The Yugoslavian parliament, facing demands from Nazi Germany, voted to join the Tripartite Pact 16 to 3. The result of the vote would soon prove not to work out they way it had been planned.
Yugoslavia was, on this day, a reluctant ally of the Germans at best. And the Germans should have given some thought to what having reluctant allies meant. Nazi Germany based its ideology on a radical concept of racism, and yet already, at this early stage of the war, it found itself entering into alliances with nations populated by peoples it otherwise claimed to despise. And some of those people despised them right back.
Added to that, while they were enlisting Balkan states for the war, they were also enlisting states whose armies were not necessarily up to the same quality as theirs, and which had exhibited no strong desire to get into the war on any side. Germany already had one ally that had entered the war voluntarily, Italy, which was proving to be a net drain on its efforts.
Indeed, on this day Indian troops advanced 100 miles and took Hargeisa in Somaliland, which exposed Italian Ethiopia.
On the same day, U.S. Under Secretary of State Sumner Wells warned the Soviet Ambassador that the United States had picked up intelligence indicating that Germany intended to attack the Soviet Union. This was by far not the only warning the Soviets would receive, but Stalin would not take action on any of them.
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