RAF Bomber Command: 4 Group (Whitley). Bombing - aero-engine works at Turin and Genoa, Italy - road and rail communications in France.

10 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Turin. Five aborted, three bombed. Five aircraft to Somme/Abbeville. Four bombed, one FTR.

51 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Turin. One aborted, six bombed. Four aircraft to Somme/Abbeville. One returned early, three bombed.

58 Sqn. Six aircraft to Turin. Five aborted, one bombed.

77 Sqn. Eight aircraft to Turin. Six aborted, one bombed, one FTR.

102 Sqn. Seven aircraft to Turin. Five took off, three aborted, one bombed Turin, one bombed Genoa. One aircraft to Somme/Abbeville, successful.

Prior to the Italian declaration of war, the British and French governments had jointly agreed that in the eventuality of Italy joining forces with Germany, the Allies would commence air operations against her. Thus a force of bombers code-named 'Haddock Force' was created, comprising Wellingtons from Nos. 99 and 149 Squadrons of 3 Group. 'Haddock Force' was to be based on the French airfields at Salon and Le Vallon, to which an advance party had been despatched on June 7th. On the morning of June 11th, the Wellingtons of No. 99 Squadron arrived at Salon where they were immediately refuelled and bombed-up for a raid on Italian industrial targets that night. However the local French Air Force commander, backed up by a deputation from local authorities were aware that the Italians had already bombed Cannes and Nice that morning. They were fearful of possible Italian attacks in retaliation and objected to such a raid. Despite protests from the RAF commander that they had the approval of the French government and the personal intervention of Churchill to the French Premier Reynaud, the local authorities refused to budge. As the Wellingtons began to taxi out the airfield was blocked by French Army trucks and other vehicles. In order to prevent a clash the raid was called off and the Wellingtons ordered back to England to prevent sabotage by the French.

The RAF had taken out insurance by moving 4 Group Whitleys to the Channel Islands. The aircraft took off from the small airfields at Jersey and Guernsey bound for the Fiat aero-engine works at Turin and the Ansaldo factories at Genoa as the alternative. Electrical storms of great severity hampered the force and caused twenty crews to abort.

The prototype Hawker Hurricane Mk II makes it maiden flight. It is 20 mph faster than the Mk I.

FRANCE:

Paris: The military governor, General Hering, declares Paris an open city. Meanwhile, a great exodus of citizens has been underway, organised by George Mandel, the Minister of the Interior.

Soissons: The French Army pulls back across the Aisne river.

The Germans have established three bridgeheads across the Seine and have crossed the Marne, thus separating the French 4th and 6th Armies. They have also captured Reims.

Briare, near Orleans: Churchill arrived here this afternoon with senior figures including Mr. Anthony Eden and Sir John Dill, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, to find out what the French are planning to do. Weygand, established in a railway carriage, greeted the British with the news the "the last line of defence has been pierced ... We are going to have to ask how France can continue the war."

This evening, after dinner, Reynaud told Churchill that Marshal Petain had already written down an appeal to the Germans for an armistice, but, Reynaud said: "He is ashamed to show it to me." Churchill told the gloomy French leaders that no matter what they did "we shall fight on forever."

The first Italian air raid of the war destroys one of the four Gloster Gladiator fighters defending the island. The remaining three 'Faith', 'Hope' and 'Charity' are flown by flying-boat pilots as the RAF has no presence on the island.

Italian bombers (SM 79s) with fighter escort (Mc 200s), attack Grand Harbour, Halfar and Kalafrana.

Station Fighter Flight of Sea Gladiators (Faith, Hope and Charity) in action. In seven attacks 11 civilians and six soldiers are killed and 130 civilians and some soldiers are injured.

LIBYA: at 12:01 a.m. on June 11, men of the 11th Hussars armored regiment begin cutting gaps in the barbed-wire fences marking the frontier, and are soon attacking Italian truck traffic along the coast road. (Mike Yaklich)

AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND and REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA declare war on Italy.

ITALIAN SOMALILAND: Eight Vickers Wellesleys of RAF 47 Squadron strike three Italian airfields destroying 780 gallons of gasoline. Also four SAAF Ju-86s bomb Italian positions near the Kenyan border, six hours before South Africa officially declares war on Italy, while six Blenheims from Aden attack Italian targets along the Red Sea coast.

Hitler starts to prepare for the period after Barbarossa, ordering his generals to plan for an assault on Gibraltar and operations in Turkey and Iran.

The Wehrmacht High Command announced:-

German aerial combat formations operating out of newly-won bases in the Mediterranean, have successfully attacked the British fuel tank depots and port installations of Haifa, where they have caused a number of explosions and fires.

U.S.S.R.: Red Army units from the Transbaikal are transferred westwards but are not put on alert.

ERITREA: The port of Assab is captured by Indian troops landed by the Royal Navy yesterday (Operation Chronometer).

JAPAN: At a Liaison conference between army and navy, Naval Chief of Staff Nagano Osami astounded his colleagues be vehemently calling for the Southward Advance. ...He and the navy's powerful "First Committee" simply were anxious to move before the American navy's huge "two-ocean" building programme was completed. (201)(Will O'Neil)

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: An intense 48-hour bombing campaign against Kiska Island in the Aleutian Islands is begun by the US Army Air Forces' 11th Air Force and the U.S. Navy's Patrol Wing Four (PatWing 4). The 11th Air Force dispatches five Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses and five Consolidated B-24 Liberators from bases on Umnak and Cold Bay to bomb landing beaches where the Japanese are unloading supplies for the garrison; one B-24 is shot down. Japanese fighters attack the bombers and chase them as far as Umnak Island where US fighters rise and chase the Japanese fighters away. The Consolidated PBY Catalinas of PatWing 4 are operating from Atka Island serviced by the Seaplane Tender, Destroyer USS Gillis (AVD-12, ex DD-260); the PBYs also bomb the landing beaches. The bow of the Japanese destroyer HIJMS Hibiki is nearly destroyed by the bombs of the American aircraft.

CANADA: RPO Julien Duschesne RCN, S/Lt Maurice Samuel Hartleuy RCNVR and LCdr James Sutherland Wilson RCNVR awarded Mention in Dispatches.

U.S.A.: Washington: The White House announced today that Maxim Litvinov, the Soviet ambassador to the United States, has signed a new US-Soviet lend-lease deal. The agreement was worked out by the Soviet foreign minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, who, travelling under the alias of "Mr. Brown", secretly visited Washington between 29 May and 4 June.

The deal promises continued US lend-lease aid and provides for post-war economic co-operation. In the talks Molotov stressed, and the USA accepted, the need for a second front in Europe.

Today's "Christian Science Monitor" has an article:

"U.S. Flying Fortresses routed Japan's raid on Midway Island, Army report says," Jun 11, 1942, pp. 1 and 10:
 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Getting in the first blow, United States Army bombers made first contact with the enemy far west of Midway on the afternoon of June 3. This was apparently the Japanese transport column. In medium altitude attacks against a barrage of antiaircraft fire the Army planes hit and set fire to a Japanese cruiser or battleship and also left a transport and a destroyer in flames.

<snip>

Col. Walter C. Sweeney, Jr., of San Francisco, who led a squadron of Flying Fortresses in attacks on June 3 and 4, gave this graphic description:

"There was a big battle line, with destroyers outside, then cruisers, battleships and away back the carriers, which we picked for our target.

"We picked the biggest carrier and headed for it.

"The minute our bomb bays opened the ack-ack started coming up. It was fine shooting, and the Japs must have good range finders because the first shots were right at our altitude.

"The Jap ships started their frantic escape maneuvers, but our pattern of bombs blanketed a carrier. We got at least one definite hit on the port bow of the carrier and saw flame and smoke of the explosion.

"A few Zeros (Japanese Navy fighters) came up at us ... but we lost them quickly due to our speed and their faintheartedness." <<<<<<<<<<<<<

Mr. Ito declared that the Midway and Aleutian attacks of the Japanese were a "coup de grace" for the United States aircraft carrier force while, he said, the Japanese fleet remained only slightly affected. ...

"Even if Japanese Army forces had not occupied key points— which they did, and the operations reportedly are still progressing in the Aleutian group—the naval operation in this area would have been particularly significant in that it destroyed important military objectives which otherwise could have been made a foothold for air-raiding Japan," Domei quoted Mr. Ito.

The United States Navy has denied that there was any Japanese landing in the Aleutians, so this claim by the Japanese would seem essentially to reflect concern over raids on the Japanese home islands. ...

"... What is most significant in these operations (Aleutians and Midway) is

the fact that the Japanese Navy succeeded in sinking a United States aircraft carrier force consisting of the Enterprise and Hornet," Mr. Ito said.

The United States has listed only hits on one aircraft carrier and loss of a destroyer as its price of victory last week in the Pacific operations. ...

Domei quoted Admiral Sato as boasting that "as a result of its defeat, the United States must abandon its plan to aid Australia aggressively and must devote itself to the simple defending of its own shores.

"He said Australia has been 'orphaned' while the Panama Canal has become exposed to attack."

<<<<<<<<<<<<<

(Will O'Neil)

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.

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.

U-980 was on her first patrol at the time of her loss and had not sunk or damaged any ships. KptLt. DAHMS was her only CO. Hermann DAHMS was born in 1916, in Stettin. He joined the navy in 1936. At the outbreak of the war he was seconded to the Luftwaffe until Aug 41. He transferred to the U-boat force, and after conversion training, was attached to the 2nd U-Flotilla until Feb 43. He was selected for command and completed his U-boat commander's course in Apr 43. A promotion to KptLt.followed in 01 Jul 43. He was assigned to commission U-980 on 27 May 43.

The Canadian-owned, British-registered merchantman Fort McPherson (7,132 GRT) was damage by bombs from Luftwaffe aircraft in the English Channel, in position 50.02N, 000.36W. There was no loss of life in this incident. Fort McPherson was later hit by a flying bomb while under repair from this attack.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: The Soviet authorities start the forcible expulsion of ethnic Germans from the Sudetenland to the west.

U.S.S.R.: Stalin writes to US President Truman "During the war the strategic materials and foodstuffs shipped to the U.S.S.R. under Lend-Lease played an important role and to a significant degree contributed to the successful outcome of the war against the common enemy, Hiterlite Germany". (255)(Pat Holscher)

Eight Eleventh Air Force B-24s bomb Kurabu Zaki airfield on Parmushiru Island and Kataoka airfield on Shimushu Island in the Kurile Islands using radar.

JAPAN: During the night of 11/12 Jun, 26 XXI Air Force B-29s mine Shimonoseki Strait and Tsuruga Bay. This is Mission 201. 

Kamikazes are again in action off Okinawa. One kamikaze crashes the large support landing craft LCS(L)(3)-122 near the conning tower. The commander, Lieutenant Richard M. McCool, Jr., is awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. His citation for this award reads, "When his own craft was attacked simultaneously by two of the enemy's suicide squadron early in the evening of 11 June, he instantly hurled the full power of his gun batteries against the plunging aircraft, shooting down the first and damaging the second before it crashed his station in the conning tower and engulfed the immediate area in a mass of flames. Although suffering from shrapnel wounds and painful burns, he rallied his concussion-shocked crew and initiated vigorous firefighting measures and then proceeded to the rescue of several trapped in a blazing compartment, subsequently carrying one man to safety despite the excruciating pain of additional severe burns. 

Unmindful of all personal danger, he continued his efforts without respite until aid arrived from other ships and he was evacuated. By his staunch leadership, capable direction, and indomitable determination throughout the crisis, Lt. McCool saved the lives of many who otherwise might have perished and contributed materially to the saving of his ship for further combat service."

Another kamikaze crashes alongside the armed U.S. merchant freighter SS Walter Colton.

CANADA: Paid off in Canada - HMCS ML 079, HMCS Prince David and HMCS St Francis.