November 17 Monday
ASIA: Japanese Navy Admiral Yamamoto revealed the Pearl Harbor attack plan to the naval leadership. On the flight deck of IJN aircraft carrier "
Akagi", flagship of the IJN Pearl Harbor Striking Force in Saeki Bay, about 100 officers assembled: Nagumo and his staff, all commanders, their staffs and the flight officers. As Yamamoto spoke, it became evident that he had not come to deliver a pep talk.
"Although we hope to achieve surprise, everyone should be prepared for terrific American resistance in the operation." He told his listeners. "Japan has faced many worthy opponents in her glorious history – Mongols, Chinese, Russians – but in this operation we will meet the strongest and most resourceful opponent of all….I wish you Godspeed and pray for your success."
The crews receive a strict order not to go ashore. All present then adjourned to the wardroom for a farewell party. After sunset, IJN aircraft carrier "
Akagi" departs Saeki Bay for the Kuriles.
Foreign Minister Togo said relations between Japan and the US could be salvaged so long as the Americans understand "Japan's national requirements and her position in East Asia … There is naturally a limit to our conciliatory attitude." US Ambassador Grew warns that the embassy in Japan is not in a position to warn of an impending Japanese attack and that the government should,
"… take into account the probability of the Japanese exploiting every possible tactical advantage, such as surprise and initiative."
The Pearl Harbor Carrier Striking Force (Kido Butai) gathered at the mouth of the Inland Sea. It was a formidable armada: six carriers, two fast battleships with 14-inch guns, "
Hiei" and "
Kirishima", two heavy cruisers "
Tone" and "
Chikuma", a light cruiser, eight destroyers and a train of three oilers and a supply ship. The six carriers held 360 planes: 81 fighters, 135 dive bombers, 104 high-level (horizontal) bombers and 40 torpedo bombers, which had only 30 torpedoes fitted with the new fins. Late in the evening, one by one at irregular intervals, the ships of the Striking Force weighed anchor and headed on separate course for a rendezvous some thousand miles north of Tokyo. IJN aircraft carrier "
Kaga" was the last ship still in the Inland Sea and embarked 100 aerial torpedoes. Those Type 91 Model 2 torpedoes have just been modified by Mitsubishi at Nagasaki to enable them to be used in Pearl Harbor anchorage's shallow waters. Once the ship got underway the captain gathered the entire crew on deck to announce their mission.
Nationalist Chinese leader Ciang Kai-shek urges the western democracies to take action against Japanese aggression.
Admiral Decoux's pro-Vichy administration in French Indochina arrests Free French supporters.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: The destroyers USS "
Benson" (DD 421) and USS "
Edison" (DD 439), screening Convoy ON-34, depth charged submarine contacts in the northern Atlantic Ocean.
EASTERN FRONT: The 1.Panzerarmee continues its advances near Rostov. Soviet 9th Army and 37th Army counterattacked the 1.Panzerarmee. The German 106.Infanterie-Divisionen (General der Infanterie Ernst Dehner) along with the rest of V.Armeekorps (General of the Infantry R. Ruoff) attacked towards Moscow. This was some 24hrs earlier than it's neighboring Korps, XLVI.Armeekorps (mot.) (General of the Panzer Troops H. von Vietinghoff). However, the Soviet 9th and 37th Armies under General Timoshenko, begin a counterattack on the flank of the German drive. The Germans continued to push the 316th Division back. Stalin partially relented to pleas from Zhukov for reinforcements and the 78th Siberian Rifle Division (General Beloborodov) joined 16th Army in the line. The Siberians stabilized the line for three days before 16th Army was forced back again. Soviet attacks by massed T-34s strike the 112.Infanterie-division (General der Infanterie Friedrich Mieth). The Germans break in panic, losing most of a regiment, the first time this has occurred in World War II. At Musino near Volokolamsk, 70 miles West of Moscow, Soviet 44th Cavalry Division (recently arrived from Central Asia) charges German 106.Infanterie-Divisionen (3.Panzerarmee) in broad daylight. 105mm howitzers supporting the German infantry decimate the Russian horsemen (claiming 2000 killed).
Further north, air reconnaissance indicates Lake Ladoga is frozen over. At 0800 hours, teams set out to confirm and mark routes from Kokorevo (on the Western shore near Leningrad) via various tiny islands to the small port of Kobona on the 'mainland' side of Lake Ladoga, 18 miles away. Due back at 1700 hours, they finally return at 0400 hours next morning to report the ice on the lake is 10cm thick (half the thickness needed to support a laden 1 ton truck).
German Luftwaffe III./KG 55 received orders to relocate from Kirovograd, Ukraine to Saint-André-de-l'Eure, France for rest and refitting after spending only seven weeks at Kirovograd.
GERMANY: Following twelve months of illness, depression and strain at the Luftwaffe's increasing losses on the Eastern Front, Generalluftzeugmeister Generaloberst Ernst Udet, German Director General of Air Armament, committed suicide by shooting himself in the head while on the phone with his girlfriend. Evidence indicated that his unhappy relationship with Göring, Erhard Milch, and the Nazi Party in general was the cause of his mental breakdown. The book The Luftwaffe War Diaries states something similar, that Udet wrote "Reichsmarshal, why have you deserted me?" in red on the headboard of his bed. Udet, Germany's second highest fighter ace of the First World War (behind the Red Baron) with 62 kills, had already lost favour with Hitler after the air force's performance in the Battle of Britain. The official version was that he had died whilst testing a "new weapon" and Jagdgeschwader 3 was named in his honour. Udet was accorded a state funeral at which he was eulogized by Hermann Göring, who described him as his "best friend". Generalfeldmarschall Erhard Milch is promoted to
Generalluftzeugmeister in his place.
The Reichskommissariat Ostland was established under Alfred Rosenberg to administer territories taken from the Soviet Union. Hitler appoints Rosenberg, the Nazi ideologist to head the new Reich Ministry for Occupied Eastern Territories. This ministry is new and has jurisdiction over the Baltic states and White Russia. The mission is to exploit them for German economic benefit while ridding them of "undesirable elements" such as Jews and Communists. Rosenberg is the Nazi Party "expert" for racial matters. He will issue orders which involve the extermination of local populations, seizing of all goods and assets from the occupied areas.
MEDITERRANEAN: Night attack on Naples by the British Royal Air Force (RAF). From Malta Six Blenheims RAF No. 107 Squadron attacked an Axis convoy with good results. Three Blenheims of RAF No. 18 Squadron made a shipping search SF11 patrol. One Blenheim of RAF No. 18 Squadron flew a special search for merchant vessel(s). Three Wellingtons from RAF No. 104 squadron made a nuisance raid on Brindisi. Four Wellingtons from RAF No. 104 Squadron flew a nuisance raid on Naples.
Lt General Dobbie replies to a query from the War Office checking the number of tanks currently on the Island of Malta. He confirms the present holding as six. Four of them are Matildas Mk II, British infantry tanks and the other two are MKIVB Light Tanks. The Matildas were named by their operators after the naval escort destroyers which accompanied them to Malta: Faulknor, Gallant, Greyhound and Griffin.
NORTH AFRICA: Operation Flipper: British Lieut-Colonel Geoffrey Charles Tasker Keyes' commandos again shelter during the day. At midnight, they attack Afrika Korps quartermasters HQ at Beda Littoria, which they have mistaken for Rommel's HQ. As they approached the villa, a sentry who tackled the colonel had to be shot. All surprise was lost. Opening one door they found 12 Germans preparing for a fight. Keyes opened it again to throw in a grenade. He was shot dead. They kill 4 Germans but Keyes is killed and another commando is wounded and captured. Most of the survivors were taken prisoner. Another group of commandos on a diversionary raid a few miles away are nearly all killed or captured. Only 3 commandos are able to reboard British submarines to return to Alexandria. Colonel Robert Laycock and Sergeant Terry walk for 34 days through the desert, returning to British lines on Christmas Day. Keyes would be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross even though the raid was doomed from the start - Rommel was not even at Sidi-Rafa. The daring raid destroys the facility, but Rommel was not present (he was in Athens at the time).
Early on during their 3rd patrol, German submarine U-331 landed eight commandos on the Egyptian coast to mine the railway line near Daba, 60 miles west of Alexandria. Their mission was to blow up a railway near the coast, but they did not succeed. They would soon be captured before they completed their mission.
NORTH AMERICA: US Congress amended the Neutrality Act of 1939, thus allowing American merchant ships to be armed and allowing them to enter war zones. Navy's Bureau of Navigation directs Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned for further training before going to Armed Guard Centers for assignment to merchant ships.
Japanese special envoy Kurusu Saburo arrived in Washington DC and met with US Secretary of State Cordell Hull. Ambassador Kurusu told President Roosevelt Germany had not requested Japan to fight.
The German blockade runner "
Odenwald", captured by the light cruiser USS "
Omaha" (CL 4) and destroyer USS "
Somers" (DD 381) on November 6, was escorted into San Juan, Puerto Rico, by the USS "
Somers" and turned over to U.S. authorities.
The U.S. Navy's Bureau of Navigation directed Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned to Little Creek, Virginia or San Diego, California for further instruction. They would then be transferred to Armed Guard Centers at New York, New York and Treasure Island (San Francisco), California for assignment to merchant ships.
NORTHERN EUROPE: In northern Finland, Maj. Gen. Hjalmar Siilasvuo, CO of the III Corps, orders his corps to halt all offensive operations. Siilasvuo's corps is subordinated to the German 20th Mountain Army, and had been involved in successful offensive operations, advancing towards Louhi. However, political considerations came to play. Despite Siilasvuo's formal subordination to Germans, he always verifies his orders with Mannerheim. Lately the Western Allies had put lot of pressure on Finland not to cut the Murmansk railway. Capturing Louhi would achieve just that. On 6 Nov Mannerheim confidentially told Siilasvuo that it is better Louhi is not captured. Siilasvuo naturally could not let the Germans know the true reasons for calling the advance to halt, thus the decision is justified by stiffening Soviet resistance.
Operation Silver Fox: Operation Silver Fox ended in a Soviet defensive victory. Operation Silver Fox (German: Silberfuchs) was a joint German–Finnish military operation offensive during World War II. Its main goal was to cut off and ultimately capture the key Soviet port at Murmansk through attacks from Finnish and Norwegian territory. The initial attack went badly, as the German troops were untrained for Arctic warfare and especially the SS division, merely a former police force, could not deal with the organized Soviet defense. US diplomats warned Finland that a disruption of US deliveries to the Soviet Union would have serious implications. Therefore, Finland was no longer interested in spearheading such an offensive. With the Finnish refusal to be involved in further offensive operations, Arctic Fox came to an end in November and both sides dug in at their current positions. Overall the operation failed in terms of its strategic intentions, as neither Murmansk nor the Murmansk railway at Kandalaksha were captured. The closest the German-Finnish force came to disrupting the Murmansk railway was east of Kestenga, where they were about 30 km (19 mi) away from it, while Dietl's force in the north did not even come close to approaching Murmansk. The German forces, especially the SS-troops, were unsuited, ill-trained, and unprepared for Arctic warfare and therefore made little progress while suffering heavy casualties. On the other hand, Finnish units, especially the 6th Division of the III Finnish Corps, made good progress and inflicted heavy casualties on the Soviet forces.
PACIFIC OCEAN: The cruiser HMAS "
Sydney", (CAPT J. Burnett, RAN), handed over the escort of the troop ship "
Zealandia", to HMS "
Durban" in Sunda Strait.
UNITED KINGDOM: The United States delivered escort carrier "
Archer" to the United Kingdom, the first of 38 escort carriers that would be delivered during the war under Lend-Lease.
The ration of canned meat, canned fish, and canned beans began in the United Kingdom; this was announced 15 days earlier by the British Minister of Food.
Luftwaffe bombs fell at night in East Anglia and in southwest England.
WESTERN FRONT: Mathilde Carre, working with Franco-Polish espionage organization based in Paris, arrested by the Abwehr and subsequently becomes a double agent working for Germany.
The British Royal Air Force (RAF) carried out attacks on targets in North France by Fighter Command. RAF Fighter Command flew a Rhubarb operation.
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