30 August 1941
Leningrad Front : German troops captured Mga, Leningrad Oblast, Russia, severing the last railway leading into the city of Leningrad. Red Army retook it back next day with a counter attack but on 1st September German forces recaptured Mga for good and drove Russians away.
The Russians used every possible armament with which to defend Leningrad. On 30 August the naval guns of the Neva squadron had gone into action against the German positions at Gatchina. On the following day, more than 340 shells were fired. Many naval guns were taken from their ships and mounted on land. Even the gun batteries of the forty-year-old cruiser Aurora , which had fired blanks on the Winter Palace in November 1917, frightening the remnants of the Provisional Government into surrendering to the Bolsheviks, were dismounted, and placed in position on the Pulkovo heights.
Ukraine : 1st Panzer Group of German Army Group South under Paul von Kleist and 2nd Panzer Group of German Army Group Center under Heinz Guderian began to envelope the Soviet Southwestern Front under Mikhail Kirponos at Kiev, Ukraine.
Romanian troops captured Kubanka, Ukraine, but Soviet forces recaptured the city later in the day.
Berlin , Germany : German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop asked Admiral Soemu Toyoda regarding a possible Japanese attack on Vladivostok, Russia; the Japanese Navy admiral responded by saying that Japan was preparing for such a venture, and required more time to complete the preparations
Kola Peninsula , Russia : Soviet destroyers Grozny, Oritsky, and Kuibyshev escorted the Allied convoy Dervish into the Dvina River and on to Arkhangelsk, Russia. Crewmen of the merchant ships of this first Allied convoy to arrive in Arkhangelsk reported poor cooperation from the Soviets. No stevedores were found so the crewmen attempted to unload the cargo themselves, only to be stopped by Soviet armed guards because they did not have the proper passes to step onto the shore; the situation was only improved after the arrival of higher ranking Soviet officers later in the day.
Mediterranean Sea : Italian coaster Alfa was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Unbeaten off Sicily. Italian cargo ship Egadi was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy Swordfish torpedo bombers off Lampedusa. Italian cargo ship Liv was bombed and sunk by RAF Wellington bombers off Libya.
Norway : Two German cargo ships Bahia Laura and Donau were torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy submarine HMS Trident off Lofoten Islands. More than 400 German troops aboard them en route to Finland were drowned
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31 August 1941
UK : A mixed-gender anti-aircraft battery with 200 men and an equal number of women was established, with great public interest, in Richmond Park, London, England, United Kingdom. The women were the first to take a combat role in Britain.
Leningrad : Russians are turning old capital of Tsaist Empire into a fortress while German Army Group North began to tighten the noose around the city. Shop window were full of sandbags , roads are mined , fenced with barbed wire and defended with hastily built roadblocks and trenches , militia units march through the streets and every gate is guarded. Leningrad Communist Party Secretary Andrey Zhadanov declared : âWe must dig a grave for fascism in front of Leningradâ The city was almost totally surrounded and will be in range not only Luftwaffe bombers but also medium artillery.
Vilnius , Baltics : In German-occupied Vilna, August 31 saw a German âactionâ against the Jews of the city. One eye witness, Aba Kovner, saw two soldiers dragging a woman away by the hair. As they did so, a bundle fell from her arms. It was her baby boy. One of the soldiers bent down, âtook the infant, raised him into the air, grasped him by the leg. The woman crawled on the earth, took hold of his boot and pleaded for mercy. But the soldier took the boy and hit him with his head against the wall, once, twice, smashed him against the wall.â That night, according to the precise German records of the âactionâ, 2,019 Jewish women, 864 men and 817 children were taken out of the city on trucks to the pits at Ponar, where they were shot.
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1st September 1941
Baltics : German cruiser Köln began supporting the invasion of Dagö and Ăsel islands and disabled Soviet coastal batteries at Cape Ristna.
Berlin : All Jews above the age of six in Germany and occupied lands were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David with the word âJudeâ inscribed in black within; this was to be effective 19 Sep 1941
Belarussia : The 9th Company of German Police Battalion 322 participated in the murder of more than 900 Jews from the Minsk area in Byelorussia. On the same day, the Police Regiment South reported shooting 88 Jews, and Battalion 320 reported shooting 380.
Atlantic Ocean : Battleships USS Idaho, USS Mississippi, and USS New Mexico, escorted by 2 cruisers and 13 destroyers, were dispatched to patrol the Denmark Strait to protect American merchant shipping.
Smolensk : Soviet Marshal Timonshenko started a massive atack with three armies on Gomel , aiming to recapture Smolensk.
Leningrad : German forces recapture Mga , officially severing last railway link out of Leningrad
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2nd September 1941
Leningrad : German advance guard reached 12 miles east of the city but halted there
North Sea : German cargo ship Oslebhausen struck a mine and sunk off Norway.
3rd September 1941
USSR : The equivalent of a whole Red Army Division under NKVD officers was sent south to round up and deport all the Soviet Unionâs ethnic Germans they could find. By Jan 1942, 800,000 Germans from all parts of the Soviet Union had been shipped eastward
Ukraine : German and Romanian troops captured the village of Vakarzhany, Ukraine.
Poland : Experimental trials of gas chambers at Block II of Auschwitz Concentration Camp in Poland began, using Soviet prisoners of war as test subjects. Zyklon-B was used.
Spitzbergen , Arctic Circle : British commandos fullfilled their mission of wrecking coal mines and evacuate the mining community , leave the islands
Atlantic Ocean : British cargo ship Fort Richepanse was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-567
Mediterranean Sea : Italian cargo ship Andrea Gritti was torpedoed and sunk by Royal Navy Swordfish torpedo bomber aircraft off Calabria. 350 Italian trops on board lost. Italian cargo vessel Commandante Bafile grounded off Sardinia , then sunk by RAF Wellington bombers
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4th September 1941
Leningrad : Finnish troops captured Beloostrov, which was 20 miles from Leningrad, Russia. Germany requested Finland to immediately press on against the city, but Finland rejected, noting that Finland was only attempting to reclaim territory lost to the Soviets.
Atlantic Ocean : American destroyer USS Greer pursued German submarine U-652 for 2 hours 190 miles southwest of Iceland; and called RAF aircraft to track and attack the submarine , the two ships attacked each other but no damage was inflicted on either side. The torpedoes fired at USS Greer missed and depth charged launched by USS Greer did not damage U-652. The torpedoes aimed at USS Greer represented the first German attack on a US warship. âFrom now on,â declared President Roosevelt, âif German or Italian vessels of war enter these waters, they do so at their own peril.â With Rooseveltâs words, an undeclared state of war existed between the United States and Germany in the North Atlantic.
France : The first Lysander mission to France took place when a British SOE (Special Operations Executive) agent was landed in a field near Issoudun, France, about 100 kilometers south of Orleans, and another was collected. The Lysander aircraft, painted matte black, spent just two minutes on the ground.
London : Canadian Prime Minister William MacKenzie King , visiting London , warned today that Britain is the only obstacle in the way of attack by Hitlerâs âenslaving hordes of new barbarians on New Worldâ He makes a plea for US to make declaretion of support for Britain similar to Churchill for Americans in Far East.
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5th September 1941
Germany : RAF Bomber Command attacked chemical works at HĂŒls, Germany
UK : British 1st Parachute Brigade was founded with Brigadier Richard Gale in command
Hawaii , USA : Joseph Rochefortâs USN cryptanalytic team detected sudden increase in Japanese naval radio traffic.
France : The exhibition âLe Juif et la Franceâ (âThe Jews and Franceâ) opened in Paris, France based on the work of the anti-Semitic French Professor George Montandon with the urging of the Nazi German occupation.
Baltics : German forces complate occupation of Estonia
Atlantic Ocean : Norwegian cargo ship Einvik straggled behind Convoy SC41 , was torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-501.
Mediterranean Sea : Italian cargo ship Isaco was torpedoed and sunk east of Campania by Free Dutch Navy submarine O21. In Aegean Sea , Italian tanker Maya was torpedoed by Royal Navy submarine HMS Persaus and damaged so badly , she had to ground herself off Dardanelles , neutral Turkey. US cargo ship Steel Seaferer was bombed and sunk by Luftwaffe JU-88 bombers off Shadvan , Egypt
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