Tuesday 8 July 1941

Finnish tank crew with captured T-8, July 8, 1941 (Photo: SA-Kuva).

Eastern Front: In the Far North sector, Operation Arctic Fox produces its first significant success when German XXXVI Corps takes Salla on 8 July 1941. The Soviet 122nd Rifle Division retreats and is closely followed by the Germans and Finnish 6th Division. The fighting is bitter, and the Soviets lose 50 tanks and most of their artillery. SS Division Nord pursues Soviet 122nd Rifle Division toward Lampela, while the German 169th Division advances toward Kayraly. Finnish 6th Division continues its left-hook maneuver and tries to get behind the Soviets retreating toward Kayraly and Lape Apa.

In the Army Group North sector, the Germans of General Reinhardt's 41st Panzer Korps, 4th Panzer Group (Colonel General Erich Hoeppner) reach Pskov. The city sustains extensive damages, including the medieval citadel. This is the first major penetration of the Stalin Line. A little to the north, General Dietl's Army of Norway is stopped after establishing a bridgehead over the Litsa River, well short of its objective of Murmansk.

Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, Colonel Walther von Hünsdorff (hidden), Colonel-General Hermann Hoth, Colonel-General Wolfram von Richthofen. (Moosdorf/Mossdorf, Federal Archives, Bild 101I-265-0048A-03).

In the Army Group Center sector, tank ace Otto Carius is in the lead tank of the 20th Panzer Division (General Hoth's Panzer Group 3) at Ulla on the Dvina River when his Czech-built 38(t) tank is hit. The Russian 47-mm antitank round penetrates the front armor, smashes Carius' teeth and amputates the left arm of the radio operator. After being patched up, Carius hitchhikes to the front, now on the outskirts of Vitebsk (from Carius' "Tigers in the Mud"), and rejoins his unit.

In the Army Group South sector, German Panzer Group 1 and Sixth Army meet a Soviet counterattack at Kishinev by Soviet 5th Army. The Germans simply reorient their advance slightly to the north.

Luftwaffe ace (7 victories) Walter Margstein of JG 53 is killed in action.

Syrian/Lebanon Campaign: Australian 2/3rd Battalion and 2/5th Battalion of 7th Division cut the road from Damour north to Beirut. In addition, in the south, 2/2nd Pioneer Battalion and units of 6th Divisional Cavalry Regiment march north along the coast road.

Vichy General Henri Dentz, the commander of French forces in the Levant, has seen enough. Even though Damour itself still holds out, the Australian advance around Damour has made the defense of Beirut problematic. Dentz quietly seeks terms for peace.

"RAF aerial photograph of Wilhelmshaven." © IWM (HU 91200).

European Air Operations: The RAF has been accumulating and training on Boeing B-17C Flying Fortresses for months. Today, RAF Bomber Command sends the B-17s on their first operational mission, a daylight flight to Wilhelmshaven. Assigned to RAF Bomber Command's No. 90 Squadron based at Polebrook, Northamptonshire, the three B-17s fly individual sorties (one has to abort to a secondary target) rather than together as a formation.

The RAF is unhappy with the results and makes clear that future bombing runs are to be conducted as formations rather than individually. The crews complain of various shortcomings of the bombers, including difficulties using the Norden bombsight and inadequate defensive armament.

RAF Fighter Command sends Circus missions to attack the Lens power station (13 fighter squadrons, one bomber lost) and Lille (19 fighter squadrons, 7 losses). The RAF also sends a sweep over northern France.

After dark, RAF Bomber Command attacks Muenster (51 bombers) and Hamm (73), Biefeld (33), and Merseburg (14).

The Luftwaffe sends a night raid against Great Yarmouth, Norfolk.

Fortress B.I AN530, WP-F (U.S.A.A.F. B-17C 40-2066) in RAF service (Royal Air Force).

Battle of the Atlantic: Royal Navy submarine HMS Sealion sinks Vichy French trawlers Christus Regnat and St Pierre d'Alacantra off Ushant (Ouessant, Finistère).

German 460-ton converted minesweeping trawler M-1104 Jan Hubert collides with another vessel off southwest Norway and sinks.

Convoy HG-67 departs from Gibraltar bound for Liverpool.

Canadian corvette HMCS Shediac (Lt. Commander Lt. John O. Every-Clayton) is commissioned.

U-86, U-161 and U-656 are commissioned.

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy submarine HMS Torbay surfaces east of the island of Kithera (Kythera), Greece and uses its deck gun to sink German freighters LXIV and LI.

Royal Navy cruiser HMS Cornwall hits a wharf in Durban and sustains damage to its stem.

At Malta, the Italian Regia Aeronautica sends bombing missions against various points. An RAF Hurricane shoots down an Italian BR-20 "Stork" medium bomber south of the island.

"Boeing Fortress Mk I of No. 90 Squadron RAF based at West Raynham, Norfolk, 20 June 1941." © IWM (CH 2873).

Axis Relations: The major European Axis powers officially carve up Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia's neighbors receive "a little something:"

• Italy obtains: Dalmatian coast and some related islands, part of Slovenia, and rule over an expanded Croatia ("Great Croatia") as an "independent kingdom" via new king the Duke of Savoy
• Hungary: the Backa and Baranya triangle
• Germany: Serbian and Banat administration via puppet government, plus garrisons the remainder of Slovenia
• Bulgaria: part of Macedonia
• Albania: the remainder of Macedonia
• Montenegro: independence

The benefits of this carve-up to the recipients are few. However, they reflect long-held national desires for expansion into areas of "historic interest" and nationalism.

The Italian Embassy, Berlin. Note the blacked-out headlights and equipment for emergency lighting, in accordance with blackout regulations (Proietti, Ugo, Federal Archives, Bild 212-061).

Anglo/Soviet Relations: A Soviet military mission arrives in London.

Winston Churchill's first personal message to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin arrives in Moscow. Churchill boasts about RAF Bomber Command's attacks on Germany and promises, "The longer the war lasts the more help we can give."

German/US Relations: The American Embassy in Berlin arranges the release of American journalist Richard C. Hottelet. Arrested on espionage charges on 15 March 1941, Hottelet is a member of the so-called Murrow Boys, U.S. war correspondents recruited by CBS on-air reporter Edward R. Murrow. Hottelet soon heads for Lisbon, where he can catch a flight to London.

US/Japanese Relations: Japanese Foreign Minister Matsuoka Yosuko sends a diplomatic note to US Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew. It states that Japan desires peace and wishes to prevent the spread of war from Europe to the Pacific.

Hitler with Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels at the Wolfschanze in Rastenburg, East Prussia, 8 July 1941.

German Military: OKW operations chief Franz Halder briefs Hitler on the progress of the war in the Soviet Union. It is an encouraging briefing in which Halder claims that the Wehrmacht has pretty much destroyed 89 of 164 known Soviet rifle divisions (which is a vast overstatement). However, Halder insists that more power is needed on the eastern front, so Hitler releases 70 Mark IIIs, 15 Mark IVs, and the remaining Czech tanks from the OKW reserve. Management and use of reserves will be a huge topic of disagreement between the OKH (army command) and OKW (overall military command) throughout the war.

US Military: Patrol Wing 8 (Fleet Air Wing 8) is established at Naval Air Facility Breezy Point, Norfolk, Virginia. It later moves to Alameda, California.

While not technically a part of the US military, in substance it is an extension of the US Army Air Force. Today, pilots and staff of the American Volunteer Group (actually employed by a shell company) depart San Francisco for the Far East aboard Java Pacific liner "Jaegerfontein."

In Memphis, Tennessee, Army Major General Benjamin Lear, Commander of US Second Army, happens to observe some of his troops whistling at women passers-by while driving by. Lear makes all 350 men in the convoy walk the remaining 15 miles (24 km) to their destination. The troops' commander, Major General Ralph E. Truman (cousin of Harry), attempts to get Lear "retired" but fails. From this point forward, the rank and file call him "Yoo-hoo Lear."

Battleship USS Arizona arrives at Pearl Harbor.

British Military: Cadet David George Montagu Hay receives the Albert Medal for Lifesaving. Hay - who later becomes the 12th Marquess of Tweeddale - jumped out of a lifeboat after the sinking of freighter SS Eurylochus by German raider Kormoran on 29 January 1941 to rescue an officer without regard to his own safety.

Reykjavik, Iceland, 8 July 1941. US Marines landed on 7 July in order to relieve British troops and allow them to return to England.

China: There is a Japanese air raid on Chungking, the Nationalist capital. The British Embassy, already damaged in previous attacks, is destroyed during the raid.

Holocaust: Jews in the Baltic States are forced to wear the Yellow Star of David badge.

Soviet Homefront: The government institutes food rationing in major cities.

American Homefront: John D. Rockefeller, Jr. makes a speech to the Selective Service Parents and Neighbors Committee of the United Service Organizations that is broadcast over radio station WMGA in New York. He lists "the things that make life most worth living," which are all beliefs. These are:

• "the supreme worth of the individual"
• "Every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation, every possession, a duty"
• "the law was made for man and not man for the law"
• "the dignity of labor"
• "thrift"
• "Truth and justice"
• "sacredness of a promise"
• "the rendering of useful service"
• "an all-wise and all-loving God"
• "love"

Rockefeller urges everyone to support the United Service Organizations to create a new world that recognizes "the brotherhood of man."
Major League Baseball holds its annual All-Star Game at Briggs Stadium in Detroit. With the American League trailing 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Ted Williams hits a three-run home run to earn a 7-5 victory for the American League (Joe DiMaggio, on first base, actually scores the winning run). Williams later comments that the walk-off home run "remains to this day the most thrilling hit of my life."

Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio at the All-Star Game held on July 8, 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

Sunday 4 May 1941

Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag at the Kroll Opera House, 4 May 1941. Visible behind him is Hermann Goering, who technically is the leader of the Reichstag.

Anglo-Iraq War: The British on 4 May 1941 continue their successful defense of Habbaniyah Airfield, Basra and their other fortified positions in Iraq. The RAF has complete control of the air. British reinforcements, called "Iraqforce," are now on the march to Iraq from Palestine and Transjordan (Habforce and Kingcol), while men are trickling into Basra from India. The motley group of British ground forces in Habbaniyah already are having some success forcing the Iraqis back toward Baghdad, suggesting they will be able to hold out until the relief arrives.

The RAF raids the Iraqi forces, including Baghdad (where it drops leaflets) and other enemy areas. The Luftwaffe has a small presence at Mosul Airfield for receiving supplies via Vichy Syria, which the RAF also attacks.

There still is Iraqi resistance at Basra, where Iraqi gunboats and merchantmen remain outside of British control. Australian sloop HMAS Yarra arrives there today to help deal with the Iraqi shipping.

A Messerschmitt Bf 110D3 Zerstorer IAF 4.ZG76 in Iraqi markings, Mosul Iraq May 1941.

European Air Operations: The Luftwaffe continues bombing Liverpool. The May Blitz is notable for its ferocity and accuracy. The Germans have refined their techniques and finally are targeting port infrastructure and vulnerable shipping in the harbor with great success. The aftereffects of the devastating explosion of 7649-ton ammunition ship Malakand on the 3rd continue to be felt there, and 295-ton ship Pneumatic Elevator No. 11 sinks due to the blast effects, adding to the numerous ships sunk or damaged. Other ships damaged today by the Luftwaffe include:

• 274-ton tug Bison
• 10,254-ton liner Talthybius
• 7005-ton freighter Baron Inchcape
• 201-ton tug Hornby
• 99-ton tug Enid Blanche
• 719-ton hopper barge No. 33
• 209-ton barge Aid
• 67-ton flat John
• 46-ton sailing barge Bongo
• 7801-ton freighter Roxburgh Castle.

Some of the ships are repaired, but others are hit in subsequent raids and destroyed. The port is devastated and in chaos, with many ships on fire, others slowly sinking, and new ships still being docked and unloaded. There are separate attacks by 55 bombers targets Barrow-in-Furness, and 17 bombers on Hartlepool, with a small force hitting Middlesbrough. The Germans lose a couple of Junkers Ju 88s, one to engine failure, another to a night fighter.

Joseph Goebbels and Joachim Ribbentrop give the Hitler Salute at the 4  May 1941 speech by Adolf Hitler at the Kroll Opera House (Federal Archives).

East African Campaign: The 5th Indian Division, which has been advancing from the south, attacks the Italian positions at Amba Alagi. The Italians, though somewhat distracted by a separate attack coming up the Falaga Pass, are dug in and give little ground. The Gold Coast 24th Infantry Brigade attacks Italian positions at Wadara in Galla-Sidamo, while the Indian troops at Amba Alagi do capture a few foothills (Pyramid, Whale Back, and Elephant ). From here the going becomes steeper and more open to Italian fire.

Another British force is heading south toward the city, with a third force, the South Africans, also approaching. The Italians, meanwhile, are hiding out in caves which are very defensible, but also have no access to resupply and scant stores of even the most basic necessities such as food and water.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-38 (Kptlt. Heinrich Liebe), operating out of Lorient on her 9th and most successful patrol, is off of Freetown in the Atlantic when it fires three torpedoes and uses its deck gun to sink 5230-ton Swedish freighter Japan. The entire 55-man crew (and four passengers) makes land and survives, but is captured and interned by the Vichy French. The ship is part of Convoy OB-310. The U-38's deck gun explodes, injuring the gun crew.

The Luftwaffe hits 234-ton minesweeping trawler HMT Ben Gairn with a parachute mine at Waveney Dock, Lowestoft, Suffolk. There are no casualties, but the ship is destroyed.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 222-ton British freighter Tregor off Trevose Head. The six-man crew survives.

The Luftwaffe also damages 545-ton Belgian freighter Marie Flore off Trevose Head. Marie Flore tries to make it to port but cannot get there and is beached at Padstow.

The Luftwaffe also damages destroyer HMS Southdown in the North Sea by a near miss. The ship is leaking and temporarily loses steering but makes it to port.

The Luftwaffe damages minesweeper Selkirk and patrol yacht HMY Franc Tireur in the Thames Estuary. Both ships make it back for repairs.

Royal Navy minesweeper HMS Latona (Captain Stuart L. Bateson) is commissioned.

Battle of the Mediterranean: German General Paulus, temporarily in command of the Afrika Korps, seen enough of the abortive attack on Tobruk. He orders that no more attacks be made by Rommel's forces unless there are signs of Allied retreat. Paulus already is looking toward his rear and orders that a new defensive line must be built in Gazala. In this sense, he is basically in agreement with the failed Italian strategy which began the campaign, believing in the value of fixed defensive positions in the defensive rather than Rommel's faith in mobile operations. Rommel dutifully begins constructing defensive outposts facing the Tobruk perimeter. From this point forward for the next couple of months, the Germans and Australians will engage in only local actions, with the Germans holding their small three-mile wide incursion into Tobruk's defenses.

The campaign evolves into competing supply buildups between Germany and Great Britain, with both sides holding unique advances in that struggle (the Royal Navy largely controls the sea and can be supplied from India, Australia, and New Zealand in addition to England, while the Axis has a short, though dangerous, supply route from Italy).

Churchill cables his Middle East commander General Archibald Wavell in Cairo. He states that is is "most important not to allow fighting around Tobruk to die down" due to the Germans' over-extension following his "premature audacious advance." He encourages counterattacks "at the earliest possible moment" to prevent the Afrika Korps from being able to "gather supplies and strength for a forward move." Churchill and Paulus, thus, see the North Africa campaign developing the same way, and this is not a coincidence, as the British are reading the German codes via the Ultra decryption program.

Churchill also notes in his cable the "success of Demon." This is a reference to Operation Demon, a daring gamble of running disguised freighters directly through the Mediterranean to Egypt. In fact, one Demon ship already has been sunk, though two have made it through.

New Zealand Major-General Bernard Freyberg, the British leader in Crete, is feeling a bit exposed now that the Germans have had some time to digest the Greek mainland. He asks Wavell for permission to evacuate about 10,000 men who are refugees from the mainland and, by and large, unarmed. He notes that they have "little or no employment other than getting into trouble with the civil population."

The Germans occupy the Greek islands of Lesbos and Chios.

Italian torpedo boat Giuseppe La Farina hits a mine and sinks off Kerkennah. The Italians are busy supplying the Afrika Korps in Tripoli and today send a convoy of seven troopships from Naples. The Italians provide a heavy escort three light cruisers and 8 destroyers, with some smaller torpedo boats also involved.

At Malta, the Luftwaffe remains active. Minesweeper HMS Fermoy, which was damaged earlier in the month and under repair, sinks from its damage.

Santa Fe Excursion train, 4 May 1941.

War Crimes: The Luftwaffe damages 7117-ton hospital ship Karapara in Tobruk Harbour. While accidents happen, hospital ships are clearly marked and there have been many incidents involving them. The Karapara makes it to Port Said for repairs. While there may seem little to gain by attacking hospital ships, driving them off or destroying them isolates the Australians holding out in Tobruk.

Anglo/US Relations: Churchill cables President Roosevelt and suggests that the Royal Navy is seriously considering occupying the Canary Islands (which he never actually names) and other Portuguese islands in the Atlantic in order to forestall a Wehrmacht occupation there. The US, he proposes, would serve as the "guarantor" that those islands would be returned to Portugal after the war. He also notes that "We are determined to fight to the last inch and ounce for Egypt, including its outposts of Tobruk and Crete."

Anglo/Portuguese Relations: Perhaps coincidental to Churchill's cable to President Roosevelt (but perhaps not), Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies, on his way to New York, calls on Portuguese Prime Minister Dr. Salazar in Lisbon. Salazar, Menzies writes in his diary, is "very sincere and earnest" and tells Menzies that "The Portuguese won't fight." Of course, the Portuguese are in no danger so long as Spain remains neutral, though Hitler still dreams of drawing Franco into his collection of satellites and then occupying Portugal and its Atlantic islands.

German Military: While Adolf Hitler already has set the date for Operation Barbarossa as 22 June 1941, not everyone agrees with the decision. In fact, there is little enthusiasm for it within the uppermost reaches of the German government and military, including by Luftwaffe boss Hermann Goering. Admiral Raeder continues to press for his "peripheral strategy," which focuses on cutting off Great Britain's overseas possessions in the Mediterranean and elsewhere. That strategy to date has had great success, but the British remain entrenched in Egypt and at Gibraltar. The vast mass of the Wehrmacht, however, already is positioned in the East, and Hitler sticks with his plan to invade the Soviet Union.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt attends the dedication ceremony for the Home of Woodrow Wilson. Staunton, VA, May 4, 1941. FDR gives a speech on "The Power of Spiritual Force" (Margaret Suckley, FDR Presidential Library and Museum).

US Military: Brig. Gen. Henry B. Clagett, with his chief of staff Col. Harold Huston George, arrive at Manila in the Philippines to command the newly created Philippine Department Air Force. They arrive on a Boeing 314 Clipper (Pan-American Air Lines). Their mission is to expand the air defenses in the Philippines.

Soviet Government: The Politburo replaces Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov with Joseph Stalin as Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. This makes Stalin the de jure head of the Soviet government These appointments in the USSR are mere formalities, though, as there is no question that Stalin runs the government and always is the de facto national leader.

Hitler and Goering on 4 May 1941.

German Government: Adolf Hitler addresses the Reichstag in the Kroll Opera House (the Reichstag building itself has been unusable since the infamous fire several years ago). As often happens during his wartime speeches, Hitler sums up past events rather than giving a specific preview of coming events. In essence, it is a victory speech and covers events from the beginning of the war to date.

Hitler digs deep, delivering a polemic on why Germany is at war that is based on equal parts paranoia, self-delusion, and outright fabrications. He propounds some of his standard themes - that Germany was forced into the war based on decisions taken by others "as early as 1936," that the plot against Germany was formed by "great international Jewish financial interests," and that "this criminal" Winston Churchill (he also terms him a "fool" and a "drunkard") was personally responsible for the blockade and aerial campaign against the Reich.

Hitler also puts forth an economic argument for German policy in the Balkans - which obviously involves a lot of Wehrmacht military activity. He argues that reliance on money, or "worthless democratic money paper" as he puts it, is inherently unfair, and only mutual trade agreements such as those between the Reich and the Balkan states is fair. The wars that Germany has just won were the product of "filthy British politics" which had duped Romania, Yugoslavia, and Greece and had forced a defensive campaign by the Wehrmacht to protect its southeast flank.

Hitler summarizes the Greek Campaign (Operation Marita) by claiming that Churchill had committed "one of the greatest strategic blunders of this war" by trying to garrison and defend it. He credits the order to attack Yugoslavia to the coup there. He notes that "the Greek soldiers have fought with the greatest bravery and contempt of death," and that the British force in Greece was there to attack the Reich and thus had to be removed. He gives figures of 57 officers and 1042 noncommissioned officers and men killed, 181 officers and 3571 noncommissioned officers and men wounded, and 13 officers and 372 noncommissioned officers and men wounded. Regarding future operations, he merely states that he views them with "perfect tranquillity and great confidence."

Needless to say, the speech is pure propaganda. Churchill's belated and inadequate military aid to Greece turned out to do nothing but offer Hitler a convenient excuse for why he attacked. No mention is made in the speech, of course, of Hitler's intense preparations for invading Greece long before the first British boot set foot there.

Singapore: Winston Churchill asks General Ismay for a "report on the efficiency of the gunners and personnel" manning air defenses in Singapore.

Romania: Madeleine Cantacuzino (soon to be Madeleine Lipatti) and Dinu Lipatti gave the first Romanian performance of Lipatti’s Symphonie concertante for two pianos and strings.

American Homeland: There is a concert held for the Deutsches Kriegshilfswerk [German war workers] at the California Hall in San Francisco, California. There is a strong German presence in San Francisco, where the Germans maintain a consulate.

Future History: Nickolas Ashford is born in Fairfield, South Carolina. He will become half of the famous singing group Ashford & Simpson. He will pass away in 2011.

Baseball in San Bruno Park, California on May 4, 1941 (Fred Beltramo, San Bruno Public Library).

May 1941

May 1, 1941: British Hold Tobruk
May 2, 1941: Anglo-Iraq War
May 3, 1941: Liverpool Hammered
May 4, 1941: Hitler Victory Speech
May 5, 1941: Patriots Day
May 6, 1941: Stalin In Command
May 7, 1941: May Blitz
May 8, 1941: Pinguin Sunk
May 9, 1941: U-110 Captured
May 10, 1941: Hess Flies Into History
May 11, 1941: The Hess Peace Plan
May 12, 1941: Tiger Arrives Safely
May 13, 1941: Keitel's Illegal Order
May 14, 1941: Holocaust in Paris
May 15, 1941: Operation Brevity
May 16, 1941: Blitz Ends
May 17, 1941: Habbaniya Relieved
May 18, 1941: Croatia Partitioned
May 19, 1941: Bismarck at Sea
May 20, 1941: Invasion of Crete
May 21, 1941: Robin Moore Sinking
May 22, 1941: Royal Navy Destruction Off Crete
May 23, 1941: Crete Must Be Won
May 24, 1941: Bismarck Sinks Hood
May 25, 1941: Lütjens' Brilliant Maneuver
May 26, 1941: Bismarck Stopped
May 27, 1941: Bismarck Sunk
May 28, 1941: Crete Lost
May 29, 1941: Royal Navy Mauled Off Crete
May 30, 1941: Sorge Warns, Stalin Ignores
May 31, 1941: British Take Baghdad

2020