Diary May 31, 1940

War Diary, 05-1940, Diary WW2, Year 1940 / 1 minute of reading

French soldiers surrender to the Germans.

Diary for Friday, May 31, 1940:

Western Front

French 1st Army surrenders in Lille sector after 4-day siege. BEF withdraws from Belgian sector of Dunkirk pocket (night May 31-June 1). French recapture part of Abbeville.

Sea War

68,000 troops evacuated from Dunkirk. French destroyers Sirocco and Cyclone torpedoed by German E-boats; 6 British destroyers damaged by bombing.
Merchant shipping losses in May 1940: 100 Allied ships with 285,893 tons in the Atlantic, 1 Allied ship with 2,568 tons elsewhere.
1 U-boat sunk in the Atlantic, Arctic or Baltic.

Air War

20 LeO-451s (9 lost) attack Amiens and Abbeville, Douglas DB-7 bombers make low-level attacks on German columns near St Quentin.

China

Japanese High Command in China announces its intention to bomb Chiang Kai-shek‘s capital of Chungking daily ‘until the spirit of Chinese resistance is broken’.

Neutrals

USA: Roosevelt sends $1,000 Millions supplementary emergency defense budget to Congress.

About The Author

Kretaner

My name is Norman 'Kretaner' and since my childhood I am interested in history and strategy games. Later, I have learned programming and the development of computer games, and finally with the Internet, also web design. I'm in the fortunate position to combine all my interests with my work and to live on a place of my choice, on Crete. All information, figures, specifications and statistics used here had been compiled from a variety of sources and the large, over decades collected, library of the author about military history, WW2 and weapons.