For the first time in the war on 12 September 1941, the Germans must prioritize their operations in a way that affects the overall strategy. To date, priorities have been set but with the belief that everything can be accomplished given enough time. However, regarding Leningrad, decisions are made today that will have a lasting impact.
The day starts off well in Army Group North. The Luftwaffe has spent the last couple of days softening up the Leningrad defenses, and a morning attack by 1 Panzer Division (Lieutenant General Friedrich Kirchner) makes good progress. The panzers advance through Krasnoe Selo and are only stopped at the southwestern suburb of Pulkovo. Prospects for an advance into the built-up areas of Leningrad look good. With no chance of effective resupply by the Soviets, the city should fall without too much trouble.
However, as he has begun to do more frequently, Adolf Hitler intervenes. He abruptly halts the attack and orders the panzers and other armored vehicles and VIII Air Corps south toward Moscow. This is in accordance with his recent Führer Directive calling for an offensive against Moscow, but it still comes as a shock to the Army Group. Hitler announces:
“Leningrad will be starved into submission.”
And, just like that, the attack on Leningrad is over.
Field Marshal von Leeb is furious. He telephones OKH Chief of Staff General Franz Halder and insists “vehemently” that he be allowed to capture Leningrad. Halder lamely notes in his daily war diary:
“Of course, we shall always give him the means to bring his operation to a successful close, but the build-up for the new operation in Center must have priority.”
There actually is no “of course” about it. Everyone knows that once sent away, armored troops are a long time coming back, especially from an operation on Moscow that is sure to draw rabid Soviet defensive fighting.
As to whether Leningrad actually will starve, that is not at all far-fetched. Today, the Soviets cut the daily bread ration in Leningrad to 500 grams for manual workers and 300 grams for office workers and children under 12. That is not nearly enough to live on, but it may be more than the authorities actually can provide.
In the Army Group Center sector, General Guderian’s Panzer Group 2 continues its breakout from the Desna River and drives further south to Kyiv. The Soviets evacuate Chernihiv, just north of Kyiv, in the face of Guderian’s onslaught.
In the Army Group South sector, General von Kleist also continues his drive east of Kyiv from Kremenchuk in the south. The Romanians also renew their attack on Odessa, where they have been stalled for several weeks.
The 2nd and 3rd Panzer Armies under General Ewald von Kleist, Commander of 1st Panzer Army, and Guderian join up at Lokhvitsa, near Rovno, completing the encirclement of Kiev and a pocket of 600,000 Soviet soldiers to the east of the city Chernigov on the Desna is evacuated under German attacks.
There is one glimmer of hope for the Soviets. German troops reported the first snowfall on the Russian front. An early snowfall hits most of the front in the Soviet Union turning the landscape into mud. The Germans, completely unprepared for the poor weather, are completely incapable of dealing with the situation, and call a temporary halt to the attacks by their mechanized forces.
Rastenburg: Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, the chief of the German army’s High Command, today issued an explicit directive to his troops on how they should treat Jews in the USSR, titled “Jews in the newly occupied eastern territories”, Keitel’s directive says: “The struggle against Bolshevism demands ruthless and energetic measures, above all against the Jews, the main carriers of Bolshevism.”
The Jager Report (issued on 1 December 1941) noted that 993 adult male, 1,670 adult female, and 771 children, all Jews, were killed in Vilnius, Lithuania for a total of 3,334 people.
In the Ukrainian village of Zwiahel (Novograd Volynsky), SS 2nd Lieutenant Max Täubner and members of his work platoon begin conducting a series of unauthorized massacres of Jews. Täubner will later be tried and convicted by the SS and Police Supreme Court on May 24, 1943.
A SS Einsatzkommando [action squad] murders 3,434 Jews at Ponary, outside Vilna, Lithuania.
An authorized Nazi spokesperson said that President Roosevelt “wants war” and that Germany would take “appropriate measures”. That same day, an editorial by the prominent Italian journalist and unofficial Axis spokesman Virginio Gayda was published in the Giornale d’Italia, in which he declared that the “act of unprovoked aggression” by Roosevelt had left the Axis warships no alternative “but to attack United States naval ships on sight..”
RAF Hawker Hurricane fighters from the No. 151 Wing based in Murmansk, Soviet Union made their first kills against the Germans in the area for the first time. In the action, the British pilots shot down three Luftwaffe planes at a loss of one to themselves. The Soviets awarded three of the pilots involved the “Order of Lenin”, the only non-Soviets given the award.
In Operation EGV2, British Albacore aircraft of carrier HMS Victorious damaged the Glomfjord hydroelectric power plant and the ships at anchor at Bodo in Norway.
Three Allied corvettes (British HMS Gladiolus, Canadian HCMS Wetaskiwin, and Free French Mimosa) and eight destroyers (British HMS Douglas, British HMS Veteran, British HMS Leamington, British HMS Saladin, British HMS Skate, American USS Sims, American USS Russell, and American USS Charles F. Hughes) added to the embattled Allied convoy SC.42’s escort force. In the air, British Catalina aircraft also appeared to provide protection during the day.
The Germans shoot 12 of the Parisian Jewish hostages taken on 8 September.
The collaborationist Norwegian government of Vidkun Quisling banned the Boy Scouts. Boys were now required to join the youth leagues of the Nasjonal Samling.
Nadejda Russo was awarded the Gold Cross of the Order of Aeronautical Virtue with Swords.
British Air Vice-Marshal G. R. Bromet was appointed Air Officer Commanding, No. 19 Group RAF with the primary task of attacking surfaced German submarines in the Bay of Biscay.
The British prototype Airspeed A.S. 51 Horsa troop-carrying glider (DG 597) is flown. It has a crew of two pilots and can carry 20-25 troops.
RAF Bomber Command, Day of 12 September 1941
11 Blenheims on sweeps off the Dutch coast. 1 ship was hit. No aircraft lost.
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 12/13 September 1941
Frankfurt
130 aircraft – 71 Wellingtons, 31 Hampdens, 18 Whitleys, 9 Stirlings. 2 Wellingtons lost.
Thick cloud prevented accurate bombing but large fires were claimed. Frankfurt reports 75 high-explosive and 650 incendiary bombs in the city and in the nearby town of Offenbach. Nearly all the damage listed was in civilian housing although 2 bombs destroyed a workshop at the rubber factory in Offenbach. 38 fires were started. 8 people were killed, 17 injured and approximately 200 bombed out.
Mainz, nearly 20 miles from Frankfurt, reports many bombs with 19 people being killed.
Minor Operations: 21 Wellingtons and Whitleys to Cherbourg, 10 Hampdens minelaying in the Frisians and off Denmark. No losses.
Heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire (SO Force M), aircraft carrier HMS Victorious, heavy cruiser HMS Suffolk, and destroyers HMS Somali, HMS Matabele, and HMS Punjabi carried out operation EGV.2 when Victorious launched aircraft against northern Norway. The planes reported torpedoing a 2000-ton ship and attacked several small ships at Bodo and damaged the power station in Glomfjord. An Albacore aircraft of 832 Squadron with a crew of Lt P. F. King, Lt T. L. Seccombe, and Leading Airman W. F. Lovell was damaged by flak. The airman was slightly wounded.
Monitor HMS Erebus and motor launch ML.188 departed Lerwick at 0500 on completion of trials. The monitor arrived at Scapa Flow at 1700/12th.
Heavy cruiser HMS Berwick departed Scapa Flow to complete machinery repairs at Rosyth. The cruiser arrived later that day.
Light cruiser HMS Sheffield, carrying 300 service personnel, departed Greenock at 2230 for Gibraltar, arriving on the 17th at 1500.
Destroyer HMS Badsworth, returning to Scapa Flow from escorting damaged cruiser HMS Nigeria, was ordered at 0850 to search for a downed British aircraft off Kinnaird. The search was not successful and the destroyer later arrived at Scapa Flow.
Destroyer HMS Puckeridge departed Scapa Flow at 1700 for Portsmouth following working up exercises. the destroyer arrived at Portsmouth at 1400/14th to join the 1st Destroyer Flotilla.
Convoy OG.74 departed Liverpool and the Clyde escorted by escort aircraft carrier HMS Audacity, sloop HMS Deptford, and corvettes HMS Pentstemon, HMS Marigold, and HMS Vetch. Ocean boarding vessel HMS Corinthian and destroyer HMS Rockingham joined on the 13th and corvettes HMS Arbutus and HMS Rhododendron joined on the 14th. The ocean boarding vessel was detached on the 18th. Two Martlet aircraft, piloted by Sub Lt (A) N. H. Patterson and Sub Lt (A) G. R. P. Fletcher RNVR, of 802 Squadron from aircraft carrier Audacity shot down the carrier’s first Fw.200/21st. Sloop Deptford arrived at Gibraltar on the 25th. Corvette Cowslip which had proceeeded independently from the UK after failing to meet the convoy also arrived on the 25th. Aircraft carrier Audacity and corvettes Arbutus and Marigold arrived on the 26th with survivors from the sunken ships. The convoy arrived at Gibraltar later on the 26th with destroyer Rockingham, corvettes Pentstemon, Vetch, and Rhododendron and anti-submarine trawler Laurel.
Convoy OS.6 departed Liverpool, escorted by destroyer HMS Campbeltown, which was detached on the 15th. On the 13th, destroyers HMS Westcott and HMS St. Albans and sloops HMS Stork and HMS Wellington joined the convoy. The destroyers were detached on the 17th and the sloops on the 29th. Indian sloop HMIS Jumna joined on the 17th and was detached on the 29th. On 1 October, corvettes HMS Clover and HMS Cyclamen joined and escorted the convoy into Freetown arriving on 3 October. Destroyer HMS Brilliant joined on 3 October outside Freetown.
An Italian convoy of steamers Tembien, Caffaro, Nirvo, Bainsizza, Nicolo Odero, and Giula departed Naples on the 10th, escorted by destroyers Oriani and Fulmine and torpedo boats Procione, Pegaso, Orsa, and Circe from Trapani, and Oerseo which joined at 0600/13th. Italian steamer Caffaro (6476grt) was sunk by British Swordfish of 830 Squadron from Malta 105° northwest of Tripoli in 34-14N, 11-54E. Italian steamer Tembien (5584grt) was damaged by 830 Squadron attack. Italian steamer Nicolo Odero (6003grt) was damaged in the attack. She was sunk on the 14th by RAF bombing in 32-51N, 12-18E after the convoy arrived at Tripoli on the 13th.
Submarine HMS Utmost departed Malta to search for a crew of a downed Blenheim. The crew was rescued and Utmost returned to Malta on the 14th.
Tug Tai Koo (688grt) was sunk by a mine at 16-45N, 40-05E, between Aden and Massawa. Twenty six crewmen were lost. Cdr J. R. Stenhouse DSO, OBE, DSC, RD RNR Rtd, on passage to HMS Sheba, was also lost. Thirty seven crewmen were rescued.
In Washington today, President Roosevelt gave final instructions to the mission, headed by W. Averell Harriman, which will represent the United States at conferences in Moscow to discuss aid to Russia; received Constantine A. Umansky, the Soviet Ambassador, and forty-seven Russian technicians who flew here from Moscow; conferred with William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, with Vice President Wallace and with Representative May, chairman of the House Military Affairs Committee, and presided at a Cabinet meeting at which he announced that the American-owned cargo ship Montana had been attacked yesterday by a submarine southwest of Iceland.
The Senate and the House were in recess.
White House Press Secretary Stephen Early said there was “striking similarity” between Nazi propaganda and Charles Lindbergh’s comments in Des Moines. Lindbergh’s remarks were widely criticized in the American press, even among pro-isolationist newspapers such as the Chicago Tribune and the Hearst media empire. The public standing of the America First Committee was severely damaged as a result.
Since President Roosevelt told the world last night that the American Navy would shoot on sight to protect this country’s “waters of self-defense,” every White House move today indicated that henceforth for the President action will be the keystone of United States foreign policy. Amid the day’s developments, Mr. Roosevelt learned of the torpedoing of another American ship twelve hours before he delivered his solemn pronouncement that unrestricted sea warfare by the Axis was to be met blow for blow. Halfway through his meeting with the Cabinet this afternoon an aide handed a piece of paper to the President. The American-owned freighter Montana had been attacked at 9:45 AM (E.D.T.) yesterday, at a point 260 miles southwest of Iceland and off the east coast of Greenland near the entrance to the Danish Strait. The crew took to the boats.
Secretary Hull indicated strongly at his press conference that the President’s speech had been elastic in defining “waters of self-defense” because, in the final analysis, German activities would determine just what areas had to be defended. The Secretary said that the Axis powers are undertaking the conquest of continents and seas as fast as they can be reached and that thus the attacking forces themselves will indicate the areas of the seas which the Navy may find it necessary to patrol in defense of this country and the Western Hemisphere. Mr. Hull conceded that the United States was “even-Stephen” with Germany in providing official information as to the existence of proscribed sea zones. We had not officially notified Germany of what we consider to be defense waters under the terms of the President’s speech, he remarked, and, while Germany had issued a proclamation March 7 announcing “a blockade zone” including Ireland and Iceland, it had not, as Mr. Roosevelt said last night, formally advised this government of the step.
The nation must rebuild its faith in democracy as a safeguard against the peril of Hitlerism, Supreme Court Justice Hugo L. Black asserted tonight, and ho called upon “a capable and articulate bar” to lead the way. Speaking before the Colorado Bar association at Its forty-fifth annual convention, which opened here today, Justice Black said: “The habits of democracy are hard to acquire, harder to preserve, and I fear easy to lose…”
Senator Burton K. Wheeler, Montana Democrat, one of the nation’s leading isolationists, tonight charged President Roosevelt with wanting war and that his speech last night was “intended to incite the American people to war.” “Heretofore,” Wheeler said, “the great bulk of the American people felt that President Roosevelt was resisting the warmongers and that he was doing everything he could to keep the country out of war. Today, they realize that instead of resisting the warmongers, he is leading the pack.”
Addressing a distinguished gathering of civilians and officers of the United States and British navies at the New York Yacht Club yesterday, Rear Admiral Adolphus Andrews, Commandant of the Third Naval District, forecast shooting in the Atlantic “in the near future” and said that “every American officer ought to be proud to be there to take it and give it back to them in good measure.”
Former New York Governor Alfred E. Smith, New York’s leading Roman Catholic layman, Bishop William T. Manning of the Protestant Episcopal Diocese of New York, and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise of the Free Synagogue, one of the outstanding Jewish leaders of New York, expressed strong approval yesterday of President Roosevelt’s Thursday night address.
American aid to Russia will be full and quick and will continue until Hitler is crushed; this was the word that came from a conference today between President Roosevelt and his newly-appointed supply mission to Moscow. The mission, which called for final instructions before leaving shortly for Russia, let it be known that all kinds of war supplies from planes to raw materials would be transported over routes to Vladivostok and the newly-opened line through the Persian Gulf. The United States mission, to the three-power supply conference in Moscow was directed by President Roosevelt today to work out an allocation of American war materials to Russia for the most effective use toward defeating German aggression.
Stimson protests to cabinet Roosevelt’s gift to the USSR of 5 B-17’s as these were needed for the Philippines. Roosevelt apologizes but the gift stands.
The Spanish freighter Navemar arrived in New York with 787 refugees.
Three major airplane factories in Southern California tonight in separate announcements disclosed that they were giving employees blanket salary raises of 10 cents an hour, the increases retroactive to July 1. The wage increases were announced by Vultee Aircraft, Douglas Aircraft and Lockheed-Vega Airplane companies. The announcements said that the increases had been approved in Washington today by the Office of Production Management, and the War and Navy Departments.
Prices of anthracite coal were frozen today by Leon Henderson, Federal Price Administrator, who moved to prevent an at-the-mine increase of 15 cents a ton on domestic sizes which producers had announced for Monday.
The Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) authorizes the creation of the USNs first photo interpretation (PI) school.
Coast Guard cutter USCGC Northland, assisted by cutter USCGC North Star, seizes Norwegian trawler Buskoe in MacKenzie Bay, Greenland, thwarting Buskoe’s mission of establishing and servicing German radio weather stations in that region. This is the first capture of a belligerent ship by U.S. naval forces in World War II.
Major League Baseball:
Joe Dobson of the Red Sox blanked the Browns today, 5–0, for his sixth consecutive victory. Dobson gave only five hits as he achieved his eleventh triumph and first shut-out. Moreover, he drove in Boston’s first two runs with a single after St. Louis had passed Catcher Frankie Pytlak intentionally in the second inning. In that frame Johnny Niggeling yielded three of the ten bases on balls he presented to the Sox.
The Phillies blasted three Cub pitchers today to win the opener of a two-game series, 5–3. Tom Hughes was returned the victor, although he allowed nine hits, three by Lou Novikoff, recently returned from Milwaukee.
The New York Giants blow a 4–1 lead over the Cincinnati Reds, yielding seven runs in the sixth, and losing, 8–4. Elmer Riddle wins his 17th of the season, defeating the Giants’ Bill McGee.
Just to make certain that the Tigers would not gain the distinction of being the only club in the American League to win their season’s series with the Yankees, the Bronx Bombers entertained a ladies’ day crowd of 5,500 at Yankee Stadium yesterday by routing the retiring champions, 8–2, in the second game of the current set. The Yankees hammer Detroit pitchers for 13 hits.
Johnny Humphries’s four-hit pitching and his teammates’ timely hitting gave the White Sox a 2–0 victory over the Athletics today. It was Humphries’s fourth shut-out victory of the year. Chicago made eight hits off Phil Marchildon.
The Pirates and Braves today split a double-header for the second straight day. Pittsburgh won the first game, 6–3, for Lloyd Dietz’s seventh victory of the year and Al Javery blanked the Bucs in the second, 5–0.
The Cardinals take a 2–0 lead over Brooklyn and hold on to win 4–3. Estel Crabtree, filling in for the injured Slaughter, triples and scores the winning run and also makes a perfect throw to cut down a run at the plate. Rookie Howie Pollet and lefty Max Lanier combine to beat Curt Davis.
Earl Wynn, a recruit from Springfield in the Eastern League, held Cleveland to eight blows while his mates were collecting thirteen as the Washington Senators trimmed the Indians, 7–4, today.
St. Louis Browns 0, Boston Red Sox 5
Philadelphia Phillies 5, Chicago Cubs 3
New York Giants 4, Cincinnati Reds 8
Detroit Tigers 2, New York Yankees 8
Chicago White Sox 2, Philadelphia Athletics 0
Boston Braves 3, Pittsburgh Pirates 6
Boston Braves 5, Pittsburgh Pirates 0
Brooklyn Dodgers 3, St. Louis Cardinals 4
Cleveland Indians 4, Washington Senators 7
President Roosevelt was reliably reported today to have had reasonable assurance of peace in the Pacific before he ordered United States planes and warships to shoot on sight any Axis submarines found in the defensive waters of the United States. This was clearly indicated today by a high Japanese official who said he was convinced that the conversations between President Roosevelt and Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, Japanese Ambassador, had produced “a sound basis” for a limited agreement that probably would be delayed for some time but would keep the two nations at peace. There was nothing in the conversation of this official to indicate that the Japanese Government had in any way given a specific guarantee not to take action in the Far East while the United States was engaged in the Battle of the Atlantic, but he did say that the Japanese Government would not interpret the new orders to the United States Navy as an American “attack” on Japan’s Axis partners.
The first Japanese reaction to President Roosevelt’s speech was one of relief that he had again omitted any direct mention of Japan, which was taken to indicate that the Washington conversations based on Premier Prince Fumimaro Konoye’s “peace message” were continuing, with the prospect of favorable results.”
Nine USAAF B–17 Flying Fortresses completed a weeklong flight from Hickam Field, Territory of Hawaii, to Clark Field by way of Midway Islands; Wake Island; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; and Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
Australian troop convoy US.12A departed Fremantle with liners Queen Elizabeth (83,673grt) and Queen Mary (81,235grt).
The Imperial Japanese Navy light cruiser HIJMS Tenryu arrived at Truk, Caroline Islands.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 127.18 (+0.03)
Born:
Bud Marshall, NFL and AFL defensive tackle and defensive end (NFL champions-Packers, 1965; Green Bay Packers, Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons; Houston Oilers), in Carthage, Texas (d. 2009).
Hans-Karsten Raecke, German composer, in Rostock, Germany.
Died:
Eugen Ritter von Schobert, 58, German general (plane crash on the Eastern Front).
Naval Construction:
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC/40 U-boat U-189 is laid down by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1035).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-361 is laid down by Flensburger Schiffsbau-Ges, Flensburg (werk 480).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-388 is laid down by Howaldtswerke AG, Kiel (werk 19).
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Bulwark (AMc-68) is launched by Hodgdon Brothers, Goudy and Stevens (East Boothbay, Maine, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy 77-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-53 is launched by the Electric Boat Co., Elco Works, Bayonne, New Jersey. She is transferred to the Royal Navy before completion and commissions as HMS MTB 311.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC U-boat U-176 is launched by AG Weser, Bremen (werk 1016).
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 276 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 336 is commissioned.
The Royal Navy MMS I-class motor minesweeper HMS MMS 59 (J 559) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is T/Lieutenant Jocelyn Coghill Cramer-Parry, RNVR.
The U.S. Navy submarine tender USS Fulton (AS-11), lead ship of her class of 7, is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Commander Alexander Dean Douglas, USN.
History Diaries 