25 - 31 October 1941

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25 October 1941

Atlantic Ocean : Battle of Convoy HG-75 (Homebound Gibraltar) started. Italian submarine Galileo Ferraris attacked Allied convoy HG-75 500 miles west of Gibraltar and was discovered by a RAF Coastal Command PBY Catalina aircraft. After being attacked with depth charges by the aircraft and badly damaged plus destroyer HMS Lamerton arriving on the scene , Galileo Ferraris’ crew surfaced their boat and then scuttled the submarine ; 6 Italians were killed in the engagement, 44 survived.

Later in the same day, German submarine U-563 attacked HG-75, but she was driven away by Royal Navy corvette HMS Heliotrope.

Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy minelayer HMS Latona was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 Stuka dive bombers off Tobruk though almost all crew and passangers (1.000 Polish troops) were safely evacuated

Italian cargo ship Monrosa was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Triumph in Aegean Sea. 148 Italian troops wre killed.

Black Sea : Romanian minesweeper B and German minesweeper Theresa Wallner struck mine and both sunk

Ukraine : Romanian troops set a warehouse, full of Ukrainian civilians, mostly Jews, on fire at Dalnik, Ukraine.

Russia : On October 25, deep snow fell on the Moscow front. On the following day, in Minsk, the Germans staged the first public hanging, intended to deter partisan activity. Three partisans were executed, Kirill Trus, Volodya Shcherbatseyvich and Maria Bruskina. A seventeen-year-old Jewish girl, Maria Bruskina had been working as a nurse in a field hospital for Russian officers and who had been taken prisoner in the battle for Minsk. Her ‘crime’ was to have smuggled into the hospital forged identity papers and clothes, enabling several prisoners-of-war to escape.

US : The US State Department issued a bulletin denouncing German practice of rounding up and executing civilians in retaliation of partisan attacks.

UK : New Royal Navy battleship HMS Prince of Wales departs for Singapore.

Canada : A Canadian brigade consisted two battalions under the command of Brigadier John Lawson MC sailed from Vancouver, Canada to reinforce the garrison on Hong Kong

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26 October 1941

Russia : General Fedyuninsky was transferred from Leningrad, Russia to lead the Soviet 54th Army at Tikhvin about 120 kilometers to the east. The relieved commanding officer of the Soviet 54th Army, General Mikhail Khozin, who had previously served in Leningrad in 1938, was assigned to direct the defenses there.

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-83 attacked Allied convoy HG-75 in the central Atlantic at 0354 hours and damaged British fighter catapult ship HMS Ariguani with a torpedo, killing 2.

Tobruk , Libya : Relief of 9th Australian Division with 70th British Division and Polish Carpathian Brigade ended , only one Australian battalion remained in Tobruk perimeter. Rest arrived to Alexandria Egypt with a hero’s welcome.

UK : Lord Louis Mountbatten takes over command of Combined Operations tasked for raiding shores on occupied Europe , replacing Admiral Roger Keyes (became official next day)

Germany : RAF Bomber Command staged a heavy raid over Hamburg with 115 bombers.

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27 October 1941

Russia : Soviet forces in Kalinn and Moscow Fronts launched multiple counter-attacks around Moscow, Russia, trying to blunt the German advance. German troops from Army Group Center were now positioned in the west at Volokolamsk 60 kilometers from Moscow and in the south at Plavsk 110 kilometers from Moscow but their advance to Soviet capital stalled due to heavy Red Army resistance in Mozhaisk-Volokolamsk line and extreme weather.

Ukraine : General Erich von Manstein’s German Eleventh Army broke through the mud and fog on the Perekop Isthmus into the Crimean Peninsula , German vanguard captured Kramatorsk. Other German unişts reached Sevastapol perimeter , last Soviet posseasion in Crimea and one of largest naval bases of USSR

Kovno , Lithuanis : 9.000 Jews were massacred by SS Einsatzgruppen

US : President Franklin Roosevelt addressed his country, noting that the German attack on the destroyer USS Kearny “was to frighten the American people off the high seas - to force us to make a trembling retreat”, claiming that the “American spirit” was now “aroused”

North Sea : Luftwaffe DO-217 bombers bombed and sunk Dutch cargo ship Freisland and British cargo ship Antiope.
Swedish cargo ship Gunlog in German service was bombed and sunk by RAF Coastal Command Hudson bombers

Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy submarine HMS Tetrach, one day out of Malta, hit an Italian naval mine and sank between Sicily and Tunisia; all 62 aboard were killed.

Phillipinnes : Admiral Thomas Hart, having changed his mind on moving the US fleet at the Philippine Islands south to combine with the British allies, decided to base his main force in Manila Bay.

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28 October 1941

Russia : General Guderian’s 2nd Panzer Army renews drive on Moscow but the ground is to soft and muddy for a motorised advane while on opposite side newly formed 50th Soviet Army reinforcing and fortfying its defences around Tula.
North-west of Moscow, on October 28, the Germans reached Volokolamsk, seventy-five miles from the capital. On the following day, near Borodino, the first Soviet troops rushed westward from the Far East were in action.

Ukraine : 34,000 Jews were massacred in Kiev, Ukraine.

Kalisz , Poland : 290 Jews from an old people’s shelter were murdered by Germans as first trial of gas vans

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-432 sank British ship Ulea 320 miles northeast of the Azores islands at 0500 hours; 19 were killed, 9 survived and were rescued by British corvettes HMS La Malouine and HMS Bluebell.
German submarine U-106 sank British ship King Malcolm in the North Atlantic, killing all 38 aboard.
Italian submarine Guglielmo Marconi was located and sunk with depth charges by Royal Navy destroyer HMS Duncan in North Atlantic

South Atlantic : German submarine U-68 sank British ship Hazelside 600 miles southeast off the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic at 0343 hours; 2 were killed, 44 survived and picked up by British merchant ship Malayan Prince.

Mediterranean Sea : Italian cargo ship Esperia was shelled and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Trasher

Rome : Mussolini declares “the coalition of Bolshevism and its European and American allies will be destroyed”

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29 October 1941

Russia : Kampfgruppe Eberbach of German 4th Panzer Division reached Tula, Russia, which was about 110 kilometers south of Moscow. The group dug in near Tula to organize an offensive in the next day.

Ukraine : 11th German Army pushed Soviet units back to Sevastopol, Crimea.

Lithuania , Baltics : 15,000 Jews were massacred in Kovno (Kaunas), Lithuania by SS Einsatzgruppen. Their remains were buried in mass graves at the Ninth Fort.

Black Sea : Russian cargo vessel Urales was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-87 dive bombers off Crimea

Baltic Sea : Soviet submarine Kalev struck a mine and sank off Hanko , Finland.

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-106 torpedoed and damaged American tanker Salinas off Iceland.
British cargo ship Sarastone was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe FW-200 recon bombers.

Norwegian Sea : German cargo ship Barcelona was bombed and sunk by RAF Coastal Command Hudson bombers

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30 October 1941

Russia : In Russia, Kampfgruppe Eberbach of German 4th Panzer Division began to advance north from Tula toward Moscow at 0530 hours; it was soon turned back by heavy anti-tank fire. Another attempt was made at 1000 hours, again at 1300 hours, and a final time at 1600 hours, inflicting heavy casualties on the Soviets but failing to break through. During the night, Soviet 32nd Tank Brigade arrived to reinforce Tula, while the German troops began to feel the cold Russian winter.
On October 30, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris head of Abwehr (German Miitary Intelligence Service) had visited Hitler at Rastenburg. When Hitler asked him what the weather had been like at the front, he answered in one word: ‘Bad!’
OKH (German High Command) decided to halt land offensive towards Moscow to be halted temporarily in order to give the ground to harden with frost.

Ukraine : German 132nd Infantry Division reached the outskirts of Sevastopol, Crimea. After sundown, Soviet cruiser Krasnyi Kavkaz brought in the Soviet 8th Naval Infantry Brigade from Novorossiysk as reinforcements, while the Soviet Black Sea Fleet relocated many of its warships out of Sevastopol as a safety measure.

Kola Peninsula : Allied convoy PQ-2 arrived at Arkhangelsk, Russia.

Black Sea : Soviet submarine M-34 struck a mine and sank

Norwegian Sea : German coaster Soiskin was bombed and sank by RAF Coastal Command Hudson bombers off Eigeroya

UK : The British cabinet received the report that, in the week ending 29 Oct 1941, 886 ships (including 24 ships flying flags of neutral nations) were convoyed; 113 destroyers (including 24 American destroyers), 117 smaller ships, and 9 anti-aircraft ships were deployed as convoy escorts. During the war thus far, a total of 86,687 ships had been convoyed, of which 451 were lost by enemy action. In terms of goods transported, the report indicated that, in the week ending 25 Oct 1941, 1,435,869 tons of supplies were imported into Britain, which was an increase from 789,286 tons from the previous seven-day period.

US : President Roosevelt gave Soviet Union , One Billion USD loan to buy Lend Lease Aid.

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31 October 1941

Crimea : Soviet destroyer Bodry and other warships shelled German tank concentrations 25 miles north of Sevastopol, Russia. Meanwhile, German dive bombers attacked Soviet warships in the harbor, causing 50 casualties but failing to cause damage to the ships.

Moscow : Luftwaffe carried out forty-five separate bombing attacks over Moscow.

Leningrad : Russians completed the evacuation by air of 17,614 armament factory workers and 8,590 wounded Red Army, Navy and Air Force officers over Lake Ladoga

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-552 attacked Allied convoy HX-156 725 miles west of Iceland at 0834 hours, torpedoed and sank old Town class American destroyer USS Reuben James (115 killed, 30 survived); USS Reuben James was the first American warship lost in the Atlantic Ocean in WW2.

German submarine U-96 attacked Convoy OS10 (Outbound South) , torpedoed and sank Dutch cargo ship Bennekom from convoy 400 miles west of Iceland at 1047 hours; 8 were killed, 46 survived. Escorting Royal Navy sloop HMS Lulworth counterattacked with 27 depth charges in failure.

Newfoundland : German U-Boat operations off Newfoundland , Canada began. German submarine U-374 sank British cargo ship Rose Schiaffino 120 miles east of St. John’s, Newfoundland at 0903 hours; all 41 aboard were killed.

North Sea : British cargo ship British Fortune and Greek cargo ship Nicholas Piangos were both bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe Do-217 bombers

Mediterranean Sea : Italian cargo ship Meteor was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Truant in Adriatic Sea.

Baltic Sea : German minesweeper Aldebaran struck a mine and sank off Libau

UK : The British 1st Airborne division was formed on under the command of Major General Frederick “Boy” Browning.

Estonia , Baltics : In written report from the Occupied Eastern Territories No. 6, SS General von dem Bach Zelewski reported proudly to Berlin: ‘Today, there are no more Jews in Estonia.’

Ukraine : In southern Russia, SS Einsatzgruppen Special Task Forces were also confident that their work was thorough; on October 31, at Poltava, the executions began, over a six day period, of 740 people, listed in Operational Situation Report USSR No. 143, as ‘—3 political officials, 1 saboteur, 137 Jews, 599 mentally ill persons’. A further two hundred inmates of the Poltava Lunatic Asylum, who had been judged ‘curable’, were sent to work in an agricultural implement factory where they were shot by SS. After the executions, the asylum itself had been turned into a German field hospital, and the ‘underwear, clothing and household articles’ of the former inmates placed at the field hospital’s disposal.

Berlin , Germany : To ease labour shortages, Hitler agreed that Soviet prisoners of war could be used as slave workers in the Reich, as long as they were isolated from the German population.

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