Wednesday 3 December 1941

German soldiers who had captured a British Matilda tank and were using it to cross Allied lines are captured by New Zealand troops on 3 December 1941. They have painted a Balkencreuz (straight-armed cross) and Swastika on the tank, which makes them prisoners - without the markings, they could be shot as spies.

Eastern Front: The waning German offensive against Moscow continues to show just enough indications that it is succeeding on 3 December 1941 for some generals to continue supporting it. However, doubts are growing daily. Today, Fourth Army commander Field Marshal Hans von Kluge, who is not known for challenging orders (he is known as "kluge Hans," or clever Hans, for his slippery demeanor), asks Field Marshal Fedor von Bock for permission to end the offensive. Bock himself also has doubts, but he tells von Kluge to wait a few days to see if things improve.

"HMS GLASGOW, while acting as escort to a convoy carrying troops, steamed close by and played her band for them." 3 December 1941. © IWM (A 6789).

The day's events on the battlefield, however, are not promising. The German 258th Infantry Division, which scored an unexpected breakthrough in recent days to the west of the Soviet capital, is surrounded and has to fight its way out to the west. To the northwest, at Yakhroma, Third Panzer Army is making no progress against the First Shock Army. South of Moscow, a blizzard hits during a German attack by the 3rd and 4th Panzer Divisions along with Grossdeutschland and the panzers manage to cut the Tula-Serpukhov-Moscow Highway and also sever the Tula-Moscow rail line near Revyakino. It is small advances like this that give the Wehrmacht some confidence that its decision to continue attacking is the right one - even though the gains are minor and isolated.

The Soviet transport "Josif Stalin," engaged in the evacuation of Hanko, Finland on 3 December 1941, has its bow blown off and sinks after running into the Corbetha minefield in the Gulf of Finland. While the men on board appear calm, most are about to die. About 4000 of the nearly 6000 men on board perish. Once you are in the icy water in your winter gear, you die quickly.

The retreat from Rostov-on-Don ordered by General Ewald von Kleist in the southern section of the front appears to have worked in preserving the German forces there. As OKH operations chief General Franz Halder notes in his war diary:

In Army Group South, enemy pressure only against our combat outposts on the southern wing; on other portions of the Front, the enemy is moving closer to the rearguards still forward of the new position [the Mius River line]. The enemy may still be preparing a major concentration of forces opposite the Italian Corps. Railroad movements, possibly troops, from Stalingrad.

If nothing else, this entry is interesting for its mention of Stalingrad. The retreat from Rostov that cost Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt his position as commander of the Army Group. One thing is for certain: the Red Army always has more troops to throw into the mix all along the front, and not just at Moscow.

Jawaharlal Nehru, shown here in prison, is released on 3 December 1941 from Dehradun Jail. He was jailed on 21 October 1940 by the British and sentenced to four years' "Rigorous Imprisonment" for anti-government activities.

Battle of the Mediterranean: The day begins with both sides believing that they have the upper hand on the very fluid fighting that has resulted from the British Operation Crusader. The British and New Zealand forces, for the most part, have been pushed back but not defeated. The Germans do, at least temporarily, retain the initiative. General Erwin Rommel has sent the Geissler Advance Guard and the Knabe Advanced Guard battalion groups to the southeast in order to reestablish contact with isolated German garrisons along the border. However, the 5th New Zealand Brigade stops the Geissler advance on the Bardi road near Monastir and sends it reeling, while the Knabe battalion advancing toward Capuzzo ends in a standoff with the Central India Horse reconnaissance regiment "Goldforce." Rommel is undeterred by these setbacks and orders a resumption of the Afrika Korps attack for 4 December.

The US Army Transport Monterey, A Matson liner. It is chartered on 3 December 1941 to transport troops to Manila, Philippine Islands. On this date, the Monterey is in San Francisco Harbor and being loaded with cargo for the trip. Note the anti-aircraft gun that has been added to the forecastle.

Spy Stuff: The Allied intelligence services are beginning to pick up hints that something big is afoot in the Pacific. The British in Manila, Philippines send a cable to their counterparts in Hawaii:

We have received considerable intelligence confirming following developments in Indo-China. A. 1. Accelerated Japanese preparations of air fields and railways. 2. Arrival since Nov. 10 of additional 100,000 repeat 100,000 troops and considerable quantities fighters, medium bombers, tanks and guns (75 mm). B. Estimate of specific quantities have already been telegraphed Washington Nov. 21 by American military intelligence here. C. Our considered opinion concludes that Japan envisages early hostilities with Britain and U.S. Japan does not repeat not intend to attack Russia at present but will act in South.

At Pearl Harbor, US Naval Intelligence services are asked to report on the location of major Japanese naval units but have no information on that - which itself should raise suspicions.

Aerial view of Wake Island taken on 3 December 1941. The Morrison-Knudsen construction company has had hundreds of men working on the atoll throughout 1941 to construct a camp for 1,221  Pacific Naval Air Base contract workmen. The official name for this installation is Naval Air Station, Peale Island. There currently is a small group of US Marines and 360 civilian workmen on the island. Camp Two is visible at the top center, to the right of the channel (US Air Force).

A US Army Air Force PBY Catalina on patrol off Cam Ranh Bay reports the addition of ten Japanese troop transport ships to the 20 already known to be there. President Roosevelt orders Admiral Hart to send US Navy yacht "Isabel" to the coast of French Indochina to investigate. Hart briefs the commander of the yacht, Lieutenant John Walker Payne, Jr., personally and assigns the ship to the Defensive Information Patrol before it sets sail late in the day.

A guard in front of the New Reich Chancellery, 3 December 1941 (Federal Archive Bild 183-R98169).

Anglo/US Relations: President Roosevelt meets with British Ambassador Lord Halifax and suggests that the United States will declare war on Japan if they attack British territory but not American outposts. There is nothing put in writing, however.

US/Turkish Relations: The covert battle between Axis and Allied governments to sway Turkey to join the war on one side or another continues. President Roosevelt announces that the United States will send Lend-Lease supplies to Turkey. Since these are free, there is no reason for Turkey to turn them down. Hitler, meanwhile, has been trying to entice Turkey into the war for many months in order to pave the way for a grand encirclement of the British Middle East Command based at Cairo.

Japanese Military: Kido Butai, the Japanese strike force that is currently in the mid-Pacific Ocean, resumes its journey east toward the Hawaiian Islands after refueling on 2 December. Its commander, Admiral Nagumo, now has standing orders to attack the US Naval Base at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941 local time. These orders will be carried out unless an order rescinding them is sent by Tokyo.

"HMS REPULSE steams down the line of a great convoy so that troops can get a close view of the battlecruiser." Repulse only arrived in Singapore on 2 December as part of Force Z along with the battleship Prince of Wales. This photo was taken on 3 December 1941 from one of the approaching merchantmen. © IWM (A 6791).

December 1941

December 1, 1941: Hitler Fires von Rundstedt
December 2, 1941: Climb Mount Niitaka
December 3, 1941: Hints of Trouble in the Pacific
December 4, 1941: Soviets Plan Counteroffensive
December 5, 1941: Soviets Counterattack at Kalinin
December 6, 1941: Soviet Counterattack at Moscow Broadens
December 7, 1941: Japan Attacks Pearl Harbor
December 8, 1941: US Enters World War II
December 9, 1941: German Retreat At Moscow
December 10, 1941: HMS Prince of Wales and Repulse Sunk
December 11, 1941: Hitler Declares War on the US
December 12, 1941: Japanese in Burma
December 13, 1941: Battle of Cape Bon
December 14, 1941: Hitler Forbids Withdrawals
December 15, 1941: The Liepaja Massacre
December 16, 1941: Japan Invades Borneo
December 17, 1941: US Military Shakeup
December 18, 1941: Hitler Lays Down the Law
December 19, 1941: Brauchitsch Goes Home
December 20, 1941: Flying Tigers in Action
December 21, 1941: The Bogdanovka Massacre
December 22, 1941: Major Japanese Landings North of Manila
December 23, 1941: Wake Island Falls to Japan
December 24, 1941: Atrocities in Hong Kong
December 25, 1941: Japan Takes Hong Kong
December 26, 1941: Soviets Land in the Crimea
December 27, 1941: Commandos Raid Norway
December 28, 1941: Operation Anthropoid Begins
December 29, 1941: Soviet Landings at Feodosia
December 30, 1941: Race for Bataan
December 31, 1941: Nimitz in Charge

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

Tuesday 4 November 1941

The Hunt Class destroyer HMS BROCKLESBY, passing a target towed by HMS ELLESMERE. 4 November 1941 (© IWM (A 6228)).

Eastern Front: The situation on the central and northern sectors of the Eastern Front on 4 November 1941 is fairly quiet. The mud of the Rasputitsa (change of seasons) has paralyzed most German advances, while the Soviets are calibrating their defenses around Moscow and Leningrad by shifting troops around. At Tula, the buildup by both sides continues, as the Wehrmacht sends elements of German 31st, 131st, and 296th Infantry Divisions forward while the Soviets send the 413th Siberian Rifle Division (Maj. Gen. Aleksei Dmitrievich Tereshkovo) south from Moscow by train. The Soviet forces defending Tikhvin north of Moscow launch another attack with the 60th Tank Division and the 4th Guards Rifle Division against General Harpe's 12th Panzer Division, but are repelled after heavy fighting.

A soldier using a Degtyaryov antitank rifle, November 1941 (Plenik, Bruno, Federal Archive Bild 101I-141-1273-24A).

In the southern end of the Eastern Front, though, the Rasputitsa has not hit as hard as in the north, so the Germans have a somewhat easier time advancing. In the Crimea, OKH Chief of Staff Franz Halder notes in his diary:

Eleventh Army continues its advance although the mountainous terrain around Sevastopol is affording the enemy greater opportunities for resistance.

While General von Manstein's 11th Army is finding that Sevastopol is going to be a hard nut to crack, further east the 170th Infantry Division expands the German hold on the Crimea by taking Feodosiya at the base of the Kerch peninsula. The Soviets have withdrawn in good order to a short line defending Kerch which leaves Sevastopol in the west completely isolated. However, both Red Army redoubts are well-garrisoned and easy to defend due to natural terrain features.

Test pilot Ralph Burwell Virden. On 4 November 1941, he perishes while testing the first Lockheed YP-38 Lightning, US Army Air Force serial 39-689. The plane breaks apart during a power dive as it approaches supersonic speeds and crashes in Glendale, California. The design overcomes its early issues and becomes the successful P-38 Lightning fighter with over 10,000 built (Los Angeles Times, 5 November 1941, page 1, column 6 and page 2, column 5).

Elsewhere in the Army Group South sector, the problem for the Germans is not so much the Soviets as the weather. The Soviets are retreating everywhere, which Halder sees as both an opportunity and a problem. The opportunity is obvious:

Despite the overwhelming difficulties of movement, we must find means to occupy the areas evacuated by the enemy.

The problems are a little more subtle:

Viewed as a whole, the situation is determined by railroad capacity and flow of supplies. There is no point in pushing operations onward before we have not, step by step, established a solid foundation for them. Failing to do that inevitably would bring fatal reverses down upon us.

These words would be well worth remembering in late 1942 when Soviet retreats will also create tempting opportunities.

General Auchinleck, Commander in Chief of the Middle East Forces, decorating Lieutenant Colonel Howard Karl Kippenberger with the Distinguished Service Order during a presentation of awards to members of a New Zealand brigade in the Western Desert. Taken at Baggush on 4 November 1941 by an official photographer.

In the far north, the Axis also accomplishes a major objective that has mixed longer-term implications. The Soviets have occupied the Finnish port of Hanko, given to them at the conclusion of the Winter War in early 1940, throughout the conflict to date. However, ultimately the position is untenable, so before dawn today the Soviets finally evacuate the small garrison. Soviet destroyers Smetlivy and Surovy carry the Soviet troops out before dawn, with Smetlivy being hit by Finnish coastal artillery that causes it to sink on the way back to Leningrad. Several hundred people perish. The Finns then occupy Hanko, solidifying Axis control of the eastern Baltic and achieving one of their war aims. Such successes, however, reduce the Finnish incentive to continue fighting because their entire reason to fight is to recover lost territory. Now that is it is recovered... why keep fighting?

Jacques Doriot at a meeting in Paris on 4 November 1941. Doriot is a former communist who became a fascist in the 1930s. He is a strong collaborator and a founder of the  Légion des Volontaires Français (LVF), a French unit of the Wehrmacht, with which Doriot fights in 1941 on the Eastern Front (Federal Archives 4 November 1941 Figure 183-M0706-502).

Of course, as the Germans can persuasively argue, the Finns aren't truly safe until the Soviet Union is defeated, but the Finns increasingly feel that this is solely a German responsibility. The Finns also are concerned about warnings from Great Britain and the United States about fighting Stalin. The bottom line is that as the Finns chalk up successes at places like Hanko, a sort of paralysis settles over their military effort. It is not that they stop fighting, as the Finns fight hard throughout the war. Rather, it is a growing desire for the war to just go away and for the men to go home. The Red Army, however, lurks just over the horizon and it has no intention of letting the Finns enjoy their conquests for long.

"A mechanic attaches the cable of a trolley-accumulator to a Hawker Hurricane Mark IIB of No. 81 Squadron RAF on the waterlogged airfield at Vanga, as a section of three Hurricanes flies overhead." Vanga, Russia, September/November 1941 © IWM (CR 38).

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

Monday 3 November 1941

"General Sir Archibald Wavell, C-in-C Far East, and Major General F K Simmons, GOC Singapore Fortress, inspecting soldiers of the 2nd Gordon Highlanders, Singapore, 3 November 1941." © IWM (FE 375).

Japanese Government: The leaders of the Japanese government, including Emperor Hirohito and top military commanders, attend a conference to discuss relations with the United States on 3 November 1941. With negotiations having broken down, the discussion is oriented toward how and where to attack, not whether to attack. The outcome of the conference is Top Secret Order No. 1, which directs that in 34 days time, the military forces of Imperial Japan are to attack the United States Fleet in Hawaii, the Philippines, Malaya, and the Dutch East Indies.

"A Matilda tank of 6th Armoured Division is put through its paces for members of a visiting delegation of journalists from the West Indies, Eastern Command, 3 November 1941." © IWM (H 15281).

The Japanese plan calls for the Japanese Combined Fleet to occupy Rabaul, Bismarck Islands, which is an Australian naval base per League of Nations mandate, and use it as a Japanese forward base. Admiral Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet, formally presents his operational plan for the attack on the United States fleet base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, and Chief of the Japanese Naval General Staff Admiral Osami Nagano approves the plan.

"HMS BARLOW, one of the Ships that controls the opening and closing of the Hoxa Gate, the main entrance to Scapa from the sea. The Boom can be seen running away to the background." 3 November 1941 © IWM (A 6383).

After the conference with the Emperor, Admiral Chūichi Nagumo, commander-in-chief of the First Air Fleet which comprises the Imperial Japanese Navy's main aircraft carrier force, goes to aircraft carrier Akagi and holds his own conference. He summons his main commanders and informs them of the decision to attack the United States and Great Britain bases, including US protectorate the Philippines, and other targets. This is the first that many commanders learn of the attack plan. Many of Nagumo's subordinates privately grumble that Nagumo, who is frail and elderly, is not the right man to lead the leading Japanese naval forces during such a crucial period.

HMS Kent at anchor at Scapa Flow, 3 November 1941. © IWM (A 6381).

United States Government: US Ambassador to Japan Joseph Grew, who of course is unaware of the secret Japanese conference, sends a lengthy secret telegram today to Secretary of State Cordell Hull. He warns that "the view that war probably would be averted... is an uncertain and dangerous hypothesis upon which to base considered United States policy and measures." He notes that "In Japan political thought ranges from the medieval to liberal ideas and public opinion is thus a variable quantity." He concludes:

[I]t would be shortsighted for American policy to be based upon the belief that Japanese preparations are no more than saber rattling, merely intended to give moral support to the high-pressure diplomacy of Japan. Japan may resort with dangerous and dramatic suddenness to measures which might make inevitable war with the United States.

Grew does not know it, but before he even sends this telegram, Japan already has committed to such a dangerous and dramatic path, which Grew further notes would be a "suicidal struggle with the United States."

A Schützenpanzer (Sd.Kfz. 250) and Sturmgeschütz III in Russia, November 1941.

Eastern Front: It is getting very cold in Russia, as General Heinz Guderian pointedly notes in his diary. Despite this, the ground in most places is still too muddy to enable regular truck even panzer traffic. At the juncture of Army Group's Center and South, German forces occupy Kursk - an event which would be much more celebrated in July 1943 than now, when it is little noticed. Guderian's own forces at Tula south of Moscow mount another effort to take the city by attacking a stadium and cemetery on the city's southern outskirts. The Soviet defenders, including a rare deployment of NKVD detachments sent by Lavrentiy Beria, repel the attack. This continues a lengthening stalemate south of Moscow as both sides bring forward reinforcements.

"U.S.A.'s West Point," Life magazine, 3 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