Monday 7 July 1941

Life Magazine, "Defense Issue," featuring General George S. Patton, Jr. on the cover. July 7, 1941.

Eastern Front: Stalin continues tinkering with his command apparatus on 7 July 1941. While he can be brutal with even his closest associates, he also tends to favor the same small group of cronies during times of crisis. He appoints Kliment Voroshilov commander of the Northwestern Direction (equivalent to a German Army Group, it controls several fronts). He also takes Semyon Timoshenko's titles of Stavka Chairman and Defense Commissar and sends him to command the Central and Western Fronts. Semyon Budyonny (Budenny), an old cavalryman whose only discernible talent is making Stalin laugh when they are getting drunk, is sent to command the Southern Front. Notable from his absence in these appointments is Georgy Zhukov, who remains Stalin's top troubleshooter. The Soviet Union now has military commands that directly mirror the three German army groups.

In the Far North sector, Operation Arctic Fox - the attack toward the Murmansk railway - is going well for the Germans again. With the assistance of a flank attack by Finnish 6th Division, the German regular 169th Division and the SS-Infantry Kampfgruppe Nord, supplemented by some members of 163rd Infantry Division brought up from southern Finland, hammer back the Soviet 14th Army. The Soviets are making a stand in Salla, but the momentum again is with the Axis troops.

Operation Platinum Fox, further north, is going worse for the Germans. The 3rd Mountain Division has established a small bridgehead on the Litsa River, but the Army of Norway commander General Dietl is unable to expand it. Dietl requests more troops to resume the advance, but OKW refuses.

Soviet POWs being processed, July 7, 1941 (AP Photo).

In the Army Group North sector, the German 4th Panzer Group (Hoepner) captures Pskov. The Germans continue beating off a Soviet counterattack at a bridgehead at Ostrov.

In the Army Group Center sector, the German 20th Panzer Division crosses the Western Dvina River (Daugava River). This poses a threat to the rear of the Soviet Polotsk Fortified Region. In addition, the 20th Motorized Division crosses the Ulla River.

The panzer divisions are still carrying the advance, but they are wearing down. The 10th Panzer Division reports that it is at 80% of its establishment, but the 3rd and 18th Panzer Divisions are down to 35%. Other units report readiness levels in between those levels.

In Army Group South, the German 13th Panzer Division takes Berdychiv in the Zhytomyr Oblast. The SS quickly follows the troops and establishes a Jewish ghetto for the 20-40,000 Jews there. While Field Marshal Rundstedt's troops are quickly approaching Kyiv, the Soviets are massing troops there to deny Hitler a quick prestige victory.

Newsweek, 7 July 1941.

Syrian/Lebanon Campaign: Having established two bridgeheads across the Damour River, the Australian 7th Division begins to exploit them. Before dawn, one Australian bridgehead (the 2/3rd Battalion and the 2/5th Battalion, along with two companies of the 2/14th Battalion) moves north toward El Boum. The other bridgehead (the remainder of the 2/14th) mounts a flank attack on Damour from the east. The attack from the first bridgehead continues forward toward the critical coast road north of Damour, whose capture would compel the surrender of Vichy French forces in the town.

Everyone on both sides understands that the fall of Damour would decide the war because nothing else stands between the Australians and Beirut. General Henri Dentz, the Vichy French commander, keeping a very close eye on the battle to see if he can continue his unexpectedly vigorous defense of the Levant.

Offshore, Royal Navy motor torpedo boat MTB 68 embarks on a daring raid into Beirut Harbor. It drops depth charges next to two merchant ships.

Wing-walker Sergeant James Allen Ward of No. 75 (New Zealand) Squadron. He is standing in the cockpit of his Vickers Wellington Mark IC, L7818 ‘AA-V’, at Feltwell, Norfolk.

European Air Operations: The RAF sends 20 planes on coastal sweeps during the day. This includes a mid-day attack on a German coastal convoy between Ijmuiden and Den Haag. They report scoring hits on two ships, but there is no confirmation. The RAF loses five planes. The RAF also sends Circus missions to Hazebrouck, Choques, and Albert.

After dark, RAF Bomber Command attacks Cologne with 114 Wellington bombers. It also sends 72 aircraft to attack Osnabruck, 40 aircraft to attack Monchengladbach and 49 aircraft to attack Münster.

After dark, the Luftwaffe attacks Southampton.

Royal New Zealand Air Force Sgt. James Allen Ward wins the Victoria Cross. Ward becomes the first New Zealander to win the decoration, and he really earns it. He is on a bombing run to Muenster in a Wellington of RAF No. 75 Squadron when a Bf-110 (shot down by the rear gunner) hits an engine and it catches fire. This threatens the plane, and the crew cannot put it out using fire extinguishers. Tethered with a rope, co-pilot Ward crawls out on the wing in mid-flight and somehow puts out the fire by stomping on it. Getting command of his own aircraft due to his heroism, Allen is KIA on his second mission. As he later recalls:

The wind kept lifting me off the wing. Once it slapped me back on to the fuselage again, but I managed to hang on. The slipstream from the engine made things worse. It was like being in a terrific gale, only much worse than any gale I’ve ever known in my life.

The pilot manages to get the plane back to England and crash-land on a runway.

Luftwaffe ace Joseph "Pips" Priller files claims for two Spitfires. They are his 32nd and 33rd victories.

Battle of the Baltic: German three-masted schooner Luise Bermann hits a mine and sinks off Kolberg.

German 193-ton fishing vessel Neuenfelde hits a mine and sinks near Kolberg.

Soviet minesweeper Petrozavodsk sinks off Kronstadt, perhaps due to a mine.

"HMS MANXMAN Underway at speed, 7th July 1941." © IWM (FL 4435).

Battle of the Atlantic: Royal Navy submarine HMS Sealion sinks 39-ton French fishing trawler Gustav Jeanne and 120-ton French fishing trawler Gustav Eugene off Ushant (Ouessant, Finistère) in the Bay of Biscay.

The Luftwaffe bombs and damages 9918-ton Norwegian tanker Ferncourt off St. Davids, Wales. There are two deaths. The Ferncourt makes it to Milford Haven and docks at Swansea.

Royal Navy 115-ton hired drifter Lord St. Vincent hits a mine and sinks in the Thames Estuary near the North East Gunfleet Buoy. There are two deaths resulting from the sinking.

Illustrating the dangers of pilots operating off of CAM ships, a Fulmar of RAF No. 804 Squadron crashes in Kerran Hill, near Southend, Kintyre after being launched to investigate an aircraft sighting. There are two deaths.

Convoy OB-344 departs from Liverpool.

Royal Navy corvette HMS Campion (Lt. Commander Arthur Johnson) is commissioned.

U-337 is laid down.

Hamburg’s Jungfernstieg at midday on Monday, July 7, 1941. On the right is the entrance to the Jungfernstieg stop on the "Hochbahn" (Proietti, Ugo, Federal Archives, Bild 212-228).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Italian light cruisers, accompanied by a numerous destroyer screen, lay mines in the Sicilian Channel.

The Italians send a stream of nuisance raids to Malta. One bomber overflies the island and then returns from the south to drop its bombs - whether by plan or simply getting lost is unknown, but it gets away.

General Archibald Wavell, former British Middle East Commander, departs from Cairo. He is flying to Habbaniya, Iraq and then to India to take up his new role as Commander-in-Chief, India. Claude Auchinleck now has Wavell's old job, the two have switched positions.

The RAF sends a fighter sweep over Bardia.

Žikica Jovanović Španac as a student at the Valjevo Gymnasium. He is considered a national hero in Serbia.

Partisans: An uprising breaks out in the Bela Crkva, Serbia. Known as the Uprising in Serbia, it begins when communist Žikica Jovanović Španac shows up with over a dozen associates and makes a speech during the traditional Ivanjdan midsummer village fair. Španac then shoots and kills two local gendarmes for emphasis and escapes into the nearby hills.

An uprising has been planned by monarchist Yugoslav Army Colonel Dragoljub Mihailović, but this incident is independent of his forces. Mihailović and his followers only reluctantly join the revolt later in the summer. The communists chose western Serbia as the beginning point because of its mountainous terrain and dense forests. Serbia also, unlike Croatia, has a history of supporting England. Word spreads quickly throughout the region of the uprising.

Another uprising in Yugoslavia, this one in eastern Herzegovina, is suppressed. This uprising began on 23 June 1941and has simmered ever since. Today, the uprising finally is suppressed and the Independent State of Croatia (Croatian: Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) regains control of all key points.

Propaganda: The Germans begin a campaign against communists in France and Belgium.

The US Marines entering Reykjavik Harbor, 7 July 1941. This is from the quarterdeck of battleship USS New York (BB-34) looking astern. Visible are the Alabama (BB-33), USS Brooklyn (CL-40) and Nashville (CL-43). Directly to the right is 3-inch gun, and to the left is a quick-release life ring (US National Archive).

US/Icelandic Relations: U.S. Marines (1st Marine Brigade, Provisional) of new Task Force 19 under Brig. General J. Marston land at Reykjavik in six transport ships under heavy escort. They are there to replace British troops who are needed elsewhere. The marines, with no help from local labor, immediately begin unloading the transports and setting up their camps.

President Roosevelt sends a message to Congress announcing the occupation. While it may seem obvious after the fact that the US would want to occupy Iceland during World War II, the US is at peace and it is a big deal to just get up and send troops to a foreign country. Roosevelt notes:

The United States cannot permit the occupation by Germany of strategic outposts in the Atlantic to be used as air or naval bases for eventual attack against the Western Hemisphere. We have no desire to see any change in the present sovereignty of those regions. Assurance that such outposts in our defense frontier remain in friendly hands is the very foundation of our national security and of the national security of every one of the independent nations of the new world.

The Icelandic government under Prime Minister Herman Jonasson has given grudging support and basically accepts occupation by a foreign power as inevitable under the circumstances. The US explicitly recognized Icelandic sovereignty and promises to evacuate once the war is over.

In conjunction with this move, the United States extends its security zone east to cover Iceland. From this point forward, the United States assumes responsibility for protecting all convoys containing US ships until they are past Iceland.

The Hamburg Gänsemarkt, 7 July 1941 (Proietti, Ugo, Federal Archives, Bild 212-227).

Anglo/Soviet Relations: Former Soviet People's Commissar for the Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union Maxim Litvinov (who was replaced on 3 May 1939 because he was Jewish and Stalin didn't want to offend Hitler) makes a radio broadcast to England from Moscow. Speaking in English, Litvinov urges cooperation between Great Britain and the USSR. This is exactly what Winston Churchill wishes as well. Stalin, however, doesn't just want vague expressions of solidarity - he wants concrete agreements that will tie the Allies together.

US/Chinese Relations: Clare Chennault completes a supply mission to the United States and returns to China from San Francisco. While most passages across the Pacific are by ocean liner, Chennault has no time for that and instead uses the Clipper service.

German Military: Jürgen Stroop joins the German 3rd SS Division Totenkopf in the infantry regiment.

Fifth Panzer Division, still in the Balkans from Operation Marita, is told to prepare to move to the Eastern Front. While many historians like to claim that the German Balkans campaign delayed Operation Barbarossa, the reality is that the units there actually served as the Wehrmacht's main (and practically only) reserve early in the war. In general, having reserve units is considered a good thing in military circles, but this is one of the few times during the war against the USSR that Germany actually has a substantial reserve it can draw upon. The USSR, on the other hand, almost always has a large reserve.

North American Aviation’s prototype fighter, NA-73X, NX19998, at Mines Field, Los Angeles, California. (North American Aviation).

US Military: The US Marines organize the First Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW) at Quantico, Virginia. It is formed from Headquarters Squadron and Marine Air Group 1 (MAG-1).

The US Army Air Force (USAAF) orders 150 North American Aviation NA-73 fighters. These use Allison V-1710-39 liquid-cooled engines and have four .303 (7.7 mm) machine guns. This aircraft was designed at the request of Great Britain. The USAAF calls them Apaches, but this name later is replaced by Mustang. The planes are given the official designation P-51.

The US occupies Trinidad and British Guiana, relieving British forces there for other missions.

TIME Magazine Cover: Yosuke Matsuoka -- July 7, 1941 (Ernest Hamlin Baker).

Japanese Military: General Seishiro Itagaki becomes commanding officer of the Japanese Chosen Army in occupied Korea, relieving Kotaro Nakamura.

Vichy French Military: The French create the Legion of French Volunteers against Bolshevism ("Legion des Volontaires Francais contre le Bolchevisme").

British Government: The War Cabinet continues debating how to defend the Far East. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden prefers an aggressive stance, which would include renouncing the trade treaty with Japan and beefing up the British military presence in Malaya and Dutch Timor and Ambon. However, Winston Churchill prefers to remain low-key in the Pacific Theater for the time being.

Greek Government: Greek King George arrives in South Africa with his family aboard a Royal Navy warship.

Soldiers from the 51st separate motorcycle battalion of the 22nd Tank Corps of the 38th Army of the Southwestern Front of the Red Army. This is during July 1941 before the Battle of Uman.

Philippines: Rectifying a massive error from earlier in the summer, the US Army Air Force delivers enough Prestone antifreeze to make the P-40B fighters already delivered flyable.

China: Chiang Kai-shek, leader of the Nationalist government of China, decides to mark the fourth anniversary of the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (which some people believe is the real start of World War II). He sends a lengthy message to friendly nations in which he summarizes the world situation and his own country's predicament. Among other things, Chiang notices the connection between the wars brewing on opposite sides of the world, writing:

the war in the Far East is no longer to be viewed as merely a conflict between two nations, for the European and Asiatic Wars have now become closely interrelated. Scarcely a single country remains unaffected because this predatory group of powers excludes no country from the scope of its design to dominate the world by force.

Chiang makes a far-sighted prediction:

It is my privilege to declare that the Chinese people in condemning the Japanese are not only with unity of purpose of putting an end to Japanese aggression but also are thinking of contributing to a new world order of the future, to the civilization and prosperity of mankind.

It is a heady time: leaders on both sides of the conflict are dreaming of their own New World Orders that they will establish after the war. However, only one vision can come true, and imposing yours requires winning the war at hand.

Holocaust: The Germans require Jews in Lithuania to wear Yellow Stars of David badges. Killings of Jews continues in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania.

American Homefront: There is a major anti-war protest in New York City. Protestors carry large signs saying "Arm Britain and Prolong the War," "Stay out of Europe's War"; "Hitler has not attacked us, why attack Hitler?" "Stay out of South America, of Europe, of War"; "Lend-Lease Lose-Lives"; "Hitler has not attacked us, why attack Hitler?"; "Why Not Peace with Hitler?"; "Europe for Europeans. America for Americans"; "The Only Fight Worth Fighting is the Fight for Peace"; "Fight the Draft, Conscription in Tyranny"; "No Loans to England. No Arms to Anyone"; "American Union for Organization Against War"; "The Army and Navy are Hotbeds for Fascism"; "Protest Any Extension for Army Service" and similar slogans.


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

Wednesday 12 March 1941

"Infantry and Bren gun carriers of the 5th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment pass through a village during 3rd Division exercises near Christchurch in Dorset, 12 March 1941." © IWM (H 7971).

Italian/Greek Campaign: The Italian Primavera Offensive continues on 12 March 1941. However, the Italian 11th Army gains no new ground. The Greek defenses hold firm, while the Italians incur heavy casualties while attacking the Greek 1st Division in the center of the line. Mussolini demands that the offensive be continued.

The Italian Regia Aeronautica flies numerous sorties and loses many planes. The RAF, meanwhile, bombs Valona airfield and Sazan (Saseno) Island off Valona (Vlorë).

East African Campaign: Lieutenant-General William Platt continues preparing his troops for another assault on Keren. He is planning a set-piece attack for the middle of the month. The Italians also are reinforcing the area, particularly on Dologorodoc east of the Dongolaas Gorge which serves as a choke point. Fort Dologorodoc dominates Happy Valley and is the critical feature of the entire defensive position. Further south, British troops are about 600 miles north of Mogadishu.

The Focke Wulf factory at Bremen sustains major damage on 12 March 1941. This picture taken by RAF reconnaissance on 15 March 1941 shows a hole in the roof of a large factory building ("10") and numerous bomb craters. One other thing this photograph reveals is that it takes a lot of bombing in 1941 to actually put large factory installations out of business completely.

European Air Operations: The weather over northwestern Europe improves dramatically today, and RAF Bomber Command takes advantage. It sends large raids against Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg. A total of 244 RAF bombers fly over the Reich, including Stirling and Manchester bombers. Even some of the new Handley Page Halifax four-engined heavy bombers participate despite only having seen their first combat ever a couple of nights ago over Le Havre. This is the first major raid on Berlin during 1941, and there will be nine more.

The Berlin attack by 72 bombers includes ten 1,900 lb. bombs and seven 1,000 lb. bombs. Bombing accuracy is good for the time period, perhaps due to the clear weather. At Bremen, 86 bombers of No. 2 Group attack a Focke Wulf airframe factory. One of the 1,000 lb. bombs destroys a factory building. Damage is spread throughout the factory district. The third city hit is Hamburg and it also suffers heavily from 88 RAF bombers. The Blohm & Voss shipbuilding/seaplane area suffers the most damage, with bombs also dropping in the surrounding areas.

The Hamburg and Bremen attacks appear to have been targeted to implement British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's "Battle of the Atlantic" priority scheme. The Focke Wulf factory in Bremen manufactures Fw 200 Condors which have been operating with devastating effects against British shipping in the Northwest Approaches and St. George's Channel. Blohm & Voss, meanwhile, is a major shipbuilder that has branched out into manufacturing flying boats and seaplanes.

About another dozen RAF bombers attack airfields in northwest Europe such as Schiphol airfield at Amsterdam, and also invasion ports such as Boulogne.

The Luftwaffe (KG 55) uses the clear night to attack the Liverpool area. The dock areas of Birkenhead and Wallasey in Wirral in the Merseyside area (174 dead) suffer heavy damage. The effect on shipping is particularly devastating with 8 small ships sunk and a floating crane destroyed. The Germans lose two bombers to night fighters. These continuing raids on Liverpool are killing hundreds of civilians and wounding hundreds more.

Battle of the Atlantic: German heavy cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst complete their refueling from tankers Uckermark and Ermland and resume patrolling the sea lanes near the Cape Verde Islands. Admiral Lütjens now is under orders to continue his attacks until the 18th, and then proceed to Brest, France to conclude Operation Berlin.

U-37 (Kptlt. Asmus Nicolai Clausen), on its eleventh and final patrol, is operating south of Iceland. It uses its deck gun to sink 91-ton Icelandic trawler Pétursey. There are no survivors. This is U-37's final victim, and in a way, it is fitting: the ship is attacked by mistake, and once Clausen sees the Icelandic flag on its side, he ceases fire. However, it is too late, and the mistaken victim sinks. The absence of survivors is a puzzle because Clausen gives them plenty of time to abandon ship, which they do - but the waters in the North Atlantic are cold and treacherous.

The Luftwaffe bombs 7005-ton British freighter Empire Frost at the mouth of the Bristol Channel off Milford Haven. There are six deaths, and the freighter is taken in tow.

The Luftwaffe bombs 6625-ton British freighter Essex Lance in the Strait of Dover. Badly damaged, the Essex Lance is towed to Cromer and beached nearby. The ship later is repaired and refloated.

The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks 1189 ton Swedish freighter Stella at Manchester, which is loading steel billets bound for Newport. Sunk at its berth, the badly damaged Stella later is refloated and renamed River Swift.

At Liverpool, numerous ships are damaged or sunk during the night attack:

• 5646-Swedish freighter Buenos Aires (sunk, later raised and used as a stationary supply ship)
• 1542-British floating crane Mammoth (sunk, later raised)
• 122-ton British coaster Excelsior (sunk)
• 5218-ton British freighter Catrine (damaged)
• 12,427-ton British transport Imperial Star (damaged)
• 7403-ton British freighter Elax (damaged)
• 8092-ton British tanker El Mirlo (damaged)
• 8120-ton British tanker Delphinula (damaged).

German motor torpedo boat S-28 attacks Convoy SF 32 off Orfordness, Suffolk. It sinks 5257-ton British freighter Trevethoe. There is one death.

British 324-ton freighter Camroux I hits a mine a few miles off Blyth. It is towed to that port.

Convoy OB 297 departs from Liverpool.

Royal Navy destroyer HMS Exmoor, corvette Vervain and anti-submarine warfare trawler Valse are launched.

U-167, U-605, U-606 and U-661 are laid down.

Italian medium M13/40 tanks on parade in Tripoli on 12 March 1941. Picture from Wikipedia’s Bundesarchiv project (Sturm, Federal Archive: Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B16002).

Battle of the Mediterranean: The entire 5th Light Division now is active in Tripolitania. General Rommel returns from Berlin, where he was engaged in planning the first offensive of the Afrika Korps. A parade, apparently in Rommel's honor, is staged at 17:00 in front of the Castle in Tripoli by the German 5th Panzer Regiment and the tank battalion of the Ariete Division. The German panzers head out toward Sirte directly after the parade.

In Malta, the Luftwaffe is switching to night raids, just as it has on the Channel front in northwest Europe. Many of the night-time raids are nuisance raids, lone planes designed simply to strain the nerves of the island's residents. However, the residents of Sliema have had their homes destroyed in the previous night's raid, and the defending RAF fighters have been greatly reduced in number by recent attacks on Luqa and Hal Far airfields.

Convoy AG 5 departs Alexandria bound for Piraeus, Convoy US 9/2 departs from Bombay.

An Italian troop convoy departs from Naples bound for Tripoli. It has three troop transport ships and a heavy escort.

Battle of the Indian Ocean: German raider Pinguin rendezvouses with fellow raider Komet 120 miles east of the Kerguelen Islands. They proceed to the islands and anchor at Port Couvreux. Accompanying Pinguin is captured whaler Pol IX, which is converted to an auxiliary minelayer and renamed Adjutant.

Marika Rökk on the cover of Filmwoche Magazine, 12 March 1941.

Anglo/US Relations: At a press conference regarding the new Lend-Lease Act, Prime Minister Churchill goes into rhetorical overdrive. He calls the law "A new Magna Carta... an inspiring act of faith." Considering that many in the US simply want the British soldiers to fight Hitler and die rather than US boys, it's a little murky how much "faith" has to do with it. But, quibbles aside, it indeed is a war-winning law that directly addresses Churchill's perpetual paranoia about supplies getting through. There is no question that this is a decisive moment in the war and that Churchill appropriately celebrates it.

Churchill telegrams President Roosevelt (via Lord Halifax, who actually delivers it on the 13th). It concerns their simmering disagreement over humanitarian aid to areas occupied by the Germans and their various satellites and enablers:

Admiral Darlan’s declaration and threat make me wonder whether it would not be best for you to intervene as a friend of both sides and try to bring about a working agreement. We do not wish to push things to extremes, and we naturally should be most reluctant in a thing like this to act against your judgment after you have weighed all the pros and cons.

Darlan has recently stated that he views it as his responsibility to feed 40 million people, and he will use force to do so if necessary. The only thing standing between US humanitarian aid and Vichy French possessions in North Africa is the comprehensive British blockade. In this telegram, Churchill states that "Dealing with Darlan is dealing with Germany," which is quite inaccurate.

Churchill suggests that perhaps slipping a ship or two through would appease everyone and perhaps aid the British war effort in the bargain:

Would you therefore consider coming forward on the basis of how shocked you were at the idea of fighting breaking out between France and Great Britain, which would only help the common foe. Then you might be able to procure Vichy assent to a scheme allowing a ration of wheat to go through, month by month to unoccupied France and something for French Africa as long as other things were satisfactory. These other things might form the subject of a secret arrangement of which the Germans will not know, by which German infiltration into Morocco and French African ports would be limited to the bare armistice terms, and by which an increasing number of French warships would gradually be moving from Toulon to Casablanca or Dakar.

It is difficult to see how the Germans "would not know" of food shipments to Vichy French areas. Churchill also bemoans the possibility "any large number of ships which are needed for our life and war effort were used up in food carrying."

In Liverpool, damage to the Overhead Railway line at Sandon dock resulting from the Luftwaffe raid of 12/13 March 1941.

Thai/Soviet Relations: Thailand and the Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations.

US Military: CINCPAC (Admiral Husband E. Kimmel) sends a message to Admiral Stark, Chief of Naval Operations in which he appears to take security at Pearl Harbor lightly:

[T]he Commander-in-Chief, U. S. Pacific Fleet, recommends that until a light efficient net, that can be laid temporarily and quickly is developed, no A/T [aerial torpedo] nets be supplied this area.

The Japanese at this time are working on their attack plans against Pearl Harbor which would be compromised by such nets. This will be an exhibit for the Hart Inquiry in 1942.

The Corpus Christi Naval Air School opens. It is a pet project of Representative Lyndon B. Johnson, President Roosevelt's primary Texas supporter during the 1940 election, and Roosevelt directly intervenes with the War Department by asking it to listen to Johnson. One could consider Naval Air Station a "political payoff" to Johnson for his support. Industrialist Henry Kaiser, another big Roosevelt supporter, helps to build the base. That's just how things get done. NAS Corpus Christi's first commander is Captain Alva Berhard. The school ramps up quite quickly and soon is training hundreds of students.

China: With the Japanese Western Hupei Operations terminated, the Chinese River Defense Force pursues the withdrawing enemy. The Japanese leave behind a scene of burnt-out villages and many dead civilians.

British Homefront: There are many who continue to keep an eye on how all this will affect business in the post-world. Australian Prime Minister Menzies, who is visiting London, dines with famous economist John Maynard Keynes. Menzies writes in his diary:

Keynes advocates a partnership in disposal of primary products, e.g. wool, and on the importance of blending war effort with an eye on post war world - e.g., aeroplanes & motor cars in Australia.

The way that Australia currently is "blending the war effort and the post-war world" is by sending its men to defend Greece from the Wehrmacht.

American Homefront: "Meet John Doe" premieres in Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City. Directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, "Meet John Doe" is a prestige production from Warner Bros. continuing Hollywood's cynical take on politics and the media (such as in Jimmy Stewart's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). It also is an early "populist political phenomenon" film which arguably reaches its peak with Warren Beatty's 1998 "Bulworth."

A shop in Orange NSW, Australia. E A Young, owner. 12 March 1941.

And now for some relaxing swing from occupied Europe.