The following events occurred in June 1940:
June 1, 1940 (Saturday) The Actions in Nordland ended in German victory. German bombers sank the French destroyer Foudroyant off Dunkirk as the evacuation from there continued. A total of 64,429 were evacuated on this day. Born: René Auberjonois, actor and singer, in New York City (d. 2019) Died: Alfred Loisy, 83, French Roman Catholic priest, professor and theologian
June 2, 1940 (Sunday) Adolf Hitler entered French territory for the first time in the war and visited the Canadian National Vimy Memorial, where photographers took his picture as he walked around the site with his entourage. The photos, showing the memorial intact, were then published in German newspapers to refute stories in the Canadian media claiming that the Germans had bombed it. War Secretary Anthony Eden gave a radio address on the Dunkirk evacuation reporting that four-fifths of the British Expeditionary Force had been saved. "The British Expeditionary Force still exists, not as a handful of fugitives, but as a body of seasoned veterans," Eden said. "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." The remaining French forces at Dunkirk were pushed back into the town itself. 26,256 were evacuated from Dunkirk as operations switched to only being undertaken at night due to the costly air attacks. The masked crimefighting character The Spirit first appeared in the American Sunday comics. Born: Constantine II of Greece, King of Greece from 1964 to 1973, in Psychiko, Athens, Greece (d. 2023)
June 3, 1940 (Monday) The Germans launched Operation Paula, an attempt to destroy the French Air Force. However, British intelligence had warned the French of the impending attack and the operation failed to achieve its strategic goals. The last British troops were evacuated from Dunkirk. German aerial bombing of Paris killed 45 people. The Allies began evacuating Narvik. 20th Century Fox executive Joseph M. Schenck was indicted on charges of income tax fraud. The U.S. Supreme Court decided Minersville School District v. Gobitis.
June 4, 1940 (Tuesday) The Battle of Dunkirk ended with the overnight evacuation of 26,175 French troops. At 10:20 a.m. the Germans occupied the city and captured the 30–40,000 French troops who were left. In the British House of Commons Winston Churchill made the famous speech commonly titled We shall fight on the beaches. The Battle of Abbeville ended in German victory. German Admiral Wilhelm Marschall launched Operation Juno, sending a large naval force for Norway to disrupt the Allied supply lines to Narvik. Forbes Field in Pittsburgh hosted its first night game; the hometown Pirates beat the Boston Braves 14-2. Born: Ludwig Schwarz, Roman Catholic bishop, in Most pri Bratislave, Slovak Republic
June 5, 1940 (Wednesday) The Germans began the second phase of the invasion of France, codenamed Fall Rot, by attacking across the Somme and Aisne rivers. The Germans initially met stiff resistance, since the French had spent the previous two weeks organizing their defenses south of the Somme. The French cabinet underwent a reshuffle. Édouard Daladier was removed and Charles de Gaulle became Under-Secretary for Defence. The British government banned all labour strikes. German fighter ace Werner Mölders was shot down and taken prisoner by the French. He would only spend two weeks in captivity. Wartime emergency legislation in Canada banned 16 Nazi, Communist and Fascist organizations. Died: F. Luis Mora, 65, Uruguayan-born American painter
June 6, 1940 (Thursday) The French managed to halt the German advance at Oisemont, although both sides took heavy casualties. Further east, the French 6th Army was pushed back by the German 9th Army on the Ailette north of Soissons. All ships of the Italian merchant marine received government orders to proceed immediately to Italian ports. A memorandum created in the German Foreign Office proposed several measures for solving the "Jewish question", including mass deportations to the French colony of Madagascar. Born: Richard Paul, actor, in Los Angeles, California (d. 1998) Died: Arthur Zimmermann, 75, German diplomat
June 7, 1940 (Friday) Erich Hoepner's panzers destroyed the French 19th Infantry Division south of Peronne, while the French 10th Army's line was broken at Poix-de-Picardie.Mitcham, p. 338. A single airplane from the French Navy bombed Berlin in a night raid. The Farman 223.4 lingered over the city for as long as possible to create the impression of more than one airplane, then dropped its bomb load over some factories in Berlin's north end. The character of Daisy Duck first appeared in the Disney cartoon Mr. Duck Steps Out. The comedy-horror film The Ghost Breakers starring Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard had its world premiere in Detroit. Born: Tom Jones, singer, in Treforest, Wales Ronald Pickup, actor, in Chester, England (d. 2021) Died: James Hall, 39, American film actor (cirrhosis); Hugh Rodman, 81, American admiral
June 8, 1940 (Saturday) The German 5th and 7th Panzer Divisions crossed the Seine River. The 5th Panzer Division captured Rouen. The Germans executed the naval offensive in Norway codenamed Operation Juno. Operation Alphabet ended with the completion of the Allied evacuation from Norway. HMS Glorious was sunk by German battlecruiser Scharnhorst and Gneisenau Born: Nancy Sinatra, singer and actress, in Jersey City, New Jersey
June 9, 1940 (Sunday) Army Group A under the command of Gerd von Rundstedt attacked along a 100-mile front in the Aisne sector. That same day the Germans established a number of bridgeheads along the Aisne.Mitcham, p. 339. The 7th Panzer Division under the command of Erwin Rommel pushed the French 10th Army Corps and the British 51st Highland Division back to the sea at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The French government fled Paris. The Soviet Union and Japan signed an agreement ending their dispute over the borders of Manchukuo. Lawson Little won the U.S. Open golf tournament.
June 10, 1940 (Monday) Norway surrendered to Germany. King Haakon VII and his cabinet escaped to London to form a government in exile. At 6 p.m., Benito Mussolini appeared on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia to announce that in six hours, Italy would be in a state of war with France and Britain. After a speech explaining his motives for the decision, he concluded: "People of Italy: take up your weapons and show your tenacity, your courage and your valor." The Italians had no battle plans of any kind prepared. Anti-Italian riots broke out in major cities across the United Kingdom after Italy's declaration of war. Bricks, stones and bottles were thrown through the windows of Italian-owned shops, and 100 arrests were made in Edinburgh alone. Canada declared war on Italy. Italy broke off relations with Poland. Belgium broke off relations with Italy. The Italian invasion of France began. Fighting would be mostly limited to skirmishing for the first ten days since both sides along the Franco-Italian border were deployed in defensive positions at the beginning of hostilities. 7th Panzer Division reached Dalles near Dieppe. While making a commencement speech at the Memorial Gymnasium of the University of Virginia, President Roosevelt denounced Mussolini: "On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has plunged it into the back of its neighbor." The president also said that military victories for the "gods of force and hate" were a threat to all democracies in the western world and that America could no longer pretend to be a "lone island in a world of force." Operation Cycle, the evacuation of Allied troops from Le Havre, began. Born: Daniel J. Sullivan, theatre and film director and playwright, in Wray, Colorado Died: Marcus Garvey, 52, Jamaican publisher and black nationalist leader; Norman McLeod Rogers, 45, Canadian Defence Minister (plane crash)
June 11, 1940 (Tuesday) Rommel's 7th Panzer Division reached Le Havre, then turned back to trap 46,000 British and French soldiers at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. The RAF bombed the El Adem airfield in Libya. The Italians responded a few hours later by bombing Malta. The Siege of Malta began. Italy severed relations with Norway. Australia, New Zealand and South Africa declared war on Italy. The French government moved to Tours. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council met at a chateau in Briare which General Maxime Weygand was using as a military headquarters. Weygand wanted Churchill to send the entire Royal Air Force to France, but Churchill disagreed, saying that if the Germans would divert their air power to the skies over Britain, the French Army would get a chance to regroup. Churchill expressed determination to fight on until all of France's territory was recovered, no matter how much of it fell to the Germans in the interim, and suggested that the French could resort to guerrilla warfare if the time came when traditional military operations were no longer possible. The French were not receptive to this proposal, alarmed at the prospect of Paris being reduced to ruins while the general outcome of the war remained unchanged. Churchill brought up the question of what the French Navy would do if the Army suspended fighting, but Paul Reynaud ended the meeting by stating that the French were as determined to continue fighting as the British were. Late in the day, Kleist's forces crossed the Marne at Château-Thierry. The RAF conducted an overnight raid on Turin and Genoa. Bombs intended for the Fiat headquarters and manufacturing plant in Turin missed their targets and killed 14 civilians near the city center, an event the Italians publicized as an act of terrorism. German submarine U-124 was commissioned. Born: Gunnar Harding, poet, in Sundsvall, Sweden Died: Alfred S. Alschuler, 63 or 64, American architect
June 12, 1940 (Wednesday) After a last stand, the outflanked 51st Highland Division and French 9th Army Corps surrendered to Rommel at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. BR.20s of the Regia Aeronautica bombed the southern French cities of Toulon, Hyères and Saint-Raphaël, as well as the Corsican communes of Calvi and Bastia and the Tunisian city of Bizerte. Not much damage was done, however, as French anti-aircraft fire kept the warplanes from attacking effectively. The Anglo-Thai Non-Aggression Pact was concluded in Bangkok. Egypt broke off relations with Italy. Turkey broke off commercial relations with Italy.
June 13, 1940 (Thursday) General Weygand declared Paris an open city. Panzer Group Kleist captured Saint-Dizier and Troyes.Mitcham, p. 341. Operation Cycle was completed. The Anglo-French Supreme War Council met for the final time, at Tours. Churchill encouraged the French to continue the fight from North Africa, but Reynauld sought British consent to seek an armistice with Germany instead, which Churchill refused to grant. Born: Bobbie Clarke, rock drummer, in Coventry, England (d. 2014); M. M. Rahmat Ullah, bureaucrat and politician, in Rajshahi, British India (present-day Bangladesh) (d. 2014) Died: George Fitzmaurice, 55, French-born film director and producer
June 14, 1940 (Friday) The Germans entered Paris unopposed. The city was eerily silent since 2 million Parisians had already fled and all shops and businesses were closed. The 3rd Squadron of the French Navy bombarded Genoa. 9 civilians were killed but damage was otherwise light. Francoist Spain took advantage of the German invasion of France by occupying the international zone at Tangier. The first inmates of Auschwitz and Theresienstadt concentration camp arrived. The Soviet ultimatum to Lithuania was delivered. The Occupation of the Baltic states began.