June 11th, 1943 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Winston Churchill last night attended the premiere of a film which had tried to have banned - The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. He did not like it and it may be banned for export.
The film was intended to show the Americans that the reactionary old-fashioned officer class has been superseded in the British Army. "Colonel Blimp", a character invented by the cartoonist David Low to be ridiculed, emerges in the film sympathetically.
The USAAF's VIII Bomber Command in England flies Mission Number 62: 252 B-17s are dispatched against the U-boat yard at Wilhelmshaven, Germany and the port area at Cuxhaven, Germany; 218 hit the targets and claim 85-20-24 Luftwaffe aircraft; eight B-17s are lost. The raid on Wilhelmshaven demonstrates the difficulty of operating beyond range of fighters escort as enemy fighters attacks prevent accurate bombing of the target.
GERMANY:
An evening air raid on Wilhelmshaven and a heavy night air raid on Düsseldorf,
by 800 RAF aircraft, are mounted
by the Allies. (Glenn Steinburg)
On its operational debut the Heinkel He 219 downs 5 Lancasters. (Ron Babuka)
Berlin: Himmler">Himmler orders all the Polish ghettoes to be liquidated.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: 11,000 Italian troops on the island Pantelleria between Tunis and Sicily surrender as the attack force approaches. There is no fighting. This island has been subjected to intensive bombing over the past month. After arrival the Allies determine that the damage from the bombing is not at severe as expected. This gives indications as to the possible effectiveness of the Pointblank Directive which was issued yesterday.An attack during the night of 10/11 June on Pantelleria Island in the Mediterranean by Northwest African Air Force (NAAF) Wellingtons is followed by morning and afternoon attacks by fighters and bombers of the NAAF and USAAF Ninth Air Force, in conjunction with naval bombardment of the island. After the British 1st Division is landed unopposed, Pantelleria surrenders unconditionally.
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMS Wallaroo sinks off Fremantle after being in collision with merchant ship Henry Gilbert Costin. HMAS Wagga, a minesweeper, picks up survivors from HMAS Wallaroo. (Denis Peck and Alex Gordon)(108)
SOLOMON ISLANDS: Bougainville: Jack Read's coastwatcher camp is destroyed by patrolling Japanese. Read and one other Australian escape with little more than their clothes. (Michael Alexander)
PACIFIC OCEAN: U.S. submarines sink four Japanese ships today;
(1) on her fifth war patrol, USS Finback (SS-230) sinks the Army cargo ship Genoa Maru just west of Babelthuap Island, Palau Islands;
(2) on her third war patrol, USS Runner (SS-275) is lost, cause unknown however, captured Japanese records indicated that she sank the cargo ship Seinan Maru on 11 June in Tsugaru Strait off Hokaido;
(3) USS S-30 (SS-135) was patrolling off Paramushiru Island, Kurile Islands when she spotted a convoy and she fired three torpedoes but fog blanketed the area. Two explosions were heard but the sinking could not be verified however, post-war examination of Japanese records revealed that she had sunk Jinbu Maru, a 5,228-ton cargo ship.
The fourth sinking was by USS Silversides (SS-236) whose primary mission on her fifth war patrol was to lay a minefield in Steffan Strait, between New Hanover and New Ireland Islands in the Bismarck Archipelago but she also sank the 5,256-ton cargo ship Hide Maru.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF's Eleventh Air Force dispatches seven B-24s, eighth North
American B-25 Mitchells, four Lockheed P-38 Lightnings, ten Curtiss P-40s and two Lockheed
F-5A Lightnings to bomb and strafe Kiska Island. The primary targets are North and South
Head, Gertrude Cove, the runway, the Main Camp and offshore barges.
Two Japanese submarines are sunk by US Naval vessels. HIJMS I-9 is sunk by the destroyer USS Frazier (DD-607) at 52-49N, 177-38E while HIJMS I-24 is sunk by PC-487 at 52-16N at 52-16N 174-24E. Meanwhile, the submarine HIJMS I-171 lands one ton of weapons and ammunition and one ton of food on Kiska and evacuates 80 civilians.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Parry Sound is laid down Midland Ontario;
Fairmile HMCS ML 118 is commissioned; HMC ML 118(Q118) is completed.
Lt Victor "Vic" Jura WILGRESS RCNVR, CO.
U.S.A.: Washington: Roosevelt">Roosevelt urges the Italian people to overthrow Mussolini">Mussolini.
URUGUAY: Montevideo: Uruguay is the first country to recognize the French National Liberation Committee.