October 14th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Syrtis is laid down.
Light cruiser HMS Trinidad is commissioned.
GERMANY: Chancellor Adolf Hitler orders that the Soviet capital, Moscow, is to be surrounded and starved out rather than assaulted directly.
During the night of 14/15 October, 80 RAF Bomber Command aircraft return to Nuremberg but again encounter very bad weather and only 14 aircraft claim to have hit the intended target.
U-292, U-293, U-294, U-295, U-296, U-297, U-317, U-318, U-319, U-320, U-321, U-322, U-995, U-997, U-998, U-999, U-1000, U-1001, U-1002, U-1003, U-1004, U-1005, U-1006, U-1063, U-1064, U-1065, U-1103, U-1104, U-1105, U-1106, U-1163, U-1164, U-1165, U-1166, U-1199, U-1200, U-1201, U-1202, U-1203, U-1204, U-1227, U-1228, U-1229, U-1230, U-1231, U-1232, U-1233, U-1234, U-1235 ordered
U-526 laid down
U.S.S.R.: The German advance on Moscow reaches Kalinin and Tula on the Moscow front, with advance units just 60 miles from the capital. The Soviet defenses between Kalinin and Tula are very stubborn. Kramatorsk falls to the German forces in Russia.
Premier Joseph Stalin calls General Georgi Zhukov, Commander of the Central Front, and asks, "You are convinced we shall be able to hold Moscow? I am asking this with pain in my heart. Answer truthfully, as you are a Communist." Zhukov assured Stalin that the city would be held at all costs.
German troops capture Rshev, 100 miles (160.9 km) west of Moscow.
Operation KARLSBAD begins in the area between Smolensk and Minsk. This would be the first of many operations by the Germans against partisans in Russia.
The first substantial snow of the season falls at Leningrad. Temperatures in the Moscow area fall hover around freezing. Rain and the subsequent mud slow the German advance toward Moscow.
SPAIN: At 2230 hrs, U-564 reaches Cadiz and transfers an ill crewmember to the German tanker Thalia.
LIBYA: Italian torpedo boat Pleiadi is sunk off Tripoli by British bombers.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Arnold writes MacArthur that the heavy bombers assigned to USAFFE were to be used to control not only the sea lanes but to bomb Japan itself. Date of receipt in the Philippines unknown. (Marc James Small)
CANADA: The Cabinet decides on a complete freeze of wages and prices as of 1 December under the Wartime Prices and Trade Board.
Trawler HMS Baffin is laid down in Collingwood, Ontario.
Corvette HMCS Regina is launched at Sorel, Province of Quebec.
Minesweeper HMCS Thunder is commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-553 encounters convoy SC 48 and summons help.
Whilst on A/S patrol in the Straits of Gibraltar, Flower class corvette HMS Fleur de Lys is torpedoed and sunk by U-208 at 36 00N 06 30W. There are 3 survivors, rescued by a Spanish steamer. (Alex Gordon)(108)
U-204 sinks SS Guardakoa.