Air Operations, Europe

Italian aircraft raid Bizerta. During the night the Germans bomb Bordeaux: 63 are killed, 180 are injured.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The French steamer Mexique (12,220t) sinks on a mine entering Verdon Roads. The entire crew is rescued.
• U-28 sinks the Greek steamer Adamandios Georgandis (3443t) southwest of Ireland with the loss of 1 crewman.
• U-32 sinks the Yugoslavian steamer Labud (5334t) southwest of Fastnet. The entire crew is rescued.
• U-48 sinks the Norwegian steamer Tudor (6607t) from convoy HG-34F northwest of Cape Finisterre with the loss of 1 crewman. The rest of the crew is picked up by the British corvettes Arabis and Calendula. The British steamers Baron Loudoun (3164t) and British Monarch (5661t). 3 are missing from the Baron Loudoun with 30 survivors. All 40 of the crew of the British Monarch are lost.
• U-52 sinks the British steamer The Monarch (824t) and the Belgian steamer Ville de Namur (7463t) 250 miles off Corunna. There are no survivors from The Monarch and there are 25 missing from the Belgian steamer.

Britain, Home Front

The Children's Overseas Reception Board is established to send 20,000 school-aged children to the Dominions for the duration of the war.

France, Politics

Gen de Gaulle again broadcasts to the French from London: this time his speech is political and marks his definite breach with the Pétain government.

Mediterranean

The British submarine Orpheus is sunk by the destroyer Turbine near Tobruk.

Western Front

On the Loire, Nantes and Saumur are taken. In Brittany the Germans capture the Brest naval base. In central France, between the Saône and the Loire, the Germans are approaching Lyons. They begin crossing the Loire River on a broad front. The cadets of Saumur Cavalry School under Col Michon prevent the German 1st Cav Div (motorized) from crossing the Loire. There are more evacuations from the west coast. In the following week 19,000, mostly Poles, are taken off Bayonne and St Jean-de-Luz. Since Dunkirk 144,171 British, 18,246 French, 24,352 Poles, 4938 Czechs and a few Belgians have got away.

French ships in the Channel ports seek refuge, some in Great Britain, some in North Africa. Displaying remarkable skill, Capt Pierre Jean Ronarch succeeds in sailing the battleship Jean Bart out ot the dry dock at St. Nazaire, where she was being fitted out, and reaching Casablanca in safety.

The German government 'invites' the French to despatch plenipotentiaries to negotiate armistice terms.[MORE]