Diplomacy: (MAIN EVENT) ITALY DECLARES WAR ON BRITAIN AND FRANCE. Hostilities to begin at midnight. CANADA DECLARES WAR ON ITALY. French Government leaves Paris for Tours, on river Loire.

France: Rommel drives French IX Corps and British 51st Highland Division towards coast, north of Le Havre. Manstein's 38th Infantry Corps crosses the Seine.

Sea War Mediterranean: six British submarines leave Malta for operations off Italian harbours and naval bases. Italian destroyers and torpedo boats sink subs Odin, Grampus and Orpheus (June 13, 16 and 27, resp.).

Neutrals, USA: Roosevelt speaks at University of Virginia: 'On this tenth day of June 1940 the hand that held the dagger has struck it in the back of its neighbor.'

Home Front Britain: Duff Cooper, Minister of Information, condemns Mussolini: '[he] has declared war upon the Allies with whom Italy fought in the last Great War and who ... saved Italy from destruction.'

TUESDAY, JUNE 11, 1940

France: German vanguards approach Pontoise, thereby threatening Paris from the nortwest.

Picture: German motorcyclist messangers check their maps on the way to Paris.

Sea War Mediterranean: British Mediterranean Fleet and French cruiser squadron sweep Eastern Mediterranean and Aegean for Italian shipping. British cruisers bombard Tobruk and cruiser Calypso is sunk south of Crete by Italian submarine.

Air War: First RAF bombing raids on Italian airfields in Libya and East Africa cause great damage (3 British aircraft lost). Two Italian raids on Malta; 35 civilians, 6 British soldiers killed. 36 Whitleys (1 lost) bomb Turin and Genoa (night June 11-12) after refuelling stop in Channel Islands. French authorities at Marseilles prevent Wellingtons from taking off to bomb targets in Northern Italy by blocking runway with trucks (they fear Italian 'reprisal' raids) .

Diplomacy: AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH AFRICA DECLARE WAR ON ITALY.

Home Front Britain: Attlee, Lord Privy Seal, denounces Mussolini's declaration of war, comparing him with 'the jackal' which scents the possibility of getting some scraps from another beast's kill !

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 1940

France: Rommel captures remnants of French IX Corps and British 51st Highland Division at St.Valery-en-Caux, near Le Havre. Germans reach the Marne and cross at Chateau-Thierry. Fall of Rheims.

Picture: surrender of the British 51st Highland Division.

North Africa: British capture 62 Italians in skirmish on Egyptian border.

Diplomacy: Egypt breaks off diplomatic relations with Italy. Turkey breaks off commercial relations with Italy. Britain and France sign non-aggression treaties with Thailand. Thai-Japanese Treaty of Friendship (to run for 5 years).

China: Japanese capture Ichang, vital port and air base on river Yangtse, east of Chungking.

Home Front Italy: Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, banned for publishing British and French war Communiques (ban lifted June 13, when editors agree not to publish war news).

THURSDAY, JUNE 13, 1940

France: Paris declared an 'open city'; all French forces withdraw south of the capital. Oil stores in suburbs set on fire. Germans reach northern outskirts in evening. Germans capture Le Havre.

Diplomacy: Final meeting of Allied Supreme War Council: Reynaud tells Churchill that France must make separate peace; Churchill suggests 'last ditch' appeal to Roosevelt.

Sea War: Ark Royal launches 15 Skua dive-bombers (8 lost) to attack Scharnhorst at Trondheim; one direct hit (unexploded bomb). French cruisers and destroyers, with air cover, bombard Genoa area in Italy (night June 13-14). Armed merchant cruiser Scotstoun (17,000 t) sunk by U-25 off Ireland. German disguised raider Orion lays mines off Auckland, New Zealand.

Home Front Britain: 120,000 school-children to be evacuated from London.

Picture: Evacuated British school-children at a beach. They were always carrying their gas-masks (in the white bags) with them.

Home Front Germany: Hitler gives interview to American journalist Carl von Wiegand: he had no desire to smash British Empire but would 'destroy those who are destroying that Empire'. US aid to Britain would not affect the outcome of the war.

China: Japanese bombers make devastating fire raid on city of Chungking.

Neutrals, Spain: Franco prepares for closer collaboration with Germany and Italy by announcing new policy of 'non-belligerency'.

Air War: Italian bombers attack Toulon naval base, South France.

FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1940

France: GERMAN FORCES ENTER PARIS. General von Bock, CO Army Group B, reviews victory parades in Place de la Concorde and at Arc de Triomphe. Germans capture intact Renault tank factory at Billancourt and Schneider-Creusot armament works. Only 700,000 people remain in city out of population of 5 Millions.

Picture: German artillery is moving in the streets of Paris in front of the church of Sainte Madeleine.

German Army Group C (24 divisions) attacks Maginot Line and prepares to cross the Rhine. Churchill orders immediate evacuation of all remaining British troops. French Government leaves Tours for Bordeaux.

China: Japanese High Command advises British, American, Russian and German Embassies to evacuate their nationals from Chungking to places of safety.

Neutrals, Spain: Spanish Moroccan troops occupy 'International Zone' of Tangiers (North Africa).

Diplomacy: French Prime Minister Reynaud sends desperate appeal for help to President Roosevelt: if America does not declare war on Germany within a short time France is doomed.
Soviet Ultimatum to Lithuania.

Sea War Mediterranean: three Italian destroyers shell Sollum, Egypt.

Secret War: French and Polish 'Enigma' code breakers leave Paris. They fly from Toulouse to Algiers, June 24.

SATURDAY, JUNE 15, 1940

France: Germans capture Verdun. German 7th Army (Army Group C) crosses Rhine opposite Colmar. French Army GHQ moves south from Briare, on the Loire, to Vichy.

Picture: German assault crafts were crossing the river Rhine.

Sea War: Evacuation of British and Allied troops from northwest France (Operation Cycle) begins: 30,600 British troops begin to leave Cherbourg.

Diplomacy: Roosevelt replies to Reynaud's appeal of June 14: USA will continue to give France all possible material help and moral support, but is unable to make any direct military commitment.

Neutrals, Baltic States: Soviet forces enter Lithuania.

Air War: Italian aircraft raid targets in Southern France and Corsica.

SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 1940

France: Guderian captures Besancon.

Home Front France: Reynaud Cabinet resigns; PETAIN FORMS NEW GOVERNMENT. General Weygand, Minister of Defence. British Ambassador presents Draft Declaration of 'Act of Union' between Britain and France; French rejection.

Sea War: 32,500 British and Allied troops and RAF personnel evacuated from Brest; 21,500 Canadian troops evacuated from St Malo (June 16-17). British cargo liner Wellington Star (13,200 t) sunk by U-101 in Bay of Biscay. Evacuation of British and Allied troops from Biscay ports (Operation Ariel) begins: 57,000 troops leave Nantes and St Nazaire. Italian submarine Galilei sinks Norwegian tanker James Stove (8,200 t) in Indian Ocean.

Diplomacy: Soviet ultimatums to Estonia and Latvia.

Secret War: British SS Broompark leaves the Gironde (western France) carrying 26 containers of 'heavy water', previously obtained from Norway by Joliot-Curie, the atomic physicist.