Monday 28 July 1941

"'Rip' the dog and an ARP Warden survey the scene of devastation following an air raid in Latham Street, Poplar. The bomb crater is full of water. In the background, the remains of the local surface shelter can be seen, which, although slightly damaged, is still largely intact. Piles of rubble and timber can also be seen." 28 July 1941. © IWM (D 5950).

Eastern Front: The German forces make only minimal advances today because Hitler has ordered the consolidation of the massive gains already made. While not welcomed by the commanders at the front, this pause provides a chance for the mechanics to work on vehicles and the infantry to catch up to the leading panzers.

In the Army Group North sector, advance Wehrmacht units of Panzer Group 4 take Kingisepp, 138 kilometers (86 miles) southwest of Leningrad and 40 km (25 miles) south of the Gulf of Finland. The Soviets are preparing to make a stand on the Luga River.

In the Army Group Center sector, the Germans have closed a large pocket around Soviet troops in the vicinity of Smolensk and now are attempting to subdue it. A large group of trapped Soviet forces, led by the 20th Army, prepares to attempt a breakout.

In the Army Group South sector, the Stavka orders Marshal Budenny (Budyonny), in command of 1.5 million men of Southern and Southwestern Fronts, to focus on preventing the Germans from establishing any bridgeheads across the Dneiper. In effect, the Stavka tries to freeze the front and further orders that retreats are only permissible in an easterly direction. The Soviet troops still have an open road to retreat to the southeast, but now they cannot do that.

The Germans, meanwhile, continue compressing the huge concentration of Soviet troops in the Uman area into a smaller and smaller area. The two Soviet Fronts have their headquarters in the town of Podvisokoye (Подвысокое). The Germans continue struggling to close the pocket, with Panzer Group 1 (von Kleist) pushing toward advance units of 17th Field Army (Karl-Heinrich von Stulpnagel) and 16th Panzer Division heading toward the Hungarian Mechanized Corps.

Hauptmann (Captain) Walter Oesau leaves III./JG 3 to take the position of Kommodore of JG 2. Hptm. Werner Andres replaces Oesau as Gruppenkommandeur of III Gruppe JG 3. Lt. Max-Hellmuth Ostermann of 7./JG 54 downs a Russian I-18.

Finnish soldiers, 28 July 1941 (SA-Kuva).

European Air Operations: Weather continues to be poor over northwest Europe. The cloudy conditions make it difficult for bombers to find a particular city, let alone targets of value within them. There is a minelaying operation by 42 RAF bombers during the night in the Baltic.

Battle of the Baltic: Soviet submarine ShCh-307 torpedoes and sinks U-144 (Gert von Mittelstaedt) in the Gulf of Finland north of Hiiumaa. All 28 men onboard perish. Most sources place this sinking on 10 August 1941, and that is the generally accepted date for the sinking, but either date is possible. U-144 is in 22. Flotilla and sank one Soviet submarine, M-78, of 206 tons on 23 June 1941.

The Red Air Force bombs and sinks 315-ton German freighter Elbing III near Liepāja, Latvia.

The Red Air Force bombs and sinks German minesweeper R-169 near Libau.

German 3rd S-boat Flotilla is operating off Osel when it sinks 253-ton Latvian icebreaker Lashplesis near Saaremaa (Oesel/Ösel), Estonia.

German patrol boat  V.309/Martin Donandt hits a mine and sinks off Libau. The mine was laid by Soviet minesweeper T-204/Fugas.

A British motorcycle dispatch rider hands off a message to an occupant of a 1/2 ton, 4x4 Dodge Command Reconnaissance Car, 28 July 1941.

Battle of the Atlantic: A U-boat wolf pack continues to stalk Convoy OG-69 northwest of Cape Finisterre. Attacks continue throughout the day, and it is a confusing affair, with different U-boat captains claiming the same kills.

U-68 (K.Kapt. Karl-Freidrich Merten) starts things off with Convoy OG-69 in the early morning hours when Merten claims to make an attack. However, the attack fails and U-68 has no success with the convoy now or later.

U-561 (Kptlt. Robert Bartels), on its first patrol out of Hamburg, later in the pre-dawn hours then gets its first-ever victory by torpedoing and sinking 1884-ton British freighter Wrotham in Convoy OG-69. All 26 crew survive. Bartels, like Mertens, claims to make additional attacks, but there is no record of them succeeding.

After dark at 21:27, U-203 (Kptlt. Rolf Mützelburg), on its second patrol out of Lorient, torpedoes and sinks two ships of Convoy OG-69 in quick succession (with the same spread of torpedoes):

• 1330-ton British freighter Lapland
• 1516-ton Swedish freighter Norita

There are 26-28 survivors of Lapland (everyone survives) and 18 from Noria (two deaths), all rescued by corvette Rhododendron.

The Luftwaffe bombs 212-ton British fishing trawler Strathlochy about 180 miles northwest of Rora Head, Orkneys.

Royal Navy corvette HMS Tamarisk is launched and destroyer Wensleydale and minesweeping trawler Foula are laid down.

Norwegian 4785-ton freighter Highlander, which escaped from internment at Dakar and was being chased by Vichy French patrol boat Edith Germaine, is taken under protection by Royal Navy destroyer HMS Highlander. They proceed to Freetown along with destroyer Boreas.

The ships of Operation EF, the projected raid on Kirkenes and Petsamo, continue steaming toward their destination in northern Norway. The operation's destroyers refuel from fleet oiler Black Ranger near the Russian Kola coast.

Convoy HG-69 departs from Gibraltar bound for Liverpool.

US Navy destroyer USS Corry is launched.

U-625 and U-626 are laid down.

"Women from the Winnica, Ukraine region come to a detention center to learn the fates of their husbands," 28 July 1941 (Hubner, Federal Archive, Bild 146-1979-113-05).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy submarine HMS Utmost torpedoes and sinks 1466-ton Italian freighter Federico C. off Intavolata, western Calabria.

Dutch submarine O-21 torpedoes and sinks 747-ton Italian freighter Monteponi ten miles north of Cape Comino, Sardinia. This becomes a favored scuba-diving site

Royal Navy submarine HMS Upholder spots an Axis convoy heading from Tripoli to Naples off Cape St. Vito. It torpedoes and sinks Italian light cruiser Garibaldi. The cruiser makes it to Palermo, Sicily at daybreak on the 29th and is under repair until November 1941.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks Royal Navy lighter A-8 off Bardia. There are 8 deaths. Another lighter, A-14, is nearby but escapes.

The Regia Aeronautica bombs and damages Royal Navy submarine HMS Olympus off Cavoli Light in the Tyrrhenian Sea. The submarine manages to make it back to Gibraltar.

The RAF launches raids from Malta on Sicily that destroy 36 Axis aircraft. The commanding officer of the Regia Aeronautica, General Federigi, perishes in aerial combat over Malta.

The Luftwaffe attacks the Suez Canal during the night.

The nightly run to Tobruk is made by destroyers HMS Hotspur and HMAS Vendetta. Early on the 29th, the ships take off some Australian troops - many of whom are exhausted from spending months isolated in the port with inadequate supplies and Axis shelling - and take them to Mersa Matruh.

Operation Guillotine, the Royal Navy reinforcement of Cyprus, continues as corvette HMS Hyacinth escorts transport Kevinbank to Famagusta.

An RAF night fighter unit begins operation at Malta. It is led by Group Captain George Powell-Shedden and based at Ta Qali.

Soviet POWs at Winnica, Ukraine, 28 July 1941 (Hubner, Federal Archives, Bild 146-1979-113-04).

Special Operations: Operation Chess, which began on 27 July, concludes. Second Lieutenant Philip Pinckney leads 17 men of No. 12 Commando to a landing from two landing craft. Much about this operation is obscure. Even the landing area is uncertain. According to some sources it occurs about two miles from the River Slack near Ambleteuse, Pas-de-Calais, France, while other sources claim it is further south at Fécamp. The landing force arrives at about 01:30 and occupies empty ground for an hour or two, then departs the way it arrived. There are one or two deaths from unknown causes - sources vary - but, apparently, they are not due to enemy action. Cdr. Sir Geoffrey Congreve Bt DSO, the Commando's Senior Landing Officer, is said to have perished during this raid, and perhaps a Lt. J. Templeton RNR and an unidentified rating, but details on the rather uneventful Operation Chess are hard to come by.

A Finnish soldier fires a Lahti L-39 20mm anti-tank rifle, 28 July 1941. The L-39 weighed 50kg and was one of Finland's main anti-tank weapons. Over 1900 were built in Finland during the war.

Anglo/Finnish Relations: Finnish Foreign Minister Witting meets with British Ambassador Sir Gordon Vereker and rather sheepishly informs him that Finland has to 'interrupt' her diplomatic relations with the United Kingdom. Relations with the United States, however, remain fully intact.

Dutch/Japanese Relations: The authorities in the Dutch East Indies ban all oil exports, an obvious slap at the Japanese. This piles on to US sanctions recently imposed.

US/Japanese Relations: The Japanese retaliate for the freezing of Japanese assets in the United States by doing the same to US assets in Japan. This is more of a symbolic move than anything else, as there aren't many US assets in Japan.

Imperial Japanese Navy oiler Otowasan arrives at San Pedro, California to take on a load of oil. However, due to the embargo placed on oil exports to Japan begun on the 26th, it is refused service and must return to Japan only with ballast.

"A Matilda tank and a Valentine of 40th Royal Tank Regiment, 23rd Armoured Brigade, 8th Armoured Division being 'bulled up' at Crowborough in Sussex for a 'Speed the Tanks' parade in London, 28 July 1941." © IWM (H 12185).

German/Vichy French Relations: The Petain government agrees to manufacture Luftwaffe aircraft in France.

Anglo/Soviet Relations: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin receives a message from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. This continues a pattern in their correspondence in which Churchill sends a stream of messages and Stalin rarely responds (he is said to be "too busy running the war," but this does not seem to hinder Churchill). Churchill comments that President Roosevelt's crony, Harry Hopkins, has left to visit the Soviet Union (by air, though that is not mentioned) and "You will be advised of his arrival through the proper channels." Hopkins is heading for Archangel. As usual, Stalin does not respond.

A Soviet T-28 medium tank lies abandoned in Ukraine, July 1941.

Soviet Military: The Stavka issues Stavka Directive No. 00549, "Concerning Measures to Regulate the Employment of Artillery in the Defense." The general thrust of this directive is to employ massed artillery to weaken sections of the German line prior to counterattacks. While this is eminently reasonable and a staple of tactical doctrine, it is symptomatic of the state of the Red Army that the leadership thinks it necessary to issue such basic instruction.

US Military: The 1st Joint Training Force is formed, with commander Major General Holland M. Smith. This is just a redesignation of the joint US Army and US Marine Corps unit Task Force 18, attached to the US Atlantic Fleet.

German Government: Hitler recently has been clarifying in his own mind the ultimate objectives for Operation Barbarossa (incredibly, he seems not to have done this in any sort of detail before the invasion). According to the diary of his army adjutant, Major Gerhard Engel, today he somewhat randomly comments after the noon situation conference that he considers the southern lands of the USSR more important than Moscow or Leningrad. Engel writes that the Fuhrer reasoned:

Whereas Moscow was a big industrial center, the south was more important, where oil, wheat, more or less everything was located necessary to keep the country going. A land where milk and honey flowed.

Engel concludes his entry by noting that Hitler commented:

One thing at least was absolutely required, and that was a proper concentration of forces. To use Panzers in fighting to demolish cities, that was a sin against the spirit. They had to operate in the open areas of the south. He had already started to hear the cries of those from whom they had been stripped; but that was neither here nor there.

Hitler's generals, however, do not all agree with his economic reasoning. At least some think that taking Moscow would deliver a devastating psychological blow to the Soviet state, regardless of any economic considerations. In fact, some don't just think that but are covertly acting upon their own - and not Hitler's - priorities. Of course, they also would achieve renown by being the conquerors of Moscow.

French Indochina: The Japanese 25th Army begins landing its first of 30-40,000 troops at Saigon, Cam Ranh Bay and other strategic points in southern French Indochina. There are to be naval and air bases designed to project Japanese to the south - where the Japanese military covets sources of oil. The Japanese now have airfields within 300 miles of northern Malaya and naval bases within 750 miles of the British port of Singapore. Some Japanese army troops also arrive in Cambodia, the first of 8000 troops the Japanese will place there.

TIME Magazine, Sir Charles Portal, July 28, 1941.

Burma (Myanmar): The first advance party of General Clare Chennault's American Volunteer Group (AVG, or Flying Tigers) arrive by ship at Rangoon.

China: The Japanese Imperial Air Force attacks Sichuan Province with 108 aircraft. The Chinese put up only seven fighters in opposition, and lose three planes. Chinese Lieutenant Gao Chunchou (I-153 no. P-7237) is shot down.

Holocaust: A "Euthanasia Program" begins at Auschwitz Concentration Camp when a select team of SS men arrives on Heinrich Himmler's orders. The first group of 573 sick Polish prisoners is taken from Block 15, along with two German criminals, to Sonnenstein Castle. There, under the supervision of  Franz Hössler, the 575 men are exterminated in a shower room converted into a gas chamber. This apparently is the first use of such shower rooms, which quickly become stained blue due to the residue from the gas used.

At Drogobych, Ukraine, locals riot and kill an unknown number of Jews with their bare hands and whatever weapons are handy. Bodies of the dead and dying are thrown in the street.

Captured Soviet T-28 tank with Finnish crew, July 1941.

American Homefront: Judy Garland marries songwriter David Rose. Rose, a native of London, England, leads an orchestra and has his own twice-weekly show on the Mutual Broadcasting System. It is a troubled marriage without issue (and rumors that Rose and Garland's studio, MGM, pressured her into an abortion). They will divorce in 1944.

Future History: Peter Claver Cullen is born in Montreal, Canada. He becomes a noted voice actor, perhaps best known for his role of Optimus Prime in the original 1980s "Transformers" animated series, Eeyore in the "Winnie the Pooh" canon, and the voice of the title character in King Kong (1976). As of this writing in 2018, Peter Cullen remains active, particularly voicing Optimus Prime in new projects.

Life Magazine, "Circus Family," 28 July 1941.

July 1941

July 1, 1941: US TV Broadcasting Starts
July 2, 1941: MAUD Report
July 3, 1941: Stalin Speaks
July 4, 1941: Pogroms in Eastern Europe
July 5, 1941: Germans on Schedule
July 6, 1941: Australians Attack Damour
July 7, 1941: US Marines in Iceland
July 8, 1941: Flying Fortresses In Action
July 9, 1941: British Take Damour
July 10, 1941: Sword and Scabbard Order
July 11, 1941: Cease-fire in Syria and Lebanon
July 12, 1941: Anglo/Russian Assistance Pact
July 13, 1941: Uprising in Montenegro
July 14, 1941: Katyusha Rocket Launchers in Action
July 15, 1941: Smolensk Falls
July 16, 1941: Stalin's Son Captured
July 17, 1941: Heydrich Orders Mass Executions
July 18, 1941: Twin Pimples Raid
July 19, 1941: V for Victory
July 20, 1941: The Man Who Wouldn't Shoot
July 21, 1941: Moscow in Flames
July 22, 1941: Soviet Generals Executed
July 23, 1941: Secret Plan JB 355
July 24, 1941: Operation Sunrise
July 25, 1941: US Naval Alert
July 26, 1941: Italian E-Boat Attack on Malta
July 27, 1941: MacArthur Returns
July 28, 1941: Auschwitz Exterminations
July 29, 1941: Rescue From Crete
July 30, 1941: Raid on Petsamo and Kirkenes
July 31, 1941: Final Solution Order

2020

Monday 21 July 1941

A German Sd.Kfz-250 half-track in front of panzer units as they prepare for an attack, 21 July 1941.

Eastern Front: Hitler, apparently bored at the Wolfschanze in East Prussia, decides to visit the headquarters of Army Group North on 21 July 1941. After completing some diplomatic tasks, he boards his transport and flies to a small airport at Malnava in eastern Latvia. He then drives in his open Mercedes car to visit with Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb, whose headquarters is in the manor house Malnava.

Hitler expresses his complete disinterest in capturing Moscow. As recorded in the OKW war diary:

In this regard it could then happen that 2. Panzergruppe turns to the south so that for the thrust on Moscow only infantry armies of Heeresgruppe Mitte remain. This eventuality does not worry the Führer because Moscow is for him only a geographical term.

Needless to say, an infantry advance on Moscow without the customary panzer spearhead would at best be extremely slow and at worst be impossible.

To mark the one-month anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, the Luftwaffe begins a "Moscow Blitz." After dark, Heinkel He 111 pathfinders of KGr.100 and KGr.26 take off from an airfield near Smolensk to form the vanguard of a 127-plane force that drops 104 metric tons of bombs. The bombers come in successive waves that last a total of six hours. Anti-aircraft fire is heavy under the control of Soviet commander of Moscow air defense Major General M.S. Gromadin, so the bombs are scattered across the city. Some incendiaries land on the roof of the British Embassy but are put out quickly by embassy staff and the Moscow fire brigade. The Soviets apparently have been forewarned about the raid and thus are well-prepared. However, the Red Air Force barely makes an appearance, revealing the weakness of Soviet night-fighter defenses. Six Luftwaffe bombers fail to return.

In the Far North sector, Finnish VI Corps captures Salmi on the eastern shore of Lake Ladoga from Soviet 452nd Motorized Infantry Regiment. While not a particularly large town, it is an important landmark in the endless Karelian forests. The 1939 border is just beyond Salmi, and the Finns continue advancing forward toward the Svir River far to the southeast - but nobody knows what Mannerheim will do once the Finns reach the old border.

In the Army Group North sector, Hitler visits the army group headquarters and prepares to tour the front.

In the Army Group Center sector, General Guderian's Panzer Group 2 has trapped a large force of Soviet soldiers at Mogilev. The 4th Panzer Division (Major General W. von Langermann) takes about 2,000 prisoners, but he doesn't have enough infantry to capture the remaining 8-10,000 men, who escape.

In the Army Group South sector, the Germans take Vinnitsa (Vinnytsia) as several armies near forming a pocket around a huge Soviet troop concentration near Uman. Some 17,000 of the original Jewish population of Vinnitsa of 34,000 remain and persecutions begin virtually immediately. General von Kleist's panzers bear in on Uman and Tarashche. XLVIII Panzer Corps (General der Panzertruppe Werner Kempf) takes Monastyrishche.

Soviet soldiers defending Moscow are preparing anti-aircraft guns in Gorky Culture Park, July 1941.

European Air Operations: During the day, 13 Blenheim bombers engage in coastal sweeps and short incursions into France.

After dark, RAF Bomber Command sends 37 Wellington and 23 Hampden bombers on the first large raid against Frankfurt. The bombers apparently get lost, with most of the damage occurring in Darmstadt, which is about 15 miles from the target city. In the latter city, there are 16 deaths and 15 buildings destroyed or damaged. All of the planes return.

RAF Bomber Command also raids Mannheim. The 36 Wellington and 8 Halifax bombers cause only light damage in the target city and nearby Ludwigshafen. One Wellington is lost.

The RAF also sends 6 Wellingtons to bomb Cherbourg and two Hampdens to lay mines in the Frisian Islands off the Dutch coast.

Oblt. Johannes Seifert of 3./JG 26 shoots down a Spitfire fighter southwest of Ypres and a Stirling bomber of RAF No. 15 Squadron over the English Channel.

Hitler with Field Marshal von Leeb at Malnava, Latvia, 21 July 1941.

Battle of the Baltic: U-140 (Oblt. Hans-Jürgen Hellriegel), a training boat, suddenly finds itself within sight of 206-ton Soviet submarine M-94. Off Ristna Lighthouse at Dago Island, U-140 sinks the submarine. There are 8 deaths and 11 survivors, who are picked up by Soviet submarine M-98. The incident is not purely by accident, as the U-boat command has ordered the U-boat far out into the Baltic in order to use the training mission as a quasi-patrol. This is U-140's final victory of the war; it has sunk three ships totaling 13,204 tons and one submarine of 206 tons. It now returns to its training duties.

Finnish ships conduct minelaying operations.

Crowds saluting Hitler as he arrives in his open Mercedes at Malnava, Latvia, 21 July 1941.

Battle of the Atlantic: Italian submarine Torelli torpedoes and sinks 8913-ton Norwegian tanker Ida Knudsen a few hundred miles west of Rabat. There are five deaths and 33 survivors, 15 of whom are picked up by 341-ton Portuguese trawler Altair.

U-109 (Kptlt. Heinrich Bleichrodt), on its second patrol, refuels from German supply ship "Thalia," which is "interned" in the Spanish port of Cadiz. The Kriegsmarine actually has such tankers at three Spanish ports, which extend the range of U-boat missions and thus effectively increase the number of boats that can be kept on patrol.

The RAF bombs and sinks German transport Wandsbeck at Narvik, Norway.

German 1599-ton freighter Hans Christopherson hits a mine and sinks off Terschelling.

British freighters Bangalore and Richmond Castle collide in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil. The Bangalore is badly damaged and ultimately is sunk by the Royal Navy for being a hazard to navigation.

Canadian troop convoy TC-12 departs from Halifax. It includes transports 20,021-ton Duchess of York, 21,517-ton Empress of Canada, 23,371-ton Orion, 23,428-ton Strathmore, and 22,283-ton Strathnaver. Among its escorts is battleship HMS Malaya, recently repaired in New York.

German raider Orion rounds Cape Horn into the Atlantic Ocean.

Convoy OB-349 departs from Liverpool. There will be no more OB convoys, from now on they will be designated ON.

Royal Navy destroyer Ashanti is recommissioned on the Tyne after extensive repairs.

Royal Navy minesweepers HMS Cadmus and Circe are laid down.

Canadian minesweeper HMCS Guysborough is launched at North Vancouver, British Columbia.

US destroyer USS Evans and John D. Henley, minesweepers Token, Tumult, and Velocity, and submarine Gunnel are laid down.

Original caption: "Ingrian Paavo Susi, who escaped to the Finnish side. He was shot in the arm by a politruk, while escaping. Kaalamo, 1941.07.21." A politruk was a commissar responsible for the political education of Soviet troops - it means "political leader." Axis soldiers considered them among the most fanatical of Soviet troops, almost equivalent to slavemasters - they were known to beat Soviet soldiers to get them to fight.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Operation Substance, a well-defended convoy (Convoy GM-1), gets in high gear when a seven-ship convoy escorted by Force H and a large force borrowed from the British Home Fleet proceeds past Gibraltar directly towards Malta. The ships in the convoy do not know their (extremely dangerous) destination until destroyers shoot lines onto them bearing messages to their masters. The convoy gets off to a rocky start when troopship HMT Leinster runs aground while departing Gibraltar and must be left behind.

The Italian navy learns of Royal Navy activity in the western Mediterranean. However, the Regia Marina concludes that this is nothing but another case of a Royal Navy aircraft carrier launching planes to Malta and decides to keep its ships in port.

Greek submarine Glaukos (Lt. Commander Zepos) uses its deck gun to sink 21-ton Italian freighter San Nicola four miles northwest of Rhodes.

The men of Royal Navy submarine HMS Taku engage in some derring-do by landing a small party in Benghazi Harbor. The commandos attach timed explosive charges to a ship and then escape safely.

Operation Guillotine, a British troop movement from Egypt to Cyprus, continues. Royal Navy corvette HMS Peony departs Port Said with 1712-ton Dutch freighter Trajanus heading for Famagusta. Royal Navy sloop Flamingo departs Alexandria for Port Said in order to escort another transport, HMT Kevinbank, from there to Famagusta.

An Axis convoy departs Naples bound for Tripoli. It includes 5479-ton freighter Maddalena Odero, 6003-ton freighter Nicolo Odero, 6476-ton freighter Caffaro, and 8203-ton freighter Preussen. Royal Navy submarine Olympus spots the ships and attacks but misses.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Ilex, having undergone emergency repairs, departs from Port Said through the Suez Canal in order to make final repairs at Durban.

At Malta, the Inspector General of the Royal Air Force, Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, visit the base at Kalafrana.

Battle of the Pacific: Australian troops (Robin Force) arrive at New Caledonia with 3rd Independent Company and two six-inch guns.

A Finnish soldier on a captured Soviet BT-7 tank, 21 July 1941. The tank is being used to fell trees, perhaps to build a road (SA-Kuva).

Partisans: To take advantage of the new "V for Victory" campaign launched over the BBC on the 19th, British Minister for Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton proposes instigating widespread revolts on the Continent. It is time, he writes, to "set in motion... schemes for full-scale revolution in Europe." Dalton proposes using the Special Operations Executive for the task.

In fact, one area of occupied Europe already is in revolt. In Montenegro, partisan rebels have occupied a wide swathe of territory. General Cavallero, the Commander-in-Chief of the Italian Army Group in Albania, has ordered General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli to suppress the uprising "at whatever cost."

Japanese/Vichy French Relations: Vice-Premier Darlan accepts the Japanese request for basing rights in French Indochina. He comments that France has no choice in the matter, and plaintively asks the Japanese to recognize French sovereignty and to not molest French troops or evict them from their posts.

This confirms Japanese military dominance in Southeast Asia, with only the British bases in Singapore and Hong Kong, the Dutch in the East Indies, and the Americans in the Philippines and Guam to dispute it. The tentative protocol as drafted by the French provides that the use of facilities by the Japanese could not, under any circumstances, have the character of military occupation. Japanese forces are not to exceed 25,000 men.

Harlu, 21 July 1941. Someone has very skillfully thrown an ax into Stalin's head (SA-Kuva).

Anglo/Free French Relations: Free French leader Charles de Gaulle travels from his headquarters in western Africa to Cairo in order to meet with British Secretary of State for the Middle East Oliver Lyttelton. De Gaulle is completely out of sorts, sleep-deprived and furious at what he considers to be calculated slights against him personally and the Free French war effort. He hands Lyttelton a peremptory note:

Free France, that is to say France, is no longer willing to entrust to the British military command the duty of exercising command over the French troops in the Middle East. General de Gaulle and the French Empire Defence Council are resuming full and entire disposal of all the French forces of the Levant as from 24 July 1941, at midday.

Lyttelton rightly objects that this demand is an ultimatum that breaks the Anglo/Free French alliance. De Gaulle responds that the British can take it any way that they like. However, at dinner, after he has gotten some rest, de Gaulle settles for various concessions that salve his injured pride. These include recognition of France's historic position within the Levant, use of Vichy French equipment (much of which is quite good), and the right to recruit Vichy French soldiers. General Dentz, who retains control over his Vichy troops, however, is not fond of de Gaulle and keeps defections to de Gaulle down to 6,000 men.

21 July 1941, Harlu. Two Finnish soldiers pose next to a decapitated statue of Lenin and Stalin.

Anglo/Soviet Relations: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin receives British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's reply to his request for an immediate western front in Northwest Europe. Churchill promises to do "Anything sensible and effective that we can do to help." However, he says that Great Britain is unable to invade at this time. Churchill says the RAF is "studying" sending some fighter squadrons to Murmansk.

German/Croatian Relations: Hitler meets with Slavko Kvaternik, Ustasha co-founder and leader of the NDH military, at the Wolfshanze Fuhrer Headquarters in East Prussia. Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop and OKW head Wilhelm Keitel also attend the meeting. The Propaganda Ministry films the welcoming ceremony for the newsreels.

German/Ukranian Relations: The Germans imprison Ukrainian nationalist leader Stefan Bandera.

Joseph Stalin, July 1941.

Soviet Military: The Stavka appoints Shaposhnikov as chief of staff of Western Front, under Semyon Timoshenko.

Australian Military: The Royal Australian Navy establishes the Naval Auxiliary Patrol. It uses peacetime pleasure cruisers that become known as "nappies."

US Military: The Selective Service Act which drafts young men into the military is about to expire, so President Roosevelt asks Congress to declare a full or limited national emergency in order to extend it. Drafted soldiers now serve for only a year, and Roosevelt wishes to retain them for an additional 30 months.

German Government: As he often does, Hitler sits at his dinner table with his cronies late into the night expounding on his various theories and philosophies. He says of Benito Mussolini:

I must say, I always enjoy meeting the Duce. He's a great personality... The march on Rome, in 1922, was one of the turning-points of history... If Mussolini had been outdistanced by Marxism, I don't know whether we could have succeeded in holding out. At that period National Socialism was a very fragile growth.

After further rambling about the glories of Italian architecture, he concludes, "My dearest wish would be to be able to wander about in Italy as an unknown painter."

Three key commanders of the failed Crete campaign confer at Helwan, Egypt, on 21 July 1941. Left to right: Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew, 22nd Battalion; Brigadier Hargest, 5th (NZ) Brigade; Major-General Freyberg, 2nd New Zealand Division and Creforce (New Zealand History).

Holocaust: Majdanek Concentration Camp becomes operational.

Romanian soldiers force all of the Jews in Ozarintsy into the town synagogue. After a few hours, they take 43 Jewish men into the Polish cemetery and execute them.

At the village of Felitsianovka near Vinnytsia, the Germans execute 21 Jews.

The Germans take 12 Jews in Chernevtsy near Vinnytsia to the machine and tractor station and execute them.

An SS unit enters Sudilkov and takes all of the town's Jews from their homes to the ghetto of Shepetovka. From there, the Germans take some to the forest on the road to Klementovichi and execute them.

At Minsk, the Germans order 45 Jews to dig a pit and then get in it. They then order Russian prisoners to bury them alive. After the 30 Russians refuse, they are forced into the pit also and everyone in the pit is shot, then buried.

A jury including Cab Calloway, Canada Lee, Bill Robinson, Joe Bostic, and Erskine Hawkins selects "Miss New York City" at the Sonia Ballroom, July 21, 1941. Lillian O'Donnell wins and eventually becomes 3rd Runner-up at the Miss America competition. The pageant is a key stepping-stone to fame and fortune for some ladies - for instance, in 1945, Bess Myerson wins and uses it to eventually become Miss America and begin a long career in show business.

American Homefront: The United States begins a national aluminum salvage drive.

Eleanore Roosevelt writes in her "My Day" column about National Youth Administration leader Aubrey Wills Williams and the dedication of a new National Youth Administration training center that she attended a few days ago. Williams champions civil rights for African-Americans and uses his NYA position to provide vocational training and educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth.

After beginning the year slowly, the New York Yankees now lead second-place Cleveland by seven games and Boston by 14 in the American League. In the National League, the Brooklyn Dodgers lead St. Louis by only one game.

A 21 July 1941 photograph of Singapore showing Rimau Offices and Accommodation (View Road Hospital) in the early stages of construction. This later becomes the Naval Base Police Asian Quarters (National Archives UK via National Archives of Singapore online).

July 1941

July 1, 1941: US TV Broadcasting Starts
July 2, 1941: MAUD Report
July 3, 1941: Stalin Speaks
July 4, 1941: Pogroms in Eastern Europe
July 5, 1941: Germans on Schedule
July 6, 1941: Australians Attack Damour
July 7, 1941: US Marines in Iceland
July 8, 1941: Flying Fortresses In Action
July 9, 1941: British Take Damour
July 10, 1941: Sword and Scabbard Order
July 11, 1941: Cease-fire in Syria and Lebanon
July 12, 1941: Anglo/Russian Assistance Pact
July 13, 1941: Uprising in Montenegro
July 14, 1941: Katyusha Rocket Launchers in Action
July 15, 1941: Smolensk Falls
July 16, 1941: Stalin's Son Captured
July 17, 1941: Heydrich Orders Mass Executions
July 18, 1941: Twin Pimples Raid
July 19, 1941: V for Victory
July 20, 1941: The Man Who Wouldn't Shoot
July 21, 1941: Moscow in Flames
July 22, 1941: Soviet Generals Executed
July 23, 1941: Secret Plan JB 355
July 24, 1941: Operation Sunrise
July 25, 1941: US Naval Alert
July 26, 1941: Italian E-Boat Attack on Malta
July 27, 1941: MacArthur Returns
July 28, 1941: Auschwitz Exterminations
July 29, 1941: Rescue From Crete
July 30, 1941: Raid on Petsamo and Kirkenes
July 31, 1941: Final Solution Order

2020

Tuesday 11 March 1941

President Roosevelt signs the Lend-Lease Bill, one of the most consequential laws of the 20th Century (Library of Congress).

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Italian Primavera Offensive continues on 11 March 1941. However, what little impetus the attack managed on its first two days is now gone. The center of the offensive, at Monastery Hill, is proving an immovable barrier to the Italians. The Italian Puglie Division attempts to flank Monastery Hill, but this fails and the division is withdrawn and replaced with the Bari Division.

East African Campaign: The British at Keren continue to build their forces for another attempt to take the town. Much further south, British forces continue to move further through the barren country toward Addis Ababa.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe bombs Birmingham, Manchester, and Salford after dark. Manchester United's Old Trafford football stadium is very nearly demolished in an attack by 135 bombers that drop 830 incendiaries. The attack on Manchester's port damaged a number of British ships:

• 6004-ton Contractor
• 6133-ton Novelist
• 7917-ton Markhor
• 1189 ton Stella (Swedish, sunk but refloated and repaired) 

The Luftwaffe also bombs Portsmouth during the night of 10/11 March. The German bombs kill ten Royal Navy officers and damages destroyer HMS Witherington at its jetty. The Witherington has to be beached on a mudflat and is later repaired. Destroyer HMS Tynedale also is damaged by near misses, but the repairs are effected in just nine days. Destroyer HMS Sherwood also is damaged. Minesweeping trawler HMT Revello is sunk (one death), but later refloated and repaired. Four other minesweeping trawlers and monitor Marshall Soult also are damaged.

During the day, the Luftwaffe attacks shipping in the North Sea and damages destroyer HMS Cattistock. The German aircraft also damage 7900-ton British ship Royal Star at Stonehaven and sink 163-ton British trawler Aberdeen in Cardigan Bay (8 men killed).

RAF Bomber Command raids Kiel during the night with 27 bombers.

Winston Churchill and US Ambassador, John G. Winant sign the Lend-Lease Agreement, London, 11 March 1941 (Australian War Memorial).

Battle of the Atlantic: Operation Berlin, the Atlantic cruise of German cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, continues. While not sinking a lot of ships, the cruisers' mere presence in the Atlantic is scrambling Royal Navy deployments. Far out in the Atlantic, the cruisers rendezvous with tankers Ermland and Uckermark. The operation's commander, Admiral Lütjens, holds a conference on his flagship, the Gneisenau, with the captains of all of the ships.

Lütjens then receives a message from Berlin: proceed to Brest, France. The reason for this (which means crossing the convoy routes again) is to provide a diversion for a contemplated break out into the Atlantic of heavy cruisers Admiral Scheer and Admiral Hipper. In addition, the Operation Berlin cruisers can prepare in port for the expected breakout later in the spring of battleship Bismarck and cruiser Prinz Eugen. Once all of the German heavy ships are together in the Atlantic, they will constitute an overpowering force - at least, that is the plan.

U-106 (Kptlt. Jürgen Oesten) is operating 370 km west of Cape Blanco, French West Africa when it spots 7506-ton British ore freighter Menmon. At 15:46, Oesten pumps a torpedo into the ship's starboard side. The 62-man crew immediately abandons ship, which sinks quickly as is typical with ships with heavy cargo. Oesten pumps a second torpedo into Memnon, which sinks after fifteen minutes. There are four deaths (five if counting a man lost on the journey to shore), and many of the survivors in two lifeboats make a heroic journey to Dakar and Sierra Leone. Four survivors eventually are picked up by Gneisenau. This is the start of an extraordinarily successful second patrol by U-106.

U-37 (Kptlt. Asmus Nicolai Clausen) spots an Icelandic trawler, 97-ton Frodi, about 200 miles (300 km) southeast of Reykjavik. Clausen opts not to waste a torpedo on the small fishing trawler and surfaces to give his crew some practice with the deck gun. The gun does a lot of damage, killing five crew, but the Frodi escapes and makes it back to Reykjavik.

German torpedo boats remain active in the waters off Great Yarmouth. S-28 attacks local Convoy FS 32 and sinks 5257-ton British freighter Trevethoe. There is one death.

Convoy HX 114 departs from Halifax, Convoy BHX 114 departs from Bermuda.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Offa is launched and corvette HMS Pennywort is laid down.

Damage to Old Trafford due to the bombing of 11 March 1941. The stadium will not be repaired and reopened until 1949.

Battle of the Mediterranean: General Rommel, commander of the Afrika Korps, flies back to Germany for a meeting with Hitler at the Fuhrer Headquarters. He learns that his 5th Light Division, now largely in place in Tripoli (its Panzer regiment unloads in Tripoli today), soon will be joined by the 15th Panzer Division. Once both divisions are fully assembled, Rommel is to advance eastward and recover Benghazi. Already, the Germans have 150 tanks in Tripolitania. Pursuant to Hitler's 18 February 1941 decision, the tanks have been up-gunned to carry 50-75 mm guns. The antiaircraft forces have 88 mm guns which can double as land artillery or even, in exceptional emergency cases, anti-tank weapons.

The RAF raids Tripoli and its harbor area. Other planes attack Italian/German installations throughout Tripolitania. The RAF also attacks the Italian bases at Rhodes.

Greek destroyer Psara claims the sinking of an Italian submarine off Falconera. However, it is unclear what, if any, ship it sank.

At Malta, the Luftwaffe launches a heavy raid against Sliema, a residential district on the west coast that has received little attention in the war so far. There are 21 deaths and 16 badly wounded.

Convoy AS 18 departs from Piraeus, Convoy AN 19 departs from Alexandria, Convoy BS 18A departs from Port Sudan, Convoy BS 19 departs from Suez.

Anglo/US Relations: With the Lend-Lease Bill finally having made it through Congress after lengthy debate, President Roosevelt signs Public Law 11 of the 77th Congress into law at 15:50 in the afternoon. The law in its initial form grants the President the power to authorize $7 billion in shipments of war goods without payment by the recipients or anyone else - at least not until the recipients are able to pay. This is a dramatic reversal of the Neutrality Act of 1939 when munitions shipments were banned.

Long expecting passage, the US Army and Navy immediately begin shipping items to Great Britain. While the British are the prime recipients of aid under the bill, it is not limited to Great Britain. China, Greece and other opponents of Hitler present and future (such as the Soviet Union) also are eligible for aid under the terms of the law (once they actually are opposing Hitler, which the USSR is not as of yet). Roosevelt wastes no time: he almost immediately sends Congress an order for the full $7 billion in war material.

Averell Harriman is President Roosevelt's latest personal envoy to Great Britain. He leaves by air for London.

Terrorism: Great Britain's former Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Bulgaria, George William Rendel, is in Istanbul following the severing of diplomatic relations between the two countries (Rendel is ultimately heading to a similar post in Yugoslavia). He is just settling into his room in the Pera Palace Hotel, with his luggage still in the baggage room, when there is a tremendous explosion. Rendel's daughter Ann is slightly injured and four others are killed due to a bomb planted in Rendel's luggage.

Aleksandr Mikhaylovich Vasilevsky during the war.

Soviet Military: The Stavka (Soviet High Command) continues to plan for an offensive west into German territory upon the outbreak of war (which is assumed to be initiated by the Germans). In the latest Strategic Deployment Plan, Deputy Commander of the Operations Directorate of the General Staff Aleksandr Vasilevsky proposes to put the main Soviet weight in the direction of southern Poland. Somewhat prophetically, the plan envisages hostilities beginning on 12 June 1941. The Germans, meanwhile, are arming their north and south prongs heaviest, while leaving the center - the area Vasilevskiy proposes to attack the hardest - relatively weak. Timoshenko, Zhukov, and Molotov meet with Stalin to discuss how to orient the troops.

Belgium: Jews are required to register for forced labor.

Yugoslavia: Reflecting the unsettled nature of politics in the country, there are anti-German demonstrations in Belgrade.

Indochina: Today is the official signing of the Frontier Agreement between the Vichy French and the Thai government. Symbolically, the agreement is completed aboard a Japanese warship in the Gulf of Siam. While the Thais get all the territory in Laos and Cambodia on the right side of the Mekong River that they originally sought, the Japanese are the real winners: they get basing rights for their planes at Saigon, a monopoly on Indochinese rice production, and a chance to show the world who really dominates the Far East.

China: The Western Hupei Operation basically ends as a great success for the Japanese. The 13th Division has chased the Chinese back toward Chunking and devastated a large area to the south and west of the Yangtze River. Many civilians perish during such terror raids, which the Japanese specialize in.

British Homefront: Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, visiting London, searches for eloquence in his diary about the conditions in England:

London is drab and grey. There is a tough and determined spirit, but the colour and gaiety have gone. In squares like Berkeley Square, houses ruined, windows boarded up. The shops everywhere with windows reduced to peep holes.... One feels the hurry and pressure of events. Sandbags in the doorways, ground floor windows bricked up; death around the corner. No more leisurely strolling about the Charing Cross Road book shops or sauntering in Piccadilly. But enough!

Menzie is extremely popular in London as a sort of possible alternative to Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Not everybody is enamored with Churchill's single-minded obsession with orienting the entire country in a deathmatch with Hitler. Menzies drops a hint today in his diary that some are almost desperate for an alternative: he writes down that newspaperman Ronald Cross pleads with him, "We must not let you leave this country!" In fact, Menzies will remain in London for months, but he has no real power there and recognizes the authority of Churchill.

American Homefront: Football star Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski, also a championship wrestler, regains his National Wrestling Association world title from Ray Steele.

Ray Steele, wearing the National Wrestling Association title belt that he has just won from Bronko Nagurski in March 1940. This is the belt that he loses back to Nagurski today, 11 March 1941. The other gentlemen in the photo are subject to some debate, but apparently, the fellow on the right is Col. Harry J. Landry, the first president of the NWA.

March 1941

March 1, 1941: Rettungsboje
March 2, 1941: Oath of Kufra
March 3, 1941: Germans in Bulgaria
March 4, 1941: Lofoten Islands Raid
March 5, 1941: Cooperation With Japan
March 6, 1941: Battle of Atlantic
March 7, 1941: Prien Goes Under
March 8, 1941: Cafe de Paris
March 9, 1941: Italian Spring Offensive
March 10, 1941: Humanitarian Aid
March 11, 1941: Lend Lease Become Law
March 12, 1941: A New Magna Carta
March 13, 1941: Clydeside Wrecked
March 14, 1941: Leeds Blitz
March 15, 1941: Cruisers Strike!
March 16, 1941: Kretschmer Attacks
March 17, 1941: Happy Time Ends
March 18, 1941: Woolton Pie
March 19, 1941: London Hit Hard
March 20, 1941: Romeo and Juliet
March 21, 1941: Plymouth Blitz
March 22, 1941: Grand Coulee Dam
March 23, 1941: Malta Under Siege
March 24, 1941: Afrika Korps Strikes!
March 25, 1941: Yugoslavia Joins The Party
March 26, 1941: Barchini Esplosivi
March 27, 1941: Belgrade Coup
March 28, 1941: Cape Matapan Battle
March 29, 1941: Lindbergh Rants
March 30, 1941: Commissar Order
March 31, 1941: Cookie Bombs

2020