams Dutch submarine O-13, sinking it.

The Royal Navy intercepts two destroyers and two torpedo boats that were constructed in Italian shipyards and purchased by Sweden near the Faeroe Islands.

British submarine HMS Tigris (N 63, Lt. Commander Howard F. Bone) is commissioned.

British minesweeping trawler HMS Acacia (T 02, Commander Ralph Newman) is commissioned.

Armed yacht HMCS Elk (S 05, Lt. Commander Norman V. Clark) is commissioned.

The Gneisenau's torpedo damage as photographed on 20 June 1940.

European Air Operations: The RAF attacks Luftwaffe bases at Rouen, France and at Schiphol, Holland. It sends 56 bombers to attack western Germany.

The Regia Aeronautica bombs Calvi in Corsica.

North Africa: British mechanized troops in Sudan make raids across the Eritrean border.

The RAF raids Diredawa, Abyssinia. It also bombs Italian positions across the Libyan frontier.

The Regia Aeronautica sends 6 CANT Z.506 bombers against French positions at Bizerte, Tunisia.

Royal Navy submarine Parthian sinks Italian destroyer Diamante off Tobruk.

An Anglo/French squadron bombards Italian positions at Bardia during the night.

Mussolini asks Italian commander Italo Balbo to make more progress in the region. Balbo, the long-time commander in the region, responds, "We have no trucks, no anti-tank guns; it's steel versus flesh."

Latvia: A new Soviet puppet government is formed in Riga. The Soviets take the Latvian minesweeper Virsaitis.

Romania: King Carol pardons all imprisoned members of the Iron Guard in order to curry favor with Hitler.

Uruguay: Heavy cruiser USS Quincy (CA 39) arrives in Montevideo from Rio de Janeiro as part of its "show the flag" journey.

British Military: The first Australian and New Zealand troops (Anzacs) arrive in Great Britain. General Blamey arrives in Palestine to organize Anzacs there.


Anglo/Spanish Relations: The Duke of Windsor, widely suspected of having pro-German sympathies, arrives in Barcelona after having fled Paris.

Anglo/French Relations: General Mittelhauser, commanding French forces in the Levant, informs General Wavell at British headquarters in Cairo that he will join the Free France movement and remain an ally.

Japanese/French Relations: Governor-General Catroux, acting independently because he has no support from the French government or anyone else, allows a Japanese control commission into French Indochina (Vietnam). He agrees to stop shipping arms to China through the country.

Von Brauchitsch, Keitel, Hitler and Raeder at the Fuhrer HQ at Brûly-de-Pesche, 5660 Couvin, Belgium. 20 June 1940.

German Government: Adolf Hitler is at his Wolfsschlucht headquarters. Admiral Raeder confers with him regarding the feasibility of an invasion of Great Britain. Admiral Raeder asks Hitler, “And now how about the British?” Hitler's adjutant, Georg Engel, notes in his diary that "Führer says the UK so weak that, after the bombing, a major invasion will be unnecessary. The army will just move in."
US Government: Henry L. Stimson becomes the new Secretary of War, Frank Knox the new Secretary of the Navy. They are both Republicans. Stimson is a strong proponent of helping the Allies in Europe, the former Secretary of State under Herbert Hoover, and a former Secretary of War in the Taft administration. Knox is the publisher of the Chicago Daily News and was the 1936 Vice Presidential candidate.

As part of this reshuffling, Roosevelt establishes the position of Undersecretary of the Navy.

The Bureau of Ships is established with Rear Admiral Samuel M. Robinson as its first head. It replaces the Bureau of Construction and Repair and the Bureau of Engineering.

Light cruiser USS Phoenix (CL 46) departs from Pearl Harbor for the Panama Canal Zone, where it will begin a "show the flag" mission on the Pacific coast of South America.

French Government: A delegation from the two French legislative chambers approaches Pétain to complain about the desire of President Lebrun to leave for North Africa. There remain wide divisions within the government regarding the possibility of continuing the fight from Algeria and Tunisia.

Heavy cruiser USS Vincennes (CA 44), escorted by destroyers USS Truxtun (DD 229) and USS Simpson (DD 221), arrives at the Brooklyn Navy Yard with the gold reserves from the Bank of France.

American Homefront: Joe Louis has a rematch with Chilean boxer Arturo Godoy. Louis wins when the referee stops the fight in the 8th round.

Future History: Actor John Mahoney is born in Blackpool, Lancashire, England. He begins his acting career as the body double for Steve McQueen in 1977 and becomes famous for playing Martin Crane on NBC sitcom "Frasier" from 1993 to 2004.

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

Sunday 2 June 1940

A Coastal Command Hudson with a blazing Dunkirk oil storage tank behind it, early June 1940.

Western Front: French forces on 2 June 1940 man the perimeter at Dunkirk. The Germans push the Allied defenses back, but they do not break. The pocket is now only two miles long and a little deeper. Almost all British troops - aside from stragglers - are now gone, with the vast majority of troops remaining in the pocket being French soldiers. The day ends with the French holding a perimeter on the edges of town.

Adolf Hitler makes his first visit to French soil during the war. He stages a photo op at the Canadian National Vimy Ridge Memorial. This is partly to refute Allied propaganda that the Wehrmacht has destroyed it. He orders the SS to guard the monument.

General Georges continues to make plans for an offensive against the German line along the Somme. Much of the Allied line is held by British troops, with the mass of the French Army remaining behind the Maginot Line in the south.

Chief of the General Staff Dill sends Sir Alan Brooke back to France to organize a new BEF south of the Somme.

Mussolini postpones the Italian attack on French positions in the Alps to 10 June.

Dunkirk: There are 26,256 troops evacuated today (9,561 Allied troops embark from Dunkirk harbor and 6,695 from the beaches). Due to the decision to evacuate only during the night, British naval losses go down significantly; the Royal Navy has only two destroyers damaged. The final British unit leaves today and French soldiers are being evacuated as well. The French are disorganized - partly due to decisions taken by the British without their knowledge - and this hampers their evacuation. Some French troops do not see a realistic possibility of evacuating to England and desert, hoping to get back to their homes by slipping through the lines.

Royal Navy hospital ship HMS Worthing is damaged by the Luftwaffe attack, along with numerous smaller vessels.

Baron Wolfram Freiherr von Richthofen, a Luftwaffe General and also a cousin of the famous "Red Baron," is disgusted at the outcome fo the battle. He writes in his diary: "A victory over England has been thrown away."
European Air Operations: The Germans continue attacks in the Rhône Valley region between Lyons and Marseilles, causing many civilian casualties.

The RAF is still primarily engaged in supporting the French defenders at Dunkirk, sending 24 aircraft to attack the advancing Germans during the day and 16 at night.

The British send 24 aircraft to hit targets in Germany during the night.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-101 (Kapitänleutnant Fritz Frauenheim) torpedoes and sinks 3,577-ton British freighter Polycarp about 41 miles south of Land's End at 03:00. All 43 crew survive.

US passenger liner President Roosevelt, with 720 Americans aboard, and liner Manhattan, with 1,905 passengers, depart for America from Galway and Genoa, respectively. As a general matter, it is believed that fast liners are safer by sprinting across the ocean on their own that by participating in a slow-moving convoy.

Convoy OA 160 departs from Southend, Convoy OB 160 departs from Liverpool, Convoy OG 32F departs from Gibraltar, and Convoy HX 47 departs from Halifax.

Princess Elizabeth - the future Elizabeth II - and sister Margaret with their corgi named Jane, 2 June 1940 (Lisa Sheridan/Studio Lisa / Getty).

Norway: German 2nd Mountain Division continues pushing north towards Narvik to relieve General Dietl's forces trapped near the border. They depart from Sorfold (to the east of Bodo) and remain over 100 miles south of Narvik as the crow flies, over rough terrain. The roads are not continuous, and the Wehrmacht troops must either take ferries or go overland in mountainous terrain riven with lakes and fjords. This exposes them to both aerial and naval attacks.

The Luftwaffe attacks Harstad, losing nine bombers. RAF Pilot Officer Louis R. Jacobsen of No. 263 Squadron, flying out of Bardufoss, has a big day near Narvik. He shoots down four Heinkel He 111 and two Junkers Ju 88 medium bombers for a total of 6 bombers in one day.

Luftwaffe transports drop another 45 men of the 1st Fallschirmjaeger Regiment to reinforce General Dietl. The Norwegian, Polish and French troops pursue the Germans toward Sweden, while the 26,000 British troops remain in port to prepare for the evacuation.

Royal Navy aircraft carriers HMS Glorious and Ark Royal arrive off Narvik to provide air cover and to take off the RAF fighters at Bardufoss.

British Government: War Secretary Anthony Eden gives a frank radio speech update on Operation Dynamo. He states that 80% of the BEF has been evacuated intact, minus battle losses and the few still remaining to be picked up:

The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans. We have had great losses in equipment. But our men have gained immeasurably in experience of warfare and in self-confidence. The vital weapon of any army is its spirit. Ours has been tried and tempered in the furnace. It has not been found wanting. It is this refusal to accept defeat, that is the guarantee of final victory.

US Government: Weighing in on the issue of German influence in South America, Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations. President Roosevelt takes up one of his options and decides that the right course is to send an 8-inch cruiser to South America (along with the cruiser he already has sent), along with occasional destroyer visits from the Atlantic Squadron.

Italian Government: Italo Balbo confers with Foreign Minister Count Ciano before returning to his position in command of Italian forces in Libya. Both men are quite leery about new Italian military adventures.

Spain: Sir Samuel, the new British Ambassador to Spain, arrives in Madrid. There are crowds of anti-British demonstrators demanding the return of Gibraltar to Spain.

Greece: Constantine II, the heir to the Greek throne, is born in Psychiko, Athens, Greece.

British Homefront: The government evacuates 50,000 children from urban areas in southeastern England.

American Homefront: "The Spirit" makes his debut in the Sunday comics section.

Hitler at Vimy Ridge. This picture was widely circulated in German publications to show Hitler at the front and to prove that the memorial had not been destroyed.

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

Sunday 26 May 1940

Geoffrey Dalton Stephenson's Supermarine Spitfire MK1 N3200, being inspected by Germans, after it was shot down on a beach at Sangatte, near Calais on May 26, 1940. He wound up a POW at Colditz.

Western Front: Operation Dynamo, the evacuation of the BEF from the Continent, is authorized on 26 May 1940 to proceed in the evening by the British War Cabinet. Admiral Bertram Ramsey, in charge of Royal Navy forces at Dover, takes command of the operation.

Vice-Marshal Keith Park, commander of RAF No. 11 Group in southeast England, allocates 16 fighter squadrons to establish air supremacy over Dunkirk at one time, with others held in reserve.

Hitler ends the "stop order," authorizing "armored groups and infantry divisions in direction Tournai-Dunkirk."

The 10th Panzer Division attack on Calais continues, and it is clear that the end of the battle is approaching. General Guderian has given the division until the afternoon to capture the port or he will pull the division and leave its destruction to the Luftwaffe - which would be a huge slap in the face to the division. Thus, the German attacks are rabid and unrelenting.

At first light, fifteen small Royal Navy vessels arrive towing boats for an evacuation - though no evacuation has been ordered. In fact, one of the ships delivers a message to the commanding officer, Brigadier Nicholson, to continue fighting. Unlike 24 hours previously, Nicholson is worn out and sees clearly the direction in which the battle is heading. He reports that the Germans are in the north end of town and he has no more tanks or other basic necessities.

The German bombardment also begins at around the same time, 05:00. The completion of the capture of nearby Boulogne has freed additional artillery for Calais, doubling General Schaal's firepower. There also are mass Stuka attacks, followed by armored attacks. The Allied line finally breaks around 13:30, when Bastion 11 manned by French volunteers out of ammunition, falls. That sets in motion the final Allied collapse, and the Germans are soon across the defensive canals and in the city streets. The commander of the British forces, Brigadier Claude Nicholson, surrenders at 16:00. The Germans take 3500 prisoners, and only 200 wounded escape on the boats. With Calais having fallen, the panzers immediately turn and head toward Dunkirk.

German Sixth Army continues pressing against the Belgian troops holding the northern side of the Allied line. The BEF has to send reinforcements to prevent a breakthrough. It is clear that the Belgian Army - an irreplaceable part of the defensive perimeter - is on its last legs. The Belgians and British reinforcements struggle to hold Izegem, Nevele, and Ronsele, while the elite Chasseurs Ardennais stand like a rock. The Belgian reserves go into battle, and auxiliary troops are formed in the rear. The Belgians flood the canals to serve as tank traps. The Belgians tell the French at noon that "the Army has nearly reached the limits of its endurance."

The British fall back on Dunkirk without asking permission or even informing their allies. It is particularly noticeable around Lille, where it opens a gap in the line otherwise manned by the Belgians and French on either side. The Belgians are forced to fall further back themselves, while the French 1st Army essentially becomes encircled.

The British withdrawal and the Belgian weakness becomes a virtuous cycle - for the Wehrmacht. It becomes apparent by 18:00 that the British are pulling back on the Lille-Ypres sector. Meanwhile, Belgian morale plunges. King Leopold, informed of all of these movements, prepares to move his headquarters to Middelkerke. He is running out of territory to command.

The Germans attack between Courtrai and Valenciennes.

The French recapture some of the German bridgeheads over the Somme - but not all of them.

A British Cruiser Mk IV tank under repair, Blangy-sur-Ternoise. 26 May 1940.

Battle of the Atlantic: The RAF sinks four ships to block the entrance to Zeebrugge Harbour.

U-13 and U-48 leave Kiel to take up positions around the British Isles.

Convoy OA 155G departs from Southend, Convoy OB 155 departs from Liverpool. Australian/New Zealand troop convoy US 3 arrives at Cape Town.

European Air Operations: Fierce air battles continue over the Channel Ports. The Stukas pound Calais with 200 Stuka sorties.

The Luftwaffe aids the German 10th Panzer Division in Calais with attacks on Calais Citadel.

The RAF attacks railway marshaling yards in the Rhineland during the night.

Norway: Colonel Gubbins, knowing that further defense is pointless due to Operation Alphabet, withdraws his defensive line to the ferry port of Rognan. The Irish Guard makes a fighting withdrawal, leaving behind (destroying) supplies. At the port, they take ferries across the fjord - just barely leaving ahead of the Germans when the ferry breaks down. He receives air cover from a new RAF base at Bodø, which is the first RAF presence in the vicinity.

The Luftwaffe sinks British anti-aircraft cruiser Curlew (D 42, Captain Basil C. B. Brooke) in Lavangsfjord, Ofotfjord near Narvik. Nine crew perish. The Curlew had been especially helpful because it possessed the only radar in the area.

Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Glorious ferries Hurricanes of No. 46 Squadron to Skaanland near Narvik. The runway is sod, but Hawker Hurricanes are sturdy planes.

The Luftwaffe continues its gradual reinforcement of General Dietl's force in Narvik, bringing in 81 men of the 1st Fallschirmjaeger Regiment.

Anglo/Belgian Relations: Prime Minister Churchill meets with Belgian Prime Minister Pierlot and Foreign Minister Spaak.

Anglo/French Relations: French Prime Minister Paul Reynaud visits Churchill in London.

Italy: Mussolini meets with Army Chief of Staff Pietro Badoglio and Air Marshal Italo Balbo in Rome to discuss his growing urge to join the Axis conflict. Badoglio states that Italy is unprepared for any conflict and illustrates this by pointing out that the army does not even have enough shirts. Mussolini replies:

History cannot be reckoned by the number of shirts.

He explains that he needs "a few thousand dead" to be able to hold his head high at the peace table. Mussolini orders Badoglio to prepare his forces for an invasion of France on 5 June 1940.

German Military: Admiral Otto Schniewind, Chief of Staff of the Seekriegsleitung (Maritime Warfare Command), reaches a conclusion: "Evacuation of (BEF) troops without equipment …. is conceivable by means of large numbers of smaller vessels …. even from the open coast."

British Military: General Sir Edmund Ironside becomes Commander-in-chief of the Home Forces. Sir John Greer Dill replaces Ironside as Chief of the Imperial General Staff. While done politely, and with Ironside putting the best positive spin about it in his diary, there is an element of scapegoating for the disastrous course of the battle on the Continent. In addition, Ironside has proven undiplomatic with the French.

French Military: General Maxime Weygand issues Ordre Général d' Operation No. 1184 3/FT:

The battle on which the fate of the country depends will be fought without any idea of retreat, on the line which we hold today.

US/Latin American Relations: The US minister in Uruguay, Edwin Wilson, follows up on his previous report of undue German influence within the Uruguayan government. He reports by telegram to Secretary of State Cordell Hull that the Uruguayan government has had its police searching the homes and businesses of German nationals. Wilson states that the police are using "rough methods" and that tension is arising between the two governments as a result.

American Homefront: President Roosevelt gives his fireside chat "On National Defense." He emphasizes that the US has become more secure since his inauguration, and emphasizes:

There is nothing in our present emergency to justify a retreat from any of our social objectives.

German Homefront: Prince Wilhelm of Prussia, 33, son of Wilhelm, German Crown Prince, perishes of wounds sustained in France.

British Homefront: A national day of prayer for the troops is held in the UK. Westminster Abbey is packed.

A British officer examines a knocked-out German 88 mm anti-aircraft gun, May 26-29, 1940.

May 1940

May 1, 1940: British Leave Åndalsnes
May 2, 1940: British Depart Namsos
May 3, 1940: Many Norwegians Surrendering
May 4, 1940: Bader Returns
May 5, 1940: HMS Seal Survives
May 6, 1940: Allies Focus on Narvik
May 7, 1940: In The Name of God, Go!
May 8, 1940: Exit Chamberlain
May 9, 1940: Enter Churchill
May 10, 1940: Fall Gelb
May 11, 1940: Eben Emael Surrenders
May 12, 1940: Germans at Sedan
May 13, 1940: Rommel at Work
May 14, 1940: German Breakout in France
May 15, 1940: Holland Surrenders
May 16, 1940: Dash to the Channel
May 17, 1940: Germans Take Brussels
May 18, 1940: Germans Take Antwerp
May 19, 1940: Failed French Counterattack
May 20, 1940: Panzers on the Coast
May 21, 1940: Battle of Arras
May 22, 1940: Attacking Channel Ports
May 23, 1940: British Evacuate Boulogne
May 24, 1940: Hitler's Stop Order
May 25, 1940: Belgian Defenses Creaking
May 26, 1940: Operation Dynamo
May 27, 1940: King Leopold Surrenders 
May 28, 1940: The Allies Take Narvik
May 29, 1940: Lille Falls
May 30, 1940: Operation Fish
May 31, 1940: Peak Day for Dynamo

2020

Friday 8 December 1939

Polish pilots cleared to serve in the RAF on 8 December 1939.

Winter War Army Operations: Soviet troops of the 163rd Division of the 9th Army (Duhanov) take Suomussalmi without a fight after dark at 9 p.m. on 8 December 1939. They quickly attack across the frozen lakes to the west with two companies. The objective is Hyrysalmi and then, ultimately, Oulu on the Gulf of Bothnia, which would split Finland in two and effectively end the war. However, there is a very rough country in between which might not be so obvious from maps.

The Finns who had abandoned Suomussalmi, the 15th and 16th Detached Battalions of the Finnish Army, also know the stakes and are waiting. With a clear field of fire across the frozen surface, they beat back the Soviets and inflict massive casualties. The Soviets regroup and try to outflank the Finns to the northwest, at Puolnaka. The Polish 16th detached battalion is there waiting for them and stops the Soviets cold.

Elsewhere on the front, the Soviet forces also are mostly stopped. The Finns are holding against the 8th Army at the River Kollaa. Only the Soviet 14th Army in the far north takes some tundra near Petsamo against three Finnish companies led by Captain Antti Pennanen.

It is the first day of the Winter War when the Finns largely hold their ground.

European Air Operations: The Royal Air Force and the British government agree to allow exiled Polish pilots to be attached to the RAF.

Otto Kretschmer.

Battle of the Atlantic: US Secretary of State Cordell Hull asks his Chargé d'Affaires in the United Kingdom to demand that the British release the Nishmaha, which has been held in detention for 25 days. The British wish it to unload cargo that the British consider contraband at Marseilles.

The US Consul General in Hamburg reports that the Germans have detained 125 vessels from neutral nations - 40 Swedish, 12 Danish, 5 Norwegian, 40 Finnish, 14 Estonian and 14 Latvian. The Germans, like the British, have adopted a sweeping interpretation of what constitutes "contraband."

U-34 (Kapitänleutnant Otto Kretschmer) torpedoes and sinks the 2,400-ton Danish freighter Scotia northeast of Scotland. Two survive and 19 perish.

U-48 (Kapitänleutnant Herbert Schultze) torpedoes and sinks 6,668-ton British freighter Brandon south of Ireland. Nine perish.

British freighter Merel hits a mine and sinks off Ramsgate.

British freighter Corea hits a mine and sinks.

Convoy OA 49 departs from Southend, OB 49 departs from Liverpool, HG 10 departs from Gibraltar.

British Military: In Egypt, General Wavell dismisses Major General Percy Hobart from his position forming Mobile Force (Egypt). Hobart has unconventional ideas about the use of tanks and other mobile forces, seeing in them the ability to project long-range power across the desert. The War Office is not a fan of these ideas, but, strangely enough, one Heinz Guderian in the Reich thinks that Hobart is brilliant and actually pays a translator so that he can read everything that Hobart writes. Hobart's dismissal is a reflection of the tensions going on in every major army about the role of mobile forces and tanks in particular. Hobart goes home to Chipping Campden and joins his Local Defence Volunteers unit as a lance corporal, serving as its Deputy Area Organiser.

Italy: Air Marshal Italo Balbo, long-time Governor-General of Libya, visits Rome and publicly states, "You will all wind up shining the shoes of the Germans!" He is the only fascist to publicly criticize Mussolini's obvious sympathies with Hitler and wishes that Italy would join the Allies. Balbo is such a towering figure in the military that Mussolini does nothing but inwardly seethe.

Peru: Manuel Prado y Ugarteche inaugurated as president.

China: The Japanese 104th Infantry Division attacks Chinese Kwantung Army forces in Kwantung as a spoiling attack against the Chinese 4th War Area. The Japanese spoiling attacks in Wenhsi and Hsia Hsien continue.

Future History: Gordon Arthur "Red" Berenson is born in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. He becomes a National Hockey League player in the 1960s and eventually becomes a coach. As of this writing, Red Berenson is the coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's hockey team and has been for 32 years.

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, December 8, 1939. Somebody important is coming or going on the Santa Fe, note the drum band. [Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection].

December 14, 1939: Quisling Meets Hitler
December 15, 1939: Chinese Winter Offensive in High Gear
December 16, 1939: Battle of Summa
December 17, 1939: End of Admiral Graf Spee
December 18, 1939: Battle of Heligoland Bight
December 19, 1939: British Disarm Magnetic Mines
December 20, 1939: Finnish Counterattacks Continue
December 21, 1939: Finns Plan More Counterattacks
December 22, 1939: Enter Chuikov
December 23, 1939: Failed Finnish Counterattack
December 24, 1939: Soviets on the Run
December 25, 1939: Fresh Soviet Attacks
December 26, 1939: Vicious Battles at Kelja
December 27, 1939: Grinding Finnish Victories
December 28, 1939: Liberators
December 29, 1939: Finns Tighten the Noose
December 30, 1939: Finnish Booty
December 31, 1939: Planning More Soviet Destruction

2019