November 11th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
GERMANY: U-353 launched.
BALTIC SEA: U-580 sunk near Memel, in position 55.45N, 20.40E, after a collision with the target ship Angelburg. 12 dead and 32 survivors.
FINLAND: Finland gives an official answer to the US offers to mediate peace between Finland and the Soviet Union. Finland states that her war is defensive in nature, and the Finnish military efforts doesn't threaten the US interests. Finland can't fulfill the US demand to retreat behind the pre-1939 border, because such an act would undermine Finnish security. After giving this official answer, the Finnish FM Witting pays an unofficial visit to the US ambassador Schoenfeld. Witting states that Finland won't cut the Murmansk railway or advance to Archangel. All Finnish military operations from now on will be modest in nature.
LIBYA: Major Ernst Duellberg's BF109F-4 (Trop) is damaged in combat by the Tomahawk of Flt-Lt A. C. Rawlinson of 3 Sqn. RAAF. Duellberg nurses his aircraft back to Ain-el Gazala where it belly-lands and is written off. (Michael Alexander)
ETHIOPIA: Allied forces, with local guerrillas assisting, attack Chilga and Kulkaber around the main Italian Gondar position. The attacks make little headway today.
JAPAN: The Foreign Ministry in Tokyo sends the following message to the Japanese embassy in Washington, D.C.: "Judging from the progress of the conversations [with U.S. authorities], there seem to be indications that the United States is still not fully aware of the exceedingly criticalness of the situation here. The fact remains that the date set forth in my message #736 [25 November] is absolutely immovable under present conditions. It is a definite dead-line and therefore it is essential that a settlement be reached by about that time. The session of Parliament opens on the 15th [work will start on (the following day ?)] according to the schedule. The government must have a clear picture of things to come, in presenting its case at the session. You can see, therefore, that the situation is nearing a climax, and that time is indeed becoming short."
Ten submarines , including HIJMS I-69, I-74, I-75 and others leave Yokosuka Naval Base for rendezvous at Kwajalein, Marshall Islands, then to proceed to Hawaii.
Battleship Mushashi (むしゃし for those of you with Japanese language support enabled) is launched.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Major General Lewis H. Brereton, Commanding General Far East Air Force, is ordered by Lieutenant General Douglas MacArthur, Commanding General U.S. Army Forces Far East (USAFFE), to undertake a three-week, 11,500-mile (18 507 kilometer) survey to Rabaul, New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; and Townsville Queensland, and Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, to comply with U.S. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall's directive of 30 September 1941. The purpose of the trip is to establish working relations with Australian officials and to survey the trans-Pacific air ferry route from Australia to the Philippines and Java including its extension to Singapore and China. Brereton departs for Australia on 16 November. (Marc Small)
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMCS Swift Current commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Drummondville arrived Halifax from builder Montreal, Province of Quebec.
Minesweepers HMCS Mahone and Chedabucto departed Esquimalt for Halifax.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D. Roosevelt agrees to the extension of Lend Lease Act to the Free French because, "the defense of territories rallied to Free France is vital to the defense of the United States."
Destroyer USS Farenholt launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-561 sank SS Meridian in Convoy SC-53.
USN destroyer USS Edison (DD-439), en route to rendezvous with convoy ON-34 (U.K. to North America, depth charges a sound contact and destroyer USS Decatur (DD-341), screening convoy HX-159 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, to U.K.), depth charges a sound contact off the Grand Banks; it is later evaluated as a "doubtful" submarine.