On 11 October 1941, the Germans are still far down the road from Moscow working on reducing Soviet opposition at Bryansk. However, as described by Russian-born British war correspondent Alexander Werth, who is on the scene in Moscow, a “tank panic” is beginning to grip the city. This is based on wild rumors of panzers on the outskirts of the city. These rumors are fed by a tendency of Soviet news organizations such as TASS to describe the fighting as being “in the direction of” cities that are widely believed to already have fallen. Ordinary citizens begin fleeing to “safe” cities far to the east such as Saratov, and Stalin authorizes the evacuation of non-essential personnel such as women and children who are not engaged in war work.
As described by Russian-born British war correspondent Alexander Werth in books such as “Russia at War 1941 to 1945” (London, 1964), who is on the scene in Moscow, there are two main schools of thought regarding whether to stay in Moscow. Those staying feel that those who are leaving are being disloyal in thinking that the Soviet Red Army cannot defend the capital. Those leaving, however, say that they could not bear living under German rule and question the patriotism of those who would willingly risk that. In any event, a flood of people crowds the roads and railways heading east out of harm’s way.
General Georgy Zhukov, in charge of Soviet West Front after being recalled from Leningrad, combines his command with General Budenny’s Reserve Front to form a united command. He faces a grim situation and orders the trapped Soviet 3rd and 13th Armies at Vyazma to break out. The German cordon around the town is still weak, as the infantry is struggling to keep up with the rapid panzer advance, but already the Wehrmacht is pounding the trapped forces with artillery and Luftwaffe strikes. It is in situations like this when the German Junkers Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers are particularly effective.
After dark, the Red Air Force makes a desperate spoiling attack on Luftwaffe airfields on the northwestern, western, and southwestern approaches to Moscow. Soviet intelligence has learned that the Luftwaffe plans a major attack for the 12th that would target airfields, railroad terminals, logistical facilities, and industrial complexes. The Soviets claim to destroy 500 Luftwaffe aircraft at airfields located at Vitebsk, Smolensk, Orel, Orsha, Siversk, and elsewhere. However, as with many claims by both sides during World War II, this appears to be a wildly inflated number which is not confirmed by Luftwaffe records.
Overall, despite the Red Air Force attacks, the Luftwaffe has aerial superiority virtually everywhere that they choose to assert it. Major Günther Lützow, Kommodore of JG 3, has 92 victories and receives at the hand of Adolf Hitler at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair Fuhrer Headquarters) the Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords (Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes mit Eichenlaub under Schwerten). However, as is usually the case, with good news comes bad for the Luftwaffe. Today, 7-victory ace (Experte) Hans Schmeidler of JG 77 is lost in action.
At Bryansk, Russia, enveloped Soviet 3rd and 13th Armies counterattacked positions held by troops of German Panzergruppe 2 and broke through. Kaluga falls to the Germans in their advance on Moscow. Bryansk is evacuated by the Russians as the German pincers contract.
At Archangel, PQ-1, the first convoy bringing much-needed supplies to help the Russian war effort here, arrived today. It sailed from Hvalfjord in Iceland on 28 September escorted by the cruiser HMS Suffolk, two destroyers and an anti-submarine group. Depending on the ice conditions, convoys using this route may have to travel up to 2,000 miles, frequently on stormy seas and in freezing temperatures.
Convoys on this route have to take an oil tanker along with them to fuel the escorts. This means working to a complicated schedule so that the tankers can return safely with the westbound convoys which will be designated QP. Efforts were made to establish a refueling base for the route on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen.
Rear-Admiral Philip Vian took two cruisers and two destroyers there on 27 July, but he found it too exposed to German air attack to be safe as a port of call.
The second PQ convoy is due to leave next week. By the time it arrives here the winter freeze will have begun. The Russians are hoping to keep the port open throughout the winter, but the Allies are nervous of risking valuable ships sailing hazardously through the narrow channels in the ice. They may have to divert to Murmansk.
Reports of German suggestions for an armistice were ridiculed today by an official Soviet spokesman, who dismissed them as Nazi propaganda. He asserted at the same time that the government would never evacuate Moscow.
The mass evacuation of women and children from Moscow began. Thousands fled Moscow, Russia based on rumors of an imminent German capture of the Soviet capital. To the west, the enveloped Soviet troops at Vyazma suffered a heavy artillery and air bombardment that caused heavy casualties.
Soviet submarine ShCh-322 was lost in the Gulf of Finland to unknown reason; all 40 aboard were killed. She had most likely struck a mine.
Describing the plight of Jews in France, particularly of Jewish refugees from foreign countries, Herbert Katzki, secretary of the European executive council of the Joint Distribution Committee, with headquarters in Marseille, said yesterday that since July, 1940, when France was divided into the occupied and unoccupied zones, the committee had spent more than 55,000,000 francs on various forms of relief.
Don’t listen to foreign broadcasts the German people are warned today by Goebbels. He is reported by Berlin Radio to have said: “It is not a question of being afraid to here what they say. It is simply a preventative measure. Germs are treacherous enemies, even of a healthy people.” One result, he adds, is too much grumbling.
Paul von Kleist was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report.
Alexander Löhr was mentioned in the Wehrmachtbericht daily radio report.
Soviet newspapers demand an Allied Second Front in western Europe. On cue, British Labor and student groups and Members of Parliament today joined in the growing clamor for British action on the Western Front — a move that the British command does not feel ready to make just now.
Malta-based British bombers of No. 830 Squadron attacked an Italian convoy 100 miles north of Tripoli, sinking ships Zena and Casaregis.
RAF Bomber Command, Day of 11 October 1941
11 Blenheims were dispatched to the Dutch coast but their escort failed to rendezvous and the operation was abandoned without loss.
RAF Bomber Command, Night of 11/12 October 1941
Emden
27 Wellingtons; the target was cloud-covered and bombing was scattered. No aircraft were lost.
12 Hampdens minelaying in the mouths of the Elbe and Weser rivers. No losses.
Heavy cruiser HMAS Shropshire departed Scapa Flow for Sheerness for refitting. The heavy cruiser arrived at Sheerness, escorted by destroyers HMS Quorn and HMS Vivacious, on the 12th, and was refitting at Chatham from 17 October to 16 February 1942.
Destroyer HMS Electra departed Scapa Flow at 1900 for Rosyth for boiler cleaning. The destroyer arrived at 1015/12th.
Destroyer HMS Oribi departed Scapa Flow escorting British steamer Llanstephan Castle to the Clyde. Both ships arrived in the Clyde at 0815/13th. The destroyer departed the Clyde that day to return to Scapa Flow.
Motor launch ML.288 was lost in heavy weather off Hartlepool.
Submarine HMS Tigris unsuccessfully attacked a German eastbound convoy off North Cape.
British steamer Icemaid (1964grt) was damaged by a mine off Orfordness near Shipwash Light Vessel off Harwich. The steamer arrived at Harwich in tow on the 12th.
British hulk Haytian was sunk by German bombing three and a half cables north of Castleton Pier, Portland.
Norwegian motor vessel Silva (127grt) was damaged by German bombing at Klaksvig.
Estonian steamers Eestirand (4444grt) and Kaissaar (1893grt), carrying deportees from Tallinn to Leningrad, were damaged by German bombing off Wrangel Island.
Submarine HMS P.31 arrived at Gibraltar from Dundee.
Australian destroyer HMAS Vendetta departed Haifa for Alexandria with a convoy.
An Italian convoy of steamers Giulia (5921grt), Casaregis (6485grt), Nirvo (5164grt), Bainsizza (7933grt), Zena (5219grt), and Prosperina (ex-French Beauce, 4869grt) departed Naples on the 8th escorted by destroyers Granatiere, Bersagliere, Fucliere, and Alpino. Torpedo boat Cascino joined from Trapani. Steamer Bainsizza with defects returned to Trapani. On the 11th, steamer Zena was sunk by British 830 Squadron aerial torpedo in 34-52N, 12-22E, south of Lampedusa. On the 11th, steamer Casaregis was sunk by British 830 Squadron aerial torpedo in 34-10N, 12-38E.
Aircraft carrier HMS Eagle with destroyers HMS Croome and HMS Wild Swan and sloop FS Commandant Duboc arrived at Gibraltar.
Submarine HMS Porpoise departed Gibraltar with stores for Malta, arriving on the 17th.
Submarine HMS P.31 arrived at Gibraltar after having departing Dundee on 30 September.
Anti-submarine trawlers HMS Lady Hogarth and HMS Stella Carina departed Gibraltar escorting Norwegian tanker Vanja westwards. The trawlers then joined arriving tanker Inverlee.
Convoy SC.49 departed Sydney CB, escorted by corvette HMCS Lethbridge. On the 13th, corvettes HMS Amhurst, HMCS Eyebright, HMCS Mayflower, HMCS Nanaimo, and HMCS Prescott joined and destroyer HMCS St. Francis and corvette HMCS Kenogami joined on the 14th. Destroyer HMCS St. Francis and corvettes HMCS Eyebright and HMCS Kenogami were detached on the 21st. Corvettes Amhurst, HMCS Lethbridge, HMCS Mayflower, HMCS Nanaimo, and HMCS Prescott were detached on the 22nd and corvettes HMS Heather, HMS Lobelia, and HMS Narcissus joined. On the 23rd, destroyers HMS Beagle, HMS Roxborough, HMS Salisbury, and HMS Sherwood and anti-submarine trawler HMS Notts County joined. Destroyer Salisbury was detached on the 24th. The remainder of the escorts arrived with the convoy at Liverpool on the 27th.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt privately proposed to British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that the countries pool their resources and research facilities to develop an atomic bomb.
Authoritative sources indicated today that if, and when, merchant ships are armed, trained naval crews will almost certainly man the guns that are mounted on the vessels. The Navy is much better prepared to provide such crews, officials said, than in 1917 when young naval enlisted men were trained for such duty after war was declared. As for the guns, an Administration source asserted yesterday that a sufficient number will be available to arm ships plying in the Atlantic “as soon as the necessary revision of the Neutrality Act is accomplished.” Navy Department spokesmen declined to discuss what steps, if any, have been taken to organize gun crews for service aboard merchantmen, pointing out that the prohibition against arming such vessels still is part of the Neutrality Act. They reminded questioners, however, that Secretary Knox already stated that the gun crews are “available.”
The “present-day solidarity and unity of purpose” of the American Republics was stressed by President Roosevelt tonight in a statement on the occasion of Columbus Day. These nations, he declared, “are firmly resolved to preserve and defend the principles and the institutions of representative government, liberty of conscience and social responsibility.”
A German radio station in Greenland has been discovered and “disposed of” by a United States naval vessel in the course of its regular patrol duties, it was announced by the Navy Department today. A small Norwegian steamer and her personnel of about twenty persons, who were supporting the station, are being brought to an American port “for examination.”
Adolf Hitler was challenged today by J. Edgar Hoover, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “to twist his lying tongue into a claim that his ‘Battle of America* is ‘progressing according to plan.’ ” Mr. Hoover addressed the graduation exercises of the eighteenth session of the National Police Academy.
Close economic collaboration between the United States and Canada on such problems as jointly providing food exports for the United Kingdom, pooling materials and manufacturing essential articles for the Latin-American market and conserving strategic materials was mapped by the Joint Economic Committees for the two countries, which closed a two-day conference here yesterday.
Two members of the United States Conciliation Service conferred for ten hours here today with representatives of the C.I.O. and of the A.F. of L. and with officials of the Spicer Manufacturing Company in an effort to settle the dispute at Hillsdale, Michigan, which threatens to tie up 70 percent of the nation’s light-tank production.
The possibility of government seizure of another strike-involved plant arose yesterday. The defense mediation board announced that the management of Air Associates, Inc., at Bendix, New Jersey, had refused to accept the board s recommendations for ending a strike by C.I.O.- United Automobile workers, On Thursday, a board official had asserted that if the company rejected the recommendations the government might take over the plant. In two other cases that of the North American Aviation at Inglewood, California, and the Federal Shipbuilding Co. at Kearny, New Jersey, the government has taken over operation of plants. North American where the union had ignored board recommendations was returned to the management after the strike was broken.
Fire propelled by repeated explosions raced out of control early today in three units of the Firestone Rubber & Latex Corp., near the center of Fall River, Massachusetts, after about 1,000 workers fled the flames. Large embers endangered a sizable area adjacent to the plant composed of 10 five-story brick structures on the waterfront. The company here holds defense contracts for gas masks, army belts, and machine-gun clips.
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor arrived in Timonium, Maryland today in a private car attached to a special train for a visit with old acquaintances of the Duke and with girlhood friends and relatives of the Duchess.
Les Brown and his Orchestra’s record of “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” with vocal by Betty Bonney makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is the first of his records to make the charts and it stays there for 3 weeks and rises to Number 16.
Nearly 2,000 Japanese will be evacuated from the West Coast of the United States and Hawaii on three Japanese ships that will make special trips to repatriate them, it was announced today.
The Chinese army declared today that Ichang, highwater mark of Japan’s westward invasion, has been recaptured. A communique said, however, that slightly more than 1,000 Japanese garrison troops remained inside the city, holding out in concrete fortifications. The Chinese said these were being shelled. The communique said eight Japanese parachutists had been dropped inside the city, apparently with orders for the garrison, but two were captured and the rest killed before they reached the ground.
The official Chinese military spokesman charged today that Japanese warplanes blasting at Chinese troops outside Ichang dropped 300 gas bombs which killed nearly 2,000 Chinese soldiers. Military quarters claimed that the raid, staged by 36 Japanese planes was not the first time the Japanese had used gas, but it was said that never before had the Japanese used on such a large scale.
The importance of America’s stake in the rubber and tin resources of British Malaya and the Netherlands Indies is shown in figures revealing that the United States is now importing roughly 80 percent of their rubber and 85 percent of their tin production.
As evidence of the determination of the new Labor Cabinet of Prime Minister John Curtin to augment Australia’s war effort, the government at Canberra has announced it will immediately make available for British-Soviet use sorely needed standard-gauge locomotives and freight cars for the Trans-Iranian Railway.
New Zealand’s Army was expanded by 50,000 men last year, it was indicated by a report from the chief of the General Staff, General E. Puttick, presented to the House of Representatives today.
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 122.63 (+0.17)
Born:
Charles Shyer, American film director (“Private Benjamin”), in Los Angeles, California.
Lester Bowie, American jazz trumpet player and composer, in Frederick, Maryland (d. 1999).
Joe Auer, AFL and NFL running back and kick returner (Buffalo Bills, Miami Dolphins; Atlanta Falcons), in Trenton, New Jersey (d. 2019).
Died:
Edward Mark Best, 41 or 42, New Zealand police officer (mortally wounded by Stanley Graham on October 8).
Charles Treat, 81, American major general.
Naval Construction:
The U.S. Navy SC-497-class (110-foot wooden hull) submarine chaser USS PC-655 (later SC-655) is laid down by the Westergard Boat Works Inc. (Biloxi, Mississippi, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-470 is laid down by Deutsche Werke AG, Kiel (werk 301).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-668 is laid down by Howaldtswerke Hamburg AG, Hamburg (werk 817).
The U.S. Navy Mattaponi-class oiler USS Neches (AO-47) is launched by the Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co. (Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy YMS-1-class auxiliary motor minesweeper USS YMS-77 is launched by the Stadium Yacht Basin (Cleveland, Ohio, U.S.A.).
The Royal Navy MMS I-class motor minesweeper HMS MMS 68 (J 568) is launched by Richards Ironworks Ltd. (Lowestoft, England, U.K.).
The U.S. Navy SC-497-class (110-foot wooden hull) submarine chaser USS PC-500 (later SC-500) is launched by the Fisher Boat Works (Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy SC-497-class (110-foot wooden hull) submarine chasers USS PC-516 (later SC-516) and PC-517 (later SC-517) are launched by the Elizabeth City Shipyard (Elizabeth City, North Carolina, U.S.A.).
The U.S. Navy 77-foot Elco patrol motor torpedo boat USS PT-60 is launched by the Electric Launch Company Ltd. (Elco), (Bayonne, New Jersey, U.S.A.).
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-439 is launched by F Schichau GmbH, Danzig (werk 1490).
The Royal Navy Hunt-class (Type III) escort destroyer HMS Albrighton (L 12) is launched by the John Brown Shipbuilding & Engineering Company Ltd. (Clydebank, Scotland).
The U.S. Navy Aloe-class net tender USS Holly (YN-14; later AN-19) is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Ensign R. G. Osburn, Jr., USN.
The Royal Navy LCT (Mk 2)-class landing craft, tank HMS LCT 132 is commissioned.
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Courier (AMc-72) is placed in service.
The U.S. Navy Accentor-class coastal minesweeper USS Endurance (AMc-77) is placed in service. Her first commanding officer is Lieutenant (j.g.) Horace G. Stevens, USNR.
The Royal Navy British Power Boat 63-foot-class motor anti-submarine boat HMS MA/SB 34 is commissioned.
The Kriegsmarine (German Navy) Type VIIC U-boat U-209 is commissioned. Her first commanding officer is Kapitänleutnant Heinrich Brodda.
