Air Operations, Europe

• The elite German fighter wing JG-51 shoots down 100 Russian bombers who were attacking Guderian's Panzers east of Minsk. The CO, Mölders, personally destroys 5 of the Russian bombers.
• Moscow has its first air raid alert. It is a false alarm.
• There are daylight raids on Bremen and Kiel by the RAF. Halifax bombers participate in the Kiel raid.

Battle of the Atlantic

• The German floating weather station Launenburg sinks in the North Atlantic. Men from the British destroyer Tartar manage to get on board before she goes down and capture yet more top secret German documents.
• U-66 sinks the British steamer St Anselm (5614t) west of Madeira with the loss of 34 of her crew. 33 survivors are picked up by the British armed merchant cruiser Moreton Bay and the Spanish steamer Tom.
• The British light cruiser Dunedin captures the Vichy French steamer Ville de Tamatave (4993t) east of St Paul.

A Japanese Tank Passes over an Emergency Bridge, Somewhere in China, on June 30, 1941. (AP Photo)

Diplomatic Relations

Vichy France breaks off diplomatic relations with the USSR and freezes Russian assets in France.

Eastern Front

In the central sector the 2nd Panzergruppe take Bobruisk and begin to cross the Berezina. Meanwhile the mop up the big pocket at Bialystok, destroying the remaining Russian 10th Army.

Stalin orders the execution of Gen Dmitri Pavel and his leading officers for incompetence.

Troops from Army Group South take Lvov and attacks the Stalin line, the fortification system built by the Russians but entirely neglected by them when they advanced to the borders of Poland. Other units make deeper advances toward Kiev.

Gen Fedor Kuznetsov is replaces by Gen Petr Sobennikov as commander of the Northwest Front.

German Army Commanders Meeting in Utena, Lithuania 30 June 1941

XXIV Panzer Corps captures Bobruisk and establishes a crossing point over the Berezina River as Gen Pavlov is shot in Moscow for incompetence.

Ostfront Inspection Tour in Grodno. June 30, 1941

Rovno, Ostrog and Lvov fall to the Germans. To date the Southwest Front has lost 2,600 tanks.[MORE]
[ | ]

Germany, Command

The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Groups are brought under the overall command of Field Marshal Günther von Kluge's 4th Army, which is to be renamed the 4th Panzer Army. OKH hopes this will facilitate the speedy seizure of hte crossing points over the Dnieper River.

Germany, Policy

With their operations in Russia requiring the majority of their resources, the Germans suspend their air operations against Britain. Up to this date 116,000 buildings have been destroyed in London alone.

Mediterranean

• In a period of 6 days beginning this day the submarine Torbay sinks 2 merchant ships, 6 sailing vessels and the Italian submarine Jantina.
• The Dutch submarine O-23 sinks the Italian steamer Capacitas (5371t) south of Livorna.

Soviet Union, Politics

The formation of a new State Committee of Defense (Gosudarstvennyi Komit Oborony - GKO) comprising army, air force, navy and party representatives is announced in Moscow. The members will be Stalin, Molotov, Voroshilov, Malenkov, and Beria. Stalin is very much in charge.