September 7th, 1941 (SUNDAY)
FRANCE: Paris: The Germans execute Pierre Roche, a member of the Resistance who sabotaged German military telephone lines.
GERMANY: The heaviest raid on Berlin to date by the RAF Bomber Command is flown during the night of the 7/8 September when 197 aircraft (Wellingtons, Hampdens, Whitleys, Stirlings, Halifaxes and Manchesters) attacked the German capital. Fifteen aircraft are lost.
FINLAND: The offensive by the German 20.Gebirgsarmee (Dietl) in northern
Finland to capture the vital Lend-Lease port of Murmansk, U.S.S.R. comes to a
halt.
U.S.S.R.: Two squadrons of RAF Hurricanes arrive at Archangel, in the north of Russia.
262 Inf. Div. (GL Edgar Theissen) crosses the Desna River at Oster, about 100 miles west of Konotop. 2nd Panzergruppe units move south making a breakthrough at Konotop. Specifically, 3 Pz. Div. (GL Walter Model) of XXIV A.K. (mot) (GdPzT. Leo Freiherr Geyr von Schweppenberg) crosses the Seim River north of Konotop. (Jeff Chrisman)
Mobile units General Heinz Güderian’s
2nd Panzer Group achieve a breakthrough at Konotop in the Ukraine. General Heinz Güderian’s
2nd Panzer Group driving south, behind the Soviet forces defending Kiev,
reaches Lokhvista encircling nearly 600,000 Soviet
troops in the Kiev area.
RED SEA: In the Gulf of Suez, the unarmed U.S. freighter SS Steel Seafarer (carrying cargo earmarked for the British Army in Egypt) is bombed and sunk by a Luftwaffe">Luftwaffe Ju 88 off the Shadwan Islands; her 36-man crew is rescued unharmed.
CHINA: Japanese forces attack Chinese positions near Yuezhou at the beginning of the Second Battle of Changsha.
U.S.A.: Bobby Riggs beats Frank Kovacs to regain U.S. tennis title at Forest Hills, New York.