06/4/1944
The Canadian/American First Special Service Force leads 2nd United States Corps into Rome. The force fights all day against German rearguards, but by nightfall controls all seven bridges over the Tiber River. Thankfully, German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring orders that Rome’s treasures, including its magnificent classical bridges, be abandoned intact.
06/4/1950
North Korean ground forces are estimated at 135,000.
06/5/1944
Stormy weather forces the Allies to postpone Operation Overlord, the massive invasion of Normandy in the Second World War.
06/6/1944
Operation Neptune—the assault phase of Operation Overlord—begins in the early hours. Allied paratroopers, including approximately 450 Canadians, jump from aircraft or land in gliders behind German coastal defences. The Royal Canadian Air Force, which had been involved in the bombing of key targets prior to the invasion, participates in the Allied air attack. RCAF bombers drop thousands of tons of explosives on German defences while Canadian fighter pilots engage the enemy in the air and on the ground. The Royal Canadian Navy provides more than a hundred vessels and 10,000 sailors. Its minesweepers help clear the way for the invasion fleet, while its destroyers fire their guns in support of the landings. Canadian armed merchant cruisers carry soldiers and landing craft toward the coast. By evening, the Canadians are further inland than any other Allied force. Overall, the operation is a huge success.
06/7/1958
Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Restigouche (2nd) is commissioned.
06/7/1981
Israel launches first airstrike against a nuclear plant. The bombs destroy the Osirak reactor south of Baghdad.
06/8/1944
Seven more Canadian prisoners of war are murdered by their captors at the Abbaye d’Ardenne in Normandy. On the previous day, 11 Canadian PoWs were shot at the abbey. Two more Canadians would be executed on June 17.
06/8/1944
Powerful enemy attacks on 7th Canadian Infantry Brigade positions west of Caen, France, result in the temporary loss of Putot-en-Bessin. A counterattack by the Canadian Scottish Regiment, supported by tanks of the First Hussars, retakes the village.
06/9/1944
The Canadian destroyers Haida and Huron and the Royal Navy’s HMS Ashanti participate in the sinking of two German navy ships.
06/9/1989
The first Canadian female fighter pilots graduate from the CF-18 program.
06/9/2003
Her Majesty’s Canadian Ship Victoria prepares for her departure to Canada’s West Coast. Victoria, a new diesel-electric submarine purchased from the Royal Navy, would be the first sub based permanently on the West Coast since 1974.
06/10/1942
A German U-boat sinks two ships in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
06/10/1944
Escort Group 11 under Captain J.D. “Chummy” Prentice is designated the Anti-Submarine Killer Group for Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth. Moving into the central English Channel, it would become the most significant Allied anti-submarine group in the campaign.
Advertisement
