Accounting of the next night's bombing of London reveals that theOld Bailey, theGuildhall, and eight churches byChristopher Wren were destroyed or badly damaged.
The leader ofWallonia's fascist party,Léon Degrelle, gives a speech in the German-occupied city ofLiège announcing the support of theRexist Party for German Nazism.
German aircraft damage aircraft carrier HMSIllustrious, which is heading forMalta. The GermanLuftwaffe, it is now clear, has command of air over the Mediterranean. The attack is also the opening of Malta's agony over the next months.
Greek forces in Albania take the strategically important Klissoura pass.
11 January: In London, 57 people are killed and 69 injured when a German bomb lands outside theBank of England, demolishing theUnderground station below and leaving a 120-foot crater.
15 January: The rivalry between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists becomes more evident; large numbers of the latter are forced to give up their arms.
Molotov meets German Ambassador Schulenburg in Moscow. The Soviets are surprised that they have not received any answer from Germany totheir offer to join the Axis (November 26, 1940). Schulenburg replies that it has to be first discussed with Italy and Japan.
18 January: Air raids on Malta are increasing in focus and intensity.
30 January: British forces in North Africa takeDerna; 100 miles west of Tobruk.
31 January: Indian 4th Division flanks and then captures Agordat, Eritrea, Italian East Africa. 1,000 Italian troops and 43 field guns are captured.[1]
7 February:Operation Compass: After several days of desperate fighting, aflying column ofXIII Corps calledCombe Force cuts off the retreatingItalian 10th Army during the Battle of Beda Fomm. The Italians are unable to break through the small blocking force and the British accept the surrender of roughly 130,000 Italians in and to the south ofBenghazi.
8 February: US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease bill.
9 February
Mussolini is informed that German reinforcements are on the way to North Africa.
Afrika Korps starts to move eastward towards the advance British positions at El Agheila. The British in North Africa have been weakened by the transfer of some troops to Greece.
15 February: Deportation of Austrian Jews to ghettos in Poland begins.
19 February: The start of the "three nights Blitz" ofSwansea,South Wales. Over these three nights of intensive bombing, Swansea town centre is almost completely obliterated.
20 February: German and British troops confront each other for the first time in North Africa—at El Agheila in western Libya.
21 February: German forces move through Bulgaria toward the Greek front.
24 February
German U-boat offensive in the Atlantic is now increasingly successful.
Admiral Darlan is appointed the head of the Vichy government in France.
The state of the Allies and Axis powers in March 1941U.S. PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt signs theLend-Lease bill to give aid to Britain and China (1941).
1 March
Hitler gives orders for the expansion ofAuschwitz prison camp, to be run by CommandantRudolf Höss.
British and Italian troops meet in a brief conflict in Eritrea.
Portsmouth suffers heavy casualties after another night of heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe.
11 March: United States PresidentFranklin Delano Roosevelt signs theLend Lease Act (now passed by the full Congress) allowing Britain, China, and other Allied nations to purchase military equipment and to defer payment until after the war.
12 March: German Panzers arrive in North Africa providing heavy armor for the first major German offensive.
13 March: The Luftwaffe strikes with a large force at Glasgow and the shipping industry along theRiver Clyde.
17 March
Huge convoy losses in mid-Atlantic this week.
The United States of America converts its Corps Areas to Defense Commands, with the term Corps reassigned as an intermediate field command of a Field Army.
19 March: The worst bombing of London so far this year, with heavy damage from incendiary bombs; Plymouth and Bristol are bombed again.
20 March: The Italian Spring Offensive is called off, after heavy losses and virtually no progress.
21 March: The Yugoslav cabinet resigns in protest against Prince Paul's pact with the Nazis. Street demonstration occurs, expressive of a deep dislike for Germany.
24 March: Rommel attacks and reoccupiesEl Agheila, Libya in his first offensive. The British retreat and within three weeks are driven back to Egypt.
25 March: Italian MTMs of theDecima MAS sink the heavy cruiserHMS York (90), a large tanker (the NorwegianPericles), another tanker and a cargo ship inSuda Bay,Crete.
27 March
Crown Prince Peter becomesPeter II of Yugoslavia and takes control of Yugoslavia after an army coup overthrows the pro-German government of the Prince Regent.
2 April: After taking Agedabia, Rommel decides to take all of Libya and moves his troops toward Benghazi. All of Cyrenaica (Libya) seems ready for the taking.
3 April
A pro-Axis government is installed in Iraq.
Bristol, England, suffers another heavy air attack.
British troops take Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, from the Italian armies.
Rommel takes Benghazi, Libya; Tobruk will remain a threat for the next seven months.
Hungarian Prime MinisterPál Teleki commits suicide.
4 April
Rommel is now about 200 miles east of El Agheila, heading for Tobruk and Egypt.
An Atlantic convoy suffers almost 50% losses to U-boat campaign.
6 April
Forces of Germany, Italy, and Hungary, moving through Romania and Hungary, initiate the invasions ofYugoslavia andGreece.
The Italian Army is driven out fromAddis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The northern wing of Rommel's forces take Derna, on the Libyan coast. The southern wing moves towardMechili, and takes it on the 8th.
7 April: The Luftwaffe begins a two-day assault on Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Hitler is infuriated by the Yugoslav resistance.
9 April: The Palestinian leaderAmin al-Husseini issues afatwa in a radio speech from Baghdad, calling on Muslims to engage in aholy war against Great Britain.[3]
10 April
Greenland is occupied by the United States. With the approval of a "free Denmark", the US will build naval and air bases as counters to the U-boat war.
Germans encircle the port of Tobruk, Libya, opening the siege; some of Rommel's forces move east to take Fort Capuzzo and Sollum, on the border with Egypt.
The destroyerUSS Niblack attacks a German U-boat that had just sunk a Dutch freighter. TheNiblack was picking up survivors of the freighter when it detected the U-boat preparing to attack. TheNiblack attacked with depth charges and drove off the U-boat.
11 April
Though still a "neutral" nation, the United States begins sea patrols in the North Atlantic.
Heavy Luftwaffe raids on Coventry and Birmingham, England.
15 April: British destroyers intercept an Afrika Korps convoy and sink all five transports and the three covering Italian destroyers.
16 April
A heavy Luftwaffe raid onBelfast, Northern Ireland.
Germans continue the invasion southward into Yugoslavia; they cut off the Greek army in Albania, which had had notable success against the Italians in January.
17 April: Yugoslavia surrenders. A government in exile is formed in London. King Peter escapes to Greece.
18 April
Greek Prime MinisterAlexandros Koryzis commits suicide; the British plan the major evacuation of Greece.
In Iraq, in accordance with theAnglo-Iraqi Treaty, British forces from India start to land atBasra.
19 April: London suffers one of the heaviest air raids in the war; St. Paul's is mildly damaged but remains closed; other Wren churches are heavily damaged or destroyed.
21 April: With their retreat cut off by the German advance, 223,000 Greek soldiers of the Greek army in Albania surrender.
22 April: The British, both military and civilian, begin to evacuate Greece.
23 April: Greek government is evacuated toCrete, which Churchill is determined to defend.
24 April
British and Australian forces evacuate from Greece to Crete and Egypt.
Plymouth suffers the third night of heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe.
25 April
Rommel wins an important victory at Halfaya Pass, close to the Egyptian border.
Axis forces defeat Commonwealth forces atThermopylae after Australian generalGeorge Vasey staunchly claims that they will not be beaten.
26 April: Rommel attacks the Gazala defence line and crosses into Egypt; Tobruk continues to hold however.
27 April
Athens is occupied by German troops. Greece surrenders.
Hurricane fighter planes are delivered as important reinforcements for besieged Malta.
30 April
Rommel is ordered to cease attacks on Tobruk after another failure.
InIraq, Iraqi armed forces occupy the plateau to the south of theRAF Habbaniya air base and inform the base commander that all flying should cease immediately.
With much of the Iraqi air force destroyed and facing regular bombardment themselves, the Iraqi ground forces besieging RAF Habbaniya withdraw.
The Luftwaffe arranges to send a small force to Iraq.
7 May: Between Habbaniya andFallujah, two Iraqi columns are caught in the open and attacked by roughly forty British aircraft; the Iraqis suffer heavy casualties.
8 May
Heavy convoy losses in the Atlantic continue; however, one U-boat (U-110) is captured by the British navy and another copy of the "Enigma" machine is discovered and saved. It will help to turn the fortunes in the Atlantic battle.
9 May: A Japanese brokered peace treaty signed in Tokyo ends theFrench-Thai War.
10 May
Rudolf Hess is captured inScotland after bailing out of his plane; his self-appointed mission was to make peace with the United Kingdom.
The United Kingdom'sHouse of Commons is damaged by theLuftwaffe in anair raid. Other targets are Hull, Liverpool, Belfast, and the shipbuilding area of theRiver Clyde in Scotland. This is close to the end ofthe Blitz, as Germany shifts its focus toward Soviet Union and the East.
The "Strike of the 100,000" begins inLiège in Belgium on the anniversary of the German invasion of 1940. It soon spreads across the whole province until nearly 70,000 workers are on strike.[2]
12 May
The RAF bombs several German cities, including Hamburg, Emden, and Berlin.
The Soviet Union recognizesRashid Ali's "National Defence Government" in Iraq.
13 May
Yugoslav Army ColonelDraža Mihailović summons up the "Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland" which mostly consists of Serbs, but also includes Slovenes, Bosnians, and Croats. Mihailović treks from Bosnia toRavna Gora in central Serbia, and issues an uprising call promising a struggle against the occupiers and the restoration of theYugoslavian monarchy. At this point,Josip Broz Tito and theYugoslav Partisans are aligned with the Soviet Union, which is still friendly with Germany.
16 May: Rommel defeats a counter-attack, "Brevity", at Halfaya Pass. The two sides trade alternating control of Fort Capuzzo and Halfaya Pass.
17 May: British forces in the Habbaniya area advance on Iraqi-held Fallujah and, in five days fighting, push the Iraqis out.
18 May: The Duke of Aosta, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, surrenders his forces at Amba Alagi.
20 May
German paratroopersland on Crete; the battle for Crete will continue for seven days.
The German military mission to Iraq,Special Staff F (Sonderstab F), is created to support of "TheArab Freedom Movement in the Middle East".Sonderstab F is to includeFliegerführer Irak and other elements already in Iraq.
21 May
The US merchantmanSS Robin Moor is sunk byGerman submarine U-69. The incident startles the nation, and President Roosevelt shortly announces an "unlimited national emergency".
The Italian Viceroy in Ethiopia surrenders. Remnants of Italian troops keep on fighting.
22 May: Iraqi forces unsuccessfully counter-attack the British forces in Fallujah and are rebuffed.
23 May
German dictator Adolf Hitler issues "Führer Directive No. 30" in support of "The Arab Freedom Movement in the Middle East", his "natural ally against England".
A major outbreak of anti-Jewish rioting breaks out inGabès in the Vichy-heldTunisia sparked by news of the defeat of the Arab uprising in Iraq. It lasts for three days.[4]
24 May
British battlecruiserHMS Hood is sunk by a powerful salvo from German battleshipBismarck in the North Atlantic.
The German battleshipBismarck issunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy, after evasive tactics, and a damaged steering system which forced it into an endless series of circular movements.
The British forces from the Habbaniya area begin an advance on Baghdad and, within four days, approach the city from the west and from the north.
TwelveItalian aircraft arrive at Mosul to joinFliegerführer Irak.
Rationing of clothes begins in the United Kingdom.
2 June:Tuskegee Airmen begin with the formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron.
4 June:Kaiser William II, former German Emperor, dies in exile in the Netherlands.
6 June: More British fighter planes are delivered to Malta; Luftwaffe attacks continue.
8 June: Vichy French-controlledSyria andLebanon are invaded by Australian, British, Free French, and Indian forces.
9 June
Finland initiates mobilisation, preparations against possible attack of Soviet aggressor.
The British and Australians cross theLitani River, beating back Vichy French forces. During this battle,Moshe Dayan, leading an Australian unit, loses his eye. He becomes famous when his story is published a day later.[6]
10 June:Assab, the last Italian-held port in East Africa, falls.
13 June
The Australians continue to fight through the Vichy French defenses and advance towards Beirut, winning theBattle of Jezzine.
Soviets begin deporting Lithuanians to Siberia. Deportations continue for five days and total 35,000 Lithuanians, among them 7000 Jews.[7]
14 June
All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
10,100 people fromEstonia, 15,000 fromLatvia and 34,000 (or 35,000, starting a day earlier[7]) fromLithuania are deported to Siberia by the Soviet Union.
16 June: All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
20 June: Under the directives of theUnited States Department of War, the bulk of the personnel of what had been known as theUnited States Army Air Corps up to this date are brought into what becomes theUnited States Army Air Forces from this date forward, withGeneralHenry H. Arnold as its first commander. As part of the reorganization,General Headquarters Air Force is renamed Air Force Combat Command; the new Army Air Forces organization consists of Air Force Combat Command (its combat element), with the existing logistics and training element retaining the older "United States Army Air Corps" designation.[8]
21 June:President Roosevelt authorizes $6,000 For Executive Order 8807 (Manhattan Project-Nuclear Weapons).
22 June
Germany invades the Soviet Union withOperation Barbarossa, a three-pronged operation aimed at Leningrad, Moscow, and the southern oil fields of the Caucasus, ending theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Romania invades south-western border areas of the Soviet Union in Europe on the side of Germany.
British general in Libya/Egypt Wavell is replaced by General Auchinleck.
In the late evening, Hitler first arrives at his headquarters atRastenburg,East Prussia, codenamed "Wolf's Lair" (Wolfsschanze). Between this date and November 20, 1944, Hitler will have spent 800 days at Wolf's Lair.
24 June: German forces enterVilnius. Lithuanian militia men go on a shooting spree, killing dozens of Jews on the streets, with civilian spectators cheering them on. The Germans kidnap 60 Jewish "hostages" and 30 Poles. Only 6 return.[7]
25 June:
The Soviet Union bombs Helsinki. Finland pronounces a state of war between Finland and Soviet Union.
The state of the Allies and Axis powers in July 1941
1 July
General Auchinleck takes over from General Wavell in North Africa.
The British win the Battle of Palmyra against the French in the Middle East.
All American men over 21 are required to register for the draft.
German troops occupy Latvia's capital,Riga, on the way to Leningrad.
2 July
Ponary massacre killings begin, with the shooting of Soviet POWs captured duringOperation Barbarossa, which began two weeks earlier, and with the deportation of hundreds of Jews fromVilnius to Soviet dug fuel tank pits near the Ponariai suburb of Vilnius, where they are shot or buried alive. Reports by survivors are accepted as hallucinations. The mass deportations and shooting of Jews continued until 1943.
Hungarian troops take over Stanisławów and other towns in what is now Ukraine.[9]
EstonianForest Brothers start offensives against the Red Army in Southern Estonia, several days before the arrival of German forces. This marks the beginning of theSummer War in Estonia.
The United States of America elevates its General Headquarters,United States Army in order to command and plan for military operations within theZone of the Interior.
Italian GeneralPietro Gazzera surrenders the remnants of his forces in theJimma area of Ethiopia.
British troops employ brave and risky flanking tactics to win theBattle of Deir ez-Zor.
7 July: British and Canadian troops inIceland are replaced by Americans.
8 July
Yugoslavia, a country formed by the Versailles treaty, is dissolved by the Axis into its component parts; especially important will be Croatia, with a pro-Axis government.
Britain and the USSR sign a mutual defence agreement, promising not to sign any form of separate peace agreement with Germany.
9 July:Vitebsk (Belarus) is captured; this opens thebattle of Smolensk, an important communications centre, considered by the German high command to be "the gateway to Moscow."
10 July
The Red Army takes up positions on theEmajõgi River line, allowing EstonianForest Brothers to take control over Southeastern Estonia, including in most ofTartu, where the NKVDexecutes 193 prisoners and the Red Army blows up the historicalStone Bridge. German forces arrive at the new line on 12 July and the river will remain the front for several weeks.
The occupation of Latvia starts officially. Guderian's Panzers takeMinsk; the Germans advance farther into Ukraine.
Assistance Pact signed between the United Kingdom and the USSR.
13 July:Montenegro starts anuprising against the Axis Powers shortly after the Royalists in Serbia begin theirs. Questionable Communist plans instigate parallel uprising and civil war.
15 July
The Red Army starts a counter-attack against the Wehrmacht near Leningrad.
Argentia naval air base is set up in Newfoundland; it will prove an important transfer station for the Allies for some years.
16 July: German Panzers under Guderian reach Smolensk, increasing the risk to Moscow.
17 July: Luftwaffe air attacks on Malta continue.
19 July: The "V-sign", displayed most notably by Churchill, is unofficially adopted as the Allied signal, along with the motif ofBeethoven's Fifth Symphony.
In response to the Japanese occupation ofFrench Indochina, US PresidentFranklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
Japanese troops occupy southern French Indochina. The Vichy French colonial government is allowed by the Japanese to continue to administerVietnam. French repression continues. The Vichy French also agree to the occupation by the Japanese of bases in Indochina.
The Germans push against Smolensk, and in the meantime solidify their presence in the Baltic states; native Jewish populations of the Baltic states are being exterminated.
Japanese yen became valueless and Japanese dollar bonds reduced in value to 20 to 30% of their par value on Wall Street.
31 July
Under instructions fromAdolf Hitler,Nazi officialHermann Göring, ordersSS generalReinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desiredfinal solution of the Jewish question."
The Japanese naval ministry accuses the United States of intruding into their territorial waters atSukumo Bay, and then fleeing. No evidence is offered to prove this allegation.[citation needed]
Lewis B. Hershey succeeds Clarence Dykstra as Director of the Selective Service System in the United States.
All civilian radios in Norway confiscated by the German occupation.[1]
SS CommanderHans Krueger (alternative spelling, Hans Krüger) orders theregistration of hundreds of Jewish and Polishintelligentsia inStanisławów, who are subsequently tortured and murdered. This is the first implementation of the "one bullet one Jew" method in Galicia.[9]
5 August: German armies trap Red Army forces in Smolensk pocket and take 300,000 soldiers; Orel is taken.
6 August
Germans take Smolensk.
American and British governments warn Japan not to invadeThailand.
7 August: Germans reach theGulf of Finland, cutting the Soviet forces in Estonia into two, with the forces in Tallinn being detached from the rest of Soviet lines.
Chungking, the nominal capital of Nationalist China located far up the Yangtze River, suffers several days of heavy bombing.
12 August: Hitler, against the advice of his generals, shifts some forces from the Moscow front to Leningrad and the Crimean offensives.
17 August: German forces captureNarva in Northeastern Estonia, leaving the Red Army in control of only its pocket in Northwestern Estonia and the West Estonian archipelago.
20 August: German 250th Infantry Division, nicknamed "Blue Division" and consisting of Spanish volunteers, was formed and began to move to Poland.[1]
22 August: German forces close in on Leningrad; the citizens continue improvising fortifications.
25 August: British and Soviet troopsinvadeIran to save theAbadan oilfields and the important railways and routes to the Soviet Union for the supply of war material.
27 August: German U-boatU-570, being forced to surface off Iceland is captured by the British Royal Navy and is later put into combat service asHMSGraph.
28 August: German forces with the help of Estonian volunteers takeTallinn from the Soviets. TheSoviet evacuation from the city inflicts heavy casualties with more than 12,000 dead and dozens of ships sunk in Finnish and German mine fields in theGulf of Finland. The remaining Soviet forces in Estonia retreat to theWest Estonian archipelago.
30 August
TheShetland bus, a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Shetland, Scotland and German-occupied Norway, begins operations.
Beginning of theYelna Offensive by the Soviet Red Army on the Eastern Front.
31 August
The first signs appear that a Leningrad "siege" is beginning.
"The Great Provocation" in Vilnius – German forces stage an attack on their soldiers by Jews, leading to a 'retaliation' mass arrest of the residents of old Jewish quarter, to be murdered atPonary, three days later.[7]
All Jews under German rule must wear theyellow star of David badge with "Jew" clearly written in it, are forbidden to live with or marry non-Jews, and are forbidden to leave their towns without written consent, in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. The decree, signed by Heydrich, is to take effect on September 19.[11]
3 September
Murder of all 3,700 residents of the old Jewish quarter in Vilnius begins at thePonary death site along with 10 members of the Judenrat. First written testimony of occurrences at Ponary by a survivor.[7]
Vilna Ghetto Jews required to hand over any gold or silver.[7]
4 September:USS Greer becomes the first United States warship fired upon by a German U-boat in the war, even though the United States is a neutral power. Tension heightens between the two nations as a result. The U.S. is now committed to convoy duties between the Western Hemisphere and Europe.
6 September
6,000 Jews shot at Ponary, a day after the order to form theVilna Ghetto was issued.
Japanese imperial conference decides Japan will go to war with the United States if the oil embargo is not lifted.
7 September: Berlin is heavily hit by RAF bombers.
8 September:Siege of Leningrad begins – a reasonable date to start measuring "the 900 days". German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city,Leningrad; Stalin orders theVolga Germans deported to Siberia.
"Self-government" ofEstonia, headed byHjalmar Mäe, is appointed by German military administration.
"Moving Aktion" inVilna Ghetto. Of 3,500 Jews "moved" between ghetto sections, only 550 arrive. The remaining 2,950 Jews are shot at thePonary massacre death site.
28 September: German SS troops kill over 30,000 Jews atBabi Yar on the outskirts of Kiev, Soviet Ukraine, in response to sabotage efforts which the Germans attributed to local Jews.
28–29 September: TheDrama uprising against the Bulgarianoccupation in northernGreece begins. It is swiftly put down, with about 3,000 people executed as reprisals.
Vilna GhettoYom Kippur Aktions (German annihilation operations) begin. In four separate incidents 3,900 Jews are kidnapped, shot and killed at thePonary massacre death site, continued with an additional 2,000 Jews kidnapped and killed there, in the next two days.[7]
2 October:Operation Typhoon – German "Central" forces begin an all-out offensive against Moscow. Leading the defense of the capital is General Georgi Zhukov, already a Hero of the Soviet Union for his command in the conflict against the Japanese in the Russian Far East and at Leningrad.
3 October:Mahatma Gandhi urges his followers to begin a passive resistance against British rule in India.
5 October: German forces captureSaaremaa island in Estonia from the Soviets.
8 October: In their invasion of the southern Soviet Union, Germany reaches theSea of Azov with the capture ofMariupol. However, there are signs that the invasion is beginning to bog down as rainy weather creates muddy roads for both tanks and men.
10 October
German armies encircle about 660,000 Red Army troops near Vyasma (east of Smolensk); some make a glowing prediction of the end of the war.
Bloody Sunday massacre atStanisławów, 8,000–12,000 Jews were rounded up and shot into pits by SIPO (Ukrainian police) together with German uniformed SS men. Dr. Tenenbaum of theJudenrat heroically refuses the offer of exemption and is shot along with the others.[9]
German forces captureHiiumaa island, the last major Soviet outpost in Estonia.
13 October: Germans attempt another drive toward Moscow as the once muddy ground hardens.
14 October: Temperatures fall further on the Moscow front; heavy snows follow and immobilize German tanks.
15 October: The Germans drive on Moscow.
16 October
Soviet Union government begins move eastward toSamara, a city on the Volga, butJoseph Stalin remains in Moscow. The citizens of Moscow frantically build tank traps and other fortifications for the coming siege.
The destroyerUSS Kearny (DD-432) is torpedoed and damaged byU-568 nearIceland, killing eleven sailors. They are the first American military casualties of the war.
The government of Japanese prime minister PrinceFumimaro Konoe collapses, leaving little hope for peace in the Pacific.
18 October
Red Army troop reinforcements arrive in Moscow from Siberia; Stalin is assured that the Japanese will not attack the USSR from the East.
20 October: Lt. Col.Karl Hotz, the German commander inNantes, is killed by the Resistance; 50 hostages are shot in reprisal. The incident will become a model for future occupation policies.
21 October
New Zealand troops land in Egypt and take overFort Capuzzo.
Negotiations in Washington between the US and Japan seem headed toward failure.
22 October
Odessa massacre begins and continues for two days. 25,000 to 34,000 Jews are led in a long procession and are shot and killed in an antitank ditch, or burnt alive after being crowded into four buildings.
The massacre began after, that day, a delayed bomb planted by the Soviets kills 67 people at the Romanian headquarters, including the Romanian commander General Glogojeanu.
35,000 Jews are expelled to theSlobodka Ghetto and are left in freezing conditions for 10 days. Many perish in the cold.
Vilna Ghetto Gelbschein I Aktion. 5,500 Jews including 140 old or paralyzed people killed.[7]
27 October: GermanArmy Group South forces reachSevastopol in the Crimea, but the tanks of the "Northern" forces are slowed or stopped entirely by mud.
28 October:Bolekhiv firstaktion massacre – 1,000 of the leading Jews rounded up by list, tortured, and on the following day 800 of the surviving Jews, were shot or buried alive at a nearby forest. The re-discovered atrocities and testimony in 1996 lead to Patrick Desbois's research on the German method of "One Bullet, One Jew" extermination in 1941 and 1942.
29 October:Vilna Ghetto II liquidated. 2,500 Jews killed.[7]
1 November: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the U.S. Coast Guard will now be under the direction of the U.S. Navy, a transition of authority usually reserved only for wartime.
2 November: Political conflict in Yugoslavia as leftists under Tito (Josip Broz) are in competition with the more conservative Serbs underDraža Mihailović.
4 November: Hirohito approves the attack on Pearl Harbor.
6 November: Soviet leaderJoseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near.
7 November: Heavy RAF night bombings of Berlin, the Ruhr, and Cologne, but with heavy losses.
Battle of Moscow – Temperatures around Moscow drop to minus 12 °C and the Soviet Union launchesski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
HMSArk Royal delivers a squadron of Hurricane fighter planes to Malta.
13 November
Germans start a new offensive against Moscow as the muddy ground freezes again.
Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables theState Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack againstPearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
Ernst Udet, head of the Luftwaffe's Production and Development, commits suicide over his perceived inability to properly perform his mission.
A Japanese attack fleet of 33 warships and auxiliary craft, including six aircraft carriers, sails from northern Japan for the Hawaiian Islands.
TheHull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
After his brief dash into Egypt, Rommel retreats to Bardia for refuelling; it is during this brief withdrawal that Tobruk is temporarily relieved when the 8th Army meets with the besieged garrison there.
The state of the Allies and Axis powers in December 1941USSArizona burned for two days after being hit by a Japanese bomb; the wreck remains as aPearl Harbor memorialFDR delivers hisInfamy Speech to Congress.
Approximately 20,000 Stanisławów Jews ordered intothe ghetto area, and non-Jews ordered out.[9]
SS officerKarl Jaeger reports "LithuaniaJudenfrei [clean of Jews]," with some exceptions.[7]
2 December
Prime Minister Tojo rejects "peace feelers" from the US.
A German combat engineer patrol reaches the town ofKhimki while scouting for a hole in the Russian defense perimeter around Moscow. It is the closest advance the Germans make to the Russian capital.
Conscription in the United Kingdom now includes all men between 18 and 50. Women will not be neglected since they will serve in fire brigades and in women's auxiliary groups.
General strike begins among native mine-workers in theBelgian Congo.
Vilna Ghetto 'Criminal Aktion' begins, continued the next day. 157 Jews are killed at Ponary.[7]
4 December
The temperature on the Moscow front falls to −31 °F (−37 °C).[12] German attacks are failing.
Japanese naval and army forces continue to move toward Pearl Harbor and South-east Asia.
5 December: Germans call off the attack on Moscow, now 11 miles away; the USSR counter-attacks during a heavy blizzard.
6 December
The United Kingdom declares war on Finland.
Vilna Ghetto Gestapo Workers Aktion – 800 Jews and 10 Poles shot at thePonary massacre death site. Temperatures are minus 23 degrees Celsius.[7]
Adolf Hitler signs the German"Night and Fog decree" dictating the elimination of anti-Nazi resistance activities in Western Europe.
8 December
The United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and New Zealand declare war on Japan; Roosevelt'sDay of Infamy speech.
Japanese forces take the Gilbert Islands (which include Tarawa).Clark Field in the Philippines is bombed, and many American aircraft are destroyed on the ground.
Kamenka,Krasnaya Polyana, andKriukovo, are liberated by the Red Army. The Germans are never again within artillery range ofMoscow.
9 December
China officially declares war on Japan, although ade facto state of war has existed between the two countries since theMarco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937. China also declares war on Germany and Italy. Australia officially declares war on Japan. South Africa declares war on Japan, regarded as if at war from 8th December 1941.
Striking miners of theUnion Minière atElizabethville in theBelgian Congo are fired on by Belgian colonial forces during negotiations, killing an estimated 70 people.
Japanese landings on the southern Philippine Islands—Samar, Jolo, Mindanao.
The United States and the United Kingdom declare war onRomania after It had declared war on both the United States and the United Kingdom; India declares war on Japan.
Bulgaria and Hungary declare war on the United States and the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Kingdom reciprocate and declare war on Bulgaria and Hungary.
Japanese under General Yamashita continue their push into Malaya. Under General Homma the Japanese forces are firmly established in the northern Philippines. Hong Kong is threatened.
14 December: The British cruiserHMS Galatea is sunk byU-557 off Alexandria, beginning a series of naval defeats for the Allies.
^abGotovitch, José; Aron, Paul, eds. (2008).Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre Mondiale en Belgique. Brussels: André Versaille éd. p. 372.ISBN978-2-87495-001-8.
^Stillman, Norman A. (2016). "Les Juifs du Maghreb confrontés à la Shoah: synthèse historique".Revue d'Histoire de la Shoah.205 (2): 69.doi:10.3917/rhsho.205.0037.
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