Wednesday 8 October 1941

King George VI visits Gladstone Docks, Liverpool on 8 October 1941. He is standing on the bridge of a minesweeper. © IWM (A 5708).

Eastern Front: During the recently concluded Moscow Conference, which took place between 29 September and 1 October 1941, the United States and Great Britain promised substantial Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union (400 aircraft, 500 tanks and 10,000 trucks a month in addition to other supplies, with the agreement to run until June 1942). On 8 October 1941, President Franklin Roosevelt confirms this agreement in a message to Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin:

Harry Hopkins has told me in great detail of his encouraging and satisfactory visits with you. I can't tell you how thrilled all of us are because of the gallant defense of the Soviet armies. 

I am confident that ways will be found to provide the material and supplies necessary to fight Hitler on all fronts, including your own. 

I want particularly to take this occasion to express my great confidence that your armies will ultimately prevail over Hitler and to assure you of our great determination to be of every possible material assistance.

The United States aid is estimated to be worth roughly $1 billion when the entire US Defense Budget for 1940 was only $1.567 billion.

"DAMAGE SUSTAINED BY THE CORVETTE HMS JASMINE IN COLLISION. 8 OCTOBER 1941, BIRKENHEAD GRAVING DOCK." © IWM (A 5713).

On the Eastern Front itself, the day brings more disasters for the Soviet Union, and it could be worse but for the fact that there are heavy rains near Moscow. The Germans tighten their grip on a pocket of Soviet troops at Bryansk, with 18th Panzer Division (General Nehring) and 112th Infantry Division (General Mieth) meeting to tighten the line around Soviet 3rd, 13th, and 50th Armies, while German XLIII Corps (General Heinrici) splits the Soviet pocket into two parts by isolating 50th Army. The Soviets realize their situation and begin trying to fight their way out to the east.

3963-ton SS Rosalie Moller on the seafloor. The Rosalie Moller is a collier sunk by the Luftwaffe (two casualties) on 8 October 1941 in the Red Sea. Luftwaffe attacks from Crete have been sinking ships in the Suez Canal area. (Middleton Ned, Shipwrecks From The Egyptian Red Sea, via wrecksite.eu.

In Moscow, Stalin and his generals are aware of the danger. General Georgy Zhukov, recalled from Leningrad recently to take over the critical Western Front, reports to the Stavka:

The chief danger is that almost all routes to Moscow are open and the weak protection along the Mozhaisk Line cannot guarantee against the surprise appearance of the enemy armored forces before Moscow. We must quickly assemble forces from wherever we can at the Mozhaisk Defense Line.

The GKO prepares for the loss of Moscow by ordering plans drawn up to destroy 1,119 key installations in the city.

Bren gun mounting on a Universal Carrier Mk I, 8 October 1941 (© IWM (H 14652)).

Further south, in the Army Group South sector, the Red Army also has a bad day. General Ewald von Kleist's Panzer Group 1 takes Mariupol on the Sea of Azov and nearby Berdyansk. This effectively encircles Soviet 9th and 18th Armies, which have been battling General Manstein's 11th Army on the Perekop Isthmus. The Soviet troops have no way out except by seaborne rescue, but the Soviet Black Sea Fleet already is fully engaged evacuating the garrison at Odesa to Sevastopol - which also may soon be at risk.

Soviet pilots Rufina Gasheva and Nataly Meklin of the "Night Witches" Squadron. On 8 October 1941, Joseph Stalin signs orders authorizing the formation of three women's aviation regiments (colorized by Olga Shirinina).

New Zealand: The notorious Stanley Graham incident begins near Hokitika, New Zealand. Graham's dispute with a neighbor over cattle turns deadly when Graham fatally wounds five local officials investigating the dispute. This becomes perhaps the most famous mass murder in New Zealand history and leads to numerous television shows and films depicting the event with widely varying degrees of accuracy. Graham escapes and eventually kills two more men sent to track him down before he himself is fatally wounded.

"HIS MAJESTY THE KING'S VISIT TO WESTERN APPROACHES COMMAND. 8 OCTOBER 1941, GLADSTONE DOCKS, LIVERPOOL." © IWM (A 5702).

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

Tuesday 7 October 1941

A German Sdkfz 250 passes by a Russian Eastern Orthodox Church.

Eastern Front: On 7 October 1941, Joseph Stalin does something that only a few months previously would have been unthinkable: he lifts the ban on religion in order to boost morale. This is one of a series of moves that Stalin makes to reintroduce defunct aspects of Russian Empire ways, such as removing Commissars from the decision-making process at all army headquarters. Due to previous persecution, in 1941 there are only about 500 churches remaining open out of the 54,000 in existence prior to World War I. However, this decision by Stalin permits thousands of Russian Orthodox churches to reopen until there ultimately are 22,000 in the 1950s.

"Mrs. Armitage (left) and Miss Betty Leverton, of the London Auxiliary Ambulance Service, leaving after being decorated by the King at a recent Investiture at Buckingham Palace. Both received the British Empire Medal." 7 October 1941. © IWM (10556138)

The importance of this cannot be overstated. The Russian Empire prior to the 1917 Revolution was a very religious place. The Russian Orthodox Church wielded a great deal of influence and enjoyed official status. The Communist government quickly began suppressing or at least greatly discouraging religion in the 1920s. It founded the League of Militant Atheists in 1925, for instance. Suppression and discouragement of religion was a central tenet of the Soviet State, reflecting Vladimir Lenin's famous comment that:

Religion is the opium of the people: this saying of Marx is the cornerstone of the entire ideology of Marxism about religion. All modern religions and churches, all and of every kind of religious organizations are always considered by Marxism as the organs of bourgeois reaction, used for the protection of the exploitation and the stupefaction of the working class.

Given this attitude toward religion, Stalin must be very worried to go to the extreme of allowing it again.

A Soviet soldier kissing his Cross just before the Battle of Kursk in July 1943.

Indeed, Stalin has good cause to be worried, even frightened, by the pace of the Wehrmacht advance on 7 October 1941. The German panzers shrug off the light snowfall during the night. It melts quickly but does have the unfortunate effect of making the dirt roads even muddier than before. The panzers make good progress anyway as Soviet resistance falters. German 10th Panzer Division (General Fischer) enters the Vyazma suburbs by 10:30 and completes the city's capture later in the day. Fischer's men continue north and link up with 7th Panzer Division of Panzer Group 3 (Reinhardt). This closes another massive encirclement around more than four Soviet armies (16th, 19th, 20th, 24th and part of the 32nd Army).

"A wounded German prisoner, a walking case, coming ashore from the hospital ship." This photo was taken on 7 October. It shows the end of an attempted prisoner exchange, where wounded German POWs were to be exchanged for similar British ones at New Haven and Dieppe. However, Hitler changed his mind at the last minute and blocked the exchange. The German POWs on board hospital ships HMS Dinard and St. Julian were disembarked back in England, as shown in this photo and sent back to their camps or hospitals. © IWM (A 5687).

The Soviet troops in the new pocket, however, are not beaten yet. General Yeremenko (Eremenko), who was wounded on Monday while at the front but escaped from the fast-moving spearhead of General Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army, arrives in Bryansk only to find panzers outside his headquarters and is forced to flee again. Stalin has called in Georgy Zhukov, his top man, from Leningrad to take over Ivan Konev's critical Western Front and finds there is no continuous Soviet line any longer. Zhukov has to talk Stalin out of finding Konev guilty of incompetence and executing him. Late in the day, with the situation crumbling everywhere, Stalin bows to the inevitable and orders a general withdrawal back toward Moscow.

U-190 was laid down on 7 October 1941. This is a photo taken of U-190 after its surrender on 14 May 1941 at Bay Bulls, Newfoundland. Note the numerous late-war enhancements, including the raised snorkel by the man which has the round Wanz radar warning receiver at the top. Behind it on the bridge is a raised periscope and a longwave antenna (starboard forward corner). The "slimming" of the deck in the foreground is not the end of the submarine but rather a cut-away upper deck which it was felt would reduce time to submerge (John Taylor, RCNVR of Hamilton, Ontario, via Bill Taylor and Uboatarchive.net).

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

Thursday 2 October 1941

This is a photo of Panzer-Brigade (Oberst Richard) Koll of 6th Panzer Division advancing north of Vyazma. Immediately ahead is the brigade commander's Panzerbefehlswagen III, denoted by the white turret code "RO6." The vehicles ahead of it are Phänomen Granit 25H ambulances, while Soviet POWs walk toward the rear on the right. The smoke is from a Soviet oil dump hit by Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-87 Stukas. This photo is by Oberst a.D. Helmut Ritgen on 2 October 1941 and is from his book "The 6th Panzer Division: 1937-45."

 Eastern Front: While Operation Typhoon got off to an early start at the end of September when General Guderian's Panzer Group 2 launched its attacks, the main offensive involving the rest of the army begins on 2 October 1941. 

Finnish troops at Petrozavodsk (Äänislinna), 2 October 1941.

Adolf Hitler issues an Order of the Day to the entire German Army (Heer) that makes clear his intentions in the lengthy order which is read out to the troops. It reads in part:

Today begins the last great, decisive battle of this year. It will hit this enemy destructively and with it the instigator of the entire war, England herself. For if we crush this opponent, we also remove the last English ally on the Continent. Thus we will free the German Reich and entire Europe from a menace greater than any since the time of the Huns and later of the Mongol tribes.

As per usual, Hitler goes to great pains in his order to place the blame for the entire war on England. This is an odd thing to do when encouraging his troops to attack east, and it would have been fair for his troops to wonder why they are attacking east when England, the supposed instigator of the war, lies to the west. But, as usual, Hitler includes some very tortured reasoning to justify his position even if it isn't particularly inspiring for the actual battle he is writing the order about.

October 2, 1941, marks the beginning of the Jewish celebration of Yom Kippur. In Paris, certain extreme elements of French society attack Jewish-owned businesses and similar places in a "mini-Kristallnacht." They also plant bombs in many synagogues that explode in the early morning hours of the 3rd.

On a more general note, Hitler's Order of the Day revealing in other ways, too. It is full of anti-Semitic rhetoric which pins the blame for Germany's problems on the usual suspects:

This is a result of nearly a 25-year Jewish rule that, as Bolshevism, is basically similar to the general form of capitalism. The bearers of this system in both cases are the same: Jews and only Jews.

If anyone ever wonders why there are so many atrocities on the Eastern Front by the Wehrmacht, one need look no further than orders like this one of 2 October 1941. What somewhat ironic is that Stalin is not particularly a friend of the Jews either, but details like that don't enter into Hitler's worldview.

German Army commander von Brauchtisch is pictured on the cover of the 2 October 1941 ILLUSTRIERTER BEOBACHTER. This is an illustrated propaganda magazine for the German NSDAP party. It is distinctly anti-Semitic and trumpets Adolf Hitler's arguments about England being the "instigator" of the war and similar ideologically driven viewpoints.

As with many orders issuing from the Fuhrer's Headquarters, it is unclear how the ordinary rank and file feel about this one. For instance, it is the last battle - of 1941. Even that is slightly disingenuous because, as OKH Chief of Staff Franz Halder has noted previously in his daily war diary, Moscow is still far away and it will take an entire campaign just to come close enough to the Soviet capital to actually attack it. Thus, it will take more than one battle for the Wehrmacht to end 1941 successfully, and perhaps many more - assuming that it does end successfully, that is.

The Synagogue of Montmartre was among those damaged in the attacks of 2 October 1941 (Federal Archive Bild 183-S69265).

Five major German formations - Panzer Group 3 (Colonel General Hermann Hoth), Panzer Group 4 (Colonel General Erich Hoepner), and 2nd Army, 4th Army, and 9th Army - now join General Guderian's Panzer Group 2 coming up from the southwest. It is a more powerful combination of forces than at any time to date in the war, and they all are pointed directly at Moscow. Panzer Group 3 advances five miles between Soviet 19th and 30th Army, Panzer Group 4 in the north advances 25 miles, and gains are achieved all up and down the line. General Guderian is so confident that he splits his forces into two prongs at Sevsk, one heading toward Bryansk and the other toward Orel. The Soviet defenses appear to be crumbling, and the German field marshals and generals breathe a sigh of relief that the final assault on Moscow has come late, but not too late.

In the United States, the second game of the World Series is played between the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn Dodgers takes place on 2 October 1941. Here, in a classic photograph, pitcher Spud Chandler of the Yankees (notice that Chandler is wearing a jacket, as pitchers on the basepaths always did at the time) is out at third at Yankee Stadium.

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