SENATE ASKED TO KEEP MEN IN SERVICE AND TO LET ARMY BE SENT OVERSEAS (7/11/41)

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http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jul41/f11jul41.htm

Germans 15 miles from Kiev

Friday, July 11, 1941 www.onwar.com

On the Eastern Front... Panzer Group 1 renews its advance toward Kiev and reaches to within 15 miles of the city. The Soviet State Defense Committee establishes three new command areas for the Red Army. Marshal Voroshilov is to command in the North (Northwest Front), Marshal Timoshenko the central West Front, and Marshal Budenny the Southwest Front.

In Washington... Roosevelt asks Congress for $3,323,000,000 for the navy and the Maritime Commission. He also appoints William Donovan to head a new civilian intelligence agency with the title “coordinator of defense information.” This appointment will lead to the creation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) which in turn will develop into the modern CIA.

In Syria... Despite instructions from Vichy France forbidding him to do so, General Dentz accepts the Allied armistice terms. The cease-fire begins at 2100 hours. The casualties in the campaign have been about 2500 on the Allied side and 3500 among the Vichy French forces. In addition the Vichy authorities have had a number of prisoners flown out to Europe including a few after the armistice terms forbidding this have been agreed.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm

July 11th, 1941

FINLAND: Maj. Gen. Talvela’s VI Corps achieve a breakthrough and advance rapidly. However, Talvela is dissatisfied with the commander of the 5th Div Col. Koskimies and releases him from the command. Koskimies is replaced by Col. Ruben Lagus who had advanced rapidly with his Jäger Brigade. Maj. Gen. Hegglund’s VII Corps has much tougher time. The defending Soviet forces are experienced and fight vigorously.

In Lapland the attacking Germans are forced to recognize their operative mistakes and ask for reinforcements. Especially the SS-Division ‘Nord’ has been a disappointment. Finns send Infantry Regiment 14 which was originally meant to defend the Ahvenanmaa (Åland) islands in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden.

Julius Björkland is appointed the first Field Bishop (kenttäpiispa) for the Finnish Army. Björkland was the senior minister of the defence Forces with the title of kenttärovasti. (Mikko Härmeinen)

U.S.S.R.: The Germans who have taken 600,000 Russians prisoner, are ten miles from Kiev.
Marshal Voroshilov, North; Marshal Timoshenko, Central; Marshal Budenny, Southwest are appointed to command for these sectors of the Soviet front.

1st Pz. Gp. turned south (away from Kiev). XIV Pz. K. (Gen.d.Inf. Gustav von Wietersheim) and XXXXVIII Pz. K. (Gen.d.PzT. Werner Kempf) cleared the southern Ukraine while III Pz.K. (Gen.d.Kav. Eberhard von Mackensen) skirted Kiev to the South and reached the Dnepr River at Kremenchug. (Jeff Chrisman)

Units of Panzergruppe 2 begin crossing the Dnepr River, XXXIV Pz. K. units at Starye Bychov, XXXXVI Pz. K. units near Shklov and XXXXVII Pz. K. at Kopys. (Jeff Chrisman)

SYRIA: General Dentz accepts Armistice terms in Syria against Vichy instructions. 2500 Allied and 3500 French casualties.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Destroyer HMS Defender is attacked by German aircraft and damaged. She is taken in tow by HMS Vendett, but as her engine and boiler rooms were flooding and her back broken she settled lower in the water and finally had to be sunk off Sidi Barani, 60 miles east of Tobruk. (Alex Gordon)(108)

INDIA: Simla: Wavell takes up his post as C-in-C India.

U.S.A.: William Donovan is appointed as “Coordinator of defence Information” by US President Roosevelt.
Washington: Roosevelt asks for appropriations of $3,300 million (GBP 800 million) for the US Navy, in addition to the $4,700 million (GBP 1,175 million) requested yesterday for the US Army.
In a baseball game at Sportsmans Park in St. Louis, Missouri, between the New York Yankees and the St. Louis Browns, Yankee center fielder Joe DiMaggio goes 4-for-5 against Browns pitchers Bob Harris and Jack Kramer extending his hitting streak to 50 consecutive games. (Jack McKillop)

CANADA: Corvette HMCS Algoma commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

"When I see even at this time of the year how our vehicles, after it's rained a little, can barely make the grade, I just can't imagine how it will be in the autumn when the rainy period really sets in. We're fighting in a solid mass of dirt." - Wihelm Prüller, NCO in German motorized regiment
"Yesterday one regiment marched 54, another 47 km. to do that once is possible. To do that having already had numerous marches of 30-40km with more to come, that is something else, it makes it tremendous. To do it no one gets to sleep at night, rather it starts at 2 or 3 [a.m.] and last until evening, sometimes 10 [p.m.]." - General Gotthard Heinrici
After five days of intense fighting, Lieutenant-General Kurochkin's 20th Army is decimated by the Third Panzer Group

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