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WWII On This Day: June 11

What happened on June 11 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1940, 1942 and 1944, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1940
Bombs falling around Grand Harbour during an Italian air raid over Malta, 19 June 1941.
Central Archives of the State, Italy · photographer unknown · public domain in Italy
Malta: Air Siege and Convoy War

The first air attacks

The Regia Aeronautica opened its air campaign against Malta one day after Italy entered the war. Bombers and fighters crossed from Sicily to attack Hal Far and the seaplane base at Kalafrana, beginning a pattern in which the island's airfields and harbour installations were treated as operational targets tied to control of the central Mediterranean. Malta's fighter defence was still small, centred on Sea Gladiators and newly arriving Hurricanes. Italian commanders expected repeated bombing to constrain the base while Axis shipping continued toward Libya. The raids established the geographic problem…

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1942
British and Commonwealth prisoners gathered near Tobruk following its surrender, June 1942.
Koch / Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B21459 · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE
Gazala and the Fall of Tobruk

The Free French break out of Bir Hacheim

On the night of 10–11 June, Koenig's garrison made its way out through the surrounding positions and minefields after being ordered to withdraw. British rescue transport waited beyond the enemy ring. Many men escaped, though not all could get through and the garrison abandoned much of its heavy equipment. The withdrawal ended the defence of the southern box. Its prolonged resistance had constrained Axis movements, but Rommel could now concentrate his mobile force against Knightsbridge and the British armour farther north.

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1944
Equipment and armoured vehicles, some damaged, stretch across the sands where the Allies seized their beachhead, June 1944.
Equipment and armoured vehicles, some damaged, stretch across the sands where the Allies seized their beachhead, June 1944. Courtesy AP Photo · via US Department of Defense · licence required for commercial use Source
Operation Overlord

The beachhead becomes one front

By the close of D+5 roughly 326,000 men, 54,000 vehicles and over 100,000 tons of stores had been landed. Operation Perch was under way south of Bayeux, seeking a way round Caen from the west. The build-up race that would decide the campaign was already visibly one-sided. Allied divisions arrived across an open beach on schedule; German divisions moved by road at night, in stages, under fighter-bomber attack, and arrived piecemeal and late.

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