Lithuania Occupied

SAT 15 JUN 1940
Soviet forces, as allowed by the Nazi-Soviet pact, occupy Lithuania. The U.S. refuses to acknowledge this annexation or those of the two other Baltic states that the USSR will occupy two days later (see 17 June).

President Roosevelt approves Act of Congress to increase naval aviation to a strength of not more than 10,000 aircraft, vice 4,500.

British Prime Minister Churchill, in telegram to President Roosevelt, again asks for destroyers, calling the matter one "of life and death." Britain will carry on the struggle "whatever the odds," the "Former Naval Person" declares to the President, "but it may well be beyond our resources unless we receive every reinforcement and particularly do we need this reinforcement on the sea."

Submarine tender Bushnell (AS-2) completes hydrographic surveys off the coast of Venezuela from Cape San Roman to Bahia Vela de Coro. Having begun on 9 April, she covered an area of 2,200 nautical square miles in the course of her work.

U.S. passenger liner Washington sails from Galway, Ireland, for the United States with an additional 852 American citizens, making a total of 1,872 passengers, embarked. She will arrive at New York unmolested.