August 28th, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
U-558 sank SS Otaio in Convoy OS-4.
Corvette HMS Cowslip launched. Minesweeper Beaumaris commissioned.
FRANCE: Paris: Three Resistance members are guillotined under the new anti-terrorist laws.
GERMANY: The decree promulgated by Nazi Gauleiter Adolf Wagner forbidding Catholic prayers and Crucifixes from all Bavarian schools in April 1941 was officially rescinded today per order of Adolf Hitler after mass demonstrations by Bavarian mothers who threatened to remove their children from the schools, and a determined stance from the pulpit by Archbishop of Munich-Freising, Cardinal Michael von Faulhaber. The protestors were not punished. (Russell Folsom)
U-209 and
U-704 launched.
U-352,
U-585 and
U-754 commissioned.
BALTIC SEA: Gunboats break to east through Hanko area, from securing operations in Saaristomeri to support attack in east.
Soviet submarine S-5 of the Baltic Fleet is mined off Cape Juminda and sinks in the Gulf of Finland.
Soviet submarine Shch-301 of the Baltic Fleet is mined off Cape Juminda and sinks off mys Yuminda. (Mike Yared)(146 and 147)
Soviet destroyers Artyom, Kalinin, Volodarsky, Yakov Sverdlov and submarine SC-301 all sunk by mines.
U.S.S.R.: The USSR announces the destruction of the dam at Zaporozhye on the River Dniepr.
In the Ukraine, the SS marches more than 23,000 Hungarian Jews to bomb craters at Kamenets Podolsk, orders them to undress, and then machine-guns them. Those who didn't die from the gunfire are buried alive under the weight of corpses that piled atop them. Tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews had been expelled from Hungary and had migrated to the Ukraine. The German authorities tried sending them back, but Hungary would not take them. That is when SS General Franz Jaeckeln vowed to deal with the influx of refugees by the "complete liquidation of those Jews by September 1."
ESTONIA: Soviet troops at Tallinn begin evacuation by sea to Kronstadt and suffer severe losses to mines and air attacks.
LITHUANIA: Kedainiai : Over 2,000 Jews are driven into a ditch and shot dead.
ITALY: SICILY: A landing party from HMS TRIUMPH demolishes an important railway bridge near Carsonia.
IRAN: Ali Furughi forms a new government in Iran. He orders a cease fire and begins negotiations with the British and Soviets.AUSTRALIA: Prime Minister Robert Menzies resigns as the leader of the United Australia Party (UAP) and as Prime Minister. He is replaced by Country Part leader A.W. Fadden. Menzies had formed a coalition government before the war but victories by the Labour Party in the September 1940 election had severely weakened the coalition forcing him to resign.
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Trillium arrived Halifax, Nova Scotia for refit.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull meet with the Japanese Ambassador, Nomura Kichisaburo at Nomura's request. Nomura hands the President a communication from the Prince Premier of Japan requesting a meeting between the two. Roosevelt states that it would be difficult and time consuming for him to travel to a meeting in the Territory of Hawaii and suggests a possible alternative, Juneau, Territory of Alaska. The only point raised by Nomura is that the conversation be held as early as possible. Nomura then hands the President another note which states that Japan desires "to pursue courses of peace in harmony with the fundamental principles to which the people and Government of the United States are commuted." At the conclusion of the reading of the communication, the President said to the Ambassador that he could say to his Government that he considered this note a step forward and that he was very hopeful. He then added that he would be keenly interested in having three or four days with Prince Konoye, and again he mentioned Juneau.
In Washington, President Franklin Roosevelt signs an executive order establishing the Office of Price Administration (OPA). The new government agency is charged with controlling consumer prices in the face of war. OPA initially imposed rent controls and a rationing program which initially targeted auto tires. Once the U.S. entered the war, the agency began issuing coupon books for sugar, coffee, meat, fats, oils, and numerous other items. Though goods were in tight supply, Americans were urged to stick to the system of rationing. The agency's record of service during the war was fairly impressive: by VJ Day, consumer prices had increased by 31 percent, a number which was noticeably better than the 62 percent bloating of prices during World War I.
U.S.S. Taylor is laid down.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-570, Kptlt Hans-Joachim RAHOHMLOW CO, was damaged, South of Iceland, 62-15N 18-35W, by a RAF Coastal Command a/c 'Hudson S' from 269 Sqn, flown by Sqn Ldr J.H. THOMPSON RAF. U-570 signalled its surrender by hoisting a white navigation chart on the periscope. THOMPSON remained on station until relieved by a Catalina of 209 Sqn. HMCS NIAGARA assisted in the capture of U-570 by embarking U-570's crew of 44. The armed trawler HMS NORTHERN CHIEF arrived that evening and took possession of the U-boat. U-570 was towed to Thorlakshafn, Iceland, by the RN trawler HMS KINGSTON AGATE. U-570 was a VIIIC type U-boat built by Blohm and Voss, Hamburg, launched 20 Mar 41, commissioned 15 May 41, and on her first Operational patrol. She had no record of sinking any ship. She became the HMS/M GRAPH on 19 Sep 41. Taken out of service Feb 1944, Stricken from RN records 20 Mar 44, and broken up in 196.