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http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/13.htm

June 13th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: Invernessshire: Cpl James Hendry (b. 1911), Royal Canadian Engineers, died when a burning magazine blew up; he had warned others off but stayed to fight the blaze himself. (George Cross)

ASW trawler HMS Cotillion commissioned.
Sloop HMS Crane laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

NORTH SEA: The German pocket battleship Lutzow is attacked by an RAF Beaufort off the Norwegian coast at Lindesnes. She is hit by one torpedo and only just makes it back to Germany.

VICHY FRANCE: The excuse that 12,000 Jews were involved with an “anti German/French coup plot” is used by the Vichy government to justify authorizing various Anti-Semitic laws. These laws now restrict Jews in Vichy France as they have in Hitler controlled countries.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: The official news agency TASS says “rumours of a German intention to attack the USSR are without foundation.”

SYRIA: Damascus: The Free French and British have invaded Vichy Syria. So stretched are General Wavell’s men and materials that some of the invading army are riding to war on horseback.

German penetration of Syria has been going on for months. The German consul, von Hentig, is Germany’s finest Orientalist, and organised anti-British riots in the Middle East in the 1914-18 War. Lately a steady stream of Luftwaffe aircraft have used Syrian aerodromes as staging posts while flying supplies to Rashid Ali in Iraq.

Bowing to political pressure from Churchill and de Gaulle, Britain’s long-suffering commander in the Middle East scraped together what he could spare from the pressures of Libya, Crete, Iraq, Palestine, Egypt and East Africa. As well as two Free French brigades under General Legentilhomme, there are 7th Australian Division (less one brigade), a corps troop from 1 Australian Corps and extra divisional cavalry regiment for a total of two mechanised, the 5th Indian Brigade from the 4th Indian Division under Brigadier Lloyd and one brigade from the 1st Cavalry Division, some dragoons, a commando from Cyprus, Glubb Pasha’s Arab Legion, and several thousand Druze tribesmen under the gay and flamboyant Colonel Gerald de Guary - one of the Lawrence generation. In all 18,000 Australians, 9,000 British, 5,000 Free French and 2,000 Indians.

On 8 June, while the 21st Australian Brigade crossed the Litani on the coast road heading for Beirut, two columns advanced from Jordan, aiming for Damascus.

All three columns encountered bitter resistance, with the Free French fighting what resembles a civil war between Frenchmen with every olive grove being fought over.

Against them - and inflicting heavy casualties on them - are the men under General Dentz, the majority colonial troops and Foreign Legionaires, unlikely to listen to appeals from loud-speaker vans to “wash out the shame of Vichy’s capitulation.”

Dentz has 35,000 French colonial troops - mainly Senegalese, Algerian and Moroccan, but including 3,000 Foreign Legionaires of 6th Regiment FFL. There are French, German, Spanish, Russian and Irish.

Dentz also has 25,000 Syrans, Circassians and White Russians. He has 90 tanks, generally of better quality than the British and Australian light armour. Wavell has 70 aircraft against 100 French. There are evenly matched. Hurricanes and Tomahawks against Dewoitine 520s with Gladiators against Potez 63s.

Australian troops attack around Sidan.

Armoured cars and lorried infantry of 1st Spahis (Vichy) probe Kuneitra.

CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Noranda launched Levis, Province of Quebec.

L. W. Murray heads new Canadian convoy escort force based on Newfoundland; NW Atlantic Canada’s responsibility. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: Motion pictures released in the U.S. today include:

- “Man Hunt.” This thriller based on Geoffrey Household’s novel “Rogue Male,” is directed by Fritz Lang and stars Walter Pidegeon, Joan Bennett, George Sanders, Roddy McDowall and John Carradine. The farfetched plot has hunter Pidgeon attempting to shoot Hitler but ends up in more trouble than he can image.

- “Tom Dick and Harry.” This romantic comedy, directed by Garson Kanin and starring Ginger Rogers, George Murphy, Alan Marshal, Burgess Meredith and Phil Silvers, has telephone operator Rogers, pursued by a down-to-earth fellow (Murphy), a rich man (Marshal) and a nonconformist (Meredith). She dreams what life would be life married to each of them before choosing one. (Jack McKillop)

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1157, the unescorted Pandias was hit amidships by one torpedo from U-107 and sank by the stern. The U-boat surfaced and provided the survivors in the lifeboats with cigarettes, water and rum.

SS Tresillian sunk by U-77 at 44.40N, 45.30W. (Dave Shirlaw)

http://worldwar2daybyday.blogspot.com/

Day 652 June 13, 1941

Operation Exporter, Lebanon. Australian 7th Division is held up by Vichy French defenders at the steep pass at Jezzine, halfway from the Palestinian border to Beirut. Private James Gordon wins the Victoria Cross for single-handedly neutralising a French machine gun post with his rifle and bayonet, while his company takes casualties under intense fire.

At 5.45 AM 300 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, U-77 sinks British SS Tresillian (all 46 hands picked up by US Coast Guard cutter USS Duane and landed at St. Johns, Newfoundland). At midday 300 miles North of the Azores, U-107 sinks Greek SS Pandias carrying 4894 tons of coal and 1050 tons of military goods, including 11 Spitfire fighters, to Alexandria, Egypt (11 dead, 23 survivors in lifeboats given cigarettes, water & rum by the U-boat crew). 100 miles East of the Azores, Italian submarine Brin sinks British steamer Djurdjura (33 killed, 5 rescued) and Greek steamer Eirini Kyriakides (all 31 hands lost) in convoy SL75.

Operation Sommerreise. German heavy cruiser Lützow and escort cruisers Emden and Leipzig plus destroyers pass through the Skagerrak between Denmark and Norway, escorted by twin-engine Messerschmitt Bf110 fighters. South of Lindesnes, Norway, a Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber inveigles into the fighter escort and attacks. Lützow is hit with a torpedo in the engine room and returns to Kiel under her own steam.