July 1941

July

• 01

  • The British take PalmyraOn 1 July 1941 the Arab Legion routed a Vichy company at Sukhnah. Palmyra, besieged since 21 June, surrendered on 3 July, and Slim's Indians took Deir ez-Zor.
  • The second draft registration in the United StatesOn 1 July 1941 some 750,000 American men who had turned 21 since autumn 1940 registered for the draft. On 31 July Lewis B. Hershey took charge of it.
  • The Germans take RigaOn 1 July 1941 the Wehrmacht entered Riga. Latvia passed from Soviet to German occupation, and the Germans and local collaborators began murdering Jews.
• 02

  • The Ponary massacre beginsOn 2 July 1941 Einsatzkommando 9 reached Wilno. In early July executions of Jews began in the pits at Ponary, and they went on for three years.
  • The Hungarians in StanisławówOn 2 July 1941 Hungarian troops entered Stanisławów, abandoned by the Red Army. In late July the Germans took over, and with them came the Holocaust.
• 03

  • Stalin’s speech of 3 JulyOn 3 July 1941, in his first radio address since the German attack, Stalin called for a patriotic war, partisan warfare and scorched earth.
  • The Summer War in EstoniaFrom 3 July 1941 the Estonian Forest Brothers attacked Soviet units in the south. The Germans entered Estonia on 7 July and the front halted on the Emajõgi.
  • The surrender of GazzeraOn 3 July 1941 Belgian troops from the Congo attacked the Italians at Saïo. That afternoon General Pietro Gazzera sought terms; he surrendered on 6 July.
• 04

  • Key eventThe massacre of the Lwów professorsDuring the night of 3–4 July 1941 the German Security Police in Lwów arrested Polish professors and their relatives. At dawn they were shot on the Wulka Hills.
  • MAGIC reveals Japan’s plansIn early July 1941 the Americans were reading Tokyo’s enciphered cables. They showed that Japan would move south into Indochina rather than against the USSR.
• 05

  • Swordfishes over TobrukOn 5 July 1941 Auchinleck took command in Cairo. Swordfishes had sunk Italian destroyers at Tobruk a year earlier, on 5 and 20 July 1940.
• 07

  • The Americans in IcelandOn 7 July 1941 a US Marine brigade arrived in Reykjavík. The formally neutral United States took on the defence of Iceland alongside the British.
• 08

  • The partition of YugoslaviaOn 8 July 1941 Germany and Italy signed a treaty in Berlin fixing their border in the Slovene lands, one of the last acts of the Axis partition of Yugoslavia.
• 09

  • The Germans take VitebskOn 9 July 1941 Hoth's tanks broke into Vitebsk. The Germans crossed the Dvina and the Dnieper, opening the Battle of Smolensk and the road to Moscow.
• 10

  • The Italian Expeditionary Corps in RussiaOn 10 July 1941 Italy formed its Expeditionary Corps in Russia (CSIR), some 62,000 men in three divisions. The first transports set off east.
  • The Jedwabne pogromOn 10 July 1941 Polish residents of Jedwabne, acting on German inspiration, murdered their Jewish neighbours. The IPN puts the dead at no fewer than 340.
• 12

  • The Armistice of AcreAt midnight on 12 July 1941 fighting ceased in Syria and Lebanon. Armistice terms were initialled at Acre and signed on 14 July by Wilson and de Verdilhac.
  • The Anglo-Soviet AgreementOn 12 July 1941 Cripps and Molotov signed an agreement on joint action in the Kremlin. Britain and the USSR pledged mutual help and ruled out a separate peace.
• 13

  • The uprising in MontenegroOn 13 July 1941, the day after Italy proclaimed a puppet Kingdom of Montenegro, an uprising broke out there. Within days it had engulfed most of the country.
• 15

  • The Soltsy counter-attackOn 14 July 1941 the Soviet 11th Army struck Manstein's corps at Soltsy and cut off the 8th Panzer Division. The drive on Leningrad stalled for weeks.
• 16

  • The Germans in SmolenskOn 16 July 1941 one of Guderian's divisions took most of Smolensk. Three Soviet armies were trapped near the city; the pocket was fought over until late July.
• 17

  • Operation SubstanceOn 17 July 1941 only Italian aircraft were harrying Malta. The Operation Substance convoy from Britain was on its way; it reached Valletta on 24 July.
• 19

  • V for VictoryAt midnight on 19/20 July 1941 the BBC broadcast Churchill's message on the V sign. The letter, Beethoven's Fifth and his gesture became Allied symbols.
• 20

  • Himmler in LublinOn 20 July 1941 in Lublin Himmler ordered Globocnik to build a concentration camp for 25,000–50,000 prisoners. The history of Majdanek begins with this order.
• 21

  • The first air raid on MoscowOn the night of 21/22 July 1941 nearly 200 Luftwaffe bombers attacked Moscow for the first time. The city's air defences limited the effects of the raid.
• 26

  • The United States freezes Japanese assetsOn 26 July 1941 Roosevelt froze Japanese assets in the US, and London and Batavia followed suit. The system of oil licences soon turned into an embargo.
• 28

  • Japan occupies southern IndochinaOn 28 July 1941 Japanese troops began landing in southern Indochina with consent forced from Vichy. The French went on governing; Japan gained bases.
• 31

  • Key eventGöring’s order to HeydrichOn 31 July 1941 Göring authorised Heydrich to prepare a “total solution of the Jewish question” in the German sphere of influence in Europe.