WW2 Tweets @RealTimeWWII@mastodon.muage.org

Stalin rejects (another) warning of imminent German invasion, from a highranking Soviet spy inside the Luftwaffe: "Tell your 'source' to go fuck his mother."

British officers in Egypt now using their Indian soldiers to translate all radio messages into Hindustani- fearful of snooping Germans.

Rommel, intercepting Allied radio messages, is delighted by their panic: "In their present bewildered state the British will not start anything."

In North Africa, Rommel's Afrikakorps are swinging around the Allied rear, threatening to encircle the British & Indian advance- Allies now desperately retreating to avoid being trapped.

Almost half of the British tanks in Egypt have been destroyed or damaged by German guns so far in Operation Battleaxe; some literally ripped apart by bombs:

Rudolf Hess- Hitler's ex-Deputy Führer- has attempted suicide in British custody by throwing himself down prison stairs. He's only broken a leg.

American government ordering Germany to close all embassies & consulates in the USA- accusing Germans of using them as bases for Nazi spies & propaganda.

At Hellfire Pass, British tanks are meeting the German 88mm guns, entrenched in the Libyan mountains; last desperate radio message of British Major Miles: "They're tearing my tanks apart!"

In North Africa, Indian troops from near Khyber Pass, on the border of Afghanistan, celebrate their long journery with Allied army: "Khyber Pass to Hell-Fire Pass."

British forces in Egypt are smashing west in "Operation Battleaxe"- they've reached "Hellfire" (Halfiya) Pass on border with Libya.

All Soviet reservists being mobilised & all soldiers' leave cancelled; Red Army is assembling troops near western borders amid rumours of possible war.

Kriegsmarine have been ordered to start "accidentally" sinking Soviet submarines in the Baltic, ready for imminent German invasion of USSR.

German General Rommel has advanced warning of Battleaxe from Allied radio intercepts; he's moving guns & tanks to meet British assault.

Allied forces in North Africa have launched Operation Battleaxe: British & Indians charging west from Egypt, aiming to kick Rommel's Afrikakorps from Libya.

Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov declares Nazi-Soviet pact remains firm, reasserts no war with Germany is coming: "Only a fool would invade the USSR.”

"Anti-Soviet elements" being arrested by NKVD: politicians, priests, landowners, businessmen, bankers, immigrants, teachers, restaurant owners; & all of their families.

Whole families of people in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, & Poland are being loaded onto cattlecars by NKVD for the long journey to Siberia; deported teenager Hilda Orn sketches her view:

NKVD- Soviet secret police- have begun arresting 1000s of people in USSR-occupied Baltic states. Estonians, Lithuanians & Latvians judged "anti-Soviet" are to be deported east to Siberia.

German occupiers of Poland allow a daily food ration based on "race": ethnic Germans are permitted 2,613 calories, Poles 699, Jews just 184.

Watch a film taken today by German soldier in the Jewish ghetto of Nazi-occupied; note heavy clothing for summer- starvation leaving is leaving inmates feeling cold: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1Tbw3coUe4