August 8th, 1941 (FRIDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Boom defence vessel HMS Barbridge launched.
ASW trawler HMS Coverley commissioned.
BELGIUM: Brussels: The pro-Nazi Rexist (Belgian fascist) leader, Leon Degrelle, leads his volunteer "Walloon Legion" to fight with the Nazis on the Eastern Front.
NETHERLANDS: The Nazi controlled
"robber bank" of Lippmann, Rosenthal and Co., referred to as "Liro", issues its
first decree, requiring Jews to register all assets and private property;
additionally, they are to turn over to the Liro Bank all credits, securities,
and large sums of Dutch and foreign currency. Jewish "customers" are allowed to
keep a thousand guilders in cash, which they can use at their discretion. (Peter
Kilduff and Jennifer L. Foray (209 p.147)
GERMANY: First rocket
powered flight by the Me 163 V1 KE+SW.
U-627 laid down.
LITHUANIA:
German troops and Lithuanian collaborators massacre Jews in the village of
Zeimel.
A plaque in the Chamber of the Holocaust at Mt. Zion reads-
"For an everlasting remembrance
For the martyrs of the Zeimel Community (Lithuania) who were annihilated by the German Nazis and their Lithuanian collaborators (May their names be erased) on the 8th day of August 1941 Remembrance Day 15 Av 5701 May their souls be bound up in the bond of life
-The Emigrants of Zeimel in Israel and the Diaspora " (Drew Halevy)
(Drew Philip Halévy)
U.S.S.R.: German troops smash Russian defenders at Kazaki, taking 38,000 PoWs.
Moscow: The Russians seeking revenge for the bombing of Moscow, raided Berlin last night.
Five Soviet Ilyushin-4 bombers took off from airfields on the Estonian islands
of Dago and Oesel for the hazardous 1,500 mile round trip.
Two of the twin-engined aircraft were shot down before they got to Berlin, and two more
failed to find the target. But the last one got through and dropped bombs on a suburb of
Berlin. It was a small raid, but it was an indication of Russian determination to strike
back at the Germans. It is the first of seven attacks during August.
CANADA: Western Isles trawlers ordered for RN in Canada: HMS Anticosti, HMS Baffin, HMS Cailiff, HMS Campenia, HMS Campobello, HMS Manitoulin, HMS Magdalen, HMS Porcher, HMS Prospect, HMS Texada, HMS Ironbound, HMS Luscomb, HMS Dochet, HMS Flint, HMS Gateshead and HMS Herschel.
Corvette HMCS Arrowhead launched.
Corvette HMCS Snowberry launched.
Minesweeper HMCS Esquimalt launched.
U.S.A.: Japanese Ambassador Nomura suggests a conference between President Roosevelt and Japanese Prime Minister Konoye to discuss deteriorating relations between the two countries.
Les Brown and His Orchestra, with vocal by Betty Bonney, record the song "Joltin' Joe DiMaggio" for Okeh Records. The song pays tribute to baseball great Joe DiMaggio who set a new record this year by getting hits in 56 consecutive games.