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• Soviet forces in Velikije Luki were surrounded and destroyed by the German Armeegruppe Nord. ww2dbase [Operation Barbarossa | TH]
• A combined force of Canadian, British, and Norwegian commandos landed on Spitzbergen. The coal-mining installations and equipment there were destroyed and the Norwegian civilian populace was evacuated. ww2dbase [TH]
• Otto Skorzeny was awarded the Iron Cross 2nd Class medal for recovering a damaged vehicle under enemy fire at the bridgehead in Yelnya, Russia. ww2dbase [Otto Skorzeny | CPC]
• German submarine U-571 seriously damaged Soviet submarine supply ship Marija Uljanova with two torpedoes 27 miles north of Teriberskij lighthouse in northern Russia in the Barents Sea at 0459 hours; Marija Uljanova would be written off as a loss on the next day. ww2dbase [CPC]
• British troops captured Abadan, Iran, along with the oil-related installations there. Far to the north, Soviet troops captured Tabriz while aircraft bombed Tehran. ww2dbase [Campaigns in the Middle East | CPC]
• Wing Commander David Lascelles, a cousin of the British Royal family, was killed leading a daylight anti-shipping strike. Lascelles was No. 82 Squadron's seventh commanding officer in eleven months and the third to be killed. ww2dbase [AC]

• Comandante Cappellini discovered a fuel drum on the water marked with save-our-ship message from ocean boarding vessel HMS Malvernian, which had been fatally damaged by a German air attack in the Atlantic Ocean on 1 Jul 1941. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• Paul Collete was arrested after shooting and wounding Pierre Laval; Laval would recommend giving Collete a light sentence, citing that the young man was likely only a pawn used by more senior plotters behind the scenes. ww2dbase [Pierre Laval | TH, CPC]

• Paul von Kleist was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report. ww2dbase [Paul von Kleist | CPC]
• German Type IXC U-Boat U-505 was a commissioned at Hamburg, Germany with Kapitänleutnant Axel-Olaf Loewe in command. ww2dbase [U-505 | Hamburg | DS]

• The Hungarian Army rounded up 18,000 Jews at Kamenets-Podolsk, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• Adolf Hilter and Benito Mussolini inspected Axis troops at Uman, Ukraine. ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | Uman | CPC]

• Gato-class submarine Silversides was launched at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, Vallejo, California, United States. ww2dbase [Mare Island Navy Yard | Silversides | Vallejo, California | DS]

26 Aug 1941 Interactive Map