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• US Navy aircraft based in Reykjavik, Iceland began routine patrols of the North Atlantic. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The first German strategic reports on progress in Russia claimed that Germany had taken nearly 900,000 prisioners and destroyed or captured 13,100 tanks, 9,100 aircraft and more than 10,000 heavy guns. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | AC]
• The clearing of the land to build a US Marine Corps airfield (future Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point) began in North Carolina, United States. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden issued another warning to Japan stating that any action against the independence of Thailand would be regarded as a threat to imperial security. ww2dbase [Anthony Eden | AC]
• Leutnant Hans Thurner of the German Kampfgeschwader 55 wing was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. ww2dbase [CPC]

• British Catalina aircraft flown by Pilot Officer I. F. Edgar of No. 202 Squadron RAF sighted Italian submarine Alpino Bagnolini in the Atlantic Ocean at 1510 hours and attacked with two 250-pound anti-submarine bombs (one of which was stuck and could not be released) followed by strafing. The Italians counterattacked with anti-aircraft fire, hitting the port float. The aircraft then dropped another bomb, again missing the submarine. On the third run, a bomb scored a near miss on the submarine, causing battery acid spill and fuel leak. At 2345 hours, Alpino Bagnolini successfully dove and escaped from the aircraft. ww2dbase [Alpino Bagnolini | CPC]

• The first Bell Airacobra fighter arrived in the United Kingdom. By the end of Sep 1941, eleven machines had been received by No. 601 Squadron RAF, but during trials by the Air Fighting Development Unit at Duxford it was found that the much publicised performance figures claimed by the manufacturer were much overrated (having been obtained by a highly polished machine weighing a ton less than the production aircraft delivered to the RAF). The maximum speed for example being some 33 mph slower than anticipated and, although pleasant enough to fly, was definitely inferior to the Hurricane and Spitfire in climb rate and ceiling. ww2dbase [P-39 Airacobra | AC]

6 Aug 1941 Interactive Map