UNITED KINGDOM: 

The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies two missions. 

Mission 407: With bad weather over top priority targets in Germany, 1,442 bombers are dispatched against airfields and landing grounds in northeastern France and rail and road bridges on the Brest Peninsula; 691 of 769 B-17s and 586 of 673 B-24s hit 16 airfields and six railroad bridges in the Rennes and St Nazaire area; they claim 1-1-0 Luftwaffe aircraft; six B-17s and two B-24s are lost Fighters fly 988 sorties the loss of 16 aircraft:

1. 234 P-38 Lightnings, 80 P-47 Thunderbolts and 201 P-51 Mustangs fly escort, sweeps and patrols over the English Channel and in the Rennes area; they claim 20-0-8 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-0 on the ground; three P-38s, a P-47 and three P-51s are lost.

2. 93 P-38s and 183 P-47s fly fighter-bomber missions against five railroad bridges in the Tours-Paris area; they claim 5-0-2 Luftwaffe aircraft in the air and 1-0-0 on the ground; a P-38 and eight P-47s are lost.

3. 45 P-38s and 152 P-51s fly escort for Ninth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders.

Mission 408: Seven B-17s drop leaflets on France and Belgium during the night.

Sixteen B-24s fly CARPETBAGGER missions.

German General der Artillerie Erich Marcks LXXXIV AK is killed at St-Lo/Perriers. (138)(Russ Folsom)

Normandy: Montgomery tells reporters "we have won the battle of the beaches", as Allied forces take Carentan.

Normandy: One of the most remarkable aspects of the whole Overlord operation came into use today off the Normandy coast. This is the "Mulberry" harbour, which is made up of a number of steel structures which are combined to make a floating dock. It will enable supply ships to unload off the landing beaches instead of having to wait until a proper port is in Allied hands.

It was the Dieppe raid of August 1942 which convinced the Allies that to base the Allied invasion of France on the immediate capture of a port was impracticable. Yet, if the armies were to be kept supplied once they were ashore, there had to be facilities available for ships to unload. The British had been thinking about the problem since 1942 and quickly recognized the necessity of taming the often rough Channel seas. Various ideas for doing this were tried, including the use of streams of bubbles to cancel out the waves and vast floats, nicknamed "Lilos", made of welded rubber with concrete keels.

Eventually it was decided that a rigid breakwater was the best answer. Metal and concrete pontoons known as "Bombardons" were therefore designed and manufactured. After some modification, 15 of these were tested off Weymouth during the spring gales of April this year and passed with flying colours. Because they did not look like anything in particular, they were anchored in south-eastern ports and German air reconnaissance never recognized their significance.

Bombardons enables ships to unload, but the supplies still have to be brought ashore. This is done on "Swiss Roll", a floating trackway strong enough for heavy lorries. Two Mulberries have been assembled at Arromanches and St. Laurent to support the British and US Armies respectively.

"It was a wonderful moment to find myself re-entering France almost exactly 4 years after being thrown out for the second time at St. Nazaire. Floods of memories came back of my last trip of despair, and those long four years of work and anxiety at last crowned by the success of a re-entry into France."

Brooke then writes of being met on the beach by Monty, motoring to his headquarters, being briefed by him and then having lunch. ". . . my thoughts wandered off to 4 years ago when I was at Le Mans and Laval waiting for Monty and his 3rd Division to join me. [This is of the first time that Brooke was driven from France by the Germans.] I knew then that it would not be long before I was kicked out of France if I was not killed or taken prisoner, but if anybody had told me then that in 4 years time I would return with Winston and Smuts to lunch with Monty commanding a new invasion force I should have found it hard to believe it."

(William Jay Stone)

The U.S. 501st P.I.R. and the 506th P.I.R., attacked with the mission of establishing defensive positions outside of Carentan. They are stopped by German resistance. Defending are elements of the 17th S.S. Pz. Div., 37th S.S. Pz. Gren. Regt., reinforced by a company of the 17th S.S. Tank Bn., and a platoon of the 17th A.T. Bn.

IV Corps's defences are focused around Kivennapa, where lies the attacker's shortest way to Viipuri. However, the Leningrad Front commander Gen. Govorov has received permission to act as he sees fit, and he immediately transfers the point of main effort. The attacking Red Army units now concentrate on the very southernmost part of the front, on the coastal road running along the northern shore of the Gulf of Finland, where the Finnish defences are the weakest.

The commander of the Finnish 3rd Brigade (which is on its way to the Karelian Isthmus) Col. Joose Hannula is killed in an aerial attack. He is succeeded by Col. Kai Savonjousi.

However badly things have gone so far for the Finns, there are some signs of hope. Today Hitler rescinds the ban on arms exports he had imposed earlier because of the Finnish peace-feelers. From eastern Karelia, north of Lake Ladoga, the 17th Division (Maj. Gen. Alonzo Sundman) and 20th Brigade (Col. Armas Kemppi) are ordered to transfer to the Isthmus. Finnish AA-defences claim 15 enemy planes shot down.

MARIANAS ISLANDS: US TF 58 continues to attack Tinian, Siapan and Guam. The Japanese naval forces sail from Tawi Tawi and Batavia, and are sighted. The Japanese intend to fight their "Decisive Battle". The land element of their plan has been destroyed by the US carrier attacks.
(Jack McKillop adds): Supplementing the above, eight Navy Type 1 Attack Bombers , Allied Code Name "Betty," based on Truk Island, attack the main body of TF 58 from 0315 to 0415 hours. No damage is done to the US ships and one "Betty" is shot down. Task Group 58.1 consisting of the aircraft carriers USS Bataan, USS Belleau Wood, USS Hornet and USS Yorktown have been detached from the main body of TF 58 to begin air attacks on Guam. The main body of TF 58 attacks Saipan, Tinian, Rota and Pagan Islands in the Mariana Islands. At least ten, and possible fourteen, Japanese ships and numerous fishing vessels have been sunk or damaged near Saipan in two strikes by TG 58.4 (USS Essex, USS Cowpens and USS Langley).

In the first U.S. deployment of a guided missile unit into a combat theater, elements of Special Task Air Group One arrive in the Russell Islands in the South Pacific.

NEW GUINEA: Fierce ground fighting continues on Biak Island while Japanese aircraft attack Allied ground forces and shipping offshore. USAAF Fifth Air Force P-47s shoot down seven IJN Nakajima B5N Navy Type 97 Carrier Attack Bombers, Allied Code Name "Kate," and an IJA Kawasaki Ki-61 Army Type 3 Fighter Hien, AlliedCode Name "Tony" near Biak between 1030 and 1045 hours.

BURMA: Rfn. Ganju lama (b.1922), 7th Gurkha Rifles, went forward alone under heavy fire and knocked out two Japanese tanks and their crews. (Victoria Cross)

N. D. COMMUNIQUÉ NO. 524, Mediterranean.

1. PC-558 was sunk as a result of enemy action in the Mediterranean on May 9, 1944.

2. The next of kin of casualties have been notified.

N. D. COMMUNIQUÉ NO. 525, Pacific and Far East.

1. U. S. submarines have reported sinking eighteen vessels as a result of operations against the enemy in these waters, as follows:

1 large tanker

1 medium transport

6 medium cargo transports 6 medium cargo vessels

4 small cargo vessels

2. These actions have not been reported in any previous Navy Department communiqué.

CINCPAC PRESS RELEASE NO. 441, Carrier aircraft again struck Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan on- June 11 (West Longitude Date). Truk Atoll was attacked by Liberators of the Seventh Army Air Force at night on June 9 and 10. Airfields at Param, Eten, Dublon and Moen Islands were principal targets. Several fires were started.

Ponape Island was bombed by Seventh Army Air Force Liberators on the night of June 9. Ponape Town and gun positions were hit. Ventura search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two bombed Ocean Island during daylight on June 9, encountering moderate antiaircraft fire.

Two of the planes continued to Nauru Island to strafe small craft there.

On June 10 Mitchells of the Seventh Army Air Force bombed Nauru, and started fires visible twenty miles. Heavy antiaircraft fire downed one Mitchell bomber. A Catalina search plane of Fleet Air Wing Two rescued the crew.

Enemy Positions in the Marshalls were bombed and strafed on June 9, during the night of June 9-10, and on June 10. Corsair fighters and Dauntless dive bombers of the Fourth Marine Aircraft Wing, Catalina search planes of Fleet Air Wing Two and Navy Hellcat fighters participated in these attacks. Coastal defence guns and antiaircraft batteries were hit. (Denis Peck)