October 2nd, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Escort Carrier HMS Charger is commissioned.
FRANCE: Paris: During the night explosive charges destroy six synagogues. SS Standartenführer Helmut Knochen and the SD are thought to be responsible. One of Knochen's men, Obersturmführer Hans Sommer, had provided the dynamite and the transport to a small flying squad, who were all members of Eugène Deloncle's MSR (Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire a Fascist organisation).GERMANY: Peenemunde: The Messerschimdt ME-163A rocket aircraft has today recorded a top speed of 623.85mph.
Previous flights showed that the aircraft expended almost all its fuel climbing to altitude. Today test pilot Heini Dittmar was towed to 13,000 feet by a Bf110 before casting off. Dittmar said that the Me163 suffered severe vibration and loss of control for a moment and he had thought that he had "had it at last".
Security will prevent the Germans claiming it as an official world record.
The SS executes Czech premier Alois Elias in Berlin.
U-598
launched.
U-377,
U-590 commissioned.
U-636 and
U-821 laid down.
LITHUANIA: Zagare: SS Einsatzkommandos machine-gun 2,146 Jews to death.
FINLAND: MTB Nuoli and Sisu attack enemy ships in Suursaari harbour, without results.
U.S.S.R.: The German attack on Moscow, Operation Typhoon, officially begins today. Hoth's 3rd and Hoeppner's 4th Panzer Groups, the 4th, 2nd and 9th Armies all join Guderian's units which started 2 days ago.
2,000 German tanks advanced against the Russian lines in this the "last, great decisive battle of the war", according to Hitler, in a communiqué to his troops, broadcast before the battle commenced.
Forces have been withdrawn from south and north to boost the German assault, which many generals had wanted to make several weeks ago before Hitler ordered a diversion to capture industrial and coal-mining areas in the south.
Today's attack makes rapid progress. It needs to as it faces not only dogged Soviet resistance, but also the onset of the Russian winter.
For Leningrad, this assault has offered some respite. Field Marshal von Leeb has failed to take the city by storm, and his tanks have been assigned to Typhoon. Hitler still expects von Leeb to succeed, using artillery and aerial bombardment and the oldest siege weapon, starvation. Hitler says Leningrad "will fall like a leaf."
In Leningrad itself over 4,000 have died in 200 artillery bombardments and 23 air raids in the past month. The first deaths from starvation have been reported.
AUSTRALIA: The ruling coalition government of the United Australia Party and the United Country Party in Australia falls. The Labor Party, with John Curtin as Prime Minister, takes office. (Ric Pelvin)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: MacArthur"> MacArthur chooses Brereton, whom he had known in the Firs World War, as his Air Commander. (Marc James Small)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS Louisburg commissioned.
U.S.A.: Baseball!
President Franklin D. Roosevelt rejects Japanese Prime Minister Konoye's request to meet and discuss Pacific and Far Eastern questions.
Destroyers USS Fletcher and Radford laid down.
The motion picture "One Foot in Heaven" is released today. Directed by Irving Rapper, this drama stars Fredric March, Martha Scott, Beulah Bondi and Gene Lockhart; Gig Young appears in an uncredited bit part. The plot concerns a minister and his wife facing various problems as church life and 20th century America clash. The film is nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award but loses to "How Green Was My Valley."
ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-431 sank SS Hatasu in
Convoy ON-19.
U-562 sank SS Empire Wave
in Convoy ON-19.
U-94 sank SS San
Florentino.
The USN destroyer USS Winslow (DD-359), in screen of convoy ON-20 (U.K. to North America), is detached from Task Unit 4.1.3 to proceed to the assistance of Dutch motor vessel MS Tuva, torpedoed by German submarine U-575 about 610 nautical miles (1 130 kilometers) south-southwest of Reykjavik, Iceland, at position 54.16N, 26.36W. Although Winslow finds the freighter still afloat, the destroyer depth charges a "doubtful" submarine contact in the vicinity and upon her return is unable to locate any survivors. Winslow rejoins ON-20 the following morning. The Dutch freighter's crew, however, is apparently rescued by another ship, for the Lloyd's List of Shipping Losses: World War II lists only one man missing from among the complement of 35.