November 8th, 1941 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Minesweeper HMS Poole commissioned.
Minesweeper HMS Llandudno launched.
GERMANY: Last night RAF bombers attacked Cologne, Berlin and Mannheim in the heaviest bombing so far in a single night.
The RAF is radically reviewing its bombing strategy after German air defences took a heavy toll of RAF bombers and aircrew tonight. A total of 380 aircraft attacked Berlin, Cologne, Mannheim and the Ruhr; 34 - nearly a tenth - were lost.
GERMANY's Kammhüber Line, as it is known to the RAF, is responsible. This is a series of ground-controlled interception "boxes" along the most frequently-used routes; in each "box" a night-fighter waits to pounce, so far with great effect.
Berlin: Reliable sources said today that the Gestapo has arrested Bernhard Lichtenberg, the dean of St Hedwig's Roman Catholic Cathedral here. Renowned for his opposition to the Nazis, he used to close all his services with a prayer for the Jews and prisoners in the concentration camps.
This summer the police questioned him after he preached a series of sermons criticizing Nazi policies and the behaviour of the Gestapo in particular. He was released, but confined to challenge Hitler inside and outside church; together with his colleague the Roman Catholic bishop of Münster, he carried on preaching against the Nazi regime.
Most recently, he wrote to the Reich chief physician, Leonardo Conti, to protest against the authorities "euthanasia" campaign of killing mentally defective and incurably ill patients. "As a human being, a Christian, a priest and a German," he wrote, "I demand ... that you answer for the crimes that have been perpetrated with your consent, which will bring the vengeance of the Lord on the heads of the German people."
U.S.S.R.: The Germans occupy Yalta, in the Crimea, and Tikhvin, in the north, completing the encirclement of Leningrad.
Soviet submarine M-120 commissioned.
SPAIN: At 0030hrs, U-77 reached the Spanish port of Vigo and was serviced by the German tanker Bessel. The U-boat left harbour at 0525hrs.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Last night Force K from MALTA
attacks an Italian convoy sinking seven transports and one escort, the destroyer
Fulmine. Force K consists
of three light cruisers including HMS Aurora (12) and Penelope (97) and two destroyers,
HMS Lance (G 87) and Lively (G 40).
Bruno Brivonesi commands the 3rd Division (now comprising heavy cruisers TRIESTE
and TRENTO plus four destroyers) assigned as the cover force for a badly-needed
convoy, known as the "Duisburg" convoy to the Germans (because the
German merchant ship of that name was included in it) and the "Beta"
convoy to the Italians. It consisted of seven ships carrying 34,000 tons of
material, including 17,000 tons of fuel and 389 motor vehicles, with close
escort of seven destroyers. In addition, 64 Italian aircraft (including six
seaplanes) plus eight German planes allowed an escort of eight aircraft overhead
from dawn to dusk.
The British though, attacked at night with the advantages of radar (which the
Italians didn't) and prior intelligence from Ultra (the British code breaking
efforts had cracked the Italian C38m code, which was used for communications
between Italian forces at sea and their land-based HQ). Ultra had provided the
British with the position and route of the convoy.
Force K made radar contact at a range of eight miles, and manoeuvred unseen into
perfect attack position (not only down-moon, meaning the convoy was silhouetted
by moonlight, but also waiting until Brivonesi's big ships were on the opposite
tack, ten miles away and with the convoy between them and the British). The
resulting action was a slaughter. The British first opened up-- at point-blank
naval range, a mile and half to a mile and three-quarters-- on the three nearest
destroyers of the close escort. They sank one, induced the other to retire at
high speed (the third made smoke and tried to attack), and then sank all seven
ships of the convoy before Brivonesi could come to the rescue. The Italian
admiral chased the departing raiders, straddling enemy ships twice at ranges of
five-and-a-half to ten miles, but eventually giving up a stern chase against
faster vessels. Later, while rescuing survivors of the shipwrecks, the destroyer
Libeccio is torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS/M Upholder (N 99). (Mike Yaklich)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 3rd Pursuit Squadron receives 25 P-40E’s. (Marc Small)
CANADA: Minesweepers HMCS Gananoque (pictured) and Nipigon commissioned.
UNITED STATES: The keel of the Liberty ship SS Robert E. Peary is laid at the Permanente Metals Corporation (Kaiser) No.2 Yard in Richmond, California, at 0001 hours. The 250,000 parts weighing about 7,000 tons (6 350 metric tonnes) are assembled in 4 days, 15 hours and 29 minutes and she is launched on 12 November. The ship survives the war and is scrapped in June 1963.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Martlet aeroplanes from HMS AUDACITY shoot down two Focke-Wulf FW200s during an attack on Convoy ON-76.
During heavy weather a lookout on U-124 broke his arm.
ICELAND: U.S. Naval Operating Base, Iceland, is established.