August 1941

[August 1], 1941 (Friday)

• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced an embargo on the export of oil and aviation fuel to anywhere outside the Western Hemisphere with the exception of the British Empire. This action was aimed at Japan.
• The second wave of Alikianos executions were carried out on Crete.
• The Bialystok District of Nazi Germany was created.
• German submarine was commissioned.
• Born: Ron Brown, American Politician, in Washington, D.C.

  [August 2], 1941 (Saturday)

• The United States extended Lend-Lease to apply to the Soviet Union.
• Britain called on the governments of Iran and Afghanistan to expel all Germans immediately.
• All civilian radios in Norway were confiscated by the Nazi occupation authorities.
• Born: Ede Staal, singer-songwriter, in Warffum, Netherlands

  [August 3], 1941 (Sunday)

• German 16th Panzer and 1st Mountain Divisions linked up at Pervomaisk and closed the Uman pocket.
• The German Catholic Bishop Clemens August Graf von Galen gave a sermon condemning the Nazi practice of euthanasia. Thousands of copies of the sermon were distributed throughout Germany, breaking the secrecy that surrounded the euthanasia programme known as Aktion T4.
• German submarine was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by depth charges from Allied warships.
• Born: Martha Stewart, businesswoman and television personality, in Jersey City, New Jersey; Hage Geingob, 3rd President of Namibia, in Otjiwarongo, South-West Africa

  [August 4], 1941 (Monday)

• Kirovohrad fell to the Germans.
• Adolf Hitler met with Fedor von Bock, Heinz Guderian and Hermann Hoth. All three generals agreed that a drive on Moscow should be top priority and could commence as early as August 20, but Hitler favoured other objectives such as the elimination of enemy pockets.
• Born: Ted Strickland, politician, in Lucasville, Ohio
• Died: Mihály Babits, 57, Hungarian poet, writer and translator

  [August 5], 1941 (Tuesday)

• The First Battle of Smolensk ended in German victory. 310,000 Soviets were taken prisoner.
• The Provisional Government of Lithuania disbanded.

  [August 6], 1941 (Wednesday)

• In the British House of Commons, British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden warned Japan that any action threatening the independence and integrity of Thailand would be "of immediate concern" to the British government. U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull mirrored those statements that same day when he said at a press conference that any move by Japan into Thailand would be a matter of concern to the United States.
• The Ustaše regime in the Independent State of Croatia perpetrated the Prebilovci massacre, throwing some 600 women and children alive into a deep pit near Šurmanci.
• German submarine was commissioned.
• Born: Lyle Berman, professional poker player and business executive, in Minneapolis, Minnesota

  [August 7], 1941 (Thursday)

• U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt arrived at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland aboard the heavy cruiser USS Augusta, ostensibly on vacation but actually to hold a conference with Winston Churchill.
• The Australian government warned that it would not stand by and watch Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
• Japan denied having any aggressive intentions against Thailand.
• Twin-engine bombers of the Soviet Navy raided Berlin.
• German submarine was commissioned.
• The romantic comedy-fantasy film Here Comes Mr. Jordan starring Robert Montgomery, Evelyn Keyes and Claude Rains premiered at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City.
• The comedy horror film Hold That Ghost starring Abbott and Costello premiered in New York.
• Died: Bruno Mussolini, 23, son of Benito Mussolini ; Rabindranath Tagore, 80, Bengali polymath

  [August 8], 1941 (Friday)

• The Battle of Uman ended in Axis victory.
• The Siege of Odessa began.
• German forces began a general offensive on the Luga River.
• The Soviet Izyaslav-class destroyer Karl Marx was bombed and sunk in Loksa Bay by the Luftwaffe.
• The Japanese aircraft carrier Shōkaku was commissioned.
• Born: George Tiller, physician, in Wichita, Kansas Jeffery Flaws Calgary, Alberta Ultrarunner

  [August 9], 1941 (Saturday)

• Winston Churchill arrived at Placentia Bay aboard the battleship and ferried over to Roosevelt's ship for their first meeting.
• British fighter ace Douglas Bader was forced to bail out of his damaged Spitfire Mk VA over northern France in controversial circumstances and was captured. Some accounts have his plane being involved in a mid-air collision with a Bf 109, but it is also possible he was shot down or was a victim of friendly fire.
• Charles Lindbergh made a speech in Cleveland in which he accused American interventionists of plotting to create "incidents and situations" that would plunge the United States into war "under the guise of defending America."
• The Germans killed 534 Jews in Kaunas.
• Born: Shirlee Busbee, romance novelist, in San Jose, California

  [August 10], 1941 (Sunday)

• The German submarine was sunk in the Gulf of Finland by the Soviet submarine.
• The Soviet patrol boat was sunk by shellfire off the Kola Peninsula by German destroyers.
• President Roosevelt and his representatives came aboard the Prince of Wales for a Sunday prayer service with Churchill, who later recalled the event as "a deeply moving expression of the unity of faith of our two peoples." Churchill selected the hymns himself, ending with "Our God, Our Help in Ages Past".
• Died: Arthur Mülverstedt, 47, German SS General

  [August 11], 1941 (Monday)

• 14 large Soviet bombers raided Berlin.
• The Red Army counterattacked around Yelnya.
• The Italian hospital ship California was sunk off Syracuse, Sicily by Fairey Swordfish torpedo aircraft of 830 Naval Air Squadron.
• German submarine was commissioned.
• A famous pin-up photo of Rita Hayworth appeared in this week's issue of Life magazine, showing Hayworth perched on her bed wearing a negligee. The iconic picture was the second-most popular among US servicemen during World War II. Only Betty Grable's over-the-shoulder photo from 1943 was bigger.

  [August 12], 1941 (Tuesday)

• Vichy French Vice-Premier François Darlan was made the Minister of Defence. President Philippe Pétain made an address announcing the appointment in which he also announced a series of harsh new measures including the dissolution all political parties, the creation of a Council of Justice to judge "those responsible for our disaster," and the new requirement that all ministers and high officials swear an oath of loyalty directly to him. "In 1917 I put an end to mutiny," Pétain said. "In 1940 I put an end to rout. Today I wish to save you from yourselves."
• The Placentia Bay meetings between Roosevelt and Churchill concluded. The Atlantic Charter was signed but not made public until two days later.
• The Royal Air Force conducted the heaviest daylight bombing raid against Germany since the war began. The Germans could not offer as much opposition as they once did because many of their planes had been diverted to the Eastern Front.
• By the margin of a single vote, the United States House of Representatives approved an 18-month extension of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940.
• The British corvette was sunk in the North Atlantic by the German submarine.
• The USSR issued the Amnesty for Polish citizens in the Soviet Union.
• The Canadian government ordered all Japanese Canadians to carry a registration card.
• Born: Deborah Walley, actress, in Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Died: Bobby Peel, 84, English cricketer

  [August 13], 1941 (Wednesday)

• The Roosevelt Administration issued an executive order suspending the eight-hour day for mechanics and laborers employed by the War Department on public works projects such as airfields, troop housing units and fortifications so as to hasten their construction.
• Ostland Reichkommissar Hinrich Lohse ordered that all property belonging to Jews was to be confiscated and registered, and all money and valuables in their possession handed over immediately.
• The Canadian government authorized the creation of the Canadian Women's Army Corps.
• The Australian Women's Army Service was raised.
• The soybean car, an automobile made with a plastic body at the behest of Henry Ford, was introduced to the public at a community festival in Dearborn, Michigan.
• Died: J. Stuart Blackton, 66, English-born American film producer

  [August 14], 1941 (Thursday)

• Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill jointly issued the Atlantic Charter, stating the Allied goals for the post-war world.
• German forces captured Krivoy Rog.
• British bombers conducted an overnight raid on the railway yards at Hanover.
• German submarine was commissioned.
• Born:
• *David Crosby, musician, in Los Angeles, California
• *Connie Smith, country musician, in Elkhart, Indiana
• Died: Maximilian Kolbe, 47, Polish friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the Auschwitz concentration camp; Paul Sabatier, 86, French chemist

  [August 15], 1941 (Friday)

• The Philippine Army Air Corps was officially inducted into the United States Army Forces in the Far East.
• Roosevelt and Churchill sent a joint message of assistance to the Soviet Union. "We realize fully how vitally important to the defeat of Hitlerism is the brave and steadfast resistance of the Soviet Union and we feel therefore that we must not in any circumstances fail to act quickly and immediately in this matter on planning the program for the future allocation of our joint resources," the statement concluded.
• Born: Don Rich, country musician, in Olympia, Washington
• Died: Josef Jakobs, 43, German spy