June 14th, 1940 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:Minesweeping trawler HMS Myrtle mined and sunk in the Thames Estuary.
FRANCE:
Paris:10 a.m. The Germans enter the city. The Minister of the Interior
orders the police to hand over their arms to their superiors. The air of gloom and silence
that has descended over the city is only broken by the occasional distant explosion as the
French blow up munitions factories. The only resistance has come from some workers near
the Porte d’Aubervilliers, who punched passing soldiers, who ignored them. The
Germans posted machine-gunners in key positions as they marched through near-empty
streets, and a senior officer drove to M Laingeron, the chief of the Paris police to tell
him to remain in office until further notice and to be responsible for keeping public
order. The swastika now flies from the Eiffel Tower and from German HQ, established in one
of the city’s most luxurious hotels,
Hôtel
Majestic,
29,
rue Dumont d'Urville. The French Army is still fighting south of the
city.
Guderian swings east to cut off a retreat from the Maginot Line.
This morning, Weygand tells Brooke that the Inter-Allied Council had ordered that a line be held at the base of the Brittany peninsula. (Brooke would learn that the British government had not agreed to this.) He estimates that this would require at least 15 divisions and there were not five divisions available.
On returning to Le Mans Brooke called Dill and told him that the situation was hopeless and that troops coming to France be held in Britain. Later in the evening Dill called from 10 Downing Street. He put Churchill on the line. The PM told Brooke that it was important for the British to make the French feel that they were supporting him. Brooke's reply was that it was impossible to make a corpse feel and that the French Army was dead. Brooke told Churchill that the British should be evacuated and after 30 minutes of talk Churchill agreed and told him to bring all the British troops back to the U.K. This, less than 48 hours after Brooke had arrived in France. (Jay Stone)
GERMANY:
OKW issues Führer Directive #15. The enemy's front
has collapsed. The Paris area and the fortified triangle behind the Maginot Line are being
evacuated, the French Army may retreat as far as the Loire. Our relative strength and the
condition of the French Army now make it possible to pursue two objectives at the same
time.
(i) To prevent enemy forces near Paris and the Lower Seine withdrawing to form a new line, and pursue vigorously towards Orleans and the Loire estuary. Important naval bases along the coast will be occupied.
(ii) To destroy enemy forces facing Army Groups A and C, bringing about the collapse of the Maginot Line. The directions of the main lines of advance should pass through Troyes and Langres, preparations should be made for further moves into the central Loire area.
(iii) The Luftwaffe will continue to support operations as previously defined, emphasis should be placed on preventing enemy forces withdrawing to the south-west by rail, and the destruction of ports and shipping on the northern and southern coasts will make any attempted retreat by sea impossible. Anti-aircraft artillery will support advancing troops, in particular the penetration of French fortifications. (Marc Roberts)
POLAND: Auschwitz: The concentration camp open officially with the arrival of 728 Poles from Tarnow.
FINLAND: Two Soviet bombers shoot down the Finnish commercial Ju-52 passenger airliner "Kaleva" which is on its normal route from Tallinn, Estonia to Helsinki. After the aircraft crashes into sea, killing all on board (a Finnish crew of two, two French diplomatic couriers, an American diplomatic courier, two German businessmen, one Finn and a Swede), Soviet submarine Shstsha-301 picks up the diplomatic mail Kaleva is carrying. (Note: the incident takes place when Finland and the Soviet Union are at peace).
This incident is connected to the Soviet takeover of the Baltic states that takes place few days later. The Soviet Union has placed the Baltic States under a secret blockade, and all in- and outgoing traffic has to be stopped at all costs. Captain Pyotr Hohlov, the pilot of the bomber to shoot "Kaleva" down, later becomes a Hero of the Soviet Union.
ITALY: Genoa and Vado, Italy are shelled by French Naval Units.
The 3rd Cruiser Squadron, under the command of Admiral Emile Duplat, shelled Italian petroleum storage tanks and military installations of the seaport of Genoa in northwestern Italy.
The operation, codenamed "Vado" saw four cruisers --ALGERIE, FOCH, DUPLEIX, and COLBERT -- together with eleven destroyers as escorts, resulted in brief bombardments of Italian coastal installations at both Genoa and Savona that produced questionable damage. In defence, Italian coastal artillery batteries scored one 152mm hit on the French destroyer ALBATROS, killing ten crewmen. The Italian escort vessel CALATAFIMI (actually a "Curtatone" class torpedo boat) engaged the French warships, as did four or five motor torpedo boats of the 13th MAS Squadrilla; one of these boats was reported sunk by the French, but Italian sources do not mention this loss. The Regia Aeronautica failed to make an appearance during this action, but then French aerial units were also absent. (Greg Kelley)(249 & 250)
O
class submarine HMS Odin whilst patrolling off the Italian Naval base at
Taranto is sighted and attacked with a torpedo by A/S escort Strale. The
torpedo is seen to hit. Italian destroyer Baleno also takes part.
FRENCH MOROCCO: Tangiers: Spanish troops occupy the international zone.
EGYPT: Cairo: The British Middle East Air Force in Egypt announced:
‘A single aircraft flew several times over Malta releasing bombs. A number of buildings were damaged, two British soldiers were killed and one wounded. In addition the Italians have made aerial raids on two small towns in the Sudan, inflicting little damage.’
BRITISH SOMALILAND:
Berbera: Reuters News Agency reports:
‘On Friday afternoon the seaport town of Berbera in the Gulf of Aden was bombed by Italian aircraft. Little damage occurred.
U.S.A.: President Roosevelt">Roosevelt signs the "Eleven Percent Naval Expansion Act" which authorizes the increase of USN warship tonnage by 167,000 tons, auxiliary ship tonnage by 75,000 tons and the total number of USN aircraft to 4,500 planes.
The motion picture "The Mortal Storm" is released in the U.S. This drama, directed by Frank Borzage and starring Margaret Sullavan, James Stewart, Robert Young, Frank Morgan, Robert Stack, Bonita Granville, Dan Dailey and Ward Bond, is about a university professor and his family who live in the south German Alps in 1933 when the Nazis come to power and the subsequent upheaval in the family and friends.
Destroyer USS Gleaves commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0820, the Antonis Georgandis was shelled and sunk by U-101 NW off Cape Finisterre.
At 1911, the Mount Myrto was missed by two stern torpedoes from U-38, which had followed her for five hours. The U-boat then surfaced and shelled the ship with 53 rounds. After the shelling, the U-boat accidentally dived, leaving six men of the gun crew in the water, which were picked up after 10 minutes. At 1958 the ship was hit by a coup de grâce near the bridge, but the ship did not sink due her load of timber and Liebe decided to leave the wrecked vessel because Convoy HX-47 came in sight some minutes later.At 1944, the Balmoralwood, a straggler from Convoy HX-47, was torpedoed and damaged by U-47 about 70 miles SSW of Cape Clear. The vessel sank two hours later. The master, 40 crewmembers and one gunner were picked up by the British merchantman Germanic and landed at Liverpool.