October 23rd, 1941 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: General de Gaulle asks resistance members to stop murdering German military personnel, to avoid further retaliation against the French populace.
GERMANY: Catholic Provost Bernhard Lichtenberg, who right through the stepped-up antisemitic agitation, continues to say a daily prayer for the Jews, is finally arrested. During questioning by the SS, the Father Lichtenberg asserts that the deportation of the Jews is irreconcilable with Christian moral law, and asks to be allowed to accompany the deportees as their spiritual adviser. He is sentenced to two years imprisonment for abuse of the pulpit. Upon his release he immediately resumes his ministry, both pastoral and social, and is arrested again and sentenced to the Dachau concentration camp. He dies in a rail car en route to Dachau.
U-216 launched.
U-593 commissioned.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin reorganizes his military high command. General Georgii Zhukov is now Commander in Chief Western Front and General Semen Timoshenko is commander of the Commander in Chief Southwestern Front.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: USAT Tasker H Bliss arrives in Manila with 10 more pilots for the 24th P.G. (Marc Small)
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Wollongong commissioned.
U.S.A.: Walt Disney's feature-length animated musical "Dumbo" opens at the Broadway Theater in New York City.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Tribal class Destroyer HMS Cossack is torpedoed west of Portugal at 35 36N, 10 04W by U-563 whilst escorting convoy HG.75 from Gibraltar to the UK. She sinks three days later, despite attempts to save her. (85)(Alex Gordon)
An incredibly strange event befell U-106 on this date. When the replacement watch opened the tower hatch in rough seas they found out that the entire previous tower watch of 4 men had been washed overboard. [Oberleutnant zur See Werner Grüneberg, Fähnrich zur See Herbert Von Bruchhausen, Oberbootsmannmaat Karl Heemann, Matrose Ewald Brühl]