November 25th, 1941 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Destroyers HMS Termagant and Terpsichore laid down.
Corvette HMS Loosestrife commissioned.
GERMANY: In Berlin, Finland signs the Anti-Comintern Pact. Germany invited Finland to adhere to the pact in early November, but there was considerable reluctance in Finland to do so. It was thought that Finnish adherence would worsen the relations with the Western Allies. On the other hand, Finland is very dependant on German deliveries of food supplies, and had just requested 175,000 tons of grain. In the end, the Finnish government decided that joining the pact is the lesser of two evils, because adequate level of food supplies has to be secured for the duration of winter. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Renewal for five years of the Anti-Comintern Pact of 25 November 1936 at Berlin, by Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Manchukuo, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Rumania, Slovakia, and the Japanese puppet Nanking regime in China.
U-510 commissioned.
FINLAND: In Berlin, Finland signs the Anti-Comintern Pact. Germany invited Finland to adhere to the pact in early November, but there was considerable reluctance in Finland to do so. It was thought that Finnish adherence would worsen the relations with the Western Allies. On the other hand, Finland is very dependant on German deliveries of food supplies, and had just requested 175 000 tons of grain. In the end, the Finnish government decided that joining the pact is the lesser of two evils, because adequate level of food supplies has to be secured for the duration of winter.
U.S.S.R.: Istra in the Moscow sector falls to the Germans.
Moscow: Vyacheslav Molotov, the Soviet foreign minister has sent an impassioned Note to all the non-Axis powers protesting against Germany's barbaric treatment of Russian prisoners of war.
Broadcasting from embattled Moscow, Mr Molotov claimed that "prisoners have been tortured with red-hot irons, their eyes have been poked out, and their ears and noses ripped open. They have been tied to tanks and pulled to pieces.
He went on to accuse the Germans of the systematic extermination of Russian prisoners by shooting, beating and starvation: "The German High Command has ordered that Soviet prisoners shall be given worse and less food than prisoners of other countries. In the early morning, whatever their state of health, they are roused by blows with sticks and clubs and driven out to work. In one day alone in the Chernukhinsk camp in the Ukraine 95 prisoners were shot."
These appalling revelations are by no means the full story of German cruelty towards Russian prisoners. Many PoWs are being gassed in experiments to find the most efficient methods of exterminating the Jews. Over 18,000 Russians have been killed at Sachsenhausen concentration camp since the invasion started.
U-578 was attacked and rammed in the Arctic Sea by a Soviet escort, but suffered only slight damage.
BULGARIA: The Government signs the Three-Power Treaty and became part of the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo Axis.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: The British Mediterranean Fleet is covering Force "K" from Malta while it attacks an Axis convoy. The battleship HMS Barham blows up at 32 34N, 26 24E after being hit by three torpedoes of a four torpedo salvo from U-331. The U-boat struck at 4.29pm today. Admiral Cunningham had sailed from Alexandria to chase an Italian convoy. He brought up his three battleships to support the destroyers and cruisers in the Ionian Sea in case the enemy fleet attacked.Baron von Tiesenhausen in U-331 dived beneath the destroyer screen and fired a salvo of torpedoes at HMS BARHAM from a range of a few hundred yards. There were three direct hits, producing an explosion so violent that the U-boat was forced to the surface. Four minutes she rolled over to port and her after maagzines exploded and the Barham, the flagship of the Fleet's second-in-command, Vice-Admiral Pridham-Wippell, sank. The captain and 858 crew perished. Amazingly, 450 survived.
HMS Hotspur hauled many of them on board. Lieutenant-Commander Hugh Hodgkinson described the scene: "Each man as he came over the side was black with oil. Bales of cotton waste were brought up to clean them. The whole upper deck became layered with oil, so that one could hardly stand." One man, swimming by a raft to give weaker men a chance, was the last hauled up: "He put up an arm ... it seemed to be nothing but gold stripe, and I realized who it was. I never expected to receive an admiral on board in such circumstances."
ETHIOPIA: Tadda Ridge is captured by the British from the Italians near Gondar.
LIBYA: Tobruk: Capt. James Joseph Bernard Jackman (b.1916), Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, cooly led his machine-gun company between British and German lines. He was killed next day. (Victoria Cross)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Shipment of 24 crated P-40E’s arrived in Manila. (Marc Small)
JAPAN:
Japanese
Diet convenes.
First
Air Fleet sets sail for Pearl Harbor attack. (Marc Small)
Admiral YAMAMOTO Isoroku, Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet, issues Operations Order No. 5: "The Carrier Striking Task Force will immediately complete taking on supplies and depart with utmost secrecy from Hitokappu Bay (Etorofu Island, Kurile Islands) on 26 November and advance to the standby point (42 N, 170 W) by the evening of 3 December." The standby point is about 1,380 nautical miles (2 557 kilometers) north-northwest of Pearl Harbor, Territory of Hawaii and 728 nautical miles (1 348 kilometers) south-southwest of Dutch Harbor, Unalaska Island, Aleutian Islands, Territory of Alaska.
WAKE ISLAND: USN submarines USS Triton (SS-201) and Tambor (SS-198) arrive off Wake Island on simulated war patrols.
PACIFIC OCEAN: Japanese troop transports en route to Malaya are sighted off Formosa.
CANADA: Armed yacht HMCS Lynx transferred to Halifax.
Trawler HMS Manitoulin laid down Midland, Ontario.
U.S.A.: The US establishes compulsory convoying of merchants in the Pacific.
CARIBBEAN SEA: The Canadian Saguenay Terminals bulk carrier Proteus, an ex-USN collier (10,653 GRT), was lost in the Caribbean Sea. She was on route from St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands, with a load of bauxite. There were no survivors from the 58 crewmembers that were onboard. The cause of her loss has never been established although sabotage was originally suspected. Rear-Admiral George van Deurs, USN (retired), who served in this class of ship, suggested the colliers were poorly constructed to begin with and that the natural acidity of coal seriously weakened the ship’s plating and frame. It is now generally accepted that both Proteus and her sister ship, Nereus, were unseaworthy and broke up in heavy seas.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: German supply ship "Python" (3660 tons) takes on board the crew of the sunken British vessel "Atlantis". (Alex Gordon)