October 6th, 1941 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Newhaven: An official German statement on Bremen radio by "Lord Haw-Haw" tonight led to the cancellation of plans for the exchange of badly wounded PoWs. Two hospital ships were about to leave Newhaven for Dieppe when the war office telephoned to cancel. No immediate explanation was forthcoming, but the Haw-Haw broadcast spoke of an exchange of 100 Britons for a corresponding number of Germans. Such a man-for-man exchange is barred by the Geneva Convention of 1929, which provides for the exchange of all seriously wounded, irrespective of numbers.
No. 601 Squadron RAF flying from Duxford in Cambridgeshire, makes its first operation in the Bell P-400 Airacobra, a shoot-up of the French coast. (22)
Escort carrier HMS Stalker laid down. Destroyer HMS Quality launched.
GERMANY: U-732 is laid down.
U.S.S.R.: The German First Panzer Army's (Kleist's) right wing reaches Berdyansk on the Sea of Azov. He cuts off more than 100,000 Soviet troops. German advances in the Moscow sector continue. The German attacks east of Vyazma and Bryansk continue. Their advances force the Soviets into a more desperate situation.
ROMANIA: Bucharest: Romanian forces claim to have killed 70,000 Soviet soldiers on the eastern front and taken 60,000 prisoners, at a loss to themselves of 20,000 dead.
CANADA: Corvettes USS Action (ex-HMS Comfrey), USS Alacrity (ex-HMS Cornel), USS Beacon (ex-HMS Dittany) ordered from Collingwood Shipyards Collingwood, Ontario
Corvettes USS Caprice (ex-HMS
Honesty), USS Brisk (ex-HMS Flax) ordered from Kingston Shipbuilding of
Kingston, Ontario.
Corvette USS Clash (ex-HMS Linarnia ordered from Midland Shipyards of Midland,
Ontario.
Frigates HMCS Barle, Cuckmere, Evenlode,
Findhorn ordered from Canadian Vickers Montreal, Province of Quebec and paid for
by US Lend-Lease funds'.
Frigates USS Asheville and Natchez (ex-HMS Adur and Annan) laid down Canadian Vickers Montreal, Province of Quebec. Corvette HMCS Dawson commissioned.
U.S.A.: The 127th Observation Squadron, Kansas National Guard, is inducted into Federal Service at Wichita.ATLANTIC OCEAN:
U-129 turned over the 119
survivors of the Kota Pinang to a Spanish tug near Cap Finisterre.
Gunboat Karjala is damaged by bombs dropped from a German plane.