15 Jun 1940
- US President Franklin Roosevelt approved a revised copy of the Naval Expansion Act which he had approved on the previous day; it increased naval aviation to a strength 10,000 aircraft instead of the previously lower quantity of 4,500. He also replied to the French Premier's "last appeal", saying that America would redouble her efforts if the Allies continue to resist the dictators. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC, AC]
- German submarine U-38 attacked Allied convoy HX-47 60 miles west of the Isles of Scilly off of southwestern England at 0100 hours, sinking Norwegian tanker Italia (killing 19, 16 were recsued) and Canadian ship Erik Boye (21 were rescued). British sloop HMS Fowley would bring the survivors to Plymouth, England on the following day. ww2dbase [CPC]
- Quintin Brand was appointed the commanding officer of the No. 10 Group at the rank of acting air vice marshal. ww2dbase [Quintin Brand | CPC]
- British Prime Minister Churchill sent a telegram to US President Roosevelt to again request destroyers, noting that the United Kingdom would carry on the struggle "whatever the odds... but it may well be beyond our resources unless we receive every reinforcement and particularly do we need this reinforcement on the sea". ww2dbase [Winston Churchill | CPC]
- Submarine tender USS Bushnell completed hydrographic surveys of an area of 2,200 square nautical miles off the coast of Venezuela between Cape San Roman and Bahia Vela de Coro, which began on 9 Apr 1940. ww2dbase [CPC]
- Construction began on the new Führer Headquarters Wolfschlucht II in France; it would be halted within days, however, as the German campaign in France would soon end. ww2dbase [CPC]
- The German 7th Army under General Friedrich Dollmann crossed the Rhine River into France about 40 to 50 miles north of the Swiss border and penetrated the Maginot Line. To the north, the city of Verdun was captured by German troops. On the coast of the English Channel, the Allies launched Operation Ariel to evacuate troops from Cherbourg and St Malo. In Berlin, Germany, Adolf Hitler gave the German Army the permission to demobilize some divisions once the French campaign drew closer to its end. ww2dbase [Invasion of France and the Low Countries | TH]
- US passenger liner Washington embarked an additional 852 American citizens and set sail from Galway, Ireland for New York, United States. She now carried a total of 1,872 passengers. ww2dbase [Galway | CPC]
- Soviet troops engaged Latvian border guards at Maslenki, Latvia. ww2dbase [Annexation of the Baltic States | Maslenki | TH]
- Soviet troops began the occupation of Lithuania; the United States refused to recognize the Soviet occupation. ww2dbase [Annexation of the Baltic States | TH]
- Morosini sighted a French torpedo boat 85 miles southeast of Cape Palos, Spain in the western Mediterranean Sea at 0136 hours; at 0143 hours, she fired a torpedo at the torpedo boat at a distance of 400 meters, which missed. At 0547 hours, she heard turbine noises, and then sighted a convoy of three large ships escorted by destroyers at 0630 hours; the convoy was too far for the Italian submarine to attack. ww2dbase [Morosini | CPC]
Timeline Section Founder: Thomas Houlihan
Contributors: Alan Chanter, C. Peter Chen, Thomas Houlihan, Hugh Martyr, David Stubblebine
Special Thanks: Rory Curtis
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