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This Week in World War II: 75 Years Ago

Here Wehrmacht soldiers are seen setting up bases in Rostov. Boys are assisting them, probably hopng for tips. This would have been right after taking the city, probably late July or early August 1942. I am not sure about the boys’ motivtion here. I suspect food was a major one. See more information at http://histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/camp/eur/sov/stalin/cau/cau-rov.html

 

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.

On June 26, 1942, the British Royal Air Force launches yet another 1,000-bomber raid, this time against the commercial city of Bremen, Germany. In the Soviet Union, the Germans drive on the city of Rostov-on-Don. In the U.S., the Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter makes its first flight. The rugged carrier-based plane will account for 75% of all aerial victories recorded by the U.S. Navy in the Pacific.

Rommel’s Afrika Korps hits the British hard again on June 27 at the Egyptian port town of Mersa Matruh. The British withdraw to El Alamein, Egypt, only 71 miles from the base of their Mediterranean fleet, at Alexandria. Allied Arctic Convoy PQ17, consisting of 35 merchant ships, departs Iceland for Arkhangelsk, Russia. En route, 24 of the convoy’s merchant vessels are sunk by German U-boats or aircraft, the worst losses of the war for any convoy to Russia.

“Case Blue,” the German summer strategic plan for capturing Stalingrad and the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus goes into effect on June 28. The operation moves most German forces to the south. On the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine, the Germans break the Soviet defenses at Sevastopol, taking 90,000 prisoners. In North Africa, Mersa Matruh, Egypt, only 185 miles from Alexandria, falls to Rommel’s Afrika Korps.

With Rommel’s troops moving inexorably — and seemingly unstoppably — eastward, Benito Mussolini flies from Rome to Derna, Libya, on June 29 in anticipation of being able to lead the Axis forces on a triumphal entrance into Cairo, Egypt.

On June 30, German troops are engaged in hand-to-hand combat within the city limits of Sevastopol. The Soviets begin evacuating the Sevastopol garrison by air and sea. Farther north, the German 6th Army begins its offensive around Belgorod, Russia, just north of the Ukrainian border. The U.S. Army’s II Corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Mark W. Clark, arrives in England. In Germany, all remaining Jewish schools are closed.

July 1 marks the beginning of the end of Red Army resistance in the Crimea. German troops capture Sevastopol’s airfields and take the city center, pushing the remaining Soviet forces to the coast. Gen. Erich von Manstein is promoted to Field Marshal for the victory. In North Africa, Rommel’s troops attack the British at El Alamein, Egypt, but Allied units keep them from breaking through. In England, the first B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers arrive from the U.S., for use by the USAAF and the RAF. Off Luzon, the Philippines, the Japanese vessel Montevideo Maru is torpedoed and sunk by the American submarine USS Sturgeon. Sturgeon is unaware that the ship is carrying Australian prisoners of war and civilians, 1,054 of whom perish.

In the United Kingdom, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on July 2 overwhelmingly survives a vote of censure in the House of Commons over his conduct of the war, with 476 against censure, 25 for, and 30 abstentions. The motion is spurred by two weeks of military losses in North Africa. At El Alamein, Egypt, a British counterattack against Rommel’s forces sweeps around the Germans from the south, preventing Rommel from moving towards Alexandria.

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