UNITED KINGDOM: After ten weeks of peace, German bombers attack London tonight.

GERMANY: Keitel orders all copies of the directive of May 13, concerning courts-martial destroyed.

GIBRALTAR: The ships that escorted Convoy Substance to Malta arrive safely back in Gibraltar.

BALTIC STATES: Vilna: The Germans murder two members of the Judenrat [Jewish council] when the community fails to pay an enormous bribe.

U.S.S.R.: Soviet forces in and around Smolensk are cut off by the German pincer movement.

German radio announces that the Wehrmacht has advanced to within 45 miles of Leningrad and that they have reached the neighbourhood of Volosovo.

ICELAND: The first section of the US Army 5th Infantry Division arrives. (Dave Hornford)

CHINA: Chungking: There is bitter criticism of Roosevelt's policy of supplying American oil to Japan.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: Saigon: Japan will station troops within striking distance of Thailand when she lands at least 24,000 men in southern Indo-China. 8,000 troops will be garrisoned at Pnom-Penh, 4,000 will be garrisoned at the naval base of Cam Ranh Bay, the north-east of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).

JAPAN: Tokyo: Masatsune Ogura, Japan's Finance Minister, declares that the urgent thing for Japan to do is to "forge ahead towards establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity sphere."

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Douglas MacArthur      "> MacArthur is promoted to Lieutenant General today after having been recalled to active duty yesterday as a Major General. MacArthur      "> MacArthur had never previously held this rank, though his father had been one of the few Lieutenant Generals in the US Army from the Civil War until World War II. MacArthur would hold this rank until he was promoted to full General following the Japanese assault on the US and its possessions in December, 1941. MacArthur      "> MacArthur was subsequently promoted, over his protest, to temporary General of the Army and then to permanent General of the Army, the rank he held at his death in 1964. (Marc Small)

U.S.A.: The ground echelon of the USAAF's 33d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) sails for Iceland in the transport American Legion. The ship is part of Task Force 16 consisting of the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41), the heavy cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS Wichita (CA-45), five destroyers, the miscellaneous auxiliary USS Semmes (AG-24), the store ship USS Mizar (AF-12), and the cargo ship USS Almaack (AK-27). Within a few days, TF 16 is joined by the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), carrying the air echelon of the 33d Pursuit Squadron, the heavy cruisers USS Vincennes (CA-44), and the destroyers USS Walke (DD-416) and USS O'Brien (DD-415).

Washington: Japanese diplomats deliver a protest to the U.S. State Department regarding the shipment of U.S. supplies to Vladivostok, USSR, through Japanese waters.