June 1940

June

• 03

  • Operation PaulaOn 3 June 1940 the Luftwaffe bombed airfields and factories around Paris. 254 people were killed, mostly civilians, but the French air force was not destroyed.
• 04

  • “We shall fight on the beaches”On 4 June 1940 Churchill reported to the House of Commons on Dunkirk and declared that the British would fight on the beaches and never surrender.
  • The end of the Dunkirk evacuationOn 4 June 1940 the last ships left Dunkirk and the Germans entered the town. Between 30,000 and 40,000 French troops of the rearguard were taken prisoner.
• 08

  • The sinking of HMS GloriousOn 8 June 1940 the battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau sank the carrier Glorious and two destroyers returning from Narvik. More than 1,500 men died.
• 10

  • Key eventItaly declares war on France and BritainOn 10 June 1940 Mussolini declared war on France and Britain as the French army was already collapsing. Roosevelt called it a stab in the back.
  • Norway capitulatesOn 10 June 1940 the Norwegian forces at home capitulated in Trondheim. Three days earlier the King and government sailed from Tromsø to wage war from London.
  • The French government leaves ParisOn 10 June 1940 the French government left Paris for châteaux along the Loire. After talks with Churchill at Briare and Tours it reached Bordeaux on 14 June.
• 11

  • The siege of Malta beginsOn 11 June 1940, hours after Italy entered the war, bombers from Sicily attacked Malta for the first time. So began a siege of almost two and a half years.
• 12

  • The surrender at Saint-Valery-en-CauxOn 12 June 1940 the British 51st Highland Division and French IX Corps, trapped by Rommel's panzers, surrendered at Saint-Valery-en-Caux. Fog foiled evacuation.
• 14

  • Key eventThe Germans enter ParisOn 14 June 1940 German troops entered Paris, declared an open city, without a fight. A swastika flag was hoisted over the Eiffel Tower.
  • The French Navy against ItalyOn 14 June 1940 French cruisers from Toulon shelled Vado, Savona and the outskirts of Genoa. Until 21 June the French fleet fought the Italians at sea.
  • The shooting down of the KalevaOn 14 June 1940 Soviet bombers shot down the Finnish airliner Kaleva from Tallinn over the Gulf of Finland. Nine died, including an American courier.
• 15

  • Key eventThe Soviet occupation of LithuaniaOn 15 June 1940 Lithuania accepted a Soviet ultimatum, President Smetona fled to Germany and the Red Army occupied the country without a Lithuanian shot fired.
  • Operation AerialOn 15 June 1940 the British began evacuating troops from the ports of western France. By 25 June they had also taken off Poles, Czechoslovaks and some French.
• 16

  • Key eventPétain becomes Prime Minister of FranceOn 16 June 1940 at Bordeaux Reynaud resigned and President Lebrun entrusted the government to Marshal Pétain. That night France asked for an armistice.
  • The Kutno GhettoOn 16 June 1940 the Germans moved the Jews of Kutno into a ghetto in the disused Konstancja sugar factory. Some 7,000 people were crammed into a few hectares.
• 17

  • The sinking of the LancastriaOn 17 June 1940 the Luftwaffe sank the overcrowded liner Lancastria off Saint-Nazaire. Several thousand died, and Churchill banned any reporting of it.
  • The Red Army enters Latvia and EstoniaOn 17 June 1940, a day after the Soviet ultimatums, the Red Army entered Latvia and Estonia. By 18 June all three Baltic states were occupied.
• 18

  • Key eventGeneral de Gaulle’s appealOn 18 June 1940 General de Gaulle urged the French on BBC radio to fight on. On 28 June London recognised him as leader of the Free French.
• 20

  • Executions at PalmiryOn 20 and 21 June 1940 the Germans shot 358 Pawiak prisoners at Palmiry, among them Maciej Rataj, Mieczysław Niedziałkowski and Janusz Kusociński.
• 21

  • Coups in the Baltic statesOn 21 June 1940, under cover of Soviet tanks, “popular” coups were staged in Tallinn and Riga. Päts had to appoint a Vares government chosen by Zhdanov.
• 22

  • Key eventThe Armistice of CompiègneOn 22 June 1940, in Foch’s carriage in the Forest of Compiègne, Huntziger and Keitel signed an armistice. Germany took three-fifths of France.
• 24

  • The Franco-Italian armisticeOn 24 June 1940 Huntziger and Badoglio signed the Franco-Italian armistice near Rome. Italy, halted in the Alps, got only Menton and scraps of border land.
• 26

  • The Soviet ultimatum to RomaniaOn 26 June 1940 Molotov demanded Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. Lacking Berlin’s support, Bucharest gave way; on 28 June the Red Army crossed the Dniester.
• 28

  • The death of Italo BalboOn 28 June 1940 Italian anti-aircraft guns over Tobruk mistakenly shot down the aircraft of Marshal Italo Balbo, Governor of Libya. Nine people were killed.
  • A convoy clash off CreteOn 28 June 1940 British cruisers caught three Italian destroyers carrying supplies for Tobruk. Espero was sunk covering the escape of the other two.
• 29

  • Arita proclaims a new order in East AsiaOn 29 June 1940 Foreign Minister Hachirō Arita declared on the radio that East Asia and the South Seas formed one sphere whose stability Japan guaranteed.
  • Third deportation from the eastern landsOn the night of 28 to 29 June 1940 the NKVD began a third deportation from the Kresy. Those taken were mainly refugees from German-occupied Poland, mostly Jews.
• 30

  • The Germans occupy the Channel IslandsOn 30 June 1940 the Luftwaffe landed on defenceless Guernsey, and on Jersey on 1 July. Two days earlier German bombs had killed over 40 people there.