Eastern Front: Army Commander Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch continues his review of the Army Group Center forces around Moscow and receives very disquieting reports. He arrives at Roslavl to confer with Field Marshal von Kluge and General Guderian, who both urge further withdrawals. Unexpectedly, Hitler's chief adjutant, Generalmajor Rudolf Schmundt, arrives at the Army Group headquarters in Smolensk as a sort of personal representative for Hitler. Schmundt is a well-known glad-hander who has Hitler's complete confidence and communicates with him better than the generals. When von Brauchitsch returns to Smolensk in the afternoon, he tells Schmundt that he supports the army commanders' requests to retreat further. When Schmundt calls Hitler via General Jodl at OKW, however, Hitler refuses to grant any further withdrawals except for some minor adjustments in the line by Ninth Army and Third Panzer Army west of Kalinin and Klin and by Guderian's Second Panzer Army west of Tula.
The entire affair illustrates a gradually growing assumption of direct control by Hitler over military operations. While Hitler has interfered in the past, these intrusions on the army's control have been relatively minor and "handled" by OKH Chief of Operations General Franz Halder and local commanders. The most notorious example to date of the local commanders ignoring Hitler's obvious wishes was the Army Group South withdrawal from Rostov-on-Don at the end of November. The general tactic heretofore has been to simply do what is considered necessary and present the moves to Hitler as a fait accompli. However, by firing Field Marshal von Rundstedt on 1 December, Hitler indicated very strongly that he expects to be asked before such moves are made from now on.
The Denver Post Home Edition, Sunday, December 14, 1941. "Hundreds Of [Japanese] 'Chutists Wiped Out In Hand-To-Hand Battle With Filipinos." Of course, there were no "' Chutists" and they certainly were not "wiped out." All of the war news is very reassuring. The Denver Post Library Archive.
However, while Hitler realizes the need (in his view) for more direct control over the military, he is new to issuing direct operational orders. Hitler has not yet realized that he cannot leave any "wriggle room" for his subordinates to still issue orders contrary to his implied wishes. Today, his orders to Army Group Center explicitly state that while he does not now authorize "giving up any place or taking any evasive action," this could be acceptable once the army does "something" to prepare new lines to the rear. Von Bock and von Brauchitsch interpret this nebulous language to authorize a further retreat once they tell Hitler that they have a new defensive position in mind running along a line von Bock has visualized at Rzhev-Gzhatsk-Orel-Kursk. So, von Bock tells his army commanders to get ready for a further retreat once he placates Hitler. This, however, is not what Hitler really means, and thus a direct confrontation between Hitler and his army commanders is brewing.
The important things continue in the United States. This ticket would get you into the Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers game in Wrigley Field on 14 December 1941. This is a Western Division playoff game.
The Far North sector flares to life again when the Red Army attacks Finnish forces along the Svir River. They take the village of Gora, but the Finns stop further gains. While the Finns now refuse to take further offensive action, they are willing to fight hard to protect their current lines. Thus, Soviet attacks in this area in a sense serve the Germans' purposes, as they divert forces that could be used further south into pointless battles against Axis troops that otherwise would be idle. In fact, it is easy to speculate that this diversionary benefit of the Finnish forces is why Hitler does not put more effort into attaining a junction with the Finnish forces east of Leningrad.
The US media continues to mix facts with wildly optimistic but inaccurate reports on the fighting in the Pacific. For instance, the news from the Eastern Front flows along long-established channels and is reasonably accurate. However, the information chain from the new battles in the Pacific is sketchy at best. The headlines in the 14 December 1941 edition of the Syracuse Herald American illustrate this dichotomy nicely, reporting actual events in the Soviet Union but printing wild fantasies about supposed successes in the Philippines.
Battle of the Pacific: The United States Navy begins its first offensive action of the war on 14 December 1941 when Vice Admiral Wilson Brown Jr.'s Task Force 11 sails toward Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Islands. The mission is intended as a distraction for the Japanese as the embattled US Marines on Wake Island await relief. Meanwhile, the Japanese Navy sends two attacks early today against Wake Island by aircraft based in the Marshall Islands, including the first by "Mavis" flying boats and a later raid at 11:00 by Nell bombers based on Roi Island at Kwajalein. The second raid kills two US Marines and destroys one of the Marines' two remaining F4F-3 Wildcats. The Wake Island battle has become a media favorite, and from a public relations perspective is the most important campaign in the Pacific for the United States regardless of the fact that the island itself has little value to either side. Thus, the US Navy is planning a relief, but it is taking time to prepare.
Close-up of torpedo damage to U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Helena (CL-50) as seen in a dry dock of the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard on 14 December 1941. The cruiser was hit by a torpedo during the Pearl Harbor Attack on 7 December 1941. The original caption reads: "U.S.S. Helena - Torpedo damage between Frames 69 1/2 and 80 1/2 starboard side. Note propeller shaft, H.P. turbine to left. At right center floor plates were driven into teeth of a reduction gear by force of the explosion. Navy Yard, Pearl Harbor, T.H. (US Navy).
On the Malay Peninsula, the British continue withdrawing more due to their own apprehensions than defeats inflicted by the Japanese. Area commander General Arthur Percival authorizes the 11th Indian Division on the west coast to withdraw south toward Singapore 30 miles (48 km) to a new line centered on the village of Gurun. The division's commander, Major-General Murray-Lyon, botches the retreat by failing to fully inform all of his units. This leaves many isolated men and units stranded, with no alert that everyone else around them is departing. Many of these men wind up being captured or overwhelmed by massive Japanese forces. In addition, there are few organized provisions made for crossing the Bata River, leading to many Allied troop drownings, lost equipment, and other calamities. Losses are much higher than necessary and the force is unnecessarily weakened as it tries to create a new line that has not been prepared. On the new line, the 11th Indian Division briefly attempts to block the Japanese just north of the village of Gurun, which has some natural features that favor the defense. After dark on the 14th, the Japanese - right on the heels of the retreating Commonwealth troops - make some penetrations into the new position.
The Michigan Daily of 14 December 1941 is full of news about the construction of new defense plants. This is where some would say World War II is actually won.
On the east coast of the Malay Peninsula, the British Kelantan force continues a fighting withdrawal. The Indian 12th Brigade moves to the Baling region about nine miles west of Kroh. Due to the continuing British withdrawal, the defense of Penang Island becomes impossible. The British evacuate it, and Japanese forces occupy the island. Penang has a port that is well-stocked with ammunition and other stores.
Tarlac, Luzon railroad station after the Japanese bombing on December 14, 1941.
In the Philippines, the Japanese advance in north Luzon. The Aparri force meets the Vigan force at Vigan. The two forces are placed under a combined command and prepare an advance to the Lingayen Gulf. The US Army Air Force sends its remaining B-17s of the Far East Air Force to bomb the new Japanese beachhead at Legaspi, and the bombers damage a freighter and tanker. Lieutenant Hewitt T. Wheless earns the DSC for this action when he nurses his damaged bomber back to a crash-landing at Cagayan, Mindanao Island. The US Navy sees how things are going overall despite this minor success and withdraws its remaining PBY Catalinas t of Patrol Wing Ten and accompanying tenders from the Philippines entirely.
Battle of the Mediterranean: In Libya, the battle of the Gazala line continues, but activity is light as both sides adjust their forces. The 5th New Zealand Brigade holds some hard-won penetrations into the line, and the British send the Polish Independent Brigade forward to reinforce them and plan further attacks for the 15th. A little to the south, the 7th Indian Infantry Brigade maintains the British line, while at Alem Hamza the 5th Indian Brigade mounts a failed attack. The Italian Ariete Division also mounts a minor attack with about a dozen tanks, but a motley collection of British units that includes an armored car squadron of the Central Indian Horse and the Royal East Kent Regiment beats them off. For the moment, a stalemate has developed all along the line, but Tobruk has been relieved and the main mission of Operation Crusader achieved.
Firemen battle a three-alarm fire at the Sanitary Public Market building, Pike Place Market, Seattle, December 14, 1941. While the fire's origins are unknown (and are never ascertained), speculation immediately leaps to Japanese saboteurs. (Courtesy MOHAI (PI22904))
This picture was taken on 30 November 1941 Basel-Firsfelden Airfield in Switzerland shows a Luftwaffe Gotha Go-145A (Work no. 1455/1937, H4 + VA) piloted by Gefreite Erwin Lange which was forced to land at Basel-Birsfelden after running low on fuel during a flight from Hildesheim to Freiburg im Breisgau. It is a staff aircraft of Airborne Squadron I, based in Hildesheim. The Swiss allow the plane to return to the Reich on 3 December 1941 after the weather clears.
Eastern Front: Furious at having been excluded from the process by which German troops were ordered to retreat from Rostov-on-Don, Adolf Hitler on 30 November 1941 berates Germany Army commander Walther von Brauchitsch at the Wolfsschanze. Army Group South commander Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt receives the order and refuses to comply, so the retreat continues. The commander of First Panzer Army, General Ewald von Kleist, retains his command despite the fact that the retreat was his idea and von Rundstedt merely ratified his orders. With the matter decided, von Kleist acts swiftly during the morning and orders III Panzer Corps not just to set up a defensive line outside Rostov, but to retreat the entire 45 miles east to the Mius River. He has been trying to get approval for this move for a week, and now that Hitler has selected his scapegoat von Kleist temporarily has a free hand.
"Kurusu Bluntly Warned Nation Ready For Battle," blares the headline of the 30 November 1941 The Honolulu Advertiser.
At Army Group Center, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock is worried, and not about events at Rostov. The German intelligence services have been consistently under-estimating Red Army capabilities, and they continue to do so. During the day, the operations branch chief at the OKH, Colonel Adolf Heusinger, called von Bock on the telephone and with instructions that presupposed a quick and easy capture of Moscow. Von Bock then calls up von Brauchitsch to complain that there insufficient forces to encircle Moscow, much less capture it and proceed on to other objectives. To this, von Brauchitsch has no reply, and, in fact, von Bock has to ask him several times if he is even still on the telephone. Late in the day, Von Bock confides to his diary that "something does not add up."
A Soviet T-60 tank with a T-30 turret sometime in November 1941. The Red Army is desperate for tanks and is mixing and matching parts. The T-60 itself was a rush job but became the most numerous small tank in history.
Field Marshal von Bock is correct. The German military intelligence services remain completely ignorant of actual Red Army strengths, and basing decisions on their estimates is ludicrous. Many German generals understand this, and the intelligence service confessed this itself at the Orsha Conference held on 14 November. The Soviets, in fact, are about to launch a counteroffensive. Today in the Kremlin, General Georgy Zhukov submits a formal plan to the Stavka for an attack against the Wehrmacht forces both north and south of Moscow. The essence of the plan is to strike past Klin and Solnechogorsk in the north to push the German spearheads back about sixty miles. A similar attack in the south would drive the Germans away from Tula and send them past Stalingorsk to the Upa River. However, even this seems wildly optimistic, and the acting chief of the General Staff, General Vasilevskiy, cautions Ivan Konev, commander of Kalinin Front, that:
We can only halt the German attack toward Moscow and thereby... lay the groundwork for beginning to inflict a serious defeat on the enemy by active operations with a decisive aim. If we do not do that in the next few days, it will be too late.
The Stavka approves Zhukov's plan, but its members show in many of their own orders that they only view it is another in a long line of attempts to disrupt the current German offensive, nothing greater.
War jitters are high in Hawaii. The headline on the 30 November 1941 Hilo Tribune-Herald blares, "Japan May Strike Over Weekend." This headline is a typical talking point in arguments that the United States knew in advance of the planned Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and intentionally did nothing about it.
German/Japanese Relations: In Berlin, Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Oshima receives instructions to inform his counterpart, German Foreign Minister Joachim Ribbentrop, that war with the United States is imminent. He also is instructed to get Ribbentrop to sign a document promising that Germany will declare war on the United States if war breaks out between Japan and the US. Such a declaration is not strictly required by the Tripartite Pact which forms the foundation of Germany's military alliance with Japan, but certainly would express the spirit of the alliance. For his part, Ribbentrop already has expressed his preference on behalf of the Reich that Japan should attack the Soviet Union, not the United States, British, or Dutch. However, the Japanese have rejected that option. Whether or not Ribbentrop will sign such a document, and whether Hitler will honor it, remains an open question.
US Government: Having journeyed to his holiday home in Warm Springs, Georgia only yesterday, President Roosevelt hurriedly returns to Washington, D.C. by car and his private train. The war news is troubling and the media, especially in Hawaii, is full of news of an imminent attack. The British, through Ambassador Lord Halifax, also want assurances that the United States will support its forces in the Pacific if the Japanese attack Singapore and/or Hong Kong but not also the United States. The British assume this will happen due to Roosevelt's vigorous support against Hitler to date, but there is nothing in writing codifying the relationship to depend upon.
Battle of the Mediterranean: The final outcome of British Operation Crusader remains very much in doubt. The British have established a supply corridor to Tobruk, but it is weak and large German panzer forces threaten it. There are both small and large actions that show mixed results. Two companies of 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalions launch a bayonet charge against Italian positions on the night of 29/30 November. This attack succeeds, and the Australians take 167 prisoners at the cost of 2 dead and five wounded. General Rommel, meanwhile, orders the 15th Panzer Division to attack between Sidi Rezegh and Belhamed. The panzers overrun the New Zealand 24th and 26th Battalions, but the 25th Battalion stands firm against the Italian Ariete Division. As with all battles in the desert, the Italians are fighting hard, but their positions somehow always turn into the weak link in the Axis line. The day ends with Panzer Korps Afrika in a slightly better position, but a decisive victory still eludes Rommel.
Women in northern France scouring the shoreline for edible shells, November 1941 (Leo, Federal Archive Bild 101I-597-B0510-22A).
General Erwin Rommel with officers at the front in North Africa south of Tobruk, 29 November 1941 (Vielmetti, Hugo, Federal Archive Picture 183-1989-0630-502).
Eastern Front: After a week in Berlin to attend to diplomatic affairs and high-profile funerals, Adolf Hitler steps off his command train "Amerika" at Rastenburg in East Prussia early on 29 November 1941 and soon learns very unpleasant news. For the first time in the war, the Wehrmacht is retreating from a major objective. The commander of Army Group South, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, has authorized General Ewald von Kleist to order a planned withdrawal from Rostov-on-Don. General Franz Halder, chief of operations at OKH, has to lamely admit in his war diary:
The reports on Rostov confirm the picture obtained yesterday. The numerically weak forces of First Panzer Army had to give way before the concentric attack launched in very great strength from the south (here apparently main effort), west, and north. On the morning of 29 Nov., SS Adolf Hitler was taken back into the new defense position west of Rostov, the withdrawal of Sixteenth Motorized Division is still in progress.
In his evening update, Halder notes the "violence with which the enemy pressed on behind our forces" and concedes that "one wonders whether we might not have to withdraw further still." In Berlin, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels is forced to announce for the first time that the Germans are retreating in Russia. However, Goebbels reassures the press of the Reich's allies that it is only a "temporary pause" in operations - which does not appear to be the case.
While Goebbels maintains an air of nonchalance, Hitler at the gloomy Wolfsschanze is furious about the retreat from Rostov and orders it to stop. However, Army Group South commander Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt knows a trap when he sees one and refuses to countermand his orders to Kleist. SS General Sepp Dietrich, in command of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler (LSSAH) holding Rostov, is an old friend of "Adi" (as he always calls Hitler) and eventually calms Hitler down by explaining that the retreat was necessary. In fact, the retreat from Rostov is necessary under the circumstances, as the German advance to it has become an indefensible projection into Soviet territory that could be easily encircled. Kleist's and Rundstedt's decision to retreat ultimately preserve the Wehrmacht's position in southern Russia better than anywhere else on the front. This retreat from Rostov is the main reason that Rundstedt later is relieved of his command, but Hitler eventually realizes the wisdom of the move. He will re-employ von Rundstedt and, later, promote von Kleist to Field Marshal. Hitler often shows respect toward generals who stand up to him for the right reasons, though they may suffer in the short run. This ultimately becomes one of those instances.
"Western Desert, North Africa. 29 November 1941. Informal group portrait of airmen of an Army co-operation squadron receiving a brief lecture while digesting their midday meal. They are told the position on the battlefront of the second British Libyan offensive - Operation Crusader, so they know what is happening and what to do." Australian War Memorial MED0145.
To the northwest of Moscow, things are a bit brighter for the Germans, but only a little bit. Seventh Panzer Division has held a small bridgehead across the Moscow-Volga canal at Yakhroma. However, the combat is so fierce that panzers cannot survive in the bridgehead, so the Germans abandon it and redirect their effort west to Krasnaya Polyana. German Third Panzer Army and Fourth Army make small gains, but a breakthrough eludes them. On the Soviet side, General Zhukov reassures Stalin that the German offensive has stalled in this area. Stalin then turns over First Shock, Twentieth, and Tenth Armies to Zhukov for a counterattack.
While the Germans continue grinding away, it is obvious to them as well that the attack on Moscow has stalled for the time being. Army Group Center commander Field Marshal Feder von Bock telephones Halder and unloads his deepening doubts about the situation. As Halder records in his diary:
Concerning the allegation that the Army Group lacks definite objectives (Goering's unconsidered opinion), the Army Group knows exactly what it is after. However, if the current attack on Moscow from the north is unsuccessful, he fears the operation will become another Verdun, i.e., a brutish, chest-to-chest battle of attrition (soulless frontal confrontation).
The situation around Moscow, Halder concludes, does not permit the capture of the Soviet capital at this time:
In any event, it can be stated even now that at most Army Group Center will be able to push the northern wing to the Moscow line, while Guderian may clear the enemy out of the Oka salient northwest of Tula, to gain the area for winter quarters.
So, from this point forward, the best that can be achieved is a slightly better positioning in order to wait for spring in order to resume the offensive.
German infantrymen marching alongside their horse-drawn supply vehicles near Moscow, November 1941. Most supplies are brought forward by wagon like this, as trucks are in short supply and many do not have any antifreeze and the roads are terrible (AP Photo).
Japanese Government: The Japanese government has set today, 29 November 1941, as the deadline for a decision on how to move forward with the United States, either diplomatically or militarily. The Cabinet meets with senior statesmen at the Liaison Conference in the Imperial Palace and the end result is a decision to terminate diplomatic relations with the United States. It will be left to the Army and Navy to decide when this diplomatic note should be delivered to the Americans so that it will not interfere with their offensive plans. There will be no formal declaration of war, the somewhat ambiguous diplomatic note will suffice. The conclusions of the Liaison Conference are to be ratified at the largely ceremonial Imperial Conference scheduled for 1 December.
"Western Desert, North Africa. 29 November 1941. One of the American Boeing Flying Fortress bomber aircraft, code no. WP, serial no. AN532, operating in the Middle East campaign on the ground. These giant Boeing four-engined bombers carry a bomb load of 8,000 lbs over 2,000 miles and are capable of climbing to 41,000 feet. The comment of an RAF pilot flying a Fortress was 'she had no vices'." Australian War Memorial MED0141.
Battle of the Mediterranean: The British Eighth Army and German Afrika Korps have been locked in a death grip south of Tobruk. The main objective of the British Operation Crusader, the relief of Tobruk, has been achieved. However, the corridor to the port is narrow and the Germans remain determined to cut it. In the morning, the German 15th Panzer Division moves forward to attack the corridor. Italian units also move forward during the day, and during the afternoon, the Ariete Division defeats the 21st Battalion of New Zealanders at a key height, Point 175. As one of the New Zealand unit's officers, Lieutenant-Colonel Howard Kippenberger, later notes:
About 5:30 p.m. damned Italian Motorized Division (Ariete) turned up. They passed with five tanks leading, twenty following, and a huge column of transport and guns, and rolled straight over our infantry on Pt. 175.
The German attack is hampered by trouble at the 21st Panzer Division, which was supposed to participate in the attack. However, the British capture General Johann von Ravenstein, their commander who is leading from the field while on a reconnaissance. He becomes the first German general captured by the Allied forces during World War II. However, otherwise, things are looking up for the Germans, and General Erwin Rommel's decision to gamble on a wild counterattack without logistical supply lines appears on the verge of paying off.
Colliers, 29 November 1941. This photograph is adopted by Harley-Davidson for the covers of its own publications, including its repair manuals.
German Panzer IV tanks and armored personnel carriers attacking a Soviet-held village in the vicinity of Istra on the Moscow-Riga railway on 25 November 1941 (Tannenberg, Hugo, Federal Archive Figure 183-B17220).
Battle of the Mediterranean: The British Operation Crusader, an offensive whose goal is to liberate Tobruk, has been going badly since its start on 21 November. British 7th Armored Division of Eighth Army has been pummeled by General Erwin Rommel's panzers and fierce artillery fire by well-sited Italian gunners. On 24 November Rommel decided to launch a counteroffensive, and today, 25 November 1941, he sets in motion more forces whose aim is to relieve a trapped German garrison at Bardia and threaten British lines of communication back into Egypt. This is known as General Rommel's "dash to the wire" because it sends Afrika Korp panzers behind the British outposts to the area of the Egyptian/ Libyan border where a wire barricade stretches inland from the coast.
Battleship HMS Barham ((Capt G.C. Cooke, RN)), covered with sailors, explodes in the Mediterranean north off Sidi Barrani, Egypt after being hit by three torpedoes from U-331 (Kptlt. Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen) on 25 November 1941. Total casualties number 56 officers and 806 men.
With part of Afrika Korps and the Italian Ariete Division already heading toward Sidi Omar, the 15th Panzer Division today heads northeast toward Sidi Aziz. To their shock, the German tankers find no enemy to be seen and their only opponents the omnipresent RAF Desert Air Force. The 5th Panzer Division of the 21st Panzer Division hits the 7th Indian Brigade at Sidi Omar, but are fought off with great difficulty by the 1st Field Regiment of the Royal Artillery. The German tanks try again, but the Royal Artillery picks the panzers off over open sights at 500 meters and destroys or damages almost all of them. It is a brilliant defensive victory by the British caused by their valor and the overconfidence of the panzer commanders. The rest of the 21st Panzer Division heads unmolested to the border at Halfaya, the key to the vital coastal road.
HMS Barham listing to port shortly after being hit by three torpedoes. Barham becomes the only Royal Navy battleship to be sunk by a submarine during World War 11. This photo was taken from HMS Valiant.
The Germans reach the area west of Sidi Aziz by sunset, but they have taken heavy tank losses during the day. They have only 53 panzers remaining with no possibility of reinforcement. The 5th New Zealand Brigade is located further up the coast between the panzers and their closest supply dumps, posing a logistical problem. The Germans camp here for the night and prepare to bypass the New Zealanders on the 26th in order to liberate Bardia and resupply.
HMS Barham.
One of the paradoxes of the war in North Africa is that it is actually won at sea. The Royal Navy has done a very efficient job of disrupting supplies sent from Naples to Tripoli. Today, however, the Germans take their revenge when U-331 (Kptlt. Hans-Diedrich Freiherr von Tiesenhausen) somehow evades the Royal Navy destroyer screen and pumps three torpedoes into battleship HMS Barham. The Barham sinks quickly and takes the better part of 1000 men with her.
Eastern Front: General Guderian's men continue to put pressure on the Red Army units defending Tula, but it is an increasingly hopeless battle. Today, the 17th Panzer Division (Brig. Gen. Rudolf Eduard Licht) approaches Kashira, about 50 km north of Venev, which looks impressive on the map as it is a great deal closer to Moscow than Tula. However, Lictht's advance causes as many problems as it solves, because it is extremely difficult to supply his panzers. Meanwhile, the bulk of Guderian's forces are making no progress at all on the direct road to Moscow through Tula. The Germans only control the territory within reach of their guns, with large stretches in between their isolated forces virtually undefended. This gives the Red Army units the ability to cross between the different Wehrmacht positions. The 239th Siberian Rifle Division, for instance, escapes from the 29th Motorized Division near Epifan, southeast of Tula, simply by driving around the German units. Lacking strong infantry support, the German effort south of Moscow is turning into the equivalent of tank raids rather than a full-fledged offensive.
North of Moscow, the German 18th Army continues to hold the strategically important city of Tikhvin despite brutal winter weather and increasing Red Army attacks. The commander of the 18th Army, Colonel General Georg von Küchler, accepts the inevitable after his men have made no progress since taking the city and orders them to cease all offensive operations. This leaves the most advanced German troops isolated at the tip of a dead schwerpunkt (spearhead) with long supply lines that are open to Soviet assault from both the north and south.
HMS Barham exploding in a fireball, 25 November 1941.
US/Japanese Relations: For several days, United States Secretary of State Cordell Hull has been preparing a modus vivendi agreement to restart stalled peace talks with the Japanese. This is a counter-proposal to the Japanese Proposal B submitted on 21 November which was completely unacceptable to the Americans. The modus vivendi would prohibit "any advance by force" in the Pacific - an obvious restriction on Japanese ambitions - and require a Japanese withdrawal from southern French Indochina. In exchange, the United States would resume limited trade with the Japanese to the extent of $600,000 worth of cotton, oil "for civilian needs" and medical supplies. The agreement by its terms would only last for three months and would be a stop-gap measure to reach a longer-lasting agreement.
Der Adler, 25 November 1941 (Heft 24, 25. November 1941.: Deutsches Reichsluftfahrtministerium).
The US War Council debates this very mild counterproposal on the 25th and decides that it would make sense to submit this modus vivendi to the Japanese. The obvious alternative is war, and the Army and Navy want more time to prepare for that. However, the decision to submit this counterproposal to the Japanese - who it is expected would take it - does not lie with the US War Council. Only one man can make that decision. Hull, who personally thinks the modus vivendi is pointless, schedules a meeting with President Roosevelt for the 26th.
The proposed B-36 bomber would feature dramatically greater bombload, range, and service ceiling in addition to its unprecedented size. Two prototypes are ordered from Consolidated on 25 November 1941.
US Military: The US Army Air Force contracts with Consolidated Aircraft (later Consolidated Vultee and then Convair) to produce two prototypes of a new experimental bomber. Consolidated is an experienced military plane manufacturer, having built the successful B-24 Liberator heavy bomber and the PBY Catalina. The overall wing area of the new plane is to encompass just under 5000 square feet and hold six engines placed at the back of the wings to push its 163-foot fuselage. This is a massive design that dwarfs current bombers, and the plane is designed to be able to fly from the continental United States, bomb targets in Europe, and then return without landing or refueling. The fixed fee payable to Consolidated is approximately $800,000 for each prototype and the first plane is scheduled to be ready by mid-1944. This plane ultimately is developed and becomes the B-36 Peacemaker.
HMS Barham right before it explodes and sinks. This apparently is a capture taken from a film made of the sinking. If one looks closely, men clinging for their lives are seen on the upraised hull and the decks.
Captain C. E. Morgan, commanding nearby HMS Valiant, gave an account of the sinking of HMS Barham:
"Our battleships were proceeding westwards line ahead, with the Valiant immediately astern the Barham and with a destroyer screen thrown out ahead of the battlefleet. At 4.23 p.m., carrying out a normal zigzag, we turned to port together, thus bringing the ships into echelon formation. Suddenly, at 4.25, I heard a loud explosion, followed by two further explosions a couple of seconds later. Fountains of water and two enormous columns of smoke shot skywards. The smoke formed an enormous mushroom, gradually enveloping the whole of the Barham, except the after part, which was subsequently also blotted out as the ship slid into a vast pall of smoke. As the explosions occurred the officer on watch gave the command “ Hard to port,” to keep clear of the Barham. Fifteen seconds later I saw a submarine break the surface, possibly forced there by the explosion. Passing from left to right, the submarine was apparently making to cross the Valiant’s bows between us and the Barham. He was only about seven degrees off my starboard bow and 150 yards away, though he must have fired his torpedoes from about 700 yards. As the periscope and then the conning tower appeared I ordered “ Full speed ahead, hard starboard.” But, with the helm already hard to port, I was unable to turn quickly enough to ram him before he crash-dived only 40 yards away on our starboard side. The submarine was visible for about 45 seconds, and, simultaneously with our ramming efforts, we opened fire with our starboard pom-poms. He was so close, however, that we were unable to depress the guns sufficiently and the shells passed over the conning-tower. I then gave the order “Amidships” again to avoid turning into the Barham, which was still underway with her engines running but listing heavily to port. As we came upon her beam she heeled further about 20 or 30 degrees, and through the smoke, I could see all her quarter-deck and forecastle. Men were jumping into the water and running up on the forecastle. The Barham was rolling on a perfectly even keel with neither bows nor stern sticking into the air. For one minute she seemed to hang in this position; then, at 4.28, she suddenly rolled violently, her mainmast striking the’ surface of the sea sharply a few seconds later. I saw water pouring into her funnels. There followed a big explosion amidships, from which belched black and brown smoke intermingled with flames. Pieces of wreckage, Hung high into the air, were scattered far and wide, the largest piece being about the size of my writing-desk. I immediately ordered “ Take cover ” as the wreckage started flying, and that was the last we saw of the Barham, which had run almost’ a mile since the moment she was hit. When the smoke cleared the only signs left were a mass of floating wreckage. … The 35,000-ton ship disappeared with unbelievable suddenness; it was only 4 minutes 35 seconds exactly from the moment the torpedoes struck until she had completely disappeared."
