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July 7th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: 105 Sqn. makes a midday attack against a convoy of 8 ships between Ijmuiden and the Hague and are joined in the target area by six Blenheims of 139 Sqn. Two ships are badly damaged for the loss of 5 aircraft and 3 crews.
While flying as second pilot in a Vickers Wellington of No. 75 Squadron during a night raid, Sgt. J.A. Ward (RNZAF) displays such gallantry that he is later awarded the Victoria Cross.

Corvette HMS CAMPION is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

GERMANY: Sgt James Allen Ward (1919-41), Royal New Zealand Air Force, crawled over the starboard wing of his Wellington to smother an engine fire.(VC)
Burt Knight adds: Sgt. Ward, 75th Squadron, was second pilot in a Wellington Mk. I. The aircraft was hit by Flak over Germany in a fuel tank and engine. The crew tried using fire extinguishers but the slipstream swept the spray away. Sgt. Ward volunteered to try to put the fire out and climbed out a hatch, tethered by a rope. Kicking holes in the fabric covering, Sgt. Ward was able to smother the fire. Sgt. Ward received the VC for this and command of his own aircraft. He died on his second mission over Germany as Pilot.(60)

Cologne: The city is attacked overnight by 114 RAF Wellingtons.

U-339 is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

ICELAND: The United States takes over the protection of Iceland from Britain and lands troops to start building naval and air bases. The American security zone is also extended east wards to longitude 22 W, to embrace Iceland. The US also assumes the responsibility for the direct protection of all convoys of American ships bound for Iceland and of any such ships of other nationalities as wished to attach themselves to such convoys. General Marston is in command of the 1st Marine Brigade.

FINLAND: On the left flank of Karelian Army Group Oinonen (Maj. Gen. Oinonen) crosses the border near Ilomantsi to capture better starting positions for the coming main attack. The attack is soon stopped by stiff Soviet resistance. (Mikko Härmeinen)

U.S.S.R.: Russian and German tanks clash at Ostrov, a key point of the road to Leningrad.

EUROPE: Nazi-inspired anti-Bolshevik campaigns start in France and Belgium.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Prestone arrives, the P-40B’s are flyable. (Marc Small)

U.S.A.: Washington: President Roosevelt today informed Congress that United States forces have landed in Iceland.

The immediate occasion for the decision for the US to join British and Canadian troops in defending Iceland was the report that Germany has assembled an expeditionary force in northern Norway to invade Iceland. It would clearly have been a strategic disaster fort Britain to allow the Germans to seize a bastion in the middle of the vital western shipping lanes from North America. to the Western Approaches. However, the significance of the US move goes beyond Iceland itself.

It signals the administration’s willingness to relieve Britain of any burdens which a non-belligerent can undertake, so as to free British manpower for operations elsewhere.

The White House released copies of three-cornered negotiations between Washington, London and the prime Minister of Iceland, Herman Jonasson, in which the US recognized the sovereignty of Iceland and promised to withdraw all military forces as soon as the war came to an end.

The First Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW), composed of a Headquarters Squadron and Marine Air Group 1 (MAG-1), is organized at Quantico, Virginia. This is the first of its type in the USMC and the first of five wings organized during the war.

The USAAF orders 150 model NA-91 P-51 Apaches intended for the RAF under Lend-Lease as Mustang Mk. IAs. These aircraft retained the Allison V-1710-39 engine. (Jack McKillop)

NEWFOUNDLAND: HM S/M TALISMAN departs St. John’s to Mediterranean. (Dave Shirlaw)

In March 1937, addressing the Central Committee of the Communist Party about the tasks of secret intelligence work, he {Stalin} had said, "To win a battle in war one must have several corps of Red Army men. But to prevent a victory at the front it is enough to have a few spies in an army staff, or even in a divisional staff, who would steal the plan of operations and pass it on to the opponent."

At the Eighteenth Party Congress, in 1939, .Stalin had again broached the subject, in the following significant words: "Our Army and intelligence service have their sharp eyes no longer on the enemy within our country, but on the enemy abroad."
In view of these remarks, is it credible that in 1941 Stalin would have taken no notice of the information supplied to him by his secret service about the German preparations for an attack?
He must have been informed. After all, he had first-rate informants. From Berlin to Tokyo, from Paris to Geneva, his informantsmany of them highly respected men beyond the breath of suspicionsat in high positions and supplied valuable information.

The thoroughness of their work was revealed during the very first few weeks of the war. When the 221st Defence Division in Lomza cracked the safe left behind by the C-in-C of the First Cossack Army, they found in it maps for the whole of Germany, with the location of German Armies, Army Groups, and divisions accurately entered. The information was complete, nothing was lacking.
But this, by comparison, was peanuts. Some much more exciting discoveries were made.
The German radio monitoring service in the East Prussian seaside resort of Cranz had been intercepting the coded messages of countless unknown agents' transmitters since the beginning of the war. Attempts to crack the ingenious figure codes had been in vain. At last, in November 1942, German intelligence received the key. The Soviet chief agent Viktor Sokolov, alias Kent, had been captured in Marseilles. In order to save his mistress, Margarete Barcza, he offered to work for the Germans and betrayed the code.

What Admiral Canaris was shown after the decoding of the messages was far worse than the greatest pessimists had feared. There was a message of 2nd July 1941, for instance. Ten days after the outbreak of war Alexander Rado reported from Geneva to Moscow: "Rdo. To Director. KNR 34. Valid German plan of operations is Plan 1 with objective Moscow. Operations on wings merely diversions. Main thrust on Central Front. Rado."

About three weeks later, on 27th July, Rado amplified his message in reply to an inquiry from Moscow: "Rdo. To Director. KNR 92. Re RSK 1211. In case Plan 1 meets with difficulties Plan 2 will be used with main thrust on wings. Change of plan will be known to me within two days. Plan 3 with objective Caucasus not envisaged before November. Rado."

Needless to say, Berlin was flabbergasted to find a Soviet agent in Switzerland so accurately informed, and every effort was made to discover his source—a source which could discover a "change of plan" in the German High Command "within two days."

But this source was never discovered. It has not been discovered to this day.

Right through the war Alexander Rado continued to send his information to Moscow by radio. One thing is certain, however: Rado's main contact was Rudolf Rössler, alias Lucy, a Communist émigré from Bavaria who worked in Switzerland.
In "The Soviet Army", edited by the British military historian Liddell Hart, Dr Raymond L. Garthoff, who made a thorough study of the evidence, states that an anonymous source on the German General Staff informed this net of the German plans for the invasion of the USSR, and even provided the date of the invasion-and continued to send information throughout the war.

German reconnaissance unit comes upon Russian plane east of Borisov-July 41

Recovering the body of a German soldier who had been overrun north of Senno July 41

German troops enter Vitebsk 10-11 July.

Destroyed KV-2 on the road near Lepel July 41

German troops fighting in the White Russian forest-July 41

Russians cleared from village north of Pinsk June 41

Photo-no description-probably July 41