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• After sundown and through until the next morning, Orion laid mines off Auckland, New Zealand. ww2dbase [Orion | TH]
• At dawn, 0243 hours, 15 British Fleet Air Arm Skua aircraft from HMS Ark Royal dive bombed German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Trondheim, Norway. Scharnhorst was hit by a 500-pound bomb, but it failed to explode. 8 Skua aircraft were shot down; 6 airmen were killed and 10 were taken prisoner. The remaining 7 aircraft returned to Ark Royal at 0345 hours. Nearby, Ark Royal's escorting destroyers HMS Antelope and HMS Electra collided in fog; both sustained damage that would take them out of action until Aug 1940. ww2dbase [Invasion of Denmark and Norway | CPC]
• British submarine HMS Odin attacked Italian cruisers Fiume and Gorizia. Odin was sunk by destroyers Strale and Baleno, killing the entire crew of 56. It was the first naval skirmish in the Mediterranean Sea. ww2dbase [CPC]
• German submarine U-25 sank British armed merchant cruiser HMS Scotstoun 80 miles west of Outer Hebrides, Scotland, killing 7. 345 survivors were rescued by British destroyer HMS Highlander and would be landed at the Clyde on 14 Jun. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Rear Admiral William F. Halsey, Jr. relieved Vice Admiral Charles A. Blakely as Commander Aircraft, Battle Force of the US Navy on board carrier USS Yorktown at Lahaina Roads, Maui, US Territory of Hawaii. Halsey received the temporary rank of vice admiral for this assignment. ww2dbase [William Halsey | CPC]
• William Halsey was promoted to the rank of vice admiral. ww2dbase [William Halsey | CPC]

• The German submarine UA sighted British armed merchant cruiser HMS Andania during heavy squalls south east of Iceland. ww2dbase [Start of the Battle of the Atlantic | UA | HM]

• Maxime Weygand declared Paris, France an open city. Italian aircraft attacked the naval base at Toulon, France. British Prime Minister Churchill flew to Tours, France for what would become the last meeting of the Supreme War Council. Both Britain and France now acknowledged that defeat would be imminent. Churchill encouraged the French to withdraw to North Africa to continue the fight; his French counterpart Reynaud, however, said that France would like to secure Britain's permission to seek an armistice; Churchill refused the request. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | Paris | CPC]

• British submarine HMS Grampus reported that naval mines had been deployed at the port of Augusta, Sicily, Italy. ww2dbase [Augusta, Sicilia | HM]

• Comandante Faà di Bruno was attacked with 18 depth charges by an unidentified vessel in the Mediterranean Sea; the Italian submarine was able to escape. ww2dbase [Comandante Faà di Bruno | CPC]

• King Carol II allowed the Iron Guard to join the National Renaissance Front political party of Romania. ww2dbase [Carol II | CPC]

• Soviet troops began amassing on the borders of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania. ww2dbase [Annexation of the Baltic States | CPC]

• The American armed vessel Eastern Prince, first of her kind, set sail for Britain. ww2dbase [TH]
• The battleship USS North Carolina was launched at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York, United States. ww2dbase [New York Navy Yard | North Carolina | Brooklyn, New York | AC]

13 Jun 1940 Interactive Map