http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jul41/f19jul41.htm
BBC offers “V for victory”
Saturday, July 19, 1941 www.onwar.com
From London.. At midnight there is a BBC broadcast by “Colonel Britton” urging the creation of resistance forces with the slogan “V for Victory.” The BBC has been introducing programs to Europe with the Mose signal for V for some time. Following this resistance members paint V signs on walls and German posters and it becomes a symbol for all Western European resistance movements.
On the Eastern Front... Guderian receives orders that after the Smolensk battle is over he is to move his force south to join the Kiev battle. This proposal is very much Hitler’s idea. Guderian objects strongly, arguing that it will be far better to continue the attack toward Moscow.
In the North Atlantic... The United States Atlantic Fleet forms TF-1 for the protection of the American forces on Iceland and support for convoys bound there. The carrier Wasp flies a cargo of P-40 fighters to the island. A naval buildup begins. The US Navy has instructions to provide escorts for ships of any nationality sailing to and from Iceland.
In Tokyo... In line with the Imperial Conference decision of July 2nd, the Japanese present an ultimatum to the representatives of the Vichy French government demanding bases southern Indochina.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/19.htm
July 19th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM:
The BBC broadcasts at midnight by “Colonel Britton” urging the creation of resistance forces. The slogan “V for Victory” is used. The BBC has been introducing programs to Europe with the Morse Code signal “... _” for some time now.
There is of course an irony in this in that this coincides with the first notes of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. (Anton Capet)
London:
Churchill determined to help the Russians has decided to send them high-level secret intelligence based on Enigma decoding. The Russians will not, however, be told that Britain has cracked the Enigma secret, for the Soviet Union’s own codes are being read by the Germans.
Instead, the “sanitized” messages are being disguised under the cover of “a well-placed source in Berlin” and passed on through the military mission in Moscow.
RAF Bomber Command: 2 Group: ‘Channel Stop’ 105 Sqn. attacks 8 ships escorted by six Flak ships off the Dutch coast. Four ships badly damaged, two Blenheims lost.
NORTH SEA: Submarine HMS Umpire, working up and on passage north with an east coast convoy is rammed and sunk off Cromer by the German destroyer ‘Peter Hendricks’. There are 22 casualties but 16 survive.
GERMANY: U-153, U-375 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: The Germans are continuing their thrust towards Leningrad in the face of increasing Russian resistance. There was heavy fighting yesterday near Lake Peipus where the German infantry has still not been able to break through in support of its advance tank units. A Soviet communique claims that Red Army troops surrounded and destroyed enemy mechanised units between Pskov and Porkov, 180 miles south-west of Leningrad.
Leningrad is now under attack from three directions: the Finns are approaching from the north and north-east, on both sides of Lake Ladoga, while the Germans are attacking through Estonia and the Luftwaffe are mounting heavy riads on the city and the rail link with Moscow.
Rastenburg:
Hitler orders Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Group to move south. Guderian is ordered to move south and join the Kiev battle after the action at Smolensk is complete. Guderian objects strongly that he should continue towards Moscow and is overruled by Hitler.
Thornycroft boats in action with Soviet destroyer Vinha damaged, but saved. (Dave Shirlaw)
LITHUANIA: In small groups, 5,000 Jews have been shot dead and thrown into pits at Ponar, outside Vilna.
FIJI: A new Fiji government ship, the Viti, leaves Suva for the atolls of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands. On board are a party of New Zealanders, 15 radio operators and 22 soldiers. Their job is to watch the seas around the atolls for German raiders who had started to penetrate the south Pacific. Each atoll will have a civilian radio operator and, where there were no other Europeans, two unarmed soldiers.
Radio operator John Jones, a volunteer from the Post and Telegraphic Department’s training school in Courtenay Place, recalls that “it sounded like a nice job, something different and we were all young guys”.
“And in our innocence we went away and when we got to Suva we knew we would be on a tropical island.”
Mr Owen, soldier Leslie Speedy, and radio operator Arthur Heenan, of Hastings, were put on Maiana Island.
Mr Heenan wrote that the locals were friendly and he had a lazy time eating and sleeping. None of the coastwatchers ever saw a German. (Michael Field, New Zealand and Pacific correspondent for Agence France-Presse)
CANADA: Small craft ordered for RCN - HC 7, HC 9, HC 10, HC 11, and HC 12. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: C-in-C (American) Atlantic Fleet Operation Order No. 6 instructs that American naval forces are to guarantee the safety of any convoys in the North Atlantic whenever the strategic situation demanded.
US TF 1 is formed in the Atlantic for the protection of US forces on Iceland and support for convoys to Iceland. USS Wasp ferries P-40s to Iceland.
Marshall informs Grunert that his supplies are now being calculated on a war reserve sufficient for 50,000 men for six months less the supplies necessary for 30,000 Philippine Army troops for the same time (allocations for the Philippine Army were much lower than for the US soldiers). (Marc Small)
Destroyer USS Baldwin laid down.
Minesweeper USS Swallow laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: At 1042, the Holmside, dispersed from Convoy OG-67, was torpedoed and sunk by U-66 NE of the Cape Verde Islands. 18 crewmembers and three gunners were lost. The master, 13 crewmembers and two gunners were picked up by the Portuguese merchantman Sete Cidades and landed at Lisbon on 1 August. (Dave Shirlaw)