October 18th, 1941 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Picture Post, the magazine founded in 1938 by Edward Hulton, which has reached a circulation of a million in the last two months, is now a national institution under its editor Tom Hopkinson. It has made its name by its brilliant picture treatment and its hardhitting captions attacking Hitler at the time of appeasement. At home it criticizes military commanders, ineffective weapons and bureaucratic delays in helping air-raid victims. It founded a Home Guard training school at Osterley Park and gave tips on resistance fighting to its readers. Now it is running articles on post-war reforms such as full employment, minimum wages and a national health service. The response has been huge.
Destroyer HMS Exmoor (ex-HMS Burton) commissioned.
Corvette HMS Pennywort launched.
GERMANY: The expulsion of Berlin’s Jews begins today. The prime mover this expulsion is Albert Speer, Chancellor Adolf Hitler's chief architect who has been given the task of rebuilding Berlin. A close friend of Joseph Goebbels, together in 1941, they planned for the clearance of the Jewish slum areas in the western part of the city. In doing so, Speer could then take control of around 34,000 houses and apartments and start his demolishing and rebuilding program. The first trainload of these expelled Jews left Berlin today. There are to be 130 trainloads altogether.
U-756 launched.
U.S.S.R.: Mozhaisk is captured by 2 SS Div. "Reich" and the 10th Panzer Div. of 4 Pz. Army's XXXX Pz. Korps. Maloyaroslavets is captured by 19th Panzer Div. of the 4th Army's LVII Pz. Korps. The conquered area east of the Dniester is incorporated into Romania and renamed Transdniestria. (Jeff Chrisman)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 17th Pursuit Squadron transferred from Iba to Nichols, and the 3rd Pursuit Squadron was transferred from Clark AAF to Iba AAF for gunnery training. (Forward elements leave on October 3, 1941). (Marc Small)
JAPAN: Tokyo: Richard Sorge, one of the most successful spies in the history of espionage, has been arrested in Tokyo. The son of a German engineer and a Russian mother, he was brought up in Germany, joined the Communist Party, and became a Soviet agent in 1928, serving in America, China and Japan under journalistic cover. He then got Stalin's permission to go back to Germany and become a member of the Nazi Party. He returned to Tokyo as correspondent for a Frankfurt newspaper. Sorge, a craggy-faced womaniser and drinker, soon charmed his way into the confidence of the German ambassador.
He also set up a highly-placed ring of Japanese agents, and soon he was sending a flood of economic, political and military information back to Moscow. One of his major coups was to warn Stalin that Hitler was preparing to attack Russia. He gave the precise date for the invasion - but Stalin ignored him.
Perhaps his greatest service to the Soviet cause was also his last. Just three days ago he was able to tell Moscow that the Japanese have no intention of attacking Russia. This means that Stalin will be able to transfer many divisions from Siberia to defend Moscow.
Tokyo: Japan's deadlocked political crisis has ended with the appointment of the army strongman General Hideki Tojo, aged 57, as the new prime minister in the wake of the Konoye cabinet's resignation.
One of General Tojo's first moves has been to extend the deadline for diplomacy to prevent war with the United States until 25 November. This overturns the decision of the last imperial conference, calling for a decision on war or peace with the US no later than 15 October, which divided the Konoye cabinet and precipitated its resignation. General Tojo insisted on being given a "clean slate" on this issue before accepting his appointment from Emperor Hirohito.
Tojo's emergence as premier has been sudden. Until last night the favourite was Prince Higashikuni. However Marquis Kido, the emperor's personal adviser, told the seven ex-premiers advising the emperor on a successor that General Tojo was the only candidate capable of controlling the war advocates in the army - blamed by many for this latest crisis.
General Tojo, known as Kamisori [the Razor] retains his portfolio as war minister. It is the first time that Japan has had a serving general as prime minister.
CANADA: Prime Minister W.L. Mackenzie King announces wage and price controls to combat inflation. On a national radio broadcast; he says 40% of national income spent on war (vs. 10% in W.W.I).
NEWFOUNDLAND: USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses and an RCAF Douglas (B-18) Digby make first landings at Torbay airbase at St. John's.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: A PBY-5A Catalina of USN Patrol Squadron Seventy Three (VP-73) based at Reykjavik, Iceland, drops a package containing blood plasma and transfusion gear for use in treating the wounded on board the destroyer USS Kearny (DD-432) torpedoed yesterday; the destroyer USS Monssen (DD-435) retrieves the package but the gear becomes disengaged and sinks. A PBM-1 Mariner of a VP-74 detachment also based at Reykjavik repeats the operation a few hours later; this time the drop is successful and USS Monssen retrieves the medical supplies intact.
USN destroyers USS Plunkett (DD-431), USS Livermore (DD-429) and USS Decatur (DD-341), meanwhile, make concerted depth charge attacks on sound contacts at 54°53'N, 33°08'W with no visible results.
German submarines break off operations against convoy SC 48, but not before HMS Broadwater (ex US destroyer) is torpedoed and sunk by U-101 at 57 01N, 19 08W. (Alex Gordon)(108)
U-206 fired three torpedoes at an escort of convoy HG-74 in the North Atlantic, but without success.
U-132 sank SS Argun.