Battle of the Atlantic

A Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Kondor Shot Down by a Lockheed Hudson

A Focke-Wulf Fw-200 Kondor sinking in the Atlantic Ocean west of Ireland, after being shot down by a Lockheed Hudson Mark V of No. 233 Squadron RAF based at Aldergrove, County Antrim, while trying to attack a convoy. This oblique aerial photograph was taken from the victorious Hudson (AM536) and shows the crew of the Kondor swimming for their liferaft which is inflating to the right of the tailplane.

Diplimatic Relations

Under Secretary of State Welles tells Ambassador Nomura the US feels there is no reason to continue talks with Japan since the Indochinese actions show the 'Japanese Government intend to pursue the policy of force and of conquest'.

Eastern Front

Having used their giant mortar Karl, a 615-mm caliber weapon and firing a projectile weighing over 2 tons, for the first time, the heroic garrison of Brest-Litovsk, besieged since June 22 and ceaselessly hammered by bombers and artillery is finally forced to surrender.

Hoeppner's 4th Panzer Group becomes involved in bitter fighting with mixed Soviet forces on the hastily constructed Luga defense line. Pyadyshev, commander of the LOG, is dismissed and executed. Gen Popov, commanding the North Front, is placed in charge of this position in addition to his existing responsibilities to the north of Leningrad.

Attempting to rebuild the shattered Western theater, the Stavka creates a new Central Front between the West and Southwest Fronts. Commanded by Col-Gen F. I. Kuznetsov, this formation comprises the newly reformed and redeployed 3rd Army (this unit recently having taken up defensive positions along the line of the Sozh River) and the 21st Army and is supported by 140 aircraft. The front later takes under its control Kachalov's 28th and Remezov's 13th Armies as the German attacks in the center develop.

Keitel issues a supplement to Directive No. 33, instructing the 3rd Panzer Group to move north to aid the capture of Leningrad and then move back to the center in preparation for an advance as far east as the Volga. Hoeppner's 4th Panzer Group is to be take out of the line altogether and withdrawn to Germany. Guderian is to join Kleist in the Ukraine and thrust east to occupy the Donbas and the Caucasus. Halder emphasizes the need for an autumn thrust upon Moscow, considering Leningrad and the Ukraine to be of secondary importance.

Germany, Strategy

Keitel orders the 3rd Panzer Group north to assist in the capture of Leningrad and then move back to the center to take part in an advance to the Volga. The 4th Panzer Group will be withdrawn back to Germany, and the 2nd Panzer Group is to link up with Kleist in the Ukraine to assist in the occupation of the Donbas and Caucasus. Halder, however, wants an autumn attack against Moscow.

Indochina

With the consent of the Vichy government Japanese forces begin the complete occupation of Indochina to collaborate with the French forces in its defense.

Mediterranean

• The SUBSTANCE covering force is hit by Italian aircraft. 1 destroyer, the HMS Fearless, is set on fire in the attack, and 1 cruiser and 3 destroyers are hit. The Fearless is later scuttled.

  Convoy GM-1 under attack by Italian aircraft off Bone, Algeria. The ship seen burning in the distance is identified the British destroyer Fearless (H-67); the battleship Nelson is seen in the center of the picture

  British Convoy Under Attack by Italian Aircraft

  The British destroyer Fearless on fire and disbaled on the morning of July 23, 1941

  British Destroyer Fearless on Fire

• The German steamer Tirpitz (7970t) sinks on a mine near Cape dell'Arma, northwestern Italy.

Soviet Union, Home Front

The Stavka creates a new Central Front between the Western and Southwestern Fronts. The new front comprises the 3rd and 21st Armies.