The Battle of Bengtskär
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/25.htm
July 25th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: London: The William Temple endorses the British-Soviet Pact. He says:
“It may seem strange to combine the alliance with Russia with the claim that we are contending for Christian civilization, but such misgivings are really misplaced, for the one, first, and essential aim of the whole widespread struggle is the overthrow of the tyranny of evil embodied in the rulers of Germany and all who are engaged in the cause must needs be our allies.”
FRANCE: Paris: The German-controlled radio here announced that the Vichy government had decided to deport all British subjects from its territory.
Members of the sizeable British expatriate community on the Cote d’Azur were told to leave a month ago. Many of them are elderly and cut off from their incomes by the speed of the French collapse last year.
Nov Vichy has decided to deport British subjects from France and “to regulate the position of Britons in France”. In part, the decision reflects increasing German pressure on the Vichy rulers. “After getting rid of the Free French parasites and the enemies of France as well as of the communists and the Jews,” Paris radio said, “it is now the turn of the British.”
The decision also reflects the bitter anti-British resentment of Admiral Darlan, the Vichy vice-premier, over what the radio called “the numberless British aggression” against Dakar, Syria and the French fleet.
VICHY FRANCE: The risk of war in the Far East escalated today with the surrender by the Petain regime of its military bases in Indochina to Japan. Britain and America have both denounced the French surrender.
By gaining access to airfields in western Indochina, Japan can now launch more frequent bombing raids against the Burma Road. Occupation of Indochina’s east coast ports constitutes a threat to the Philippines (800 miles) and Singapore (750 miles).
FINLAND: Seven Soviet MO boats, carrying 60 Border Guards under the command of Lt. P. Kurilov and Commissar A.I. Rumjantsev set out from the Soviet-held port of Hanko to seize the Finnish island of Bengtskär, which is held by less than 30 men. (Cris Wetton)
The advance of Finnish Karelian Army is stopped north of Lake Ladoga after Col. Lagus’ 5th Div. reaches Tuulos, about 20 miles east of pre-1939 border. After beating back Soviet counter-attacks the Finnish troops regroup into defence. More to north (in northern Karelia) the Finnish advance is slowed down by heavy Soviet resistance in well-prepared positions. (Mikko Härmeinen)
U.S.S.R.: The Spanish Volunteer Division of the Wehrmacht is designated the 250th (”Azul/Blue”) Infantry Division. It is called the “Blue Division” because the original uniform includes the dark blue shirts of the Spanish Fascists (the Falange). (Raymond Merriam)
MALTA: With the Grand Harbour unusually filled with merchant ships from the newly-arrived convoy - Operation Substance - high-speed Italian motor boats, their bow packed with high explosive, made a daredevil attack here tonight. Only one freighter had been damaged in this successful attempt to beat the Axis in “bomb alley” - although the cruiser HMS Manchester was damaged and the destroyer HMS Fearless sunk. Fifteen brave young Italians died when their MTLs (literally “tourist motor boats”) came under fire from harbour defences manned by the Royal Malta Artillery. The attack had been planned for months.
One group of “frogmen” would blow up a hindrance net suspended from a bridge to all the MTLs access to the harbour. The MTL pilots would race down the huge harbour and aim their exploding boats at ships before ejecting themselves over their sterns.
The plan almost worked, except that one of the Italians, Major Tesei, blew up the bridgre and himself, blocking access to the MTLs, which found themselves helpless, floodlit by harbour searchlights.
ICELAND: The air echelon of the USAAF’s 33d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor), consisting of 30 P-40s and 3 primary training aircraft (Stearman PT-13 Kaydets), was loaded aboard the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7) at Naval Operating Base Norfolk, Virginia, yesterday, for transport to Reykjavik, Iceland. (Jack McKillop)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Dundas launched Victoria, British Columbia. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Reports come over the radio that “five bombing planes made for England have crashed at different places in Ohio. All these accidents have taken place within 24 hours.”
War and Naval Departments send a message to the Pacific commanders advising them that Roosevelt was going to close the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping and would freeze all Japanese assets in the US, and those of banks situated in Japanese occupied China. These commanders were advised to “guard against possible eventualities”.
INCOMPLETE TEXT OF JULY 25, 1941, MESSAGE (CNO on his own behalf and for COS to overseas naval commanders and to be forwarded to Army commanders):
YOU ARE ADVISED THAT AT 1400 GCT JULY 26 UNITED STATES WILL IMPOSE ECONOMIC SANCTIONS AGAINST JAPAN STOP IT IS EXPECTED THESE SANCTIONS WILL EMBARGO ALL TRADE BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES SUBJECT TO MODIFICATION THROUGH A LICENSING SYSTEM FOR CERTAIN MATERIAL STOP IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT EXPORT LICENSES WILL BE GRANTED FOR CERTAIN GRADES OF PETROLEUM PRODUCTIONS COMMA COTTON AND POSSIBLY SOME OTHER MATERIALS AND THAT IMPORT LICENSES MAY BE GRANTED FOR RAW SILK STOP JAPANESE ASSETS AND FUND (sic) IN THE UNITED STATES WILL BE FROZEN EXCEPT THAT THEY MAY BE MOVED IF LICENSES ARE GRANTED FOR SUCH MOVEMENT STOP (missing section) CNO AND COS DO NOT ANTICIPATE IMMEDIATE HOSTILE REACTION BY JAPAN THROUGH THE USE OF MILITARY MEANS BUT YOU ARE FURNISHED THIS INFORMATION IN ORDER THAT YOU MAY TAKE APPROPRIATE PRECAUTIONARY MEASURES AGAINST POSSIBLE EVENTUALITIES STOP (rest of message missing)
Stimson advises Roosevelt that it is necessary to substantially bolster Philippine defenses.
Bureau of Ordnance issues first Navy “E” certificates (for excellence) for industry. (Dave Shirlaw)
Baseball, 41-year old Boston Red Sox pitcher Lefty Grove joins Cy Young, Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Grover Cleveland Alexander, and Eddie Plank to achieve 300 career wins. The lefthander gave up 12 hits beating the Cleveland Indians, 10-6. In 17 years in major league ball, he accumulated a 300-141 record. (Jack McKillop)
The motion picture “Blossoms In the Dust” is released in the U.S. The film, directed by Mervyn LeRoy, stars Greer Garson, Walter Pidegeon and Marsha Hunt. This tear-jerker, set in Texas, has Garson opening an orphanage and fighting to get equal rights for illegitimate kids. The film is nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress (Garson); it wins one technical award. (Jack McKillop)
SOUTH ATLANTIC OCEAN: The British cruiser HMS Newcastle intercepts the German ship ‘Erlangen’, which scuttles herself.
I'm currently reading 'The Seeds & Fruits of Infamy' by Percy Greaves, one of the Republican councils present during the PH hearings. This contemporary mt'l is a helpful perspective.
The Catholic Church had suffered atrociously during the Civil War. Thousands of priests had been assassinated and many thousands of religious buildings had been destroyed. The Vatican had qualified the war against the Popular Front as a 'Holy Crusade'. Therefore, although the neo-paganism of the Nazis was alarming for Spanish Catholics, it was still considered far preferable to the hatred inspired by the Soviet Union.
Other conservative groups in Spain were stupefied to see the United Kingdom ally itself with Stalin. Many of them, who until then would have preferred to see a British victory over Germany, changed their opinion when it became clear that the defeat of Germany would be a victory for Stalin.
So it was that the Blue Division arose with massive popular support from all those social and political groups who had supported the Nationalist Uprising of 18 July 1936.
For these sections of Spanish society, the campaign against the Soviet Union was the continuation of a war that had begun in Spain. Therefore, Spain could lay claim to the honour of being 'the first country to defeat communism'. Because of this, it was felt, Spain could not fail to participate in some way in Operation Barbarossa.
This desire to fight communism was integral to the origins of the Blue Division and was given as the main justification for its existence.
Many of those who passed through its ranks also wanted to show their sympathy for the Third Reich. They admired its social and economic policies and wished to see similar ideas implanted in Spain. They also hoped that their presence in the campaign in Russia - a campaign it was assumed would end in victory - would result in Spain improving its international position.
Russia had never before been an enemy of Spain, but the Soviet Union was definitely considered an enemy by many Spaniards. Nothing obliged the Spanish to march to Russia to fight communism, but many thousands of them did: some 45,000 took part in that campaign. The profile of the typical soldier filling the ranks of the Blue Division can be perfectly defined from the beginning: volunteer and anticommunist.
Another casualty of Yelnya
German column heading eastward through The Ukraine-not far from the old Russo-Polish border. July 1941
Infantrymen board a small inflatable boat, which could carry three or four men. They are going to reconnoitre the far shore before the main body attempts to cross. One of the men aboard the boat is armed with a Czechoslovak 7.92mm vz.26 light machine-gun. Some German units were armed with this weapon in lieu of the MG34 machine-gun, which was in short supply. The Germans designated this weapon the MG26(t) or MG146U) depending on whether it was obtained from Czechoslovak or Yugoslavian stocks. It was fed by a 3D-round box magazine; the man about to board the boat is carrying a container with extra magazines.
No description or date but appears to be German mountain unit passing through a village (Ukraine?)
Another abandoned Soviet airfield outside Lvov.
Panzer troops interrogate a Soviet POW. The officer with his back to the camera wears a black panzer jacket while the German tank crewman center wears the mouse-gray "Trikot" shirt. The odds that the Red Army prisoner survived German captivity are very slim.
Traffic jam at a Luga River bridge in late August. The river is neither wide, with steep banks, nor fast flowing yet was obviously an obstacle. German pioneers have constructed a new bridge to the left.
A German soldier inspects a Soviet sniper's nest high in a tree. Snipers were such a threat in the heavily wooded north that the SS-Divison "Totenkopf" commander Theodor Eicke authorized division officers to remove rank insignia on Barbarossa's second day.
Exhausted German soldiers relax in the shade of a building. Unusually, the men appear to wear SS-pattern camouflaged helmet covers and smocks over their regular army tunics.