September 8th, 1941 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Hatfield, Hertfordshire: The first prototype de Havilland Mosquito IV Bomber variant (W 4072) makes its maiden flight. The new bomber has a level speed of 400 mph and fighter-agility. (22)
Destroyer HMS Saumarez is laid down. Submarine HMS Trespasser is laid down.
FRANCE: Paris: The German authorities arrest 120 leaders of the city's Jewish community as hostages for the murder last week of a German officer.
GERMANY: RAF bombers inflicted heavy damage on Berlin last night in the heaviest raid yet on the German capital.
U.S.S.R.: Continuing Finnish attacks between Lake Ladoga and Lake Onega advance across the Svir and capture Lodenoye Pole. This cuts the railway line from Murmansk to Leningrad. Arkangel is still available to use now, but the winter ice will close this. Due to the lack of soviet ability to break the ice, this winter, a new railway from Murmansk will become necessary.
Leningrad: The city of Leningrad is now completely encircled by German and Finnish troops. The Germans reached Schlusselburg on Lake Ladoga. The Finns cutting the Stalin canal, completes the encirclement. Field Marshal von Leeb's Panzers are within ten miles of the city, which is being pounded by long-range artillery and the Luftwaffe. More than 6,000 incendiaries have been dropped today and in a terrible blow for the defenders, the huge Badayev food warehouse has been destrpyed along with hundreds of tons of irreplaceable supplies.
The Russians are heavily out-numbered in the air, but their pilots are fighting ferociously against the swarms of Stukas which are attacking the heavy Russian ships in the harbours of Kronstadt and Leningrad. They are carrying specially-developed 2,000 pound bombds; their particular targets are the battleships MARAT and OCTOBER REVOLUTION, whose 12-inch guns are pounding the German rear echelons.
The land attack on the city is being mounted by 1st Panzer Division thrusting along the left bank of the Neva and the 6th Panzer Division following the Moscow-Leningrad railway line. It is not going to be a walkover for them. They have been held up for three weeks by suicidal Russian counter-attacks. Their men and machines are worn out by fighting both the Russians and the mud caused by incessant rain. If they had made their assault a month ago they would be in the Romanov's palaces today. Instead, they are caught up in hastily-built defences manned by Opolchenye - militia units armed with rifles, Molotov cocktails and grenades. This is not the sort of fighting the Panzers enjoy. In fact, von Leeb's attempt to capture the city may not last. Hitler wants to switch his tanks to the forthcoming attack on Moscow, leaving Leningrad to "wither on the vine".
He would rather subject the city to a long siege by gun and bomber and so relieve the German army of the necessity of feeding the population during the winter. Von Leeb however, can almost taste the glory of capturing the old Tsarist capital and will carry on his assault until told to stop.
The ethnic German community on the Volga region (about 600,000 people) is exiled to Siberia because of Kremlin fears that it might become a fifth column of Nazi sympathizers.
LITHUANIA: The entire Jewish community of Meretsch is exterminated.
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Ho Chi Minh forms the League for the Independence of Vietnam (Viet Minh).
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Nine B-17's of the 14th Bombardment Squadron arrive at Clark AAF. (Marc James Small)
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Hobson is launched.