Battle of the Atlantic

• Convoy HX-133 loses 5 ships and 2 U-boats are sunk in this large escort versus submarine action.
• U-103 sinks the Italian steamer Ernani (6619t) 450 miles west of Las Palmas with the loss of 2 crewmen. 32 survivors make it to the Canary Islands in a lifeboat.
• U-651 sinks the British steamer Grayburn (6342t) from Convoy HX-133 south of Iceland with the loss of 35 of her crew. 17 survivors are picked up by the British corvette Violet and the British anti-submarine trawler Northern Wave.
• U-651 is then sunk by the combined efforts of the British destroyers Malcolm and Scimitar, the corvettes Arabis and Violet and the minesweeper Speedwell. The entire crew are rescued.
• U-66 attacks stragglers from Convoy SL-78 and sinks the Greek steamers George J. Goulandris (4345t) and Kalypso Vergotti (5686t) west of the Canary Islands. All 28 crewmen from the George J. Goulandris are rescued. All 36 of the crew of the Kalypso Vergotti are lost.
• U-123 sinks the British steamer Rio Azul (4088t) from Convoy SL-78 200 miles southeast of the Azores with the loss of 33 of her crew. 9 survivors are picked up by the British armed merchant cruiser Esperance Bay.
• U-564 sinks the Icelandic steamer Hekla (1215t) south of Greenland with the loss of 14 crewmen. 6 survivors are picked up by the British corvette Candytuft.
• The British steamer Cushendall (626t) is sunk in a German air attack south of Aberdeen with the loss of 2 crewmen.

Britain, Home Front

Lord Beaverbrook is appointed Minister of Supply.

Eastern Front

In the central sector, Hoth's and Guderian's forces, join up near Minsk, completing the isolation of another huge pocket around Gorodische, a little town in White Russia southwest of Minsk.

In Finland, the Finns attack the Russians in Karelia, while in the extreme north German troops advancing from Norway and Finnish forces are both engaged in the area of Murmansk and Petsamo. The prizes are the only port on the Barents Sea that is ice-free all year round and a nickel mine of great strategic importance. The final objective of the offensive in Karelia is to link up with the German Army Group North.

In Operation SILBERFUCHS (SILVER FOX), German ski troops led by 'Dietl of Narvik' begin an advance from northern Finland towards Murmansk. Over time 3 successive attacks all fail and Dietl's troops end up digging in along the Litsa River in September.

The Central Committee of the Communist Party issues a directive that establishes partisan groups to fight the Germans.

Dietl's Operation SILVER FOX (the attack on Murmansk) gets under way. The 2nd and 3rd Mountain Divs launch their attack against Soviet positions. However, the terrain is inhospitable and the Germans make slow progress against determined opposition. SILVER FOX.

As the Germans breach the Dvina River line, the XXI Mechanized Corps is reduced to 7 tanks, 74 guns and 4,000 men. Libau falls to the German 291st Inf Div.

Brest-Litovsk falls to the Germans. The Stavka orders a scorched earth policy in an effort to slow the German advance.

Soviet Airfield near Bobruisk Captured by German Ground Forces 29 June 1941

German Troops Approaching Minsk

On June 29, 1941, Minsk was taken by the Germans. The capital of Belarus was a major victory for the Wehrmacht, made all the more remarkable by the circumstances surrounding its capture. Operation Barbarossa had begun just eight days before, and Army Group Centre had set off with Moscow as its ultimate goal. Field Marshal Fedor von Bock had at his disposal nearly 50 divisions, including 9 Panzer armored divisions. And when the starting gun sounded, they got right to work against Red Army General Dmitry Pavlov’s 45 divisions comprising the Western Front. Ripping to the east, tank master General Heinz Guderian’s forces and General Hermann Hoth’s forces had, by the 27th, linked up east of Minsk and cut off any Russian escape. In five days, the Panzers had covered an astounding 200 miles and encircled Minsk. Meanwhile, back west, the 4th and 9th German armies linked up east of Bialystok on the 28th. If you go to a map and find the cities of Bialystok and Minsk (like maybe here) and draw a circle around each, you’ll see what the Germans accomplished in six days…pretty incredible. The Russian Western Front was, in the space of a week, reduced to almost nothing. What had begun as a force of 675,000 men had been chopped by nearly two-thirds…more than 60%. More than 285,000 Red Army soldiers were captured, with the remaining 135,000 or so killed in action. It was a humiliating loss for the Russians, but for General Pavlov, it was worse. As Bialystok was encircled, he was stripped of his command. The day after Minsk fell, Pavlov (along with his staff) was stripped of his life. Despite the rapid movement, there were already concerns high in the German ranks, whispers that the advance was not quick enough, and the forward elements were being bogged down. But to anyone looking on from the outside, it appeared that a Russian defeat was not only inevitable, it was imminent.

German Troops Entering a Burning Minsk

The German 17th Army enters Lvov.[MORE]

A Destroyed KV-2 Tank Being Used as a Road Sign near Dubno on 29 June 1941

Mediterranean

The Australian destroyer Waterhen, carrying supplies to Tobruk, is badly damaged in a German bombing attack. She is taken in tow by the British destroyer Defender, but she capsizes and is lost. There are no casualties on the ship.

Troop-Laden Australian Destroyer Waterhen Sinking off Tobruk

Occupied Poland

As the Red Army withdraws through Lvov, the NKVD kills more than 3,000 Polish political prisoners.

Soviet Union, Home Front

Stalin takes over the Defense Ministry from Marshal Voroshilov and forms a 5-man Council of Defense. Included are Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Malenkov and Beria, Chief of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police and intelligence Commissariat.