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This Week in World War II: 75 Years Ago

Captured_Germans_in_Užice_1941

Captured Germans in Užice, Serbia, in World War II.

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.

In Washington, President Roosevelt on July 11, 1941, taps attorney William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan to head a newly created Office of the Coordinator of Information that will be responsible for overcoming the lack of coordination between various existing intelligence and propaganda agencies. Under provisions of the Espionage Act of 1917, the U.S. government seizes 17 Italian and one German ship moored in the United States. German forces capture Vitebsk, in northeastern Belorussia, about 260 miles west of Moscow. In Lithuania, the Germans establish a ghetto near Kaunas. Jews of the city are ordered to sell all their property and move into the ghetto.

In Moscow, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union sign an agreement on July 12 providing for mutual assistance and prohibiting the making of a separate peace with the Axis powers. Moscow is bombed for the first time by the Luftwaffe. In the Middle East, an Allied victory in the Battle of Beirut effectively ends the Syria-Lebanon campaign.

In Montenegro (a part of Yugoslavia) a rebellion against the Italian occupation force begins on July 13. It is the second popular uprising against the Axis in Europe. (The first was the “February Strike” on February 25 in the Netherlands.) The Luftwaffe bombs Kiev, Ukraine. Planes from the Soviet Air Force bomb Romania’s Ploieşti oil fields. The first units of Spanish volunteers depart for the Eastern Front to fight alongside Axis troops.

Representatives of Vichy France in Beirut on July 14 sign an armistice ending all fighting in Syria and Lebanon. Commonwealth troops occupy Beirut and locations in Lebanon, while Syria is placed under the control of the Free French under Gen. Charles DeGaulle. A force of German Ju-88 bombers attacks Suez, Egypt, near the southern terminus of the Suez Canal, causing damage to the harbor facilities and to ships unloading there. Near Smolensk, Russia, the Red Army unveils its first mobile multiple-rocket launcher. The device, which can fire 320 rockets in 25 seconds, is nicknamed “Katyusha” by Soviet soldiers, from the name of the heroine of a popular song of the time.

On the Eastern Front, the Soviets on July 15 launch a diversionary counterattack in the Lake Ilmen area, near Novgorod, in order to buy time for the building of further fortifications around Leningrad. The inexperienced attacking forces suffer heavy casualties. In a fuel-rationing move, Canada bans the sale of gasoline from 7 p.m. one day to 7 a.m. the next day on weekdays, and all day on Sunday.

On July 16, Finnish forces north of Lake Ladoga capture the Russian town of Sortavala. The Finns continue on to reach the lake itself, southeast of the town, cutting off Soviet forces to the west. In Russia, German troops capture Smolensk. The government of Vichy France appoints Gen. Maxime Weygand as Governor-General of Algeria.

The Germans on July 17 develop an important bridgehead over the Dnieper River near Mogilev, in eastern Belorussia. From Berlin, the German High Command issues orders for the annihilation of the following in all territory captured from the Soviets: communist activists, officials, intellectuals and all Jews. In Cleveland, Ohio, the consecutive-game hitting streak of the New York Yankees’ Joe DiMaggio ends at 56, in part due to two strong defensive plays by the Indians’ third baseman, Ken Keltner. The next day, “Joltin’ Joe” goes on to begin a new hitting streak of 16 consecutive games.

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