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• US Army recalled Douglas MacArthur to active service as the commander of units in the Far East; Philippine troops already under MacArthur's command were integrated into the US Army. ww2dbase [Douglas MacArthur | CPC]
• Three full Soviet armies were trapped and destroyed near Mogilev, Byelorussia. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | TH]
• US President Franklin Roosevelt passed executive orders to freeze all Japanese and Chinese assets, forbade the export of oil, iron, and rubber to Japan, as well as marking the Panama Canal off-limits to Japanese shipping. UK and the Netherlands followed suit. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | CPC]
• Werner Mölders was presented Diamonds to his Knight's Cross by Adolf Hitler. ww2dbase [Werner Mölders | CPC]
• US Navy Admiral Husband Kimmel ordered long range air patrols to be conducted from various Pacific Ocean bases in case Japan reacted aggressively against US President Franklin Roosevelt's executive order to freeze Japanese assets. ww2dbase [Attack on Pearl Harbor | Detailed Timetable | CPC]

• Commander Ernesto Forza took over command of 10th MAS Flotilla at La Spezia, Italy, which was in actuality a special forces unit for the Italian Navy. ww2dbase [La Spezia, Liguria | CPC]

• 3,800 Lithuanian Jews were killed during a pogrom in Kovno. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | Kovno | CPC]

• Six Italian explosive motorboats escorted by MC.200 fighters attempted to attack shipping in Valletta's Grand Harbour at Malta. The Hurricane fighters of Nos. 126 and 185 Squadrons were scrambled and set about the boats, sinking four and causing the other two to surrender. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | MT | Valletta | AC]
• HMS Cachalot departed Malta for Alexandria, Egypt. ww2dbase [Cachalot (Grampus-class) | CPC]

• German aircraft bombed Moscow, Russia. Many bombs fell near the Kremlin, and the images were captured on film by journalist Margaret Bourke-White. ww2dbase [Kremlin and Red Square | Moscow | CPC]

• Roderick Carr was named the commanding officer of No. 4 Group RAF. ww2dbase [Roderick Carr | CPC]

26 Jul 1941 Interactive Map