Fall, 1941
Chapter 11
Setbacks for the Germans
October - December
As 1941 entered its final phase, the Germans continued their relentless drive into the Soviet Union, but as the year died so did the weather deteriorate, slowing their advances. In the deserts, the British launched a major offensive to drive back the Germans in Libya and relieve Tobruk, and developments around the world continued to be troubling.
The Eastern Front
The German invasion of the Soviet Union had thus far encountered only stunning success, with entire Soviet armies being enveloped and annihilated, and the Red Air Force all but destroyed. Kiev had fallen, and German troops stood poised to enter the Crimea, and soon after that the gateway to the Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus would be open. In the North, the old Imperial capital at Leningrad was besieged, and the OKW (Oberkommando des Wehrmacht, German High Command) planned to cap the year with the fall of Moscow.
German motorcycle troops on the road to Moscow
On 2 October Hitler issued an order for his armies to commence Operation Typhoon: the capture of Moscow. The next day the Fuhrer made a public speech in Berlin, declaring that the USSR was on the brink of collapse, and that the final defeat of Communism was at hand. But not all was going well for the Wehrmacht as they drove on the Soviet capital.
The first snow of the season was reported by the Germans on 7 October, an indicator that the fair weather that had aided the advance thus far was about to come to an end. Three days later General Georgy Zhukhov, one of the most competent officers in the Red Army, arrived in Moscow from the besieged Leningrad to take command of the defense.
Civilians dig tank traps outside of Moscow
Russian International News Agency
Inside the city, preparations had begun for the coming siege. Evacuations of non-essential civilians and government offices began in early October, as yet more were conscripted to aid in the construction of fortifications, as the streets were barricaded and weapons emplaced. The Germans engaged the Red Army at Borodino on 13 October, fighting on the same field where Napoleon had seen his army mauled in their advance to Moscow in 1812, a pyrrhic victory that spelled the doom of the French Emperor at Moscow itself. Meanwhile, other German forces continued to advance, looking to envelop the city, and Stalin, despite the evacuation of the majority of the government, elected to remain in the capital, issuing orders that it was to be defended to the last man.
Stalin’s speech from Red Square
Moscow was to get a reprieve as October came to a close, as the mud season, or Rasputitsa, set in, bogging down the German panzers and leaving their offensive at a near standstill. The southern pincer, tasked with taking the arms production hub at the city of Tula, was stopped by the strong Soviet defense of the city’s perimeter, further disrupting Operation Typhoon’s timetable.
On 7 November the streets of Moscow were filled with soldiers, although this time not just for the defense. Stalin had made the decision that, despite the Germans being only miles from the city, the annual Revolution Day parade on Red Square would continue as planned. Stalin made a speech and reviewed the troops from atop Lenin’s Mausoleum, after which the parading troops marched onwards to the front, joining the battle on the city’s outskirts.
Soviet soldiers assembled in Red Square listen to Stalin’s speech before marching to the front
Elsewhere, the Germans and their allies continued their offensives as well. At Leningrad the grip of siege continued to tighten, with the supplies dwindling for both the defenders and the trapped civilian population. The Soviets continued to hold the line, with the heavy guns of the Baltic Fleet proving invaluable despite the loss of the battleship Marat. The ship had sunk in shallow water, and her rear batteries remained operational, joining the still functioning warships in providing power naval artillery for the Red Army troops defensing the city.
The Luftwaffe also continued to pound the city as well as the Baltic Fleet warships, with near constant raids over the city, joining the German artillery batteries. Over 1,000 loudspeakers were in place around the city, playing state radio as well as air raid warnings. During the intervals between raids, a metronome was put on air, with its speed indicating incoming air raids or all clear. This ticking sound could be heard across the city, and was often referred to as the heartbeat of the city.
Spanish Blue Division troops near Leningrad
Food supply was becoming critical, with civilian rations cut from 800 grams of bread per day to 400 in early October. A further cut came in November to 250 grams for workers, and only 125 grams for non-workers. Sawdust and other substitutes had to be found to bulk up the bread as flour supplies were exhausted, with starvation spreading as the winter set in. As Lake Ladoga froze, the Red Army began to send convoys on an ice road across the lake starting on 20 November with food and other supplies. The ice was thin, with the drivers of some trucks standing on the running boards of the trucks to bail out should the ice below them give way. Attempts were made as well to evacuate civilians as the convoys returned from the city, but with the hazardous conditions as well as German air and artillery strikes on the ice road progress remained slow. More than 50,000 citizens of Leningrad had died by the end of December.
A Romanian HE114 floatplane, of a type used to interdict the evacuation of Odessa
In the south, the German advance continued in Soviet Ukraine. The garrison at Odessa, which had been besieged since early August, was evacuated by the Soviet Black Sea Fleet in mid October, with Romanian and German forces taking the city shortly afterward. Mariupol on the Sea of Azov fell in early October as well, and Kharkov had fallen by the end of the month. Meanwhile, other German forces entered the Crimea, and on 30 October besieged Sevastopol.
German soldiers take cover while bringing up supplies near Sevastopol
By mid November the Germans had reached Kerch, on the eastern edge of the Crimea, leaving them open to commence an offensive into the Caucasus, and the oil fields beyond the mountains. As the offensives continued, the Germans attacked the city of Rostov, just over the border of Ukraine into the southern Russian SSR, entering the city on 17 November. Despite this, they were beginning to have increasing difficulties. The commander of the 11th Army, General Eugen von Schobert, was killed in a plane crash, forcing the Germans to reassign General Erich von Manstein from Leningrad. Ongoing operations in the Crimea as well as the mop-up operations in Ukraine sapped resources, leaving only the German 1st Panzer Army for the attack, supported by the understrength Romanian 3rd Army along with Italian and Slovakian units. Despite initially taking Rostov in late November, the exhausted Axis forces were pushed back by a Soviet counteroffensive, which led to an enraged Hitler relieving Field Marshal von Rundstedt from command for authorizing the retreat. The Germans in Ukraine thus retreated behind the Mius River to dig in and regroup.
An officer reviews German troops in Kerch on the Crimean Peninsula
In the Crimea itself, the Germans had begun their assault on the peninsula in late October, attacking the Soviet defenses on the Perekop Isthmus. This had been followed by a movement to encircle the city of Sevastopol with its important Soviet naval base, where they set about their siege. The Soviets were well dug in around the city, and had been reinforced with units pulled out of Odessa by the Black Sea Fleet. Once the main Soviet defenses of the Isthmus were broken, the Germans split their forces to envelope Sevastopol and take the city of Kerch on the eastern end of the peninsula, with the Germans effectively controlling the Crimea (aside from Sevastopol) by mid November. Supported by the heavy guns of the Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol would hold on through the winter.
The Red Army was not about to leave the Germans unmolested in the Crimea as the year drew to a close, however, and on 26 December Soviet forces landed near Kerch, pushing the Germans from the city and securing a portion of the peninsula. As additional Soviet troops landed, the German and Romanian units in Eastern Crimea began to withdraw westward to consolidate their defenses, hoping to prevent the Soviets from pushing toward Sevastopol.
North Africa
A British Crusader tank passes a knocked out German Panzer IV during Operation Crusader
As the Germans stalled on the frozen Eastern Front the British had prepared another hammer blow for them in the scorching deserts of North Africa. After a slow month, Operation Crusader commenced on 18 November; a large scale offensive aimed to relieve the Siege of Tobruk and push Rommel and the Afrika Korps back across Libya and away from the Egyptian border. Surprise was achieved on the first day, but on the second Italian forces were able to stop the advance on the Allied left, while forces on the right encountered a panzer unit, although the center thrust toward Tobruk was able to proceed, ending the day within twenty miles of the Allied perimeter at the besieged port.
A Czech gun crew at Tobruk
On 21 November the British 70th Infantry Division launched a breakout from Tobruk to link up with the advancing spearheads, encountering heavy resistance from the German and Italian troops along the perimeter, but found themselves unable to link up with the advancing 7th Armored Division. The Italians had halted the advance, and Rommel had sent in mechanized German units to push the Crusader advance back, although this was unsuccessful, with New Zealand troops linking up with the Tobruk garrison on 27 March, after pushing the Germans from Sidi Rezegh. The Germans and Italians made several attempts to close the corridor into Tobruk, but, faced with supply shortages and increasing casualties, were eventually forced to retreat to Galaza in early December.
Germans captured during Operation Crusader
The new line at Galaza, some ten miles from Tobruk, was attacked on 13 December, but was able to hold against the initial assaults before the Germans pulled back again to a new line at El Agheila, where the British and Allied attack was finally blunted as their supply lines extended and the Germans’ shortened. A rearguard panzer action at El Haseia further damaged the British forces, allowing some breathing room for Rommel to dig in and refit.
Rommel confers with German and Italian officers at El Agheila
German Federal Archives
Africa
British troops inspect Italian rifles surrendered at Gondar
The war in Africa was nearing its end, as the Italian forces had by this point in the war been pushed into a final stronghold at Gondar in northern Ethiopia. The offensive to destroy this holdout began on 13 November, and by 22 November the Italian perimeter had been breached, and the Regia Aeronautica’s last operation aircraft was grounded, leaving the British in control of the air. Soon after the Italians were driven from the mountains overlooking the fortress, and on 27 November British forces entered the town, as the remnants of the Italian army collapsed and surrendered, ending the campaign in eastern Africa with an Allied victory.
The War at Sea
The damaged American destroyer USS Kearney entering Reykjavik in Iceland after being hit be a German torpedo
The war in the Atlantic continued as well, with the Germans U-boat campaign continuing against the convoys that supplied Britain’s lifeblood. Following the incident with the American destroyer USS Greer in September, US warships had begun an undeclared war against the Kriegsmarine, and on 17 October this came to a head when the destroyer USS Kearney took a torpedo hit while depth charging a U-boat in defense of a convoy, with the damaged destroyer managing to limp into the US controlled harbor at Reykjavik in Iceland.
The Kearney was not the only US ship to be hit, as on 31 October another destroyer, the USS Reuben James, was torpedoed by U-552 while escorting a convoy. The hit detonated her forward magazine, blasting the bow of the destroyer off and causing her to rapidly sink. Only 44 of her complement of 143 survived the sinking.
HMAS Australia
Action also took place near Australia, when on 19 November the Australian cruiser HMAS Sydney, a decorated veteran of battles in the Mediterranean, encountered the Kriegsmarine raider Kormoran off the western Australian coast. Kormoran was a German commerce raider, essentially a converted cargo ship equipped with concealed guns, who in this case was sailing under a Dutch flag to ward off suspicion as she moved to mine shipping lanes.
After a short period in which the cruiser approached the raider and attempted to verify her identity, the Germans opened fire, with the Australians returning fire almost instantaneously. In addition to several gun hits, the raider fired torpedoes, which hit the cruiser and caused her to begin to take on water in the bow. Kormoran was also hit, with her engine rooms damaged and a fuel take set alight, with her engines completely failing shortly afterward as Sydney limped southward. Sydney broke up on the surface and sank hours later with all 645 hands. Kormoran remained disabled, and as the fire raged out of control the Germans abandoned ship in the afternoon, and eventually 318 of her complement of 399 were rescued and became POWs.
The Italian destroyer RM Fulmine
The battle for control of the Mediterranean also continued. The first major action came in early November, when an Italian convoy bringing supplies to North Africa, led by the German freighter Duisburg and screened by ten destroyers and two heavy cruisers of the Regia Marina. Having intercepted and decrypted the Italian and German signals regarding the convoy, ships of the Royal Navy’s Force H sortied out from Gibraltar to intercept the convoy, with two light cruisers and two destroyers. Taking advantage of the moonlight, the British ships were able to slip past the heavy ships and engage the convoy proper, with the end result being the sinking of the destroyer RM Fulmine and all of the merchantmen. No British ships were sunk, and only one destroyer took any damage.
HMS Ark Royal sinks in the Mediterranean, as another ship comes alongside to take on survivors
The situation was not to last, however, as naval balance of power would begin to shift in favor of the Italians only days later. While returning from Malta, the carrier HMS Ark Royal was hit by a torpedo fired from U-81, hitting amidships, causing power failures and significant flooding. The engines continued to run, with communications to the bridge severed, forcing more water into the carrier and enlarging the opening in the hull. The captain ordered the ship abandoned as she began to take on a serious list, but Admiral James Somerville, the commander at Gibraltar, was not yet ready to lose the carrier. Salvage operations were attempted, with damage control crews going back aboard to stabilize the sinking ship, and a tug dispatched. The flooding proved irreversible, however, and she capsized and sank on the morning of November 14, twelve hours after being hit. With the damage to HMS Illustrious having forced her retirement from the theater, the Royal Navy was left without a carrier in the Mediterranean for the time being.
Newsreel footage of the destruction of HMS Barham
The loss of Ark Royal was only the beginning of the troubles for the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean as the year came to a close. On 25 November the battleship HMS Barham was steaming from Alexandria to aid in interdicting Italian convoys when her task force was detected by U-331, which was subsequently able to evade the screening destroyers. A spread of four torpedoes was fired, with three hitting the battleship almost simultaneously. The ship quickly rolled over to port, and an explosion in her after magazine quickly destroyed the battleship utterly. 862 sailors went down with the ship, with only 337 rescued. Notably, the explosion and sinking of Barham was captured on film by a correspondent on the battleship HMS Valiant, although the film was not released until after the war.
A small victory was had at Cape Bon, with two Italian cruisers sunk with no losses to the British, but as the year came to a close the Italians would mount a daring attack on the harbor of Alexandria itself. Using frogmen with manned torpedoes, they were able to enter the harbor and plant charges on the battleships HMS Valiant and HMS Queen Elizabeth, along with a Norwegian tanker. The resulting explosions disabled both battleships, the tanker and a destroyer that was moored near the tanker, and as a result the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean was crippled, leaving the Regia Marina dominant in the theater once again.
The Homefront
Australian Prime Minister John Curtain
On the assorted home fronts various deveolpments took place as the 1941 waned. In Germany Hitler made his first public speeches since the invasion of the USSR, where he declared that Moscow would fall and the Soviet Government along with it. Developments of a darker nature were also transpiring, with the Hitler announcing to his subordinates at a Berlin conference his intention to exterminate the Jewish People from the world. As he did so, the Berlin Police had already begun mass arrests of Jews in the capitol, with orders to deport them eastward to an uncertain fate.
On the Allied side, the Americans had representatives in Moscow, where they promised the same Lend-Lease equipment and financial support Britain had been enjoying. In political news, Australian Prime Minister Arthur Fadden was forced from office after just over a month, replaced by John Curtin in early October.
Occupied Europe
A French newspaper announces Petain’s sentence for the (yet to be tried) leaders of the Third Republic
By late 1941 essentially all of mainland Europe was under Axis control, with much of it being directly under German occupation or ruled by puppet governments. In France the Vichy government issued indictments of several prominent leaders of the old Third Republic for treason, including President Labrun, Prime Ministers Daladier and Reynaud, and General Maurice Gamelin. Within a week Philippe Petain, the Vichy Head of State, announced that he had already issued sentences of life imprisonment for the accused, despite their trial having not even begun.
Jews killed in Odessa by the Germans
In the east, the subjugated peoples found themselves at the mercy of the Nazis and their cronies. At Stanisławów in Occupied Poland the Germans force marched 12,000 Jews to predug graves outside the city, whereupon they were all show and buried. Similar massacres would occur at Lubny, as well as Odessa in Occupied Ukraine, Kaunas in Occupied Lithuania, Riga in Latvia and others. In a notable massacre, an outbreak of typhus began inside the concentration camp at Bogdanovka in western Ukraine, with the Romanian and German contolling authorities electing to liquidate the camp in response. 40,000 Jews were murdered, most by locking them into stables which were set ablaze, with others shot in the surrounding woods. Still others were worked to death in the freezing temperatures to dig graves for the vast quantities of corpses.
German troops assembly civilians at Kragujevac before massacring them
The German occupation authorities also continued their brutal reprisals elsewhere. In Yugoslavia the partisan uprising continued until the destruction of the communist proto-state set up at Uzice in late November, with massacres of civilians at Kragujevac leaving thousands dead in reprisals for resistance activies in the region. A similar massacre took palce in Occupied Greece, as the Germans razed the village of Mesovouno.
Meanwhile, the raids by British Commandoes continued against strategic targets in the Occupied Territories, offering continued harassment and disruption of German resources away from the fighting front in addition to that caused by resistance forces.
Around the World
Hideki Tojo with his cabinet in Tokyo
Other developments were coming as well around the world, mostly in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Japanese Empire had been increasingly isolated by both the British and Americans for their continuing aggression in the region, and the situation only continued to deteriorate. On 18 October General Hideki Tojo, an outspoken advocate of expansion of the ongoing war with China, became Prime Minister. Tojo was also an ardent ultranationalist, as well as a devoted worshipper of the Emperor, who he considered divine in accordance with the Japanese tradition of the time. His appointment was just the latest in a series of events that was drawing the Empire of the Rising Sun closer to the ever growing global conflict now raging.
President Manuel Quezon of the Philippine Commonwealth
As the situation in the Pacific and Asia continued to escalate, President Manuel Quezon won reelection as President of the Commonwealth of the Philippines, the administration of the American controlled archipelago as it moved toward a planned independence. As high level diplomatic talks took place with Japanese representatives in Washington, the Americans placed their forces on high alert for possible Japanese attacks, specifically issuing warnings to the Philippines and several minor islands. It was assumed, however, that the Hawaiian Islands were in no danger at this point. None the less, the island was of great strategic importance, as the US Pacific Fleet had been rebased there in 1940 as the Japanese continued to increase their aggressive stance.
As it was, the Japanese Combined Fleet sortied out from Tokyo bay on 10 November, heading to an unknown destination. On 2 December the code phrase “Climb Mount Niitaka” was broadcast, confirming the orders of the force.
Timeline
10-1-1941
After meeting in Moscow, American representatives authorize one billion dollars worth of military aid to the USSR
Finnish troops take Petrozavodsk, the capitol and largest city of the Karelo-Finnish SSR
10-2-1941
Hitler issues an order of the day outlining the intent to capture Moscow, calling it the “last great, decisive battle of the war”
10-3-1941
Hitler holds a speech in Berlin, his first since Operation Barbarossa began, in which he claims that the Soviets are on the brink of total collapse
10-6-1941
German forces take Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov in Ukraine
10-7-1941
As the Germans drive on Moscow they encounter snow for the first time
German forces encircle the Soviets at Vyazma, only 145 miles from Moscow
Joseph Stalin lifts the ban on religion in the USSR as a method to boost morale
John Curtain becomes Prime Minister of Australia
10-8-1941
Mariupol in Soviet Ukraine falls to the Germans, as does Orylo southwest of Moscow
10-9-1941
Roosevelt requests permission from the US Congress to arm American merchant ships
Vichy courts indict several officials from the fallen Third Republic for treason during the Fall of France
10-10-1941
Georgy Zhukov takes command of the defense of Moscow, having been recalled from his command at Leningrad
Field Marshal Walther von Reichenau issues orders that the German 6th Army is to consider all Jews as partisans, and that all partisans were subject to summary execution rather than treated as POWs
10-11-1941
Roosevelt requests that Churchill share all atomic weapons research with the Americans, to which Churchill agrees
The Soviets begin to evacuate women and children from Moscow, provided they are not being employed in war related work such as construction of defenses or production
10-12-1941
The Blue Division, comprised of volunteers from Franco’s Spain, enters the German lines near Leningrad
Up to 12,000 Jews are marched to pre-dug mass graves in Stanisławów in Occupied Poland and show by the SS in what becomes known as the Bloody Sunday Massacre
10-13-1941
The Napoleonic era battlefield at Borodino is taken by the Germans as they advance on Moscow
German forces moving to surround Moscow from the north take Kalin and Rzhev, while Kaluga falls to the south
10-14-1941
The Berlin Police issues orders for moving the Jews of Berlin to occupied areas in the east
10-15-1941
The Soviet Black Sea Fleet evacuates the remaining defenders of Odessa, where they had been holding out since 8 August
German spearheads reach Mozhaysk, only 70 miles from Moscow
Soviet government officials and office begin to evacuate Moscow, although Stalin intends to stay in the capital
Orders are issued in Occupied Poland that any Jews found outside of Ghettos are to be shot on sight
10-16-1941
German and Romanian forces take Odessa following the Soviet evacuation
Almost 2,000 Jews report for relocation from Lubny in Poland, are are massacred by the SS
Petain announces he has condemned the defendants in upcoming treason trial to life imprisonment, although the trial itself will still proceed despite sentencing already being issued.
10-17-1941
The American destroyer USS Kearny is hit by a U-boat while escorting a convoy in the Atlantic, and is able to limp to Iceland for repairs
10-18-1941
Hideki Tojo becomes Prime Minister of Japan
The Imperial Japanese Army Secret Police, the Kempeitai, arrests Soviet spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo
10-19-1941
Stalin issues orders that Moscow be defended to the last man
10-21-1941
Zhukov officially takes command of all Soviet forces in the Moscow area
Almost 3,000 Serbian men and boys are killed by the Wehrmacht at Kragujevac in Yugoslavia as reprisals for insurgent activity in the area, with 100 killed for every German soldier dead, and 50 for every German wounded
10-22-1941
German SS Einsatzgruppen and Romanian troops massacre 100,000 Jewish population of Odessa
The first air raid drill is held in Tokyo
10-23-1941
The British destroyer HMS Cossack, which had participated in the hunt for the Graf Spee and the Bismarck, as well as led the capture of the Altmark in 1940, is sunk by a German U-boat
German occupation troops kill all adult males in the Greek village of Mesovouno
10-24-1941
Kharkov in Soviet Ukraine and nearby Belgorod fall to the Germans
10-25-1941
Due to increasingly poor winter weather, the German drive on Moscow slows to a near standstill
A ghetto is established in Riga
Roosevelt issues a condemnation of German massacres in Europe
10-27-1941
German forces enter the Crimean Peninsula
10-28-1941
German forces breach the Soviet defensive lines near the arms manufacturing hub of Tula near Moscow
The NKVD executes 20 Soviet officals for treason in the city of Kuybyshev on the Volga River
10-29-1941
9,000 Jews are killed by the SS in Kaunas, Lithuania
German forces are pushed back from Tula
10-30-1941
The Germans reach the port of Sevastopol in the Crimea, commencing a siege
10-31-1941
The American destroyer USS Reuben James is sunk by a U-boat while escorting a convoy in the Atlantic, becoming the first American warship lost in the war
11-2-1941
Finnish forces complete the capture of Eastern Karelia
11-3-1941
German forces take Kursk
11-5-1941
Japanese Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto issues orders to the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet for an upcoming major operation
11-6-1941
The Germans begin the massacre of 18,000 Jews in Rovno in Soviet Ukraine
11-7-1941
The Luftwaffe sinks the Soviet hospital ship Armenia near the Crimea, killing up to 7,000 civilians
The Red Army holds its annual parade in Red Square to commemorate the October Revolution, despite the Germans being so near. The troops march from the parade ground directly to the battlefield
US Congress authorizes the arming of US merchant ships
Japanese officials are informed of a plan to increase the scope of Japanese military action in the Asia-Pacific region
11-8-1941
A ghetto is created in Lwów
A Royal Navy force intercepts and destroys a Regia Marina convoy heading to North Africa
11-9-1941
Yalta falls to the Germans
11-10-1941
The Germans launch a major attack on Sevastopol
Japanese warships sortie out into the Pacific
11-11-1941
President Manuel Quezon wins a second term as President of the Philippine Commonwealth
11-12-1941
British commandoes raid Houlgate in France
11-13-1941
Gondar, the last stronghold of the Italians in Africa, is besieged by British Imperial and Ethiopian forces
11-14-1941
The British carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks in the Mediterranean after being torpedoed
11-16-1941
The Germans take Kerch, on the eastern edge of the Crimean Peninsula
11-17-1941
The Soviets halt the German/Finnish advance on Murmansk from Karelia
11-18-1941
The British launch Operation Crusader: an offensive in North Africa intended to push the Afrika Korps back into Libya and relieve the Siege of Tobruk
An attempt by British Commandoes to kill or capture Afrika Korps commander Erwin Rommel ends in failure
11-19-1941
The German raider Kormoran enages and sinks the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney off the western Australian coast. Kormoran later succumbs to the damaged inflicted by Sydney
British forces are within ten miles of Tobruk
11-20-1941
The Germans counterattack the British at Sidi Rezegh near Tobruk
High level diplomatic talks begin in Washington between American and Japanese representatives
11-21-1941
The Germans attack the Soviets at Rostov-on-Don
The British 70th Division breaks out of Tobruk
11-22-1941
Fort Capuzzo on the Libyan-Egyptian border is taken by New Zealand troops
11-23-1941
The British are forced to pull back from Sidi Rezegh as the Germans outflank them
11-24-1941
The Germans withdraw from Rostov-on-Don
11-25-1941
The British battleship HMS Barnham is sunk off Alexandria by a U-boat
11-26-1941
The Germans retreat from Sidi Rezegh, allowing the British 7th Armored to retake the town
11-27-194
British forces relieve Tobruk
US forces in the Pacific are placed on alert for possible Japanese attacks against the Philippines, Malaysia and Borneo
Gondar falls ending Italian resistance in East Africa
11-29-1941
The communist partisan state set up at Uzice in Yugoslavia is destroyed by the Germans
With the defeat at Rostov, the Germans pul back along the coast of the Sea of Azov
11-30-1941
The Germans in eastern Ukraine retreat to the Mius River to reorganize
25,000 Jews are murdered by the SS in Riga
12-1-1941
Field Marshal von Rundstedt resigns his command after the retreat from Rostov
The Germans nearly break through New Zealander lines at Belmat in Libya before being stopped by British armor
12-2-1941
The last Soviet troops defending the besieged naval base at Hanko in Finland are destroyed
The code phrase “Climb Mount Niitaka” is sent to the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Combined Fleet, instructing them to proceed with their attack plan
US Intelligence intercepts Japanese orders to destroy sensitive material at their embassy
12-3-1941
German counterattacks in North Africa are stopped by British forces
12-4-1941
Top secret US war plans are leaked to the press
12-5-1941
Britain officially declares war on Finland, Romania and Hungary
12-7-1941
Hitler issues an order for political dissidents to be quietly arrested
Rommel pulls his forces back to a defensive line at Galaza
12-9-1941
British commandoes raid the town of Floro in Occupied Norway
12-12-1941
At a meeting in the Reich Chancellery in Berlin, Hitler announces he intends to annihilate the Jewish People from the world
12-13-1941
Two Italian cruisers are sunk in action with British and Dutch ships off Cape Bon in Tunisia
An attack by New Zealand and Indian troops on the German Galaza Line are repulsed by the Germans
12-16-1941
The Afrika Korps pulls back to El Agheila
Hitler orders no retreat on the Eastern Front
12-17-1941
British and Italian convoys, with full escorts, clash in the Mediterranean, but neither side claims victory
12-18-1941
German Army Group Center commander Field Marshal Fedor von Bock relinquishes his command due to health issues. He is replaced by Gunther von Kluge
12-19-1941
Italian frogmen with manned torpedoes enter the harbor at Alexandria and disable two British battleships, shifting the balance of power in the Mediterranean back to the Italians
12-20-1941
Due to supply shortages Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels institutes a clothing drive to get winter items to the German soldiers on the Eastern Front
12-21-1941
After an outbreak of typhus in the Bogdanovka concentration camp, the German and Romanian guards deceide to liquidate the inmates, leading to 30,000 murdered
The British escort carrier HMS Audacity is torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic
12-22-1941
Allied forces reach Beda Fomm but are stopped by German panzers. As the situation deteriorates, German and Italian forces are evacuated by sea from Benghazi
12-25-1941
Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke takes command as British Chief of the General Staff
General Heinz Guderian is relieved of command of the German 2nd Panzer Group for refusing to follow Hitler’s no retreat order
Free French forces seize control of the islands Saint Pierre and Miquelon off Canada from the local Vichy administration
12-26-1941
Soviet forces attempt an amphibious landing on the Kerch Peninsula in the Crimea to relieve the Siege of Sevastopol
12-29-1941
The city of Kerch in the Crimea is retaken by Soviet forces
12-30-1941
Operation Crusader comes to an end, with the British and Imperial forces having made significant gains against the Afrika Korps
The Germans are forced to pause their attacks on Sevastopol to deal with the Soviet amphibious landings