Diary June 20, 1940

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

The British submarine Severn torpedoed the German battlecruiser Gneisenau and disabled her for several months.

Diary for Thursday, June 20, 1940:

Sea War

German battlecruiser Gneisenau torpedoed off Trondheim by British submarine Severn.

France

Germans capture Lyons. Saumur Cadets forced surrendering when ammunition supplies for their training weapons run out (200 cadets killed, June 19-20).
Italian offensive on the Riviera (extended along entire Franco-Italian frontier to Mt Blanc, June 21).

Home Fronts

Britain: Entire output of Thompson sub-machine guns (300 t per week) to be delivered from US manufacturers in weekly shipments.
France: Petain broadcasts: he describes the defeat of France as ‘inevitable’ and compares the 185 British, American and Italian divisions supporting the French Army in May 1918 with the 10 British divisions of May 1940.

Politics

French authorities in Indochina bow to Japanese threat and half transit of arms to China via Haiphong.

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.