Friday 14 November 1941

HMS Ark Royal sinks near Gibraltar on 14 November 1941 after being torpedoed by U-81 (Kptlt.  Friedrich Guggenberger) on 13 November (colorized).

Battle of the Mediterranean: Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, torpedoed by U-81 (Friedrich Guggenberger) on the 13th, rolls over and sinks on 14 November 1941. The location is pinpointed in 2002 as being 30 nautical miles east of Gibraltar. Guggenberger is in a position to sink the Ark Royal due to intelligence reports from the U-boat command in Paris. The Captain of the Ark Royal, Loben Maund, will be court-martialled in February 1942 for negligence. He will be found guilty on two counts of negligence: one of failing to ensure that properly constituted damage control parties had remained on board after the general evacuation, and one of failing to ensure the ship was in a sufficient state of readiness to deal with possible damage. Only one man out of the 1488 crewmen on board loses his life due to the lengthy time it takes the ship to sink.

Eastern Front: There are many oft-overlooked truths in a military campaign, and perhaps the most significant truth is the importance of supplies. As Napoleon famously said:

An army marches on its stomach. To be effective, an army relies on good and plentiful food.

There are many correlations between Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia and Hitler's 1941 invasion. The influence and effects of supply problems may be the biggest of them all. The difficulty in this subject is that logistical issues are not "sexy." They usually become sterile discussions of production and transportation that are important in the background to battles and campaigns but function well enough to never be noticed. It is much more gripping to talk about bombing raids or tank raids or surrenders, when, in fact, all of those moments of glory are determined in the final analysis by logistics. In late 1941, however, logistics take center stage in Russia.

A German truck stuck in the mud outside Moscow, November 1941 (Britting, Federal Archive Fig. 183-B15500).

Put bluntly, the German supply network in the Soviet Union is beginning to break down by 14 November 1941. At the Orsha Conference on 13 November, where future German strategy is discussed, these supply difficulties were discussed with chiefs of staff from the army groups and a number of individual armies. These problems are not being resolved and in fact, are getting worse as each day passes. Thus, the continuation of Operation Typhoon into the winter ordered at the Orsha Conference appears almost to be a desperate attempt to achieve victory before the supply chain degrades to a point where the armies are being literally and figuratively starved. Having better and more plentiful weapons is useless if those weapons receive no ammunition, and having more effective soldiers is of no benefit if they do not have enough to eat or proper clothing in which to stay warm during sub-zero temperatures.

"25-pdr field guns of 408th Battery, 146th Field Regiment, Royal Artillery, at Littlehampton in Sussex, 14 November 1941." (© IWM (H 15593)).

Today, General Franz Halder, who administered the Orsha Conference, amplifies in his war diary on the supply issues discussed at the Orsha Conference. He writes that Quartermaster-General Eduard Wagner rather dire description of the supply situation was no exaggeration. Halder writes that Wagner discusses with him:

Organizational consequences of the truck situation (the Divs. now have only horse-drawn trains; truck columns pooled in Armies).

This suggests a growing triage situation of supply - divisions are being left to fend for themselves while the supplies that can be delivered are going straight from the railheads to the army headquarters. With frigid weather closing in, supplies such as gasoline and winter clothing and spare parts to replace those that freeze become critical.

"One of Singapore's 15-inch coast defense guns firing, 14 November 1941." © IWM (K 755).

The supply situation is not just affecting the Germans, but it is a false equivalence to say that the Red Army is facing the same issues as the Wehrmacht. The Soviets have a secure, intact supply network coming over railway systems that all converge on Moscow (one of the reasons that the Soviet capital always has been an important objective despite Hitler's long denials of that fact). The Germans, however, are trying to use railways that have been destroyed. The Soviet railway gauge is different than the German gauge, so trains from Berlin cannot just continue straight to the outskirts of Moscow. Instead, cargoes must be reloaded onto captured Soviet trains which can proceed only as far as the tracks have been repaired. Well, that is all well and good and can be accomplished with some slave labor, but the greater problem is that the Germans haven't captured enough Soviet trains and there aren't enough Soviet trainmen to run them. This requires transferring Germans from the German rail system to run the Soviet trains - and nobody wants to suddenly go run trains in a war zone in winter. The German army heads complain that the trains wind up being run by the "culls of the entire rail system." The bottom line is that the German Army is organized to run by trains, and train service is severely lacking in the conquered territories.

A German propaganda photo showing Junkers Ju-87 Stukas flying past and a Messerschmitt Br 108B "Taifun" (Typhoon) liaison aircraft on the ground to the left. Written on the back of the photo in German is the caption "Bombers return!" The Bf 108 later became known as the Nord 1000 Pingouin. The Bf 108 looks very much like the Bf 109 and often stands in for it in movies. However, only about 885 were built, compared to 33,984 Bf 109s (Berliner Verlag / Archive).

The  German supply issues in the East are causing insidious problems throughout the areas of the German occupation. It is not just the Wehrmacht soldiers who are suffering without sufficient winter clothing and other supplies. The Soviet POWs - literally millions of them - are getting almost nothing and they are serving as a sort of "canary in the coal mine" as to what awaits the Wehrmacht itself. Halder notes in his diary today after a stop at Molodeczno, Belarus on his way home from the Orsha Conference:

Typhus camp of Russian POWs (20,000) doomed to die. Several German doctors fatally ill. In other camps in the neighborhood no typhus, but every day many prisoners die from starvation. Ghastly picture, but relief appears impracticable at the momen.

Halder also stops at Kovno and gets a similar story there:

Colonel Just, Area Commander. Confirms earlier story of self-seeking policy of the civil administration and intrigues against the Army. Plight of POWs. Typhus in POW camps.

The desperate German drive on Moscow, where there would be plenty of ways to get through the winter, is beginning to take on the aspect of a fight for survival as much as one of conquest.

Christian theologian Reinhold Niebuhr (pictured) speaks at an American Friends of German Freedom dinner on 14 November 1941. Eleanor Roosevelt also speaks. The general idea presented at the dinner is that despite the course being pursued by Hitler, Germany should not be destroyed after the war.

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 22 October 1941

"Staff Sergeant-Major Twist of the ATS embraces and kisses her husband, Lance-Bombardier Twist during a special photo-shoot at Army Headquarters in Northern Ireland, 22 October 1941." © IWM (H 14922).

Eastern Front: Operation Typhoon, the German attack on Moscow, has been gaining ground in fits and starts against furious Soviet opposition. On 22 October 1941, the Wehrmacht experiences another day of success in some areas but problems in others. It is a very emotional day of highs and lows on both sides, with some good omens and bad ones. Overall, the German Army (Heer) improves its position, but the weather increasingly is becoming almost as big an obstacle as the Red Army.

"Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) women at a 3.7-inch anti-aircraft gun site at Wormwood Scrubs in London, 22 October 1941." © IWM (H 14878).

There are several German successes. One takes place at the village of Naro-Fominsk, one of the linchpins of Moscow's second line of defense only 43 miles from the city itself. The 2nd Battalion (Major Lübke) of the 479th Infantry Regiment of the 258th Infantry Division (Major General W. Hellmich) manages to create a wedge in the Soviet line at Naro-Fominsk on the main road into Moscow from the southwest. Just south of there, the 3rd Infantry Division (motorized, General der Artillerie Curt Jahn) also creates a 7-mile wedge in the Soviet line with a successful crossing of the Nara River by the 29th Motorized Infantry Regiment. They are supported by the 8th Motorized Infantry Regiment, which provides essential flank protection. Even further south, about 20 miles away, the 98th Infantry Division (Lieutenant General Erich Schröck) also crosses the Nara River. Schröck's men meet up with the 19th Panzer Division (Lieutenant General O. von Knoblesdorff) at Gorki, where they capture a road bridge.

"HMS KENT [cruiser] alongside the destroyer HMS PUNJABI during fuelling operations at sea," 22 October 1941. © IWM (A 7608).

So, the day goes well for the Germans on the southwest axis of the advance. However, the Red Army if far from defeated in the battle for Moscow and is fighting hard everywhere. At Mtensk, the German 4th Panzer Division of the XXIV Panzer Corps (General Geyr von Schweppenburg) of General Guderian's 2nd Panzer Army remains stuck fast. This is the most important axis of advance, along the main road coming from the south, because it offers the only prospect of actually surrounding the capital. The battle is wearing out the panzers, and Guderian's entire command is down to less than 100 tanks - when a single division at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa had over 300. Guderian begins the process of combining all of the panzers under his command into a single brigade in the 4th Panzer Division, a reflection of how significant his losses have been.

Sea Power magazine, Volume 1, Issue 1, October 1941. It features the article, "Japan's Navy - Bluff or Blitz?"

There are some troubling signs on the Soviet side, too. During its violent battle on the Nara, the 8th Motorized Infantry Regiment takes 1700 prisoners, including 52 officers. These turn out to mostly local Muscovite workers and workers militias drafted at the last minute along with some odds and ends from Ukraine. They seem happy to be captured, swearing at their political commissars and ripping their insignia off. Some shout "Voyna Kaputt" - "The War is Over!" - as they surrender. This is a welcome sign to the Germans, who throughout Operation Barbarossa have been looking for signs of disintegration in the Red Army.

Lord and Lady Newtown Butler with their daughter, 22 October 1941 (© National Portrait Gallery, London).

However, the ultimate decision on the day comes from the weather. The Rasputitsa (change of seasons) now is in full swing, and the Wehrmacht proves ill-suited to cope with endless fields of deep mud and swollen creeks. German trucks can get no traction, horses get trapped, and even the panzers have difficulty. German tanks are ideally suited to paved roads and hard fields, but their treads are not as wide as Soviet tank treads and thus they gain less traction. While the panzers are not stopped, they are slowed, and to a much greater degree than are the Soviet T-34 and KV tanks. Rather than fight the mud while also trying to fight the Red Army, Field Marshal Fedor von Bock pauses the advance until the temperature falls further and the mud freezes enough to provide some traction.

Sylvia at the refrigerator, 22 October 1941 / Alan Evans (CAROLINE SIMPSON LIBRARY & RESEARCH COLLECTION).

At Odessa far to the south, the Soviets gain some revenge for their loss of the city through a deadly means. As Soviet troops have done before at Kyiv and smaller towns, the retreating Soviet Coastal Army left behind some bombs which they can detonate by radio signal or are simply time-delayed. Today, several days after the Romanians entered the city and their suspicions have gone away, the Soviets detonate one at the Romanian Command Headquarters.

USS Stratford (AP-41), 22 October 1941. The Stratford was a converted small freighter and West Indies cruise ship (named Catherine) which first served the US Navy at Iceland, then in the Pacific as a troop transport and supply vessel.

The detonation at Odessa kills 67 men, including Romanian Major General Ion Glogojanu, 16 of his staff including 4 Kriegsmarine officers, 35 other soldiers, and nine civilians (some being used as interpreters). Romanian leader Ion Antonescu orders reprisals, announcing that 100 communist and Jewish hostages would be executed for every enlisted man killed by the explosion and 300 for each officer.

Odesa port facilities following the Soviet withdrawal.

The Romanians also do something that hints that even a victory over the Soviet Union will not satisfy their territorial desires. Antonescu denounces the 30 August 1940 Second Vienna Award, which gave Hungary territory in northern Transylvania claimed by Romania. Hitler's plan was for Romania to be satisfied by being given the Transnistria province in the Soviet Union that it really wanted. Today's action suggests that Romania's military success at Odessa has only whetted its appetite for territory. From this point forward, the Germans are as much concerned with keeping their Romanian and Hungarian allies' troops separated as much as they are using them to fight the Red Army.

Hilde Krahl on the cover of Film Woche magazine, 22 October 1941. Krahl survived the war and continued her film career until the 1990s (after a four-year interruption after the conflict). Krahl passed away on 28 June 1999.

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 21 October 1941

Russian civilians carry their belongings from their burning homes, allegedly set on fire by retreating Soviet troops as part of a scorched-earth policy, in a Leningrad suburb on October 21, 1941. The German propaganda service had a standing policy of releasing these types of photos to American journalists in Lisbon (AP Photo).

Eastern Front: The weather in northern and central Russia has been deteriorating for two weeks as of 21 October 1941, with intermittent snow and rain as the temperature hovers around freezing. The snow has not been sticking, but as it melts, it has been exacerbating a problem with German transportation that was only a nuisance during the summer.

German light armored observation car (Sd.Kfz. 253) caught by rising waters, October 1941 (Utrecht, Fred Erich, Federal Archive Bild 101I-268-0157-17A).

The dirt roads were manageable during the summer and fall, even if uncomfortably dusty, but all of the water both from precipitation on the roads and runoff from surrounding areas into low-lying routes now is becoming a real problem. This is the "Rasputitsa," the muddy season that occurs every spring and fall during the change of seasons. The weather always is a very important factor in the campaign on the Eastern Front, helping both sides at times but favoring the Soviets when it counts the most.

Gertrud Scholtz-Klink at the opening of an exhibit about the work of German women in Luxembourg on 21 October 1941. Frau Scholtz-Klink was head of all Third Reich women's organizations such as the BDM. She was an unrepentant supporter of Hitler until her death on 24 March 1999. Ever wonder where Colonel Klink from Hogan's Heroes got his name from? Nobody is sure, but this was the most highly placed official in the Third Reich with that name.

The Soviets are used to the Rasputitsa, of course, but it is a new and unexpected phenomenon for German soldiers who have never before had the slightest interest in Russia. The deep mud slows the German supply trucks to a halt. The truck drivers attempt to go around the puddles and streams flowing across the roads, but they just extend the ruts further out until areas 50 meters across in places become impassable quagmires. Even horses get stuck, and men marching through the muddy stretches sometimes lose their boots. It is not as if the weather only affects the Wehrmacht, but the Russians have two advantages: their equipment is adapted to the conditions, and they are only attempting to hold their ground for the moment. On days like this, little happens, which may be confusing when other days show major German gains, but the impact of the weather cannot be denied during World War II.

"Emergency rescue kits supplied by the Merchant Navy Comforts Service arriving onboard HMS DEPTFORD." 21 October 1941. The Wehrmacht troops on the Eastern Front certainly wouldn't mind having this warm clothing delivered to them right about now, but German officials are of the opinion that supplying it would be bad for morale © IWM (A 6188).

Of course, the weather does not stop everything, especially in the south where the Rasputitsa is not as dramatic and hits a little later. General von Manstein's 11th Army continues advancing deep into the Perekop Isthmus in the entrance to the Crimea, and units of Sixth Army approach within seven miles of the key industrial city of Kharkiv. The Soviets in Kharkiv are busy also, finishing the loading of the Kramatorsk heavy-machine factory equipment onto railcars for a hurried move to the Urals. The factory workers are not as valuable as the equipment, so they must walk the first 20 miles to another train station. However, as good Communists, they are only too happy to do what comrade Stalin wants.

"A Fairey Seafox being catapulted from HMS CANTON in the Atlantic." 21 October 1941 © IWM (A 6653).

Stalin, meanwhile, has been watching the Wehrmacht approaching Moscow from three different directions - northwest, west, and southwest - with growing alarm. In moments of crisis, Stalin always turns to a trusted handful of men who may not be infallible, but at least remain completely loyal through thick and thin. Today, he elevates General Georgy Zhukov, his most competent officer, from command of the West Front to command of all military forces in the Moscow defensive area. It is not so much that Zhukov is the world's most brilliant strategist or tactician that makes him effective as it is that he has Stalin's complete confidence. This gives Zhukov more discretion to "assume" what Stalin wants than any other officer - though, of course, this has its limits as well. As Zhukov later puts it, there is as much distance between him and Stalin as there is between a field marshal and the lowliest private. A somewhat similar to the situation that later develops in the Wehrmacht between Hitler and Field Marshals von Manstein and Model, but Zhukov's relationship with Stalin is unique.

A Wehrmacht soldier testifying to a military tribunal in France regarding an attack on a German soldier by three Frenchmen, 18 October 1941 (Trautvetter, Federal Archive Picture 146-2007-0126).

However limited his real authority may be, Zhukov's relationship of confidence with Stalin gives him more call on the Soviet Union's abundant resources and more latitude to take chances with strategy than any other general. The problem for Stalin, though, is that there are multiple military problems to solve - at Leningrad, on the Volkhov River north of Moscow, in the Crimea, at Kharkiv, and at Rostov-on-Don - and there is only one Zhukov. Stalin keeping Zhukov at Moscow when there are so many other critical places in peril is perhaps the ultimate vindication of the many German generals who urged Hitler to focus on the Soviet capital throughout 1941.

German soldiers have Roma children shine their boots before shooting them together with about 2300 other hostages in Kragujevac, Serbia on 21 October 1941 (this was the figure reported to his superiors by General der Pioniere (Lieutenant General) Walter Kuntze). These were reprisals for an attack by Serbian partisans on 15-16 October at Kraljevo (10 km south of Belgrade) in which 10 German soldiers were killed and 14 wounded. The commander of the 717th Infantry Division, Generalmajor (Brigadier General) Paul Hoffman, personally supervised the killings. As happened now and then, including a more famous incident on Crete, one German soldier was shot for refusing to participate in the killings.

US/Japanese Relations: With General Tojo now the Japanese Prime Minister, everyone with a basic understanding of Japanese politics realizes that the war party is in control in Tokyo. However, everyone also knows that the Emperor continues to desire peace. Accordingly, the Foreign Office sends out a very mixed message to Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura in Washington that contains an obvious hint of menace:

The new cabinet differs in no way from the former one in its sincere desire to adjust Japanese-United States relations on a fair basis. Our country has said practically all she can say in the way of expressing of opinions and setting forth our stands. We feel that we have now reached a point where no further positive action can be taken by us except to urge the United States to reconsider her views. We urge, therefore, that, choosing an opportune moment, either you or Wakasugi let it be known to the United States by indirection that our country is not in a position to spend much more time discussing this matter. Please continue the talks, emphasizing our desire for a formal United States counter-proposal to our proposal of 25 September.

Nomura is also a member of the "peace faction' has been doing everything that he can to defuse a conflict. This has included numerous official and off-the-record meetings with top American officials such as U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull. While he may not convey the obvious threat implied in these instructions, the Americans are reading the Japanese diplomatic codes and certainly are in a position to get the message whether Nomura tells them or not.

EH.510/23, Luftpost (British propaganda leaflet), Nr. 23, 21. Oktober 1941 (Luftpost, No. 23, 21 October 1941) (Image/s source: www.psywar.org).

American Homefront: Two of the most iconic characters in comic book history debut on 21 October 1941. Wonder Woman appears in "All-Star Comics" issue #8 (cover date December 1941/January 1942), scripted by William Moulton Marston, a psychologist already famous for inventing the polygraph (lie detector). The Penguin (Oswald Chesterfield Cobblepot) from the Batman comic book series appears in "Detective Comics" issue #58 (cover date December) and is created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Both the Penguin and Wonder Woman eventually make their way into television series, motion pictures, and other media such as video games.

EH.510/23, Luftpost, Nr. 23, 21. Oktober 1941 (Luftpost, No. 23, 21 October 1941) (Image/s source: www.psywar.org).

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 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