Diary June 16, 1940

War Diary, 06-1940, Diary WW2, Year 1940 / 1 minute of reading

Panzer General Guderian in his command vehicle.

Diary for Sunday, June 16, 1940:

France

Guderian captures Besancon.

Home Fronts

France: Reynaud Cabinet resigns; PETAIN FORMS NEW GOVERNMENT. General Weygand, Minister of Defense. British Ambassador presents Draft Declaration of ‘Act of Union’ between Britain and France; French rejection.

Sea War

32,500 British and Allied troops and RAF personnel evacuated from Brest; 21,500 Canadian troops evacuated from St Malo (June 16-17). British cargo liner Wellington Star (13,200 t) sunk by U-boat U-101 in Bay of Biscay. Evacuation of British and Allied troops from Biscay ports (Operation Ariel) begins: 57,000 troops leave Nantes and St Nazaire. Italian submarine Galilei sinks Norwegian tanker James Stove (8,200 t) in Indian Ocean.

Politics

Russian ultimatums to Estonia and Latvia.

Secret War

British SS Broompark leaves the Gironde (western France) carrying 26 containers of ‘heavy water’, previously obtained from Norway by Joliot-Curie, the atomic physicist.

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.