Saturday 15 November 1941

A Soviet Red Army bayonet attack on the outskirts of Moscow on 15 November 1941.

Eastern Front: Two days after General Franz Halder at the Orsha Conference directed the Eastern Front generals to continue attacking toward Moscow despite the deteriorating weather conditions, the Wehrmacht resumes Operation Typhoon on 15 November 1941. This offensive is not one that the generals at the front particularly wanted to mount, but they had no say in the matter. The weather is affecting both sides, but the Soviet troops are more accustomed to the climate than the invading Germans, who have never encountered conditions like the fall Rasputitsa and whose equipment is not designed for frigid weather. In addition, the German soldiers do not have adequate winter clothing and many are succumbing to frostbite. The push toward Moscow is taking on a desperate air as the city promises warm accommodations and a defensible perimeter compared to camping out in the surrounding forests and fields. However, at least the ground has frozen which enables the panzers to move again. For better or worse, the hour of decision is at hand.

Civilians digging ditches in Moscow, 15 November 1941.

The Germans continue their attack on Moscow today from three directions: west, northwest, and south. The plan is that General Guderian's Panzer Army 2 will finally conquer and/or bypass Tula and pose a real threat from the south while Field Marshal von Bock's forces continue along the Smolensk and Leningrad highways. The Red Army, for its part, has had time to reinforce all three avenues of attack and is throwing in some spoiling attacks of its own in order to disrupt the Germans' plans.

Water-cooled machine guns just arrived from the USA under lend-lease are checked at an ordnance depot in England, November 1941 (FDR Presidential Library Photograph Collection. NPx # 65694(15)).

The offensive resumes with some successes but also some disappointments. One of the many problems for the Germans is that they have sustained heavy battle losses just getting into a position to attack Moscow. South of the city, Kampf Gruppe (battlegroup) Eberbach has never really had a break in the fighting and it is now down to 50 "runners" (usable panzers). Because Guderian has concentrated virtually all of his army's panzers into Colonel Eberbach's unit, he has no reserve to reinforce the attack. Eberbach's panzers are close to encircling Tula and controlling the Elets-Moscow highway, but the Red Army has enough forces at hand to prevent this. Today's action brings the Germans no closer to a breakout.

A marriage in Bath, from the 15 November 1941 Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette.

On the northwest axis, Ninth Army puts its troops in motion south of Kalinin and, according to General Halder in his war diary, "experiences something new in this war." An infantry corps that is not tasked with a key role advances and finds the Soviet Thirtieth Army not offering any resistance at all. It retreats without firing more than a perfunctory shot or two. Everyone on the German side is elated and, not for the first time nor the last time, thinks that the final collapse of the Red Army may be at hand. Field Marshal von Bock quickly plans to add Panzer Army 3 and Panzer Army 4 to the general offensive on the 16th.

Burial of Swedish cadet Bengt Hans Borje on 15 November 1941.

Much further south in the Crimea, General von Manstein's 11th Army is encountering fanatical resistance in its attempt to capture Sevastopol along the southern coast road. On 15 November, the Soviet 514th Regiment loses 400 men, with other units taking heavy casualties as well. General Petrov, in charge of the defense, comments on the 15th:

The situation at Balaklava has become critical. The enemy has seized Height 212.1, the last before Balaklava. We must recapture the heights, for they are key positions on this axis. Should we succeed, then the entire enemy grouping in the area of Balaklava will fall into a trap. At the same time, we [must] reinforce the defense of the whole southern sector. In addition, we must attack the enemy's flank.

Petrov plans his counterattacks, but they are going to take several days to prepare, and it is unclear if his troops can prevent a breakthrough into the port itself in the south. If they can, though, there is the possibility that operations on both sides will die down during the worst winter months and leave the Soviets in possession of Sevastopol until the spring.

Reich Commissioner for Ostland Hinrich Lohse.

Holocaust: Reich Commissioner for Ostland Hinrich Lohse writes to Alfred Rosenberg, Reich Minister for Eastern Territories, about his recent activities.

I stopped the wild shootings of Jews in Libau because it was done in an irresponsible manner. I must ask if your inquiry from October 31 is to be interpreted to mean that all Jews in the East should be liquidated? Should this occur without regard to age, gender, and economic considerations?...  

The elimination of Jews from the East is of course an urgent mission, but their liquidation must surely be reconciled with the necessities of the war economy.

Rosenberg does indeed "mean that all Jews in the East should be liquidated," as shall become clear soon enough.

The Daily Express of 15 November 1941 notes in its main headline that "Ark Royal Went Down 'Like a Gentleman.'" Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sank on 14 November 1941 after being torpedoed in the Mediterranean near Gibraltar by U-81.

In summary, 15 November 1941 is a mixed day for both sides on the Eastern Front. The German attacks gain some ground in some places but not in others. However, the Wehrmacht is not just fighting the Red Army, it also is fighting the weather, and that battle is going poorly and getting worse all the time. There also are portents of sinister things to come in 1942 and beyond.

Il Dramma, 15 November 1941.

November 1941
November 1, 1941: Finns Attack Toward Murmansk Railway
November 2, 1941: Manstein Isolates Sevastopol
November 3, 1941: Japan Prepares to Attack
November 4, 1941: German Advances in the South
November 5, 1941: Last Peace Effort By Japan
November 6, 1941: Stalin Casts Blame in an Unexpected Direction
November 7, 1941: Stalin's Big Parade
November 8, 1941: Germans Take Tikhvin
November 9, 1941: Duisburg Convoy Destruction
November 10, 1941: Manstein Attacks Sevastopol
November 11, 1941: Finland's Double Game Erupts
November 12, 1941: T-34 Tanks Take Charge
November 13, 1941: German Orsha Conference
November 14, 1941: German Supply Network Breaking Down
November 15, 1941: Operation Typhoon Resumes
November 16, 1941: Manstein Captures Kerch
November 17, 1941: Finland Halts Operations
November 18, 1941: British Operation Crusader
November 19, 1941: Sydney vs. Kormoran Duel
November 20, 1941: The US Rejects Final Japanese Demand
November 21, 1941: Germans Take Rostov
November 22, 1941: Kleist in Trouble at Rostov
November 23, 1941: Germans Take Klin, Huge Battle in North Africa
November 24, 1941: Rommel Counterattacks
November 25, 1941: HMS Barham Sunk
November 26, 1941: Japanese Fleet Sails
November 27, 1941: British Relieve Tobruk
November 28, 1941: Rostov Evacuated, German Closest Approach to Moscow
November 29, 1941: Hitler Furious About Retreat
November 30, 1941: Japan Sets the Date for its Attack

2020

Wednesday 12 November 1941

T-34 prototypes up to 1941 from left to right: BT-7M, A-20, T-34 mod. 1940 (L-11), T-34 mod. 1941 (F-34). Note that the armor gets more sloped, the gun bigger, the treads wider.

Eastern Front: German panzers as a group generally can be considered to be the best tanks in the world in 1941. Every country has its "best" tanks and is proud of them, but the Panzer III and Panzer IV, along with their accompanying support vehicles, have had little difficult storming across both East and West Europe. While there have been some unpleasant encounters on the Eastern Front with some advanced Soviet models, those have been few and far between. Most Wehrmacht armored troops have never encountered anything more dangerous than an obsolete T-26. However, on 12 November 1941, that begins to change as the Soviets begin to unleash them on both ends of the Battle of Moscow.

A German supply convoy near Nargowi Sawod near Moscow in November 1941. The ground is freezing, making the roads passable again after the Rasputitsa (Cusian, Albert, Federal Archive Picture 101I-140-1226-06).

While the T-34 is considered a medium tank, at 26.5 tons it is heavier than any of the German tanks. Its main gun is an L-10 76.2 mm (3 in) gun, enough to easily pierce all but the 80 mm frontal armor of the Panzer IV. The typical Panzer IV, meanwhile, has the short-barreled, howitzer-like 75 mm (2.95 in) Kampfwagenkanone 37 L/24 (7.5 cm KwK 37 L/24) tank gun, which cannot penetrate the T-34's 45 mm frontal armor except at very close range. The Germans, at Hitler's insistence, have plans to upgrade the Panzer IV's main gun to the deadlier 50 mm (1.97 in) Pak 38 L/60 gun, but the first prototype of that is not delivered until 15 November 1941. The Soviets have even heavier KV tanks, but they are slow and the Germans have figured out ways to contain them. The T-34, though, is a good all-around tank that is hard to kill and deals out devastating blows. While every country's citizens believe that its T-34 or Panzer IV or Valentine or Sherman is the best, the T-34 is among the elite. In short, the T-34 may not be the best tank in the world, particularly in terms of poor reliability, but in combat, it is at least a match for the best that the Wehrmacht has in late 1941. The Soviets have had them throughout Operation Barbarossa, but only now is furious tank production since June beginning to unleash large numbers of the T-34.

"Seamen drawing the gun carriage with the coffin covered with a white ensign." The funeral is for Able Seaman James S. Tarleton at Rosyth on 12 November 1941. © IWM (A 6226).

The impact of the T-34 is felt first at Tikhvin. The city of Tikhvin north of Moscow is nothing special in comparison with the many other cities the Wehrmacht has captured. However, Tikhvin may be the most strategically important place outside of Moscow itself. The city controls the only remaining land routes from Moscow to Lake Ladoga that are in Soviet hands. If the Germans can hold Tikhvin, they can capture Leningrad without firing a shot. Thus, Tikhvin's recapture is absolutely vital to the Soviet Union. The Germans have occupied Tikhvin, but the city is at the tip of a long, tenuous salient east from the Volkhov River which is very vulnerable. The German 12th Panzer Division expended the last of its strength to capture the city, and winter has set it, with temperatures on 12 November 1941 never exceeding 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 C). The Wehrmacht is completely unprepared for such weather conditions, and the men are dying of frostbite already and the vehicles have no antifreeze. This is the perfect time for the Red Army to attack, and it does.

A German photograph in Kharkov taken on 12 November 1941. The city had been captured a couple of weeks previously. Written on the back in German was the inscription, "This is the way street fights have wrecked conquered Kharkiv! As of today, there has not yet been time to clean everywhere."

Soviet 52nd Army (General Nicolai Kuzmich Klykov) follows the textbook procedure and attacks the German infantry divisions holding the right (southern) arm of the salient. German 126 Infantry Division (General Paul Laux) at Malai Vishera and the Spanish Blue Division (250th Division) just south of there guard that sector of the front. The T-34s form a hard crust around the weaker T-26 tanks. The Germans barely withstand the first shock of the attack and hastily form infantry tank-killer groups that use bundles of grenades to blow off the tanks' tracks. The Soviet attack peters out due to superior German defensive tactics, but it is clear to everybody that more such attacks would be fatal to the German hold on Tikhvin once the Soviets figure out how to use their armor efficiently.

"Squadron Leader Henryk Szczęsny, the CO of No. 317 "Wilno" Polish Fighter Squadron, saluting the Polish President-in-Exile, Władysław Raczkiewicz, at RAF Exeter, 12 November 1941. Szczęsny is decorated with the Polish Cross of Valour (Krzyż Walecznych) for the fourth time. He was also a holder of the Virtuti Militari and the Distinguished Flying Cross." © IWM (HU 111404).

South of Moscow, at Tula, General Guderian also is finding the Soviet armor to be a problem. Here, the issue is more his own weakness, as Colonel Heinrich Eberbach's Kampf Gruppe has taken serious losses. The Germans are down to barely 50 panzers. The Soviets are bringing up fresh Siberian troops and T-34 tanks. There is fierce fighting today northwest of Tula where a Soviet cavalry division and two rifle divisions fight to prevent the German 31st and 131st Infantry Divisions from encircling Tula and bypassing it. The fighting there is inconclusive, but with the weather turning frigid and the Soviets continually bringing forward reinforcements that the Wehrmacht cannot match, a tie essentially is a victory for the Red Army. The Germans are still in the fight and have not been pushed back, but they also are not advancing any longer - which means they are left out in the open as winter closes in.

Hilde Krahl on the cover of Filmwelt (Film World), issue dated 12 November 1941.

November 1941

November 1, 1941: Finns Attack Toward Murmansk Railway
November 2, 1941: Manstein Isolates Sevastopol
November 3, 1941: Japan Prepares to Attack
November 4, 1941: German Advances in the South
November 5, 1941: Last Peace Effort By Japan
November 6, 1941: Stalin Casts Blame in an Unexpected Direction
November 7, 1941: Stalin's Big Parade
November 8, 1941: Germans Take Tikhvin
November 9, 1941: Duisburg Convoy Destruction
November 10, 1941: Manstein Attacks Sevastopol
November 11, 1941: Finland's Double Game Erupts
November 12, 1941: T-34 Tanks Take Charge
November 13, 1941: German Orsha Conference
November 14, 1941: German Supply Network Breaking Down
November 15, 1941: Operation Typhoon Resumes
November 16, 1941: Manstein Captures Kerch
November 17, 1941: Finland Halts Operations
November 18, 1941: British Operation Crusader
November 19, 1941: Sydney vs. Kormoran Duel
November 20, 1941: The US Rejects Final Japanese Demand
November 21, 1941: Germans Take Rostov
November 22, 1941: Kleist in Trouble at Rostov
November 23, 1941: Germans Take Klin, Huge Battle in North Africa
November 24, 1941: Rommel Counterattacks
November 25, 1941: HMS Barham Sunk
November 26, 1941: Japanese Fleet Sails
November 27, 1941: British Relieve Tobruk
November 28, 1941: Rostov Evacuated, German Closest Approach to Moscow
November 29, 1941: Hitler Furious About Retreat
November 30, 1941: Japan Sets the Date for its Attack

2020

Thursday 30 October 1941

Soviet troops wielding AT rifles defend a crossroads at Kommunarov and Sovetskaya streets in Tula. 30 October 1941.

Eastern Front: After a breakneck advance over the past five days from Mtsensk to Tula, a distance of about 140 km, General Heinz Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army troops are on the outskirts of Tula as 30 October 1941 begins. Blasting through the muddy Rasputitsa weather, the panzers' advance was reminiscent of the heady days of the Blitzkrieg in France, befitting Guderian's "Fast Heinz" nickname. Oberst (Colonel) Heinrich Eberbach uses the entire armored strength of the 2nd Panzer Army to blow through all opposition. As planned, after a good night's rest, Eberbach instructs his Kampfgruppe Eberbach, the reinforced 5th Panzer Brigade in XXIV Panzer Corps (General Geyr von Schweppenburg) to attack the city's defenders at 05:30. The goal is to quickly overcome Tula's ragtag defenders and continue north to Moscow.

A Soviet ZiS-30 tank destroyer based on the T-20 tractor. The main gun is a 57mm ZiS-2. It was knocked out in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow in October 1941.

Tula is an important center of armaments production and controls the highway north to Moscow, a straight run 184 km to the north. However, it's only real value on 30 October is as an obstacle to General Guderian's continued advance to the north. Key objectives in Tula include the Tula Arms Plant and the Klokovo airbase. The 2nd Panzer Army's quick advance from Mtsensk has caught the Red Army by surprise, so it is only defended by a few regular army units of 50th Army, commanded by Maj. Gen. Arkadii Nikolaevich Ermakov, and a 1500-man local volunteer battalion (the Tula's Worker's Regiment). Early on 30 October, the headquarters of the reconstituted 260th Rifle Division (Colonel N.V. Revyakin), arrives at Tula along with units of the 732nd Air Defense Regiment (Major M.T. Bondarenko). The entire commander is under General Vasilii Stepanovich Popov.

German infantry marching past a burning house in Russia, October 1941 (Federal Archive Bild 146-1989-030-27).

While the Tula Defense Zone has been hurriedly assembled, the defenders are amply equipped with anti-aircraft artillery. The recently formed Tula Defense Committee under the command of First Secretary of the Party of the Tula District, V.G. Zhavoronkoy, and garrison commander Colonel Ivanov have mobilized all inhabitants between the ages of 17 and 50 to build entrenchments, antitank ditches, minefields, and strong points. However, this work has been in progress for barely a week.

A medium armored infantry support vehicle (Sd Kfz 251) driving by soldiers on a Russian road. October 1941. (Böhmer, Federal Archives Bild 101I-268-0178-08).

The German artillery begins firing at 05:30 in a cold autumn rain. Then, the panzers of the 3rd Panzer Division and the Infantry Regiment Grossdeutschland (Colonel Walter Hörnlein) begin to advance, supported by infantry. The attack hits the workers' area of Krasny Perekop and the battle soon degenerates into hand-to-hand combat. The panzers lose their effectiveness in the quarter's narrow streets and it falls to infantry to battle it out. The advantage seesaws throughout the day, with the defenders holding a defensive line in a park and behind cemetery walls while they await reinforcements.

A column of Panzer IV tanks in the Soviet Union, October 1941 (Böhmer, Federal Archive Bild 101I-268-0185-03A).

The problem for the Germans is that they have used all of their armor to make this push. Thus, they have nothing nearby left to bring forward as reinforcements. The Red Army, however, does. The Soviets push the Germans back at 15:30 when tanks from Colonel I. Yuschuka’s 32nd Tank Brigade arrive. A renewed German attack at 16:00 advances to the Vsekhsviatsky Cemetery, which is successfully defended by the workers' militia, and then to the Tula Weapons-Technical School. Due to a lack of progress, Eberbach is forced to end the attack at dusk. The Germans pull back and build defensive lines of their own.

Forcing a truck through the muddy Russian roads of the fall Rasputitsa, October 1941 (Böhmer, Federal Archive Bild 101I-268-0176-34).

The Tula attack is very costly for both sides but is a clear Red Army defensive victory. The Soviets claim to knock out about 30 Wehrmacht panzers, with both sides losing hundreds of men. The Soviets continue to reinforce Tula throughout the night, with their tank strength growing to seven T-34s, five heavy KV-Is, and 22 older T-60s. The Soviets also bring up Katyusha rocket launchers and the 413th Rifle Division (Major Gen. Aleksei Dmitrievich Tereshkova). The Germans never again seriously challenge Soviet control of Tula. Tula is named a Hero City by the Soviet government in 1976 due to the stand made on 30 October 1941.

Construction upon Public School Stadium (now known as Robertson Stadium) in Houston on the present-day campus of the University of Houston (Elwood M. Payne of Peralta Studios (photography), Harry D. Payne (architecture), Fretz Construction Company (construction)).

American Homefront: Famed aviator Charles Lindbergh addresses 20,000 people at an America First rally in Madison Square Garden. Lindbergh continues his familiar refrain, claiming that President Roosevelt is using "dictatorship and subterfuge" to draw the United States into the "European War." The isolationist position continues to attract a large segment of the US population which not only wants to remain at peace but also wants the draft to end.


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

Wednesday 29 October 1941

A Luftwaffe Junkers Ju 52/3m W.Nr. unknown "4V+AP", Uffz. Hans Hellhake, 6./KGr.zbV. 106, Smolensk, 29 October 1941. Note the mud from the fall Rasputitsa, which also is clogging the roads.

Eastern Front: General Guderian's recent decision to combine all of his remaining panzers from the 2nd Panzer Army into one brigade, Kampfgruppe Eberbach, pays off on 29 October 1941 when the brigade reaches Tula after a speedy advance. Starting off from Mtsensk just a few days ago, the brigade has covered the 140 km in lightning speed for slow-moving armored vehicles. Oberst (Colonel) Heinrich Eberbach, commander of the 5th Panzer Brigade within 4th Panzer Division, sends a scouting party to Tula itself to see if it can be taken by a coup de main, but it is beaten off by Soviet anti-aircraft gunners firing over open sights. Tula is defended only by scratch forces of a few regular units and some local volunteer battalions, but they are committed to the defense of the town. Soviet reinforcements are arriving since the Kremlin is beginning to grasp the importance of this new danger from a different direction. After this classic Blitzkrieg advance, Colonel Eberbach camps for the night outside of Tula and prepares a set-piece assault in the morning.

"Rear Admiral Kharlamov leading members of the Military Mission off HM Submarine TIGNES which they inspected. HMS TIGNES had just returned from Russian waters." This is a visit by the Russian Naval Mission to Great Britain on 29 October 1941, during which they also inspected Home Fleet submarine depot ship HMS Titania.. © IWM (A 6140).

The other major movement of the day is in the Crimea. General von Manstein's 11th Army spreads out through the peninsula. The standard defense of the Crimea once the "bottleneck" at Perekop is breached is to defend the port of Sevastopol in the southwest and the Kerch Peninsula in the east. Both are important to the Germans, because they want the port of Sevastopol for supply purposes and because it is a major naval base for the Soviet Black Sea Fleet, while the Kerch Peninsula is a bridge (over the intervening strait) to the oil-rich Caucasus. The Kremlin places the entire Crimea under a state of siege, meaning that Lavrentiy Beria's NKVD can use whatever methods it feels appropriate - and the NKVD has some pretty extreme methods.

"HM Submarine P38 leaving harbor with members of the Russian Mission on board for a practice dive." This is during the Russian Naval Mission's 29 October 1941 visit to the Home Fleet, including a visit to fleet submarine depot ship HMS Titania. © IWM (A 6141).

A bit further north, the Soviet 12th Army launches fierce counterattacks against Italian troops defending Stalino that are beaten off with great difficulty. Far to the north, around Leningrad, the Soviets call off counterattacks that have accomplished nothing. The weather in the Army Group North sector has turned sour, as indicated by a report around this time from 8th Panzer division on the Tikhvin front:

Due to the actions of previous weeks, especially of the last few days, the combat troops’ health has turned considerably unfavorable. The troops show they are not ready for the conditions of future fast marches due to the weight of the equipment they must carry. Foot disease and respiratory problems are numerous.

The Wehrmacht never prepared for operations this late in the year, thinking that Operation Barbarossa would conclude before the winter. The OKW chooses not to react by halting operations and sending winter supplies because it fears losing the initiative and feels an admission that operations must continue through the winter would be bad for morale. Still, the German advance on Tikhvin continues despite the increasingly unfavorable weather conditions.

A camouflaged Soviet KV-1 tank during the Battle of Moscow. A standard ambush tactic during World War II was to post a hidden tank or several tanks in the woods near a roadway, then open fire as an enemy column was passing. Aside from the damage caused, on narrow roadways in forests, the destroyed enemy vehicles could block the road for some time, holding up the enemy's advance. Of course, this was usually quite hazardous for a tank's crew. October 1941.

Holocaust: Defying President Roosevelt's warning of 25 October 1941 about the massacres being perpetrated on the Eastern Front, another takes place on 29 October 1941. This is the Kaunas Massacre. There has been a continuing pogrom at Kaunas, Lithuania ever since the Wehrmacht occupied the city, but today it reaches a climax. SS-Standartenführer Karl Jäger and SS-Rottenführer Helmut Rauca order SS-Obersturmführer Joachim Hamann to use men from Einsatzkommando 3 to perpetrate a massacre at the Ninth Fort. This is done in the standard fashion of digging pits and then having the victims stand on the edges so that they will fall in once they are shot. Hamann has SS-Rottenführer Helmut Rauca of the Kaunas Gestapo assemble the Kaunas Ghetto's inhabitants in the community's central square late on the 28th, and from them, Rauca selects about one-third of the group. This group of about 9200 Jewish inhabitants (2007 men, 2920 women, 4273 children) is taken out to the Ninth Fort on 29 October and murdered.

Winston Churchill gives his inspirational speech at The Harrow School, 29 October 1941.

England Homefront: As he likes to do, Winston Churchill visits his old school, the Harrow School in London, to give a speech. This turns into one of Churchill's more memorable orations, almost a battle cry, and becomes known as the "Never Give In" speech. As he memorably puts it, "Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy." It is a hopeful speech, reflecting on improvements in the war situation over the past year since the end of the Battle of Britain, full of determination and spirit.

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

Monday 27 October 1941

A Scharfschütze (sniper) team in action, October 1941. It is unclear if the propaganda photographer realized that they were using a captured Soviet Mosin-Nagant PU rifle. Both sides had outstanding snipers, and this was a virtual war-within-a-war. Some snipers preferred to work alone because that enabled them to get closer to the enemy in concealment, but a two-man team was standard.

Eastern Front: While much of the Eastern Front is bogged down by the annual fall Rasputitsa, or muddy season, on 27 October 1941 it has not yet reached its full level in the southernmost sectors. General Erich von Manstein's 11th Army busts into the Crimea after a long struggle against fierce Red Army resistance in the Perekop Isthmus. The Soviet 51st Army retreats in the fog and mud toward the bastion of Sevastopol in the southwest, and to the Kerch Peninsula in the east. Pretty much everyone expects a fairly quick German victory and occupation.

Bellows Field (Bellows  Air Force Station) in Waimanalo, Hawaii on 27 October 1941. The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks Bellows Field in addition to Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, though the Bellows Field attack receives little attention.

The Crimea is one of the foundations of von Manstein's reputation - it is the reason he becomes a field marshal. However, in the grand scheme of World War II, the Crimea is a sideshow. It is useful to capture the Soviet naval base at Sevastopol, but the Soviet Black Sea fleet is never much of a hindrance to German operations. Hitler, however, is fixated on the Crimea - as he tells Finnish Marshal Mannerheim in June 1942, worries about Soviet bombers operating from the Crimea against the Romanian oil fields were one of the reasons he invaded the USSR in the first place. So, while objectively it might make more sense to simply seal off the Crimea and instead focus on the drive into the Caucasus, where success would effectively surround the Crimea anyway, its capture and retention lead to a major campaign. This ultimately is profitless and strategically pointless but occupies some of the best Wehrmacht minds and troops throughout the war.

USS Solace (AH-5) at anchor in Hawaiian waters after her arrival there on 27 October 1941. The hospital ship is present at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 and saves many lives.

Elsewhere, the Germans make some small gains. Just to the north of the Crimea, the Soviet 12th Army of Soviet Southwest Front continues withdrawing gradually and exposes more cities for the Germans to capture. German Sixth Army, for instance, takes Kramatorsk in the Donetsk Oblast north of Stalino when the city surrenders without a fight. Italian troops are involved in the Wehrmacht's occupation of the industrial Donets Basin, and the OKW issues a communique about their efforts:

In the Donets Basin, an attempt to retard our advance was prevented by Italian troops. The enemy was thrown back with heavy and bloody losses and left several hundred prisoners in the hands of our allies

The Soviet defenders in the southern sector are outmatched at this stage. However, their retreat is orderly and efficient, preventing outright breakthroughs and forcing the Germans to advance at a measured pace.

"Photo #: 80-G-6678 Douglas SBD-2 Dauntless scout bombers, of Scouting Squadron Six (VS-6) Composite photograph of 9 planes in flight, with USS Enterprise (CV-6) and a plane guard destroyer below. The original photo is dated 27 October 1941. Note differences in ocean surface wave patterns between the upper and lower images skillfully blended to combine the two photographs. Official U.S. Navy Photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives." (Navy History and Heritage Command).

Further north, the German attack on Moscow, Operation Typhoon, is mostly shut down pending an improvement in the weather but does make some gains in some places. On the extreme southern axis of the advance, General Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army continues up the road from Mtsensk toward Moscow, with the main forces of Kampfgruppe Eberbach at Plavsk south of Tula. On the northwest axis of the advance, the 4th Panzer Army makes progress at Volokolamsk, where it has been stalled for two weeks. At Mozhaysk, the 4th Army stops dead and is allowed by Army Group Center commander Field Marshal Fedor von Bock to dig trenches - when it is supposed to be attacking. The Wehrmacht is on the outskirts of Moscow and in a good position to attack the city, but past battles have worn it down so much that it cannot make significant progress until conditions improve.

Viktor Talalikhin, Hero of the Soviet Union, was most famous for ramming a Luftwaffe Heinkel He 111 bomber with his I-16 at night in August 1941, causing both planes to crash. On 27 October 1941, Talalikhin is attacked in his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 near the village of Kamenka by a swarm of Bf-109 fighters. Talalikhin shoots down two of the fighters before being shot down in turn. Talalikhin is a permanent name on the muster list of the 1st Squadron of the 177th Fighter Aviation Regiment, with monuments to him in Moscow and Podolsk. KIA 27 October 1941 (colorized).

The Soviets defending Tikhvin, north of Moscow, are now under the command of General Fedyuninsky, and he makes an immediate impact. He orders three Red Army divisions to attack advance elements of General Harpe's 12th Panzer Division at the village of Sitomlia about 40 km northeast of Budogsh' (Budogoshch). While Harpe's small unit is wildly outgunned, its commander decides to fight and goes into a defensive crouch while calling for reinforcements. The Red Army units attack piecemeal, like the bad guys in a karate flick who attack the hero only one at a time. Harpe is able to shift his men around just enough to hold the attackers off until help arrives. General Rudolf Schmidt, commander of 39th Army Corps and the man in charge of this portion of the advance, quickly sends the 8th Panzer and 18th Motorized Divisions to rescue the trapped men, which is accomplished by nightfall. The 12th Panzer reconnaissance team winds up doing its job - identifying the enemy units - but not quite in the way it had planned.

The original caption reads (and these may offend readers, but this is what it says): "To make room for construction in the Poznan suburb of Wallischei, a number of houses must be demolished. For this work, columns of Polish Jews are used, who get to know manual labor for the first time in their lives." (Schwahn, Ernst, Federal Archive Picture 183-2006-0320-500).

US/German Relations: President Roosevelt, who on the 25th issued a strong statement condemning Wehrmacht atrocities on the Eastern Front, on 27 October 1941 continues his rhetorical onslaught. During a Navy Day speech (Roosevelt is a former Secretary of the Navy), Roosevelt says in part about recent U-boat attacks at sea:

I say that we do not propose to take this lying down. Our determination not to take it lying down has been expressed in the orders to the American Navy to shoot on sight. Those orders stand... [W]hen we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism we shall help to establish a new peace which will give to decent people everywhere a better chance to live and prosper in security and in freedom and in faith. Each day that passes we are producing and providing more and more arms for the men who are fighting on actual battle-fronts. That is our primary task.

In reference to the recent U-boat torpedoing of destroyer USS Kearny, FDR adds, "Hitler’s torpedo was directed at every American….was to frighten the American people off the high seas - to force us to make a trembling retreat." This, he claims, has "aroused" the "American spirit" because "America has been attacked." However, despite this "attack," Roosevelt is not yet ready to declare war on the Reich.

Life Magazine of 27 October 1941, "Air-Raid Spotter."

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

Friday 24 October 1941

German armored vehicles of Sixth Army roll into Kharkiv ca. 24 October 1941.

Eastern Front: Operation Typhoon, the final German advance on Moscow, has been more or less successful as of 24 October 1941. The Germans have pierced the outer Soviet defensive ring around the Soviet capital in a couple of places and continue putting pressure on the city's defenses. However, Red Army resistance has been fanatical in places, particularly to the south of the city. There, General Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army has been stuck at Mtsensk, over 300 km from the city. While this is not an outlandishly far distance to drive, it is twice as far as the German forces advancing on the west and northwest axes. This is a major problem for Operation Typhoon because Guderian's force has been the leading edge of Army Group Center throughout Operation Barbarossa. Today, Guderian makes a dramatic change that produces immediate results.

The German 57th Infantry Division advances into Kharkiv ca. 24 October 1941.

The problem for Guderian is similar to the one facing the entire Wehrmacht, and that is heavy losses during four months of ferocious combat. For Guderian, the problem has been magnified because his panzers have led the way for the entire Wehrmacht, always at the forefront of the fighting. Guderian's command was the one diverted to the south in order to complete the encirclement of Kyiv. That was a dramatic victory, bagging over 600,000 Soviet prisoners with many more killed and wounded. In most wars, that would have ended matters - but not in the Soviet Union. All of the endless combat has whittled Guderian's panzer force to a mere shadow of what it was in June. Whereas each of Guderian's panzer divisions had a starting establishment of over 300 tanks, now his entire force of "runners" is under 100. An additional problem is that Guderian's Panzer III and Panzer IV tanks are outclassed by the Soviet T-34 and KV tanks that are suddenly appearing in large numbers. This has led to dramatic losses due to the panzers' inadequate armor.

Germans advancing into burning Kharkiv, 1941.

On 24 October 1941, Guderian adds a novel twist to standard German Army (Heer) doctrine of concentration of forces in order to blast through the Soviet defenses at Mtsensk. He takes the remaining panzers from all of his divisions and concentrates them into a single brigade (Kampfgruppe Eberbach) under the command of under Colonel Heinrich Eberbach (commander of 4th Panzer Division of XXIV Panzer Corps). This massive concentration of force smashes through the bewildered Soviet defenders and advances 18 miles to Chern' in one giant leap. While still far from Moscow, the Germans regain the initiative and force the Soviets to defend against this new threat from a direction they thought was under control. If the Heer is to have any chance of taking Moscow in 1941, Guderian's panzers have to make that happen. However, with Guderian's dwindling forces, this is the last throw of the dice - so it has to succeed or the entire invasion may fail to reach its major objective. It is a desperate drive using everything that remains, and it can only succeed if Soviet defenses finally are crumbling on the fringes of Moscow.

A captured Soviet hangar with gliders at Petrozavodsk (western shore of Lake Onega), 24 October 1941 (SA-Kuva).

Elsewhere, the Germans also have renewed momentum. With the Bryansk pocket eliminated, the German 9th Army is free to support the 3rd Panzer Army at Kalinin (Tver). Much further south, the 1st Panzer Army makes good progress through the industrial Donbas region, while the 57th Infantry Division of 6th Army (von Reichenau) marches into Kharkiv after it is abandoned by Soviet 38th Army. This is a major achievement, but the Soviets have evacuated or destroyed all of the industrial equipment there. This was accomplished using 320 trains carrying the equipment from 70 factories. Kharkiv remains an important conquest and becomes the most heavily fought over city in the Soviet Union, but already it has been rendered mostly useless by the retreating Soviets.

"Boys onboard HMS DUKE OF YORK astride one of the big guns give three cheers as the ship goes to sea." 24 October 1941 © IWM (A 6033).

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