Sunday 29 June 1941

Marshal CGE Mannerheim discusses strategy with the hero of the Winter War General Talvela, at the beginning of Finland’s second war with the USSR during WWII, the Continuation War.

Eastern Front: As of 29 June 1941 is one week into Operation Barbarossa, and the invasion is going right on schedule for Germany. The biggest success so far has been the capture of Minsk, the largest city on the high road to Moscow. Today, the Germans also clean up their supply route to Minsk by eliminating Soviet resistance at the Brest Fortress. If anything, the German success is greater than expected - which provides Hitler with his first real chance to interfere with operations.

The Soviets issue a directive - the first of many - aimed at punishing cowardice and desertion. The NKVD is instructed to set up posts behind the lines and apprehend any troops retreating without authorization. Summary courts-martial are established that have the authority to impose the severest penalties on soldiers and civilians alike.

In the Far North, Finland finally launches its first offensive in conjunction with Wehrmacht troops commanded by the hero of Narvik, Eduard Dietl. The overall Finnish military commander is Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, a legendary World War I leader.

As part of larger Operation Silver Fox (German: Unternehmen Silberfuchs; Finnish: Operation Hopeakettu), Operation Platinum Fox aims to take the USSR's only ice-free port available to western supply convoys, Murmansk. The German Army of Norway and the Finnish forces must cross very rugged terrain before reaching the port. The Finnish 3rd and 6th Divisions are attached to the German forces and nominally under their command, and they face Soviet 14th Army and 54th Rifle Division. The 3rd Mountain Division advances through the Titovka Valley and secures a key bridge over the river in the valley, while the 2nd Mountain Division takes the neck of the Rybachy Peninsula.

The main Finnish objective during all these attacks, as always during the Continuation War, is the recovery of Finnish territory lost as a result of the Winter War. Finnish 18th Division (Colonel Pajari) advances into Enso, a formerly Finnish town just across the border. The Soviets put up fierce resistance, and elsewhere the operation is hampered by German troops who are unfamiliar with the terrain and the climate. The Soviets land reinforcements on Fisherman's Peninsula. The German advance slows and then stops very quickly.

Gebirgsjäger of 7th Company/II. Bataillon/137th Regiment in Norway. From left to right: Franz Hollerweger, Feldwebel Kepplinger, and Gefreiter Josef Köchl. Köchl perished died on 29 June 1941 during a battle near the village of Titovka, Murmansk Oblast.

In the Army Group North sector, the Soviets are in disarray. Stalin recalled General of the Army Dimitri Pavlov and his entire staff on the 28th and replaced him with General Andrey Ivanovich Eremenko. Eremenko arrives at the Western Front headquarters at Mogilev in the morning to hear that the German 3rd Panzer Division has captured a bridgehead over the Berezina at Bobruisk and other panzers are across the Dvina at Riga. Considering that the plan was for the Soviet 4th Army to make a stand on the Berezina, this creates a dangerous situation. The Stavka rushes the elite 1st Moscow Motor Rifle Division to Borisov to try to hold the line.

General Timoshenko, who has virtually taken over command of the Northwestern Front from General Kuznetsov, orders a stand on the Velikaya River. The Stavka now for the first time becomes concerned about the defense of Leningrad and hopes to make a successful defense of the city on the Stalin Line.

The Wehrmacht seizes the port of Libau after overcoming a fierce Soviet defense. The Germans take many casualties, and the fighting only ends when the defending Soviet 67th Rifle Division runs out of ammunition.

A 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 rocket of the type used at Brest Fortress.  Introduced in 1940, it fired from six pipes and the shots could travel 5500 meters.

The Soviets at Brest Fortress in Brest-Litovsk remain dug in when the day begins. The Wehrmacht has used an assortment of advanced weaponry, including 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 rocket mortars and flamethrowers, but the Soviets are dug in and refusing to surrender. Today, the German 45th Infantry Division calls in air support and the Luftwaffe sends Junkers Ju 88 bombers twice during the day. They drop 3,970 lb (1,800 kg) "blockbuster" bombs, the maximum that the planes can carry and the heaviest dropped by the Luftwaffe during World War II. This does the trick, and the 360 Soviet defenders surrender. However, some isolated Soviet soldiers remain hidden in the ruins until 23 July, when a Soviet lieutenant is captured - and perhaps longer.

In the Army Group Center sector, Hitler is tired of simply watching the brilliant offensive unfold through the Baltic states. He decides to impose his will and do something similar to what he did just over a year ago - put a brake on the advance. Hitler has Commander-in-Chief of the German Army Walther von Brauchitsch order commander of Army Group Center Fedor von Bock to stop his panzers and consolidate his position. In the first of many such instances, the Wehrmacht complies with the order in form but not in substance. Von Bock quietly encourages General Guderian to continue sending his 2nd Panzer Group east toward Bobruisk. The continued advance is explained to Hitler as a "reconnaissance-in-force," though in reality the generals simply ignore him.
In the Army Group South sector, massive Soviet tank forces have done little to hurt the advancing panzers at the Battle of Brody. However, at the cost of hundreds if not thousands of tanks, the Soviets at least have slowed the panzers. Soviet 22nd Mechanized Corps (Major-General S.M. Kondrusev) reports that it is down to only 19% of the tanks with which it began the war.  Major-General N.V. Feklenko's 19th Mechanized Corps reports that it has only 32 tanks remaining out of its starting force of 453 tanks. General Popel still has a large force of tanks, but he is trapped in Dubno and attempts by other Soviet forces have failed. German 16th Motorized, 75th Infantry Division, two other infantry divisions, and the 16th Panzer Division begin the process of reducing Popel's pocket.

Luftwaffe boss Hermann Goering, eager to burnish his own credentials with Hitler, claims:

In the first week of the campaign, the Luftwaffe has destroyed 4,990 Russian enemy aircraft for the loss of 175 of its own.

This, in fact, is not far from the truth if you count all of the Soviet aircraft destroyed on the ground. However, many of the Soviet planes destroyed were obsolete or non-combat planes. In any event, the USSR has thousands of planes further from the front.
Syrian/Lebanon Campaign: The British advance on Palmyra from Iraq continues today. Habforce's Arab Legion troops occupy Sukhna, which is about 40 miles northeast of Palmyra. The Vichy French notice this and prepare a counterattack. Right outside Palmyra, meanwhile, the Vichy French Foreign Legion drives the Wiltshire Yeomanry from a ridge overlooking the town and airfield.

In the Damour Valley east of Beirut, French artillery pounds British troops. British Brigadier William George Stevens keeps his main forces in the rear to avoid casualties but sends armed reconnaissance patrols to probe the French defenses.

From Paris, the government issues a communiqué:

The British Fleet has bombed our coastal positions in the Middle East. We have evacuated several of our bases in the mountains of southern Lebanon under cover of artillery fire which inflicted heavy losses on our assailants. Out aerial forces, supported by naval aircraft, repeatedly intervened in the ground fighting, especially around Palmyra (Syria). A British colonel and 40 men were captured.

As the communiqué suggests, there continues to be very hard fighting in the mountains east of Beirut.

The RAF stages a rare assassination mission aimed at Vichy French General Henri Dentz, bombing his official residence. Dentz escapes injury. The French Havas News Agency quickly issues a communiqué:

This afternoon British aircraft bombed and destroyed the residence of the French High Commissioner in Beirut. There were large numbers of dead and wounded.

Events throughout World War II will establish that it is extremely difficult to kill a specific person with aerial bombing. Generally, to be successful, such operations must isolate the target and kill him directly rather than sending bombers over a particular house or town.

Offshore, Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Naiad and two accompanying destroyers bombard Damur during the night.

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command attacks Bremen (106 aircraft) and Hamburg (28) during the night, losing six planes.

Battle of the Baltic: The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks Estonian freighter Märta at Ventspils.

Finnish minelayers lay mines off the Soviet coast.

U-103, a Type IXB U-boat. It mistakenly sinks friendly Italian freighter Ernani on 29 June 1941 (Federal Archives Bild 101II-MW-3930-23A).

Battle of the Atlantic: A running battle which began on 23 June continues in the North Atlantic around Convoy HX-133. Both sides have taken losses, with the Allies' losses "expected" and the German wolfpack losses a little less so. The Allies have reinforced HX-133 due to Ultra intercepts to a total of 13 escorts, much greater than usual at this stage of the war.

U-651 (Kptlt. Peter Lohmeyer), on its first patrol due south of Iceland, participates in the HX-133 attacks. It torpedoes and sinks 6342-ton British freighter Grayburn. There are 18 survivors, including master John Williams Sygrove, while 35 men perish.

U-651 then is sunk during a depth charge attack by British destroyers HMS Malcolm and HMS Scimitar, the British corvettes HMS Arabis and HMS Violet and the British minesweeper HMS Speedwell. The U-boat has enough time to surface and disgorge its entire crew of 45 men before it sinks.

U-651 only went on one patrol. It sank two ships during the patrol totaling 11,639 tons. Royal Navy Intelligence interviews the crew and writes up an extremely uncomplimentary summary of them, including the following:

The First Lieutenant, Oberleutnant zur See (Lieutenant) Karl Josef Heinrich, was an extremely unpleasant person, uncouth and ill-informed, and made every effort to be a general nuisance; both he and the Engineer Officer (Engineer Lieutenant) Benno Brandt, believed that they were furthering the cause of Hitler’s New Order by making innumerable minor complaints and by attempting to bully sentries and others who were unfortunate enough to have to come into contact with them.

The obviously annoyed British interrogators note in the report that the captives incessantly quote "propaganda" and "apparently had very little home-life or parental influence." They note further that the prisoners "alleged that the prostitutes of Lorient knew more about past and present plans than many German officers," and that the French at Lorient secretly worked against the Germans.

U-564 (KrvKpt. Reinhard Suhren), on its first patrol out of Kiel, is operating in the northern convoy routes when it spots an independent freighter. It torpedoes and sinks 1215-ton Icelandic freighter Hekla. There are seven survivors who spend ten days on a raft, but one man perishes right after they are picked up by HMS Candytuft. Another survivor is so badly wounded that he spends six months in a hospital. In total, there are 14 deaths.
U-103 (KrvKpt. Viktor Schütze), on its fourth patrol out of Lorient, is operating about 450 miles west of Las Palmas when it spots a freighter. After an eight-hour chase and missing with a torpedo late on the 28th, U-103 finally torpedoes and sinks the ship at 00:51 on the 29th. Schütze surfaces and questions some of the survivors in a lifeboat and learns that he sank an Italian blockade runner, 6619-ton freighter Erani, which was disguised as Dutch freighter Enggano. So, this was a case of friendly fire. Ernani was trying to escape being interned at Teneriffe and make it to Bordeaux, so it had not told Italian authorities about its route. Schütze had no reason to think it was a friendly ship and did not get in any trouble for sinking an ally's ship.

U-123 (Kptlt. Reinhard Hardegen), on its fifth patrol out of Lorient and operating about 200 miles southeast of the Azores, spots Convoy SL-78. At 19:36, Hardegen hits 4088-ton British freighter Rio Azul. The ship breaks in two and sinks within minutes. There are 33 deaths, including the master, while 15 crew survive and are picked up by HMS Esperance Bay.

U-66 at Lorient. It sank two Greek freighters near the Canary Islands on 29 June 1941.

U-66 (Kptlt. Richard Zapp), on its second patrol out of Lorient, also spots Convoy SL-78 west of the Canary Islands. Zapp torpedoes and sinks two Greek freighters:

• 4345-ton freighter George J. Goulandris
• 5686-ton freighter Kalypso Vergotti.

The Vergotti was a straggler and thus easier to attack than the Goulandris. Everyone on both ships survives.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 626-ton British freighter Cushendall a few miles off Stonehaven. There are two deaths.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 6142-ton British freighter Silverlaurel at King George Dock, Hull. There are no casualties.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 7457-ton British freighter Empire Meteor off Cromer. The Empire Meteor makes it to the Humber in tow.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 486-ton British freighter Empire Larch off Great Yarmouth. The Empire Larch makes it to Great Yarmouth under its own power.

Norwegian 6118-ton tanker Leiesten hits a mine and is damaged in the Barrow Deep (north of Margate). The ship is taken in tow and makes it to Gravesend.

A US excursion boat, the Don, founders under mysterious circumstances in heavy fog off Ragged Island, Casco Bay, Maine. There are 34 deaths. It is unclear what happened, but one theory is that the engine exploded.

US Navy Task Group 2.8, led by the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-5) and heavy cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS Vincennes (CA-44), departs Hampton Roads, Virginia for a neutrality patrol.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Croome (Lt. Commander John D. Hayes) is commissioned.

Canadian corvette HMCS Kenogami (Lt. Commander Reginald Jackson) is commissioned.

HMAS Waterhen, sunk on 29 June 1941 (Australian Navy).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy destroyer HMAS Waterhen is making a nightly run to Tobruk when its luck runs out. A Regia Aeronautica Junkers Ju 87 bombs Waterhen about 100 miles east of Tobruk. The destroyer is taken in tow by HMS Defender, but Waterhen sinks on the way back to Alexandria. There are no casualties.

Royal Navy submarine HMS Urge makes an unsuccessful attack on Italian heavy cruiser Gorizia south of Messina, Sicily. While Urge's crew claims two hits and explosions, apparently Gorizia is undamaged. Gorizia and other ships then attack Urge, but it escapes. Royal Navy submarine Utmost attacks the same ships, also unsuccessfully.

Operation Railway II, another airplane ferrying mission to Malta by Force H out of Gibraltar, heads toward the island.

German/Soviet Relations: At some point during this week - details are very sketchy - Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin attempts to broker a peace deal with Hitler through a Bulgarian diplomat, Ivan Stamenov. Foreign Minister Molotov has Lavrentiy Beria arrange this by using one of Beria's subordinates, NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov, who has a "casual" lunch at a Moscow restaurant with the diplomat. Sudoplatov explains to Stamenov what to say to Hitler. Stalin is willing to offer huge concessions for peace, including Ukraine and all of the areas granted to him in the "secret protocol" to the 23 August 1939 Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact in the Baltic States. Stalin does, though, demand to know why Hitler invaded the USSR.

Hitler turns Stalin down flat and will not even consider the offer. This is one of Hitler's biggest mistakes. These revelations were hidden for many years but came to light during the period after Stalin died from natural causes in the 1950s. There are few other details of this little-known incident, but there is no reason to doubt that it happened. This peace offer was classified as treason and was one of the charges used to condemn Beria to death. The others involved - including the Bulgarian Stamenov diplomat used as the go-between - submitted affidavits confirming the incident. Sudoplatov confessed to it under interrogation and also was convicted of treason, serving 15 full years in prison (yes, there are many questions about the validity of such "proof," but there was a lot of corroboration). Molotov was never tried for treason despite his deep role in the incident, but gradually fell out of favor, lost his positions one by one, and by 1962 was a "non-person" in the Soviet bureaucracy.
German/Spanish Relations: Spanish leader Francisco Franco has agreed that German U-boats may receive supplies in Spanish waters as long as it is done in a low-key way. One such instance happens today when U-69 (Kptlt. Jost Metzler) refills its tanks from an interned German tanker, Charlotte Schliemann, which is berthed at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria harbor, then departs. The entire incident happens in the early morning hours so that nobody will notice.

Italian/Yugoslavian/Albanian Relations: Italy annexes to its puppet state of Albania districts of Yugoslavia that are adjacent to Albania.

Finnish Military: Finland forms Karelian Army (Karjalan Armeija) for operations in northern Karelia.

Lord Beaverbrook and Winston Churchill.

British Government: Lord Beaverbrook, formerly Minister of Aircraft Production and then briefly Minister of State, is appointed Minister of Supply. Beaverbrook is a close confidant of Winston Churchill, somewhat akin to the relationship that Harry Hopkins has to President Franklin Roosevelt and a key figure in England's wartime economy.

German Government: Hitler issues a secret decree which formally named Hermann Göring his successor in the event of his death. It gives Göring the power to act as Hitler's deputy with freedom of action in the event Hitler ever loses his freedom of action—either by way of incapacity, disappearance or abduction.

Romanian Government: Exiled King Carol II arrives in Mexico and establishes his residence there for the remainder of the war. He claims to be the leader of a government-in-exile but receives no recognition or support for the same.

China: The Japanese bomb Chungking (Chongqing), hitting the British Embassy and US gunboat USS "Tutuila" at Lungmenhao lagoon.

Holocaust: The pogrom in Jassy (Iasi), Romania continues. Local Romanian forces round up 5000 Jews for transport to concentration camps in sealed cattle trucks. The Romanian forces beat down doors and kill an estimated 260 Jews today, with thousands ultimately killed.

Soviet Homefront: The Soviet government begins evacuating 212,000 children from Leningrad. The government broadcasts a "scorched earth" policy, asking citizens to leave "nothing" for the Germans.

The burial of Ignacy Paderewski at Arlington National Cemetery, 1941.

American Homefront: Ignacy Jan Paderewski, Polish pianist, composer, and politician, passes away in New York at the age of 80. President Roosevelt announces that the body will rest for a short viewing period at Arlington National Cemetery at the USS Maine Monument. Roosevelt comments, "He may lie there until Poland is free," a wish that is granted; Paderewski's remains remain there until the fall of the Soviet Union and are only flown to Warsaw on 26 June 1992.

Former President Herbert Hoover gives a radio speech over the NBC network. It follows a speech he gave in May, and he notes:

In these six weeks, opposition against joining in this war has grown stronger in the American people. Yet we have moved officially nearer to war.

Hoover spends a large part of his speech discussing Japan. He notes that it "cannot make an effective air attack upon us," though it "could do some terrorization." He urges preparing for war in order to avoid having to declare war on Japan or Germany and urges that Roosevelt "Stop this notion of ideological war to impose the four freedoms on other nations by military force and against their will."

Hoover also raises a sensitive topic: communism:

If we go further and join the war and we win, then we have won for Stalin the grip of communism on Russia.... If we join the war and Stalin wins, we have aided him to impose more communism on Europe and the world.

Hitler similarly views the war as a struggle against war communism... in addition to being his means to global hegemony.

New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio plays a doubleheader at Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C. He gets a hit in the first game to extend his club-record hitting streak to 41 games. Between games, someone apparently steals his bat (a 36-ounce Louisville Slugger), and he goes hitless in his first three at-bats in the second game. Then, however, DiMaggio recalls that he lent an identical bat to right fielder Tommy Henrich earlier in the season. After getting the bat back, DiMaggio gets a hit in the seventh inning. This extends DiMaggio's hitting streak to 42 games - breaking George Sisler's major league record of 41 games set in 1922. Sisler, who is in attendance, comments "I'm glad a real hitter broke it."

Superman Sunday comics, 29 June 1941.

June 1941

June 1, 1941: Farhud Pogrom
June 2, 1941: Massacres on Crete
June 3, 1941: Kandanos Massacre
June 4, 1941: Kaiser Wilhelm Passes Away
June 5, 1941: Death in Chungking
June 6, 1941: Hitler's Commissar Order
June 7, 1941: Commandos Strike at Pessac
June 8, 1941: British Invade Syria and Lebanon
June 9, 1941: Litani River Battle
June 10, 1941: British Take Assab
June 11, 1941: Hitler Thinking Beyond Russia
June 12, 1941: St. James Agreement
June 13, 1941: Lützow Damaged
June 14, 1941: Latvian June Deportations
June 15, 1941: Operation Battleaxe
June 16, 1941: The Old Lion
June 17, 1941: British Spanked in North Africa
June 18, 1941: Turkey Turns Its Back
June 19, 1941: Cheerios Introduced
June 20, 1941: Birth of US Army Air Force
June 21, 1941: Damascus Falls
June 22, 1941: Germany Invades Russia
June 23, 1941: A Soviet KV Tank Causes Havoc
June 24, 1941: Kaunas and Vilnius Fall
June 25, 1941: Finland Declares War
June 26, 1941: Bombing of Kassa
June 27, 1941: Encirclement At Minsk
June 28, 1941: Minsk Falls
June 29, 1941: Brest Fortress Falls
June 30, 1941: Mölders Becomes Top Ace

2020

Tuesday 24 June 1941

Staff Sergeant Eero Kinnunen and his Brewster 239 fighter (BW-352) of Squadron Lentolaivue/24 at Selänpää airfield, Kouvola, Finland. 24 June 1941 (colorized).

Eastern Front: Operation Barbarossa continues rolling eastward and northward on 24 June 1941. The day features various futile Soviet counterattacks that show convincingly that the Soviets do not even know where the advancing Germans are from one hour to the next. The Germans enter Kaunas (10th Army) and Vilnius (Panzer Group 3).

Army Group North beats off a powerful Soviet counterattack against 4th Panzer Group at the Battle of Raseiniai. Soviet Lieutenant-General Vasily Ivanovich Morozov takes his 11th Army back to Kaunas on the Niemen. The Soviet 8th Army also is taking a beating.

In Army Group Center, Soviet General Dmitry Pavlov orders his 6th and 11th Mechanized Corps and the 6th Cavalry Corps to attack toward Grodno to stop the panzers. The German 4th Army besieges Soviet defenders at Brest-Litovsk.

The German 3rd Panzer Group, however, already has passed through Grodno and is in Vilnius. Instead, the Soviets hit the following German infantry of V Army Corps of the German 9th Army, supported by Luftwaffe air attacks. This accomplishes nothing.

Children in a bomb shelter, Minsk, Byelorussia, 24 Jun 1941 (Russian International News Agency).

Army Grup South, led by 11th and 16th Panzer Divisions, begins the day 40 miles inside of Soviet territory. The 13th and 14th Panzer Divisions have reached the Styr River. German 17th Army takes Nemirov.

The Soviets under General Ivan Bagramyan attempt a counterattack at 04:00 today as part of the Battle of Brody but make no progress. The Soviet 22nd Mechanized Corps attacks toward Voinitsa, but the Germans make quick work of their tanks. Soviet armor and infantry are widely separated and it takes time to assemble them into a cohesive fighting force. The Soviets have powerful forces in the vicinity, but almost all are in the process of forming up today and make no attacks.

The Red Air Force attempts a raid against East Prussia. It accomplishes little. According to the German News Bureau:

An attempt by the Soviet air force on Tuesday morning to fly weak forces into East Prussia, has been frustrated by the German air defense. The enemy aircraft encountered such accurate flak fire that they were forced to turn around at once and to jettison their bombs over open country.

The Luftwaffe continues its own raids on Soviet airfields, destroying many planes on the ground. A large fraction of Soviet planes are obsolete, so their destruction is fairly routine for the experienced German pilots. The Luftwaffe bombs Moscow with 100 bombers after dark.

NY Times, 24 June 1941.

Syrian/Lebanon Campaign: The Australian 25th Infantry Brigade recaptures Merdjayoun early today.

The Australian 2/14 Battalion tries to advance north from Jezzine. They are stopped cold in the hills north of town by Senegalese defenders who have excellent defensive positions.

The Vichy French make a stand at Jebel Mazar, a tall hill on the Damascus/Beirut road. They stop the British 16th Brigade advancing west from Damascus.

The Vichy French garrison at Palmyra continues its successful defense of the town and airfield. Arab auxiliaries, led by Arab Nationalist leader Fawzi el Kawakji, ambush a British supply convoy in conjunction with French armored cars.

New Zealand light cruiser HMNZS Leander and destroyers Hasty and Jaguar park off the coast north of Beirut and shell Vichy French positions before dawn.

"British soldiers inspecting a captured German SdKfz 222 armored car, 24 June 1941." (© IWM (E 3776)).

European Air Operations: RAF Bomber Command raids Cologne (54 aircraft), Kiel (48 bombers), Dusseldorf (21 aircraft).

RAF Bomber Command sends Circus missions to the Thermal Power-Station at Comines. The formation is a success, with 7.5 tons of bombs dropped and the RAF claiming 9 kills, 7 probable kills and 5 damaged aircraft for the loss of two planes and pilots.

Battle of the Baltic: The Soviets scuttle more ships to avoid capture by the advancing Germans, all at Liepāja, Latvia:

• destroyer Lenin;
• submarine M-71
• submarine M-80
• submarine Ronis
• submarine S-1
• submarine Spidola
• torpedo boat TKA-27
• auxiliary gunboat Tunguska
• icebreaker Silach.

Events in the Baltic States ports are confused, with the Soviets hurriedly evacuating and partisans hot on their heels, so the exact dates when these scuttlings take place is uncertain.

Destroyed/abandoned Soviet tanks in western Ukraine, 24 June 1941.

Battle of the Atlantic: A U-boat wolfpack begins attacking Convoy HX-133. It is passing Convoy OB-336 south of Greenland, which provides numerous targets within a small sector of the Atlantic. There are several stragglers from the convoy, which makes for easy targets. The action is confused, and who sunk which ships sometimes is not definite but is based on detailed analysis and guesswork.

U-203 (Kptlt. Rolf Mützelburg), on its first patrol out of Kiel, torpedoes and sinks 4956-ton British freighter Kinross of Convoy OB-336. Everyone survives. This is sometimes listed as happening on the 25th.

U-203 also torpedoes and sinks 4402-ton Norwegian freighter Solay of HX-133. All 32 aboard survive.

U-371 (Kptlt. Heinrich Driver), on its first patrol out of Kiel, torpedoes and sinks 4765-ton Norwegian freighter Vigrid. The Vigrid is a straggler from Convoy HX-133. There are 24 deaths, and 14 survivors (some sources say 21 survivors and 28 deaths) have to wait until 7 July before US destroyer Charles F. Hughes finds them.

U-651 (Kptlt. Peter Lohmeyer), on its first patrol out of Kiel, torpedoes and sinks 5297-ton British freighter Brockley Hill. The Brockley Hill is a straggler from Convoy HX-133. Everyone survives.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 803-ton British freighter Levenwood off Tees Bay. The Levenwood is taken in tow and makes it to Hartlepool.

Convoy OG-66 departs from Liverpool bound for Gibraltar, Convoy HG-66 departs from Gibraltar bound for Liverpool.

US minesweeper USS Sheldrake is laid down.

Someone having a bad day, Nemirow, 24-25 June 1941.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The British forces at Alexandria have been conducting nightly supply missions to the embattled Australian garrison at Tobruk without too much trouble. Tonight, however, the Luftwaffe (Junkers Ju 87 aircraft of II Staffeln, Sturzkampfgeschwader 2, Luftwaffe) is waiting for the "Tobruk Express" about 20 miles (37 km) northeast of Tobruk. During the incessant attacks:

• The Luftwaffe bombs and badly damages tanker Pass of Balmaha, which its crew abandons.
• The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks sloop HMS Auckland, with 34 deaths, 164 survivors (two die later), and 8 wounded.

The Pass of Balmaha is taken in tow by destroyer HMAS Waterhen and brought to Tobruk, where its fuel is unloaded. It is then taken back to Alexandria.

The Luftwaffe drops leaflets to the besieged Australians in Tobruk which read:

AUSSIES
After Crete disaster Anzac troops are now being ruthlessly sacrificed by England in Tobruch and Syria.
Turkey has concluded pact of friendship with Germany. England will shortly be driven out of the Mediterranean.
Offensive to relieve you totally smashed.
YOU CANNOT ESCAPE
Our dive bombers are waiting to sink your transports. Think of your future and your people at home. Come forward – show white flags and you will be out of danger!
SURRENDER!

Before dawn, Royal Navy submarine HMS Utmost lands some Commandos for a mission to destroy a railway line in Italy. The railway is used to bring supplies for shipments to North Africa. Two Commandos, Lt D R Schofield, Royal Fusiliers, and Lance Corporal F C Morgan, row ashore and place charges on the railway line. Then, they return to the waiting submarine. Unfortunately for their mission, their attempt to destroy a passing train fails when the charges fail to explode. Undeterred, the two men row ashore again and fix them. This time, they just blow up the tracks and return to the submarine without incident.

Turkish freighter Refah, previously torpedoed by an unidentified submarine (almost certainly a Royal Navy one), sinks. There are 168 deaths and 32 survivors.

Royal Navy battleship HMS Warspite, recently damaged by near misses that cause flooding, sails out of the Mediterranean for repairs. It is out of action until January 1942.

The Luftwaffe raids Benghazi and Tripoli.

Battle of the Black Sea: Soviet minesweeper T-208 Shkiv hits a mine and sinks at the Glotova Bank.

The siege of Brest fortress, June 1941.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: German raider Kormoran, disguised as Japanese freighter Kinka Maru, approaches Madras to lay mines. However, the Germans notice another ship shadowing them. They take this to be a British auxiliary cruiser (it apparently is AMC Canton). However, the ship eventually disappears. Kormoran Captain Detmers decides not to take any chances and cancels the minelaying mission.

Battle of the Pacific: Captured whaler “Adjutant,” which now has a German prize crew, arrives in New Zealand waters for minelaying operations.

Propaganda: The Germans announce:

Since early Monday morning the Luftwaffe has continued its successful attacks on Soviet military airfields. Large numbers of Russian aircraft were destroyed on the first day of battle, and we can now report that a great many more aircraft have been shot down on the same day.

The Soviets paint a very different picture:

Our aerial forces have fought successfully to protect our towns and military installations. They have fought in the air and supported the counterattacks of the ground troops. In the course of the day 51 enemy aircraft were destroyed by our fighter planes and ground defenses. One enemy plane was forced to land at an airfield near Minsk.

Neither side provides many specifics about where their forces on the ground are.

Special Operations: Italian submarine Scire launches midget submarines off Malta. The intent is to penetrate Grand Harbour and attack shipping, but the attack fails.

Soviet/German Relations: The Soviets take the German embassy staff south to Kostroma-on-Volga and house them in a worker's settlement. Their destination is Turkey once arrangements are made for the safe conduct of Soviet embassy personnel from Berlin.

German/Soviet Relations: At some point during this week - details are very sketchy - Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin attempts to broker a peace deal with Hitler through a Bulgarian diplomat, Ivan Stamenov. Foreign Minister Molotov has Lavrentiy Beria arrange this by using one of Beria's subordinates, NKVD officer Pavel Sudoplatov, who has a "casual" lunch at a Moscow restaurant with the diplomat. Sudoplatov explains to Stamenov what to say to Hitler. Stalin is willing to offer huge concessions for peace, including Ukraine and all of the areas granted to him in the "secret protocol" to the 23 August 1939 Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact in the Baltic States. Stalin does, though, demand to know why Hitler invaded the USSR.

Hitler turns Stalin down flat and will not even consider the offer. This is one of Hitler's biggest mistakes. These revelations were hidden for many years but came to light during the period after Stalin died from natural causes in the 1950s. There are few other details of this little-known incident, but there is no reason to doubt that it happened. This peace offer was classified as treason and was one of the charges used to condemn Beria to death. The others involved - including the Bulgarian Stamenov diplomat used as the go-between - submitted affidavits confirming the incident. Sudoplatov confessed to it under interrogation and also was convicted of treason, serving 15 full years in prison (yes, there are many questions about the validity of such "proof," but there was a lot of corroboration). Molotov was never tried for treason despite his deep role in the incident, but gradually fell out of favor, lost his positions one by one, and by 1962 was a "non-person" in the Soviet bureaucracy.
Anglo/Soviet Relations: Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden announces that he has reached a mutual aid agreement with the Soviets.

Original memorial erected to the victims of Einsatzgruppe A at Gargzdai/Garsden/Gorzdt on 24 June 1941 (courtesy of George Birman).

German/Spanish Relations: Hitler approves the use of a special "volunteer" Spanish formation on the Eastern Front. This becomes the famous Spanish Blue Division.

US/Soviet Relations: President Roosevelt is asked at a press conference what he intends to do about the Soviet Union. He promises to send aid to the Soviet Union, saying:

Of course we are going to give all the aid we possibly can to Russia.

It is unclear from this seemingly offhand response what the authorization for such aid would be, though presumably it would be included under Lend-Lease. Roosevelt also unfreezes about $40 million in Soviet assets.

Hungarian/Soviet Relations: Hungary breaks relations with the Soviet Union.

Slovakian/Soviet Relations: Slovakia declares war on the USSR.

German Military: The Wehrmacht begins recruiting volunteers in Denmark, while Spain begins soliciting volunteers (of which there are many) to join a division to fight with Germany on the eastern front.

Finnish Military: While not yet officially at war, the Finns continue laying mines in the Baltic. Finnish troops occupy the Aaland Islands.

Soviet Military: The Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Military District is renamed Soviet Northern Front. Its commander is General Popov. General Aleksei Antonov is appointed Chief of Staff, Southwestern Front.

US Military: In the Philippines, there is flooding at Nichols Airfield (which is not paved), so 3rd and 20th Pursuit Squadrons move to Clark Airfield. The US continues beefing up its presence as transport SS President Pierce arrives bringing 96 pilots.

Joseph Kennedy Jr. enlists in the US Naval Reserve.

IJN aircraft carrier Hiyō, launched 24 June 1941.

Japanese Military: The IJN launches aircraft carrier Hiryu, which has been converted from a passenger liner.

British Government: With war expenditures soaring, the British House of Commons votes for the second £1,000,000,000 war credit of the year.

Spain: There is strong support in Spain for the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Large demonstrations take place in Madrid and other cities. Spanish Foreign Minister Ramón Serrano Suñer announces the formation of a Spanish volunteer division to serve beside the Wehrmacht in Russia. Volunteers rush to fill the 18,000 openings. Agustin Muñoz Guardes is selected as General commanding this "Spanish Blue Division."

Lithuania: The Lithuanian Activist Front forms a government, but not even the Germans recognize it.

China: The Japanese bomb Chungking (Chongqing).

German troops at Kaunas (Kovno), Lithuania, 24 June 1941.

Holocaust: Einsatzgruppe A, following behind Army Group North, engages in the killing of about 800 Jews and 100 non-Jews in the vicinity of the Lithuanian border town of Gargzdai (called Gorzdt in Yiddish and Garsden in German). These liquidations may have occurred as early in the invasion as 22 June. The exterminations continue throughout the year.

American Homefront: New York Yankee Joe DiMaggio gets a hit in the 8th inning against St. Louis Browns pitcher Bob Muncrief. This extends DiMaggio's club-record hitting streak to 36 games. It is a Yankees blowout (they win 9-1), and the at-bat is meaningless, so some (including Browns manager Luke Swewll) question Muncrief's decision to pitch to DiMaggio. Muncrief, who could have simply walked DiMaggio or hit him with a pitch and ended the streak, says after the game:

That wouldn't have been fair, to him or to me. Hell, he's the greatest ballplayer I've ever seen.

Future History: Charles Joseph Whitman is born in Lake Worth, Florida, US. He becomes the infamous "Texas Tower Sniper: on 1 August 1966 at the University of Texas in Austin. During his well-known shooting spree, Whitman (who in his suicide note claims to suffer from migraine headaches and at his autopsy is found to have a brain tumor) kills 16 people (including his wife and mother) and wounds 31 others. Eventually, after a lengthy standoff, the Austin police shoot Whitman dead. Whitman's murder spree adds a 17th victim in 2001 when someone wounded during the attack dies of his wounds.

German death card for Johann Wocherl, 24 June 1941, perished in Russia.

June 1941

June 1, 1941: Farhud Pogrom
June 2, 1941: Massacres on Crete
June 3, 1941: Kandanos Massacre
June 4, 1941: Kaiser Wilhelm Passes Away
June 5, 1941: Death in Chungking
June 6, 1941: Hitler's Commissar Order
June 7, 1941: Commandos Strike at Pessac
June 8, 1941: British Invade Syria and Lebanon
June 9, 1941: Litani River Battle
June 10, 1941: British Take Assab
June 11, 1941: Hitler Thinking Beyond Russia
June 12, 1941: St. James Agreement
June 13, 1941: Lützow Damaged
June 14, 1941: Latvian June Deportations
June 15, 1941: Operation Battleaxe
June 16, 1941: The Old Lion
June 17, 1941: British Spanked in North Africa
June 18, 1941: Turkey Turns Its Back
June 19, 1941: Cheerios Introduced
June 20, 1941: Birth of US Army Air Force
June 21, 1941: Damascus Falls
June 22, 1941: Germany Invades Russia
June 23, 1941: A Soviet KV Tank Causes Havoc
June 24, 1941: Kaunas and Vilnius Fall
June 25, 1941: Finland Declares War
June 26, 1941: Bombing of Kassa
June 27, 1941: Encirclement At Minsk
June 28, 1941: Minsk Falls
June 29, 1941: Brest Fortress Falls
June 30, 1941: Mölders Becomes Top Ace

2020