"In
the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and
have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle
for power, it was in the first instance only the Jewish race
that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that
I would one day take over the leadership of the state and with
it that of the whole nation and that I would then among other
things settle the Jewish problem...but I think that for some
time now they have been laughing on the other side of their
face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international
Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging
the nations once more into a world war, then the result will
not be the Bolshevising of the earth and thus the victory of
Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!".
Adolf Hitler - 30th
January 1939
"Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist"
Adolf Hitler - 15th March 1939
"In the event of any action which clearly threatened Polish
independence and which the Polish Government accordingly considered
it vital to resist with their national forces, His Majesty's
Government would feel themselves bound at once to lend the
Polish Government all support in their power. They have given
the Polish Government an assurance to this effect. I may add
that the French Government have authorized me to make it plain
that they stand in the same position in this matter."
Neville Chamberlain - 31st March 1939
“This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed
the German Government a final note stating that unless we heard
from them by eleven o'clock that they were prepared at once
to withdraw their troops from Poland, a state of war would
exist between us. I have to tell you that no such understanding
has been received and that consequently this country is at
war with Germany.”
Neville Chamberlain - 3rd September 1939
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22nd
June 1942
N/A
23rd
June 1942
German advanced elements reach the
Egyptian border. Rommel signals Kesselring for permission to
continue the advance in to Egypt, pointing out that at Tobruk
his forces has captured large quantities of fuel and supplies.
The Russians withdraw to the South side of Sevastopol's bay,
preserving their front, as the bombardment
and German attacks increase.
24th
June 1942
The Germans advance into Egypt as
the British retreat continues. Sollum and Sidi Barrani are
evacuated by the Eighth Army. The German, Italian and
Croatian forces in Yugoslavia, begin another offensive against
Tito's partisan army. The Luftwaffe launches the first in
a series of night raids against Birmingham.
25th
June 1942
The Germans capture Sidi Barrani,
Sollum and the Halfaya Pass in Libya as the Eighth Army retreats
to Mersa Matruh in Egypt. General Auchinleck relieves Lieutenant
General Ritchie and takes personal command of the Eighth Army,
with plans to hold Rommel if he could at Mersa Matruh, but
more definitely at the El Alamein line, or if that failed the
Suez Canal. General Dwight D. Eisenhower
is appointed to command US forces in the European Theatre. The
RAF launches its third 1,000-bomber raid, with 1,006 aircraft
against Bremen. This time Coastal
Command provided 102 Hudson bombers, after Churchill's insistence
that they take part. As with the previous 1,000 bomber raids,
a full moon had been selected to aid in finding the target.
The raid caused heavy damage to the Focke-Wulf plant and devastated
27 acres of the inner city. The RAF lost 49 aircraft, a high
proportion of them being manned by trainee crews. German troops
drive a wedge into Sevastopol's defenses. The Russians are
running out of men, space and time.
Surviving fighter aircraft are sent to the Caucasus, conceding
the skies to the Luftwaffe. Soon the Russian AA guns are out
of ammunition and the defenders face Stukas with rifles and
machine guns. Artillery shells are running low too.
26th
June 1942
Rommel is made a Field Marshal and
launches attacks against Mersa Matruh. Meanwhile, Kesselring,
Cavallero (Italian Chief of Staff in Rome) and Bastico (Italian
C-in-C in Libya) arrive at Rommel's HQ and give permission
for him to continue his advance in to Egypt. Italian aircraft
strength is increased on Sicily by withdrawing aircraft from
Libya.
This allows the Italians to step up their air attacks against
Malta. German troops capture Kupyansk over
the river Oskel, for use as a launch pad for their summer offensive.
At Rastenberg, Adolf Hitler decorates SS General Eicke, Commanding
Officer of the SS Totenkopf Division, with the Oak Leaves for
the Knight's Cross, for his Divisions bravery in holding out
in the Demyansk pocket the previous winter. Eleven of Eicke's
officers and men also receive the Knight's Cross. After the
ceremony, Hitler and Eicke chat and Eicke tells the Fuhrer
that
his Division is pretty well worn out, short of vehicles and
wishes it to be transferred to France. Instead, Hitler gives
Eicke home leave.
27th
June 1942
German troops begin to outflank the
British positions at Mersa Matruh. As this happens the British
start to withdraw towards the El Alamein line, confirming radio
intercepts that had indicated they would. Convoy PQ-17 sets sail
from Iceland. It consists of 35 merchants, 3 rescue ships and
2 tankers for
refueling and is heavily loaded with 297 aircraft, 594 tanks,
4246 lorries and gun carriers, plus an additional 156,000 tons
of cargo. The convoy is to be guarded by 21 close escorts,
7 warships from a cruiser covering force and a further 19 warships
in a distant covering force. All told 1 aircraft-carrier, 2
battleships, 6 heavy cruisers, 23 destroyers, 4 corvettes,
3 minesweepers, 2 AA ships, 4 ASW trawlers are to protect the
convoy. Additionally, 15 submarines, six of them Russian are
placed ahead of the the convoy. Dr. Heinisch, the German administrator
in the Przemysl area, issues a public instruction. "Every
Ukrainian or Pole who attempts by any means whatsoever to impede
the campaign for the deportation of Jews, will be shot. Every
Ukrainian or Pole found in a Jewish quarter looting Jewish
homes will be shot. Every Ukrainian or Pole attempting to conceal
a Jew will be shot." In the next month, 24,000 Jews from
western Galicia, Heinisch's district, pass through Przemysl.
All are taken to Belzec and killed.
28th
June 1942
German advance units capture Fuqa
and report increasing confusion in the retreating British units.
Low clouds cover the skies over the Ukraine, providing a suitably
ominous overture to Operation
'Blau', the German summer offensive. Field Marshal Fedor von
Bock ("The Preacher of Death") hurls three armies
and 11 Panzer divisions East in a massive assault whose objective
is nothing short of the Caucasus mountains and oilfields. In
classic blitzkrieg style, the Germans fan out across open steppe
and grassland, crushing the 40th Army, folding the 13th Army
northward and disintegrating the reeling 21st and 28th Armies.
Russian troop command crumbles under the drive. Russian logistics,
exhausted by the Moscow counteroffensive, cannot keep up with
the demand. A German sergeant tells Propaganda Kompanie men "It's
quite different from last year, it's more like Poland. The
Russians aren't nearly so thick on the ground. They fire their
guns like madmen, but they don't hurt us!". That evening,
in Sevastopol, German troops cross North Bay under a smoke
screen and seize the southern shore, capturing Inkerman in
the process. 2 freighters and 1 tanker from convoy PQ-17 suffer
accidental damage and are forced to abort.
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