Year 1941

Diary for Monday, August 25, 1941: Middle East ANGLO-RUSSIAN INVASION OF IRAN begins (with 2 British and 3 Russian divisions). Russian Front Operation Barbarossa: Germans capture Dnepropetrovsk, south of Kiev; […]

Diary for Sunday, August 24, 1941: Sea War Mediterranean – Operation Mincemeat I: HMS Manxman (disguised as large French destroyer) lays 140 mines off Livorno (Italy), while Swordfish torpedo-bombers from

Diary for Saturday, August 23, 1941: Neutrals Vichy France: Petain empowers Vichy courts to impose death penalty for terrorist offences (3 men guillotined, August 28).

Diary for Friday, August 22, 1941: Occupied Territories France: German authorities in Paris threaten to shoot hostages if attacks on German troops continue (20,000 troops comb city for suspects).

Diary for Thursday, August 21, 1941: Sea War Atlantic: FIRST TRIAL ARCTIC CONVOY TO NORTH RUSSIA (code name ‘Dervish’) leaves Reykjavik, with 7 ships and arrives Archangel, August 31.

Diary for Wednesday, August 20, 1941: Eastern Front Operation Barbarossa: Marshal Voroshilov calls on citizens of Leningrad to defend their city to the death.

Diary for Tuesday, August 19, 1941: Sea War Atlantic:British expedition to Spitzbergen from August 19 to September 3. Norwegian and Russian mining communities evacuated and coal mines destroyed.

Diary for Monday, August 18, 1941: Home Fronts Britain: National Fire Service formed. 1,400 local fire brigades, amalgamated into 33 ‘fire forces’.

Diary for Sunday, August 17, 1941: Politics Britain: Churchill visits Iceland.

Diary for Saturday, August 16, 1941: Sea War Atlantic: 8 U-boats Type VII and 3 Italian submarines make repeated, but unsuccessful, attempts to attack Convoy HG.69 northwest of Gibraltar (August

Diary for Friday, August 15, 1941: Politics POLISH-RUSSIAN MILITARY AGREEMENT signed in Moscow.

Diary for Thursday, August 14, 1941: Sea War Baltic: Russian transport Sibir, carrying 2,500 wounded from Tallinn (Estonia) to Kronstadt (Leningrad), sunk by German bombers. Russians evacuate Nikolayev dockyard and

Diary for Wednesday, August 13, 1941: Occupied territories Poland: Russia releases ‘all’ Polish PoWs taken in September 1939 (of course, except the murdered Polish officers and PoWs).

Diary for Tuesday, August 12, 1941: Politics ATLANTIC CHARTER SIGNED after series of meetings aboard HMS Prince of Wales and USS Augusta, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland. Churchill and Roosevelt issue

Diary for Monday, August 11, 1941: Air War British torpedo-bombers sink Italian hospital ship California at Syracuse (Sicily).

Diary for Sunday, August 10, 1941: Politics Britain and Russia pledge themselves to assist Turkey if she is attacked.

Diary for Saturday, August 9, 1941: Sea War German destroyers make sortie to Kola Inlet (August 9-10), sinking Russian patrol ship, but withdraw under heavy air and artillery bombardment.

Diary for Friday, August 8, 1941: Occupied Territories Russia: Marshal Timoshenko issues proclamation to all Russians in enemy-occupied areas, urging them to join partisans, carry out Stalin’s scorched-earth policy and

Diary for Thursday, August 7, 1941: Air War France: RAF carries out repeated sweeps over north France: 10 fighters lost, 7 Me 109Fs shot down. Douglas Bader‘s aircraft collides with

Diary for Wednesday, August 6, 1941: Russian Front Operation Barbarossa: Special communique issued by German High Command claims that Wehrmacht has inflicted ‘annihilating blows unique in history’; 895,000 prisoners taken;