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This Week in World War II: 75 Years Ago

Australian troops among the ruins of the old Crusader castle at Sidon, Lebanon, July 1941. Wikipedia.com

Australian troops among the ruins of the old Crusader castle at Sidon, Lebanon, July 1941. Wikipedia.com

By Phil Kohn. Dedicated to the memory of his father, GM3 Walter Kohn, U.S. Navy Armed Guard, USNR, and all men and women who have answered the country’s call in time of need. Phil can be contacted at ww2remembered@yahoo.com.

British Commonwealth troops cross the Omo River in southern Ethiopia on June 6, taking 2,000 Italian prisoners and capturing 14 guns. In Washington, President Roosevelt signs a bill authorizing the government to seize foreign ships “idling” in U.S. ports; 84 vessels are affected. In Berlin, Hitler issues the “Commissar Order,” mandating that captured political officers of the Soviet Red Army are “to be disposed of by gunshot immediately.”

In New York, Whirlaway, ridden by Eddie Arcaro, wins the Belmont Stakes on June 7 becoming the first Triple Crown winner in U.S. thoroughbred horseracing since War Admiral in 1937. In Egypt, a night raid on Alexandria by Axis bombers leaves 230 dead.

The next day, the Egyptian government begins evacuating 40,000 residents from Alexandria. Also on June 8 a combined force of British, Australian, Indian and Free French troops, along with Jewish units from Palestine, invade Vichy French controlled Syria and Lebanon. The Germans have been basing aircraft in those countries.

In the U.S. on June 9 over 2,000 soldiers with fixed bayonets enter a North American Aviation plant at Ingleside, California, to end a strike there. Their authority is Executive Order 8773. President Roosevelt explains that the work stoppage cannot be allowed to continue, as it has shut down about 25 percent of the nation’s capacity to produce fighter aircraft, which, he points out, is “detrimental to the defense of the United States.

In Lebanon, Australian and Scottish troops clash with Vichy French forces at the Litani River. The Vichy troops are forced to withdraw, but not before inflicting some damage on the Allies.

On June 10, Indian troops land at and capture Assab, in southern Eritrea, the last Italian-held port on the Red Sea. In Ethiopia there is fighting near Galla Sidamo, southwest of Addis Ababa.

Raids on numerous targets in England are launched by the Luftwaffe on the night of June 11. It is also the first of 20 consecutive nights that RAF Bomber Command conducts raids on the Ruhr industrial area, the Rhineland, Hamburg and Bremen in Germany. In the Dutch East Indies, trade negotiations come to a halt because the Dutch will not accept Japanese demands for raw materials.

The German heavy cruiser Lutzow is damaged on June 12 in a torpedo attack by a British aircraft off the coast of southern Norway. Lutzow returns to its base at Kiel, Germany, where it will undergo repairs until January 1942.

In Munich, Hitler and Romanian leader Ion Antonescu reach an agreement whereby Romania will participate in the invasion of the U.S.S.R. In London, representatives of 14 Allied governments and governments-in-exile pledge mutual assistance and to not conclude any separate peace treaties with an Axis or Axis-aligned country.

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