The German Afrika Corps and Italian forces took Benghazi, a major reversal of British fortunes in North Africa.
The Germans could begin to hope once again, with their now successful early stages of their intervention, that their arms were invincible. They had not suffered a ground defeat. That would ignore, of course, that they only had so much ground power to spread around.
On the same day Hitler ordered his plans for the invasion of Greece, having intervened seemingly successfully to aid the Italians in North Africa he was set to do the same in Europe.
Also on this day in 1941 the German commerce raider and auxiliary cruiser Thor engaged and sank the British auxiliary cruiser HMS Voltaire after a prolonged fight. The German ship was much more heavily armed than the British converted merchantman, both of which were unfortunately named. The British sustained a heavy loss of life of the ship's crew.
The United States granted permission to the Royal Navy to have its ships repaired in US ports taking the US one step closer to full belligerency against the Germans and Italians.
More on events of the day in the Second World War can be read here.
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