military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/02/90)
Thursday, 30 May, 1940 Another 53,000 soldiers are evacuated from the Dunkirk beaches. The French destroyer Bourrasque is mined, then sunk by artillery, and three British DD's are damaged by bombs. Britain claims 77 German aircraft downed today over Dunkirk, with a single flight of 12 Boulton-Paul Defiants claiming 37 kills. This new, cannon-armed fighter mounting a machinegun turret behind the cockpit is held to be a breakthrough in fighter design. General Prioux, commander of the French 1st Army, is captured in the shrinking Flanders pocket. Premier Mussolini decides that Italy will enter the war on 5 June. The Italian army is mobilizing, and western sources estimate 1.8 million men under arms. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@cbnews.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "If they can fight like that on the Somme and elsewhere when the time comes, there will still be plenty of war." - Unidentified German observer, speaking of the British rear-guard at Dunkirk, quoted by George Axelsson in the New York Times