German forces reached Smolensk this week, advancing from north and south with a view to trapping the 600,000 Soviet soldiers there; but although half of them were captured, 100,000 escaped the trap. Even so, the road to Moscow now lay open; the Russian capital was just 200 miles away. In the north, Soviet forces launched… Read more »Read more

German forces continued their rapid drive into Russia this week, cutting off Leningrad in the north; taking Minsk and advancing on Smolensk in the; and pushing deeper into the Ukraine in the south. Stalin demoted Marshal Timoshenko and declared himself commander in chief of the Soviet army. On 8 July Britain and the USSR signed… Read more »Read more

The German advance into Russia continued, with German troops occupying Riga on 1 July; by the end of the week they had reached the Dnieper River and Stalin had ordered a “scorched earth” policy. A number of atrocities were committed by German troops: Soviet prisoners of war were executed, and scientists and writers in the… Read more »Read more

By the end of this, the first week of Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union, over 2,000 Soviet planes would be destroyed, leaving the defenders without air cover, and over 600,000 Russian soldiers would be captured, missing or killed. The German armies made rapid advances, but already it was evident that Hitler and his generals… Read more »Read more

The failure of the British “Operation Battleaxe” to relieve Tobruk in the Western Desert resulted in General Wavell being replaced by General Auchinleck. On 22 June Germany finally launched “Operation Barbarossa”, invading the Soviet Union with over 3 million men, making for Moscow, Leningrad and the Caucasian oilfields. Despite plenty of warning that the invasion… Read more »Read more

On Monday 9 June Australian forces in northern Palestine crossed into southern Lebanon and on into Syria, driving back Vichy French opposition. On 15 June British forces in the western Desert launched Operation Battleaxe, with a view to driving Rommel’s army back and relieving Tobruk, which was under siege from the Germans; the British were… Read more »Read more

In a relatively quiet week Germany continued its preparations for the invasion of the Soviet Union, although Hitler did not mention this to Mussolini when the two dictators met on 2 June. Meanwhile, German air attacks on Malta continued. On Sunday 8 June, British, Commonwealth and Free French forces invaded Syria, which was held by… Read more »Read more

On 26 May, after sinking HMS Hood two days earlier, the German battleship Bismarck was torpedoed by Royal Navy aircraft; with her steering damaged she was brought to battle next day and sunk with most of her crew of 2,000 still on board. In Iraq, the British began to advance on Baghdad and members of… Read more »Read more

Back in April, British and Commonwealth forces had been driven out of Greece and had retreated to the island of Crete. Now 23,000 German paratroopers and glider soldiers landed on the island; although the invasion would ultimately be successful the death toll would be so high that Germany would never use airborne troops like this… Read more »Read more

In retaliation for recent German bombing of British cities, this week the RAF bombed a number of German cities, including Hamburg. On 15 May in the Western desert British forces launched a surprise attack called “Operation Brevity” against Rommel’s troops at the Halfaya Pass on the Libyan-Egyptian border; but after successful German counter-attacks the operation… Read more »Read more