Aerial reconnaissance photo of heavy cruiser Gneisenau in its Kiel drydock after having its bow blown off in an RAF raid. This is "Bomber" Harris' first major success as head of Bomber Command.
Battle of the Pacific: The Allies are desperately trying to hold Java on 26 February 1942, but they have been having difficulty tracking the Japanese invasion fleet that they know is coming. Today, a Dutch Dorner seaplane spots the Japanese ships again in the Makassar Strait. It reports 30 Japanese transport ships escorted by two cruisers and five destroyers sailing at 10 knots. The plane shadows the ships for several hours, then attacks destroyer HIJMS Amatsukaze but misses. The USAAF then sends two B-17 Flying Fortresses at low altitude (1300 feet) which miss destroyer Hatsukaze. At 18:30, Admiral Karel Doorman, commander of the Allies' Combined Striking Force, sails from Surabaya, Java to conduct a night attack. On paper, Doorman's force outguns the Japanese escort, but real battles are not fought on paper, and many of Doorman's ships are in poor repair from the previous fighting. The Allied ships head eastward along the north shore of Madoera (Madura) Island. Three light cruisers, HMS Dragon and Danae and HMAS Hobart, sail from Batavia to join Doorman's large force. The Allied ships find nothing during the night - once again, the invasion fleet has disappeared.
In the Philippines, the Japanese are beginning to expand out from the power center on Luzon. Today, they send an amphibious force from Olongapo, Luzon to Mindoro Island. When it lands, it will contain an infantry battalion and a field artillery battery. On the Bataan Peninsula, things remain quiet as the Japanese build up their forces for an assault on the Allied lines.
Der Adler, 26 February 1942.
In Burma, the Japanese are putting pressure on the 17th Indian Division at Pegu, which is blocking the Rangoon-Mandalay road. A battle breaks out in the Waw area to the northeast. The Japanese are crossing the Sittang River in increasing numbers and threatening the rail link between Mandalay and Rangoon.
US Navy submarine USS S-38 uses its deck gun to shell the radio station on Japanese-held Bawean Island in the Netherlands East Indies.
Japanese submarine HIJMS I-25, on its second patrol out of Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, launches its Yokosuka E14Y1, Navy Type 0 "Glen" Small Reconnaissance Seaplane to fly over Melbourne, Australia's Port Phillip Bay. This is one in a series of such reconnaissance flights over Australia and New Zealand from mid-February to mid-March. The Allies do not spot any of these flights.
Three German soldiers in a foxhole who are manning an MG-34 machine gun in front of a knocked-out Soviet T-26 light tank, February 1942.
Eastern Front: The Red Army has built up an attack force on the Kerch Peninsula, Crimea, to liberate Sevastopol. The Crimean Front force is commanded by Lieutenant General Dmitry Timofeyevich Kozlov and is composed of nine rifle divisions and numerous tank brigades of the 44th, 47th, and 51st Armies. Kozlov has 73,804 soldiers, 1195 guns and mortars, 125 anti-tank guns, 194 tanks, and 200 aircraft. However, while this is an imposing force on paper for such a small 80-square kilometer front, the Red Army units are short of essential supplies like fuel and working weapons. Kozlov requests permission to delay his offensive, but the Stavka orders hi to attack on 27 February.
An unidentified convoy sailing out of Brooklyn, New York, February 1942. USS Neville (AP-16) is in the foreground, with six or seven freighters and a light cruiser also visible.
European Air Operations: During the day, four Boston bombers of RAF No. 226 Squadron make this aircraft's their first regular operation. The Bostons attack shipping, but neither side sustains any losses.
The night raids mark a turn of fortunes for the RAF. After several failed attempts to damage German heavy cruiser Gneisenau in its drydock in Kiel, RAF Bomber Command scores a major success. The RAF sends 49 aircraft (33 Wellingtons, 10 Hampdens, 6 Halifaxes) and loses 2 Wellingtons and one Halifax. A bomb hits the Gneisenau in the bow area, killing 116 crew and causing major damage. This one hit ends the career of Gneisenau, once a major threat in the North Atlantic. After this attack, the Gneisenau is towed to Gdynia but never is repaired. It is stripped of its guns and left as a lifeless hulk. While one bomber scores a hit, though, many of the bombers get lost and drop their bombs elsewhere. This includes the town of Kiel itself and locations as far as away as east Denmark. Thre are three deaths in Vejle, 100 miles north of Kiel, and 1 death in Odense.
RAF reconnaissance spots the German battleship they've been looking for, Tirpitz, at Trondheim. This ship is a major focus of the Royal Navy's strategy and its destruction is considered imperative. As Churchill likes to say, destroying the Tirpitz would alter the entire balance of world naval operations and allow major shifts to the Pacific.
Dutch tanker Mamura, sunk by U-504 on 26 February 1942 with no survivors.
Battle of the Atlantic: U-504, on its second patrol out of Lorient, hits independent 8245-ton Dutch tanker Mamura with two torpedoes at 19:13 about 230 miles northeast of Cape Canaveral, Florida. The cargo explodes, breaking the tanker in two and causing it to sink quickly. All 56 men on board, including 34 Chinese sailors, perish. Mamura carried 11,500 tons of clean oil and was headed to Belfast, Ireland.
While moving through dense fog, 5030-ton US freighter Cassimir collides near the tip of the Frying Pan Shoals off North Carolina with another freighter, Lara. Cassimir sustains severe damage on its starboard side amidships and the crew abandons ship. Wartime conditions play a major role in such incidents, as ships are trying to maintain blackout conditions. The Lara, which sustains virtually no damage, takes aboard the survivors. There are 31 survivors and five deaths.
Brazilian 3557-ton collier Cabedello disappears on 26 February 1942 while en route from Philadelphia to Rio de Janeiro. The likeliest cause was a torpedo attack by an Italian submarine, but there is no record of this attack. Nobody survives.
British patrol on the lookout for enemy movements over a valley in the Western Desert, on the Egyptian side of the Egypt-Libya border, February 1942.
Battle of the Mediterranean: On Kastellorizo, about 200 British No. 50 Commandos are trapped after a botched landing. The Italians at nearby Rhodes spend the day preparing a counterattack, and it begins after sunset when torpedo boats Lince and Lupo land about 240 men north of the port. The boats shell the port and in the Governor's palace with their 3.9-inch (99 mm) guns, killing three commandos and wounding another seven. The torpedo boats then land unopposed at the port and evacuate some of the Italian inhabitants.
British Prime Minister, under serious pressure in Parliament after recent reversals such as the successful German Channel Dash and the fall of Singapore, asks Middle East Commander General Claude Auchinleck to open an offensive against the Afrika Korps. Auchinleck, however, demurs, saying he needs to build his forces before he can attack from the Gazala Line. He says that he may have sufficient forces in place by June. British XIII Corps holds a 36-mile (58 km) line from Gazala to Bir Hacheim, while the British 30 Corps is further back along the Libya/Egyptian frontier.
Soviet/Allied Relations: Speaking at the Overseas Press Club in Washington, D.C., Soviet Ambassador to the U.S. Maxim Litvinov admonishes his listeners that there should be "no idle armies, immobile shipping." Litvinov demands the opening of a front in France in 1942. He states:
only by simultaneous offensive operations on two or more of the fronts can Hitler's armed forces be disposed of.
The Western Allies, though, have no intention of opening a second front in 1942. In fact, the US Army is having serious doubts about following through with Operation Gymnast, the invasion of North Africa, before 1943.
Indian/Chinese Relations: Following the well-received (but at times embarrassing, due to meetings with independence leaders) visit by Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek to India, the Indian (British) government appoints a "China Relations Officer." He is sir Edward Cook. New British Ambassador to China Sir Horace +
Canadian Homefront: Canadian Prime Minister MacKenzie King joins the United States in ordering the removal of persons of Japanese ancestry from British Columbia on the west coast.
American Homefront: The 14th Academy Awards are held in Los Angeles. Director John Ford and his "How Green Was My Valley" are the big winners, each earning Oscars. Documentary "Churchill's Island" wins the first Oscar in the new category "Best Documentary (Short Subject)." Gary Cooper wins the Best Actor Oscar for "Sergeant York," while Joan Fontaine wins for her performance in "Suspicion." Donald Crisp and Mary Astor win Best Supporting Oscars. "The Last Time I Saw Paris" from "Lady Be Good" wins for Best Original Song. "Citizen Kane," considered by many to be one of the best films of all time, wins only for "Best Original Screenplay," giving Orson Welles (along with Herman J. Mankiewicz) his only Oscar despite the film receiving nine nominations. This is due in large part to sustained hostility to Welles and his film from the Hearst newspaper chain.
Italian magazine Tempo, 26 February 1942. "Assault on an Enemy Position" is the cover story.
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.
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.
Italian/Greek Campaign: As has been the case often recently, poor winter weather curtails operations in Greece today, 21 February 1941. Both sides are looking to launch offensives soon, with the Italians steadily building up forces for a major offensive.
East African Campaign: HMS Formidable is stuck in the Red Sea waiting for the Suez Canal to be cleared before it can join the Mediterranean Fleet at Alexandria. The crew occupies itself supporting army operations, bombing Massawa, but they accomplish little. The Luftwaffe mining of the Suez Canal has achieved a tremendous amount for the small investment involved.
The campaign along the Juba River continues as the British move toward the ultimate prize of Mogadishu. At dawn, the Transvaal Scottish South African troops embark in armored cars to Margherita. The Italians have artillery positioned, but the South African artillery stops it. South Africans take Margherita during the afternoon. The new commander is Lieutenant-Colonel Gordon le Roux. The next objective to the north is Jelib, and the 22nd East African Brigade is coming from the north to block the Italians' retreat from that city.
The Indian 7th Infantry Brigade attacks the Italian 112th Colonial Battalion at Cub Cub but makes little progress.
Damage during the Swansea Blitz, 19-21 February 1941.
European Air Operations: After dark, the Luftwaffe completes its three-day attack on Swansea, Wales. As on the other nights, the bombers appear over the city around 19:50 and continue the attack until after midnight. Known as The Three Nights' Blitz, the attacks result in 230 dead (of 167,000 residents), 409 injured and 7000 homeless. The entire city center of about 41 acres is completely destroyed by 1273 high explosive bombs and 56,000 incendiary bombs. It is the worst sustained bombardment in Wales.
If there is a silver lining for the British, it is that the fire watchers organized by the Swansea Council prevent the incendiaries from combining to create a firestorm. This shows that, with adequate intervention, incendiary bombs can be greatly reduced ineffectiveness. In addition, the vital dock facilities and oil installations are largely unscathed. The number of casualties also is relatively light due to the presence of numerous Anderson and domestic shelters, some built before the war. Swansea is a textbook study on how to suffer a devastating aerial assault while containing the consequences as much as possible due to good preparation.
RAF Bomber Command, meanwhile, sends 34 bombers to raid Wilhelmshaven. It also sends 42 aircraft to lay mines off Brest.
Battle of the Atlantic: The Luftwaffe also raids Skálafjørður, also known as Kongshavn (King's harbor) in Eysturoy, Faroe Islands. The British have oil installations there, along with associated shipping. They sink 398-ton anti-submarine trawler HMS Lincoln City, while anti-submarine trawler HMS Leicester City shoots down one of the attacking German planes.
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Clare collides with British freighter Petertown just outside the Bristol Channel. Clare makes port at Plymouth but spends until October in port being repaired.
U-552 (K.Kapt. Erich Topp), on its first mission (though Topp previously commanded U-57), is heading out for its station along the convoy routes when it is spotted on the surface by RAF aircraft. The submarine takes some minor damage and continues with its mission. This is an omen of things to come, for U-boats are vulnerable while in transit to their patrol stations because they must make the trips on the surface.
The Lockheed Hudson bomber, T-9449, which crashed near Musgrave Harbour, 20 February 1941, killing Dr. Frederick Banting. This is some time after the crash, as the engines have been removed. The plane wound up in a remote area and survived intact through the 1970s. Pieces of it no doubt still lie where they came to rest.
Battle of the Mediterranean: Air Chief Marshal Arthur Longmore sends the Air Ministry in London a telegram criticizing air supply to the Middle East. It is well known that Longmore feels that sending planes to Greece is a waste of time, and he is rapidly rising on Churchill's list of officers to get rid of.
Operation MC 8, a supply convoy to Malta, concludes without a hitch today. Light cruisers HMS Orion, Gloucester, Ajax, and destroyers Mohawk, Nubian and Diamond arrive in the predawn darkness. They deliver 1300 troops in total (two battalions), and the Germans and Italians apparently never notice. The ships (except for Diamond) head back out at dusk.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Ursula (Lt.Cdr. G.C. Phillips) spots a convoy from Trapani in Sicily, bound for Tripoli. It torpedoes and damages Italian freighter Sabbia. Italian torpedo boat Montanari counterattacks, damaging Ursula. Sabbia eventually makes it to Tripoli, and Ursula gets away.
Colonel Leclerc's Free French force continues pounding away at the El Tag fortress in Kufra. The Italians in the fort can do nothing about the mortars and 75mm field gun firing from 1.5 and 3 km away, respectively.
The last photograph of Major Banting.
Battle of the Indian Ocean: German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer, having sunk two ships about 2000 km east of Madagascar on the 20th, today sinks a third. It is 7178-ton Canadian freighter Canadian Cruiser. The entire crew becomes POWs. The Canadian Cruiser notifies the Royal Navy of its plight, causing nearby patrolling cruiser HMS Glasgow to head toward the spot.
Battle of the Pacific: U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Enterprise (CV-6) stands 10-15 miles off Oahu and lanches 31 USAAC Curtiss P-36 Hawk fighters. Taking off in flights of three, the fighters will be based at Wheeler Field in the Wahiawa District near Pearl Harbor (next to Schofield Barracks). Wheeler lies just north of the naval base. This is the first time in US Navy history that a regular USAAC fighter is flown off a carrier's deck in a ferrying operation - something the British have been doing with some regularity in the Mediterranean. Looking ahead, some of these fighters will be present and get into action on 7 December 1941.
The P-36 fighter is approaching obsolescence. The USAAC already has a better fighter, the P-40, in service. However, at this time, the P-36 is considered the basic American fighter.
Spy Stuff: In a memo to Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Alexander Cadogan, Prime Minister Winston Churchill inquires about a digest of intercepted phone calls between different foreign embassies in London. The British are tapping the Thai Embassy phones, and the Thais have conversations with the Japanese and Nepalese embassies which involve top secret information about Japanese war plans. This appears to be a primary source of British information about Japanese plans.
Sir Frederick Grant Banting.
Applied Science: Major Sir Frederick Grant Banting, inventor of insulin and a top aviation medicine researcher, perishes from wounds and exposure suffered following a 20 February 1941 Lockheed Hudson crash in Musgrave Harbour, Newfoundland. The plane's engines fail, causing the bomber to come down in a remote forested area. Banting survives in the frigid weather for a day, into 21 February 1941, before succumbing. Banting, who had just re-enlisted despite being in his forties, was on his way from Gander to London to serve as a liaison between the medical services of Canada and Great Britain. It is a terrible way to go, a Nobel Laureate wasting away in the wilderness.
Anglo/US Relations: Churchill complains in a note to Harry Hopkins about having to give up "all our direct investments" to the Americans. "Is this really necessary?" he writes. It really is necessary. Despite his plaints, the British government authorizes the transfer. This effectively places the financial future of Great Britain in American hands - where, to be honest, it has been throughout the conflict. Japanese Military: The Japanese Consulate in Honolulu is a hotbed of spies. Today, Consul Ojiro (Otohiro) Okuda sends his first true spy message to Tokyo. He observes fleet movements in Pearl Harbor from a hill hear his office, then sends the information to the IJN. The message notes the recent comings and goings of warships in the harbor, and also provides a detailed list of the ships currently in the harbor (which must have taken some effort to compile), to wit:
Seven battleships (three of the New Mexico class, two of the Pennsylvania class, one each of the Oklahoma and California classes); four heavy cruisers, (two of the New Orleans class and two of the Portland class); ten light cruisers, (four of the Honolulu class; six of the Omaha class of which one is in drydock); thirty destroyers; three destroyer tenders; aircraft carriers, Yorktown and Enterprise; one troop transport; one submarine tender; (no submarines were visible).
It takes quite some military knowledge to distinguish between different classes of ships, including cruisers, so Okuda likely received extensive training in Japan before assuming his position in Hawaii. The military planners in Tokyo find Okuda's information useful but do not wish to compromise him, so they consider sending a military aide to make the observations.
"Western Union," featuring a very young Robert Young in a rare early technicolor film, opens today, 21 February 1941.
Soviet Government: The Kremlin reveals today that former Foreign Minister Maxim Litvinov and two others have been removed from the Central Committee. Tellingly, Litvinov's place is filled by V. G. Dekanozov, ambassador to Germany and an architect of the 1939 Ribbentrop/Molotov Pact. Litvinov is Jewish and married to an Englishwoman. Violently opposed to fascism, his dismissal is an obvious gesture to Hitler and Germany.
Another dismissal is of Polina Semyonovna Zhemchuzhina Molotov, Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov's wife. Apparently not intended as a slap at her husband, the dismissal likely is due to the fact that she is Jewish, and also because Stalin dislikes her for personal reasons. Polina also is suspected of being a spy, apparently stemming from knowing some (unidentified) foreign spies. The fact that Polina is an outspoken Zionist probably doesn't help her cause, considering that Stalin is trying to improve relations with Hitler.
Australian Government: Prime Minister Robert Menzies finally makes it to London, a month after he set out from Melbourne. He is staying in the same suite at the Dorchester previously occupied by Wendell Willkie. Menzies notes that "So far I have seen only a few bombed places" and "Day raids have for the time been practically discontinued, and the street traffic... seemed almost normal." He has lunch with several cabinet ministers, noting that Minister of Labour and National Service Ernest Bevin "would be a great hand with a fractious union, but I would think of limited mental powers." He also finds Lord Woolton "quiet and perhaps a little deaf," while Home Secretary Herbert Morrison "is rather arresting, smallish, humorous, broadminded."
Norway: Following the lead of other nations, Norway breaks diplomatic relations with Romania.
South Africa: Lord Harlech becomes the High Commissioner.
Dutch Homefront: The German Grüne Polizei, local Dutch police and assorted German paramilitary organizations such as the WA ("Weerbaarheidsafdeling") are incensed by Jewish self-defense groups on the Waterlooplein injuring their comrades on the 20th. The Germans begin the process of rounding up 425 hostages, all young Jewish men and send them to Kamp School. After spending time there, the men will be sent to various concentration camps in Germany. Two will survive the war.
Italian Homefront: The government cuts the ration various cooking ingredients, including olive oil and butter, by half.
American Homefront: Promising young stars Robert Young and Dean Jagger team with Randolph Scott in Fritz Lang's "Western Union," which opens today. It is a rare 20th Century Fox technicolor film (there remain very few color film cameras in Hollywood) and is filmed on location in House Rock Canyon, Arizona and Kanab and Zion National Park, Utah. Reviews of the time generally focus on how colorful and vivid the film is - the acting and story are distinctly secondary. Several Native Americans appear in the film, including Chief John Big Tree and Chief Thundercloud. The Academy Film Archive will preserve the "Western Union" in 2000. Lang, incidentally, left Germany in 1934 in disgust at the German regime's control over the film industry despite being offered the plum position of head of UFA by Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
Buster Keaton stars in Columbia Pictures' "So You Won't Squawk," a two-reeler directed by Del Lord, a veteran director for Mack Sennett. It also opens today.
Buster Keaton in "So You Won't Squawk," released on 21 February 1941. This period generally is considered a lull in Buster's career, and he vows never again to "make another crummy two-reeler" once his ten-picture deal with Columbia is up.
