STALIN, ON RADIO, RALLIES THE SOVIET; HE INSISTS HITLER WILL BE CRUSHED (7/3/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 7/3/41 | C. Brooks Peters, Daniel T. Brigham, Otto D. Tolischus, Hanson W. Baldwin, John Drebinger

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
German Invasion of Russia – Operations, 22 June-25 August 1941
The Mediterranean Basin
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Gordon W. Prange, At Dawn We Slept

[Homer_J_Simpson]

William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Premier Confident – 2-3
More War Prisoners to be Freed by Nazis – 3
Berlin Sees Sweep – 4-5
The International Situation – 4
British Drivers Face Gasoline Ration Cut – 5
Nazis Held, Moscow Says, in Stiff Battle Near Minsk – 5-6
Russian Tank Undergoes a German Inspection (photo) – 6
American Air Unit Bags 3 Nazi Planes – 7
Peace Mobilization Changes Stand; Now Favors Full Aid to the Allies – 7
Tokyo Chiefs Vote New Secret Plans – 8
London is Hopeful on Soviet Tactics – 8
Large Forces Join Murmansk Fight – 9
Russia Thanks U.S. for its War Stand – 9
Naval Encounter is Denied by Knox – 10
Representative Fish as Colonel Fish (photo) – 10
Soviet Fleet Menaces – 11
Rules are Relaxed to Get More Fliers – 11
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the Fighting in Various War Zones – 12-13
Soviet Lists Heroes of War with Nazis – 14
2 British Ships Sunk off Bardia, Says Axis – 14

DiMaggio Sets All-Time Hitting Record as Yankees Win
Home Run in Fifth Tops Keeler Mark – 16

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jul41/f03jul41.htm

German advance northeast with air support

Thursday, July 3, 1941 www.onwar.com

On the Eastern Front... In the area of German Army Group North, clear weather permits the Luftwaffe to provide close air support again. The German 41st Panzer Corps (Panzer Group 4) makes good progress against the relatively weak forces of the Soviet 1st Mechanized Corps, and two reserve rifle corps, of the Soviet Northwest Front (Sobennikov). Meanwhile, in the area of Army Group Center, elements of German 9th and 2nd Armies eliminate the resistance of Soviet forces trapped in the Bialystok pocket.

In the Soviet Union... Stalin broadcasts for the first time since the German invasion. The reason for his delay in responding is not clear. He calls for total effort and a policy of scorched earth before the German advance, and guerilla warfare in their rear. He also defends the 1939 non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on the grounds of his desire for peace. The broadcast is the first of many to emphasize patriotic nationalism.

In East Africa... In southern Abyssinia the Italian resistance comes to an end with the surrender of General Gazzera and 7000 troops to a Belgian unit. In the northwestern Gondar area there are more Italian surrenders around Debra Tabor.

In Syria... Deir el Zor falls to the troops from 10th Indian Division. The Vichy French fort at Palmyra surrenders to Habforce after a long defense.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm

July 3rd, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Noel Coward brought a pre-war touch back to the West End with last night’s opening of his latest play, Blithe Spirit., at the Piccadilly Theatre. Described by its author as “an improbable farce”, it contains no references to the war whatsoever. The play stars Kay Hammond, Cecil Parker and Margaret Rutherford.
The Mk II, Handley-Page Halifax makes its first flight, it is armed with a two-gun dorsal turret and equipped with more powerful engines.

Minesweeper HMS Rothesay commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY:

U-265, U-521 laid down.

U-577 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

DENMARK: Denmark announced request for United States consular staffs to evacuate by July 15.

GREECE: Rhodes: The last French aerial reinforcements for Syria - 21 Dewoitine D.520 fighters of 3 Squadron, 2 Fighter Group (GC II/3) - land at the German-Italian airbase at Rhodes after coming from Tunis via Brindisi and Athens.

ROMANIA: Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu lectures his staff at the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “We find ourselves at the broadest and most favourable moment for a complete ethnic unshackling, for a national revival and for the cleansing of our people of all those elements alien to its spirit” (264, p161)

BALTIC SEA: Submarine Vesikko sinks 4100-ton ship Vyborg east from Suursaari. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.S.R.: After violent fighting against Soviet tanks, General Nehring’s 18th Panzer Division reported the existence if a new kind of Soviet tank, quite different in appearance from the all the known types, which seemed very advanced and was indestructible by German antitank guns.

Moscow:

Stalin broke his silence today and, calling his people “brothers” and “sisters” rather than “comrades”, called on them to fight a total war against the invading Germans not only in the modern sense but also in the grim “old Russian” way.

In a speech broadcast throughout the Soviet Union, he called on the people to lay the land waste before the invader. Everything possible must be removed, he said, and that which cannot by moved must be destroyed..

It was a speech designed to stir the people’s ancient love of Russia: “We must not leave a single pound of grain or a single gallon of petrol to the enemy.” He called on the people whose ancestors had helped to defeat Napoleon by “scorching the earth” to follow their example and deny Hitler’s invaders food and shelter. Crops and villages are to be burnt, livestock killed, dams destroyed. Partisan bands are to be formed “with the launching of guerrilla warfare everywhere, with blowing up bridges and roads, with wrecking telephone and telegraph communications, and with setting forests, depots and trains on fire. It is necessary to create in invaded areas unbearable conditions for the enemy.”

Fuel is of special importance in this scorched-earth policy, for the German supply lines are becoming over-stretched and the thirsty tanks and aircraft must rely to a large extent on captured fuel.

The burning of houses is not important at the moment, for the weather is hot and fine, but if this campaign extends into the bitter Russian winter then the lack of shelter will hit the Germans as hard as it did Napoleon’s men.

Stalin has demanded a great deal from the people of the Soviet Union. Some of them will not obey him - in some areas the invading Germans have been welcomed with bread and salt - but others will do anything for Holy Mother Russia if not for communism.
(Speech in Full)

SYRIA: Survivors of French Foreign Legion in Palmyra (165 men, mostly Germans and Russians) surrender. They have withstood 12 day of attacks by four allied cavalry regiments (including the Arab Legion) and an infantry battalion. Deir ez Zor entered by elements of Slim’s 10 Ind Div, capturing 100 prisoners, nine guns and 50 lorries. However, many French and Syrian troops escape to fight again. 127 Sqn RAF attacks a formation of Leo451s but are driven off by escorting Dewoitine S520s, losing two Hurricanes. (Michael Alexander)

ETHIOPIA: “Mopping up” of the Italian forces in East Africa continues as the Italian garrison at Debra Tabor surrenders to the British; General Gazzera’s 7,000 strong army in the south surrenders to a Belgian force.

U.S.A.: Marshall informs Grunert that no further manpower or supplies would be sent.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0436, U-69 began a gun duel with the armed Robert L. Holt NW of the Canary Islands. She had been the ship of commodore Vice-Admiral NA Wodehouse CB RN from the dispersed Convoy OB-337. The ship sank at 0650 after the U-boat had fired 102 high explosive rounds and 34 incendiary rounds from the deck gun, 220 rounds from the 20-mm gun and 400 rounds with the MG34. The master, the commodore, 41 crewmembers and six naval staff members were lost. (Dave Shirlaw)

[beebuster2000]

btt

[ml/nj]

Those who claim there was no "Kenya" when Barack Hussein Obama was born should observe the little article on image #5, "Freed in Kenya Murder."

ML/NJ

[CougarGA7]

• "I have come to the conclusion that we have obviously completely underestimated Russia." - Helmuth James Graf von Moltke

• "On the whole one can already now say that the objective to destroy the mass of the Russian army in front of the Dvina and Dnepr [Rivers] has been accomplished. I do not doubt...that eastward of the Dvina and Dnepr we would only have to contend with partial enemy forces, not strong enough to hinder realization of the German operational plan. thus it is probably not too much to say when I claim that the campaign against Russia was won within fourteen days." - Franz Halder

• "The military means of the SU [Soviet Union] are considerably stronger than studies before the start of the war...indicating...The material quality is better than expected...As a result we scored great successes with relatively low losses, but a large number of Soviet aircraft remain to be destroyed." - Major-General Hoffman von Waldau

• "The problem, appearing from now on in its full magnitude which must be the constant worry of all responsible departments of the army group commands,...is the daily widening of the distance between the panzer groups and the [infantry] armies. While until now this distance had relatively little effect, the early renewal of the advance by the panzer groups, with an objective over 500 km away, will have the result that 100-200 km long stretches behind the panzer groups are more or less empty of German troops. That these extensive areas are traversed by the panzer troops almost entirely on the road, means that everywhere there are still strong enemy elements roaming and a constant danger exists to the supply and communications of the panzer groups." - Untitled memorandum sent to Army Group Center

• "The whole war takes place, more or less, on the road. Without securing the land lying to the right and left of the road, we move along and reach the appointed goals. How many Russians must be cruising around the country still! How many enemy tanks are off the road, hidden in protected positions, waiting for the right opportunity to rush up behind the troops and raise hell. Funny the way this war is being waged." - Wihelm Prüller, NCO in a German motorized infantry regiment

• Hoth and Guderian officially resumed their thrust for the Dnepr and Dvina rivers.

• Stalin finally addresses the Soviet people in a radio address in which he urges initiation of guerrilla resistance and destruction or evacuation of anything useful to the invaders.

  PCPT - Josef Stalin Addresses Nation

[Larry381]

Tank Engagement

At dawn the leading regiment of 17th Panzer Division moved into action.
They went through waving grain crops, across potato-fields, and over shrub-grown heath. Towards 1100 hours Second Lieutenant von Ziegler's platoon made contact with the enemy. The Russians were in well-camouflaged positions and opened fire at close range.
At the first shots the three battalions of 39th Panzer Regiment fanned out on a broad front. Troops of anti-tank artillery raced up to protect their flanks. A tank battle began, a battle which earned a place in military history—the battle of Senno. Fierce fighting raged from 1100 till nightfall. The Russians operated with considerable skill. They tried to take the Germans in the flank or in the rear. The sun was burning down upon them. The vast battlefield was dotted with blazing and smouldering tanks, German and Russian.

At 1700 hours the German tanks received a signal over their radios: "Ammunition must be used sparingly." At the same moment Radio Operator Westphal in his tank heard his commander's excited voice:
"Heavy enemy tank! Turret 10 o'clock. Armour-piercing shell. Fire!"

"Direct hit!" Sergeant Sarge called out.
But the Russian did not even seem to feel the shell. He simply drove on. He took no notice of it whatever. Two, three, and then four tanks of 9th Company were weaving around the Russian at 800-1000 yards' distance, firing. Nothing happened. Then he stopped. His turret swung round. With a bright flash his gun fired. A fountain of dirt shot up 40 yards in front of Sergeant Hornbogen's tank of 7th Company. Hornbogen swung out of the line of fire. The Russian continued to advance along a farm track. A German 3-7-cm. anti-tank gun was in position there.
"Fire!"
But the giant just seemed to shrug the shells off. Its broad tracks were full of tufts of grass and crushed haulms of grain. Its engine note rose. The Russian driver was engaging his top gear. That was not such an easy operation with their sturdily built vehicles. Nearly every driver therefore had a hammer lying by his feet; if the gear would not engage, striking the gearlever with the hammer usually did the trick. A case of Soviet improvisation. Nevertheless, these things moved all right. This one was making straight for the anti-tank gun. The gunners fired furiously. Only twenty yards to go. Then ten, and then five.
Now it was on top of them. The men leaped out of its way, scattering. Like some huge monster the tank went straight over the gun. It then bore slightly to the right and drove on, through the German lines, towards the heavy artillery positions in the rear.
Its journey did not end until nine miles behind the main fighting line, when it got stuck in marshy ground a short way in front of the German gun positions. A 10-cm. long-barrel gun of the divisional artillery finished it off.

The tank battle continued into the hours of darkness. Eerily the blazing tanks lay in the cornfield. Tank ammunition exploded, jerricans full of fuel blew up. Medical orderlies darted across the scene, looking for the screaming wounded and covering the dead with blankets or some tent canvas.
The crew of the smouldering tank No. 925 laboriously pulled out their heavy skipper—Sergeant Sarge. He was dead. Many were dead who only days previously had stood in rank in the forest clearing near Pratulin, listening to the Fuehrer's orders. Many were wounded. But the 17th Panzer Division commanded the battlefield.
And he who commands the battlefield is the victor.

Abandoned Russian monster tank near Lvov. July 41

German Infantry

Long German column moves into Bessarabia-July 41

Russian POWs

White Russian village July 41

[Larry381]

A total of 45 professors at the University of Lvov (now Lviv) were executed by an Einsatzkommado unit after the city was captured by the Germans on June 30.
Aided by the Ukrainian 'Nachtigall' battalion, they started the roundup of the professors their families and relatives. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were simply shot on the spot.
Some 38 professors were taken to a place of execution in the Wulka hills outside the city and there shot to death. Another seven, including Professor Dr. Bartel, a former Prime Minister of Poland, were shot in the courtyard of the Brygidki Prison, the same courtyard where days previously they found the murdered bodies of the prison inmates.

[CougarGA7]

More excellent pictures Larry. Every time there is a helmet on a cross with a hole in it it’s a bit chilling.