September 15th, 1941 (MONDAY)
GERMANY: U-157 and U-506 commissioned.
GERMANY: The US Navy begins to take over the convoying of British ships as far as Iceland, seen as an unneutral act by the German government.
U.S.S.R.: Schlusselburg on the south side of Lake Ladoga falls to the Germans. Leningrad is completely isolated from land routes to the rest of the Soviet Union. This siege will last for 3 years.
Lead elements of the German 16th Panzer Division (1st Panzer Group), meet 3rd Panzer Division (2nd Panzer Group) at Lokhvista, 125 miles (201 kilometers) east of Kiev. The jaws of the trap have slammed shut. Four Soviet Armies (5, 21, 26 and 37) , over 600,000 soldiers, are surrounded in the Kiev area. The cordon is weak, but it is there.
Moscow: Stalin asks for 25 to 30 British divisions to be sent to aid the Soviet struggle against invasion.
YUGOSLAVIA: Widespread unrest causes martial law to be imposed in Zagreb, Serbia and Croatia.
U.S.A.: The US Attorney General Francis Biddle rules that the Neutrality Act does not prohibit US ships carrying war material to British possessions.
Four National Guard (NG) observation squadrons from four states are inducted into Federal Service and assigned to the USAAF.
The 1st Battalion, 297th Infantry Regiment, Alaska National Guard is inducted at Juneau.
Aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill laid down.
Submarine USS Pogy laid down.
Destroyers USS Stanly, McCalla and Lardner laid down.
Submarine depot ship HMS Forth commences refit in USA.
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-94 sank SS Empire Eland, SS
Newbury and SS Pegasus in Convoy ON-14.