Bomb damage from an Allied raid of 5 November 1941 in Harlingen, the Netherlands (Collection of Griet De Jong).
US/Japanese Relations: The Japanese government has made its preparations for war by 5 November 1941. The plans have been drawn up, the difficulties such as developing torpedoes to accommodate the shallow waters of Pearl Harbor have been overcome, and the Emperor has signed off on the overall plan.
Fita Benkhoff in the 5 November 1941 Filmwoche magazine. Fita was a German actress who appeared in over 100 films from the 1930s until her death on 26 October 1941. It is alleged that Benkhoff was an example of a lesbian who carefully hid that status during the Third Reich.
Now that they are fully prepared, though, there is a moment of hesitation by the Japanese. Everyone realizes the enormity of what is about to transpire. The government holds an Imperial Conference in the morning. Emperor Hirohito is not warlike, so the government gives peace one last chance. The Foreign Office sends Saburo Kurusu, a well-traveled professional diplomat whose only moment of celebrity was signing the Tripartite Pact on Japan's behalf in Berlin on 27 September 1940, to Washington as a "special envoy."
New Zealand troops entering Libya from Egypt through the defensive wire, November 1941 (New Zealand History).
Kurusu will not have much time - the trip to the United States capital will take ten days, and the Japanese task forces will have to depart roughly a week later to get in position on time. The main issue of contention between the two powers is Japan's invasion of China. However, maybe he can accomplish something that Ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura cannot.
On the front page of the News-Palladium of Benton Harbor, MI of 5 November 1941, the war takes second place to a local trial. Note that it already has news of Special Envoy Kurusu "Racing to U.S. Capital."
The Japanese prepare two proposals for the Americans, to be handed to the United States Secretay of State Cordell Hull as soon as possible in sequence. In Proposal A, Japan promises to withdraw from China and French Indochina (Vietnam), which is what the Americans want. However, this depends upon Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek signing a peace treaty that would permit the Imperial Japanese forces to remain in parts of China indefinitely. In addition, the Japanese would agree to free trade principles which are important to the Americans, and basically cast aside its obligations under the Tripartite Pact. The Japanese are willing to abandon China... sort of.
Proposal B is intended as a last resort should the Americans reject Proposal A. It provides that Japan would immediately withdraw all troops from French Indochina and also negotiate a final peace treaty with China - as long as the United States did not interfere. Japan and the United States then together would acquire the Netherlands Indies (Indonesia) and the two nations thereafter would become trading partners and, presumably, allies.
"Die Wehrmacht," the official OKW publication, shows train cars full of Soviet POWs on the cover of its 5 November 1941 issue. As can be seen, the cars are open to the elements as winter sets in.
As Kurusu journeys to Washington, however, Japanese war preparations are to continue in secret. Today, Navy Chief of Staff Admiral Yamamoto distributes copies of Top-Secret Order No. 1 to all commanders of the Japanese Combined Fleet. This order that is drafted by both the Imperial Army and Navy sets forth the invasion plans that will cover the entire Pacific basin. It provides in part:
[A]nticipating that war with the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands will begin in the early part of December, for self-preservation and self-defense, the Empire has decided to complete the various preparations for war.
The order provides that the fleet is to get into attack positions. Submarines are to depart on 20 November and the Carrier Striking Force is to depart the next day for Hawaii.
The U.S. Navy light cruiser USS Honolulu (CL-48) operating off Hawaii on 5 November 1941, with her aircraft recovery mat draped over her stern. The ship is painted in dark Measure 1 camouflage, but her boats are still in peacetime light grey (National Archives, Navy History and Heritage Command).
While the Japanese carry their preparations out with extreme secrecy, the Americans are much more closely attuned to Japanese intentions than the Japanese know. They have been reading Japanese diplomatic ciphers for months in the "Magic" program but have done little with the information so received. United States Secretary of State Hull knows that something important is in the offing due to Japanese instructions to Ambassador Nomura that a resolution must be reached by 25 November. Hull drops a few broad hints to allies, and Congress decides to stay in session indefinitely rather than take its customary holiday breaks. The Magic team in Hawaii, led by Joseph Rochefort, begins detecting changes in Japanese naval communications, though they are not certain what to make of it. Rochefort also notes the recall of Japanese merchant ships. Two Japanese marine staff officers also leave Pearl Harbor. Various Americans, such as Ambassador Joseph Grew in Tokyo, are getting uneasy as they notice things start to change, but little out of the ordinary is done to prepare for war.
Operetta composer Paul Lincke with his daughter Gina Torsen, dressed as Mrs. Luna in his operetta "Frau Luna," as she gives him birthday wishes on 5 November 1941. Note the new Volkswagen behind the pair, which is a birthday gift that has been pulled on stage (Hoffmann, Federal Archive Fig. 183-B05557).
Soviet POWs captured during street fighting in Ukraine on their way to German camps, 3 September 1941 (Deutsches Bundesarchiv/AP Photo).
US/Japanese Relations: The Japanese have been pressing for a summit meeting between Prince Konoye and President Roosevelt for weeks in the hope that this could lead to better relations between the two powers. After much hesitation and deliberation, on 3 September 1941. the Americans finally tell the Japanese that President Roosevelt will not agree to such a meeting.
This decision effectively scuttles settlement talks. The Japanese hold an emergency liaison conference where it is decided that:
if by the early part of October there is still no prospect of being able to obtain our demands, we shall immediately decide to open hostilities against the United States, Great Britain, and the Netherlands.
The Japanese fleet already is planning a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor under the direction of Admiral Yamamoto. However, there are many moderates in both governments - almost all outside of the military - who continue to hold out hopes for a peaceful resolution in the Pacific.
In Germany, 16th Army Commander Colonel-General Ernst Busch (later a field marshal) inspects an anti-aircraft gun position on September 3, 1941 (Photo credit: Deutsches Bundesarchiv / AP Photo).
Eastern Front: In the Far North sector on 18 August 1941, German XX Mountain Corps launches a renewed offensive toward Murmansk. It makes no progress against fierce Soviet resistance.
Finnish 18th Division consolidates its newly won bridgehead across the Vuoksi River. The Finns remain on the move in the Karelian Isthmus but are blocked everywhere else. The Finnish troops are getting worn out, too, because, aside from the Soviet resistance, the terrain of forests and swamps and few towns make supply difficult and rest impossible. The Finns are building roads to carry artillery. The Germans are completing the transfer today of 169th Division in a 110-mile march in order to replace the Finnish 6th Division. The march is so long because it involves marching in a roundabout fashion to confuse any Soviet spies.
Colonel-General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, commander of Army of Norway, (Armeeoberkommando Norwegen, or AOK Norwegen), is not the most tactful of generals. He visits 36 Corps headquarters today and gets into an argument with General Hans Feige, implying that Feige's request for additional troops to continue the offensive is unnecessary. Due to Falkenhorst's pressure, the 6th Division is planning an offensive on the 19th in the Salla sector toward Lehtokangas and Nurmi Mountain. Feige points out that while his forces may have rough parity with the defending Soviet troops, they are receiving reinforcements while his troops are not - a fairly common situation across the entire Eastern Front.
KV-1 no. 864 at Krasnogvardeysk, a stop on the road from Kingisepp to Leningrad, 18 August 1941. Tank commander Kolobanov (Order of Lenin) and gunner Usov (Order of the Red Banner) park the KV-1 in a camouflaged position and await the German 8th Panzer Division coming from Kingisepp. They successfully ambush the German column on the 19th and knock out several tanks and other vehicles.
In the Army Group North sector, Kingisepp (Yamburg) on the Luga falls to the Germans. The Germans consolidate their hold on Narva. The Germans rebuff with difficulty Soviet attacks on Staraya Russa and Novgorod, the "bookends" on Lake Ilmen. Field Marshal von Leeb calls General Halder at OKH and, according to Halder's war diary, paints a "Very gloomy picture of the situation in X Corps" in the Staraya Russa area where "The last man has been thrown into the fighting" and "troops are exhausted."
In the Army Group Center sector, the Soviets have infiltrated small forces behind the army group's right flank in the Pripet Marshes. While not a serious threat, these small groups (roughly battalion size) disrupt rear areas that should be quiet and disrupt supplies. There are heavy Soviet attacks north of the main road to Moscow against the 161st Division.
In the Army Group South sector, SS officer Kurt "Panzer" Meyer turns a reconnaissance-in-force of the approaches to the town of Cherson (Kherson) into an all-out assault. He leads his small force down from the heights above the busy town and attempts a "coup de main." His small force takes the Soviet defenders by surprise by sneaking into town along a small road along the Dneipr rather than from the road from Nikolayev (i.e., from the west). The reconnaissance turns into an all-out battle for control of the heart of the city, with Soviet artillery from the east bank of the river forcing Meyer's men to dismount as infantry.
Troops of Romanian 2nd Frontier Guard Regiment on the march to Odessa, 18 August 1941.
The Romanian 4th Army continues attacking across the Odessa perimeter. Both sides are taking heavy casualties, and progress is slow. The Soviets have nowhere to run and know they will likely be shot if they somehow do make it back through German lines, so they stand and fight.
German Panzer Group 1 (von Kleist) establishes a bridgehead across the Dneiper at Zaporozhye (Zaporizhzhia). The Soviets dynamite the Dneipr Hydroelectric Station to swell the river, causing widespread death and destruction, but the Germans get across anyway. German 50th Division reaches the Black Sea Coast at Ochakov.
Lt. Max-Hellmuth Ostermann of 7./JG 54 shoots down two Russian I-16s over Leningrad.
The Red Air Force raids Berlin with five bombers. Today is the last of a series of small-scale Red Air Force raids against the Ploesti, Romania oil fields.
European Air Operations: During the day, the RAF sends 39 Blenheim bombers on a series of coastal sweeps over Holland and a Circus mission over Lille and Marquise. The pilots claim to sink two trawlers and to bomb Lille, for a cost of one Blenheim.
By prior arrangement between the RAF and Luftwaffe, the RAF successfully drops a spare prosthetic leg for captured RAF Wing Commander Douglas Bader while flying over St. Omer airfield. The Germans are somewhat nonplussed when the charitable gesture is followed by the RAF planes attacking the airfield.
After dark, RAF Bomber Command attacks Cologne and Duisburg. These cities both have been bombed recently so these can be considered follow-up raids.
The RAF puts 62 bombers (42 Hampdens, 17 Whitleys, and 3 Wellingtons) over Cologne. The RAF loses 5 Whitleys and a Wellington. The attack achieves little, with no casualties and only one casualty.
The RAF puts 41 Wellingtons over Duisburg, losing two planes. The weather is clear, so the attack on railway yards is a success.
There is a minor raid by 11 Whitleys and 7 Wellingtons to Dunkirk, and one training sortie over Europe, both without loss.
The Luftwaffe sends a few bombers across to raid the Tyneside and Teesside areas. These are pinprick raids that occasionally hit a populated building, tonight West Hartlepool suffers a tragedy when an ambulance depot is hit with 23 people killed and 45 injured. In addition, about 100 people are made homeless. In Norton, bombs hit a house on Benson Street, killing three people, while next door three others are killed.
David Bensusan-Butt, a civil servant in the War Cabinet Secretariat and an assistant of Lord Cherwell, chief scientific advisor to the Cabinet, submits his "Butt Report" on the accuracy of RAF bombing. The results are startling because they conclude that bombing accuracy is horrendous. Among the more prominent conclusions of the report:
Only one aircraft of three that claims to have attacked a target actually got within 5 miles (8 km).
Over Germany, the ratio is even worse, with only one in four bombers getting within five miles and one in ten over the industrial Ruhr river valley
Accuracy depends upon the amount of moonlight available, with accuracy rising to two in five when there is a full moon and falling to one in fifteen during a new moon.
The "Butt Report" does not even go far enough, as post-war studies show that 49% of RAF bombs fall in the open countryside. Butt's report also excludes all bombers that never reached the target due to mechanical reasons, weather, or enemy action.
Fortunately for the British, they have navigational aids such as GEE, Oboe, H2S, and other navigational aids in various stages of development. In fact, today RAF Bomber Command orders GEE (the codename for a long-range navigational aid) into production at Dynatron and Cossor.
Battle of the Baltic: Soviet destroyer Statnyi hits a mine and sinks in Moon Sound off Saaremaa (Oesel).
The Luftwaffe attacks Leningrad harbor and sinks 2170-ton Soviet freighter Axel Carl.
Freighter Longtaker under her former name Sessa (photo courtesy of Danish Maritime Museum, Elsinore, and Uboat .net).
Battle of the Atlantic: At 02:50, U-38 (KKpt. Heinrich Schuch), on its 11th patrol out of Lorient and operating with wolfpack Grönland, torpedoes and sinks 1700-ton Panamanian-flagged (but actually controlled by the United States) freighter Longtaker (previously Danish ship Sessa) midway between the southern tips of Greenland and Iceland (300 nautical miles or 560 km southwest of Iceland). The ship goes down in only one minute and most of the crew, 24 men, perish. After nineteen days at sea, US destroyer USS Lansdale picks up three surviving crew (the Danish first officer, a Swede, and a Portuguese crewman - two Portuguese and a Canadian perish while they await rescue) on 5 September. The ship's cargo holds supplies for the US garrison on Iceland. The Danish officer, Hendrik Bjerregaard, maintains a log that receives widespread publicity in the American media.
This is U-38's final victory of the war, though it does go on one more patrol for an even dozen. During its time in service, U-38 sinks 35 commercial ships of 188,967 tons and damages one ship of 3,670 tons.
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Quorn its a mine between Chatham and Harwich. Quorn makes it to Chatham for repairs completed on 13 September.
Convoy HG-71 departs from Gibraltar bound for Liverpool. A Luftwaffe Junkers Ju-88 spots convoy OG-71 shortly after it leaves port and radios in its position.
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Badsworth (Lt. Commander Michael S. Townsend) is commissioned and destroyer Mahratta is laid down.
Canadian minesweepers HMCS Fort William, Kenora, and Milltown are laid down in Port Arthur, Ontario.
Free Netherlands destroyer depot ship HNLMS Columbia (Commander Cornelis Hellingman) is commissioned.
Destroyer USS Badsworth is commissioned.
U-188 is laid down.
An Italian CANT Z506 flying boat shot down by RAF fighters off Tripoli. The photo is dated 18 August 1941. Note the crewman in the water near the wing. This appears to be damaged from an RAF attack made against the flying boat base in Syracuse Harbor on the 17th, with this a reconnaissance photo taken on the 18th - but that is only a guess.
Battle of the Mediterranean: The Royal Navy loses two submarines in one action today. It is a black day for the submarine force, and only two men from two submarines survive.
Royal Navy submarine HMS P-33 (Lt R. D. Whiteway-Wilkinson DSC), operating off Tripoli and with 32 crewmen, disappears on or around 18 August while attacking an Italian convoy. This is one of the unsolved disappearances of submarines that are common during World War II. An Italian Cant Z501 is flying overhead and sends a ship to look for survivors that the plane's crew see in the water, but it is unclear if it sees survivors of P-33 or another ship. It is assumed by some that P-33 is destroyed by a depth charge attack by an Italian torpedo boat either today or on 23 August, but there is no confirmation of that. Nobody survives.
Royal Navy submarine P-32 (Lt. D. A. B. Abdy)is operating near P-33 and surfaces while an Italian depth charge attack is underway nearby. It is very close to the entrance to Tripoli Harbor. Lieutenant Abdy attempts to run under a known minefield to get into a better firing position but surfaces too soon and P-32 hits a mine. This sends P-32 to the seafloor at a depth of 210 feet with the entire area forward of the control room flooded, killing 8 crew. Abdy manages to escape through the conning tower hatch along with Coxswain E. Kirk, but the rest of the crew in the engine room proves unable to use their escape hatch for some reason. This is likely because an iron bar may have been welded over the rear hatch (though this is not proven). The commander of the Italian ship that picks up Abdy and his mate agrees to stick around to await more survivors, but nobody else gets out. It one of the most dramatic escapes from a submarine during the entire war, as a depth of over 150 feet is considered fatal. A total of 30 men perish.
There are still thousands of Commonwealth troops hiding out on Crete. Royal Navy submarine Torbay (Lt. Comdr. Miers) enters Messara Bay and picks up 28 British and 12 Greek soldiers. Torbay stays in the area submerged on the seafloor and enters the bay again on the 19th, picking up an additional 92 men and returning them to Alexandria.
Royal Navy submarine Tetrarch fires torpedoes into Benghazi Harbor, damaging the port boom defense.
The RAF based on Malta bombs Tripoli with five Wellington bombers.
Royal Navy destroyers Jackal and Kingston make the nightly supply run from Alexandria to Tobruk and back without incident. The relief of Australian troops is in progress, with replacement Polish soldiers landed.
In order to slow down the Germans, the Red Army blows up the Dniproges Dam. There is a 120m x 10m hole in the Dnieper hydroelectric dam (Dniproges) at 16:00 on 18 August 1941, producing a monstrous wave that sweeps from Zaporizhia to Nikopol, killing local residents as well as soldiers from both sides.
Battle of the Black Sea: The Luftwaffe bombs and sinks Soviet submarine depot ship Boug at Cherson (Kherson).
The retreating Soviets scuttle freighter Volochaevka at Cherson.
Soviet auxiliary minesweeper T-503 is lost on this from unknown causes.
Propaganda: Joseph Goebbels calls President Roosevelt the "agent of international Jewry."
Finnish Ambassador Hjalmar Procope.
US/Finnish Relations: The Soviet Union uses US Secretary of State Sumner Welles as an intermediary to discuss peace terms with Finland. The Soviet proposal is to modify the Peace of Moscow of 1940, which ended the Winter War, to grant Finland some concessions. Finnish Ambassador Hjalmar Procope replies to Welles that the future of Finland depends upon what happens to the Soviet Union after the war, and requests a guarantee to Finland from the Western powers that they will protect Finland if Germany loses the war (which nobody expects at this point). Welles refuses to even consider such a guarantee. The peace feelers go no further.
US/Japanese Relations: At 16:00, Ambassador Grew meets with Foreign Minister Toyoda in Tokyo. Toyoda speaks for two and a half hours straight. He defends Japanese actions in the Pacific and denies that Japan is acting in concert with Germany and says its only objective is the settling of issues in China. For these reasons, a summit meeting between the leaders of the two powers should occur. Grew responds that the Japanese position has not responded adequately to President Roosevelt's concerns, but he will forward the Japanese request for a summit meeting to the US government with his personal support (which he does).
German/Finnish Relations: The Germans confer the Knight's Cross (Ritterkreuz) on Marshal Mannerheim.
An Italian Cant Z501, of the type that organized the rescue of the two survivors of P-32.
Anglo/US Relations: President Roosevelt's White House issues a statement announcing that the US will institute an air transport service from the United States to Africa via Brazil, thence to Egypt. A new aerial "ferry service" is to link up with this in order to deliver military planes to Egypt for the British. The statement reads in part:
The ferry system and the transport service provide direct and speedy delivery of aircraft from the ‘arsenal of democracy’ to a critical point in the front against aggression. The importance of this direct line of communications between our country and strategic outposts in Africa cannot be overestimated.
Pan American Airways, Inc. quietly on 24 July has formed three subsidiaries to conduct the operations:
Pan American Air Ferries, Inc.
Pan American Airways Co.
Pan American Airways-Africa, Ltd.
The ferry service is to take the military planes across the Atlantic to Africa, while the transport service is to return the pilots to the United States, with the third company handling administrative details. Pan Am and the US government already have signed agreements on 12 August to start the service. The British also sign agreements with Pan American Airways-Africa and Pan American Air Ferries - the transport company, the one that returns the pilots to the United States, is not their concern.
The ferry service supposedly derives from a request by Winston Churchill at the Atlantic Charter conference and a subsequent meeting between Roosevelt and Pan Am chairman Juan Trippe on or about 18 August 1941. However, as indicated by the earlier formation of the Pan Am corporations, the idea actually has been under consideration for some time and the conference itself is just a formality to finalize it.
US Military: The War Department asks the Coast Guard to help with national security by patrolling the sea lanes in Alaskan waters and keeping them open.
The US Marine Corps 1st Defense battalion arrives at Wake Island aboard US freighter Regulus (AK-14).
Japanese Military: The Imperial Japanese Navy requisitions 10,020-ton tanker Shinkoku Maru and puts it under the control of the Kure Naval District.
US Government: President Roosevelt signs into a law a modification of the 1940 Selective Service Act that extends the term of service of inductees from 12 to 30 months. The bill passed the House of Representatives by only one vote because there is widespread opposition throughout the country to any peacetime draft.
Congressman John Dingell of Michigan sends President Roosevelt a letter in which he proposes to take 10,000 Japanese-Americans in Hawaii as hostages for Japan's "good behavior." This is the earliest suggestion of incarcerating Japanese-Americans.
British Government: Following the Atlantic Conference in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland and a brief stop in Iceland, Prime Minister Churchill returns to Scapa Flow, Scotland aboard battleship HMS Prince of Wales.
Burma: The Japanese have heard about the American Volunteer Group (AVG, or "Flying Tigers") assembling at Kyedaw, Burma, so they send a reconnaissance plane overhead.
Holocaust: Following a widely discussed series of sermons in German churches condemning euthanasia, Hitler orders a halt - or, more accurately, a pause - in the program. About 50,000 mentally challenged and elderly people have been put to death under the program, including a relation of Hitler himself.
Hitler orders the deportation of what remains of Berlin's Jews to the East.
The concentration camp at Amersfoort, Netherlands, opens.
Brazilian Homefront: A Lockheed 18-10 Lodestar operated by Panair do Brasil crashes into Serra da Cantareira on approach to São Paulo at night. Five of nine passengers and one of four crew members survive the crash. Note that this is one day after Walt Disney and party arrives by air at Rio de Janeiro on a goodwill trip for the US government.
German Homefront: "Swing Kids" (Swingjugend) dancing has become an underground phenomenon in the Reich, and the government is not happy at this intrusion of what it considers a decadent foreign culture. The Swing Kids listen to American and British records, tend to have long hair, dispute authority, and mock military customs such as the Hitler Salute. In general, the police forces (led by Reinhard Heydrich) see this as a dangerous infusion of "anglophile tendencies" that cannot be tolerated.
Today, the police decide to end this scourge. They send men into the clubs, arrest over 300 Swing Kids, and institute various punishments against them. These punishments range from sending the kids back to school or to concentration camps. Some boys are sent to the youth camp at Moringen and girls to the women's camp at Ravensbruck. This incites further resistance by Swing Kids who aren't captured, of course, and they begin doing anti-government acts like handing out anti-fascist leaflets.
Electrola EC 6993/ORA 4198-2. The first recording of Lili Marlen, 2. August 1939, Electrola Studio, Berlin. This label is one of the different variants that appeared during the war. The oldest label shows that the original song title was first called Song of a young sentry. (Mediatus - Eigenes Werk (own work); Digital eingelesene Platte aus meiner Sammlung)
Yugoslavian Homefront: Radio Belgrade (Soldatensender Belgrad (Soldiers' Radio Belgrade)) plays a second-hand record collected by a lieutenant on leave in Vienna. It is "Lili Marleen" (aka "Lili Marlen," "Lilli Marlene," and "Lily Marlene," "Lili Marlène" and various other permutations) sung by Lale Andersen. The record was in the bargain bin after selling only 700 copies in its release in 1939. The station only has a few records to play, so it plays "Lili Marleen" over and over and over.
Joseph Goebbels hates the song and demands Radio Belgrade to stop playing it. However, Axis soldiers across the Mediterranean hear the song and love it, including General Erwin Rommel. He asks the station to continue playing the song. Goebbels, who is a friend of Rommel's, relents and allows the song to be played. The song becomes the sign-off tune of the station at 21:55 every night, and soldiers on both sides start to tune in at that moment to hear the song every night. It becomes the most famous song of the war and sells over a million copies.
Contrary to popular belief, the famous version of "Lil Marleen" is not by Marlene Dietrich, though she does record a version (retitled "Lili Marlene" in her honor) for the Morale Operations Branch of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in 1944.
Lale Andersen and her hit "Lili Marleen."
Dutch Homefront: The German occupation authorities suppress what remains of the Dutch government and impose a strict occupation government.
British Homefront: The newly organized National Fire Service - which combines numerous previously independent local fire departments into one seamless organization - comes into being under Sir Aylmer Firebrace, a former London fire chief. The 118,000 men in 1400 local fire brigades, with 180,000 auxiliaries and 60,000 women, are combined into 200 "divisions" and 37 "fire forces." This became necessary because some local fire departments were refusing to come to the aid of local municipalities out of fear that their own towns might be hit. In addition, there were stories of extortion by some fire departments in exchange for providing fire services.
American Homefront: Chesty Manly, the Washington, D.C. correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, publishes a story claiming that a "leak" has informed him that President Roosevelt has plans to send an American expeditionary force to Europe. The story creates an uproar in the capital, and a vigorous debate breaks out in the press about the truthfulness of the story. It is one of several stories run by the isolationist Manly that is of questionable veracity.
The Reverend John A. O'Brien makes a radio address that urges the world to "choose the road to peace." He rhetorically asks what the warring powers have accomplished by two years of war and deplores war's futility. He concludes with a plea to President Roosevelt to put his power "into the Christ-like work of halting the brutal European strife."
Judy Garland on the cover of Animatografo, Issue no. 41, 18 August 1941.
London furniture vans atop one another after a raid. December 5, 1940.
Italian/Greek Campaign: In Greece, the Greek advance grinds forward on 5 December 1940. Greek I Corps captures Delvinë. Greek II Corps also advances. The Greeks advance on Argyrocastro and take heights near Librohovo, six miles southeast of the town. The Greek air force attacks Italian communications.
The British hand over a dozen Gloster Gladiator biplanes to the Greek air force.
European Air Operations: During the day, RAF Bomber Command raids Düsseldorf and Turin. Coastal Command attacks Eindhoven, Rotterdam, Lorient, and Haamstede. The Luftwaffe sends some fighter-bombers across during the day which drop bombs in scattered areas of East Kent. After dark, the RAF cancels its raids due to the weather, while the Luftwaffe sends small raids against London and points along the south coast.
Adolf Galland of JG 26 gets his 57th victory claim. He now has surpassed both Werner Molders and the now-deceased Helmut Wick. Galland is the leading ace of the war. Molders, however, remain active and could regain the lead.
The RAF makes plans to open ten new airfields by Spring. They will house ten fighter squadrons, ten medium bomber squadrons, and two heavy bomber squadrons.
Hilfskreuzer (Auxiliary Cruiser) Thor. Thor was a converted banana boat originally named the Santa Cruz.
Battle of the Atlantic: German raider Thor successfully has broken out into the Atlantic. The auxiliary cruiser is southeast of Rio de Janeiro when it spots 20,062-ton Royal Navy armed merchant cruiser HMS Carnarvon Castle. The ships are armed reasonably evenly, both with 15 cm (5.91 inches) guns, but the British ship has eight of those guns to Thor's four. Thus, in theory, the Carnarvon Castle should have the advantage. However, German Kapitän zur See (Captain) Otto Kähler displays superior tactics and his gunners better accuracy. Kähler induces the Royal Navy ship to give chase - putting its rear guns out of action and evening the combat scales. Thor's gunners then score 27 hits on its pursuer, badly damaging the Carnarvon Castle and forcing it to withdraw to Montevideo, Uruguay. The British lose 6 crew and have 32 wounded. Thor, undamaged, then proceeds to a rendezvous with cruiser Admiral Scheer, while the Royal Navy sends other ships fruitlessly to search the vast ocean for it.
The Luftwaffe bombs and damages destroyer HMS Cameron while in drydock in Portsmouth Harbour. Cameron is one of the former US destroyers acquired in the bases-for-destroyers deal. There are 14 deaths. The destroyer capsizes as the bomb hits allow water to pour into the drydock. She can be refloated and repaired, though Cameron will never return to service. Instead, it will be used for testing purposes regarding things like bomb damage.
Italian submarine Argo torpedoes and sinks 5066-ton British freighter Silverpine. All 36 aboard perish. The Silverpine is a straggler from convoy OB 52.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Sunfish torpedoes and sinks 2182-ton Finnish freighter Oscar Midling off Stadlandet., Norway. Everybody on board perishes.
British torpedo boats MTB 29, 31 and 32 find a German freighter, the 6062-ton Paranagua, off Flushing and sink it.
Royal Navy 214-ton minesweeping trawler HMT Calverton hits a mine and sinks at the mouth of the Humber.
A severe storm hits the Irish Sea and sinks several ships before it is over.
British 632-ton collier Amlwch Rose gets caught in a storm after departing Liverpool for Dublin. It sinks in Liverpool Bay.
British 360-ton collie Privet also sinks in the rough weather in Liverpool Bay. All nine aboard perish.
Seaplane tender USS George E. Badger also gets caught in rough weather on the other side of the Atlantic and runs aground off Hamilton, Bermuda. However, luckily there is no damage, and the ship later floats off.
German freighter Klaus Schoke, seized by HMS California off the Azores and under tow to Gibraltar, sinks. The German ship's crew had tried to scuttle her, but only partially succeeded - at first.
The German coastal guns at Calais get another rare success when they damage 1107 ton British freighter Waterland in Dover Harbour.
Torpedoed several days ago, destroyer HMCS Saguenay makes it to port. It is the first Canadian naval casualty of the war.
Convoy AN 9 departs from Port Said, bound for Piraeus, Greece. It is a troop convoy carrying British troops to aid in the defense of Greece. The poor weather keeps convoys in the Atlantic in port.
German battleship Bismarck completes her sea trials in the Baltic Sea and heads for Hamburg.
U-109 (Korvettenkapitän Hans-Georg Fischer) is commissioned.
Royal Navy destroyer HMS Salisbury, formerly the USS Claxton, is commissioned.
The 5 December 1940 edition of PM, a New York City paper with good reporting from Europe. This edition describes that the British now think that the Germans won't invade until the Spring - something that the British in fact have known about since September.
Battle of the Mediterranean: Italian 795 ton torpedo boat Calipso hits a mine and sinks east of Tripoli about 6 miles from Cape Misurata. The mine had been laid by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Rorqual on 5 November.
At Malta, the local government puts out an appeal for donations to fund Christmas parties for refugees. There are literally thousands of refugees housed in various villages throughout the island.
Battle of the Pacific: Australian 1052 ton freighter Nimbin hits a mine and sinks off Norah Head, New South Wales. There are seven deaths and 13 survivors. The mine was laid by the German raider Pinguin in November. This is the first Australian registered merchant ship sunk. Fortunately for the survivors, the ship is carrying a cargo of plywood bundles that float and provide a means to survive until rescued by SS Bonalbo a few hours later. Captain Bryanston goes down with the ship.
Anglo/French Relations: Louis Rougier, Marshal Petain's unofficial representative to Great Britain, sends Prime Minister Winston Churchill a letter. It clarifies Petain's intentions regarding participation in the war. Specifically, Petain promises not to make a separate peace with Germany - a hollow assurance given the current state of relations between Vichy France and Germany. He also promises not to allow Germany to occupy French colonies in North Africa, nor allow it possession of the French fleet. In addition, Petain promises not to contest Charles de Gaulle's occupation of Gabon. Basically, the promises are simply rehashes of old promises or meaningless gestures, and some of them will be broken before the war is over while others will be kept.
Anglo/US Relations: The subject of how to continue supplying weapons to Great Britain despite its growing financial issues heats up. Talks are proceeding in Washington regarding a possible $2.5 billion loan to Great Britain for war aid, to be secured by British gold production over the coming five years. Bankers consider the UK to be a good credit risk, but the Johnson Act prohibits private lending to any nation in default of its Great War debt - such as Great Britain. President Roosevelt, touring the Caribbean with Harry Hopkins on the USS Tuscaloosa, also is thinking about the same general topic, but his solution isn't a loan - it is what will come to be called Lend-lease.
German/Spanish Relations: The German ambassador in Madrid telegrams Foreign Minister Ribbentrop and tells him that the Spanish have agreed to allow German tankers to anchor in small bays. These can be used to refuel U-boats and raiders. The scheme depends upon the British not finding out. This is another of the Spaniard's small gestures toward the Germans while also cultivating friendly relations with the British.
The Seattle Daily Times, 5 December 1940.
Spy Stuff: The Seattle Daily Times, in its 5 December 1940 edition, reports ominously that the German consul general posted to San Francisco, Fritz Wiedemann, had been seen visiting Seattle without informing the newspaper. Wiedemann apparently was in town to meet some local German-Americans at their weekly roundtable at the Maison Blanc, but the newspaper implies that there is something more to the visit. The paper reports that Wiedmann has a reputation at this time of being "tight" with Hitler because he supposedly saved Hitler's life during the 1939 bombing of the Brown House. Thus, his whereabouts are a matter of national security.
The legend about Wiedemann saving Hitler's life appears to be apocryphal. Hitler survived the 1939 bombing because he had left the building before the bomb went off. It is not inconceivable that Wiedemann himself spreads these tales far from Berlin, where there is nobody who knows better.
The paper also reports more generally that the Pacific Northwest is a hotbed of spy activity due to Boeing's bomber plants in the Seattle area. In fact, the Germans have very little interest in the US West Coast and they - or at least Foreign Minister Ribbentrop - consider the San Francisco post to be the ultimate diplomatic backwater, a place to send people they want to get out of the way. While Wiedemann does know Hitler, he by no means is within his inner circle.
That said, there actually is a growing German presence on the West Coast at this time. However, it is not in the Pacific Northwest, but just outside Los Angeles. The Murphy Ranch is an isolated, self-contained compound with its own water storage tank and energy production. The premises survive into the 21st Century, though gradually demolished by its current owner, the City of Los Angeles.
German Military: Adolf Hitler meets with his two army chiefs, Colonel-General Franz Halder, Chief of the General Staff, and Field Marshal Walther von Brauchitsch, Commander-in-Chief of the Army. They discuss the plans for Operation Barbarossa, which Hitler approves and following which he begins preparing a Fuhrer Directive. The operational plan at this time, which eventually will be called Operation Barbarossa, for now, is called Operation Otto. The Germans have a tendency to re-use code names, and Otto is named after the crown prince of Austria-Hungary at the time, Otto von Habsburg. It previously was used to refer to the Anschluss with Austria in 1938.
The plan at this stage envisions three axes of invasion in the north, center, and south of the Soviet border. The strength of each prong will remain a subject of much deliberation and disagreement over the coming months - some of the Generals prefer maximum effort in the direction of Moscow, while Hitler sees the taking of the Soviet capital as essentially pointless. The tentative timing for the invasion is May 1941.
Another topic broached at the meeting is Operation Felix. Hitler is trying to convince Franco to allow the passage of German troops, but the Spaniards do not want to alienate the British. Hitler tentatively sets 10 January as the date for the Wehrmacht to cross the border and 4/5 February for Operation Felix itself. Everything, however, depends upon Franco's assent - though some in the German High Command, such as Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, think that the Wehrmacht should cross the border regardless of what Franco allows.
Canadian Military: The Royal Navy commissions four former US Navy destroyers acquired in November at Halifax during the destroyers-for-bases deal:
USS Ringgold (DD-89) becomes HMS Newark (G 08)
USS Sigourney (DD-81) becomes HMS Newport (G 54)
USS Tillman (DD-135) becomes HMS Wells (I 95)
USS Robinson (DD-88), becomes HMS Newmarket (G 47)
Additional Canadian escorts are needed to help fill the gaps in escort coverage in the Atlantic now that U-boats are based in France and are roaming further and further west.
The Hawker Tornado. The project ultimately was canceled but served as the foundation for later aircraft Typhoon and Tempest.
British Military: The first flight of the second prototype of the Hawker Tornado, P5224, takes place 14 months after that of the first prototype. Its armament has been significantly upgraded to four 20 mm Hispano cannon and it now is powered by a Vulture II engine. The flight is a success, but problems will continue to plague the plane's development, primarily relating to the Vulture engine. US Military: The US 17th Pursuit Squadron, formerly based at Selfridge Field, Mount Clemens, Michigan, transfers to Nichols Field, Luzon, Philippines. It does not yet have its fighters and begins practicing with Boeing P-26 Peashooters. Even when they get their "real" aircraft, Seversky P-35s, they will be flying obsolete planes.
Construction begins on the 20-mile US Army Railway serving Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, which includes a major trestle that can still be visited. This is part of a major national defensive initiative to build up military infrastructure.
US Government: Admiral William D. Leahy, USN (Retired) becomes the new US Ambassador to Vichy France.
British Government: In a very rare gesture toward peace, the House of Commons of Parliament votes on a peace amendment offered by John McGovern of the Scottish Independent Labour Party. The measure fails, 341-4. There always is a peace faction England, though it makes little noise outside of times like this.
India: The British release from prison Nationalist leader Subhas Chandra Bose after a hunger strike. They will continue to keep Bose under house arrest.
China: The Chinese Communists conclude their Hundred Regiments Offensive. They have captured much ground, but also taken heavy casualties.
American Homefront: Director Ludwig Berger's "The Thief of Baghdad" opens at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Zane Grey thriller "West of the Badlands" also opens today.
Artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo take out their second Marriage License at San Francisco City Hall, December 5, 1940.
