military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/29/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Sunday, 29 June, 1941 Operation Silberfuchs (Silver Fox) begins when German mountain and ski troops under General Dietl attack across northern Finland toward Murmansk. Supply difficulties in this region, plus the arduous terrain, slow the advance and limit its potential. Josef Stalin assumes command of the Ministry of Defense, and appoints a new defense committee composed of himself, Georgi Malenkov, Lavrenti Beria, Foreign Commissar Molotov, and Marshal Voroshilov. The committee immediately declares that rumor-mongerers and cowards are to be put to death. President Roosevelt orders the induction of an additional 900,000 men into the Army. Former US President Herbert Hoover argues that the entry of the Soviet Union into the war in Europe refutes the claim that the US should enter the war to preserve democratic principles. He condemns the USSR as "one of the bloodiest tyrannies and terros ever erected in human history," urging against American aid to Stalin. Soviet officials deny German claims that the USSR has suffered tremendous casualties; they claim to have lost 850 aircraft, 900 tanks, and 15000 men, while destroying 1500 German planes, 2500 tanks, and capturing 30,000 POW's. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "We find it embarrassing even to deny this manifest lie and boastful humbug." - Soviet Information Bureau communique