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• German 7th Panzer Division under Rommel captured Le Havre, France, then turned back and drove 30 miles to the northeast to St-Valery-en-Caux, where the German troops succeeded in encircling 46,000 French and British troops. Elsewhere in northern France, troops under Guderian captured Rheims. In the south, Italian troops began crossing the Alps toward the French border. Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Minister Anthony Eden traveled to France for a Supreme War Council meeting at Chateau du Muguet near Briare. Churchill, detecting feelings of defeat, reminded the French that the 28 Mar agreement noted that none of the two countries could seek a separate peace with Germany without the other country's consent. During this meeting, French Navy Admiral François Darlan assured Churchill that the French fleet would not fall into German hands. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | CPC]
• British law dictated that all British citizens who owned an Anderson shelter must have it installed by this date. ww2dbase [Anderson Shelter | TH]
• RAF aircraft attacked German vessels at Trondheim, Norway. ww2dbase [TH]
• German submarines U-48 and U-101 sank Greek ships Violando N. Goulandris and Mount Hymettus off Cape Finisterre, Spain. Nearby, U-46 torpedoed British tanker Athelprince, but failed to sink her; Athelprince would be salvaged and returned to service by Jan 1941. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa declared war on Italy. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Due to the Italian entry into the European War, US President Roosevelt declared the Mediterranean Sea and mouth of Red Sea to be combat zones for American ships in accordance with the Neutrality Act. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• British Prime Minister Churchill sent a telegram to US President Roosevelt urging the US to send more destroyers to the United Kingdom especially in light of the Italian entry into the European War. ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | CPC]
• US passenger liner Washington, en route from Lisbon, Portugal to Galway, Ireland with 1,020 Americans passengers aboard, was stopped by German submarine U-101 as the German submarine misidentified her as a Greek ship. After her identity became clear via blinker signals, U-101 allowed Washington to continue with her journey. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The first Hurricane Mk II prototype aircraft, actually a converted production Mk I example, took its first flight. ww2dbase [Hurricane | CPC]

• Norwegian trawler Borgund rescued 37 survivors of sunken HMS Glorious and 2 survivors of sunken HMS Acasta. ww2dbase [Glorious | Acasta | CPC]

• German Luftwaffe bombers attacked Paris, France. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Paris | TH]

• Fleet tender Adolf Lüderitz was commissioned into service. ww2dbase [Adolf Lüderitz | CPC]

• RAF aircraft bombed Turin and Genoa in Italy. ww2dbase [Bombing of Rome, Naples, and Other Cities | TH]

• Before dawn, just hours after Italy had entered the war, a squadron of elderly Rolls-Royce armoured cars from the 11th Hussars, the light cavalry of the British 7th Armoured Division, crossed "the wire", a fence built by Italian engineers along the 400 miles of the border between Libya and Egypt. The cars spread out and the raid penetrated deep into Italian territory attacking Italian frontier positions in Cyrenaica. One troop shot up the Italian camp at Fort Capuzzo, another hit Fort Maddalena, while a third ambushed a small convoy. Although few casualties were inflicted the 11th Hussars returned home jubilant and unhurt. Thereafter the Hussars searched in vain but the Italians preferred to remain behind the barricades of their superbly designed fortresses. ww2dbase [CPC, AC]

• Ten Italian Z.1007 Alcione bombers attacked Grand Harbour, RAF Hal Far, and Kalafrana in Malta, killing 1 civilian and 6 soldiers. RAF Hal Far was the first of the three major Malta airfields to be attacked during the war. ww2dbase [RAF Hal Far | Malta Campaign | Hal Far | TH, CPC]

• Capitano Tarantini attacked a merchant ship in the Mediterranean Sea, but the torpedo failed to detonate. ww2dbase [Capitano Tarantini | CPC]

11 Jun 1940 Interactive Map