Some historians consider 20 August 1941 to be the day that the siege of Leningrad begins, and this is the day that most “900-day siege” references use. This is because 20 August 1941 is the day the Germans cut the railroad line from Moscow, effectively isolating Leningrad from the rest of Russia. However, it is an arbitrary date, as the Germans are still struggling on the 20h to reach Leningrad and are facing fierce opposition from Soviet troops guarding the approaches to Leningrad (see below. In Leningrad, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov orders the formation of Home Guard battalions in the city. These ad hoc units are formed mainly by women and teenagers armed with knives, ceremonial swords they have taken from above family fireplaces, hunting equipment, and whatever can be found in Leningrad museums.
German OKW Chief Wilhelm Keitel notifies the Finnish high command (General Waldemar Erfuth) that he will be sending a plan for Finnish military involvement in the capture of Leningrad. Marshall Mannerheim, however, confides to Erfuth that he has no plans to make anything more than a token attack on Leningrad. Mannerheim has both political and military reasons to avoid an attack on the Soviet Union regardless of what the Germans want. When the German plan arrives, he says that he intends to say “No.” This is not a unique attitude: already some Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus have balked at marching past pre-war borders. Mannerheim’s consistent position throughout his career is that he has no intention of ever trying to invade Russia, he simply wants to recover territory to which he believes that Finland has historical claims. The Soviets, of course, consider all territory currently occupied by Soviet troops to be theirs regardless of such historical claims.
In the Far North sector, the Finns prepare an attack by IV Corps to capture Viipuri. The Soviet 43rd and 123rd Rifle Divisions are withdrawing in that direction already. The Finnish 18th Division of the II Corps, with the 12 Division and Light Brigade T (Colonel Tiiainen) crosses the Vuoksi River, and the Soviet 115th Rifle Division moves to block them. While the Finns are advancing steadily in the Karelian Isthmus, the terrain increasingly favors the Soviet defenders as the Isthmus grows narrower as the fighting approaches Leningrad.
The Finnish attack toward the Murmansk railway line at Loukhi is bogged down after offering much promise only a week ago. The Finnish high command sends a battalion from the force that has bogged down near Ukhta (Kalevala) to help out. As seems always to be the case in the Far North, the Soviets have moved just enough troops into position at Loukhi at the last minute to avoid losing truly strategic positions.
In the Army Group North Sector, the Wehrmacht approaches Voiskovitsy on the road to Leningrad in the afternoon. A small group of Soviet tanks armed with 76-mm guns and reinforced with additional armor is hidden along the road and allow the advance German units to pass unopposed. Soviet Senior Lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov then gives his “Klim Voroshilov” KV-1E heavy tank the order to fire, and the Soviet tankers implement their usual tactic of destroying the first and last vehicles within sight. It is a bloodbath. The Soviets destroy 22 panzers and a total of 43 armored vehicles, plus artillery pieces and other equipment. Kolobanov’s task force takes over 150 hits but remains in action. For firing the first shot, Kolobanov receives the Order of the Red Banner, his gun commander the Order of Lenin, his senior driver the Order of the Red Banner, and two others in his tank are given the Order of the Red Star.
Elsewhere, the German 32 Corps (General Walter Kuntze) begins attacking Tallinn, Estonia. The Soviet forces there are surrounded, and their only hope of escape is by sea. Remnants of Soviet Marshal G.I. Kulik’s 54th Army tries to escape through German lines north of Luga and are destroyed. German 41 Corps of Panzer Group 4 (General Reinhardt) and elements of the 18th Army isolate about 30,000 Soviet troops of the Soviet Luga Operational Group.
German troops south of Leningrad stage daring assaults that succeed due to sheer surprise and audacity. A unit of German 16th Army led by Sergeant Fege of the 45th Infantry Regiment cuts the Moscow-Leningrad rail line southeast of Chudovo by taking a railway bridge in a surprise attack before the Soviet defenders can blow it up. Other German troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel Matussik of the 2nd Battalion, 45h Infantry Regiment proceed further east in a captured truck and take another important railway bridge over the Volkhov River after finding it unguarded. These successes sever the last Soviet railway line from Leningrad to Moscow and solidify the German line — for the moment.
In the Army Group Center sector, both Panzer Group 2 (General Guderian) and the 2nd Army continue moving toward Bryansk. Soviet 24th Army continues the Soviet attacks against the German “lightning rod” position at Yelnya. The German defenders at Yelnya are holding their position but report that they have lost about 1000 men in the last six days.
In the Army Group South sector, the German 11th Army moves close to the capture of Kherson (Cherson) on the Black Sea. The Germans already have their eyes on the Crimea further to the south. Hitler, in particular, is worried about the Soviets using Crimea as a launching point for Red Air Force raids on the Romanian oil fields. The Romanian Air Force, assisting the troops attacking Odesa, destroy a Soviet armored train. German 17th Army establishes a bridgehead across the Dneipr River at Kremenchuk, Ukraine.
In a top-secret mission, Soviet NKVD troops under Boris Epov and Aleksandr Petrovsky, sent specially from Moscow on personal orders from Stalin, blow up the Lenin-Dnieproges Dam at Zaporizhzhia (Zaporizhzhya). The resulting water surge kills an estimated 20,000-100,000 Ukrainians. The dam had the largest statue of Vladimir Lenin in Ukraine. The flow of water temporarily cuts off part of the city of Zaporizhzhya from the advancing Wehrmacht. The dam’s destruction is filmed, perhaps to prove to Stalin that it had been done as ordered.
The Red Air Force sends nine bombers to attack Berlin.
Soviet minesweeper Buy hits two mines and sinks in the Baltic Sea off Hogland.
German torpedo boat S-58 torpedoes and sinks Soviet minesweeper Pirmunas in the Väinameri Sea (Gulf of Riga).
The Spanish “Blue” Division (250th Division) begins moving to the Front south of Leningrad.
Erich Koch officially is appointed Reichskommissar for Ukraine.
Stalin continues his purge against field commanders who have failed against the Germans, and, in typical Stalinesque style, this extends to their families. The NKVD arrests the wife, E.N. Khanchin-Kachalova, and her mother, E.I. Khanhchina, of the deceased and disgraced (by Soviet standards) commander of the Soviet 28th Army, General V.Ia. Kachalov. The entire Kachalov incident is murky, with some evidence that Kachalov actually survived for a time after his supposed death and that he perished while fighting as a partisan. However, there is little question that Kachalov died a hero by most normal standards. The two women ultimately are sentenced to 8 years in Siberian camps, where the older woman perishes in 1944. Mrs. Kachalov is finally released in 1949 and returns to Moscow. This incident turns into a long-lasting campaign by Kachalov’s wife to clear his name which proved successful only after Stalin had died in 1953. Mrs. Kachalov in 1957.
With the situation on the Leningrad front grim, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov attends the first meeting of the Leningrad “aktiv” (Council for the Defense of Leningrad). He and Andrei Zhdanov, the local Communist leader, craft an appeal for release to the press, the famous “Appeal to the People of Leningrad.” It is also signed by Pyotr Popkov, chairman of the Leningrad Soviet. It calls for the citizens of Leningrad to stand up and fight the approaching Wehrmacht. The Appeal is released on the 21st.
German Chancellor Adolf Hitler ordered his chief architect Albert Speer to use captured armament from the Eastern front to be included as decorations for Berlin buildings in recognition of his victory over the Bolsheviks.
At Bila Tserkva in Ukraine, the German 295th Infantry Division is ordered to assist with the killing of schoolchildren locked in a school for days without food or water. The unit’s two army chaplains protest. Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel (Oberstleutnant) Helmuth Groscurth, who privately agrees with the chaplains, calls the Sixth Army headquarters for instructions, and they tell him to put it in writing. Groscurth duly forwards a written report to headquarters written by the chaplains — a daring act since merely submitting such a report implies disagreement with previously issued orders. The report concludes:
In the case in question, measures against women and children were undertaken which in no way differ from atrocities carried out by the enemy about which the troops are continually being informed
The commander of the Sixth Army, Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau reads the report and characterizes it as:
incorrect, inappropriate and impertinent in the extreme.
Reichenau personally orders the children killed and sends a representative, SS-Obersturmfuhrer August Hafner, to the division to make sure that the order is carried out — which it is on 21 August. Hafner writes that, when he arrives, the German troops already have dug a grave in the woods. Following normal procedure, the children are lined up along the edge of the pit and shot so that they fall into it. Local Ukrainians, no doubt including some relatives of the children, are made to watch.
Incidents like these belie later claims that ordinary German Army units did not participate in exterminations on the Eastern Front and that only SS units carried them out. Evidence shows that this and similar incidents badly affected the morale of ordinary German soldiers such as Groscurth. Naturally, the Soviets also learned of such incidents, with predictable consequences.
In a letter to his brother a few months later, Groscurth wrote of Reichenau and his like: “One can’t view the responsible people with anything but the deepest contempt. Because this is so, Germany will be destroyed; I no longer have the slightest doubt of that”
After sundown, the second mass round-up of Jews in Paris began at the request of the Gestapo’s Jewish Affairs Department. Over the next five days a total of 4,232 Jews were arrested. Their French passports were confiscated, and they would eventually be deported to the Drancy Concentration Camp and later to various concentration camps in Germany and Eastern Europe.
In Berlin, Reinhard Heydrich receives a report from Einsatzgruppen RSHA IV-A-1 (Operational Report USSR no. 58) detailing the extermination of 4,500 Jews in Pinsk in retaliation for the death of a local militiaman.
The entire Banat region of Yugoslavia is declared Judenrein, “purged of Jews.”
Pro-German Serbs propose collaborationist Serbian Volunteer Detachments to aid in suppressing Yugoslavian partisans. In general, Serbs support the British while Croats support the Germans, so this is a welcome development for the Germans and Italians.
On the Yugoslavian island of Pag, Italian troops that arrive to occupy the island find evidence of mass murders of Serbians and Jews by local Ustachi fascists. A total of 293 women, 91 children, and 791 bodies overall are found.
Royal Navy submarine HMS Unique torpedoes and sinks Italian troopship Esperiea about 11 miles north of Tripoli. There are 31 deaths and 1139 survivors. The rest of the Italian convoy reaches Tripoli safely.
Royal Navy submarine Upholder torpedoes and sinks 852-ton Italian freighter Enotria six miles northwest of Cape St Vito, northwest Sicily.
Royal Navy submarine Thrasher uses its deck guns to sink a small Greek freighter, the San Stefano, off Cape Malea.
Italian S-79 torpedo bombers under the command of Captain Buscaglia hit and damage 4782-ton British tanker Turbo north of Damietta, Egypt. The tanker is taken under tow to Port Said. Everyone survives, but Turbo is in very bad shape. On 4 April 1942, when an attempt is made to tow the Turbo to Aden for repairs, the tanker breaks in half and sinks.
Operation Treacle, the replacement of Australian troops at Tobruk, continues with a small convoy departing from Alexandria. It consists of minelaying cruiser Latona and destroyers Kipling, Nizam, and Kingston carrying Polish troops of the Carpathian Brigade while escorted by light cruisers Ajax and Neptune. During the withdrawal from Tobruk, destroyer Nizam is damaged by a near miss from a Luftwaffe attack off Bardia but makes it back to Alexandria, partially in tow.
Royal Navy submarine Otus arrives at Malta carrying supplies from Alexandria. Its cargo includes 18 passengers.
The British military command at Malta warns homeowners to remove inflammable items from roofs. It is a quiet day with no air attacks. RAF bombers attack Augusta, Sicily.
Adolf Hitler authorizes the development of the V-2 rocket. Luftwaffe General Walter Dornberger, Werner von Braun, and pilot Johannes “Macki” Steinhoff make a presentation to Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) headquarters in East Prussia. They show Hitler a film demonstrating the progress being made in rocketry, particularly the large A-4 rocket (which becomes better known as the V-2). Hitler, impressed, lauds “this development is of revolutionary importance for the conduct of warfare in the whole world.” Hitler orders the men to develop the A-4 into a “vengeance weapon” (Vergeltungswaffe) for use against London. The three men return to Peenemunde with new access to the resources necessary to develop the rocket.
Due to recent attacks on the French railway system, the Vichy government arrests 50,000 people for questioning.
In Costa Rica the French Charge d’Affaires and the Secretary of the French Legation switch sides, submitting their resignations to the Vichy government and accepting identical positions in the Free French movement.
Former Governor-General of Australia (1925-1930) John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven dies peacefully at his home in Ury House, Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, UK.
The new pro-British Iraqi Government announces that it is reopening the military academy in Baghdad.
RAF Bomber Command, Day of 20 August 1941
18 Blenheims on coastal sweeps. Ships were attacked but not hit; Texel airfield was bombed. No losses.
Battleship HMS King George V departed Scapa Flow at 2100 for Rosyth, escorted by destroyers HMS Inglefield, HMS Lightning, and HMS Punjabi. The ships arrived off May Island at 0600/21st. Destroyer Punjabi continued to Rosyth to boiler clean. Destroyers Inglefield and Lightning returned to Scapa Flow, arriving that midafternoon.
Battleship HMS Duke of York (Captain C. H. J. Harcourt, CBE) was completed.
Destroyer HMS Badsworth departed Greenock at 0930 for Scapa Flow to carry out working up exercises. The destroyer arrived at 0600/21st.
Destroyer HMS Puckeridge departed Scapa Flow at 1000 to convey the Commander in Chief, Home Fleet to Scapa Flow. On arrival, she returned to Scapa Flow, to carry out practices in the Pentland Firth on passage.
Destroyer HMS Tartar departed Scapa Flow at 2200 for Skaalefjord. The destroyer arrived at 0800/21st. Destroyer Tartar escorting damaged destroyer HMS Achates in tow of tug HMS Assurance and with salvage vessel HMS Le Lutteur departed Skaaleford for the Tyne. The ships arrived in the Tyne at 2300/24th.
Convoy ON.9 departed Liverpool, escorted by destroyers HMS Beagle, HMS Boadicea, HMS Salisbury, and HMS Winchelsea, corvette HMS Narcissus, minesweeper HMS Seagull, and anti-submarine trawlers HMS Ayrshire and HMS Lady Madeleine. Corvette HMS Heather joined on the 21st. Destroyers Boadicea and Winchelsea and the trawlers were detached on the 23rd. Destroyers Beagle and Salisbury, corvettes Heather and Narcissus, and minesweeper Seagull were detached when the convoy was dispersed on the 25th.
Polish steamer Czestochowa (1971grt) was sunk by German motor torpedo boat S.48 in 53-11-30N, 1-06E and damaged British steamer Dalewood (2774grt) in 53-11-24N, 1-05-30E. One crewman was lost on the Polish steamer. Three crewmen and a naval gunner were lost on the British steamer. The steamer was towed to Humber badly damaged aft.
British fishing trawler Juliet (173grt) was sunk by German bombing thirty miles south of Old Head of Kinsale. The entire crew was rescued.
Faroes auxiliary trawler HMS Solarris (236grt) was sunk on a mine off Seidisfjord. Four crewmen were rescued.
On the 19th, an Italian convoy of troopships Esperia (11,398grt), Marco Polo (12,272grt), Neptunia (19,475grt), and Oceania (19,507grt) departed Naples for Tripoli escorted by destroyers Vivaldi, Da Recco, Gioberti, and Oriani and torpedo boat Dezza. The convoy was reinforced later the same day by destroyers Maestrale, Grecale, and Scirocco after an attack by submarine HMS Unbeaten.
Submarine HMS Unique sank Italian troopship Esperia eleven miles north of Tripoli in 33-03N, 13-03E on the 20th. Thirty one troops were lost on the troopship. One thousand, one hundred and thirty nine men were rescued.
The convoy arrived at Tripoli on the 20th.
Submarine HMS Upholder sank Italian steamer Enotria (852grt) six miles northwest of Cape St Vito, northwest Sicily.
Submarine HMS Thrasher sank small Greek steamer San Stefano off Cape Malea with gunfire.
Light cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Neptune departed Alexandria covering minelaying cruiser HMS Latona and destroyers HMS Kipling, HMAS Nizam, and HMS Kingston en route to Tobruk in the second series of the TREACLE operation. Returning from the operation, destroyer Nizam was damaged by a near miss north of Bardia at 0630/21st. The destroyer was taken in tow by destroyer Kingston for a time until she could proceed under her own power. The light cruisers provided cover for the destroyer’s return to Alexandria.
Destroyers HMS Hotspur and HMS Decoy were sailed from Haifa to Beirut.
British tanker Turbo (4782grt) was badly damaged by German bombing in 32-08N, 31-57E. Sloop HMS Flamingo and trawlers for Port Said assisted the tanker. The entire crew was rescued. The tanker arrived at Port Said on the 21st. On 23 September, the tanker was moved to Suez. On 1 April 1942, the tanker departed Suez for Aden in the tow of British steamer Gladys Moller (5285grt). At 25-16N, 35-25E on 4 April, the tanker broke in half and sank.
Submarine HMS Severn departed Gibraltar for patrol in the Atlantic.
Dutch submarine HNLMS O.23 arrived at Gibraltar from patrol in the Mediterranean.
Submarine HMS Otus arrived at Malta from Alexandria with stores, including a submarine generator, twelve cases of U-class submarine spares, petrol, and eighteen passengers.
Submarine HMS Urge arrived at Malta from patrol.
Minesweeping trawler HMS Lorinda (348grt, Lt J. H. Seelye NZRNVR), en route to Port Harcourt in company with trawler HMS Balta, was lost through engine trouble and a fire off Freetown in 6-30S, 11-37W. Corvette HMS Lavender proceeded to assist. The entire crew was rescued by trawler Balta which returned to Freetown.
President Roosevelt’s callers in Washington today included John J. McCloy, Assistant Secretary of War, with Major Gen. Brehon Somervell; Seflor Munoz Marin, President of the Puerto Rican Senate; Alfred Duff-Cooper and Sir Gerald Campbell, British officials, and Henrik de Kauffmann, the Danish Minister. He announced that he would leave tomorrow for Hyde Park.
The Senate was in recess. Its Finance Committee continued its hearings on the tax bill.
The House was in recess.
President Roosevelt will leave tomorrow for Hyde Park, where on Saturday he will greet the Duke of Kent, youngest brother of King George VI of England.
New efforts to settle the 13-day shipyards strike at Kearny, New Jersey, came to naught yesterday. In Washington, John Green, president of the C.I.O. shipyard workers union striking against the Federal Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., at Kearny, announced after a two-hour conference with the management attempts to settle the dispute had failed. Green said he was calling upon President Roosevelt to act. Earlier in the day, the White House made known the chief executive had asked both sides to put the importance of national defense above their differences. The Kearny concern has contracts for $493,000,000 worth of navy and merchant marine shipbuilding. After a conference with L, H. Korndorff, the shipyard company president, Green said: “We were not able to agree on anything.”
Active support of the A.F.L. bus drivers and street car operators strike which paralyzed Detroit’s municipally-owned transportation system was pledged tonight by 60,000 teamsters, building tradesmen, hotel and restaurant workers in the metropolitan area. Frank X. Mattel, president of the Wayne County (Detroit) Federation of Labor, said he had received the pledges as he prepared to enter a conference with federal and state mediators striving to end the strike which forced approximately 600,000 residents of the nation’s fourth largest city to become hitch-hikers.
General George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, denied tonight that the War Department’s announcement that selectees would be released after an average of less than 18 months of service was for the purpose of bolstering the army’s morale. “The move was taken in accordance with plans of the War Department and statements made by me in my biennial report before these debates (over army morale) took place,” he said in an interview.
Rear Admiral Richard S. Byrd delivers a speech at Madison Square Garden in New York. Byrd urges his listeners to support President Roosevelt. He states:
“The President has been accused of trying to get this nation into war. I can give you my personal word that Roosevelt, the man, has a deep hatred for war — deeper perhaps than many who have made this criticism. Roosevelt, the President, has the task of carrying American democracy forward under God against any resistance, and it is his duty to do that above all things. If he can do it without war he will do it. But there are things infinitely worse than war, and the worst of these is slavery.”
Byrd concludes by asking, “are we going to stand united behind the President as if at war with unconquerable morale? Americans, what is your answer?”
Contending the Vichy government had been unjustly accused of planning to surrender the fleet and Atlantic naval bases to Germany, Gaston Henry-Haye, French ambassador, sought today to repair the strained relations with the United States resulting from new evidence of Franco-German collaboration. What success he had was not immediately apparent for Secretary of State Hull declined to comment on their conference. It was believed, however, the ambassador was told future Franco-American relations depended upon the acts of the Vichy government in carrying out its collaboration decisions.
Dr. Henry Noble MacCracken, president of Vassar College, told an America First Committee rally at Carnegie Hall last night that if America really committed itself to the destruction of Nazi tyranny, as pledged by President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill, it meant war for us.
AP reports: “United States warships are operating under virtual wartime conditions in carrying out President Roosevelt’s instructions to keep American sea lanes clear. This correspondent, among the first to see the Atlantic patrol in action, for the last 10 days has lived aboard one of those ships, covering 2,600 miles with scarcely a moment that was not a reminder of the grim battle of the Atlantic or of this nation’s promise that its supplies will get through. Guns are manned for instant action. And if, when the world was at peace, a ship operated with 800 men, it now operates with 1,000. If before it was 1,000, it now is nearer 1,500.”
The Department of Agriculture announces that it is negotiating with the governments of Argentina, Australia, Canada, and Britain to create an “international granary” in the United States. Surplus food from participating countries is to be accumulated in the United States for distribution wherever needed when the war is over — though, of course, the U.S. is not at war. Yet. In the meantime, the United States already has a stockpile of 400 million bushels of wheat that is increasing with each harvest.
Production of passenger automobiles between now and December probably will be cut about 20 percent below the 1940 levels, William S. Knudsen, director of the Office of Production Management, said today.
Samuel Goldwyn Company gives “The Little Foxes,” starring Bette Davis, its world premiere today at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. The film earns 9 Academy Award nominations but does not win any because among other competitors it is up against “Sergeant York,” “How Green Was My Valley,” “Citizen Kane,” “Here Comes Mr. Jordan,” and other renowned films. This sets a new mark for futility which stands for decades, until “The Turning Point” (1977) with 11 nominations and no wins.
Major League Baseball:
The Dodgers acquire pitcher Larry French (5–14) from the Cubs on waivers. He will go 15–4 next year for the Dodgers. On the 25th Brooklyn will pick up Augie Galan for cash from the Cubs.
Larry MacPhail stages a fashion show before a Ladies Day crowd at Ebbets Field. Such promotions, as well as the Dodgers pennant race, will push the home gate to over one million fans. The Dodgers pulled out a 7–6 victory today over the Pirates as outfielder Bob Elliott inexplicably drops an easy fly ball off the bat of Cookie Lavagetto, allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth.
In Boston, the Cards suffer another injury when outfielder Terry Moore is beaned behind the ear by a pitch from Art Johnson, and carried off on stretcher. He’ll be released from a Boston hospital in 10 days and flown to St. Louis, where he’ll be hospitalized for several more days. He won’t return to the lineup until September 14. However, the Cards slice the Dodger lead to 1 ½ games by sweeping a pair 2–0 and 3–2. Ernie White (15–4) wins the opener and Howie Pollet (21–3 at Houston) follows with a 4-hitter in his Major League debut.
The precision pitching of the White Sox carried the second-place Chicagoans to their third straight shutout, one shy of the league record, and their ninth consecutive victory today as Johnny Rigney blanked the Athletics, 9–0, on three scattered singles.
The fourth-place Indians kept spiraling downward today. losing their seventh straight game as the Senators topped them, 6–3. After limiting Washington to four hits in eight innings, southpaw Al Smith yielded three walks and as many singles to let in four runs in the ninth.
The Detroit Tigers’ Tommy Bridges shuts out the New York Yankees, 1–0, allowing just two hits in ten innings of work. Three Detroit singles in that frame break a scoreless tie. Ernie Bonham takes the tough loss for the Yankees.
The Cubs found it so simple to score against the Giants at the Polo Grounds yesterday that they even tallied one run on a foul fly to the catcher. And since they also were thoughtful enough to massage four New York pitchers, including Carl Hubbell, for sixteen assorted hits, they had little trouble in making off with a 9–4 victory.
Johnny Vander Meer and Elmer Riddle (14–2) gave masterful pitching performances today to lead the Reds to twin victories over the Phillies. Vander Meer hurled a three-hitter to win the first, 2–0, while Riddle, gaining his fourteenth triumph, scattered six blows for a 3–0 triumph.
Despite two home runs by Ted Williams, the leading hitter in the major leagues, the Red Sox lost a doubleheader to the Browns today, 11–9, and 4–3, the second game going ten innings. In four games over two days, Williams has hit five homers and now has 28 on he season.
Pittsburgh Pirates 6, Brooklyn Dodgers 7
St. Louis Cardinals 2, Boston Braves 0
St. Louis Cardinals 3, Boston Braves 2
Philadelphia Athletics 0, Chicago White Sox 9
Washington Senators 6, Cleveland Indians 3
New York Yankees 0, Detroit Tigers 1
Chicago Cubs 9, New York Giants 4
Cincinnati Reds 2, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Cincinnati Reds 3, Philadelphia Phillies 0
Boston Red Sox 9, St. Louis Browns 11
Boston Red Sox 3, St. Louis Browns 4
Ambassador Nomura reports to Tokyo that President Roosevelt is not “anti-Japanese.” However, Postmaster-General Walker has indicated that any talk of a summit between the leaders of Japan and the US would encounter very strong opposition from both Congress and the public. Walker, Nomura writes, feels there is a good possibility of peace if talks continue.Captain Takahiko Kiyota was named the commanding officer of Nachi.
Newspaper warnings that Britain’s newly disclosed arrangements for possible trade with Japan might be considered appeasement brought hurried insistence from authoritative quarters in London tonight that the government was not retreating in the least from its stand against aggression in the Far East.
Vice Admiral Matome Ugaki stepped down as the chief of staff of Kure Naval District, Japan.
The Imperial Japanese Navy cruisers HIJMS Mogami and HIJMS Mikuma arrive at Kure.
The Imperial Japanese Navy requisitions 9997-ton tanker Toho Maru and assigns it to the Yokosuka Naval District.
Battleship HIJMS Haruna joins the Japanese First Fleet (Vice Admiral Takasu Shiro), joining Battleship Division 3 (Vice Admiral Mikawa Gunichi). This powerful force already includes battleships HIJMS Hiei, HIJMS Kirishima, and HIJMS Kongo.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 126.01 (+0.44)
Born:
Slobodan Milošević, Serbian Yugoslav politician, President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1997-2000), in Požarevac, Serbia, Kingdom of Yugoslavia (d. 2006).
William H. Gray III, American politician (Rep-D-Pennsylvania, 1978-1991), in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (d. 2013).
Rich Brooks, American football coach (University of Oregon 1977-94; St. Louis Rams 1995-96), in Forest, California.
Robin Oakley, British journalist and political editor (BBC, 1998-2000, CNN, 2000-08), in England, United Kingdom.
Dave Brock, British progressive rock singer, and multi-instrumental musician (Hawkwind), in Isleworth, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom.
Jo Ramírez, Mexican motor racing team manager (McLaren F1) and author, in Mexico City, Mexico.
Died:
John Baird, 1st Viscount Stonehaven, 67, British politician and 8th Governor-General of Australia.
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy YMS-1-class auxiliary motor minesweeper USS YMS-4 is laid down by Henry B. Nevins Inc. (City Island, New York, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy Isles-class minesweeping trawler HMS Damsay (T 208) is laid down by George Brown & Co. (Greenock, Scotland); completed by Aitchison Blair.
The U.S. Navy PC-461-class (173-foot steel hull) submarine chaser USS PC-474 is laid down by the Defoe Shipbuilding Co. (Bay City, Michigan, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy 77-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-66 is laid down by the Electric Launch Company Ltd. (Elco), (Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Conqueror (AMc-70) is launched by the Warren Fish Co. (Pensacola, Florida, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boats U-591 and U-592 are launched by Blohm & Voss, Hamburg (werk 567 and 568).
The Royal Navy harbor defence motor launch HMS HDML 1036 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy harbor defence motor launch HMS HDML 1066 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Bangor-class (Turbine-engined) minesweeper HMS Ilfracombe (J 95) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is T/A/Lieutenant Commander Harry Layland Dudley Hoare, RNR.
History Diaries 