Diary June 8, 1940

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

The aircraft carrier Glorius, with a deck-load ofHurricane and Gladiator fighters evacuated from Norway, was caught by the German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau and sunk by gunfire. Her sister ship Courageous was sunk soon after the outbreak of WW2 by two torpedoes from U-boat U-20 in the South-West Approaches, September 17, 1939.

Diary for Saturday, June 8, 1940:

Sea War

Carrier Glorious and escorting destroyers Acasta and Ardent sunk in desperate battle with Gneisenau and Scharnhorst south-west of Narvik. Acasta scores damaging torpedo hit on Scharnhorst. Casualties: British 1,515; German, 48. German Admiral Marschall is dismissed for putting Scharnhorst at risk and failing to carry out planned attack on Harstad (Operation Juno).

Norway

Evacuation of 24,000 Allied troops from Narvik and Harstad completed: 4-5,000 men evacuated per night since June 3-4. Port installations at Narvik rendered useless. King Haakon and Norwegian Government leave Tromso for England on British cruiser Devonshire.

France

Rommel advances 45 miles (ca. 72 km) and reaches river Seine.

Air War

Captain Wuillame, of Groupe de Chasse (Fighter Group) I/2, flying a Morane-Saulnier MS406, claims three Me 109E in only 15 seconds over Somme sector.

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.