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Njaco
The Pop-Tart Whisperer
July 3 Thursday
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0436, U-69 began a gun duel with the armed "Robert L. Holt" NW of the Canary Islands. She had been the ship of commodore Vice-Admiral NA Wodehouse CB RN from the dispersed Convoy OB-337. The ship sank at 0650 after the U-boat had fired 102 high explosive rounds and 34 incendiary rounds from the deck gun, 220 rounds from the 20-mm gun and 400 rounds with the MG34. The master, the commodore, 41 crewmembers and six naval staff members were lost.
EASTERN FRONT: Unternehmen Barbarossa: Stalin broadcasts for the first time since the German invasion. The reason for his delay in responding is not clear. He calls for total effort and a policy of scorched earth before the German advance, and guerilla warfare in their rear. He also defends the 1939 non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on the grounds of his desire for peace. The broadcast is the first of many to emphasize patriotic nationalism. Joseph Stalin called the Soviet people "brothers and sisters" for the first time. Stalin has demanded a great deal from the people of the Soviet Union. Some of them will not obey him - in some areas the invading Germans have been welcomed with bread and salt - but others will do anything for Holy Mother Russia if not for communism.
Heeresgruppe Nord: In the area of Heeresgruppe Nord, clear weather permits the Luftwaffe to provide close air support again. Soviet 8th Army, 27th Army, and 11th Army crumbling under attacks by Heeresgruppe Nord. The German 41.Panzerkorps (4.Panzergruppe) makes good progress against the relatively weak forces of the Soviet 1st Mechanized Corps, and two reserve rifle corps, of the Soviet Northwest Front (Sobennikov).
Heeresgruppe Mitte: The Bialystok pocket in Poland was eliminated by elements of German 9. and 2.Armee taking 300,000 prisoners.
There were surprised faces at 18.Panzerdivision headquarters in the Borisov bridgehead when a signal was received from the division's air unit: "Strong enemy armoured columns with at least 100 heavy tanks advancing along both sides of Borisov-Orsha-Smolensk road in the area of Orsha. Among them very heavy, hitherto unobserved models."
Hoth reports that losses for 3.Panzergruppe stand at 125 officers and 1,644 of all other ranks. Hoth and Guderian officially resumed their thrust for the Dnepr and Dvina rivers.
Heeresgruppe Sud: A total of 45 professors at the University of Lvov (now Lviv) were executed by an Einsatzkommado unit after the city was captured by the Germans on June 30. Aided by the Ukrainian 'Nachtigall' battalion, they started the roundup of the professors their families and relatives. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were simply shot on the spot. Some 38 professors were taken to a place of execution in the Wulka hills outside the city and there shot to death. Another seven, including Professor Dr. Bartel, a former Prime Minister of Poland, were shot in the courtyard of the Brygidki Prison, the same courtyard where days previously they found the murdered bodies of the prison inmates.
German soldiers arrive in Kolomiya, (later part of Ukraine) which belonged to Poland at this time, and tacked up posters that declared in three languages "Death to All Jews."
Soviet Naval Air unit 402 IAL, based at Idritsa in Russia and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel P. Stefanovsky, went into action with its new MiG-3 fighters and destroyed six enemy aircraft, followed by a similar number on the next day. The unit's primary task was close support and low level fighter reconnaissance, and its pilots had orders to avoid combat if possible. The unit's adjutant, Major K. A. Gruzdev however was an aerobatic champion and soon devised a tactic to bring the enemy to battle. This involved making a steep spiral climb to between 15,000 and 18,000 feet where the MiG-3 fighters enjoyed a performance advantage over the German fighters. The German pilots almost always followed the climb, believing they were chasing a novice pilot, only to realize their mistake when Gruzdev suddenly stall-turned and shot them down. By the end of the year this talented pilot had no less than nineteen confirmed victories to his credit.
Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu lectures his staff at the Ministry of Internal Affairs:
GERMANY: Werner Mölders was presented Swords to his Knight's Cross by Adolf Hitler.
RAF Bomber Command sends 90 aircraft to attack Essen and 68 aircraft to attack Bremen overnight. The 90 British bombers attempting to attack the Krupp arms works and rail targets in Essen, scatter their bombs so widely that they bomb Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Hagen, Wuppertal, and other cities as well as Essen. In Essen, they succeed only in inflicting minor housing damage, injuring two people.
MEDITERRANEAN: The last French aerial reinforcements for Syria - 21 Dewoitine D.520 fighters of 3 Squadron, 2 Fighter Group (GC II/3) - land at the German-Italian airbase at Rhodes after coming from Tunis via Brindisi and Athens.
MIDDLE EAST: The Battle of Deir ez-Zor was fought in Syria, resulting in Allied victory. Allied field commander William "Bill" Slim of Iraq Command outflanked Vichy French troops at Deir ez-Zor, Syria. Progress on the poor road was slow and made more difficult by air attacks from Vichy aircraft but by early afternoon there were units within 9 miles of Deir ez-Zor. The 2/10th Gurkha Rifles attacked from the south-west at 0900 hours on 3 July. The flanking column (comprising infantry of 4/13th Frontier Force Rifles and armoured cars of the 13th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers) had left Mayadin at 0415 hours, crossing the Palmyra road running south-west across their path about 20 mi (32 km) from Deir ez-Zor and reaching the Aleppo road by 1030 hours. As Slim had hoped, surprise was complete and the flanking force advanced rapidly into the city, capturing the bridges intact and destabilizing the defences facing the Gurkhas advancing from the south-east. By 1100 hours, these positions were abandoned and the two attacking forces joined up in the city. By 1530 hours, the last opposition in the city had been silenced although the Vichy air force continued to make telling attacks on the Allied ground forces. Only 100 prisoners were taken because the bulk of the Syrian troops changed into civilian clothes and merged into countryside. However, 50 lorries, nine guns and five aircraft were captured and a considerable haul of arms, ammunition and petrol was made.
The Vichy French fort at Palmyra surrenders to Habforce after a long defense. Survivors of French Foreign Legion in Palmyra (165 men, mostly Germans and Russians) surrender. They have withstood 12 day of attacks by four allied cavalry regiments (including the Arab Legion) and an infantry battalion.
RAF No. 127 Sqn attacks a formation of Leo451s but are driven off by escorting Dewoitine S520s, losing two Hurricanes.
NORTH AFRICA: Belgian 3rd Colonial Infantry Brigade attacks Italian positions at Dembidollo in Galla-Sidamo. "Mopping up" of the Italian forces in East Africa continues as the Italian garrison at Debra Tabor surrenders to the British. Italian General Pietro Gazzera surrendered to Belgian Congolese forces after his stronghold at Saio in the Ethiopian Highlands was surrounded.
UNITED KINGDOM: The only daylight bombing on Britain during the week of 2 Jul to 9 Jul occurred on this date at Land's End in southwestern England. The German aircraft dropped bombs but they failed to explode.
The Mk II, Handley-Page Halifax makes its first flight. It is armed with a two-gun dorsal turret and equipped with more powerful engines.
WESTERN FRONT: Shortly after 0100 hours, Oblt. Reinhold Knacke of 2./NJG 1 destroys a British Whitley bomber and a Hampden bomber.
While testing a new Bf 109F near Aire, Major Wilhelm Balthasar, Kommodore of JG 2, is bounced by British Spitfires and killed. Ritterkreuztrager Major Balthasar had forty-seven victories flying with several Kanalfront Geschwaders, including JG 27, JG 1, JG 2 and JG 3. Oblt. Walter Oesau is later appointed Kommodore in his place.
The British continue with their "Nonstop Offensive" with two attacks against Hazebrouck. The first, Circus No. 30, commences shortly before noon. The fighters of JG 2 and JG 26 are sent to intercept the bombers and tangle with the escorting fighters. Lt. Hans Naumann of 9./JG 26 brings down a RAF Spitfire for his third victory and five minutes later Oblt. Rudolf Pflanz from the Stab of JG 2 brings down another Spitfire. The second attack, RAF Circus No. 31 was 6 Blenheim IVs of 2 (B) Group escorted by 17 fighter squadrons. This formation is met again by the Kanalfront Geschwaders at 1530 hours. Four Spitfires are shot down with claims going to Lt. Siegfried Schnell of 9./JG 2, Lt. Julius Meimberg of 3./JG 2, Lt. Karl-Heinz Harder of 2./JG 26 and Fw. Karl Pfeiffer for his sixth victory.
Denmark announced request for United States consular staffs to evacuate by July 15.
.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 0436, U-69 began a gun duel with the armed "Robert L. Holt" NW of the Canary Islands. She had been the ship of commodore Vice-Admiral NA Wodehouse CB RN from the dispersed Convoy OB-337. The ship sank at 0650 after the U-boat had fired 102 high explosive rounds and 34 incendiary rounds from the deck gun, 220 rounds from the 20-mm gun and 400 rounds with the MG34. The master, the commodore, 41 crewmembers and six naval staff members were lost.
EASTERN FRONT: Unternehmen Barbarossa: Stalin broadcasts for the first time since the German invasion. The reason for his delay in responding is not clear. He calls for total effort and a policy of scorched earth before the German advance, and guerilla warfare in their rear. He also defends the 1939 non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany on the grounds of his desire for peace. The broadcast is the first of many to emphasize patriotic nationalism. Joseph Stalin called the Soviet people "brothers and sisters" for the first time. Stalin has demanded a great deal from the people of the Soviet Union. Some of them will not obey him - in some areas the invading Germans have been welcomed with bread and salt - but others will do anything for Holy Mother Russia if not for communism.
Heeresgruppe Nord: In the area of Heeresgruppe Nord, clear weather permits the Luftwaffe to provide close air support again. Soviet 8th Army, 27th Army, and 11th Army crumbling under attacks by Heeresgruppe Nord. The German 41.Panzerkorps (4.Panzergruppe) makes good progress against the relatively weak forces of the Soviet 1st Mechanized Corps, and two reserve rifle corps, of the Soviet Northwest Front (Sobennikov).
Heeresgruppe Mitte: The Bialystok pocket in Poland was eliminated by elements of German 9. and 2.Armee taking 300,000 prisoners.
There were surprised faces at 18.Panzerdivision headquarters in the Borisov bridgehead when a signal was received from the division's air unit: "Strong enemy armoured columns with at least 100 heavy tanks advancing along both sides of Borisov-Orsha-Smolensk road in the area of Orsha. Among them very heavy, hitherto unobserved models."
It was, in fact, the 1st Moscow Motorized Rifle Division with T-34s under Major-General I. G. Kreyzer, whom Yeremenko had sent into action against Guderian's armoured spearhead. It was a crack unit, the pride of the Soviet High Command. Six miles east of Borisov, near the village of Lipki, Nehring's and Kreyzer's armoured spearheads made contact. When it first hove into sight the T-34 struck a good deal of terror among the German armoured spearheads and Panzerjägers. But abreast of it, at a distance of about 100 feet, came an even bigger monster—a KV-2, weighing 52 tons. The light T-26 and BT tanks between the two giants were soon set on fire by the German Mark Ills. But their 5-cm. shells made no impression whatever on the two giants. The first Mark III received a direct hit and went up in flames. The other German tanks scuttled out of the way. The two Soviet monsters continued to advance. But the heaviest German tanks then in existence were still some three tons lighter than the T-34, and the range of their guns was considerably less. However, the German commanders soon discovered that the crew of the T-34 were unsure of themselves and very slow in their fire. The German tanks underran its fire, weaved round it, and dodged its shells. They got the giant between them. They shot up its tracks. The Soviet crew got out and tried to escape, but ran straight into a burst of machine gun fire from a Mark III. Meanwhile the huge 52-ton KV-2 with its 15-2-cm. cannon was still shooting it out with two German Mark Ills. The German shells penetrated into the Russian tank's plating as far as their driving bands, and then got stuck. Nevertheless the Russians suddenly abandoned their vehicle—probably because of engine trouble. This incident reveals the cardinal mistake of the Russians. They employed their T-34s and super-heavy KVs not in formation, but individually among light and medium tanks, and as support for the infantry. Those were very outdated tank tactics. The result was that these vastly superior Soviet tanks were smashed up one by one by the German tank companies, in spite of the terror they originally struck among them. In this way General Kreyzer's counter-attack near Lipki collapsed.
Hoth reports that losses for 3.Panzergruppe stand at 125 officers and 1,644 of all other ranks. Hoth and Guderian officially resumed their thrust for the Dnepr and Dvina rivers.
Heeresgruppe Sud: A total of 45 professors at the University of Lvov (now Lviv) were executed by an Einsatzkommado unit after the city was captured by the Germans on June 30. Aided by the Ukrainian 'Nachtigall' battalion, they started the roundup of the professors their families and relatives. Most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were simply shot on the spot. Some 38 professors were taken to a place of execution in the Wulka hills outside the city and there shot to death. Another seven, including Professor Dr. Bartel, a former Prime Minister of Poland, were shot in the courtyard of the Brygidki Prison, the same courtyard where days previously they found the murdered bodies of the prison inmates.
German soldiers arrive in Kolomiya, (later part of Ukraine) which belonged to Poland at this time, and tacked up posters that declared in three languages "Death to All Jews."
Soviet Naval Air unit 402 IAL, based at Idritsa in Russia and commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel P. Stefanovsky, went into action with its new MiG-3 fighters and destroyed six enemy aircraft, followed by a similar number on the next day. The unit's primary task was close support and low level fighter reconnaissance, and its pilots had orders to avoid combat if possible. The unit's adjutant, Major K. A. Gruzdev however was an aerobatic champion and soon devised a tactic to bring the enemy to battle. This involved making a steep spiral climb to between 15,000 and 18,000 feet where the MiG-3 fighters enjoyed a performance advantage over the German fighters. The German pilots almost always followed the climb, believing they were chasing a novice pilot, only to realize their mistake when Gruzdev suddenly stall-turned and shot them down. By the end of the year this talented pilot had no less than nineteen confirmed victories to his credit.
Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu lectures his staff at the Ministry of Internal Affairs:
GERMANY: Werner Mölders was presented Swords to his Knight's Cross by Adolf Hitler.
RAF Bomber Command sends 90 aircraft to attack Essen and 68 aircraft to attack Bremen overnight. The 90 British bombers attempting to attack the Krupp arms works and rail targets in Essen, scatter their bombs so widely that they bomb Bochum, Dortmund, Duisburg, Hagen, Wuppertal, and other cities as well as Essen. In Essen, they succeed only in inflicting minor housing damage, injuring two people.
MEDITERRANEAN: The last French aerial reinforcements for Syria - 21 Dewoitine D.520 fighters of 3 Squadron, 2 Fighter Group (GC II/3) - land at the German-Italian airbase at Rhodes after coming from Tunis via Brindisi and Athens.
MIDDLE EAST: The Battle of Deir ez-Zor was fought in Syria, resulting in Allied victory. Allied field commander William "Bill" Slim of Iraq Command outflanked Vichy French troops at Deir ez-Zor, Syria. Progress on the poor road was slow and made more difficult by air attacks from Vichy aircraft but by early afternoon there were units within 9 miles of Deir ez-Zor. The 2/10th Gurkha Rifles attacked from the south-west at 0900 hours on 3 July. The flanking column (comprising infantry of 4/13th Frontier Force Rifles and armoured cars of the 13th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers) had left Mayadin at 0415 hours, crossing the Palmyra road running south-west across their path about 20 mi (32 km) from Deir ez-Zor and reaching the Aleppo road by 1030 hours. As Slim had hoped, surprise was complete and the flanking force advanced rapidly into the city, capturing the bridges intact and destabilizing the defences facing the Gurkhas advancing from the south-east. By 1100 hours, these positions were abandoned and the two attacking forces joined up in the city. By 1530 hours, the last opposition in the city had been silenced although the Vichy air force continued to make telling attacks on the Allied ground forces. Only 100 prisoners were taken because the bulk of the Syrian troops changed into civilian clothes and merged into countryside. However, 50 lorries, nine guns and five aircraft were captured and a considerable haul of arms, ammunition and petrol was made.
The Vichy French fort at Palmyra surrenders to Habforce after a long defense. Survivors of French Foreign Legion in Palmyra (165 men, mostly Germans and Russians) surrender. They have withstood 12 day of attacks by four allied cavalry regiments (including the Arab Legion) and an infantry battalion.
RAF No. 127 Sqn attacks a formation of Leo451s but are driven off by escorting Dewoitine S520s, losing two Hurricanes.
NORTH AFRICA: Belgian 3rd Colonial Infantry Brigade attacks Italian positions at Dembidollo in Galla-Sidamo. "Mopping up" of the Italian forces in East Africa continues as the Italian garrison at Debra Tabor surrenders to the British. Italian General Pietro Gazzera surrendered to Belgian Congolese forces after his stronghold at Saio in the Ethiopian Highlands was surrounded.
UNITED KINGDOM: The only daylight bombing on Britain during the week of 2 Jul to 9 Jul occurred on this date at Land's End in southwestern England. The German aircraft dropped bombs but they failed to explode.
The Mk II, Handley-Page Halifax makes its first flight. It is armed with a two-gun dorsal turret and equipped with more powerful engines.
WESTERN FRONT: Shortly after 0100 hours, Oblt. Reinhold Knacke of 2./NJG 1 destroys a British Whitley bomber and a Hampden bomber.
While testing a new Bf 109F near Aire, Major Wilhelm Balthasar, Kommodore of JG 2, is bounced by British Spitfires and killed. Ritterkreuztrager Major Balthasar had forty-seven victories flying with several Kanalfront Geschwaders, including JG 27, JG 1, JG 2 and JG 3. Oblt. Walter Oesau is later appointed Kommodore in his place.
The British continue with their "Nonstop Offensive" with two attacks against Hazebrouck. The first, Circus No. 30, commences shortly before noon. The fighters of JG 2 and JG 26 are sent to intercept the bombers and tangle with the escorting fighters. Lt. Hans Naumann of 9./JG 26 brings down a RAF Spitfire for his third victory and five minutes later Oblt. Rudolf Pflanz from the Stab of JG 2 brings down another Spitfire. The second attack, RAF Circus No. 31 was 6 Blenheim IVs of 2 (B) Group escorted by 17 fighter squadrons. This formation is met again by the Kanalfront Geschwaders at 1530 hours. Four Spitfires are shot down with claims going to Lt. Siegfried Schnell of 9./JG 2, Lt. Julius Meimberg of 3./JG 2, Lt. Karl-Heinz Harder of 2./JG 26 and Fw. Karl Pfeiffer for his sixth victory.
Denmark announced request for United States consular staffs to evacuate by July 15.
.