Australia’s War Diary —June 1940

June 2 – Dunkirk. Late in the afternoon, 72 Squadron, led by S/Ldr Ronald Lees from Broken Hill, bounces a formation of Ju 87 Stukas, claiming three kills and four probables. Lees destroys one.

In Spitfire N3169, P/O J W B Stevenson from Sydney, one of two Australians in 266 Squadron, is shot down and killed during a violent clash with Messerschmitt Bf 109s.

Norway. PIO J L Wilkie of Perth, with 263 Squadron, is killed in action. Since its return to Norway, 263 has claimed the destruction of 36 enemy aircraft for the loss of only 2 Gladiators in combat.

June 4 – The Germans capture Dunkirk. British figures show that a total of 338,226 troops, including 112,000 French, have been evacuated but Operation Dynamo has been costly.

Winston Churchill in the House of Commons Declares: “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the fields . . . we shall never surrender. ”

The fact is the British army is practically unarmed after leaving behind 2,000 guns, 60,000 vehicles, 600,000 tons of fuel and supplies and 76,000 tons of ammunition.

616 Squadron flies a last patrol over the Dunkirk area. It is deserted, littered with debris and abandoned equipment. On the return flight the weather deteriorates and while attempting to land at Rochford, Australian P/O E W S Scott crashes and is killed. The other Spitfires are diverted to Tangmere.

Norway. The British and French begin to evacuate. The remaining RAF fighters will be flown aboard HMS Glorious for transportation back to the UK.

June 5 – France. The Germans launch the Battle for France with air and artillery bombardments along the Somme and the Aisne. Australia. In Canberra, the War Cabinet approves the initial purchase of 7 PBY-5 Catalina flying boats with 20% airframe spare parts from the USA. These are needed to boost the RAAF’s long range reconnaissance potential since 10 Squadron and its Sunderlands have been retained in England. Prime Minister R G Menzies announces the decision on the 6th. He also announces an order for a prototype twin engined, light reconnaissance bomber (the CA-4 Wackett bomber) to be built by CAC.

June 7 – PIO John Frederick (‘Pete’) Pettigrew of Haberfield, NSW, ‘disappears into thin air’ while his unit, 151 Squadron, patrols with 56 Squadron between Abbeville and Amiens. There is a brief clash with Bf 109s, incorrectly identified as ‘Heinkel He 113s’, but no dogfight. All Hurricanes, except Pettigrew’s, return to Manston and nobody has the slightest idea what has happened to it. (An unconfirmed story suggests he was shot down, hidden by French nuns and eventually smuggled back to England. Another says he escaped from a POW camp. Whatever happened, by 1944 he was with the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment (A&AEE) at Boscombe Down and on August 24 he was killed in a mid air collision).

June 8 – Norway. The German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau intercept and sink HMS Glorious and two escorting destroyers.

June 9 – Norway. The last Allied troops depart. June 10-Italy declares war on Britain and France.

June 11 – Malta is raided by Italian aircraft for the first time. Middle East. Determined to strike first, 26 RAF Blenheims attack Italian aircraft on the ground at El Adem. This is followed by another raid later in the day. 18 aircraft are claimed destroyed or damaged for 2 Blenheims lost and 2 which force land, one bursting into flames.

France. Paris is declared an open city.

June 12 -France. Even now obsolete Fairey Battles are risked in daylight. Two from 88 Squadron attack German pontoon bridges around Pont Pointe. Over the target, Battle L5334 is shot down by flak. F/Lt Alan Pitfield and his gunner are killed. The second force lands at a French airfield which is about to be evacuated. To prevent it falling into German hands, it is set on fire along with the French aircraft.

June 13 – France. Led by F/Lt John Hewson, three Battles from 142 Squadron attack German columns and troops around Rouen. After bombing along the road they are bounced by Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Bf 11Os. All are shot up. One crashes, the second struggles home carrying a wounded crewman and the third (Hewson’s) bursts into flames. The gunner is wounded. Realising that the man cannot bail out, Hewson orders his third crewman to jump and then, ignoring the fire, he brings the Battle down to a successful forced landing. After seeing his gunner safely into hospital, Hewson returns to his aerodrome at VilliersFaux. He will be awarded a DFC.

June 14 -France. Paris falls into German hands.

June 15-France. The British begin to evacuate from Cherbourg. Over the next 3 days 30,630 Allied troops will depart without loss.

June 16 – France. More evacuations begin from St’Malo, Brest, St’Nazaire and Nantes.

June17-France. German bombers sink the Lancastria as she is leaving St’Naziare killing 3,000 men but, altogether, 57,235 troops will be evacuated from St’Naziare and Nantes.

Offthe coast ofPortugal. S/Ldr Charles Pearce and crew in Sunderland P9604, RB-J, of 10 Squadron RAAF, surprise a German U-boat on the surface and make an attack before it can completely submerge. A large brown patch of oil and bubbles spreads on the water a moment later followed by more bubbles and more oil. This keeps happening for twenty minutes, then stops. The Sunderland searches for threehours but there are no further signs. The submarine is judged to have sustained only light damage. So ends 10 Squadron’s first attack on a positively identified U-boat.

Scotland. Australian troops, diverted to England ,from the third troop convoy from Australia bound for the Middle East, begin to disembark at Gourock on the Clyde. Three liners·, the Queen Mary, Mauretania and Empress of Canada, carry around 8,000 officers and men, while in three other vessels there is a similar number of New Zealanders.

June 18 – France. In the early morning, F/Lt John ‘Dinger’ Bell, Sgt Charles Harris of 10 Squadron RAAF, and two passengers, are killed when their aircraft Walrus L2312, crashes in a field in Ploudaniel while on a ‘special flight’ to rescue the family of General de Gaulle from France. Bell and Harris are the RAAF’s first fatalities on active service since its formation in 1921 (as distinct from the first Australian KIA in RAF service).

10 Squadron will perform several of these ‘special flights’ to recover French VIPs and transport British officials attempting to delay France’s surrender. These include: on this day, Admiral Sir Dudley Pound and staff to Lake Biscarrosse near Bordeaux, the temporary place of government; on the 19th, Lord Lloyd and staff to B1scarrosse; 25th to 27th, Lord Gort, Mr Duff Cooper and advisers to Rabat, French Morocco; and on the 27th to Malta to bring Vice Admiral Muselier of the French Navy back to England. England. Major-General H D Wynter is appointed to command the AIF in Britain. Advanced units of the Australian force begin to reach Salisbury Plain in southern England to establish a base camp. They travel from Gourock by rail. By 4. 00am they are travelling through the Midlands. It is not possible to pinpoint where they are because station signs have been painted over. Sometimes troop trains pass in the opposite direction. When they halt beside one, the Australians lean from the windows to question the Tommies on board. One man recently returned from Dunkirk says he had not even seen a German soldier, only endless dive bombers. His word give the Australians food for thought . . .

The Photographic Development Unit (POU), brainchild of Queensland aeronautical engineer, Sidney Cotton is transferred from his control to RAF Coastal Command and renamed the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU).

“What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin . . . Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousad years, men will say ‘This was their finest hour. “‘ (Winston Churchill).

France. By day’s end, 21,474 troops have been evacuated from St’Malo and 32,584 from Brest.

June 19 – RAF units in France evacuate back to England. 17 Squadron ret!res via the Channel Islands, Jersey and Guernsey, before reaching Debden and Tangmere on this day. Sgt Desmon, of Adelaide, lands at Tangmere wearing only slacks, a c1v1han short and a . 45 automatic with belt and holster wrapped around his middle. His Hurricane has no ammunition or tail­ but it is his only method of returning. Some pilots fly back sitting on the lap of another in the cockpit of a Hurricane. Others manage to start ‘unserviceable’ aircraft and nurse them back, sometime to crash while landing. The squadron gains a very sick Fairey Battle and a Miles Magister in this way.

Because the collapse of France has interrupted civil air routes between Britain and the Middle East, Africa, India and Australia, the ‘Horseshoe’ Route is introduced linking South Africa and Australia to Cairo. The route between Cairo and Britain is another ‘horseshoe’, trans Sahara, around to Oran via Luxor, Wadi Haifa, Khartoum, Ft Lamy and Gao, and the UK. Qantas Empire Airways will operate between Sydney and Singapore travelling via Brisbane, Gladstone, Townsville, Karumba, Groote Eylandt, Darwin, Koepang, Surabaya and Batavia.

Red Sea. Catapulted from HMAS Hobart, Walrus amphibian A2- L2321 successfully dive-bombs the wireless/telegraph station on Centre Peak Island off the port of Massawa.

June 21-Middle East. HMAS Sydney bombards Italian positions in Bardia. Her Supermarine SeagullV, A2-21, used for spotting, is attacked by 3 aircraft thought to be Italian CR-42s. F/Lt Thomas Price nurses his crippled plane to British territory and force lands at Matruh. The Seagull is a write off. He learns afterwards that his attackers had been RAF Gladiators!

June 22 – France signs an armistice with Germany.

June 25 – The Franco-German armistice comes into effect. June 26 -Australia. In Canberra, the Minister for Air, Mr J V Fairbairn, resubmits a plan to expand the RAAF to 32 squadrons to the War Cabinet and wins approval. Anticipated aircraft requirements are: 243 CAC Wirraway replacements; 236 general reconnaissance bombers – Lockheed Hudsons or similar; 54 long range 2 seat fighters; 27 fleet cooperation aircraft – Seagull and Walrus replacements; and 11 PBY Catalinas.

June 28 – Britain recognises General de Gaulle as leader of the Free French.

British civil aircraft flights across French colonial territory are banned, thus severing the trans Sahara route to Cairo and cutting Britain off from the Empire air routes. June 29 – Australia. At No 1 Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) School, Geelong, Vic, F/Lt J Lerew test flies Fairey Battle P4239, the first assembled in Australia. Although the designation A22 is issued, the 364 ex RAF Battles supplied under the scheme will retain their British serials.

June 30- German troops land unopposed on the Channel Island of Guernsey to occupy British sovereign territory for the first time.