London: The Polish and Belgian governments in exile move to London.

FRANCE:
Cherbourg: The Allies complete their withdrawal by blowing up the docks.

The Germans occupy Lyons.
Evacuations take place over the next week from the west coast of France. These evacuations add another 19,000 to the list of those evacuated. Many of these are Poles.

Since Dunkirk 144,171 British; 18,246 French; 24,352 Polish; 4,938 Canadian; and a few Belgian troops have been evacuated.

GERMANY: Hermann Göring is promoted to Reich Marshal. (Gene Hanson)

U-205 laid down.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA:

RN: HMS Orpheus (submarine) is lost north of Tobruk, Libya, while on patrol at 32.30N, 24.00E to destroyer 'Turbine' of the Italian Navy.

ARABIAN SEA: Italian submarine 'Galileo Galilei' on patrol off Aden is captured by British Anti-Submarine trawler HMS Moonstone in position 12.48N, 45.12E.

ITALIAN EAST AFRICA: The South African Air Force sent 17 Junkers Ju 86 bombers and 10 Junkers Ju52 and Ju53m transport aircraft to intervene in the fighting in Italian East Africa. The SAAF won its first victory today when it bombed the Italian air base at Yavello (southern Ethiopia). Three Ju86s and 2 Hawker Hurricane fighters under Captain Truter, shot down a Fiat CR42.

NEW ZEALAND: Niagara-steel-screw steamship liner NIAGARA of 7582 tons built in 1913 is sunk today off Bream Head after striking an enemy mine. She was carrying a cargo of gold bars. All but five gold bars were recovered after the incident. Those five bars are still in the wreck. (John Rogers)

CANADA: HMCS Ross Norman commissioned via charter from owners. Built Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Employed successively as auxiliary minesweeper, coil skid towing craft, and mobile deperming craft.

U.S.A.: The comic strip "Brenda Starr," created by Dale Messick, appears in an experimental comic book published by the Chicago Tribune Syndicate. This is the first U.S. comic strip drawn by a woman.

GERMANY: Berlin: News comes of a German-Turkish pact to respect each other's neutrality and to further the economic interests of both states.

Berlin: The German News Bureau reported:

The most recent reports indicate that the British have lost more tanks than was earlier estimated: When we cleared up the battlefield, we found 200 British tanks destroyed or immobilised by German and Italian guns, which the British were forced to abandon when they retreated.

U-619, U-620 laid down.

SYRIA: Heavy fighting between Vichy forces and an Indian Battalion near Damascus, Syria.

Generals Lavarack and Wilson decide to concentrate Aust 7 Div (Maj-Gen Allen) on coastal sector as offering best prospects of advance. In Mezze, 5 Ind Bde remains cut off and hard-pressed by French armour.

Australian attack on Merdjayoun is again repulsed after fighting in outskirts. Brig Berryman continues to pound Merdjayoun with artillery. (Michael Alexander)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Moose Jaw commissioned.

Corvettes HMCS Kamloops and Chilliwack arrived Halifax from builders in Victoria and Vancouver respectively.

U.S.A.: In a baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York City, Yankee star Joe DiMaggio goes 3-for-3 against Chicago White Sox pitchers Eddie Smith and Buck Ross. DiMaggio's home run and two singles extends his hitting streak to 32-games.

The breakfast cereal "Cheerios" is invented. These O-shaped 1/2-inch (12.7 mm) diameter, .0025 ounce (71 mg) cereals with 400 equalling one serving are originally called "Cheerie Oats."

Destroyers USS Redoubt and Roebuck laid down.

Frigates HMS Avon and Essington launched.

Minesweeper HMS Vestal launched.

Corvette HMCS Giffard (ex HMS Buddleia) launched Aberdeen, Scotland.

ITALY: An evacuation of civilians from Sicily and Naples is ordered by Italian government. (Glenn Steinberg)

TUNISIA: The British sapper was the victim of a German booby trap. He was bleeding badly. The explosion had almost severed his leg. A razor-sharp piece of shrapnel had penetrated his skull. When medical orderlies reached him, his life was in the balance. Only a miracle or skilled surgery could save him.

The miracle - and the surgery - came in the form of a Dakota aircraft, complete with a surgeon, nursing orderlies and an operating theatre. Within an hour of the explosion, the fight to save Sapper X was taking place in mid-air. The shattered leg was amputated, the head wound prepared for more complex surgery in a hospital ship in Algiers. In any previous war, the victim would have stood little chance. But now, the RAF's "flying ambulance" service is playing a vital life-saving role on the battlefield.

Nearly 3,000 lives are known to have been saved by the service in the desert campaigns. Only one-tenth of head-wound cases have failed to survive. Major-General Freyberg, the New Zealand VC, owes his life to a flying ambulance after being picked up from a desert airstrip with severe neck wounds. It is a risky business for the personnel, flying in unarmed planes, often over Axis territory. One orderly received two bullets in the legs, but continued working until  the patient was safely down - then collapsed from lack of blood.

NEW GUINEA: The Second Battle of Lababia Ridge commences. The Australians face Colonel Katsutoshi Araki's two battalions of the 66 Regiment at 687 and 552 strong respectively. Including technical troops there are 2,000 Japanese at Mubo and Araki is using 1500 of them in this battle. (Michael Alexander)

PACIFIC OCEAN: Three U.S. submarines sink two Japanese army cargo ships, a freighter, a coastal minesweeper and a gunboat and damage another gunboat.

U.S.A.: The song "Sheikh Of Araby" by Spike Jones and the City Slickers makes the Pop Chart; it will peak at #19.

UNITED KINGDOM: 358th Bombardment Squadron, 303rd Bombardment Group, USAAF, based at Station 107 - Molesworth, Huntingdonshire, makes its first attack on occupied Europe with a mission to German V-1 launch sites in the Pas de Calais. (Nick Minecci)

The USAAF's Eighth Air Force in England flies morning and afternoon missions against targets in France.

Mission 423: In the morning, 464 B-17s are dispatched against airfields in the Bordeaux area: 92 hit Cormes Ecluse, 84 hit Bordeaux/Merignac, 39 hit Cazaux, 34 hit Landes-de-Bussac, 12 hit Cabanac and three hit targets of opportunity; seven B-17s are lost. Escort is provided by 88 P-38 Lightnings and 261 P-51 Mustangs; four P-38s and six P-51s are lost. 

Mission 424: In both morning and afternoon missions, 216 B-17s and 294 B-24s hit 35 V-weapon sites in the Pas de Calais area; one B-24 is lost. 

Escort is provided by 196 P-38s, 122 P-47s and 48 P-51s; one P-38 group, after completing escort duty, dive-bombs and strafes transportation targets in northeastern France, destroying a locomotive and three barges.

    Personal Memory: My diary: "Pas De Calais, France robot plane installations. Target overcast. No opposition, no damage. Observed flak in the distance. Twenty five thousand feet." Just yesterday on Sunday June 18 a Buzz Bomb killed and wounded nearly 200 Wellington Guardsmen when it struck their barracks. The V-1 missiles were now arriving in London at about a hundred per day. After aborting on what was to be our 16th mission we are now doing two tactical (No Ball) missions to try to destroy missile sites with each B-17 loaded with 38 general purpose bombs of 100 pounds each. We used special navigation equipment known as "Gee-H." This mission lasted only 4 hours and 45 minutes with 30 minutes over enemy territory. Our 40 B-17 bombers dropped 1,513 bombs this morning. Score: Milk Runs 12, Others 4 Mission 17 same day PM This afternoon's mission was considered a milk run by everybody but me. Our target was the same as this morning's Buzz Bomb site. The formation's lead plane always carried an officer in the tail to check on formation positions and they always used copilots for this duty. Today was my turn in the barrel. I was not used to wearing electrically heated suit and gloves since the pilot and copilot never needed them unless the ethylene glycol leaked out of the cockpit heater. The lead plane flies with the auto pilot (AFCE) and the yawing and swaying soon made me air sick. And flying backwards was not my forte. Although deathly ill I never quite tossed my cookies. I could not figure out how to fire the tail guns and studying them only made the airsickness worse. I finally gave up since all that could be seen behind us was hundreds of B-17s and I guessed that no German fighter would dare approach from that direction. It didn't help that gale force winds had appeared over Europe that day making rough flying and destroying the Mulberry harbor of the American forces.at Omaha Beach, and severely damaging the British one. The salvageable par  ts of the American harbor were used to repair the British harbor. Score: Milk Runs 12, Others 5 (Dick Johnson)

Frigate HMS Natal launched.

Submarine HMS Sea Scout commissioned.

HMCS New Waterford departed for Londonderry as replacement for HMCS Teme.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: The worst storm for 40 years destroys the artificial "Mulberry" harbour off Omaha Beach.

FRANCE: 

The airfield at Cardonville, the first U.S. field in France, becomes operational; around 200 USAAF Ninth Air Force fighters carry out uneventful armed reconnaissance and patrols in the morning, and dive-bomb six NOBALL (V-weapon) targets in the afternoon.

    Daily Herald

        These are the strange stories of the battle of Normandy they told me on this 13th day since H-Hour, D-Day.

From his stretcher in the sorting camp Sergt.-Major James Hawson, Dunkirk, El Alamein, and on, watched the nurses in their khaki overalls and field boots and leggings working on the man next to him.

"And what happens next?" he asked. "Do I ask every day after his health?"

Then he told me: "Thirty hours ago Jerry - this man next to me now - is on one side of a farmyard in Normandy. I'm on the other. We have both had years of practice and training to get ready for a situation like this. He gets me through the arm with his machine-gun. But I get him too, before I pass out. Next thing I know, we're in the same ship on the way home in the same ambulance, in the same bit of field in good old Blighty waiting to be patched up by the same doctors and nurses."

But now they are to part. Hawson is going to base hospital. The German will be too ill to move for several days.

FINLAND: On the right flank of the Finnish IV Corps on the Karelian Isthmus, the 10th Division and Cavalry Brigade, reinforced by units from the Armored Division, have been able to consolidate their positions. But they are under heavy Soviet pressure, and get orders to start withdrawing towards Viipuri. The 10th Division and Cavalry Brigade are in bad shape, the men are demoralized, spreading horror-stories about the might of the Red Army. In the middle of the IV Corps's front the 3rd Brigade is withdrawn to reinforce the troops near Viipuri, leaving the 4th Division to defend alone the old battlefield of Summa. This soon proves too much. Terrain is suitable for tanks, and the defenders are soon forced to retreat. Today the IV and III Corps receive orders to regroup for defence along the VKT-line.

After the VKT-line there's very little to hinder the Soviet advance if they break through. Further west there's the Salpa-line, which construction had started after the Winter War, but was interrupted after the start of the Continuation War. Work on the Salpa-line has been resumed, but it's still only half-finished. And if the VKT-line breaks, it's questionable whether the troops will have time to withdraw to the Salpa-line and regroup in defence. The Finnish GHQ is located in Mikkeli, east-central Finland, and Chief of the General Staff Gen. Erik Heinrichs tells to the German representative, General der Infanterie Waldemar Erfurth, that if the VKT-line breaks, 'the Soviet tanks might be here in Mikkeli in few hours'.

Oberstleutnant Kurt Kuhlmey's planes are in action for the first time since their arrival at Immola. They claim 24 Soviet aircraft shot down, with losses of three.

Eighteen Finnish Me-109s shoot down 6 Pe-2 and 2 Il-4 bombers as well as 3 P-39and 2 La-5 fighters of their escort. (Jason Long)

In the village of Pien-Pero, 18Km east of Vyborg, a 12-year old Finnish boy spends half an hour as a prisoner of war. More...

BALTIC SEA: While sailing to patrol area at Kiuskeri, submarine Vesikko crash dives to evade air attack. In shallow, low-salinity water the boat hits bottom and must return to base.

ITALY: Elba: Mountain fighters of the French Expeditionary Force have climbed to the highest point of the island of Napoleon's exile to raise the Tricouleur. Elba was taken by storm, the French troops landing by night and taking Porto Ferrario after a short and bloody battle. On the mainland, British troops are fighting for the road and rail junction of Perugia. Assisi fell earlier today. The British XIII Corps has reached the Albert Line which German troops have been ordered to defend "with tenacity" as their army withdraws to the Gothic Line.

INDIAN OCEAN: HMS Illustrious raids Port Blair in the Nicobars.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese launch 372 planes after locating US TF 58 in the early morning. Their force remains unsighted, this morning, but not unknown to the US. The US has a 2:1 superiority in aircraft. This is because the Japanese plan utilizes land based aircraft. The plan does not make allowances for the prior knockout of these planes by the US. The US strikes have already accomplished this. Their force is intercepted at 50 miles. The loss numbers 240 IJN planes and 29 USN planes.

The Japanese carriers Taiho and Shokaku are sunk by US submarines Cavalla and Albacore. More...

This action picks up the name "Marianas Turkey Shoot".

Escort carriers further out including the USS Manila Bay and USS NATOMA BAY are diverted eastwards until the battle ends.

MARIANAS ISLANDS, SAIPAN: Lieutenant General Holland M. Smith, USMC, Commanding General, V Amphibious Corps, reorients his corps to attack in two different directions. The 2d and 4th Marine Divisions and the Army's 106th Infantry Regiment of the 27th Infantry Division will advance north; the other two regiments of the 27th Infantry Division, the 105th and 165th, will mop-up the Nafutan Peninsula.

Allied CINCPAC COMMUNIQUÉ NO. 56, Our assault troops on Saipan Island have captured Aslito Airdrome and have driven eastward across the island to Magicienne Bay, where we hold the western shore. Two pockets of enemy resistance remain east of Lake Susupe. The enemy continues to counterattack, but all attacks have been successfully repulsed.

Seabees are at work on the airstrips at Aslito Airdrome.

On June 18 (West Longitude Date) our carrier task force providing cover and support for our amphibious force was subjected to a severe aerial attack which continued for several hours.

The attack was successfully repulsed by our carrier aircraft and antiaircraft fire. Information presently available indicates that only one of our surface units was damaged, and this damage was minor.

It is believed a portion of the enemy planes were carrier-based, and used nearby shore bases as shuttle points. However the effectiveness of this procedure was sharply limited by our systematic bombing and strafing of the air-fields at Guam and Rota.

It is estimated that more than 300 enemy aircraft were destroyed by our forces during this engagement. No estimate is yet available of our own air-craft losses. (Denis Peck)

CANADA:

U.S.A.: The Finnish Ambassador, Hjalmar Procopé, and his staff are handed their passports and told to leave the country. The reason given is Procopé's alleged 'hostile behaviour towards the United States' (It seems that Procopé was, at times, undiplomatically stubborn when trying to uphold Finland's cause among the Congressmen and Senators). This is just the first move to sever diplomatic relations. a decision which was made already earlier in June, and the deal the Finns struck with von Ribbentrop which seemed to place Finland firmly in the German camp.

Destroyer USS Perkins laid down.

BERMUDA: The U-boat U-505, captured on 4 June by the US destroyer escort USS CHATELAIN, yields her codebooks intact.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: An extract from Jim Verdolini's diary: 

June 19,1944.

We arrive in Bermuda, and turned our 59 prisoners over to the local Naval Base Commander. The prisoners were kept on Bermuda, until after the war. As Capt. Gallery said to us," Our Task Group had a rendezvous set up in the book of destiny, and there was no avoiding it".