October 7th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Medal citations in the London Gazette for SS TEWKESBURY:
Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire: Captain Theo Pryse George Medal: Second Engineer Gerard Llewellyn Turner and Second Officer Bernard Peter de Neumann And both George Medallists were also awarded Lloyd’s War Medal for Bravery at Sea
Published Censored Citation: For brave conduct when their ship was attacked by enemy aircraft.
Unpublished Uncensored Citation: The ship was bombed by a
German aircraft.
Her defence was so good that the enemy was last seen flying low, with smoke
streaming from him. The air crew were picked up later, and the ship is credited
with the kill.
After the attack, a large bomb of about 250 kilos was found unexploded on the second engine room grating. The vessel was rolling in a North-Easterly wind and sea, and Second Engineer Turner, who was on watch, sat on the bomb to prevent it being rolled off the grating. Second Officer de Neumann at once went to his help.
The Master, leaving the Commodore of the convoy on the bridge to attend to navigation, took charge of the disposal squad. The Second Officer and Second Engineer slung the bomb in a rope sling and guided it clear of obstructions, at one point standing on the cylinders to do so. Owing to the darkness and the deep and awkward position into which the bomb had lodged, the whole operation performed with ingenuity and skill without mishap, took over an hour to complete. A second sling was made by the Master and the two Officers and the bomb was dropped over the side. (Bernard de Neumann)
GERMANY: U-190 is laid down.
POLAND: Rovno: SS men take 17,000 Jews to pits outside the town, ordering them to strip before shooting them dead. Those who refuse to undress have their eyes gouged out.
FINLAND: Helsinki: Finland refuses to heed Allied pressure to stop the fighting in the USSR, saying it has no political axe to grind but is grateful it "need not fight alone this time." "Finland cannot understand how Great Britain, with whom Finland wished and wishes to retain peaceful relations, could regard herself, merely because Finland on this occasion is not alone in fighting the Soviet Union, as forced to treat her as an open enemy.".
U.S.S.R.: Last night the first snow fell in the Moscow front.
German forces capture Wjasma, Berdjansk and Mariupol on the central and southern fronts.
AUSTRALIA: John Curtin is duly sworn in as the prime minister. (Daniel Ross)
CANADA: Corvette HMCS departs St. John's for Convoy SC-48 and the Clyde.
Trawler HMS Ironbound is laid down at Kingston, Ontario.
Minesweeper HMCS Vegreville launched in Montreal, Province of Quebec.
UNITED STATES: In Seattle, Washington, President Franklin D. Roosevelt addresses the largest labor organization in the U.S., the American Federation of Labor (AFL), stating, "The threat of Hitlerism is directed not only at labor, even though labor is among the very first that will suffer therefrom. It is aimed at all of us-every man, woman and child who believes in freedom. It menaces everything that we cherish as Americans and free men."
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-575 is attacked in the North Atlantic by an aircraft and suffers slight damage from two bombs.
U-502 damaged SS Svend Foyn in Convoy HX-152.