29 November - 5 December 1941

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29 November 1941

Libya , Operation Crusader : Operation Crusader:15th Panzer Division Division and Italian Arierte Armored Division overran the New Zealand 21st Battalion at Point 175 in Libya after a day long battle. German panzers with supporting infantry destroyed all New Zealands defensive posts on the escapment and then drove away or captured remainder of New Zealand infantry. A part of El Duda ridge was also lost too by Essex battalion.

On 29 November, the two British Armoured Brigades (4th and 22nd) were strangely passive. The 1st SA Brigade was tied to the armoured brigades and unable to move in open ground without them because of the threat from the panzer divisions. On the evening of 29 November, 1st SA Brigade was placed under command of 2nd New Zealand Division and ordered to advance north to recapture Point 175. Meanwhile, radio intercepts had given the Eighth Army to believe that 21st Panzer and Ariete were in trouble, and new 8th Army commander General Ritchie had ordered the 7th Armoured Division to “stick to them like hell”

Washington , USA : US Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Harold Stark directed that defense recommendations made by Major Alfred R. Pefley was to be implemented immediately, consisting mostly of the construction of defensive gun positions on various Pacific islands.

Berlin , Germany : Japanese ambassador in Germany Hiroshi Oshima reported that, on the previous day, Joachim von Ribbentrop had verbally promised a German declaration of war on the United States should Japan and the US enter a state of war.

Dr . Fritz Todt the Reich Armaments Minister, returning to Berlin from the Russian front, told Hitler bluntly: ‘Given the arms and industrial supremacy of the Anglo-Saxon powers, we can no longer militarily win this war.’

North Sea : The German 4th Motor Torpedo Boat Flotilla attacked Allied convoy FN.564 off the coast of East Anglia, England, United Kingdom, sinking British tanker Asperity and freighters Empire Newcomen and Cormarsh.

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-43 sank British ship Thornliebank 240 miles north of the Azores islands at 0411 hours, killing all 75 aboard. The navigator of U-43 was injured by showering debris.

Russia : German 7th Panzer Division completed the evacuation of the Yakhroma bridgehead near Moscow, Russia; 45 were killed in the unsuccessful attempt to cross the Moskva-Volga canal.

Ukraine : Under heavy Red Army counter attacks from 37th and 56th Soviet Armies , German Army Group South evacuated Taganrog and retreated back west of Mius river. Reinforcements were hurried south from the German reserves in Kharkov; reserves that could not now be used against Moscow. ‘Further cowardly retreats are forbidden’, Hitler telegraphed to Field Marshal von Kleist.

Riga , Baltics : A thousand German Jews, who had been deported from Berlin two days earlier, reached Riga. They were kept in the locked wagons all night, and then, at 8.15 on the morning of November 30, the survivors of the journey were taken into the nearby Rumbuli forest, and shot.

Baltic Sea : Soviet destroyer Slavny, destroyer Stoiki, troop ship Iosif Stalin, and other vessels, escorted by 5 minesweepers, 4 torpedo boats, and 7 submarine chasers, departed Kronstadt, Russia for Hanko, Finland to evacuate troops. German aircraft discovered the force, attacked, bombed and sank icebreaker ship Oktyabr.

Navarino , Greece : RAF Wellington and Martin Maryland bombers from Malta bombed and sank Italian tanker Berbera and damaged Italian tanker Volturno at Navarino (now Pylos), Greece.

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30 November 1941

Tokyo , Japan : Emperor Showa ordered Prime Minister Hideki Tojo to proceed with plans to start the Pacific War, and subsequently Tojo rejected US proposals to de-escalate tension in the Far East.

Washington , USA : US War Department reports that a troops convoy carying five Japanese divisions left Formosa the day before and heading towards South China Sea. A cabinet meeting in same day acknowledged that this convoy represent a grave danger to US , British or Dutch territories in South East Asia. President Rossevelt realises war with Japan is inevitable and wondering how Japan would move to fire the first shot.

Libya : New Zealand 24th and 26th Battalions were battered by heavy Afrikakorps attacks at Sidi Rezegh, Libya. South African Division is still moving too slow to reinforce Tobruk corridor and in afternoon German panzers and intantry infltrated New Zealand positions and began to take out NZ anti tank guns one by one. By evening 6th New Zealand Brigade lost most of Sidi Rezegh ridge though still holding airfield. Tobruk Corridor is about to be severed although 25th NZ Battalion drove away Italian Arierte division in western perimeter of the corridor. German forces also launched a fresh attack on Tobruk, Libya but 70th Infantry Division held its ground , counter attacked and recaptured El Duda position lost previous day.

Meanwhile Point 175 escarpment was recaptured by Australian infantry. Eight Matilda tanks provided the preliminary bombardment for a counterattack by two companies of the 2/13th Australian Infantry Battalion on the night of 29/30 November. In a bayonet charge against German positions, the 2/13th had two killed and five wounded and took 167 prisoners fro 21st Panzer Division and recaptured all New Zealand positions lost the day before. Captain Walsoe of the 2/13th described this attack, the last Australian action of the siege:

"Suddenly we were away. I remember calling out ‘Come on Aussies’ and seeing the long line of steadily advancing men on either side of me. Up the slope we went and as we neared the top we heard the jabber of a foreign tongue in which we could soon distinguish ‘ Englander kommen ! ’ . I fired a green Very light and with a wild roar our chaps charged down upon them. The sight and sound of us must have been too much for the Germans. A few desultory bursts of fire and then they cracked. Some broke and ran; some, cowering in their weapon pits, held up their hands." Later that morning an attempted German counter-attack got no closer than 800 yards before being beaten back. Another counter attack on El Duda ridge in the afternoon was also repulsed by British and New Zealand infantry and artillery.

Mediterranean Sea : Out at sea, RAF Maryland bomber and Beaufort torpedo bomber aircraft from Malta hit and sank Italian cargo ship Capo Faro and damaged Italian cargo ship Iseo, which were en route from Brindisi, Italy to Benghazi, Libya; they were carrying fuel and other supplies that were very much needed for the Axis campaign in North Africa. In Benghazi harbour Italian tanker Speranza was bombed by RAF Wellington bombers and damaged so badly she was scuttled three days later.

Baltic Sea : A Soviet naval force consisted of two destroyers, a troop ship, and other minor vessels arrived at Hanko, Finland to evacuate troops, while another force consisted of troop ship Maya, 3 minesweepers, 2 submarine chasters, and 1 gunboat departed Kronstadt, Russia for Hanko

Ukraine : Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau replaced Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt as the commanding officer of German Army Group South in the Caucasus region of southern Russia.

Leningrad : The warming of temperature in the region around Leningrad, Russia meant a decrease in the ice thickness over Lake Ladoga, which led to the decrease of supplies delivered by ground vehicles driving over ice; only 61 tons of food made its way into the city on this date. In Leningrad, during the month of November, eleven thousand citizens had died of starvation, and 522 had been killed during the daily German shelling of the city. With the German occupation of Mga and SchlĂźsselburg secure, the only way by which supplies could reach the city was by truck over the ice of Lake Ladoga.

Moscow : Elements of German 2nd Panzer Division captured the railway station at Lobnya 19 miles north of Moscow, Russia. Meanwhile, Georgy Zhukov was ordered by Joseph Stalin to organize a counterattack.

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-206 struck a British mine in the Bay of Biscay west of France and sank. All 46 men aboard were lost.

German submarine U-43 sank British ship Ashby 170 miles south of the Azores islands at 1926 hours; 17 were killed, some survived and were rescued by Portuguese destroyer Lima. U-43 survived the subsequent depth charging without any damage.

North Atlantic : RAF Coastal Command Whitley bombers of No. 502 Squadron RAF based in Northern Ireland, United Kingdom attacked German submarines U-71 and U-563 with depth charges in the Bay of Biscay, damaging U-71. This attack marked the first successful use of air-to-surface vessel radar.

North Sea : German manned Danish cargo ships Ester and Oluf Maersk were bombed and sunk by RAF Halifax bombers

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1 December 1941

Libya : German 15th Panzer Division practically wiped out the 20th Battalion of New Zealand 2nd Division at Belhamed, Libya. In early morning 15th Panzer renewed their attack towards Belhamed, supported by a massive artillery effort, and once again, the New Zealand Division came under intense pressure. During the morning, 7th Armoured Division was ordered to advance to provide direct assistance; 4th Armoured Brigade arrived at Belhamed and may have had the opportunity for a decisive intervention since they outnumbered the 40 or so 15th Panzer Division tanks attacking the position. However, they believed their orders to be to cover the withdrawal of the remains of 6th NZ Brigade, which precluded an offensive operation.

The remains of 2nd NZ Division were now concentrated near Zaafran, 5 mi east of Belhamed and slightly further north-east of Sidi Rezegh. During the morning of 1 December, General Freyberg, commanding 2nd New Zealand Division, saw a signal from the 8th Army indicating that the South African Brigade would be under the command of 7th Armoured Division. He inferred that Army Headquarters had lost hope of holding the Tobruk corridor. He signalled in mid-morning that without the South Africans, his position would be untenable and so he was planning a withdrawal. Orders were issued by Freyberg to be ready to move east at 17.30. 15th Panzer, which had been resupplying, renewed its attack at 16.30 and Italian Trieste motorised division captured BelAhmed ridge and cut the tenuous link established with Tobruk. The New Zealanders became involved in a desperate fighting withdrawal from its western positions and showing admirable discipline, was formed up by 17:30 and having paused an hour for the tanks and artillery to join them from the west, set off at 18:45. They reached 30th Corps lines with little further interruption. In the early hours, the 3,500 men and 700 vehicles that had emerged headed back to Egypt

Tobruk corridor was severed and Tobruk is isolated again (though it is not complately besieged since Axis siege lines around defence perimeter of town was broken previously.) The same day Auchinleck flew from Cairo to 8th Army field HQ “to advice” new and inexperienced army commander General Ritchie and organise recently arriving reinforcements (50th British Infantry and 2nd South African Infantry Division were incoming to reinforce 8th Army) to renew the drive on Tobruk

Berlin , Germany : The Japanese ambassador in Germany Hiroshi Oshima was ordered to secure Joachim von Ribbentrop’s signature on a document which stated that Germany would declare war on the United States should Japan and US enter a state of war.

SS-Standartenfuhrer Jager submitted a report dated on this day, noting that his Einsatzgruppen, operating in Lithuania, had killed 99,804 Jews in that country to this date. In the same report, the detachment also under Jager sent to Minsk, Byelorussia reported killing 620 adult male, 1,285 adult female, and 1,126 children, all Jews; 19 communists were also executed in Minsk by this detachment.

Moscow : Three German infantry divisions and one German armored division advanced along the Minsk-Moscow highway, penetrating through the lines of the Soviet 33rd Army, capturing Naro-Fominsk 43 miles southwest of Moscow, Russia. On December 1, the Germans made two desperate bids to break through the Moscow defences. One was at Zvietkovo, west of the capital and the other towards Kolomna, from the south. But the Soviet defensive ring held, and a relentless German tank assault at Naro-Fominsk was driven back.

Atlantic Ocean : Royal Navy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire located German U-Boat supply ship Python refueling submarines UA and U-68 in the South Atlantic 1,150 miles west of South Africa. Once got into range HMS Dorsetshire opened fire with its guns , hitting Python several times which was scuttled by her crew before abandoning her. After sinking of Python , HMS Dorsetshire backed off due to the threat of the two submarines. Two additional German submarines and four Italian submarines arrived to join UA and U-68 in rescuing Python’s survivors.

Mediterranean Sea : Malta-based British reconnaissance aircraft spotted an Italian supply convoy traveling for North Africa. The subsequent air attack from Malta by RAF Martin Maryland and Bristol Beufort bombers at 60 miles off Libya saw the sinking of Italian tanker Iridio Mantovani (with 10,000 tons of fuel) by aircraft. Then Force K sortied from Malta , intercepted Italian convoy , sinking of Italian transport ship Adriatico by gunfire from Royal Navy cruisers HMS Aurora and HMS Penelope. Afterwards HMS Aurora and HMS Penelope were attacked by Italian destroyer Alvise Da Mosta with torpedoes and gunfire, but the Royal Navy cruisers fought back, sinking Italian destroyer by gunfire and killing 200.

Malaya , Singapore , South East Asia : As Japanese troop transports crossed the South China Sea from Formosa, the British declared a state of emergency in Malaya. On the following day, the Japanese First Air Fleet, still sailing eastward across the Pacific, received the coded order which established that Pearl Harbour was now its target.

Japanese Consulates , USA : Various Japanese diplomatic consultates and embassy in Washington began to destroy important paperwork

Tokyo , Japan : At an Imperial Conference held in Tokyo, Japan, the decision was taken to go to war with the United States. According to Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, Emperor Showa, the country’s devine ruler, did not utter a single word in response

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2nd December 1941

Russia : Motorcycle patrols from the German 2nd Panzer Division at Moscow, Russia reached Khimki and claimed that they were as close as 10 miles northwest from the Kremlin. The 2nd Panzer Division, however, was unable gather enough strength to exploit the weakly defended lines that the reconnaissance troops discovered. To the west, additional Soviet reinforcements reached Naro-Fominsk. To the south of Moscow, another German attack by 2nd Panzer Army (on a last attempt since it reduced to 100 tanks) on Tula cut the Tula-Moscow rail line again.

As December 2 dawned, many German soldiers, unable to face a second day of fire and ice, screamed that they could not go on. There was also now a new rearward Soviet defence line, behind which, as the Moscow front line soldiers held on tenaciously, fifty-nine rifle divisions and seventeen cavalry divisions under General Georgi Zhukov were grouping for a massive counter-attack, in a vast arc from Vytegra on Lake Onega to Astrakhan on the Caspian Sea, passing through the Volga cities of Kostroma, Gorky and Saratov. As Soviet reinforcements gathered, the Germans were unaware even of their existence. ‘Overall impression’, General Halder noted on 2 December, ‘enemy defence has reached its peak. No more reinforcements available.’

Throughout the day, six miles south of the Moscow-Mozhaisk highway, German tanks had tried to break through towards Moscow at the village of Akulovo, when, briefly, German troops were within sight of Moscow’s suburbs. But twenty-four hours later, they were driven from Akulovo with a Red Army counter attack.

Ukraine : In the south, the Germans had been forced to retreat to Mariupol. But in the Crimea they not only consolidated their positions, but murdered Jews and Soviet prisoners-of-war indiscriminately, meticulously recording the total Jewish death toll as 17,645, as well as 2,504 local Krimchak Jews who could trace their Russian origins back more than a thousand years. In addition to the Jews, this same Operational Situation Report USSR No. 150 listed ‘824 Gypsies and 212 Communists and partisans’, all shot; and went on, without explaining the higher figure: ‘Altogether 75,881 persons have been executed.’

South China Sea : US PBY Catalina patrol aircraft reported 20 Japanese transports congregating in Cam Ranh Bay off Indochina.

Singapore , Malaya : Royal Navy battleships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse arived at Singapore naval base , creating Force Z under command of Admiral Thomas “Thumb” Phillips. Emergency was declared on entire Malaya by governor Sir Shenton Thomas and Malaya Command (85.000 men strong made up two corps of British , Australian , Indian and local Malay trops and base units) under Vice Air Marshal Sir Robert Brooke-Popham though they emphasize that the emergency is NOT about deterioration of diplomacy with Japan

Baltic Sea : Soviet troopships Iosif Stalin and Maya, along with a number of other warships and transport vessels, departed Hanko, Finland with the last of the 12,000 troops aboard. This marked the final Soviet evacuation from Finnish territory occupied by the Soviet Union at the conclusion of the Winter War.

Pacific Ocean : Japanese prime minister Hideki Tojo publicly rejected US peace proposals. Japanese carrier fleet refueled in the North Pacific at 42 degrees north and 170 degrees east; at 2000 hours, the code “Niitaka Yama Noboru (Climb Mount Nikita) 1208” was issued from Japanese Imperial Navy HQ at Tokyo, indicating that the attack on Pearl Harbor, US Territory of Hawaii was to be launched on 8 Dec 1941 Tokyo time, 7 Dec on the other side of the international date line. Meanwhile, at Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband Kimmel was briefed of the disposition of the Japanese fleet, with the whereabouts of Carrier Division 1 and Carrier Division 2 (four fleet carriers total) not known; the best American guess was that they were at Kure, Japan. Finally, at Honolulu, Hawaii, Consul-General Nagao Kita was asked to provide a report regarding the presence of any barrage balloons or torpedo nets. To those in Washington who decoded this telegram, it seemed a routine Intelligence enquiry.

Japanese embassies in United States, Britain, Canada, the Netherlands, and Philippine Islands were ordered to destroy certain documents and code books.

Rome , Italy : Field Marshal Albert Kesselring arrives Rome to take command Axis Southern Front (Mediterranean Front) with cooperation from Italian Armed Forces. He has no total authority on operations of Rommel or Italians though (a constant source of irritation for Kesselring) Same day several Luftwaffe squadrons began to arrive Axis airfields in Sicily to form Luftflotte II to neutralise British air and naval bases in Malta with direct order from Hitler.

Libya : The Axis attack on Tobruk, Libya that began on 30 Nov 1941 was halted as Axis tank losses reached such a level that repairs must be made before any further operations were possible. Once again, Rommel became concerned with the cut-off units in the border strongpoints. On 2 December, (prematurely) believing that he had won the battle at Tobruk, he sent the Geissler Advance Guard from 21st Panzer Division and the Knabe Advanced Guard from 15th Panzer Division battle groups to open the routes to Bardia and to Capuzzo and then Sollum. On 2 and 3 December, the Geissler Advance Guard were heavily defeated by elements of 5th New Zealand Brigade using efficient anti tank gunfire on the Bardia road near Menastir. To the south the Knabe force at the same time fared slightly better on the main track to Capuzzo (Trigh Capuzzo), coming up against ‘Goldforce’ (based on the Central India Horse reconnaissance regiment from 4th Indian Division) and retiring after a heavy artillery fire from Indian gunners.

Atlantic Ocean : US tanker Astral was torpedoed and sank by German submarine U-43 under command of Kapitan Wolfgang Luth off Azores.

The 5,231-ton British steam cargo ship Miguel de Larrinaga was torpedoed and sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by the Italian submarine Cappellini.

North Sea : The 6,968-ton British tanker British Captain was sunk by a German mine off Cromer, England, United Kingdom.

Black Sea : The 1,357-ton German steam merchant ship Cordelia struck a Soviet mine and sank 15 miles East from Burghaz (Burgas), Bulgaria. Shortly after, the Romanian motor passenger transport ship Carvarna struck a mine and sank in the same region.

Baltic Sea : German Navy minesweeper M-529 struck a Soviet mine off Kolberg, Germany (now Kolobrzeg, Poland) and sank with the loss of ten crew.

Spain : German submarine U-557 torpedoed and sank Norwegian cargo ship Fjord off Estepona Point , Spain. German submarine U-562 (Horst Hamm) torpedoed and sank 4,274-ton British cargo ship Grelhead in the Atlantic Ocean 2 miles off Punta Negri, Spanish Morocco.

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3 December 1941

Pacific Ocean : The Japanese carrier fleet tasked with the Pearl Harbor attack turned south after refueling on the previous day, approaching the Hawaii Islands with increased speed. At Pearl Harbor, the American intelligence report on the location of Japanese Navy warships had “no information on submarines or carriers”. Elsewhere in Hawaii, Consul-General Nagao Kita received orders to burn code ciphers and important papers; this was noticed by the Americans, who also received intelligence that several Japanese embassies around the world were doing the same. Japanese Intelligence received a report from Consul-General Kita in Hawaii about the American warships then at anchor at Pearl Harbour, including the battleships Oklahoma and Nevada , and the aircraft carrier Enterprise . Reaching a point 1,300 miles north-west of Hawaii, the Japanese First Air Fleet turned south-east, steaming towards its unsuspecting target.

Japanese Navy issued the order to its senior admirals that hostilities against United States, Britain, and the Netherlands would begin on 8 Dec 1941 (Tokyo time) Japanese submarines began forming lines in Central and East Pacific.
Carrier USS Enterprise began to launch F4F Wildcat fighters of the US Marine Corps for Wake Island.

South China Sea : US Navy PBY Catalina patrol aircraft reported 30 Japanese transports congregating in Cam Ranh Bay off Indochina, 10 more than the previous day. Meanwhile, a Japanese fleet departed Hainan Island in southern China for Thailand.

Tokyo , Japan : Japan asked Italy to declare war on the United States should Japan and US enter a state of war.

Atlantic Ocean : German submarine U-124 sank the unarmed US freighter Sagadahoc in the South Atlantic west of South African shores with torpedoes.

Germany : Hitler issued a decree on “Simplification and Increased Efficiency in our Armaments Production” (commonly known as the “Rationalization Decree”) in which he chided German firms for failing to adopt the practice of large factories and simple production methods, and ordered the military to simplify and standardize the design of all weapons to make possible “mass production on modern principles”

Baltic Sea : The Soviet evacuation convoy that had departed Hanko, Finland on the previous day sailed into the Corbetha minefield in the Gulf of Finland. One Soviet minesweeper Virsatis struck a mine and sunk and several other vessels were damaged. The passengers and crew aboard troop ship Iosif Stalin, which was seriously damaged by a mine, abandoned ship; about 4,000 of the nearly 6,000 that went overboard died in the water.

Moscow , Russia : German 4th Army was halted at Naro-Fominsk west of Moscow, Russia, thus exposing the flank of the German 2nd Panzer Army, which was assaulting the Tula region south of Moscow. German recon patrols from 2nd Panzer Division that reached Khimki , ten miles west of Moscow , were driven out of the town by a hastily gathered workers militia battalion supported by a few T-34 tanks.

Ukraine : Field Marshal Gerd Von Rundstedt was relived from his command due to his decision to retreat from Rostov-on-Don. General Reichenau took over the command of German Army Group South

Libya : 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions second attempt tp reach Bardia , Sollum and Halfaya Pass were again repulsed by 5th New Zealand Brigade and 4th Indian Division with anti tank gun fire on Bardia and Capuzzo roads

Italy : Italian submarine Scirè departed La Spezia, Italy for Alexandria, Egypt with three manned torpedoes on board.

Washington , USA : President Franklin Roosevelt announced that Lend-Lease aid would be given to Turkey, as the safety of that country was considered vital to American defence.

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4 December 1941

Pacific Ocean : Carrier USS Enterprise completed launching 12 F4F Wildcat fighters of the US Marine Corps for Wake Island and set sail for Hawaii Islands, scheduling to arrive on 6 Dec 1941.

Schedule of Pearl Harbor attack was transmitted to the Japanese submarine fleet along with the latest intelligence and weather information. Japanese invasion fleets departed from various locations for their destinations in Malaya and Thailand. Later this day, US Navy PBY Catalina patrol aircraft reported that the 30 Japanese transports detected on the previous day in Cam Ranh Bay off Indochina were no longer there.

Russia : On the Eastern Front of the European War, temperature dropped to -31 degrees Fahrenheit (-37 degrees Celsius). In this cold weather, Günther von Kluge ordered German Army Group Center to fall to defensive positions. Between November 16 and 4 December, 85,000 Germans had been killed on the Moscow front, the same number of troops as had died on the whole Eastern Front between mid-June and mid-November. But Hitler’s order not to withdraw was obeyed; and with the arrival of a hundred fresh Russian divisions, a further 30,000 German soldiers were killed south of Moscow, where the Tula salient threatened the capital from the south. Despite these enormous losses, the German line held; Hitler, cheated of a swift march into Moscow, could still see on the map a German line full of menace to the Russian capital. That night, however, the temperature dropped to an incredible thirty-five degrees centigrade below zero, and in the morning their tanks would not start nor their guns fire, while frostbite brought agony to thousands of German soldiers, whose boots were not designed, as were the Russian boots, for such extremes of cold. The Germans had hoped to defeat Russia before the onset of winter. For this reason, they were not equipped for winter fighting. Nor could a last-minute order to commandeer women’s fur coats throughout Germany be effective in time to avert the terrifying effect of extreme cold during those first days of December.

Libya : 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions started a coodinated attack on Tobruk in direction of El Duda ridge and El Adem defences but 70th Infantry Division and Polish Carpathian Brigade broke up and repulsed this attack sucessfully with aid of heavy artillery fire , inflicting heavy casaulties on Afrikakorps. Meanwhile British 4th Armoured Brigade moved east to counter the Axis advance toward Bardia, Libya and Sollum, Egypt. Meanwhile General Godwin Austen soon reported that 13th Corps was ready to attack at any time and Ritchie then left it to Norrie to decide when the armoured advance should be resumed.

Mediterranean : Royal Navy submarine HMS Perseus torpedoed and sank Italian freighter Eridano 6 miles off Lefkada, Greece.

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Creepy to read about this trip to this gorgeous Atoll a few days before the horrors started.

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5 December 1941

Tokyo , Japan : Japan announced that recent troop movements in Indochina were merely precautionary.

Canberra , Australia : Australian army cancelled all leaves

Paris , France : Clandestine attacks by Resistance on German military personnel rose up. Last 24 hours a German officer was shot on left bank of Seine , a fussilade of shots opened upon Germans Porte d’Issy and a bomb explosion at Boulevard Blanque. German occupation authorities increase patrols , security check points , searches.

Russia : The Germans canceled Operation Typhoon on this date during which the lowest temperature dropped to -36 degrees Fahrenheit (-38 degrees Celsius). Meanwhile, Soviet General Zhukov launched Konev’s Kalinin Front against German forces northwest of Moscow, Russia at 0300 hours, meeting strong resistance.

Still German Army Group Center now found itself a huge world of trouble. Three Russian reserve armies, fresh from the rear and undetected by German Intelligence, prepared to launch an offensive. Thrusting forward with superior tanks, driven by a desire to free their capital from the threat of conquest, better equipped for the biting cold, at three o’clock on the morning of December 5, shielded by a ferocious blizzard against which the Germans could hardly stand, and with snow lying more than a yard thick, the Russian soldiers began to drive the Germans back. In all, eighty-eight Russian divisions were in action that day, against sixty-seven German divisions, along a five-hundred-mile front from Kalinin in the north to Yelets in the south. Counter-attacking from the north, Soviet forces crossed the frozen Volga near Kalinin. Further south, crossing the Moscow canal from the east, they drove the Germans from Yakhroma, liberating the railway line from Moscow to the north. Panzers and other German motorised vehicles did not have correct oil in the engines (Russian tanks , other motor vehicles had anti freezers) and lighting fires required to start them. German machine guns froze in extreme cold , did not fire in full automatic anymore.

Russian ski units , Siberian troops equipped and clothed for extreme weather and T-34 tanks supported with thousands of artillery and Katyusha rocket launchers are doing what Germans had done upon Poles or French a year ago. In the north 3rd and 4th Panzer Armies began retreating on single road through Klin , abandoning most of their heavy equipment. In the first day of fighting General Lelyushenko’s 13rh Soviet Army alone advanced 18 km on this sector.

Leningrad Front : Soviet General Meretskov launched a final assault on German positions in Tikhvin, Russia, which was 110 miles east of Leningrad which suceeded breaking German lines.

Libya : British 4th Armoured Brigade remained in the Libyan-Egyptian border region despite observing the withdrawing of Axis troops, unsure of Erwin Rommel’s intentions. 15th Panzer Division attacked 22nd Armored Brigade in south of Sidi Rezegh near Bir El Gubi but with support of 4th Armored Brigade , German attack was repulsed and 15th Panzer Division commander General Neuman-Silkow was mortally wounded due to an exploding sharpnel shell , dying next day. Meanwhile 11th Indian Brigade attacked Bir El Gubi position which was evacuated by 30th Corps the day before (and re occupied by Italians afterwards) but 136th Giovanni Young Fascisti Regiment drove it back with heavy casaulties on both sides.

During evening of 5th December , after a conferance with Italian general Enrico Bastico , Rommel , realising that his casaulties had been very heavy so far in attrition , having Bastico’s frank assessment that no substantial reinforcements or supplies from Italy could reach to the front till late December and seeing no hope to reach his besieged frontier garrisons at Bardia , Sollum and Halfaya Pass anymore plus learning from radio intercepts that additional fresh British Commonwealth units are joining in to the Allied offensive (50th British Infantry , 2nd South African Division and 1st British Armored Division) , decided to lift siege of Tobruk and retreat Panzer Group Afrika under his command to first Gazala position 16 kilometers west of Tobruk perimeter , then El Aghelia line east of Tripolitania in stages. 8th Army or Mediterranean Command did not know it but they had already won Operation Crusader though not because superiorty of their commanders , tactics , operational doctrine or strategy but due to sheer attrition and logistical build up before the operation.

Berlin , Germany : German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop gave Japanese ambassador Hiroshi Oshima a draft document which noted that Germany would declare war on the United States should Japan and the US enter a state of war.

London , UK : Britain declared war on Hitler’s three partners in the war against Russia—Finland, Hungary and Roumania. Simultaneously, with Britain’s declaration of war, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada did likewise.

Mediterranean Sea : Royal Navy armed boarding vessel HMS Chakdina was was torpedoed and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea between Tobruk, Libya and Alexandria, Egypt by an Italian Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero bomber with the loss of around 400 lives among the 600-plus people on board (including 380 wounded and 100 German and Italian prisoners of war). About 200 of the survivors were rescued by HMS Farndale and HMT Thorgrim.

Baltic Sea : The Germans captured the damaged and abandoned troop ship Iosif Stalin near the Estonian coast with 2,000 survivors still on board.

France : A suspected German WĂźrzburg radar facility was detected at Bruneval in northern France coast.

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