Wednesday 10 December 1941

A Japanese Navy photograph (extensively highlighted for propaganda effect) showing HMS Prince of Wales at upper left and Repulse beside it slightly close to the camera. An unidentified destroyer is at lower right (© IWM (HU 2762)).

Battle of the Pacific: On 10 December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy sends land-based medium bombers and torpedo bombers against British Force Z, composed of Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales and battlecruiser Repulse and accompanying destroyers. The two ships are investigating reports of Japanese landings at Kuantan, on the east coast of Malaya, which turn out to be spurious. The diversion costs the force valuable time in heading back to base at Singapore.

"A Japanese aerial photograph showing HMS PRINCE OF WALES (top) and HMS REPULSE during the early stages of the attack in which they were sunk. HMS REPULSE had just been hit for the first time (12.20 hours)." © IWM (HU 2763).

The Force Z incident is a catastrophe for the British (in his memoirs, Winston Churchill recalls being woken up with the news and writes that "In all the war I never received a more direct shock"). With no air cover (which was available, but not requested by Force Z commander Admiral Tom Phillips until much too late), the ships are swarmed by waves of bombers. First,  at around 10:00, nine Mitsubishi G3M 'Nell' twin-engine medium bombers from the Genzan Air Corps, 22nd Air Flotilla, based at Saigon, unsuccessfully attack destroyer Tenedos, which has been detached from the force and is 140 miles southeast of Force Z. The Nell bombers then learn of the capital ships' actual position from a scout plane and head there, which fortunately for them is on their way back to base as they are running low on fuel. This force attacks at 11:13 and scores only one hit on Repulse which is inconsequential. At around 11:40, 17 more Nell bombers of the Genzan Air Group conduct a coordinated attack on the two fleeing ships. The attackers score a torpedo strike on Prince of Wales at the juncture of the port torpedo shaft with the hull which causes an 11.5-degree list and disables many anti-aircraft guns. Force Z is slowed to 15 knots or less after this, enabling further waves of planes to attack.

"Japanese Forces: Japanese cruiser CHOKAI whose seaplane sighted the British ships, HMS PRINCE OF WALES and REPULSE, on 9 December 1941. The next morning they were attacked by Japanese aircraft and both were sunk off the coast of Malaya. The majority of the crews were rescued. The sinkings were an appalling blow to British prestige." © IWM (MH 6207).

At around 12:20, 26 Betty bombers of the Kanoya Air Group attack and pump three or four more torpedoes into Prince of Wales. They also hit Repulse for the first time with four torpedoes. Repulse, with inadequate waterproof compartmentalization and other deficiencies, sinks within 13 minutes. Prince of Wales is still afloat but sinking fast, so destroyer Express moves alongside and takes off a few men via ropes attached to the battleship's rising starboard side. As the Prince of Wales slowly rolls over, the length the men have to cover to reach the destroyer constantly increases, meaning few make it all the way. Express itself nearly sinks when the keel of the battleship strikes the destroyer and upends it. Prince of Wales sinks at 13:18, taking Phillips and Prince of Wales captain John Leach - who could escape but choose not to - with it. Aircraft from RAF No. 453 Squadron RAAF, called in an hour after the battle began, arrives just as the Prince of Wales sinks and achieve nothing. There are 840 deaths (508-13 from Repulse and 327 from Prince of Wales) and about 670 survivors from Repulse and just under 1200 from Prince of Wales. The Japanese later claim that they did not attack the accompanying destroyers in order to enable them to pick up survivors.

Sailors abandon HMS Prince of Wales as it increasingly lists. Falling off the rope would mean almost certain death as you got caught between the two ships (AP Photo).

While the Japanese are sinking Prince of Wales and Repulse, the Netherlands Ambassador to Japan J.C. Pabst delivers a declaration of War to Japanese Foreign Minister Shigenori Tōgō. This potentially opens up another battlefront in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia). However, the Japanese are not ready to attack yet, so they do not reciprocate in hopes that the Dutch will not destroy the oil fields that the Imperial Japanese Navy covets. The Dutch have a powerful fleet in the Pacific under Admiral Karel Doorman which, in conjunction with the remaining American and British forces, makes an invasion problematic for the time being. However, once that obstacle is eliminated and the other Allied forces are neutralized, the Imperial Japanese Navy is prepared to invade the Dutch territory.

Three RAF Lockheed Hudson aircraft fly in formation over Iceland, 10 December 1941 (AP).

Things are not going well on land for the British, either. The RAAF withdraws No. 21 Squadron south from Sungai Petani to Ipoh and No. 62 Squadron from Butterworth to Taiping, reflecting the Japanese advance south on the Malay Peninsula. At Hong Kong, the Japanese 228th Infantry Division under Major General Takaishi Sakai and 38th Division attack at Shing Mun Redoubt and take it and Golden Hill after short but fierce battles.

United States Navy Battleship Row off Ford Island, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on 10 December 1941. Visible (from upper left to lower right) are the sunken USS California (BB-44) (upper left), USS Maryland (BB-46) with capsized USS Oklahoma (BB-37) beside her. USS Oklahoma has a barge beside it as it is assumed there are still sailors in trapped air pockets who need rescue. USS Tennessee is still afloat, but USS West Virginia (BB-48) that is beside it is lying on the harbor floor. Also sunk (though it is hard to tell) is USS Arizona (BB-39) at the lower right  All of the battleships will be refloated except for USS Arizona, and all of those will return to service except for Oklahoma, which sinks while being towed to San Francisco in May 1947. US Naval History and Heritage Command.

The most advanced United States positions in the Pacific also are under pressure. At Guam, the Japanese 5th Defense Force from Saipan lands 400 soldiers at Dungcas Beach, north of Agana. They quickly defeat light opposition (thirteen US civilian deaths and five Marine deaths during the day) and move inland. Governor George McMillin surrenders the island at 05:45, thereby affirming congressional opponents to building an expensive naval base on the island in the first place. The Japanese only suffer one death and five wounded. In the Philippines, the Japanese bomb the US naval base at Cavite, causing extensive damage and leading Admiral Thomas C. Hart (perhaps under orders from Washington) to withdraw the US Asiatic Fleet from Philippine waters to Australia. Small Japanese landings take place on Camiguin Island and at Vigan, Aparri, and Gonzaga in northern Luzon. At Wake Island, Japanese land-based bombers based on Kwajalein Atoll attack US Marine installations on Wilkes and Wake islets. US Marine Corps pilot Captain Henry T. Elrod shoots down a Nell bomber for the first USMC fighter victory of the war.

Soviet General Konstantin Rokossovsky poses in front of abandoned German equipment northwest of Moscow near Kalinin (RIA Novosti Soviet news agency as Sovinformburo).

Eastern Front: The Soviet counteroffensive at Moscow continues to make relatively small but strategically significant gains. Third Panzer Army is isolated when the Soviets cut the road out of Klin behind it. The Army Group Center war diary (Kriegstagebuch) records the situation report from isolated Third Panzer Army:

... discipline is breaking down. More and more soldiers are heading west on foot without weapons, leading a calf on a rope or pulling a sled loaded with potatoes. The road is under constant air attack. Those killed by the bombs are no longer being buried. All the hangers-on (corps troops, Luftwaffe, supply trains) are pouring to the rear in full flight. Without rations, freezing, irrationally they are pushing back. Vehicle crews that do not want to wait out the traffic jams in the open are drifting off the roads and into the villages. Ice, inclines, and bridges create horrendous blockages. Traffic control is working day and night and barely maintaining some movement. The panzer group has reached its most dismal hour.

While such reports likely contain a bit of heightened drama due to the desire for higher commands to approve withdrawals, they support similar reports from General Guderian and others around Moscow. German morale is plunging, sapped by the cold and the vulnerability of Wehrmacht positions outside Moscow.

With the United States now officially at war, civil defense is taking on more urgency than previously. Here, Harry Kelsch leans toward the master switch which can shut off all lights the Hotel Astor during a blackout of New York  City, December 10, 1941. (AP Photo/Robert Kradin).

December 1941

December 1, 1941: Hitler Fires von Rundstedt
December 2, 1941: Climb Mount Niitaka
December 3, 1941: Hints of Trouble in the Pacific
December 4, 1941: Soviets Plan Counteroffensive
December 5, 1941: Soviets Counterattack at Kalinin
December 6, 1941: Soviet Counterattack at Moscow Broadens
December 7, 1941: Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
December 8, 1941: US Enters World War II
December 9, 1941: German Retreat At Moscow
December 10, 1941: HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse Sunk
December 11, 1941: Hitler Declares War on US
December 12, 1941: Japanese in Burma
December 13, 1941: Battle of Cape Bon
December 14, 1941: Hitler Forbids Withdrawals
December 15, 1941: The Liepaja Massacre
December 16, 1941: Japan Invades Borneo
December 17, 1941: US Military Shakeup
December 18, 1941: Hitler Lays Down the Law
December 19, 1941: Brauchitsch Goes Home
December 20, 1941: Flying Tigers in Action
December 21, 1941: The Bogdanovka Massacre
December 22, 1941: Major Japanese Landings North of Manila
December 23, 1941: Wake Island Falls to Japan
December 24, 1941: Atrocities in Hong Kong
December 25, 1941: Japan Takes Hong Kong
December 26, 1941: Soviets Land in the Crimea
December 27, 1941: Commandos Raid Norway
December 28, 1941: Operation Anthropoid Begins
December 29, 1941: Soviet Landings at Feodosia
December 30, 1941: Race for Bataan
December 31, 1941: Nimitz in Charge

2020

Tuesday 2 December 1941

"HMS 'Prince of Wales', the flagship of Force Z, approaching her berth at the Singapore naval base, 2 December 1941." The Prince of Wales was the victor in the North Atlantic against the Bismarck, and the Admiralty has sent it to Singapore along with cruiser Repulse in a show of force. This is Task Force Z under the command of Vice-Admiral Tom Phillips. © IWM (FE 485).

Japanese Military: The Japanese carrier strike force is proceeding east toward the United States on a course that is well to the north of established trade routes. So far, this has been successful in maintaining the fleet's secrecy from any passing ships. As it refuels in the North Pacific at 42°N 170°E, about a third of the way to Hawaii, Admiral Yamamoto aboard battleship Nagato in Tokyo Bay radios Vice Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, the commander of Kido Butai. The message is:

Climb Mount Niitaka.

Nagumo does not have to look at his codebook to know what this means. It provides official authorization to proceed with the attack on Pearl Harbor as planned.

"It was an event of first-class importance when key men from England, Australia, China, Thailand, Malaya, and the Far East Command met in conference at Singapore. These representatives were Sir Robert Brooke-Popham (Commander-in-Chief, Far East); Mr. Alfred Duff Cooper (England); Sir Earle Page (Australia); Sir Archibald Clarke-Kerr (British Ambassador, Chungking); Sir Shenton Thomas (Governor of Malaya); Sir Geoffrey Layton (Commander-in-Chief, China Station); and Sir Josiah Crosby (British Minister to Thailand). They are here pictured (in the above order) before the conference. Sir Josiah Crosby being temporarily absent." 2 December 1941. © IWM (K 1253).

The message as decoded states that the attack on Pearl Harbor, Operation Z, is authorized to take place any time after midnight on 7 December 1941. The fleet is maintaining Tokyo time, which is a day ahead of local Hawaiian time, and ignoring progressive time changes as it proceeds east (sunsets are happening earlier and earlier, so the men are going to sleep well after dark sleeping well into the daylight). The strike thus may take place at the earliest sometime early on 7 December 1941 according to United States time zones. If the attack takes place soon after the window of authorization opens, it would be in the middle of the night as experienced by the Japanese pilots even though it mid-morning for locals.

Japanese battleship Nagato, from which the message to attack Pearl Harbor was sent on 2 December 1941. When the war ends, it will be the only Japanese battleship afloat.

The strike force does not break radio silence to confirm the order. Later, at 20:00, Nagato sends the further code "Niitaka Yama Noboru 1208," which indicates that the strike is to take place on 8 December 1941 Tokyo time and 7 December 1941, i.e., on the first day planned. Since the attack has been planned to take place at or shortly after dawn, this means that hostilities will commence on the morning of 7 December 1941. The die is now cast unless a recall order is sent by Tokyo.

"New Zealand infantry greets a Matilda tank crew after the meeting of the Tobruk garrison and relieving forces, 2 December 1941." © IWM (E 6920).

Battle of the Mediterranean: With weather conditions deteriorating rapidly on the all-important Eastern Front, Adolf Hitler issues Fuhrer Directive No. 38. This provides in general for reinforcement of Axis air power in the Mediterranean theater, which was stripped in June in preparation for Operation Barbarossa. The order states in part:

I order, in agreement with The Duce, that part of the German Airforce no longer required in the east be transferred to the southern Italian and North African areas, in the strength of about one Air Corps with the necessary antiaircraft defenses.

The order also appoints Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, recently transferred from the Eastern Front to Rome, Commander-in-Chief South. Kesselring has only his Luftflotte 2 staff and does not bring the entire Air Fleet with him. He will operate with this small staff until January 1943 to control all Axis operations in the entire Mediterranean theater. While the Directive is very general about his responsibilities ("paralyze enemy traffic through the Mediterranean Sea"), Kesselring's primary at this time is to get supplies through to General Erwin Rommel's forces in Libya, which are struggling against the British Eighth Army. An unstated but likely important objective is to rein in General Rommel, who has been operating virtually as a crusading baron with no oversight from anyone.

"After some of the heaviest fighting of the North African campaign, the infantry of the 2nd New Zealand Division link up with Matilda tanks of the Tobruk garrison. The New Zealanders had fought along the coast road to relieve Tobruk and end the eight-month siege." 2 December 1941. © IWM (E 6918).

In Libya, the British Operation Crusader is now exactly two weeks old. The ultimate outcome remains very much in doubt, as the British had established a corridor to Tobruk early on 27 November but lost contact again on 1 December. Today, Rommel sends armored forces (the Geissler Advance Guard and the Knabe Advanced Guard battalion groups) southeast to reestablish his pre-battle line and relieve some border strongpoints. This extends his forces and opens them up to British counter-attack because the Eighth Army tanks have been pushed back but not eliminated. The 5th New Zealand Brigade is waiting for them along the Bardia road near Monastir, but contact is not made until 3 December. The 2nd New Zealand Division, meanwhile, links up again with the Tobruk garrison on the coast road, reflecting the chaotic nature of the North African situation in early December. However, depending upon Rommel's further moves, the New Zealanders may just be cut off along with Tobruk garrison.

British troops in North Africa look over a captured Junkers Ju 87R-2 Stuka (T6+AN) of 5/StG 2 which was captured after making an emergency landing during December 1941.

Battle of the Atlantic: U-43 (Kptlt. Wolfgang Lüth), on its ninth patrol out of Lorient, is operating with Wolfpack Steuben (named somewhat ironically after Baron von Steuben, a top general in George Washington's Continental Army during the War of Independence) near the Azores in the North Atlantic. It is a full moon, and Captain Lüth spots an "independent" tanker just after midnight. An initial salvo of torpedoes misses. The tanker immediately picks up speed and begins zig-zagging. Lüth then spends hours maneuvering into a better attack position, and at 09:24 he tries again. This time, U-43's two torpedoes hit the tanker, one in the stern and one amidships, and sink it within minutes. The tanker is 7,542-ton tanker Astral. All 37 aboard (including 8 officers) perish. U-575 (Kptlt. Günther Heydemann) had spotted the Astral on the 1st, but let it go after seeing the painted US flag on its side. Lüth either did not see the flag or did not care. The Astral is the third of four US merchantmen sunk by U-boats prior to war being declared.

A mobile kitchen in Chatham, England, 2 December 1941. © IWM (A 6443).

Manhattan Project: German theoretical physicist Klaus Fuchs, who applied to become a British citizen in August 1939 (not granted until 7 August 1942), has been working on the British atomic bombs research project. This operation has been known to date as the "Tube Alloys" program. Today, Fuchs arrives in New York along with 14 other atomic scientists for information exchanges. Thus, Klaus Fuchs is in at the very inception of the Manhattan Project (though it is not known by that name yet). Fuchs will return to Edinburgh in January 1942 to resume his work. Unknown to everyone, Fuchs will develop a secret allegiance to the Soviet Union and serve as their inside spy on the Manhattan Project, but this will not become known until 1949.

Louis "Lepke" Buchalter in a New York court for sentencing, 2 December 1941. Buchalter will be executed in "Old Sparky" in Sing Sing Prison on 4 March 1944 after a final appeal to the US Supreme Court (319 U.S. 427 (1943) fails 7-0 with two abstentions. He is buried at Mount Hebron Cemetery in Flushing, Queens.

December 1941

December 1, 1941: Hitler Fires von Rundstedt
December 2, 1941: Climb Mount Niitaka
December 3, 1941: Hints of Trouble in the Pacific
December 4, 1941: Soviets Plan Counteroffensive
December 5, 1941: Soviets Counterattack at Kalinin
December 6, 1941: Soviet Counterattack at Moscow Broadens
December 7, 1941: Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
December 8, 1941: US Enters World War II
December 9, 1941: German Retreat At Moscow
December 10, 1941: HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse Sunk
December 11, 1941: Hitler Declares War on US
December 12, 1941: Japanese in Burma
December 13, 1941: Battle of Cape Bon
December 14, 1941: Hitler Forbids Withdrawals
December 15, 1941: The Liepaja Massacre
December 16, 1941: Japan Invades Borneo
December 17, 1941: US Military Shakeup
December 18, 1941: Hitler Lays Down the Law
December 19, 1941: Brauchitsch Goes Home
December 20, 1941: Flying Tigers in Action
December 21, 1941: The Bogdanovka Massacre
December 22, 1941: Major Japanese Landings North of Manila
December 23, 1941: Wake Island Falls to Japan
December 24, 1941: Atrocities in Hong Kong
December 25, 1941: Japan Takes Hong Kong
December 26, 1941: Soviets Land in the Crimea
December 27, 1941: Commandos Raid Norway
December 28, 1941: Operation Anthropoid Begins
December 29, 1941: Soviet Landings at Feodosia
December 30, 1941: Race for Bataan
December 31, 1941: Nimitz in Charge

2020

Saturday 25 October 1941

Franz Baron von Werra, KIA 25 October 1941, and Simba.

US/German Relations: The German Reich has been operating largely in silence on the Eastern Front while its army (Heer) and special services (Schutzstaffel or SS) engages in a growing number of atrocities. For example, mass executions at Babi Yar (Kiev), and Odesa within the past month (and some ongoing) have killed thousands of people, and many other atrocities have been committed. The media has been largely quiet about these incidents because they happen in remote areas and means of communication are sketchy. On 25 October 1941, however, United States President Roosevelt shines a light on these massacres and directly warns German leader Adolf Hitler to stop them - or else.

George Brent and Bette Davis promoting "The Great Lie" on the cover of Picture Show magazine, 25 October 1941.

Roosevelt's statement that is issued through the U.S. State Department reads in full:

The practice of executing scores of innocent hostages in reprisal for isolated attacks on Germans in countries temporarily under the [Third Reich] heel revolts a world already inured to suffering and brutality. Civilized peoples long ago adopted the basic principle that no man should be punished for the deed. of another. Unable to apprehend the persons involved in these attacks the [German] characteristically slaughter fifty or a hundred innocent persons. Those who would "collaborate" with Hitler or try to appease him cannot ignore this ghastly warning. 

The [Germans] might have learned from the last war the impossibility of breaking men's spirits by terrorism. Instead, they develop their lebensraum and "new order" by depths of frightfulness which even they have never approached before. These are the acts of desperate men who know in their hearts that they cannot win. Frightfulness can never bring peace to Europe. It only sows the seeds of hatred which will one day bring fearful retribution.

There is little question that this statement, particularly the closing words, "which will one day bring fearful retribution," is a veiled threat to Hitler.

The Camden (Arkansas) News, 25 October 1941. Unlike in 1939 or 1940, the entire front page of local newspapers now is war news.

Roosevelt is demanding that the German leader have his troops stop committing massacres. Roosevelt refers to this statement repeatedly throughout the remainder of World War II. It seems that this is one of FDR's proudest moments and reflects the strain of moralism that has been growing in United States foreign policy since World War I. The fact that Roosevelt's seems timed to the Kyiv massacres that took place just yesterday suggests that the Allies have a very good real-time understanding of exactly what is happening to people in the Reich and occupied territories. In hindsight, this leads to the question of whether Allied leaders had the same kind of insight into the Holocaust as it was happening and perhaps could have done more to interfere with it.

HMS Welshman (an Abdiel class cruiser minelayer) in Plymouth, 25 October 1941 (© IWM (A 6044)).

Eastern Front: The weather in the central section of the Eastern Front is bad and getting worse. The Rasputitsa, or change of seasons, is flooding roads, turning them and other areas into muddy morasses, and making the entire area almost impassable by most vehicles and even men and horses in some areas. Field Marshal Fedor von Bock, commander of Army Group Center, essentially suspends offensive operations for the time being. The Germans, who are unfamiliar with these conditions, intend to wait until the ground freezes and firms sufficiently to provide tractions for their vehicle. That should happen within about two weeks as the temperature continues to drop as the days get shorter.

Wehrmacht soldiers launching a weather balloon in Tunisia, 25 October 1941 (Photo: Berliner Verlag/Archiv. - Unbekannt/Tunisia).

That does not mean that everything just stops. Wehrmacht infantry continues to slog forward, trying to catch up with the panzers who are leading the advance. The German 78th Infantry Division, for instance, catches up to the SS Das Reich Division which is consolidating its hold on the central position of Mozhaysk on the main Moscow highway. The Soviets also have time to formulate plans to protect Moscow and also stop the dangerous Wehrmacht offensive north of the city toward Tikhvin. In Moscow, the Soviets prepare a new war production plan to replace the earlier one that has been rendered obsolete by recent German victories on the central front and further south at Kharkiv and in the Donbas industrial region.

Franz Baron von Werra.

While on a practice flight in Bf 109F-4 Number 7285, Franz Baron von Werra crashes in the sea north of Vlissingen due to engine failure. His body is never found. Von Werra eventually will become famous as the subject of "The One That Got Away" (1957) starring Hardy Kruger (also a World War II vet), which chronicles his escape from a POW train in Canada on 10 January 1941. In a dramatic escape, Franz von Werra jumped off a prison train, got across the St. Lawrence River, and made it back to Germany on 18 April 1941 via New York and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He became a media sensation in New York City during his brief stay there, and then a celebrity in the Reich as well. Franz von Werra, also known for his pet lion Simba, remains famous to this day for students of World War II as the only German POW to escape from Canadian custody and make it back to the Reich.

Mrs. Harry I. Lucas christens USS Juneau (CL-52), 25 October 1941. Sunk off Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942 (U.S. Navy).

US Military: The US Army Air Force places an order for two experimental long-range heavy bombers with Northrup. The objective is to create a bomber force that can leave the continental United States, bomb targets in Europe, and return to the United States without landing or refueling. This is a worst-case scenario plan in case Great Britain is invaded by the Reich. The bomber ordered is the XB-35 flying wing.

British Military: Admiral Sir Tom Phillips, newly appointed commander of Force Z and Commander-in-Chief of the China Station, departs from Great Britain in command of his fleet. His command includes his flagship, the new battleship HMS Prince of Wales, together with the veteran Great War-era battlecruiser HMS Repulse, and the four destroyers HMS Electra, HMS Express, HMS Encounter, and HMS Jupiter. They are heading for Singapore to reinforce the massive naval base there. Force Z arrives there on 2 December 1942.

Holocaust: While Hitler officially has suspended his euthanasia program due to broad public disapproval, stirred over the summer by sermons by Bishop Galen and others, in reality, the program continues in secret. Those euthanasia "experts" are now in high demand. Due to conquests in the East that have brought in new hordes of "undesirables," the authorities there are looking for more efficient killing solutions. Erhard Wetzel, an official in charge of race questions for the Ministry of Occupied Eastern Territories, comes up with an idea: why not gas them? He writes a letter to Hinrich Lohse, Reich Commissioner for the Ostland territories, suggesting that those who were working on the euthanasia program be used to implement this solution. They can, he suggests, construct gas chambers in which to eliminate large groups of people, primarily deported Jewish people who are unfit to work. Wetzel's suggestion is not acted upon immediately but reflects a growing consensus within the Reich security forces that simply shooting large numbers of people is inefficient, time-consuming, and bad for morale.

Riga Ghetto is established.

Sweden's new ministers in Copenhagen, Envoyé and Mrs Gustaf von Dardel, 25 October 1941.

October 1941

October 1, 1941: Germans and Finns Advance in USSR
October 2, 1941: Operation Typhoon Broadens
October 3, 1941: Air Battles Near Moscow
October 4, 1941: Stalin Contemplates Defeat
October 5, 1941: Hoth Goes South
October 6, 1941: First Snowfall After Dark
October 7, 1941: Stalin Gets Religion
October 8, 1941: FDR Promises Stalin Aid 
October 9, 1941: FDR Orders Atomic Bomb Research
October 10, 1941: Reichenau's Severity Order
October 11, 1941: Tank Panic in Moscow
October 12, 1941: Spanish Blue Division at the Front
October 13, 1941: Attack on Moscow
October 14, 1941: Germans Take Kalinin
October 15, 1941: Soviets Evacuate Odessa
October 16, 1941: Romanians Occupy Odessa
October 17, 1941: U-568 Torpedoes USS Kearny
October 18, 1941: Tojo Takes Tokyo
October 19, 1941: Germans Take Mozhaysk
October 20, 1941: Germans Attack Toward Tikhvin
October 21, 1941: Rasputitsa Hits Russia
October 22, 1941: Germans Into Moscow's Second Defensive Line
October 23, 1941: The Odessa Massacre
October 24, 1941: Guderian's Desperate Drive North
October 25, 1941: FDR Warns Hitler About Massacres
October 26, 1941: Guderian Drives Toward Tula
October 27, 1941: Manstein Busts Loose
October 28, 1941: Soviet Executions
October 29, 1941: Guderian Reaches Tula
October 30, 1941: Guderian Stopped at Tula
October 31, 1941: USS Reuben James Sunk

2020