November 1941

November

• 01

  • The Coast Guard placed under the NavyOn 1 November 1941 Roosevelt placed the Coast Guard under the Navy. Until then this had been done only in wartime, in 1917.
• 02

  • The split between the Partisans and the ChetniksOn 2 November 1941 Mihailović’s Chetniks attacked Tito’s Partisans at Užice. The feud between Serbia’s two resistance movements became open civil war.
• 03

  • The Germans take KurskOn the night of 2–3 November 1941 the defenders left Kursk, taken by the German 2nd Army. On the Moscow axis Bock’s advance was stuck in mud and at Tula.
  • Actions in the Wilno Ghetto in NovemberOn 3 November 1941 the Germans ordered yellow-permit holders out of the large Wilno ghetto and combed it. Over a thousand people were killed at Ponary.
• 04

  • The Imperial Conference of 5 NovemberIn early November 1941 Japan resolved on war with the US, Britain and the Netherlands if negotiations brought no result by 1 December.
• 06

  • Stalin’s speech of 6 NovemberOn 6 November 1941 Stalin spoke in Mayakovskaya metro station, and on 7 November he took the parade on Red Square, from which troops marched to the front.
• 07

  • The RAF raid of 7–8 NovemberOn the night of 7–8 November 1941 the RAF sent 392 bombers against Berlin, Cologne and Mannheim. In bad weather it lost 37, its worst night to date.
• 09

  • The Battle of the Duisburg convoyOn the night of 8–9 November 1941 Force K from Malta sank all seven ships of the Duisburg convoy and the destroyer Fulmine without losing a ship.
• 13

  • The sinking of the Ark RoyalOn 13 November 1941, returning from a run with fighters for Malta, the carrier Ark Royal was torpedoed by U-81 near Gibraltar. She sank the next day.
• 15

  • The November offensive on MoscowOn 15 November 1941, with the ground frozen, Army Group Centre resumed its advance on Moscow. Panzer groups were to bypass the capital to north and south.
• 17

  • The suicide of Ernst UdetOn 17 November 1941 Colonel General Ernst Udet, head of Luftwaffe equipment, shot himself in Berlin. Propaganda claimed he died testing a new weapon.
• 18

  • Key eventOperation Crusader beginsOn 18 November 1941 the British Eighth Army crossed into Libya to destroy Rommel’s armour and lift the siege of Tobruk. A downpour helped it achieve surprise.
• 19

  • HMAS Sydney and KormoranOn 19 November 1941, off Western Australia, the cruiser Sydney and the raider Kormoran destroyed each other. Not one of the 645 Australians survived.
• 21

  • The Germans take RostovOn 21 November 1941 Kleist’s 1st Panzer Army took Rostov-on-Don, the gateway to the Caucasus. But the Soviet 37th Army was already striking from the north.
• 22

  • The British ultimatum to FinlandOn 22 November 1941 Stalin received Churchill’s pledge of war on Finland if it did not stop fighting. On 28 November London sent Helsinki an ultimatum.
  • The Battle of Sidi RezeghOn 22 and 23 November 1941 the Afrika Korps retook Sidi Rezegh airfield, shattered British armoured brigades and destroyed the 5th South African Brigade.
• 23

  • The Americans in SurinameIn November 1941 the USA and the Dutch government-in-exile agreed to send American troops to Suriname to protect its bauxite mines.
• 24

  • Lend-Lease for the Free FrenchOn 24 November 1941 it was announced that Roosevelt deemed the defence of Free French territory vital to the USA. Lend-Lease aid was to go via London.
  • Rommel’s dash to the wireOn 24 November 1941 Rommel drove his tanks to the Egyptian frontier, spreading panic behind the Eighth Army. Meanwhile the New Zealanders reached Tobruk.
• 25

  • The sinking of HMS BarhamOn 25 November 1941 U-331 torpedoed the battleship Barham off Egypt. She capsized and blew up, and some 860 men were killed.
  • The closure of the Free University of BrusselsOn 25 November 1941 the Free University of Brussels suspended teaching rather than accept professors imposed by the Germans. It stayed shut until liberation.
• 26

  • Key eventThe Kidō Butai sails for HawaiiOn 26 November 1941 Vice-Admiral Chūichi Nagumo’s six carriers left Hitokappu Bay in the Kurils, sailing under radio silence to strike Pearl Harbor.
  • The Hull noteOn 26 November 1941 Cordell Hull handed the Japanese a note demanding withdrawal from China and Indochina. It set no deadline, but Tokyo saw it as an ultimatum.
• 27

  • The surrender at GondarOn 27 November 1941 General Guglielmo Nasi surrendered Gondar to British troops and Ethiopian patriots, ending organised Italian resistance in East Africa.
• 28

  • The Red Army retakes RostovOn 28 November 1941 the Germans began leaving Rostov under attack by three Soviet armies; next day it was free. Rundstedt fell back to the Mius and was sacked.
  • The Germans reach the Moscow–Volga CanalOn the night of 27–28 November 1941 a 7th Panzer Division battlegroup crossed the Moscow Canal at Yakhroma. A 1st Shock Army counter-attack threw it back.