military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) (06/27/91)
From: military@att.att.com (Bill Thacker) Thursday, 26 June, 1941 German troops under General von Manstein reach the town of Dvinsk and capture two vital Dvina river bridges there before they can be demolished. In the process, however, the panzerkorps has outrun its flanking and supporting forces, and von Manstein is ordered to halt and consolidate his bridgehead. Further south, panzers under Guderian and Hoth meet near Baranovichi, trapping two Soviet armies in what is soon known as the Bialystok pocket. Finland declares war on the USSR, and the Soviet naval base at Hango, occupied as a term of the 1940 armistice, is besieged. The Soviet Navy takes action as several of its destroyers shell Constanta, detonating a munitions train, but the Moskva is mined and sinks. The Soviet air force launches small attacks on Bucharest and Ploesti. Two unidentified aircraft bomb Kassa, Hungary, and the USSR is blamed for the attack, though many believe it a German fabrication. Rumors from Ankara say that the Vichy government has requested permission to evacuate the 20,000 French troops in Syria through Turkey. Toronto is occupied by the Canadian Armored Brigade in a surprise "coup simulation." The exercise is undertaken as a practice maneuver against a potential fifth-column attack on the city. -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- Bill Thacker military@att.att.com Send submissions for "50 Years Ago" to military-request@att.att.com "Citizens, centuries have shown that on the site on which fate has placed this nation, permanent peace cannot be achieved. The pressure of the East is always upon us. To reduce this pressure, destroy the eternal menace and secure a happy and peaceful life for coming generations, we now embark upon our defensive battle." - President Risto Ryti of Finland