June 1941

June

• 01

  • Clothes rationing in BritainOn 1 June 1941 the British learned that clothing and footwear were rationed. Everyone got 66 coupons a year, at first cut from their margarine coupons.
• 02

  • The formation of the 99th Pursuit SquadronIn spring 1941 the US Army created the 99th Pursuit Squadron, the first Black American flying unit. In June work began on its school at Tuskegee.
  • The massacres at Kondomari and KandanosA day after Crete fell, the Germans turned on its people. On 2 June 1941 they shot the men of Kondomari; on 3 June they razed Kandanos to the ground.
• 04

  • The death of Wilhelm IIOn 4 June 1941 the last German Emperor died at Doorn in occupied Holland. Hitler wanted a state funeral, but Wilhelm II had asked to be buried in exile.
• 06

  • Operation RocketOn 6 June 1941, 43 Hurricanes from Ark Royal and Furious reached Malta. The Luftwaffe had already left Sicily; it was mainly the Italians bombing the island.
• 08

  • The invasion of Syria and LebanonOn 8 June 1941 British, Australian, Indian and Free French troops entered Vichy Syria and Lebanon. On 9 June the Australians forced the Litani.
• 09

  • Mobilisation in FinlandOn 9 June 1941 Finland called up its covering-force reservists. Billed as defensive, the call-up was agreed with Germany, then preparing to attack the USSR.
• 11

  • The fall of AssabAt dawn on 11 June 1941 an Indian battalion from Aden landed at Assab and took the last Italian port on the Red Sea without a fight.
• 14

  • The United States freezes Axis assetsOn 14 June 1941 Roosevelt froze the US assets of Germany, Italy and the rest of Europe. On 16 June Washington shut German consulates; on 20 June, Italian ones.
  • The June deportationOn the night of 13–14 June 1941 the NKVD began deporting people from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Over 40,000 were taken in days, Poles from Wilno among them.
  • The Battle of JezzineIn mid-June 1941 Australians took Jezzine in Lebanon after a night march through the mountains and occupied Sidon; the Vichy French struck back.
• 15

  • Operation BattleaxeOn 15–17 June 1941 the British attacked on the Egyptian–Libyan border to relieve Tobruk. Rommel threw back the attack and forced them to retreat.
• 20

  • The creation of the USAAFOn 20 June 1941 the War Department created the US Army Air Forces under General Henry Arnold, bringing all of the Army’s aviation under a single command.
• 21

  • The creation of the Office of Scientific Research and DevelopmentIn late June 1941 Roosevelt created Vannevar Bush’s OSRD, which took over US military research, from radar to uranium. The Manhattan Project began in 1942.
• 22

  • Key eventGermany invades the Soviet UnionAt dawn on 22 June 1941 Germany and its allies attacked the USSR. Operation Barbarossa broke the pact of 1939 and opened the Eastern Front.
  • Auchinleck replaces WavellAfter the failure of Operation Battleaxe Churchill swapped commanders. Wavell was to take command in India, General Claude Auchinleck in the Middle East.
  • The June Uprising in LithuaniaOn 22 June 1941 Lithuanians rose against the Soviets and next day proclaimed a restored state in Kaunas. Germany did not recognise it; a pogrom followed.
• 23

  • Hitler at the Wolf’s LairOn 23 June 1941 Hitler left Berlin for a new headquarters in a forest near Rastenburg. From the Wolf’s Lair he ran the war on the USSR for over three years.
  • The Ablinga massacreOn 23 June 1941 Wehrmacht soldiers shot 42 people from the Samogitian village of Ablinga and neighbouring Žvaginiai, and burned Ablinga to the ground.
• 24

  • The Germans take WilnoOn 24 June 1941 the Wehrmacht entered Wilno. That same day Lithuanian “activists” killed Jews in the streets, and the Germans took Jewish and Polish hostages.
• 25

  • Finland goes to war with the USSROn 25 June 1941 Soviet aircraft bombed Finnish airfields and towns. That evening Prime Minister Rangell told parliament that Finland was at war.
  • The Engelbrecht Division’s transit through SwedenOn 25 June 1941 Sweden agreed to let the armed German 163rd Infantry Division travel by rail from Norway to Finland – a breach in its neutrality.
• 26

  • Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the USSRSlovakia joined the war on the USSR on 23 June 1941. Hungary, after a mysterious air raid on Kassa on 26 June, announced a state of war the next day.
• 28

  • The Białystok–Minsk pocketOn 28 June 1941 the Germans took Minsk, closing the ring around the Western Front. In the Białystok and Minsk pockets they took some 300,000 prisoners.
• 29

  • Operation SilberfuchsOn 29 June 1941 Dietl's mountain corps set out from Petsamo for Murmansk, opening the German–Finnish Operation Silberfuchs, which bogged down in the tundra.