It is three weeks into Operation Barbarossa on 13 July 1941, and, at this point, it has been an unqualified success for the Wehrmacht. If anything, Soviet resistance appears to be waning, and all of the hopes and dreams of the German high command appear to be coming true.
The two sides exchange air raids against important targets today. The Luftwaffe bombs Kyiv, while the Red Air Force attacks Ploesti, Romania. While Kyiv basically is just another large city, Ploesti is the home of Romanian oil fields. Romanian oil is absolutely critical to the health of the German economy and military, and protecting the oil fields is — in Hitler’s own words as spoken to Marshal Mannerheim on 4 June 1942 — one of the top reasons Germany invaded the Soviet Union in the first place. The Red Air Force raid causes widespread damage.
In the Far North sector, General Dietl tries to get the stalled offensive rolling beyond the Litsa River toward Murmansk by having the troops attack out of their bridgehead. However, the Soviets are solidly dug in and the attack makes no progress.
In the Army Group Center sector, the roads are bad and the panzers have difficulty making much ground. The Soviets are making a strong stand in Estonia and greatly slowing the German advance toward Leningrad. German 4th Panzer Group captures some footholds on the far side of the Luga River.
In the Army Group Center sector, General Guderian’s Second Panzer Group continues its advance across the Dneipr River. Guderian lead troops (29th Motorized Division) are within 18 km (11 miles) of Smolensk, and they are past Mogilev in the direction of Orsha. Due to their speed, the panzers have bypassed several Soviet divisions, and it is up to the following German infantry to capture them. General Franz Halder notes in his war diary that “Guderian’s attack is developing surprisingly well.” General Hoth’s 3rd Panzer Group continues its advance to the northeast of Vitebsk but Nineteenth Army is barely advancing further north.
In the Army Group South sector, the Soviets are determined to make a stand at Kyiv, but elsewhere they continue to retreat. While Romanian Fourth Army is greatly weakened, it continues to advance because the Red Army is shortening its own lines. Seventeenth Army faces few counterattacks, but Soviet artillery is increasing in intensity along the Stalin Line. German Sixth Army and Army Group 1 is in a hard fight at Berdichev but by the end of the day, the Soviets pull back and lose contact with the advance German forces.
At 12:30, General Halder, in his role as chief of operations at OKH (army headquarters), briefs Adolf Hitler at the afternoon strategy conference at the Wolfschanze in Rastenburg (throughout the war, Hitler holds two military strategy conferences every day, roughly at noontime and midnight). Hitler approves Halder’s plans, which include:
- Restrain Army Group Center, meaning Panzer Groups 2 and 3, from continuing the advance on Moscow for the time being. and instead, focus on encircling enemy concentrations at Smolensk;
- In the Army Group South sector, destroy enemy concentrations southwest of Kyiv around Korosten.
While Hitler goes along with Halder’s overall plans, he chips in his own ideas. Hitler has had a lot of free time at Rastenburg to study the map, and this has led him to his own conclusions about strategy. While he does not take complete control over operations, he increasingly has detailed ideas about operations that above the mere tactical, but hardly of strategic import. For instance, today Hitler advises Halder:
It is his (Hitler’s) opinion that it is more important to destroy Soviet troops than to advance further east;
Army Group North needs to prioritize advancing quickly to Lake Ladoga to cut off Leningrad;
Hoth’s Panzer Group 3 should circle back to take the pressure off of troops on the southern section of Army Group North’s front;
Terror raids on Moscow to “prevent the orderly evacuation of Government agencies” and counter Soviet propaganda that the Luftwaffe can’t do it;
Troops are needed in the West for political reasons.
Hitler’s ideas at times have some cleverness to them. However, they also are contradictory (he wants to slow down the advance, but apparently speed it up toward Leningrad) and involve using military force for political objectives. Hitler’s ideas, at least for the time being, do not interfere with the professional conduct of operations, but it is clear that he wishes to use the military in ways that the generals do not feel is best.
Hitler, in fact, is making Halder miserable. After Halder returns to his own headquarters, thinking that everything has been settled, ObdH (Generalfeldmarschall Walther von Brauchitsch’s headquarters) calls him with the news that Hitler has been ranting negatively about the conduct of operations. In particular, Hitler wants certain divisions to move to different locations. This is a new level of interference with military operations. Hitler sends a written order to ObdH just to make sure he is taken seriously (Hitler’s military orders invariably are written by General Keitel based on whatever Hitler has been ranting about, who serves the role of Hitler’s office boy).
Another, much larger question remains unsettled. The army Generals continue to prefer a quick ride to Moscow, which they feel is entirely feasible. General von Greiffenberg, for instance, calls Halder (or vice versa) and opines that a quick thrust now to Moscow would find little opposition. Field Marshal von Bock sends a teletype later in the day supporting von Greiffenberg’s idea. Hitler, however, is dead set against it.
Soviet general Mikhail Kirponos began counterattacking against the Zhytomyr corridor.
The first Spanish volunteers of the Blue Division began leaving Spain for Grafenwöhr, Bavaria, Germany.
The repatriated Soviet Berlin Embassy staff arrives in Turkey through Bulgaria, at Svilengrad. The German embassy staff is then permitted to leave the Soviet Union. Thus, both sides’ embassy staffs make it out of enemy territory safely despite the very hard feelings felt on both sides.
It is common for some to think that the Germans never had any difficulties controlling the Baltic. While for much of the war that is true, at various times the Soviets cause — or at least try to cause — the Kriegsmarine a lot of problems in this supposedly “secure area.” Today is one of those times. A collection of Soviet destroyers, motor torpedo boats and bombers attack a German convoy off the coast of Latvia. The Soviet force sinks German landing ship Deutschland in the Gulf of Riga. However, the other German ships escape.
Efraim Zuroff is kidnapped by a hang of Lithuanians roaming the streets of Vilnius looking for Jews with beards to arrest. He is taken to Lukiskis Prison, the main gaol in the city, and is murdered, along with his wife and two boys. His grandnephew, also named Efraim Zuroff for his great uncle, will become a Nazi hunter after the war, eventually serving as the Israel director of The Simon Wiesenthal Center; he has also worked for the U.S. Justice Department’s Office of Special Investigations, which is in charge of Nazi war crimes prosecutions.
On 13 July 1941 a convoy was formed consisting of 94 “invalide”, German Reich nationals and Poles, for the greater part but not exclusively Jews, and taken from KL Buchenwald to Hohenstein near Dresden, guarded by heavily armed SS troopers. On the following day 93 more were dispatched. Several days later their clothes, including their personal effects, false teeth, etc., were returned to Buchenwald. All were murdered.
Einsatzgruppe B (SS Gruppenfuhrer Nebe) Situation Report No. 21 of 13 July 1941: “The activity of all units has turned out satisfactorily. Above all, the liquidations have become routine and take place daily in increased numbers.”
Polish-Jewish violinist and music educator Henri Czaplinski (aka Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky) escapes from an NKVD prison in Lviv, Ukraine during a Luftwaffe raid. He heads to the German lines and offers his services as a translator.
The Armistice of Saint Jean d’Acre negotiations at Acre, British Mandate of Palestine was stalled as the French rejected British demands. With a ceasefire in place and both sides in basic agreement on the terms (the French make some fuss today, but they are in no position to argue about Britain’s generous offer), the only formality remaining to wind up the war is signing an armistice. Today is spent drafting the document, which is planned to be signed at Acre tomorrow.
A partisan revolt began in Montenegro against the Italian occupiers. The Uprising in Montenegro, commonly known as the 13 July Uprising was an uprising against Italian occupation forces in Montenegro (Axis occupied Yugoslavia). Initiated by the Communist Party of Yugoslavia on 13 July 1941, it was suppressed within six weeks, but continued at a much lower intensity until December 1941. The insurgents were led by a combination of communists and former Royal Yugoslav Army officers from Montenegro. Some of the officers had recently been released from prisoner-of-war camps following their capture during the invasion of Yugoslavia. The communists managed the organization and provided political commissars, while the insurgent military forces were led by former officers. The entire nation rejected the privileged position offered by its occupiers, rejected the capitulation in order to fight for Yugoslavia, together with “Russia” (the nationalist insurgents perceived the Soviet Union as Russia at the beginning of the uprising). Within three weeks of the start of the uprising, the insurgents managed to capture almost all the territory of Montenegro. The Italian troops were forced to retreat to their strongholds in Pljevlja, Nikšić, Cetinje and Podgorica. The counter-offensive by more than 70,000 Italian troops, commanded by General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli, was assisted by Sandžak Muslim militia and Albanian irregular forces from border areas between Montenegro and Albania, and suppressed the uprising within six weeks.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Taku torpedoes and sinks 2703-ton Italian freighter Caldea about ten nautical miles (19 km) northwest of Benghazi. Italian torpedo boat Montanari attacks Taku, but the submarine gets away.
Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Germany, preached the first of 3 sermons against Nazi brutality. Clemens August Graf von Galen, Catholic Bishop of Münster in Westphalia, delivers a sermon in which he attacks the Gestapo for closing religious orders in the city. “None of us is safe — and may he know that he is the most loyal and conscientious of citizens and may he be conscious of his complete innocence — he cannot be sure that he will not someday be deported from his home, deprived of his freedom and locked up in the cellars and concentration camps of the Gestapo. Justice is the only solid foundation of any state. The right to life, to inviolability, to freedom is an indispensable part of any moral order of society… We demand justice! if this call remains unheard and unanswered, if the reign of Justice is not restored, then our German people and our country — in spite of the heroism of our soldiers and the glorious victories they have won — will perish through an inner rottenness and decay. I am aware that as bishop, as harbinger and defender of the legal and moral order desired by God, which grants everyone basic rights and liberties not to be invaded by human demands, I am called upon courageously to represent the authority of the law and to brand as an injustice crying to heaven the condemnation of defenseless innocents.”
George Orwell writes “English Writing in Total War.” In it, he bemoans the current state of English literature, noting, “Novels are still being published, but they are terribly bad ones.” However, he also notes “The general level of intelligence in England is now higher than it has ever been.”
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 13/14 July 1941
German Ports
69 Wellingtons, 47 to Bremen, 20 to Vegesack and 2 to Emden. All forces encountered thick cloud and icing. 16 aircraft claimed to have bombed at Bremen, 1 at Vegesack but none at Emden 2 aircraft were lost from the Bremen force.
After dark, the Luftwaffe conducts more minelaying operations at the Suez Canal with 20 bombers.
At Malta, the weather is poor, with low visibility, so there are only a few enemy bombing attacks. However, invasion fears remain high. The government issues an order requiring all troops to be on “constant standby” in case of an enemy attack. This means that upon the sounding of the General Arm, soldiers must return to their duty stations whether they be on leave, at a rest camp, or anywhere else.
Anti-aircraft ship HMS Pozarica arrived at Scapa Flow at 1200 from Chatham to carry out working up exercises.
British steamer Collingdoc (1780grt) was sunk on a mine four cables 200° from Southend Pier. Two crewmen were lost on the steamer. The steamer was refloated on the 21st and towed to Gravesend. The steamer was converted to a hulk and towed to Rosyth.
British steamer Scorton (4813grt) was damaged by German bombing two miles west of 57C Buoy, near Smiths Knoll. The steamer arrived in tow at Immingham.
Submarine HMS Taku sank Italian steamer Caldea (2703grt), en route from Brindisi to Benghazi, ten miles 312° from Benghazi. Torpedo boat Montanari from Tripoli was escorting the steamer, but was unable to damage the submarine.
Returning from a supply run to Tobruk, Destroyer HMS Decoy sighted a submarine off Bardia. After an unsuccessful attack, due to the threat of air attack, the destroyer proceeded to Alexandria. Destroyer HMAS Voyager, in company, was reduced to seventeen knots due to a mechanical defect.
British tanker Pegasus (3597grt) was sunk on a British mine at Beirut.
Convoy WS.9C formed at sea from ships sailing from Avonmouth, Liverpool, and the Clyde. This convoy was primarily the SUBSTANCE convoy for Malta. The Clyde section escorted by light cruisers HMS Arethusa and the Dutch HNLMS Heemskerk departed on the 10th. The convoy consisted of battleship HMS Nelson, light cruisers HMS Manchester, HMS Arethusa, and Heemskerk, cruiser minelayer HMS Manxman, and steamers Deucalion, Avila Star, Leinster, Port Chalmers, Pasteur, Melbourne Star, Durham, Sydney Star, and City of Pretoria. Destroyer HMS Winchelsea escorted the convoy on the 12th. Sloop HMS Stork escorted the Avonmouth section and remained with the convoy until 13 July. Light cruiser Heemskerk and destroyers HMS Gurkha, ORP Garland, HMS Vanoc, and HMS Wanderer escorted the convoy from 12 to 15 July. Battleship Nelson, light cruisers Manchester and Arethusa, and destroyers HMS Cossack, HMS Maori, HMS Sikh, HMAS Nestor, and HMS Lightning escorted the convoy from 12 to 17 July. Liner Pasteur was detached to Gibraltar on the 17th escorted light cruiser Manchester and destroyers Nestor and Lightning. Liner Leinster was detached to Gibraltar escorted by destroyers Cossack, Sikh, and Maori. Cruiser minelayer Manxman escorted the convoy from 15 to 16 July. Steamer Avila Star was detached as an independent on the 16th. Destroyers HMS Fearless, HMS Foxhound, HMS Fury, HMS Foresight, and HMS Forester departed Gibraltar on the 14th and joined the convoy on the 18th. Destroyer HMS Firedrake departed Gibraltar the next day and joined the destroyers at sea. They remained with the convoy until arrival on the 20th. Light cruiser HMS Edinburgh joined the convoy on the 20th and arrived with it at Gibraltar. The convoy arrived at Gibraltar on the 20th.
General George C. Marshall, chief of staff, has advised congressional leaders, it was learned today, that the army cannot man outlying defense bases adequately unless selectees are held in service beyond the present limit of one year. A member of congress said that Marshall, in conferences last week with Speaker Rayburn and other legislators, emphasized, too, the need for speedy enactment of legislation which would make selectees liable for additional service and would permit the retention of national guardsmen for more than their projected year’s active duty. In that connection, Marshall was quoted as saying that unless additional service was authorized a large number of troops ‘would have to be brought back from Hawaii in August because of the approaching expiration of their one year’s service.
Republicans charged today that President Roosevelt had bungled the rearmament program and given a secret commitment to Britain before the war that the United States Fleet would take “joint action” with the Royal Navy in any European conflict. Criticism of the defense program was made by Representative Joseph W. Martin Jr. of Massachusetts, minority leader in the House, who declared that “unnecessary and inexcusable delays” had taken place and demanded that “the President take such steps, under his present authority and appropriations, as will break the bottlenecks, free the log jams and get our national preparedness program moving as it should.” Representative Tinkham, Republican, of Massachusetts, issued a formal statement asserting that the President had not only agreed to “pool” the United States Fleet with Britain’s but had “shamelessly repudiated his promises to the American people” and treated “the Constitution as a mere scrap of paper.”
William S. Knudsen, head of the office of production management, declared tonight he did not believe there would be any more blanket curtailments of automobile production. “But,” he added in an interview, “as we run out of various sorts of materials from time to time, there undoubtedly will be some cuts here and there in the auto industry.” On a tour of west coast airplane factories and shipyards, Knudsen arrived by plane from San Francisco with Major-Gen. George H. Brett of the army air corps. Knudsen expressed hope that the labor crisis in industry had passed. He attributed a recent recession in the number of strikes to the fact that “gradually people are beginning to take an interest in the defense program.
President Roosevelt’s crony Harry Hopkins departs by air for London.
Using special capsules of a noninflammable cellulose, each of which will have a screw cap so that the numbers may not spill out when the capsules are stirred in the famous “Goldfish Bowl,” five girl employees of the National Headquarters of the Selective Service Board will begin at 10 o’clock tomorrow morning inserting the 800 consecutive numbers which will be drawn next Thursday evening in the second National Selective Service lottery. These numbers, as drawn next Thursday, will determine the order in which approximately 750,000 young men who reached the age of 21 years between midnight of Oct. 16, 1940, and midnight of July 1, 1941, will be called by their local boards for military training.
Strikes in factories working on Army contracts and among workmen on War Department and defense industry construction projects resulted in a loss of 2,458,150 man-days during the first six months of 1941, a study of War Department charts of labor disputes disclosed tonight.
A call to America to enter the war to end Hitlerism, coupled with attacks on Senator Burton K. Wheeler and Charles A. Lindbergh, was heard by 76,000 persons who took a pledge of allegiance at a joint rally held at Manhattan, Oriental and Brighton Beaches, Brooklyn, yesterday under the auspices of the New York Committee to Defend America.
Dr. Frank Bohn, national chairman of the German National Congress for Democracy, appealed today in a statement for the immediate entrance of the United States into the war, asserting, “a majority of the German people are our allies and they only await our call to arms.” “If we make war on Hitler now the struggle will be short, victory assured, and the peace decisive,” Bohn said.
The newspaper The New York Times reported that the famed Polish Jewish violinist Henri Czaplinski (aka. Genrikh Maksimovich Chaplinsky in Soviet documents) had escaped an NKVD prison in Lvov, Ukraine during a German bombing.
Joseph Curran, president of the C.I.O. National Maritime Union, virtually challenged the Federal Government today on retaining in the crew of one of its ships a man who resigned from the union in the face of expulsion proceedings because he demanded a public inquiry into charges of communism against officers of the N.M.U.
The D.C. Armory, a 10,000-seat multi-purpose arena in Washington, D.C., opens. It is intended to be the headquarters, armory, and training facility for the District of Columbia National Guard.
Hollywood couple William Holden and Brenda Marshall were married at a resort near Las Vegas. Actor William Holden marries actress Brenda Marshall, whose actual name is Ardis Ankerson. This is the start of a long marriage that lasts until 1971, a very long time by Hollywood standards. Holden shot to fame in “Golden Boy” (1939) and owes his stardom to his co-star in that film, Barbara Stanwyck, who helped Holden with the role. Stanwyck in 1941 is Holden’s “close friend and mentor,” but she already is married to another one of her “pupils,” Robert Taylor.
Former Major League player Eddie Mayo, playing for Los Angeles (Pacific Coast League), is accused of spitting in the face of umpire Ray Snyder during an argument. PCL President W. C. Tuttle suspends Mayo for one year. Mayo protests that he never spat and, after a series of hearings with minor-league czar Judge Brabham, he will be reinstated on September 5 and finish the season with the Angels. Burleigh Grimes, managing Grand Rapids in the Michigan State League last year, was banned for a year for a similar offense.
PGA Championship Men’s Golf, Cherry Hills CC: Vic Ghezzi wins his only major title over defending champion Byron Nelson in 38 holes.
Major League Baseball:
With 35,150 fans, the season’s record crowd for Ebbets Field, jamming all seating and standing room yesterday, the Dodgers battled the Cubs until after 7 o’clock and finished with nothing better than an even break in the twinbill. The Dodgers were a bit on the dub side in the opener, losing by 10–3, but nearly all was forgiven when Newell Kimball, making his first start of the season, hurled a 3–1 triumph in the afterpiece. Pete Reiser put Kimball and the Dodgers on the victory path in the first inning of the nightcap by blasting his ninth homer of the campaign over the scoreboard. Bill Lee, the losing pitcher, was on the mound then.
Elmer Riddle (10–0) tosses his 2nd straight shut out as the Reds beat 4–0 in game 1 of a twinbill. Riddle, who boasts the best hurling record in either major league, limited the Braves to five scattered hits. The Braves then beat All-star hurler Paul Derringer with 2 runs in the 9th to win, 6–5.
Baseball’s New York Yankees begin a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox in Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois. In a doubleheader, Yankee star Joe DiMaggio goes 3-for-4 in the first game against White Sox pitchers Ted Lyons and Jack Hallett. In the second game, DiMaggio hits a single off White Sox pitcher Thornton Lee thus extending his hitting streak to 53 consecutive games. The Yankees continue winning, sweeping the White Sox, 8–1, and 1–0 in 11 innings, to run their win streak to 14.
The Indians, though outhit in both contests, beat the Red Sox, 9–6, in the first game today and then took an eleven-inning 2–1 victory on Jeff Heath’s single, driving in Ken Keltner. Mickey Harris struck out ten
batters — three of them in the tenth — and allowed only eight hits compared with the eleven which Al Smith, another southpaw, yielded to Boston in the second game. Joe Cronin’s double, followed by Jimmy Foxx’s single, opened the second-game scoring in the first inning, but Cleveland tied the score in the same stanza. Cronin was the leading batter of the contest with two doubles and three singles in five trips.
Jack Knott, 34-year-old right-hander, overcame the handicap of two home runs by Pinky Higgins and turned in a five-hit pitching performance to give the Athletics a 5–4 victory over the Tigers today.
The trouble with the Giants today was that they didn’t space their fire judiciously. So they had to be content with a split of their double-header with the Pirates before a gathering of 22,865 at the Polo Grounds. In the first game the Giants were shackled by Ken Heintzelman, whose sinewy left arm yielded only two singles as the Pirates whitewashed the Terrymen, 4–0. The nightcap saw Frankie Frisch aim at a used pitchers record in a desperate bid for victory which was thwarted as the Giants triumphed, 8–2.
-The Cardinals picked up a game on the first-place Dodgers today by taking both ends of a doubleheader from the Phillies, 7–2 and 8–5, while the Dodgers split with the Cubs. A five-run splurge in the first inning made things easy for Lon Warneke in the opener, but the Cards had to come from behind to snare the nightcap.
The Browns and Senators, trading places in the American League cellar all season, swapped again today. Washington started in the dungeon by half a game but after the Senators had captured a doubleheader, 7–3 and 6–5, sunset found St. Louis the occupant.
Chicago Cubs 10, Brooklyn Dodgers 3
Chicago Cubs 1, Brooklyn Dodgers 3
Cincinnati Reds 4, Boston Braves 0
Cincinnati Reds 5, Boston Braves 6
New York Yankees 8, Chicago White Sox 1
New York Yankees 1, Chicago White Sox 0
Boston Red Sox 6, Cleveland Indians 9
Boston Red Sox 1, Cleveland Indians 2
Philadelphia Athletics 5, Detroit Tigers 4
Pittsburgh Pirates 4, New York Giants 0
Pittsburgh Pirates 2, New York Giants 8
St. Louis Cardinals 7, Philadelphia Phillies 2
St. Louis Cardinals 8, Philadelphia Phillies 5
Washington Senators 7, St. Louis Browns 3
Washington Senators 6, St. Louis Browns 5
In execution of the important national policies decided upon at the recent Imperial Conference, Japan’s national structure is being geared for total war, Domei, the official Japanese news agency, announced today. Large scale preparations for that purpose, the agency says, are evident from the intensified activity in all government quarters. They are also indicated, it adds, by various other emergency measures that are creating a tense atmosphere throughout the country. These preparations, according to the agency, center especially on the application of the National Mobilization Law in the expectation that “the policies to be pursued by the government in the future will be increasingly characterized by the present wartime situation.”
A conference of Tokyo’s National Mobilization Council will be held at the end of this month and it is expected that the people’s daily life will be put on an intensified wartime footing in line with the basic economic and financial policies decided upon at an extraordinary Cabinet session Friday. But the government, already expecting that even the application of the National Mobilization Law will not be sufficient to effect the necessary wartime controls, is, therefore, preparing additional emergency measures for the future. Among these plans is further extension of the control of the entire economic and financial system including industry, agriculture, transportation and consumption.
Japanese agent Mr. Negishi in Manila asks Tokyo for 40,000 yen. He wishes to use the money to fund three candidates (who have requested the money) during their campaigns for office in the Philippine assembly. Tokyo takes the request under advisement.
Born:
Robert Forster [Foster], American actor (“Medium Cool”, “Jackie Brown”), in Rochester, New York (d. 2019).
Jacques Perrin, French filmmaker, producer and actor (“Cinema Paradiso”, “The 317th Platoon”), in Paris, France (d. 2022).
Lut Tomsin, Belgian actress and director (“Knock on the Door”), in Tongeren, Belgium.
Steve Gibbons, British singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer (The Ugly’s — “Wake Up My Mind”; solo — “Tulane”), in Harbourne, Birmingham, England, United Kingdom.
Don Bryant, MLB catcher (Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros), in Jasper, Florida (d. 2015).
Died:
Eduard Norden, 72, German classical philologist and historian of religion.
Naval Construction:
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 277 is commissioned.
The U.S. Navy Aloe-class net laying ship USS Locust (YN-17; later AN-22) is placed in service.
History Diaries 