October 19th, 1941 (SUNDAY)
U.S.S.R.: Most of the diplomatic corps and Soviet government have left Moscow, but Stalin announces he is remaining. defence lines are being built at a hectic pace on three sides of the city.
Moscow: Troops from Siberia and the Far East arrive at the Moscow front.
Soviet resistance in the Vyazma pocket collapses as the last remnants of the outer defenses to Moscow are destroyed. Sea of Azov: Taganrog falls to the advancing German 11th Army.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: U-204 (Type VIIC) is sunk near Tangier, at position 35.46N, 06.02W, by depth charges from the British corvette HMS Mallow and sloop Rochester. 46 dead (all crew lost). (Alex Gordon)
AFGHANISTAN: The government consents to the British-Soviet request for ejection of Axis nationals.
CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Minas and Malpeque arrived Halifax from Esquimalt.
UNITED STATES: President Roosevelt decides to go forward with the development of the atomic bomb.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: USN destroyers USS Charles F. Hughes (DD-428) and USS Gleaves (DD-423), while screening convoy HX 154, depth-charge suspicious contacts in positions 59°58'N, 23°15'W, and 60°00'N, 23°20'W, and 59°57'N, 22°41'W.
Unarmed U.S. freighter SS Lehigh is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-126 about 75 miles (120;.7 km) off Freetown, Sierre Leone, in position 08°26'N, 14°37'W. While there are no fatalities, four men are slightly injured.
USS Mason (DD-191), was commissioned as HMS Broadwater (H-81) on 2 Oct. 1940, as part of the bases-for-destroyers deal. Today she is escorting convoy SC48 between St. John's Newfoundland and Iceland.
Broadwater is torpedoed by U- 101 and sinks. (Ron Babuka)
U-71 fired two torpedoes at a cruiser escorted by two destroyers in the North Atlantic, but without success.
U-204 sank SS Inverlee.
While tracking Convoy OG 75 (U.K. to Gibraltar), German submarine U-204 is sunk about 11 nautical miles (21 kilometers) west of the Tangier Zone by depth charges from the British corvette HMS Mallow (K 91) and sloop HMS Rochester (L 50); all 46 crewmen are lost. (Alex Gordon)
U-206 sank SS Baron Kelvin.