1st November 1941
Baltics : After sundown, the Red Army evacuated the first group, 4,230 men, of the 28,000 men from the Hanko Peninsula, Finland to Leningrad, Russia via naval vessels. On the return trip to Hanko, Soviet minelayer Marti and minesweeper T-210 were damged by mines, and submarine Kalev was lost, probably to a mine as well.
Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-68 sank British ship Bradford City 300 miles off German South-West Africa at 0654 hours; all 45 aboard survived in 2 lifeboats.
Pacific Ocean : On this date, Japan time, the Combined Fleet Order No. 1 was issued for additional radio communications to be generated to make US cryptanalytic efforts more difficult. Meanwhile, on the other side of the international date line, Joseph Rochefort’s cryptanalytic team of the US Navy in Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii reported that all Japanese Navy call signs had changed.
Tokyo , Japan : Joseph C. Grew US Ambassador in Japan , sent a telegram to State Department Washington , warning that Japan might be preparing to attack a high profile US target
Crimea : Troops of the German 11th Army captured Simferopol, Russia. To the southwest in Sevastopol, the Soviet 30th Coastal Battery bombarded the German 132nd Infantry Division at 1230 hours near the village of Bazarchik, slowing its preparations for an assault.
Ukraine : German Army Group South started to attack from Donbass to Rostov and eastern edges of Caucaus
Rastenburg , East Prussia : On 1 November, snow stayed on the ground all day at Rastenburg. Hitler was undeterred. ‘If Russia goes under in the war,’ he told his guests on November 2, ‘Europe will stretch eastwards to the limits of Germanic colonization. In the Eastern territories, I shall replace Slav geographical titles by German names. The Crimea, for example, might be called Gothenland.’