Repercussions followed. The unfortunate skipper was demoted to second pilot and he and his crew subjected to much leg-pulling by the other crews. This included the dropping of a home-made 'Iron Cross' constructed from a tea-chest lid and some brown coloured cloth, by one of the other 4 Group squadrons. It was addressed to 'Herr von (name withheld) from a grateful Führer.'

During subsequent investigation it was discovered that the magnetic compass had been rendered U/S when the aircraft had flown through an electrical storm after crossing the English Channel on its outbound flight.]

London: Dill takes over from Ironside as Chief of the Imperial General Staff.

The butter ration is cut back to four ounces per person per week.

FRANCE: German panzers attack near Lille trying to cut the route to Dunkirk. The French 1st Army conducts a valiant defence which enables many to continue to retreat..

Calais falls to the German army, which now surrounds the Allies at Dunkirk; only 8,000 men are evacuated today.

La Paradis: A farm outside this sleepy village was a scene of horror this afternoon when the SS wiped out a company of the Royal Norfolk Regiment left behind in the rush for Dunkirk.

Surrounded by Germans and cut off in a cowshed, Major Lisle Ryder opted to surrender with his 80 men. The SS unit (4th Company, I. Battalion, 2nd [TK] Inf. Rgt. of the SS-Totenkopf Division) led by 'SS-Obstf. [section commander], Fritz Knoechlein (CO of 3.Kompanie), marched them into a barn. Machine-guns set up opposite the long, low wall opened fire on the column of soldiers; many were killed instantly. At a signal, the firing stopped and the Germans moved in on the pile of bodies, finishing the job with bayonets and pistols. Incredibly, Albert Pooley and William O’Callaghan survived, though seriously injured. More....

Abbeville: 7 Army (French) had been ordered to destroy the Somme bridgeheads. Today General Grandsard makes a determined attack on the bridgehead at Amiens with 7 and 4 Colonial Infantry Divisions. After sustaining heavy losses, an enemy counter-attack forced them back to the forming up point.

Opposite Abbeville, the enemy in the villages and woods south of the Somme are disposed in three lines, as far as Huppy, Bailleul and Bray.

Destroyers HMCS Restigouche, Skeena and St Laurent were engaged in Operation DYNAMO, the Dunkirk evacuation.

HMS Grafton ferried 860 men to Dover and returned the following day to pick up another 800. On passage back to England, Grafton stopped to assist with the rescue of survivors from another destroyer that had been sunk, but whilst doing so was herself torpedoed by a U-Boat. Despite being packed with troops, Only 4 people were killed and other vessels took on the remaining troops and ship's company. Grafton was scuttled by gunfire.

NORWAY: The first assault wave of Legionnaires and Norwegians embarked well inside Herjangs Fjord, which was concealed from Narvik by high ground behind the town of Oyjord. While every available warship pounded the Narvik-Ankenes area, the first wave swept into and across Rombakken Fjord. Legionnaires poured ashore and cleared a beachhead. The Norwegians passed through them and started up the beaches behind Narvik. A second wave began mustering at Oyjord to cross the fjord. Hurricanes and Gladiators swept overhead providing local air superiority. By 3:30 a.m., 1,250 men were ashore.

A German gunner got the range of the second assault wave and began slamming shells into the boats. The embarkation point had to be shifted back to Herjangs Fjord, and the undertaking threw the attack off schedule. Then a sea fog began rolling in over the airfield at Bardufoss. Planes on the ground could not take off; those in the air had to hurriedly return while they still had a place to land. At this point the Luftwaffe arrived in force to harry the British warships westward down Ofot Fjord. German infantry, which had been hidden in a crease in the bluff above the bridgehead, came down the slope throwing hand grenades. They pushed the Norwegians into the Legionnaires, and drove both groups back onto the beach.

Lieut. Commander S. H. Balfour, serving as Naval liaison officer to the French, lost his signal lamps and was unable to call for naval gunfire support. Resourcefully, he commandeered a beached landing craft and went after the dodging British ships, finally reaching the destroyer ‘Beagle’. Coming about amid Luftwaffe attacks, the Beagle ran in close to the beach, firing at short range. The Germans returned toward their ridge, rallying on the high ground behind Narvik until their comrades in the town could withdraw.

Driving at Ankenes, the Poles lost both of their tanks to mines, but broke through. Beyond Ankenes, a German counterattack caught them in the flank and threw them back. Rallying, they found the enemy withdrawing and managed to sink the last boatload of Germans escaping across Narvik harbour. The day ends with rear-guard fighting as the Germans extricate themselves, keeping their front intact.