NAVY HISTORY - The Pacific War

1941


HMCS Courtenay was a Bangor-class minesweeper constructed for the Royal Canadian Navy during the Second World War. Entering service in 1942, Courtenay spent the entire war on the West Coast of Canada. The vessel was decommissioned in 1945 and sold for mercantile service in 1946. The fate of the vessel is uncertain.

The minesweeper was ordered as part of the 1940–41 construction programme. The ship's keel was laid down on 28 January 1941 by Prince Rupert Dry Dock & Shipyards Co. in Prince Rupert, British Columbia. Courtenay was launched on 2 August 1941 and commissioned into the Royal Canadian Navy on 21 March 1942 at Prince Rupert.[3] Courtenay spent the entirety of the Second World War on the West Coast of Canada. Courtenay was among the eight minesweepers added to the force protecting the West Coast during the first five months of 1942 following the need to establish a larger force following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.[5] Assigned to the patrol units Esquimalt Force (operating out of Esquimalt, British Columbia) or Prince Rupert Force, the main duty of Bangor-class minesweepers after commissioning on the West Coast would be to perform the Western Patrol. Patrolling the west coast of Vancouver Island, inspecting inlets and sounds and past the Scott Islands to Gordon Channel at the entrance to the Queen Charlotte Strait.[3][6] Following the end of the war, Courtenay was paid off at Esquimalt on 5 November 1945.[3] The minesweeper was sold to the Union Steamship Company for mercantile conversion on 3 April 1946.[3][7] However, the conversion never took place and the fate of the vessel remains unknown with Macpherson and Barrie tracking a purchase offer by a San Francisco firm in 1951 and the Miramar Ship Index claiming that the ship was broken up in 1946.

There has been only 1 vessel named Courtenay in the Royal Canadian Navy.

1941 January 1 Accounting of the previous night's bombing of London reveals that the Old Bailey, the Guildhall, and eight churches by Christopher Wren were destroyed or badly damaged.
1941 January 1 RAF bombs aircraft factories in Bremen, Germany.
1941 January 2 German bombers, perhaps off course, bomb Irish Free State for the second night in a row.
1941 January 2 Bardia is bombed by British bombers and bombarded by naval vessels off shore.
1941 January 3 RAF bombers attack Bremen and the Kiel Canal in Germany. The Kiel Canal Bridge suffers a direct hit and collapses on Finnish ship Yrsa.[1]
1941 January 5 Operation Compass: Australian troops of XIII Corps (the re-designated Western Desert Force) capture Italian-held Bardia and 45,000 Italian prisoners are taken.
1941 January 5 Tobruk, the next target, is 70 miles away.
1941 January 5 The leader of Wallonia's fascist party, Léon Degrelle, gives a speech in the German-occupied city of Liège announcing the support of the Rexist Party for German Nazism.
1941 January 6 The Greeks advance towards Klisura Pass.
1941 January 7 British and Commonwealth offensive in North Africa nears Tobruk; the airport is taken.
1941 January 7 A Special Committee of the Cabinet War Committee recommends that Japanese Canadians not be allowed to volunteer for the armed services on the grounds that there is strong public opinion against them.
1941 January 10 Lend-Lease introduced into the U.S. Congress.
1941 January 10 German–Soviet Border and Commercial Agreement is signed.
1941 January 10 : over the next months.
1941 January 10 Greek forces in Albania take the strategically important Klissoura pass.
1941 January 11 In London, 57 people are killed and 69 injured when a German bomb lands outside the Bank of England, demolishing the Underground station below and leaving a 120-foot crater.
1941 January 12 Operation Compass: British and Australian troops of XIII Corps prepare for the assault on Italian-held Tobruk.
1941 January 13 Heavy Luftwaffe night raid on Plymouth.
1941 January 14  First use of "V for Victory" by Victor de Laveleye on the BBC's Belgian service, Radio Belgique.[2]
1941 January 15 The rivalry between Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists becomes more evident; large numbers of the latter are forced to give up their arms, reluctantly of course.
1941 January 16 British forces start the first attacks of their East African counter-offensive, on Italian-held Ethiopia, from Kenya.
1941 January 16 German bombers pound Valletta, Malta, and HMS Illustrious is hit again.
1941 January 17 The Battle of Ko Chang ended in a decisive victory for the Vichy French naval forces during the Franco-Thai War.
1941 January 17 Molotov meets German Ambassador Schulenburg in Moscow. The Soviets are surprised that they have not received any answer from Germany to their offer to join the Axis (November 26, 1940). Schulenburg replies that it has to be first discussed with Italy and Japan.
1941 January 18 Air raids on Malta are increasing in focus and intensity.
1941 January 19 The 4th and 5th Indian Divisions continue the British counter-offensive in East Africa, attacking Italian-held Eritrea from the Sudan.
1941 January 19 Hitler and Mussolini meet at Berchtesgaden; Hitler agrees to provide aid in North Africa.
1941 January 21 Operation Compass: British and Australian troops of XIII Corps complete capture of Italian-held Tobruk.
1941 January 21 There are reports that Romanian Fascist ("Iron Guards") are executing Jews in Bucharest.
1941 January 23 HMS Illustrious, heavily damaged, leaves Malta for repairs in Alexandria.
1941 January 23 Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler
1941 January 24 British forces in Kenya continue the East African counter-offensive, attacking Italian Somaliland.
1941 January 29 Death of the Greek dictator, Ioannis Metaxas.
1941 January 30 30: British forces in North Africa take Derna; 100 miles west of Tobruk.
1941 January 31  Indian 4th Division flanks and then captures Agordat, Eritrea, Italian East Africa. 1,000 Italian troops and 43 field guns are captured.[1]
1941 February 1 Admiral Husband Kimmel is appointed the Commander of the US Navy in the Pacific.
1941 February 3 Lieutenant-General Erwin Rommel is appointed head of "German Army troops in Africa." This unit is later to be officially designated as the "Afrika Korps."
1941 February 3 Germany forcibly restores Pierre Laval to office in Vichy.
1941 February 6 Hitler makes one last appeal to the Spanish leader, General Franco, to enter the war.
1941 February 6 Adolf Hitler sends Field Marshal Erwin Rommel to North Africa to help the Italian forces.
1941 February 7 Operation Compass: After several days of desperate fighting, a flying column of XIII Corps called Combe Force cuts off the retreating Italian 10th Army during the Battle of Beda Fomm. The Italians are unable to break through the small blocking force and the British accept the surrender of roughly 130,000 Italians in and to the south of Benghazi.
1941 February 8 US House of Representatives passes the Lend-Lease bill.
1941 February 9 Mussolini is informed that German reinforcements are on the way to North Africa.
1941 February 9 British forces reach El Agheila, Cyrenaica.
1941 February 9 British battleships shell Genoa and British aircraft attack Livorno.
1941 February 9 Churchill again pleads with the US: "give us the tools."
1941 February 10 Malta's critical period: now through March, it is under heavy daily attack.
1941 February 11 Elements of the Afrika Korps start to arrive in Tripoli, Tripolitania.
1941 February 11 British forces enter Italian Somaliland.
1941 February 14 Rommel arrives in Tripoli.
1941 February 14 Afrika Korps starts to move eastward towards the advance British positions at El Agheila. The British in North Africa have been weakened by the transfer of some troops to Greece.
1941 February 15 Deportation of Austrian Jews to ghettos in Poland begins.
1941 February 19 The start of the "three nights Blitz" of Swansea, South Wales. Over these three nights of intensive bombing, Swansea town centre is almost completely obliterated.
1941 February 20 German and British troops confront each other for the first time in North Africa—at El Agheila in western Libya.
1941 February 21 German forces move through Bulgaria toward the Greek front.
1941 February 24 German U-boat offensive in the Atlantic is now increasingly successful.
1941 February 24 Admiral Darlan is appointed the head of the Vichy government in France.
1941 February 25 The British submarine Upright sinks the Italian cruiser Armando Diaz in one of the numerous sea battles in the North African campaign.
1941 February 25 Mogadishu, the capital of Italian Somaliland, is captured by British forces during the East African Campaign.
1941 February 28 RAF planes bomb Asmara, Eritrea.
1941 March 1 Hitler gives orders for the expansion of Auschwitz prison camp, to be run by Commandant Rudolf Höss.
1941 March 1 Bulgaria officially signs the Tripartite Pact.
1941 March 1 Compulsory registration of all Japanese Canadians over 16 years is carried out by the RCMP.
1941 March 4 British commandos carry out attack on oil facilities at Narvik in Norway.
1941 March 4 British military force in Libya is thinned down as some men are sent to assist the Greeks in their emerging battle with approaching German troops.
1941 March 4 Prince Regent Paul of Yugoslavia agrees to join the Axis pact.
1941 March 7 First British troops land in Greece, at Piraeus.
1941 March 8 Another bombing of London, notable because Buckingham Palace is hit.
1941 March 9 The Italian Spring Offensive in the Albanian front begins.
1941 March 10 British and Italian troops meet in a brief conflict in Eritrea.
1941 March 10  Portsmouth suffers heavy casualties after another night of heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe.
1941 March 11 United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signs the Lend Lease Act (now passed by the full Congress) allowing Britain, China, and other Allied nations to purchase military equipment and to defer payment until after the war.
1941 March 12 German Panzers arrive in North Africa providing heavy armour for the first major German offensive.
1941 March 13 The Luftwaffe strikes with a large force at Glasgow and the shipping industry along the River Clyde.
1941 March 17 Huge convoy losses in mid-Atlantic this week.
1941 March 17 The United States of America converts its Corps Areas to Defense Commands, with the term Corps reassigned as an intermediate field command of a Field Army.
1941 March 19 Worst bombing of London so far this year, with heavy damage from incendiary bombs; Plymouth and Bristol are bombed again.
1941 March 20 The Italian Spring Offensive is called off, after heavy losses and virtually no progress.
1941 March 21 The Yugoslav cabinet resigns in protest against Prince Paul's pact with the Nazis. Street demonstration occurs, expressive of a deep dislike for Germany.
1941 March 24 Rommel attacks and reoccupies El Agheila, Libya in his first offensive. The British retreat and within three weeks are driven back to Egypt.
1941 March 25 Italian MTMs of the Decima MAS sink the heavy cruiser HMS York (90), a large tanker (the Norwegian Pericles), another tanker and a cargo ship in Suda Bay, Crete.
1941 March 27 Crown Prince Peter becomes Peter II of Yugoslavia and takes control of Yugoslavia after an army coup overthrows the pro-German government of the Prince Regent.
1941 March 27 Japanese spy Takeo Yoshikawa arrives in Honolulu, Hawaii and begins to study the United States fleet at Pearl Harbor.
1941 March 27 Hitler orders his military leaders to plan for the invasion of Yugoslavia. One result of this decision will be a critical time delay in the invasion of Soviet Union.
1941 March 27  British forces advancing from the Sudan win the decisive Battle of Keren in Eritrea.
1941 March 27 Battle of Cape Matapan: the British navy meets an Italian fleet off southern Greece. The battle continues until the 29th.
1941 March 31 The Afrika Korps continues the German offensive in North Africa; Mersa Brega, north of El Agheila, is taken.
1941 April 1 British retreat after the losses at El Agheila, Libya. Rommel is surprised, then decides to continue his offensive.
1941 April 1 During this month the heavy bombing of British cities continues, and convoy losses remain heavy.
1941 April 1  In Iraq, pro-German Rashid Ali and other members of the "Golden Square" stage a military coup d'état and overthrow the regime of the pro-British Regent 'Abd al-Ilah. Rashid Ali names himself Chief of a "National Defence Government."
1941 April 1 April, 1941: American volunteer pilots secretly recruited in U.S. Their first actual combat will be in December 1941 in Burma where they will begin to wreak havoc upon Japanese forces and will soon be named the Flying Tigers.
1941 April 2 After taking Agedabia, Rommel decides to take all of Libya and moves his troops toward Benghazi. All of Cyrenaic (Libya) seems ready for the taking.
1941 April 3  A pro-Axis government is installed in Iraq.
1941 April 3 Bristol, England, suffers another heavy air attack.
1941 April 3 British troops take Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, from the Italian armies.
1941 April 3 Rommel takes Benghazi, Libya; Tobruk will remain a threat for the next seven months.
1941 April 4 Rommel is now about 200 miles east of El Agheila, heading for Tobruk and Egypt.
1941 April 4 An Atlantic convoy suffers almost 50% losses to U-boat campaign.
1941 April 6 Forces of Germany, Hungary, and Italy, moving through Romania and Hungary, initiate the invasions of Yugoslavia and Greece.
1941 April 6 The Italian Army is driven out from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
1941 April 6 The northern wing of Rommel's forces take Derna, on the Libyan coast. The southern wing moves toward Mechili, and takes it on the 8th.
1941 April 7 The Luftwaffe begins a two-day assault on Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Hitler is infuriated by the Yugoslav resistance.
1941 April 8 The Germans take Salonika, Greece.
1941 April 10 Greenland is occupied by the United States. With the approval of a "free Denmark", the US will build naval and air bases as counters to the U-boat war.
1941 April 10 While still being invaded, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia is split up by Germany and Italy. The Independent State of Croatia (Nezavisna Država Hrvatska, NDH) is established under Ante Pavelić and his Ustaša.
1941 April 10 Germans encircle the port of Tobruk, Libya, opening the siege; some of Rommel's forces move east to take Fort Capuzzo and Sollum, on the border with Egypt.
1941 April 10 The destroyer USS Niblack attacks a German U-boat that had just sunk a Dutch freighter. The Niblack was picking up survivors of the freighter when it detected the U-boat preparing to attack. The Niblack attacked with depth charges and drove off the U-boat.
1941 April 11 Though still a "neutral" nation, the United States begins sea patrols in the North Atlantic.
1941 April 11 Heavy Luftwaffe raids on Coventry and Birmingham, England.
1941 April 12 Belgrade, Yugoslavia, surrenders.
1941 April 12 : he Germans defeat Commonwealth forces at the Battle of Vevi.
1941 April 13 Malta is bombed again; it continues to be a thorn in the side of German supply movements in the Mediterranean.
1941 April 13 Japan and the Soviet Union sign a neutrality pact.
1941 April 13 In Iraq, a small contingent of British reinforcements are air-lifted to RAF Shaibah.
1941 April 14 Rommel attacks Tobruk, but is forced to turn back. Other attacks, also failures, occur on the 16th and 30th.
1941 April 14 The German LSSAH Panzer division captures the strategic Kleisoura Pass and begins cutting the line of retreat for the Greek army in Albania.
1941 April 15 British destroyers intercept an Afrika Korps convoy and sink all five transports and the three covering Italian destroyers.
1941 April 16 A heavy Luftwaffe raid on Belfast, Northern Ireland.
1941 April 16 Germans continue the invasion southward into Yugoslavia; they cut off the Greek army in Albania, which had had notable success against the Italians in January.
1941 April 17 Yugoslavia surrenders. A government in exile is formed in London. King Peter escapes to Greece.
1941 April 18 Greek Prime Minister Alexandros Koryzis commits suicide; the British plan the major evacuation of Greece.
1941 April 18 In Iraq, in accordance with the Anglo-Iraqi Treaty, British forces from India start to land at Basra.
1941 April 19 London suffers one of the heaviest air raids in the war; St. Paul's is mildly damaged but remains closed; other Wren churches are heavily damaged or destroyed.
1941 April 21 With their retreat cut off by the German advance, 223,000 Greek soldiers of the Greek army in Albania surrender.
1941 April 22 The British, both military and civilian, begin to evacuate Greece.
1941 April 23  Greek government is evacuated to Crete, which Churchill is determined to defend.
1941 April 24 British and Australian forces evacuate from Greece to Crete and Egypt.
1941 April 24 Plymouth suffers the third night of heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe.
1941 April 25 Rommel wins an important victory at Halfaya Pass, close to the Egyptian border.
1941 April 25 Axis forces defeat Commonwealth forces at Thermopylae after Australian general George Vasey staunchly claims that they will not be beaten.
1941 April 26 Rommel attacks the Gazala defence line and crosses into Egypt; Tobruk continues to hold however.
1941 April 27 Athens is occupied by German troops. Greece surrenders.
1941 April 27 Hurricane fighter planes are delivered as important reinforcements for besieged Malta.
1941 April 30 Rommel is ordered to cease attacks on Tobruk after another failure.
1941 April 30 In Iraq, Iraqi armed forces occupy the plateau to the south of the RAF Habbaniya air base and inform the base commander that all flying should cease immediately.
1941 May 1 Seven nights of bombing of Liverpool by the Luftwaffe begins, resulting in widespread destruction.
1941 May 2 British forces at RAF Habbaniya launch pre-emptive air strikes against Iraqi forces besieging them and the Anglo-Iraqi War begins.
1941 May 3 British forces in Ethiopia begin the investment of Amba Alagi where Italian forces under the Duke of Aosta have taken up defensive positions.
1941 May 4 Belfast, Northern Ireland, experiences another heavy bombing by the Luftwaffe.
1941 May 5 Five years from the day he was forced to flee, Emperor Haile Selassie enters Addis Ababa, his capital, in triumph.
1941 May 6 With much of the Iraqi air force destroyed and facing regular bombardment themselves, the Iraqi ground forces besieging RAF Habbaniya withdraw.
1941 May 7 The Luftwaffe arranges to send a small force to Iraq.
1941 May 7 Between Habbaniya and Fallujah, two Iraqi columns are caught in the open and attacked by roughly forty British aircraft; the Iraqis suffer heavy casualties.
1941 May 8 Heavy convoy losses in the Atlantic continue; however, one U-boat (U-110) is captured by the British navy and another copy of the "Enigma" machine is discovered and saved. It will help to turn the fortunes in the Atlantic battle.
1941 May 8 Bombing of Nottingham by the Luftwaffe.
1941 May 9 A Japanese brokered peace treaty signed in Tokyo ends the French-Thai War.
1941 May 10 Rudolf Hess is captured in Scotland after bailing out of his plane; his self-appointed mission was to make peace with the United Kingdom.
1941 May 10 Blitz, as Germany shifts its focus toward Soviet Union and the East.
1941 May 10 The "Strike of the 100,000" begins in Liège in Belgium on the anniversary of the German invasion of 1940. It soon spreads across the whole province until nearly 70,000 workers are on strike.[2]
1941 May 12 The RAF bombs several German cities, including Hamburg, Emden, and Berlin.
1941 May 12 The Soviet Union recognizes Rashid Ali's "National Defence Government" in Iraq.
1941 May 13 Yugoslav Army Colonel Draža Mihailović summons up the "Yugoslav Army in the Fatherland" which mostly consists of Serbs, but also includes Slovenes, Bosnians, and Croats. Mihailović treks from Bosnia to Ravna Gora in central Serbia, and issues an uprising call promising a struggle against the occupiers and the restoration of the Yugoslavian Monarchy. At this point, Josip Broz Tito and the Yugoslav Partisans are aligned with the Soviet Union, which is still friendly with Germany.
1941 May 13 The bulk of the German "Flyer Command Iraq" (Fliegerführer Irak) arrives in Mosul to support the Iraqi government of Rashid Ali.
1941 May 14 14: The RAF is authorized to act against German aircraft in Syria and on Vichy French airfields.
1941 May 15 First Civilian Public Service camp opens for conscientious objectors in the United States.
1941 May 16 16: Rommel defeats a counter-attack, "Brevity", at Halfaya Pass. The two sides trade alternating control of Fort Capuzzo and Halfaya Pass.
1941 May 17 17: British forces in the Habbaniya area advance on Iraqi-held Fallujah and, in five days fighting, push the Iraqis out.
1941 May 18 The Duke of Aosta, Viceroy of Italian East Africa, surrenders his forces at Amba Alagi.
1941 May 20 German paratroopers land on Crete; the battle for Crete will continue for seven days.
1941 May 20 : already in Iraq.
1941 May 21 The US merchantman SS Robin Moor is sunk by German submarine U-69. The incident startles the nation, and President Roosevelt shortly announces an "unlimited national emergency."
1941 May 21 The Italian Viceroy in Ethiopia surrenders. Remnants of Italian troops keep on fighting.
1941 May 21 British forces survey Baghdad, Iraq in June 1941
1941 May 22 Iraqi forces unsuccessfully counter-attack the British forces in Fallujah and are rebuffed.
1941 May 23 German dictator Adolf Hitler issues "Führer Directive No. 30" in support of "The Arab Freedom Movement in the Middle East", his "natural ally against England."
1941 May 24 British battlecruiser HMS Hood is sunk by a powerful salvo from German battleship Bismarck in the North Atlantic.
1941 May 24 The Greek government leaves Crete for Cairo.
1941 May 26 In the North Atlantic, Royal Navy Fairey Swordfish aircraft from the carrier HMS Ark Royal fatally cripple the Bismarck in torpedo attack.
1941 May 27 The British forces from the Habbaniya area begin an advance on Baghdad and, within four days, approach the city from the west and from the north.
1941 May 27 Twelve Italian aircraft arrive at Mosul to join Fliegerführer Irak.
1941 May 28 British and Commonwealth forces begin to evacuate Crete.
1941 May 28 By this date, it is clear that operation "Brevity" has failed.
1941 May 29 Members of the German military mission flee Iraq.
1941 May 30 Rashid Ali and his supporters flee Iraq.
1941 May 31 Heavy Luftwaffe bombing on neutral Ireland's capital; numerous civilian casualties.
1941 May 31 The Mayor of Baghdad surrenders the city to British forces and ends the Anglo-Iraqi War.
1941 May 37 The German battleship Bismarck is sunk in the North Atlantic by the Royal Navy, after evasive tactics, and a damaged steering system which forced it into an endless series of circular movements.
1941 June 1  Commonwealth forces complete the withdrawal from Crete.
1941 June 1 Rationing of clothes begins in the United Kingdom.
1941 June 2 Tuskegee Airmen begin with the formation of the 99th Fighter Squadron.
1941 June 4 Kaiser William II, former German Emperor, dies in exile in the Netherlands.
1941 June 6 More British fighter planes are delivered to Malta; Luftwaffe attacks continue.
1941 June 8  Vichy French-controlled Syria and Lebanon are invaded by Australian, British, Free French, and Indian forces.
1941 June 9 Finland initiates mobilisation, preparations against possible attack of Soviet aggressor.
1941 June 9 : The British and Australians cross the Litani River, beating back Vichy French forces. During this battle, Moshe Dayan, leading an Australian unit, loses his eye. He becomes famous when his story is published a day later.[3]
1941 June 10 Assab, the last Italian-held port in East Africa, falls.
1941 June 13 The Australians continue to fight through the Vichy French defenses and advance towards Beirut, winning the Battle of Jezzine.
1941 June 13 Soviets begin deporting Lithuanians to Siberia. Deportations continue for five days and total 35,000 Lithuanians, among them 7000 Jews.[4]
1941 June 14 All German and Italian assets in the United States are frozen.
1941 June 14 10,100 people from Estonia, 15,000 from Latvia and 34,000 (or 35,000, starting a day earlier[4]) from Lithuania are deported to Siberia by the Soviet Union.
1941 June 15 British Operation Battleaxe attempts and fails to relieve the Siege of Tobruk. The British are heavily defeated at Halfaya Pass nicknamed "Hell-fire pass".
1941 June 16 All German and Italian consulates in the United States are ordered closed and their staffs to leave the country by July 10.
1941 June 20 Army Air Forces organization consists of Air Force Combat Command (its combat element), with the existing logistics and training element retaining the older "United States Army Air Corps" designation.[5]
1941 June 22 Operation Barbarossa began on 22 June 1941, marking the Soviet Union's entry into the war
1941 June 22 Germany invades the Soviet Union with Operation Barbarossa, a three-pronged operation aimed at Leningrad, Moscow, and the southern oil fields of the Caucasus, ending the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Romania invades south-western border areas of the Soviet Union in Europe on the side of Germany.
1941 June 22 British general in Libya/Egypt Wavell is replaced by General Auchinleck.
1941 June 22 June Uprising against the Soviet Union in Lithuania.
1941 June 22 June 22, 1941: Germany invades the Soviet Union in what became known as Operation Barbarossa.
1941 June 23  In the late evening, Hitler first arrives at his headquarters at Rastenburg, East Prussia, codenamed "Wolf's Lair" (Wolfsschanze). Between this date and November 20, 1944, Hitler will have spent 800 days at Wolf's Lair.
1941 June 23 German troops massacre 42 at Ablinga.
1941 June 24 German forces enter Vilnius. Lithuanian militia men go on shooting spree, killing dozens of Jews on the streets, with civilian spectators cheering them on. The Germans kidnap 60 Jewish "hostages" and 30 Poles. Only 6 return.[4]
1941 June 25 The Soviet Union bombs Helsinki. Finland pronounces a state of war between Finland and Soviet Union. Continuation war is started.
1941 June 26 Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the Soviet Union.
1941 June 27 The occupation of Lithuania starts officially.
1941 June 28  Italian-occupied Albania declares war on the Soviet Union.
1941 June 28 Huge German encirclement of 300,000 Red Army troops near Minsk and Białystok.
1941 June 29 Finnish and German troops begin Operation Arctic Fox against the Soviet Union.
1941 June 29 Nuremberg Laws imposed on Jews of Lithuania and Vilnius in particular.[4]
1941 July 1 General Auchinleck takes over from General Wavell in North Africa.
1941 July 1 The British win the Battle of Palmyra against the French in the Middle East.
1941 July 1 All American men over 21 are required to register for the draft.
1941 July 1 German troops occupy Latvia's capital, Riga, on the way to Leningrad.
1941 July 2 Ponary massacre killings begin, with the shooting of Soviet POWs captured during Operation Barbarossa, which began two weeks earlier, and with the deportation of hundreds of Jews from Vilnius to Soviet dug fuel tank pits near the Ponariai suburb of Vilnius, where they are shot or buried alive. Reports by survivors are accepted as hallucinations. The mass deportations and shooting of Jews continued until 1943.
1941 July 2 Hungarian troops take over Stanisławów and other towns in what is now Ukraine.[6]
1941 July 3 Stalin announces a "scorched earth policy".
1941 July 3 The United States of America elevates its General Headquarters, United States Army in order to command and plan for military operations within the Zone of the Interior.
1941 July 3 Italian General Pietro Gazzera surrenders the remnants of his forces in the Jimma area.
1941 July 3 British troops employ brave and risky flanking tactics to win the Battle of Deir ez-Zor.
1941 July 4 Mass murder of Polish scientists and writers, committed by German troops in captured Polish city of Lwów.
1941 July 4 Vilna Ghetto first Judenrat established.[4]
1941 July 5 British Government rules out possibility of negotiated peace with Nazi Germany.
1941 July 5 British torpedo planes sink an Italian destroyer at Tobruk; on the 20th, two more are sunk.
1941 July 5 German troops reach the Dnieper River.
1941 July 5 The Ecuadorian–Peruvian War conflict begins in South America.
1941 July 7 British and Canadian troops in Iceland are replaced by Americans.
1941 July 8 Yugoslavia, a country formed by the Versailles treaty, is dissolved by the Axis into its component parts; especially important will be Croatia, with a pro-Axis government.
1941 July 8 Britain and the USSR sign a mutual defence agreement, promising not to sign any form of separate peace agreement with Germany.
1941 July 9 Vitebsk (Belarus) is captured; this opens the battle of Smolensk, an important communications centre, considered by the German high command to be "the gateway to Moscow."
1941 July 10 The occupation of Latvia starts officially. Guderian's Panzers take Minsk; the Germans advance farther into Ukraine.
1941 July 10  Units of the Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia begin to arrive. A legion from the Independent State of Croatia is part of the Italian corps.
1941 July 12  The Vichy French surrender in Syria.
1941 July 12 Assistance Pact signed between the United Kingdom and the USSR.
1941 July 13 Montenegro starts an uprising against the Axis Powers shortly after the Royalists in Serbia begin theirs. Questionable Communist plans instigate parallel uprising and civil war.
1941 July 15 The Red Army starts a counter-attack against the Wehrmacht near Leningrad.
1941 July 15 Argentia naval air base is set up in Newfoundland; it will prove an important transfer station for the Allies for some years.
1941 July 16 German Panzers under Guderian reach Smolensk, increasing the risk to Moscow.
1941 July 17  Luftwaffe air attacks on Malta continue.
1941 July 19 The "V-sign", displayed most notably by Churchill, is unofficially adopted as the Allied signal, along with the motif of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
1941 July 20 Heinrich Himmler visits Soviet POWs near Minsk and Lublin and decides to build the concentration camp near Lublin known as Majdanek concentration camp.[7]
1941 July 21 The Luftwaffe strikes heavily at Moscow.
1941 July 26 In response to the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the United States.
1941 July 26 Germans order a Judenrat established in Stanisławów, Galicia. It is headed by Israel Seibald.[6]
1941 July 28 Japanese troops occupy southern French Indochina. The Vichy French colonial government is allowed by the Japanese to continue to administer Vietnam. French repression continues. The Vichy French also agree to the occupation by the Japanese of bases in Indochina.
1941 July 28 The Germans push against Smolensk, and in the meantime solidify their presence in the Baltic states; native Jewish populations of the Baltic states are being exterminated.
1941 July 31 Under instructions from Adolf Hitler, Nazi official Hermann Göring, orders SS general Reinhard Heydrich to "submit to me as soon as possible a general plan of the administrative material and financial measures necessary for carrying out the desired final solution of the Jewish question."
1941 July 31 The Japanese naval ministry accuses the United States of intruding into their territorial waters at Sukumo Bay, and then fleeing. No evidence is offered to prove this allegation.[citation needed]
1941 July 31  Lewis B. Hershey succeeds Clarence Dykstra as Director of the Selective Service System in the United States.
1941 July 31 Ecuadorian–Peruvian War ends.
1941 August 1 The US announces an oil embargo against "aggressors."
1941 August 1 Japanese occupy Saigon, Vietnam.
1941 August 1 The Germans declare Galicia as the fifth district of the Generalgouvernement.[6]
1941 August 2 All civilian radios in Norway confiscated by the German occupation.[1]
1941 August 2  SS Commander Hans Krueger (alternative spelling, Hans Krüger) orders the registration of hundreds of Jewish and Polish intelligentsia in Stanisławów, who are subsequently tortured and murdered. This is the first implementation of the "one bullet one Jew" method in Galicia.[6]
1941 August 5 German armies trap Red Army forces in Smolensk pocket and take 300,000 soldiers; Orel is taken.
1941 August 5 August, 1941: The United States, which at the time supplied 80% of Japanese oil imports, initiates a complete oil embargo. This threatens to cripple both the Japanese economy and military strength once the strategic reserves run dry, unless alternative oil-sources can be found.
1941 August 6 Germans take Smolensk.
1941 August 6 American and British governments warn Japan not to invade Thailand.
1941 August 9 Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill meet at NS Argentia, Newfoundland. The Atlantic Charter is created, signed, and released to the world press.
1941 August 11 Malta is relieved by a convoy.
1941 August 11 Chungking, the nominal capital of Nationalist China located far up the Yangtze River, suffers several days of heavy bombing.
1941 August 12  Hitler, against the advice of his generals, shifts some forces from the Moscow front to Leningrad and the Crimean offensives.
1941 August 18 18: were then transferred to concentration camps, where they continued in their trade.
1941 August 20 German 250th Infantry Division, nicknamed "Blue Division" and consisted of Spanish volunteers, was formed and began to move to Poland.[1]
1941 August 22 German forces close in on Leningrad; the citizens continue improvising fortifications.
1941 August 25 British and Soviet troops invade Iran to save the Abadan oilfields and the important railways and routes to Soviet Union for the supply of war material.
1941 August 27 German U-boat U-570, being forced to surface off Iceland is captured by the British Royal Navy and is later put into combat service as HMS Graph.
1941 August 28 German forces with the help of Estonian volunteers take Tallinn from Soviets.
1941 August 30 The Shetland bus, a clandestine special operations group that made a permanent link between Shetland, Scotland and German-occupied Norway, begins operations.
1941 August 31 The first signs appear that a Leningrad "siege" is beginning.
1941 August 31  "The Great Provocation" in Vilnius – German forces stage an attack on their soldiers by Jews, leading to a 'retaliation' mass arrest of the residents of old Jewish quarter, to be murdered at Ponary, three days later.[4]
1941 September 1 With the assistance of Finnish armies in the north, Leningrad is now completely cut off.
1941 September 1 A pro-German Government of National Salvation formed in the Territory of the Military Commander in Serbia under Milan Nedić.
1941 September 1 All Jews under German rule must wear the yellow star of David badge with "Jew" clearly written in it, are forbidden to live with or marry non-Jews, and are forbidden to leave their towns without written consent, in accordance with the Nuremberg Laws of 1935. The decree, signed by Heydrich, is to take effect on September 19.[8]
1941 September 3 Murder of all 3,700 residents of the old Jewish quarter in Vilnius begins at the Ponary death site along with 10 members of the Judenrat. First written testimony of occurrences at Ponary by a survivor.[4]
1941 September 3 Vilna Ghetto Jews required to hand over any gold or silver.[4]
1941 September 4 USS Greer becomes the first United States warship fired upon by a German U-boat in the war, even though the United States is a neutral power. Tension heightens between the two nations as a result. The U.S. is now committed to convoy duties between the Western Hemisphere and Europe.
1941 September 5 Germany occupies Estonia.
1941 September 6 6,000 Jews shot at Ponary, a day after the order to form the Vilna Ghetto was issued.
1941 September 7 Berlin is heavily hit by RAF bombers.
1941 September 8 Siege of Leningrad begins – a reasonable date to start measuring "the 900 days." German forces begin a siege against the Soviet Union's second-largest city, Leningrad; Stalin orders the Volga Germans deported to Siberia.
1941 September 10 German armies now have Kiev completely surrounded.
1941 September 11 Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the United States Navy to shoot on sight if any ship or convoy is threatened.
1941 September 15 "Self-government" of Estonia, headed by Hjalmar Mäe, is appointed by German military administration.
1941 September 15 "Moving Aktion" in Vilna Ghetto. Of 3,500 Jews "moved" between ghetto sections, only 550 arrive. The remaining 2,950 Jews are shot at the Ponary massacre death site.
1941 September 16 Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran is forced to resign in favour of his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi of Iran under pressure from the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union.
1941 September 19 German capture of Kiev is now formal. The Red Army forces have suffered many casualties in defending this chief city in Soviet Ukraine.
1941 September 26 The U.S. Naval Command orders an all-out war on Axis shipping in American waters.
1941 September 27 The first "Liberty Ship", the SS Patrick Henry is launched. Liberty Ships will prove to be major parts of the Allied supply system.
1941 September 27 The National Liberation Front (EAM) is founded in Greece.
1941 September 28 German SS troops kill over 30,000 Jews at Babi Yar on the outskirts of Kiev, Soviet Ukraine, in response to sabotage efforts which the Germans attributed to local Jews.
1941 September 28 The Drama Uprising against the Bulgarian occupation in northern Greece begins. It is swiftly put down, with about 3,000 people executed as reprisals.
1941 October 1 Majdanek concentration camp (German: Konzentrationslager Lublin) and later to become extermination camp is opened.[7]
1941 October 1 Vilna Ghetto Yom Kippur Aktions (German annihilation operations) begin. In four separate incidents 3,900 Jews are kidnapped, shot and killed at the Ponary massacre death site, continued with an additional 2,000 Jews kidnapped and killed there, in the next two days.[4]
1941 October 2 Operation Typhoon – German "Central" forces begin an all-out offensive against Moscow. Leading the defense of the capital is General Georgi Zhukov, already a Hero of Soviet Union for his command in the conflict against the Japanese in the Russian Far East and at Leningrad.
1941 October 3 Mahatma Gandhi urges his followers to begin a passive resistance against British rule in India.
1941 October 7 Heavy RAF night bombings of Berlin, the Ruhr, and Cologne, but with heavy losses.
1941 October 8 In their invasion of the southern Soviet Union, Germany reaches the Sea of Azov with the capture of Mariupol. However, there are signs that the invasion is beginning to bog down as rainy weather creates muddy roads for both tanks and men.
1941 October 10 German armies encircle about 660,000 Red Army troops near Vyasma (east of Smolensk); some make a glowing prediction of the end of the war.
1941 October 12 HMS Ark Royal delivers a squadron of Hurricane fighter planes to Malta.
1941 October 12 Bloody Sunday massacre at Stanisławów, 8,000–12,000 Jews were rounded up and shot into pits by SIPO (Ukrainian police) together with German uniformed SS men. Dr. Tenenbaum of the Judenrat heroically refuses the offer of exemption and is shot along with the others.[6]
1941 October 13 Germans attempt another drive toward Moscow as the once muddy ground hardens.
1941 October 14 Temperatures fall further on the Moscow front; heavy snows follow and immobilize German tanks.
1941 October 15 The Germans drive on Moscow.
1941 October 16 Soviet Union government begins move eastward to Samara, a city on the Volga, but Joseph Stalin remains in Moscow. The citizens of Moscow frantically build tank traps and other fortifications for the coming siege.
1941 October 16 Vilna Ghetto Aktion. 3,000 Jews killed.[4]
1941 October 17 The destroyer USS Kearny (DD-432) is torpedoed and damaged by U-568 near Iceland, killing eleven sailors. They are the first American military casualties of the war.
1941 October 17 The government of Japanese prime minister Prince Fumimaro Konoye collapses, leaving little hope for peace in the Pacific.
1941 October 18 Red Army troop reinforcements arrive in Moscow from Siberia; Stalin is assured that the Japanese will not attack the USSR from the East.
1941 October 18 General Hideki Tōjō becomes the 40th Prime Minister of Japan.
1941 October 18 Soviet troops in action during the Battle of Moscow
1941 October 19 An official "state of siege" is announced in Moscow; the city is placed under martial law.
1941 October 19 German-occupied Luxembourg is declared "Judenrein" ("Cleansed of Jews").
1941 October 20 Lt. Col. Karl Hotz, the German commander in Nantes, is killed by Resistance; 50 hostages are shot in reprisal. The incident will become a model for future occupation policies.
1941 October 21 New Zealand troops land in Egypt and take over Fort Capuzzo.
1941 October 21  Negotiations in Washington between the US and Japan seem headed toward failure.
1941 October 22 Odessa massacre begins and continues for two days. 25,000 to 34,000 Jews are led in a long procession and are shot and killed in an antitank ditch, or burnt alive after being crowded into four buildings.
1941 October 22 The massacre began after, that day, a delayed bomb planted by the Soviets kills 67 people at the Romanian headquarters, including the Romanian commander General Glogojeanu.
1941 October 22 35,000 Jews are expelled to the Slobodka Ghetto and are left in freezing conditions for 10 days. Many perish in the cold.
1941 October 24 In Ukraine, the important mining and industrial centre of Kharkov falls to the German Army Group South forces.
1941 October 24 Vilna Ghetto Gelbschein I Aktion. 5,500 Jews including 140 old or paralyzed people killed.[4]
1941 October 27 German Army Group South forces reach Sevastopol in the Crimea, but the tanks of the "Northern" forces are slowed or stopped entirely by mud.
1941 October 28 Bolekhiv first aktion massacre – 1,000 of the leading Jews rounded up by list, tortured, and on the following day 800 of the surviving Jews, were shot or buried alive at a nearby forest. The re-discovered atrocities and testimony in 1996 lead to Patrick Desbois's research on the German method of "One Bullet, One Jew" extermination in 1941 and 1942.
1941 October 29 Vilna Ghetto II liquidated. 2,500 Jews killed.[4]
1941 October 30 Franklin Delano Roosevelt approves US$1 billion in Lend-Lease aid to the Soviet Union.
1941 October 31 The destroyer USS Reuben James is torpedoed by Erich Topp's U-552 near Iceland, killing more than 100 United States Navy sailors. It is the first loss of an American "neutral warship."
1941 November 1 President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the U.S. Coast Guard will now be under the direction of the U.S. Navy, a transition of authority usually reserved only for wartime.
1941 November 2 Political conflict in Yugoslavia as leftists under Tito (Josip Broz) are in competition with the more conservative Serbs under Draža Mihailović.
1941 November 3 Germans take Kursk.
1941 November 3 Vilna Ghetto Gelbschein III Aktion. 1,200 Jews killed.[4]
1941 November 6 Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near.
1941 November 7 Heavy RAF night bombings of Berlin, the Ruhr, and Cologne, but with heavy losses.
1941 November 9 Force K, including the light cruisers HMS Penelope and HMS Aurora and destroyers HMS Lively and HMS Lance, sank 7 merchant ships, a tanker, and 1 destroyer during the Battle of the Duisburg Convoy.
1941 November 12 Battle of Moscow – Temperatures around Moscow drop to minus 12 °C and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
1941 November 12 HMS Ark Royal delivers a squadron of Hurricane fighter planes to Malta.
1941 November 13 Germans start a new offensive against Moscow as the muddy ground freezes again.
1941 November 13 The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by the German submarine U-81 and sinks the following day.
1941 November 15 The Germans drive on Moscow.
1941 November 17 Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
1941 November 17 Ernst Udet, head of the Luftwaffe's Production and Development, commits suicide over his perceived inability to properly perform his mission.
1941 November 18 Operation Crusader: British Commonwealth and other Allied troops cross into Libya and at least temporarily relieve the Siege of Tobruk.
1941 November 19 Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sink each other off the coast of Western Australia. All 648 crewmen are lost on HMAS Sydney.
1941 November 21  Battle of Rostov – Rostov-on-Don, an important hub on the southern front, is taken by the Germans.
1941 November 22 Britain issues an ultimatum to Finland to end war with the Soviet Union or face war with the Allies.
1941 November 22 Rommel starts a counteroffensive, retaking Sidi Rezegh (south of Tobruk) which the Allies had taken a few days earlier. British tank losses are heavy.
1941 November 23 Rommel's attack continues around Sidi Rezegh; Allied losses continue to rise.
1941 November 23 The United States reaches an agreement with the Dutch government in exile whereby the Americans occupy Suriname to protect the bauxite mines there.
1941 November 24 The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
1941 November 24 Rommel begins a surprising 15-mile foray into Egypt; he meets no opposition.
1941 November 25  U-331 sinks the British battleship HMS Barham while covering Mediterranean convoys.
1941 November 26 A Japanese attack fleet of 33 warships and auxiliary craft, including six aircraft carriers, sails from northern Japan for the Hawaiian Islands.
1941 November 26 The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
1941 November 26 After his brief dash into Egypt, Rommel retreats to Bardia for refuelling; it is during this brief withdrawal that Tobruk is temporarily relieved when the 8th Army meets with the besieged.
1941 November 28 Battle of Rostov – Rostov-on-Don is recaptured by the Red Army.
1941 November 28 Battle of Moscow – German Panzers are on the outskirts of Moscow, near the Moscow-Volga Canal.
1941 November 28 The last Italian armed forces in East Africa surrender at Gondar.
1941 December 1 Malta marks its 1,000th bombing raid.
1941 December 1  Fiorello H. La Guardia publishes Administrative Order 9 creating the Civil Air Patrol for U.S Coastal Patrol and naming its national commander Major General John F. Curry.
1941 December 1 Approximately 20,000 Stanisławów Jews ordered into the Ghetto area, and non-Jews ordered out.[6]
1941 December 1 SS officer Karl Jaeger reports "Lithuania clean of Jews" with some exceptions.[4]
1941 December 2 Prime Minister Tojo rejects "peace feelers" from the US.
1941 December 2 A German combat engineer patrol reaches the town of Khimki while scouting for a hole in the Russian defense perimeter around Moscow. It is the closest advance the Germans make to the Russian capital.
1941 December 3 Conscription in the United Kingdom now includes all men between 18 and 50. Women will not be neglected since they will serve in fire brigades and in women's auxiliary groups.
1941 December 3 General strike begins among native mine-workers in the Belgian Congo.
1941 December 3 Vilna Ghetto 'Criminal Aktion' begins, continued the next day. 157 Jews are killed at Ponary.[4]
1941 December 4 The temperature on the Moscow front falls to −31 °F (−37 °C).[9] German attacks are failing.
1941 December 4 Japanese naval and army forces continue to move toward Pearl Harbor and South-east Asia.
1941 December 5 Germans call off the attack on Moscow, now 11 miles away; the USSR counter-attacks during a heavy blizzard.
1941 December 6 The United Kingdom declares war on Finland.
1941 December 6 Vilna Ghetto Gestapo Workers Aktion – 800 Jews and 10 Poles shot at the Ponary massacre death site. Temperatures are minus 23 degrees Celsius.[4]
1941 December 7  (December 8, Asian time zones) Japan launches an attack on Pearl Harbor, declares war on the United States and the United Kingdom and invades Thailand and British Malaya and launches aerial attacks against Guam, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Shanghai, Singapore and Wake Island. Canada declares war on Japan. Australia declares war on Japan.
1941 December 7 Adolf Hitler signs the German "Night and Fog decree" dictating the elimination of anti-Nazi resistance activities in Western Europe.
1941 December 7 December 7, 1941: Japan invades Hong Kong, Guam, Malaya and The Philippines shortly after attacking Pearl Harbor. The United States, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom formally declare war on Japan the next day.
1941 December 7 Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Canada declares war on Japan. Under the War Measures Act, Order in Council P.C. 9591, all Japanese nationals and those naturalized after 1922 are required to register with the Registrar of Enemy Aliens.
1941 December 8 The United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and New Zealand declare war on Japan.
1941 December 8 Japanese forces take the Gilbert Islands (which include Tarawa). Clark Field in the Philippines is bombed, and many American aircraft are destroyed on the ground.
1941 December 8  Japanese troops attack Thailand in the Battle of Prachuab Khirikhan.
1941 December 8 The Battle of Hong Kong begins
1941 December 8 The Malayan Campaign begins.
1941 December 8 Kamenka, Krasnaya Polyana, and Kriukovo, are liberated by the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army. The Germans are never again within artillery range of Moscow.
1941 December 8 1,200 fishing boats are impounded and put under the control of the Japanese Fishing Vessel Disposal Committee. Japanese language newspapers and schools closed. Insurance policies are cancelled.
1941 December 9 China officially declares war on Japan, although a de facto state of war has existed between the two countries since the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of July 7, 1937. China also declares war on Germany and Italy. Australia officially declares war on Japan. South Africa declares war on Japan, regarded as if at war from eight December 1941.
1941 December 9 Striking miners of the Union Minière at Elizabethville in the Belgian Congo are fired on by Belgian colonial forces during negotiations, killing an estimated 70 people.
1941 December 10 British battlecruiser HMS Repulse and battleship HMS Prince of Wales are sunk in a Japanese air attack in the South China Sea.
1941 December 11 Germany and Italy declare war on the United States. The United States reciprocates and declares war on Germany and Italy.
1941 December 11 US forces repel a Japanese landing attempt at Wake Island.
1941 December 11  Japanese invade Burma.
1941 December 12  Japanese landings on the southern Philippine Islands—Samar, Jolo, Mindanao.
1941 December 12 The United States and the United Kingdom declare war on Romania after It had declared war on both the United States and the United Kingdom; India declares war on Japan.
1941 December 12 US seizes French ship Normandie.
1941 December 13 Bulgaria and Hungary declare war on the United States and the United Kingdom, the United States and the United Kingdom reciprocate and declare war on Bulgaria and Hungary.
1941 December 13  Japanese under General Yamashita continue their push into Malaya. Under General Homma the Japanese forces are firmly established in the northern Philippines. Hong Kong is threatened.
1941 December 14 The British cruiser HMS Galatea is sunk by U-557 off Alexandria, beginning a series of naval defeats for the Allies.
1941 December 15  Italian "human torpedoes" damage two British battleships, HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Valiant in Alexandria harbour.
1941 December 15 Commonwealth troops push Rommel back at the Gazala line.
1941 December 15 Vilna Ghetto 'Gestapo block' Aktion. 300 Jews shot at the Ponary massacre site.
1941 December 16 Rommel orders a withdrawal all the way to El Agheila, where he had begun in March. He awaits reinforcements of men and tanks.
1941 December 16 Japan invades Borneo.
1941 December 16 The German offensive around Moscow is now at a complete halt.
1941 December 16 P.C. 9760 is passed requiring mandatory registration of all persons of Japanese origin, regardless of citizenship, with Registrar of Enemy Aliens.
1941 December 17 Battle of Sevastopol begins.
1941 December 18  Japanese troops land on Hong Kong Island.
1941 December 19 Hitler becomes Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the German Army.
1941 December 19 HMS Neptune, leading Force K, strikes a minefield and sinks with one survivor and a loss of 766 crew.
1941 December 20 The battle for Wake Island continues with several Japanese ships sunk or damaged.
1941 December 20 Stanisławów Ghetto officially closed from the outside and sealed with walls.[6]
1941 December 20 Vilna Ghetto 400 Jews killed by Lithuanian militias inside the ghetto.
1941 December 21 The suffering of besieged Leningrad continues; it is estimated that about 3,000 are dying each day of starvation and various diseases.
1941 December 21 The inmates at Bogdanovka concentration camp are massacred to quell an outbreak of typhus. Roughly 40,000 die.
1941 December 22 The Japanese land at Lingayan Gulf, on the northern part of Luzon in the Philippines.
1941 December 22 Start of the Arcadia Conference in Washington, D.C., the first official meeting of British and American political and military leaders.
1941 December 23 A second Japanese landing attempt on Wake Island is successful, and the American garrison surrenders after hours of fighting.
1941 December 23 General MacArthur declares Manila an "Open City."
1941 December 23 Japanese forces land on Sarawak (Borneo).
1941 December 24  In the Philippines, American forces retreat into Bataan Peninsula.
1941 December 24 Japanese bomb Rangoon.
1941 December 24  All Jewish ghettos in Nazi-occupied Europe are required to gather all fur coats or other furs from the Jews.[10]
1941 December 24 On Christmas Eve the Free French liberate Saint Pierre and Miquelon from Vichy France.
1941 December 25 Hong Kong surrenders to Japan.
1941 December 25 Allied forces retake Benghazi.
1941 December 25 Red Army and Navy amphibious forces land at Kerch, in the Crimea; their occupation will last through April.
1941 December 27 British and Norwegian Commandos raid the Norwegian port of Vågsøy, causing Hitler to reinforce the garrison and defences.
1941 December 28 Japanese paratroopers land on Sumatra.
1941 December 30 The Russian success in the Crimea continues as the Germans make a hurried evacuation of Kerch.
1941 December 30 German Gen. Rommel retreats to El Agheila, Libya and the positions held before his April offensive against the British.
1941 December 30 Kaiser Shipyards in Richmond, CA launches its first Liberty-class cargo ship.
1941 December 30 Operation Crusader ends in Allied victory.
1941 December 30 Japanese forces occupy Kuantan.
1941 December 30 Ernest King assumes command of the United States Fleet.
1941 December 30 Winston Churchill makes the “Chicken Speech” to Canadian Parliament. In reference to a comment made by Philippe Pétain that Britain would be invaded and “have its neck wrung like a chicken” by the Germans in three weeks, Churchill exclaimed, “Some chicken! Some neck!”
1941 December 30 German submarines U-705 and U-756 are commissioned.
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1941

The Year in Pictures

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Picture 5

1940

Sources

Cite Article : Reference: www.navyhistory/sections/Ships/Minesweepers/HMCS_Courtenay.html

Source: NA