RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - oil plant at Gelsenkirchen - Mining River Rhine.

10 Sqn. Seven aircraft 'W' bombs in Rhine. Four aborted, three bombed. Three aircraft to Gelsenkirchen. Flak intense. All bombed.

51 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Gelsenkirchen. Flak intense. All bombed. Four aircraft 'W' bombs in Rhine. Three aborted, one bombed.

58 Sqn. Ten aircraft to Gelsenkirchen. Nine bombed, one FTR.

77 Sqn. Nine aircraft to Gelsenkirchen. Two returned early, seven bombed.

London: "Let us brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour’." With this inspirational peroration Winston Churchill today ended a speech in the House of Commons. It was later repeated in a broadcast to the nation. The Prime Minister faced up squarely to the chance that Britain might now have to fight alone and he told MPs: "Our professional advisers of the three services unitedly advise that we should continue the war and that there are good and reasonable hops of final victory."

The Prime Minister said that it was not yet certain that France’s military resistance to the Germans was over. Britain had not felt able to release the French from their treaty obligation not to make a separate peace. But whatever happens, he continued: "We will fight on, if necessary for years." The Battle of Britain was about to begin and Hitler knew that he "will have to break us in these islands or lose the war."

Mr Churchill said that 1,250,000 men are now under arms in Britain. Behind them are 500,000 Local Defence Volunteers, and soldiers from the Dominions have also arrived. These forces include seven out of every eight soldiers originally sent to France, while many of the remainder are still operating alongside French forces with considerable success. As for the immediate future, the Prime Minister reminded the House of Commons that Britain has home defence forces which are now expanding rapidly, with "very large additions" to their weaponry expected soon. He then said that the survival of Christian civilisation as the well as the continuity of British life must depend on the outcome of the Battle of Britain. He warned the United States that, if Germany wins, then the whole world, including America, "will sink into the abyss of anew dark age". The Commons decided to go into secret session before the end of the week for further discussion of the dire military situation. Churchill told MPs that the scope of the debate would not be too restricted. He was insistent that the service chiefs are prepared for enemy parachute landings and other ingenious invasion tricks, including, he said, help from a "fifth column".

FRANCE: St. Nazaire: Operation 'Aerial': The Cunard White Star liner 'Lancastria' (16,234 GRT, Captain Rudolphe Sharpe, Master) is sunk off Saint Nazaire with the loss of nearly 3,000 men. Five aircraft from KG30 (Kampfgeschwader 30) flying Do-17's, using the SC-500 high-explosive ordnance, dive-bombed and machine-gunned the liner as she lay at anchor. Survivors claimed later that the Germans had continued to fire after the ship had sunk and men were struggling in the water. The liner had been converted into a troopship. Most of the passengers were troops from the BEF and the RAF returning to England. In addition there were Church Army workers and a number of French people fleeing the German occupation. The horror was not over with the sinking.

The Luftwaffe aircraft continued to circle. Diving out of the sky, the planes strafed the survivors in the water and on the sinking ship. Some aircraft dropped incendiaries into the water in an attempt to light the free-flowing oil which leaked from the doomed LANCASTRIA".

This is Britain's worst maritime disaster. She arrived off St. Nazaire at 0400 on 17 Jun and anchored in the Charpentier Roads. Destroyers and other craft were used to ferry people out to the troopship. An estimated 6,000 servicemen and a number of civilian women and children when onboard, although some reports indicate that as many as 9,000 people may have been in the ship when it was hit by four bombs as approximately 16 -00. One bomb was a direct hit, which went down the ship's large single funnel and exploded in the engine room. The ship capsized at 16 -15 and sank soon afterwards. The bomb explosion in the engine room ruptured one of the ship's bunkers and flooded the sea with heavy fuel oil, making rescue operations extremely difficult. Fewer than 2,500 people survived. The large liner Oronsay (20,000 GRT) was also bombed but she remained afloat and reached port safely. News of the disaster was suppressed by the British Government because of the impact it might have had on the country's morale. It was announced over a month later. Captain Sharpe survived the sinking and went on to become the master of the liner Laconia (19,695 GRT). He was with her when she was sunk on 12 Sep 42 by U-156, Kptlt Werner Hartenstein, CO, off the coast of West Africa. Captain Sharpe was among the more than 2,000 lost in this event, making it the second worst British maritime disaster. See http://www.lancastria-association.org.uk

Guderian reaches Pontarlier almost to the Swiss Border. German forces reach Brittany, Loire and Normandy.

Dijon is captured by elements of Hoepner's XVI A.K. (mot.) (Jeff Chrisman)

With German forces pouring through the Maginot Line, Petain’s government sues for peace.

The 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 8th French Armies are cut off in the Maginot Line and fighting on two fronts.

GERMANY: U-206 laid down.

U-106 launched.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The French sink an Italian submarine off Oran in Algeria.

This sub was the Provana, the first Italian submarine to be sunk in the Mediterranean, which went down after being rammed. Five more Italian boats would be lost in the Mediterranean before the end of June (and four more in the Red Sea), making it a tough month for the Italian "somergibili." (Andy Etherington and Mike Yaklich)

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Stalin sends troops to occupy Estonia and Latvia in order to "pre-empt joint defence measures against the USSR."

FRENCH INDOCHINA: Japan starts a blockade to cut off military supplies to China.

U.S.A.: The French surrender raises concerns in the U.S. about the French fleet but French Minister for Foreign Affairs Paul Baudouin advises the Deputy U.S. Ambassador to France that the fleet "would never be surrendered to Germany."

The Chief of Naval Operations asks Congress for the money to build a two-ocean Navy.

ICELAND: The 146th Brigade arrive to reinforce the 147th Brigade of the British occupying forces. (Dave Hornford)