November 24th, 1941 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: American Lance Wade of 33 Sqdn RAF (and later 145 Sqdn) scores his fifth air to air victory to become an ace. (Skip Guidry)
Minesweepers HMS Mutine and Onyx laid down.
During the war, no German prisoner of war escaped from the U.K. Many believe that Luftwaffe Oberleutnant (First Lieutenant or Flying Offiver) Franz Von Werra is the most notable escapee but von Werra made his escape in Canada, where he is sent as a POW. (There were 21 POW camps in Canada.) The most audacious attempt is made by Leutnant Heinz Schnabel and Oberleutnant Harry Wappler today. The two Luftwaffe officers are prisoners in Camp No.15 near Penrith, Northumberland, England, (formally the Shap Wells Hotel). Forging papers that identifies them as two Dutch officers serving in the RAF, they make their way to RAF Carlisle, a flying training base, located 2 miles (3,2 kilometers) north of Carlisle, Cumberland. Without difficulty they enter the station and with the help of a ground mechanic start the engine of a Miles Magister, of which there are 50 parked around the airfield. Taking off, they headed southeast for the North Sea and the Netherlands, a distance of some 365 miles (587 kilometers) to the Dutch coast. Over the North Sea they realize they could not make the Netherlands because the maximum range of a Magister is 367 miles (591 kilometers) on full tanks. Rather reluctantly they decide to turn back and land in a field about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England, on the coast. Back at Camp No. 15 again, the two daring escapees are sentenced to 28 days solitary confinement.
GERMANY: Theresienstadt was a town that had housed a Czech military prison going back to the 19th century. 150,000 Jews are deported and transferred to death camps, is established at Terezin, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Prague. It is used to camouflage the extermination of European Jews, by the Nazis who tout it as a "model Jewish settlement." When the Red Cross visits, dummy stores, cafes, schools and gardens are set up.
U-706 is launched.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Theresienstadt, a ghetto where 150,000 Jews are deported and transferred to death camps, is established at Terezin, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) north of Prague. It is used to camouflage the extermination of European Jews, by the Nazis who tout it as a "model Jewish settlement." When the Red Cross visits, dummy stores, cafes, schools and gardens are set up
U.S.S.R.: Rostov is evacuated by the Germans in the face of again being cut off in the rear. Field Marshall Rundstedt make this move in the face of express orders from Hitler to stand fast.LIBYA: Rommel, believing the British Armour destroyed, ignores the New Zealand Divison and advances along the Trig el Abd to the Egyptian border. During the "Dash to the Wire" Rommel and his senior commanders lose touch, and the British rear echelons panic. The Germans take losses they cannot afford and their hold on the British armour becomes slack.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES:
Hart
relayed Navy Department message to
MacArthur ">
MacArthur
(
NOVEMBER 24, 1941, MESSAGE TEXT (STARK TO HART):
THE CHIEF OF STAFF IS IN AGREEMENT WITH THE ESTIMATE PRESENTED HEREWITH AND
REQUESTS THAT YOU INFORM THE SENIOR ARMY OFFICER IN YOUR AREA COLON CHANCES OF
FAVORABLE OUTCOME OF UNITED STATES DASH JAPANESE NEGOTIATIONS ARE VERY DOUBTFUL
PERIOD THIS SITUATION TOGETHER WITH STATEMENTS OF JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND
MOVEMENT OF THEIR MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE INTIMATE IN OUR OPINION THAT SURPRISE
AGGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN ANY DIRECTION INCLUDING ATTACK ON PHILIPPINES OR GUAM IS
A POSSIBILITY STOP THIS INFORMATION MUST BE TREATED WITH UTMOST SECRECY IN ORDER
NOT TO COMPLICATE A TENSE SITUATION OR PRECIPITATE ACTION END STARK).
Quezon
stated publicly that Roosevelt and Sayre
should be “hanged from lampposts” because of their inattention to Philippine
civil defence.
Gerow drafts memorandum to Marshall
advocating that “a modus vivendi” be reached with Japan.
Stark sends appeal to FDR
to urge him to continue negotiations to allow war preparations to continue.
Time
Magazine had Hart on its cover; the article called him “the
indispensable oldster.”
(Marc Small)
CANADA:
HMC ML 051, 056, 072 and 073 commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Red Deer commissioned.
Minesweeper HMCS Swift Current arrived Halifax from builder Montreal, Province of Quebec. Employed as ASW training ship. Homeport shifted to Pictou , Nova Scotia in 1942.
U.S.A.: Admiral Harold R. Stark, the USN Chief of Naval Operations, sends the following message to Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief Asiatic Fleet in the Philippine Islands; Admiral Husband E. Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief Pacific Fleet in the Territory of Hawaii; Rear Admiral Charles A. Blakely, commander of the Eleventh Naval District at San Diego, California; Vice Admiral John W. Greenslade, commander of the Twelfth Naval District at San Francisco, California; Vice Admiral Charles S. Freeman, commander of the Thirteeth Naval District at Seattle, Washington; and Rear Admiral Frank H. Sadler, commander of the Fifteenth Naval District in the Canal Zone: "Chances of favorable outcome of negotiations with Japan very doubtful. This situation coupled with statements of Japanese Government and movements their naval and military forces indicate in our opinion that a surprise aggressive movement in any direction including attack on Philippines or Guam is a possibility.
Chief of Staff (of the U.S. Army, General George C. Marshall) has seen this dispatch concurs and requests action addresses to inform senior Army officers their areas. Utmost secrecy necessary in order not to complicate an already tense situation or precipitate Japanese action. Guam will be informed separately."
The Government revokes export licenses to French North Africa, Spain, and Tangier "to induce France to refuse open collaboration with Germany.
The U.S. grants lend-lease aid to Free France "for the purposes of implementing the authority conferred upon you as Lend-Lease Administrator by Executive Order No. 8926, dated 28 October 1941, and in order to enable you to arrange for lend-lease aid to the French Volunteer Forces (Free French) by way of retransfer from His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom or their allies, I hereby find that the defense of any French territory under the control of the French Volunteer Forces (Free French) is vital to the defense of the United States."
NETHERLANDS GUIANA: The United States occupied Dutch Guyana [Surinam] in agreement with The Netherlands and Brazil to protect bauxite mines because, "The bauxite mines furnish upwards of 60% of the requirements of the U.S. aluminium industry, which is vital to the defense of the U.S., the western hemisphere and the nations actively resisting aggression".
ATLANTIC OCEAN: On her way to rescue "Atlantis" survivors, U-124 sinks the British cruiser HMS Dunedin, off St. Paul's Rocks, NorthEast of Recife, Brazil, half way between Africa and South America. The U-boat uses two torpedoes.
Dunedin had been part of a task unit sent to counter a German operation involving four U-boats, an armed merchant raider (Atlantis) and a supply ship (Python) against shipping near Cape Town. The British heavy cruisers Devonshire and Dorsetshire plus Dunedin were ordered to search independently to track down the surface raider. On 22nd November Devonshire came upon Atlantis, which scuttled herself to avoid capture. U-124, Kptlt. Ernst Bauer, Knight's Cross, CO, which had been engaged in re-supplying from Atlantis at the time, sent an uncoded radio signal that there were survivors in the water. On 24th November, Python came to help U-126, who was towing lifeboats from Atlantis. At the same time, U-124, which was on her way to rendezvous with Python, KKpt. Mohr sighted Dunedin NE of St. Pauls Rocks, 900 miles west of Freetown, just south of the Equator. He fired three torpedoes at extreme range, even though Dunedin was steaming away at 17 knots and was altering course. Two torpedoes hit, an extraordinary accomplishment, the first striking amidships and the second further aft. Dunedin capsized and sank in approximately 17 minutes. About 150 men survived the sinking but had to spend the next seventy-eight hours on Carley Floats. Seventy-two men were rescued in the late afternoon of 27th November by the US Lykes Lines freighter Nishmaha (6,100 GRT), which was enroute to Philadelphia. Five more survivors subsequently died before the ship reached Trinidad.
Before there was _ "Das Boot"_ there was "Grey Wolf, Grey Sea" -- a stirring account of the exploits of U-124 written by author E.B. Gasaway (Ballantine Books, 1972 ISBN:345-02533-4). Known by the the distinctive 'Edelweiss' insignia on her conning tower [*], commanded first by Ritterkreuztraeger Kapitanleutnant Wilhelm Schulz, and succeeded by his IWO Kplt. Jochen Mohr (RK/eichl.); in her short life, (commissioned 11 JUN 1940) U-124 , a type IXB long range boat, sank 49 ships for a total of 232,887 GRT to become the third most successful submarine to have fought in the Second World War. (Russ Folsom)
[*] - The 'Edelweiss' insignia was an homage to the German Mountain Troops who helped to rescue the crew of the U-64, strafed and sunk by British aircraft in a Norwegian fijord during 'Operation Weseruebung' (the invasion of Norway) in April 1940. The crew of the new U-124 was mostly composed of the 'old salts' of U-64. When 'Kaleu' Mohr assumed command of the boat in mid-1941, a green bullfrog insignia was also added.