The following events occurred in October 1941:
More information Su, Mo ...
Close
- The first jet engine built by the Allies arrives from England to an airport in the United States (Boston), to be modified for mass production by General Electric (GE).[8]
- The German submarine U-111 was sunk southwest of Tenerife by depth charges from the trawler HMS Lady Shirley.
- New Zealand Parliament passed a bill guaranteeing free medical care for all citizens.[1]
- Norwegians were warned by their German occupiers that they would face starvation if anti-Nazi unrest continued.[9]
- German submarines U-159 and U-252 were commissioned.
- "Piano Concerto in B Flat" by Freddy Martin and His Orchestra went to #1 on the Billboard singles charts.
- Born: Roy Blount, Jr., writer and humorist, in Indianapolis, Indiana; Elizabeth Eckford, one of the Little Rock Nine, in Little Rock, Arkansas; Anne Rice, author, in New Orleans, Louisiana (d. 2021)
- The Battle of Changsha ended in Chinese victory.
- The Siege of Odessa (1941) began.
- The Germans captured Mariupol on the Sea of Azov[1] and Oryol southwest of Moscow.[13]
- U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent Stalin a short message stating that he was "confident that ways will be found to provide the material and supplies necessary to fight Hitler on all fronts, including your own. I want particularly to take this occasion to express my great confidence that your armies will ultimately prevail over Hitler and to assure you of our great determination to be of every possible material assistance."[14]
- Near Hokitika, New Zealand, farmer Stanley Graham went on a shooting rampage after a dispute with a neighbour and killed seven people, including four police officers who were called in after the initial argument. The biggest manhunt in New Zealand history commenced.
- German submarines U-507 and U-657 were commissioned.
- Born: Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist and politician, in Greenville, South Carolina
- Died: Gus Kahn, 54, American lyricist; Valentine O'Hara, 66, Irish author
- President Roosevelt asked Congress for immediate authority to arm American merchant ships. "We will not let Hitler prescribe the waters of the world which our ships may travel," the president said. "The American flag is not going to be driven from the seas either by his submarines, his airplanes or his threats."[15]
- The Vichy Supreme Court indicted Léon Blum, Édouard Daladier, Guy La Chambre, Maurice Gamelin and Robert Jacomet for treason against their duties to the state during the years leading up to France's defeat in 1940. The defendants would go on trial beginning in February 1942 in proceedings that would be known as the Riom Trial.[16]
- Ricardo Adolfo de la Guardia Arango became President of Panama.
- German submarines U-334 and U-591 were commissioned.
- Born: Trent Lott, politician, in Grenada, Mississippi
- Died: Helen Morgan, 41, American singer and actress
- President Roosevelt wrote to Winston Churchill requesting a gentleman's agreement to share information on atomic research. Churchill would write back in December accepting the request.[18]
- The Soviet government announced the evacuation from Moscow of all women and children not engaged in war work.[1]
- German submarine U-209 was commissioned.
- Born: Lester Bowie, jazz trumpet player and composer, in Frederick, Maryland (d. 1999)
- Died: Edward Mark Best, 41 or 42, New Zealand police officer (mortally wounded by Stanley Graham on October 8);[19] Charles Treat, 81, American major general
- The Siege of Odessa ended in Pyrrhic Axis victory.
- The Jewish population of Lubny and neighbouring towns were ordered to report for relocation. The 1,900 Jews who obeyed the order were taken to an antitank trench outside the town and shot.[28]
- The British corvette HMS Gladiolus was lost while escorting convoy SC 48. The cause of its loss is unknown.
- Due to pressure from the Germans, Philippe Pétain announced that he had condemned Blum, Daladier and Gamelin to life imprisonment, long before their trial could even begin. Pétain justified the action under Constitutional Act No. 7 dated January 27, 1941, even though it was illegal to apply it retroactively.[16]
- German submarines U-160, U-592 and U-703 were commissioned.
- Born: Tim McCarver, baseball player and sportscaster, in Memphis, Tennessee (d. 2023)
- Died: Sergei Efron, 48, Russian poet and military officer (executed); Harold Fowler McCormick, 69, American businessman
- Joseph Stalin proclaimed a state of siege in the capital and issued an Order of the Day that "Moscow will be defended to the last."[13]
- German forces captured Mozhaysk.[2]
- German submarine U-204 was depth charged and sunk by British warships in the Strait of Gibraltar.
- Died: Hector Cowan, 78, American football player and coach
- German forces captured Borodino, 60 miles from Moscow.[30]
- Mass murderer Stanley Graham was mortally wounded in a shootout with police near his farm. He died of his wounds the next morning.
- German submarine U-508 was commissioned.
- Born: Anneke Wills, actress, in Berkshire, England
- The Germans captured Kharkov and Belgorod.[12]
- The three-day Odessa massacre ended with some 25,000 to 34,000 Jews and 15,000 Romani murdered.
- The British cargo ships Alhama, Ariosto and Carsbreck were sunk 300 nautical miles west of Gibraltar by the German submarine U-564.
- The German drive on Moscow was almost completely halted due to bad weather.[35]
- Riga Ghetto was established.[35]
- President Roosevelt released a formal statement condemning reprisal executions carried out by the Nazis in occupied Europe. "The practice of executing scores of innocent hostages in reprisal for isolated attacks on Germans in countries temporarily under the Nazi heel revolts a world already inured to suffering brutality," the statement read.[36]
- The British minelayer Latona was bombed and sunk by the Luftwaffe off Tobruk.
- German submarines U-117, U-171 and U-437 were commissioned.
- Born: Helen Reddy, singer and actress, in Melbourne, Australia (d. 2020); Anne Tyler, writer and literary critic, in Hennepin County, Minnesota
- Died: Robert Delaunay, 56, French artist (cancer)
- Erich von Manstein's 11th Army broke into the Crimean Peninsula.[12]
- The Germans captured Plavsk.[38]
- President Roosevelt made an address on Navy Day declaring that "America has been attacked," referring to the Kearny incident ten days earlier. "I say that we do not propose to take this lying down. Our determination not to take it lying down has been expressed in the orders to the American Navy to shoot on sight. Those orders stand." The president also said that "when we have helped to end the curse of Hitlerism we shall help to establish a new peace which will give to decent people everywhere a better chance to live and prosper in security and in freedom and in faith. Each day that passes we are producing and providing more and more arms for the men who are fighting on actual battle-fronts. That is our primary task."[39]
- Palestinian leader Amin al-Husseini arrived in Rome for talks with Fascist leaders.[1]
- The British submarine HMS Tetrarch sent its last communication before being lost in the Mediterranean Sea, probably to a naval mine.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished novel The Last Tycoon was posthumously published by Charles Scribner's Sons.[40]
- The movie The Big Store starring the Marx Brothers, went on general release.
- Born: Gerd Brantenberg, author, teacher and feminist writer, in Oslo, Norway
- While escorting Allied convoy HX 156 in the North Atlantic, the American destroyer USS Reuben James was sunk by the German submarine U-552 with the loss of 115 of 159 crew.
- Nazi Germany announced heavy taxation increases for tobacco, spirits and champagne effective Monday. State Secretary of the Finance Ministry Fritz Reinhardt claimed that the primary aim of the new taxes was to reduce consumption.[43]
- Born: Sally Kirkland, actress, in New York City
- Died: Herwarth Walden, 62, German artist and art expert
"1941". MusicAndHistory. Archived from the original on August 28, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
Kirchubel, Robert (2013). Operation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet Russia. Botley, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-78200-408-0.
Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945. Research Publications. 1990. pp. 81–82. ISBN 978-0-88736-568-3.
"The Broadway Parade". Film Daily. New York: Wid's Films and Film Folk, Inc.: 2 September 29, 1941.
"Hitler Slaps at U. S., Claims Reds Beaten". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. October 3, 1941. p. 1.
Mercer, Derrik, ed. (1989). Chronicle of the 20th Century. London: Chronicle Communications Ltd. p. 556. ISBN 978-0-582-03919-3.
"1941". World War II Database. Retrieved December 31, 2015.
"F. D. R. Calls on Congress to Arm All Ships at Once". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. October 9, 1941. p. 1.
Corvaja, Santi (2008). Hitler & Mussolini: The Secret Meetings. New York: Enigma Books. p. 199. ISBN 978-1-929631-42-1.
Mitcham, Samuel W. Jr. (2007). German Order of Battle: Panzer, Panzer Grenadier, and Waffen SS divisions in WWII. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. ISBN 978-0-8117-3438-7.
"Nazi Slaughter of Hostages Hit by Roosevelt". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. October 25, 1941. p. 1.
Forczyk, Robert (2006). Moscow 1941: Hitler's First Defeat. Botley, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing. p. 59. ISBN 978-1-84603-017-8.
Forczyk, Robert (2013). Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941–1942: Schwerpunkt. Pen & Sword. ISBN 978-1-4738-3443-9.