Tuesday 30 September 1941

Original caption: “Hiroshi Hamaya photographing the tank corps in Chiba, September 30, 1941. ” Hamaya was a Japanese photographer, perhaps the most famous one of World War II. He passed away in 1999.

Eastern Front: On 30 September 1941, the Wehrmacht begins its great drive on Moscow. With the codename Operation Typhoon (Unternehmen Taifun), this attack is viewed by many in the German Army as the rightful focus of Operation Barbarossa. After much hesitation, and only when it appeared that the other two main objectives of the invasion, Leningrad and Kyiv, were in hand, Hitler finally agreed. Reinforced by strong units from both Army Group North and Army Group South, Army Group Center under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock now has to race against the changing seasons to accomplish the key objective of the campaign during 1941.

A member of a German machine gun squad sometime during the opening stages of Operation Typhoon ca. 30 September 1941.

Field Marshal von Bock disposes of 70 divisions for Operation Typhoon and it begins two days earlier than previously scheduled. General Heinz Guderian's Panzer Group 2 has finished the conquest of Kyiv earlier than some had expected, and now it has reoriented itself to attack in the opposite direction - to the northeast - in a matter of days. While recent reports suggest that Guderian's panzer forces are only at 20% of pre-war effectiveness, they face a Red Army that just lost almost a million troops in the fighting at Kyiv. There isn't an army in the world that can just shrug off the loss of a million men along with their leaders and equipment and the economic resources of a major city... or is there.

Somewhat ironically on a day that the Germans launch their "final" offensive on Moscow, the outside world is being reassured that the Red Army holds the initiative. Of course, note the much smaller headline, "Report Reds are Set Back in The Ukraine," which is a classic understatement considering the recent loss of Kiev. This is the Piqua (Ohio) Daily Call of 30 September 1941.

While the Red Army has been greatly weakened, there are several factors that count in its favor. For one, while the weather remains good for campaigning, that won't be the case for much longer. The German troops have no experience with the Russian Rasputitsa or rainy season, but it is just around the corner. While the Germans find the ubiquitous peasant carts, or Panjes, somewhat odd-looking with their giant wheels and watertight construction like boats, they are built like that to survive the twice-yearly Rasputitsa. The German trucks are not built for those conditions, which should begin to appear within about a month or even less.

A 40mm Bofors anti-aircraft gun covers a road as troops pass by in coaches during Exercise 'Bumper', 30 September 1941.

Another Soviet advantage is that master spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo has assured Joseph Stalin that the Japanese are not interested in attacking the Soviet Union. This allows him to pull seven fresh Siberian Divisions west to the defense of Moscow. It will take time to get them through four or five time zones to Moscow, but they are experts at winter warfare and accomplished skiers. The lengthening German supply lines over deteriorating railroads and dirt roads, their worn equipment from three months of constant battle, and heavy losses also blunt the Wehrmacht's effort.

Japanese munitions workers inspecting empty shells in a factory in Japan on September 30, 1941.

Still, despite all the issues, it is not too late in the season to get started. General Guderian's panzers head east at 06:35. They achieve surprise, as the Soviets expect them to take longer to digest Kyiv (this may be in part because the attack starts earlier than OKH planned, and the Soviets may know this from intelligence sources). Two panzer corps lead the attack, followed by infantry and motorized divisions. Panzer Group 2 heads back to the northeast and heads toward Moscow without regard to its flanks. The panzers smash through five Soviet divisions of Major General’s Arkadii Ermakov’s operational group (three infantry, two cavalry, and two tank brigades) at Glukhov, then open a wedge into Soviet 13th Army under front commander Lieutenant General Yeremenko (Eremenko).

A victim of the Babi Yar massacre, Velvele Valentin Pinkert, which concludes today with over 30,000 people dead (Yad Vashem Photo Archives 5027/461).

While all seems rosy for the Germans, they have some unpleasant surprises. The Soviets use their new Katyusha rockets against the 3rd Panzer Division with good effect, though they are perhaps most effective now for their surprise value. In addition, the Soviets have trained dogs laden with explosives to run under German tanks, where they explode.

"A Matilda tank, army lorries and troops pass through a town during Exercise 'Bumper', 30 September 1941." © IWM (H 14343).

Many panzers are stopped by virtually undetectable antitank mines in wooden cases. The Germans, however, make good ground on the first day of the offensive, covering over ten miles. Everything is going according to plan, and the Germans plan to encircle Yeremenko's forces by closing a pocket at Bryansk. It is to be another giant battle of annihilation, and the Germans are confident that they will soon be chasing the fleeing remnants of the Red Army back toward Moscow.

Pic magazine, 30 September 1941, has the headline, "What Lindbergh's Home Town Thinks of Him." Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh has spent the year giving speeches for the America First Committee which urge the United States to stay out of the "European war."

September 1, 1941: Two Years In
September 2, 1941: Germans Pushed Back at Yelnya
September 3, 1941: FDR Refuses to Meet with Japanese
September 4, 1941: Hitler Furious at Guderian
September 5, 1941: Germans Evacuate Yelnya
September 6, 1941: Japan Prepares for War
September 7, 1941: Hitler Orders Drive on Moscow
September 8, 1941: Leningrad Cut Off
September 9, 1941: Germans Attack Leningrad
September 10, 1941: Guderian Busts Loose
September 11, 1941: Convoy SC-42 Destruction
September 12, 1941: Starve Leningrad!
September 13, 1941: Zhukov at Leningrad
September 14, 1941: Germany's Growing Casualties
September 15, 1941: Sorge Warns Stalin Again
September 16, 1941: Soviets Encircled at Kiev
September 17, 1941: Iran Conquest Completed
September 18, 1941: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in Action
September 19, 1941: Germans Take Kiev
September 20, 1941: Death at Kiev
September 21, 1941: Raging Soviet Paranoia
September 22, 1941: Defense of Nickel Mines
September 23, 1941: Air Attacks on Leningrad
September 24, 1941: Japanese Spying Intensifies
September 25, 1941: Manstein at the Crimea
September 26, 1941: Kiev Pocket Eliminated
September 27, 1941: Massacre at Eišiškės
September 28, 1941: Ted Williams Hits .400
September 29, 1941: Babi Yar Massacre
September 30, 1941: Operation Typhoon Begins

2020

Monday 29 September 1941

Babi Yar ravine in northwest Kyiv, Ukraine. It is the site of a massacre of over 33,000 people on 29 September 1941.

US/Japanese Relations: The Japanese have been trying to arrange a summit meeting between their Prime Minister Prince Konoye and President Roosevelt for at least a month. However, President Roosevelt repeatedly has refused such a meeting, considering it pointless. On 29 September 1941, the Japanese give their first hint that there may be consequences for this refusal.

German SS troops interacting with Kiev civilians at Babi Yar prior to their execution, circa 29 September 1941.

Japanese Ambassador to the United States Kichisaburō Nomura is an extremely skilled diplomat who secretly does not desire war. He has engaged in quiet diplomacy with Secretary of State Cordell Hull which has included lunches downtown in addition to official meetings. Today, however, he has to deliver a message from Tokyo that decidedly escalates the rhetoric. It reads in part:

. . . if nothing came of the proposal for a meeting between the chiefs of our two Governments it might be difficult for Prince Konoye to retain his position and that Prince Konoye then would be likely to be succeeded by a less moderate leader.

While the message is phrased as diplomatically as possible, the message is clear: deal, or there will be trouble. Everyone knows - including Washington, which is kept well-informed by its ambassador in Tokyo Joseph Grew - that the Japanese military is eager for war and dominates the Cabinet.

The Babi Yar massacre in progress circa 29 September 1941 (Ernst Klee Archive via United States Holocaust Memorial Museum).

Spy Stuff: The air war is not going particularly well for the Chinese. Their outdated fighters are no match for the new Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero, and their pilots are not trained to the high standards of the Imperial Japanese Army Air Service and the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service (Kōkūtai). On 29 September 1941, those problems are compounded when the commander of the 2nd BS, Zhang Tiqing, defects during a raid at Changsha. While leading his command of SBs of the Chinese 1st and 2nd BGs, Tiqing leaves his fellow pilots and willingly lands at the Japanese-held aerodrome at Hankou. In addition to presenting a complete SB to the Japanese for study, Zhang Tiqing's desertion causes the others in his flight to get lost. Eight SBs must make forced landings in fields. This leads to losses of pilots and planes. The Chinese have to replenish the unit from men and equipment from the 6th BG.

Joe Louis defeats Lou Nova at the Polo Grounds on 29 September 1941 to retain his heavyweight championship. This is the 19th successful defense of his title by Joe Louis (Joe Costa).

China: At Changsha, China, the fighting turns in favor of the defending Chinese. The Chinese 9th War Area goes over to the offensive against the Japanese 11th Army, reinforced by relief troops. The Chinese may not have many modern weapons to equal the Japanese planes and guns, but they have one thing in abundance: men. The Japanese are forced to retreat.

Babi Yar Ravine.

Holocaust: It is day two of the Babi Yar Massacre. On 28 September 1941, the Germans posted the following message on billboards throughout the recently captured city of Kyiv:

All Jews living in the city of Kiev and its vicinity are to report by 8 o'clock on the morning of Monday, September 29th, 1941, at the corner of Melnikovsky and Dokhturov Streets (near the cemetery). They are to take with them documents, money, valuables, as well as warm clothes, underwear, etc. 

Any Jew not carrying out this instruction and who is found elsewhere will be shot. Any civilian entering flats evacuated by Jews and stealing property will be shot.

The common conclusion of those reading this notice was that the Germans would follow their typical practice and deport the Jews. This would not be the case.

The 29 September 1941 Pittsburgh Press is full of stories of condemnation of German atrocities in Occupied Europe and efforts to fight them. There are false claims of "victories" by both sides in Europe. For instance, the Italians claim major naval victories and the Soviets claim to be advancing through a "graveyard of tanks" left behind by retreating German forces southwest of Bryansk.

Instead, on 29 September 1941, the Germans and their local auxiliaries force tens of thousands of Jews who are collected to march to a nondescript area in the northwestern section of Kyiv. The Jews are forced to go through a narrow corridor lined with barbed wire and German soldiers to the Babi Yar Ravine. The Jews are taken in small groups to the edge of the ravine, lined up, and shot so that they fall into the ravine. The killings continue for 48 hours. It is estimated that 33, 771 people are killed. However, this is just the opening stage of the pogrom, as ultimately over 100,000 people, primarily Jewish but also including others who are out of favor with the German authorities, are executed in the same way. These executions are later adjudged to be crimes against humanity and are a key step in the progression of the Holocaust.

The crew and their family members of the USS Philadelphia (CL-41) gather at the Hotel Astor in New York City to celebrate a change in command. Captain Vance D. Chapline was being relieved by Captain C.J.Moore (CL-41 Tribute Home).

September 1, 1941: Two Years In
September 2, 1941: Germans Pushed Back at Yelnya
September 3, 1941: FDR Refuses to Meet with Japanese
September 4, 1941: Hitler Furious at Guderian
September 5, 1941: Germans Evacuate Yelnya
September 6, 1941: Japan Prepares for War
September 7, 1941: Hitler Orders Drive on Moscow
September 8, 1941: Leningrad Cut Off
September 9, 1941: Germans Attack Leningrad
September 10, 1941: Guderian Busts Loose
September 11, 1941: Convoy SC-42 Destruction
September 12, 1941: Starve Leningrad!
September 13, 1941: Zhukov at Leningrad
September 14, 1941: Germany's Growing Casualties
September 15, 1941: Sorge Warns Stalin Again
September 16, 1941: Soviets Encircled at Kiev
September 17, 1941: Iran Conquest Completed
September 18, 1941: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in Action
September 19, 1941: Germans Take Kiev
September 20, 1941: Death at Kiev
September 21, 1941: Raging Soviet Paranoia
September 22, 1941: Defense of Nickel Mines
September 23, 1941: Air Attacks on Leningrad
September 24, 1941: Japanese Spying Intensifies
September 25, 1941: Manstein at the Crimea
September 26, 1941: Kiev Pocket Eliminated
September 27, 1941: Massacre at Eišiškės
September 28, 1941: Ted Williams Hits .400
September 29, 1941: Babi Yar Massacre
September 30, 1941: Operation Typhoon Begins

2020

Sunday 28 September 1941

Ted Williams.

American Homefront: Yes, there's a war on and that's always important. People are fighting and dying and that's a terrible, horrible, unforgettable thing. However, on 28 September 1941, something happens in the American national pastime that echoes more loudly and positively down through the ages than some battle or uprising or evil deed somewhere else. And that magical feat is Ted Williams of the Boston Red Sox hitting .400.

The Babi Yar massacre begins on 28 September 1941 on the outskirts of Kyiv. Over the course of two days, the Germans take almost 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children to a ravine called Babi Yar and execute them. The Germans continue to use the pit for similar purposes throughout the war. This is partly to retaliate for hidden bombs left behind in Kyiv by retreating Soviet troops that were detonated long after they left and which killed hundreds of German soldiers.

The year 1941 was perhaps the most dramatic in the history of Major League Baseball. It was almost as if the players knew it was all about to end and they had to get in one final effort to show that there's more to the world than death and destruction. There also is valor and glory off the battlefield, even if it doesn't involve trying to seize someone else's country or eliminate some inconvenient foreign leader. Joe DiMaggio of the New York Yankees hit in 56 straight games over the summer (57 straight games if you count the All-Star Game), something that hadn't been done for decades, hasn't been done since and almost never will be done again in the future. That would seem to be an impossible act to top... but Ted Williams, the "Splendid Splinter," somehow manages to do it on the last day of the season.

A Finnish patrol boat approaches an enemy patrol on the beach at Tikansaari, September 28, 1941. Note the mounted Lahti L-39 (original color photograph on SA-Kuva).

The story of Ted Williams' final two games of the 1941 season is well known, but let's go through it one more time. It is a doubleheader at Shibe Park against Connie Mack's Philadelphia Athletics and he is hitting an amazing .3995, which rounds off to .400 and would make Williams the first player in the history of baseball to hit .400 for an entire season. After the Red Sox arrived in Philadelphia, a reporter asked Williams whether maybe he shouldn't just take the day off since these are meaningless games anyway in order to preserve his record. Ted says no, saying "I either make it or I don't."

A London cafe owner gives his prospective customers warning of what will happen in the event of an invasion, 28 September 1941 (AP).

Williams has plenty of reasons to sit out the games, including the fact that on Saturday, he had only gone 1-4, dropping his season average just below the .400 level. The season was ending, the sun was not as high in the sky so shadows played across the field, there was no motivation for the pennant race, and everyone was tired. Williams' manager, Joe Cronin, offers him the choice of playing or not, telling him, "You don’t have to be put in if you don’t want to. You’re officially .400." Williams recounts decades later "that hit me like a goddamn lightning bolt! What do you mean I don’t have to play today?" He responds, "I want to have more than my toenails on the line."

The Superman comics in the "funny papers" part of the Sunday newspaper.

Cronin is in Williams' corner all the way, telling a reporter:

If there’s ever a ballplayer who deserved to hit .400, it’s Ted. He’s given up plenty of chances to bunt and protect his average in recent weeks. He wouldn’t think of getting out of the lineup to keep his average intact. Moreover, most of the other stars who have bettered the mark before were helped by no foul strike rules or sacrifice fly regulations.

Everybody on the ballfield knows what is at stake, including the home plate umpire, Bill McGowan, who mentions it during Williams' first at-bat.

Golf champion Marion Miley, aged 27, is shot twice in an armed robbery along with her mother Else in the Lexington Country Club, Kentucky in the early morning hours of 28 September 1941. Miley perishes a few days later. Three men are arrested, charged, convicted, and perish in the electric chair.

Well, after all the drama, Ted Williams goes 4-5 in the first game, including hitting his league-leading 37th home run of the season in the fifth inning. Then, now hitting above .400 and with every reason to sit out the nightcap of the doubleheader, Williams plays anyway and goes 2-3. Ted Williams winds up hitting .4057, rounded up to .406. For the day, he goes 6-8, one of his best days of the entire season. And that is the last time anyone ever hit .400 in the Major Leagues.

Winston Churchill inspects the ruined Coventry Cathedral, 28 September 1941.

Ted Williams will receive his draft notice in January 1942, join the Navy Reserve on 22 May 1942 after a highly criticized decision to get him declared 3-A (ineligible for the Draft), and go on active duty in 1943. He becomes a Naval Aviator in the United States Marine Corps but doesn't see any action, serving as a flight instructor. However, when the Korean War breaks out, he serves in Korea as John Glenn's wingman.

The Ted Williams baseball card.

September 1, 1941: Two Years In
September 2, 1941: Germans Pushed Back at Yelnya
September 3, 1941: FDR Refuses to Meet with Japanese
September 4, 1941: Hitler Furious at Guderian
September 5, 1941: Germans Evacuate Yelnya
September 6, 1941: Japan Prepares for War
September 7, 1941: Hitler Orders Drive on Moscow
September 8, 1941: Leningrad Cut Off
September 9, 1941: Germans Attack Leningrad
September 10, 1941: Guderian Busts Loose
September 11, 1941: Convoy SC-42 Destruction
September 12, 1941: Starve Leningrad!
September 13, 1941: Zhukov at Leningrad
September 14, 1941: Germany's Growing Casualties
September 15, 1941: Sorge Warns Stalin Again
September 16, 1941: Soviets Encircled at Kiev
September 17, 1941: Iran Conquest Completed
September 18, 1941: Focke-Wulf Fw 190 in Action
September 19, 1941: Germans Take Kiev
September 20, 1941: Death at Kiev
September 21, 1941: Raging Soviet Paranoia
September 22, 1941: Defense of Nickel Mines
September 23, 1941: Air Attacks on Leningrad
September 24, 1941: Japanese Spying Intensifies
September 25, 1941: Manstein at the Crimea
September 26, 1941: Kiev Pocket Eliminated
September 27, 1941: Massacre at Eišiškės
September 28, 1941: Ted Williams Hits .400
September 29, 1941: Babi Yar Massacre
September 30, 1941: Operation Typhoon Begins

2020