On this day in 1941 mine layers of the German navy, the Kreigsmarine, deployed from Finland's Archipelago Sea and deployed to large marine minefields across the Gulf of Finland, followed by the Luftwaffe mining Leningrad's harbor that night.
While German troops would not commence operations until 0300 the following morning, Operation Barbarossa was effectively on, although Finland itself would not commence offensive operations until July, and after the Soviets had conducted air operations against Finnish targets.
Earlier in the day in 1941 Hitler informed Mussolini that Germany would invade the Soviet Union the following day, although he claimed that the decision would be held until 7:00 p.m. Berlin time. In doing so, he stated:
I earnestly beg you, therefore, to refrain, above all, from making any explanation to your Ambassador at Moscow, for there is no absolute guarantee that our coded reports cannot be decoded. I, too, shall wait until the last moment to have my own Ambassador informed of the decisions reached
Mussolini seems to have already known somehow, probably due to Italian intelligence and certainly on troop movements, that a German invasion of the Soviet Union was immanent. None the less, one can only image what he must have felt knowing that his only solid ally was about to commit to an invasion that, historically, had a bad chance of working out.
Italy would also sustain a loss of its consulates in the US, a reprisal for it joining Germany in closing its, which was in reaction to the US closing of German consulates.
On the same day, the Vichy forces were defeated at Damascus. Vichy, however, also limited its Jewish university population to 3% of the overall total.
Churchill relieved Wavell and replaced him with Auchinleck. Wavell went to India, replacing Auchinleck there.
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