On 30 September 1941, the Wehrmacht begins its great drive on Moscow. With the codename Operation TYPHOON (Unternehmen Taifun), this attack is viewed by many in the German Army as the rightful focus of Operation BARBAROSSA. After much hesitation, and only when it appeared that the other two main objectives of the invasion, Leningrad and Kyiv, were in hand, Hitler finally agreed. Reinforced by strong units from both Army Group North and Army Group South, Army Group Center under Field Marshal Fedor von Bock now has to race against the changing seasons to accomplish the key objective of the campaign during 1941.
Operation TYPHOON got an unofficial start when Guderian’s Panzergruppe 2 attacked two days ahead of the rest of the operation. Operation TYPHOON, the attack on Moscow, began with the German 2nd Panzer Army attacking as the southern prong of the operation and breaking through the Soviet 13th Army positions and advancing approximately 10 miles toward Orel. The Germans now face a rejuvenated enemy that has profited from the respite Hitler has given them to construct strong defenses and move large numbers of troops to defend the capital.
Guderian’s Second Panzer Army has completed its move north to be the right wing of the German attack on Moscow, Operation TYPHOON. The Kiev battle is complete, which is why Hitler moved it to the south. These units begin to advance from Glukhov toward Orel and Bryansk. Field Marshal von Bock disposes of 70 divisions for Operation Typhoon and it begins two days earlier than previously scheduled. General Heinz Guderian’s Panzer Group 2 has finished the conquest of Kyiv earlier than some had expected, and now it has reoriented itself to attack in the opposite direction — to the northeast — in a matter of days. While recent reports suggest that Guderian’s panzer forces are only at 20% of pre-war effectiveness, they face a Red Army that just lost almost a million troops in the fighting at Kyiv. There isn’t an army in the world that can just shrug off the loss of a million men along with their leaders and equipment and the economic resources of a major city… or is there?
While the Red Army has been greatly weakened, there are several factors that count in its favor. For one, while the weather remains good for campaigning, that won’t be the case for much longer. The German troops have no experience with the Russian Rasputitsa or rainy season, but it is just around the corner. While the Germans find the ubiquitous peasant carts, or Panjes, somewhat odd-looking with their giant wheels and watertight construction like boats, they are built like that to survive the twice-yearly Rasputitsa. The German trucks are not built for those conditions, which should begin to appear within about a month or even less.
Another Soviet advantage is that master spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo has assured Joseph Stalin that the Japanese are not interested in attacking the Soviet Union. This allows him to pull seven fresh Siberian Divisions west to the defense of Moscow. It will take time to get them through four or five time zones to Moscow, but they are experts at winter warfare and accomplished skiers. The lengthening German supply lines over deteriorating railroads and dirt roads, their worn equipment from three months of constant battle, and heavy losses also blunt the Wehrmacht’s effort.
Still, despite all the issues, it is not too late in the season to get started. General Guderian’s panzers head east at 06:35. They achieve surprise, as the Soviets expect them to take longer to digest Kyiv (this may be in part because the attack starts earlier than OKH planned, and the Soviets may know this from intelligence sources). Two panzer corps lead the attack, followed by infantry and motorized divisions. Panzer Group 2 heads back to the northeast and heads toward Moscow without regard to its flanks. The panzers smash through five Soviet divisions of Major General’s Arkadii Ermakov’s operational group (three infantry, two cavalry, and two tank brigades) at Glukhov, then open a wedge into Soviet 13th Army under front commander Lieutenant General Yeremenko (Eremenko).
While all seems rosy for the Germans, they have some unpleasant surprises. The Soviets use their new Katyusha rockets against the 3rd Panzer Division with good effect, though they are perhaps most effective now for their surprise value. In addition, the Soviets have trained dogs laden with explosives to run under German tanks, where they explode.
Many panzers are stopped by virtually undetectable antitank mines in wooden cases. The Germans, however, make good ground on the first day of the offensive, covering over ten miles. Everything is going according to plan, and the Germans plan to encircle Yeremenko’s forces by closing a pocket at Bryansk. It is to be another giant battle of annihilation, and the Germans are confident that they will soon be chasing the fleeing remnants of the Red Army back toward Moscow.
In the South, Kleist’s 1st Panzer Army attacks east from the Dniepr at Dnepropetrovsk, and easily breaks through the Soviet defensive line. They are headed for Donetsk and Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov.
Leningrad’s defenders have stopped the Germans seven miles from the city, within sight of its church spires. Today General Zhukov arrives to take charge of the cities defenses.
The Soviet cruiser Aurora was sunk in Oranienbaum harbour.
The two-day Babi Yar massacre ended with almost 34,000 Ukrainian Jews killed and covered over with dirt and rock. At Kiev, members of Einsatzgruppe C, led by Otto Rasch, are relaxing tonight at the end of a particularly efficient piece of work. In two days they have murdered 33,771 Jews at Babi Yar, a ravine on the outskirts of the city. Four days ago they put up posters asking Jews to report for resettlement. Rasch is proud to report that none of those who duly reported apparently realized that they were to die. The masses gathered at the prescribed place with their bundles of food and clothing. Divided into groups of 100, they were marched to the edge of the ravine. The SS men varied their routine. First they machine-gunned the Jews and kicked them off the edge. Then they made them walk a plank and shot them in the neck. Children were simply thrown over. The dead and half-dead piled up at the bottom, slowly moving as the living struggled to prevent themselves being suffocated by the growing weight of the dead. Moaning and sobbing rose up from the bleeding, bruised mound. When there was a break in the killing at the top of the ravine, the SS moved in at the bottom and used pistols to dispatch those who still moved. Miraculously, a handful of Jews escaped from Babi Yar. Among them was Dina Pronicheva, who pretended to be dead.
Himmler sets out on a tour of the conquered areas of southern Russia. He takes with him Dr. Albert Widmann, head of the chemical section of the RSHA Criminal Technical Institute and one of the prime inventors of the new gas truck that recycled its own exhaust. Since it was easier to modify existing trucks in the field to serve as mobile gas chambers than to produce new trucks in Germany and then transport them to the East, Widmann went along as a technical consultant.
By the end of September, 1,360 Soviet heavy industrial plants had been moved from areas that are now occupied by the Germans to the Urals and points east. The Soviet Union is beginning its recovery from the summer onslaught.
The Jager Report (issued on 1 December 1941) noted that 366 adult male, 483 adult female, and 597 children, all Jews, were killed in Trakai, Lithuania for a total of 1,446 people.
The leadership of the Soviet Black Sea Fleet began to consider evacuating forces in Odessa, Ukraine to the Crimean region of Russia (now also in Ukraine).
German bombers attacked shipyards at Tyneside in northern England, United Kingdom; submarine HMS Sunfish was badly damaged during the attack.
The RAF withdrew B-17 bombers from service.
The detention center in Peel, Isle of Man had its guard forces strengthened after disturbances; 20 arrested British fascists were transferred to Liverpool as another result.
Pierre Laval was discharged from the hospital after recovering from the wounds sustained during the unsuccessful assassination attempt against him on 25 Aug 1941.
Italian submarine Adua attacked British ships sailing for Malta to Gibraltar (having just completed escorting the Operation Halberd on the previous day) 250 miles east of Gibraltar. British destroyers HMS Gurkha and HMS Legion counterattacked with depth charges, sinking the Italian submarine, killing all 46 aboard.
Turkey embargoes chrome exports to Germany. The Turkish Government finally and categorically informed Germany today that Turkey would deliver no chrome to the Reich. It is also learned that Turkey will sell Germany no wheat, as the current crop is poor and reserves are below normal.
Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the House of Commons saying, “It seems likely now that we shall bring in several million tons more than the import total which I mentioned in private to the House earlier in the year, which total was itself sufficient to keep us going. We are now within measurable distance of the immense flow of American new building, to which, together with our own construction, we look to carry us through and on progressively till the end of the war.”
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 30 September/1 October 1941
Hamburg
82 aircraft – 48 Hampdens, 24 Wellingtons, 10 Whitleys. 1 Wellington lost.
Cloud prevented accurate bombing. Hamburg recorded 14 fires, 8 people killed, 11 injured and 491 bombed out, some temporarily.
Stettin
40 Wellingtons; 29 bombed. No losses.
Minor Operations: 41 ‘freshmen’ crews to Cherbourg, 2 O.T.U. sorties. No losses.
Heavy cruiser HMS Kent, after repairs and refitting at Devonport, departed Devonport at 0900/30th, escorted by destroyer HMS Norman. Both ships arrived at Scapa Flow at 1830 on 1 October.
Destroyer HMS Eclipse departed Rosyth at 0700 and arrived at Scapa Flow at 1900 on completion of boiler cleaning and minor repairs.
Destroyer HMS Dulverton departed the Clyde at 1230 for Scapa Flow working up practices. The destroyer arrived at 0730 on 1 October.
Submarine HMS Sunfish, refitting at Tyneside, was damaged by near misses of German bombing. T/repairs were done on the submarine at Tyneside from 3 October to 1 November. The submarine was then taken to Portsmouth where repairs were completed on 9 October 1943.
Submarine HMS Trident unsuccessfully attacked German hospital ship Birka (1000grt) in 71-03N, 24-34E.
Minesweeping trawlers HMS Eileen Duncan (223grt, T/Lt G. N. Ward RNVR ) and HMS Star of Deveron (220grt, T/Skipper G. F. Durrant RNR) were sunk by German bombing at the Bergen Wharf, River Tyne. Durrant was killed in trawler Star of Deveron.
British steamer Cedarwood (899grt) was damaged by German bombing off Dover.
Soviet destroyer Sovershenny was mined on trials near Sevastapool. The destroyer was repaired.
Corvette HMS Jonquil departed Gibraltar to meet arriving tanker La Carriere, which had not been met by anti-submarine trawlers HMS Erin and HMS Lady Shirley. The tanker and corvette arrived on 2 October.
Light cruiser HMS Dauntless arrived at Singapore.
Light cruiser HMS Danae departed Singapore.
In Washington today, President Roosevelt conferred with Secretary Hull on the international situation and with Secretaries Morgenthau, Perkins and other officials on proposed expansion of the Social Security program. Other callers included Josephus Daniels, Ambassador to Mexico, Coke Stevenson, Governor of Texas, and Chief Justice Stone.
The Senate was in recess.
With the House in recess, an Appropriations subcommittee concluded hearings on the second Lease-Lend Bill and the Banking and Currency Committee continued questioning of Marriner S. Eccles of the Federal Reserve Board on the price-control bill.
President Roosevelt was reported reliably today to be considering a request to congress for modification of the neutrality act to permit arming American merchant ships and their use in carrying war supplies to Canadian ports from which they now are barred. Although the president told his press conference no final decision had been reached, informed sources said it was not likely any attempt would be made at this time to repeal the act’s provisions prohibiting United States vessels from entering ports in European combat zones.
Calling for repeal or modification of the Neutrality Act, Robert P. Patterson, Under-Secretary of War, asked tonight at a dinner of the American Bar Association whether the time had not come “to throw all our resources into the fight against Hitlerism.”
As Administration forces in Congress prepare their drive to modify or repeal the Neutrality Act, there has been a sharp increase in public sentiment for allowing American merchant ships to carry war materials to Britain — a step now prohibited by the act. Senator Tom Connally, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, strongly recommended such a change in an interview with the press last week. Senator Kenneth McKellar of Tennessee has already introduced a bill to repeal the entire Neutrality Act. In a public opinion survey last April, the American Institute found that a substantial majority of voters were at that time opposed to sending merchant ships to Britain. This week the latest check-up of sentiment indicates that the nation’s voters are now almost evenly divided, with those in favor of the change slightly outnumbering those opposed, 46 percent to 40.
Investigators inquired tonight into cause of a fire which virtually destroyed a plant busy on millions of dollars’ worth of orders for airplane engine and bomber fuselage castings. It required two hours for nearly a third of Cleveland’s fire-fighting companies to bring the flames under control at the National Bronze & Aluminum Foundry Co.
President Roosevelt plans to send a special message to Congress soon requesting that the social security program be enlarged to provide protection for a much greater number of individuals than are now covered. The reasons for asking revision of the Social Security Act at this time, he explained, were twofold. The new program would provide a slight deterrent to inflation and would simplify the economic transition after the war and American productive enterprise shifted away from armaments production. Although details as to what form revision would take were not yet worked out, he explained that these objectives were sought:
• To make coverage as wide as possible on unemployment insurance and old-age pensions.
• To work out a method by which greater Federal aid will be extended to poorer States.
The 10 percent cut in gasoline deliveries in the Atlantic Coast area was continued for October and made mandatory in an order issued today by the Office of Production Management. It was extended to apply for the first time to taxicabs and delivery trucks. The order, compulsory under the Priorities Act, supplants the voluntary program set up August 15 by the former Office of Price Administration and Civilian Supply. It came three weeks after a special Senate committee investigating the oil situation held that there was no oil or gasoline shortage in the area and recommended that the restrictions be eliminated. The OPM changed the base for figuring the cut in deliveries from the deliveries in July, as designated by the OPACS, to the average of deliveries in May-June-July. The special Senate committee is to meet tomorrow to hear Secretary Ickes, Petroleum Coordinator for National Defense, give at his own request “new information” on the situation. The OPM order of today was issued on the recommendation of Mr. Ickes and his testimony tomorrow is expected to follow much the same lines of his letter to the OPM conveying the recommendation.
Today was like the day before Christmas in the nation’s retail stores. Apparently, millions of people rushed to buy goods before sweeping new taxes took effect at midnight. At that hour all of the excise taxes contained In the recently enacted revenue bill became effective, except for the increased tax on night clubs. Just so nobody would leave a party when it was warming up, the treasury postponed the time for putting this levy into effect until 10 AM tomorrow. “Beat-the-tax” buying of furs, jewelry and cosmetics, on which 10 percent retail excise taxes go into effect today, spread yesterday into a general buying spree that carried department-store and other retail sales figures far above a year ago.
President Roosevelt declared for the maintenance of a free press “against all assaults” as a “fundamental obligation” of American patriotism in a message yesterday in praise of National Newspaper Week, which begins today.
President Roosevelt declared today that the Constitution of Soviet Russia protects religion and the right to propagandize against it. He termed this virtually the same rule as that applying in the United States.
[Ed: FDR could be the dumbest Son of a Bitch in the world sometimes.]
Rain-gorged rivers of southern New Mexico inundated widely separated towns and cities tonight, doing incalculable damage to crops and highways, and brought swift menace of flood waters into neighboring Arizona and Texas. Crests from last week’s floods moved down the lower Pecos over the Texas line, surging through the town of Pecos. Thousands of acres of rich cotton land were damaged. The Gila River flood crest rolled into the Virden and Duncan valleys on the lower Gila, and did an estimated $1,000,000 damage at Duncan, Arizona.
TU 4.1.5 (Commander William K. Phillips) assumes escort duty for convoy HX.152. During the rough passage to the MOMP, which concludes on 9 October, all destroyers of the unit, Mayo (DD-422) (flagship), Broome (DD-210), Babbitt (DD-128), Leary (DD-158) and Schenck (DD-159) suffer varying degrees of storm damage.
TU 4.1.3 (Commander Dennis L. Ryan) assumes escort duty for convoy ON 20 at the MOMP (see 2 October).
Major League Baseball:
Thirteen Major League clubs draft 17 minors leaguers. The winners are the Giants taking Sal Maglie (Buffalo); Braves taking catcher Clyde Kluttz (Sacramento); Cubs taking Hi Bithorn (Hollywood).
Chinese troops at Changsha declared victory at the Second Battle of Changsha after pushing Japanese troops back to the Yueyang region. Japanese forces fight their way out of the encirclement at Changsha suffering serious losses in the retreat to Yoochow. Chinese estimates range up to 40,000 losses for the Japanese, a rare major victory for the Chinese.
The Japanese landed parachute troops in Changsha, the bitterly contested capital of Hunan Province, but most of them have been killed or captured, Chinese dispatches from the front said today. The Chinese, contending that they still hold the city, said their forces made quick work of the parachutists and civilian-clad Japanese who filtered into Changsha, center of China’s richest rice-producing area. Other Japanese parachutists landed in Chuchow, a rail junction 30 miles south of Changsha, but all were killed or put to flight, the Chinese reported. Military dispatches reaching here said a Chinese counter-attack started at dawn yesterday and still in progress had hurled the Japanese back north and northeast of Changsha. About 200,000 Chinese troops were said to have been thrown into the battle against the 80,000 Japanese attackers. “The Japanese left wing northeast of the city was said to be in full retreat.
Representatives of France and Thailand further defined the boundaries between Thailand and French Indochina per the 9 May 1941 peace treaty.
As indications multiply that the tentative American-Japanese parleys in Washington will result in a stalemate, inner circles in Tokyo and other key centers in the Far East are already expecting another Japanese Cabinet overturn, with Prince Fumimaro Konoe probably surviving as Premier and with the reemergence of Yosuke Matsuoka and his adherents in places of high authority, backed by extremists.
The Imperial Japanese Navy light aircraft carrier HIJMS Zuiho becomes flagship of CarDiv 3.
At Maizuru, the modifications of light cruisers HIJMS Oi and HIJMS Kitakami are completed, but only ten sets of Type 92 Model 3 quadruple mounts (shielded) were available for installation, a total of 40 tubes. The torpedo tubes are arranged in two broadside rows of five, i.e. 20 per side.
U.S. Army Chief of Staff General Marshall directs MacArthur to arrange for the “regular use” of British and Imperial air fields at Port Darwin, Rabaul, Port Moresby, and Singapore, for the “emergency use” of fields in the Netherlands East Indies, and to ask the British to develop an additional air field in the northern part of Borneo.
Philippines Commissioner Sayre writes to MacArthur to complain of MacArthur’s lack of co-operation with the High Commission in civil defense.
The U.S. Navy War Plans Department develops plans for the stockpiling of ammunition and POL throughout the South-West Pacific.
At the instigation of U.S. Army Air Corps leader General “Hap” Arnold, Marshall offers MacArthur the choice of Major General Lewis Brereton, Major General Jacob E Fickel, or Brigadier General Walther H Frank to head up the expanded Far East Air Force.
Rear Admiral Harold M. Bemis, incapacitated by illness, is relieved as Commandant, Sixteenth Naval District and Navy Yard, Cavite, P.I., by Captain Herbert J. Ray (see 5 November).
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 126.82 (+0.77)
Born:
Paul Bremer, American diplomat, second de facto chief civilian administrator of Iraq as leader of the Coalition Provisional Authority following the 2003 invasion of Iraq by the United States, in Hartford, Connecticut.
Angela Pleasence, English actress (“Coronation Street”), in Chapeltown, South Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom.
Naval Construction:
The Nihon Kaigun (Imperial Japanese Navy) fleet oiler HIJMS Kazahaya (風早, “Fast Wind”), sole ship of her class completed, is laid down by the Harima Dock Company (Kōbe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan).
The U.S. Navy Chanticleer-class submarine rescue ship USS Coucal (ASR-8) and USS Florikan (ASR-9) are laid down by the Moore Shipbuilding and Dry Dock, Co. (Oakland, California, U.S.A.).
The Nihon Kaigun (Imperial Japanese Navy) Type KS (Ro-100-class) submarines HIJMS RO-101 and HIJMS RO-102 are laid down by Kawasaki (Kōbe, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan).
The Royal Navy “T”-class (Third Group) submarine HMS Taurus (P 339) is laid down by Vickers Armstrong (Barrow-in-Furness, U.K.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type IXC/40 U-boat U-801 is laid down by Deutsche Schiff und Maschinenbau AG, Bremen (werk 359).
The U.S. Navy YMS-1-class auxiliary motor minesweeper USS YMS-66 is launched by the Weaver Shipyards (Orange, Texas, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy MMS I-class motor minesweepers HMS MMS 105 (J 605) and HMS MMS 106 (J 606) are launched by Clare Shipbuilding (Meteghan, Canada).
The U.S. Navy 77-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-57 is launched by the Electric Launch Company Ltd. (Elco), (Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.A.). She is transferred to the Royal Navy on completion and commissions as HMS MTB 315.
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 291 is commisioned.
The Royal Navy Fairmile B-class motor launch HMS ML 300 is commisioned.
The Royal Navy harbor defence motor launch HMS HDML 1057 is commisioned.
The Royal Navy Isles-class minesweeping trawler HMS Hildasay (T 173) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is T/Lieutenant William Percival Hart, RNR.
The Royal Navy Vosper 70-foot motor torpedo boat HMS MTB 221 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is T/Lieutenant P. G. L. Gibson, RNVR.
For the month of September, 1941, German U-boats sink 56 ships (total of 209,835-tons) and damage 4 more (14,132-tons).
