Deadline, what deadline? What’s happening after the deadline? What? What do you mean you’ve already said too
much? November 28, 1941 Back in June, Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Hitler saw this as his Magnum Opus, but in
spite of legendary successes, it hasn’t gone quite as well as planned; the Soviets
are still in the fight. But this week that may change- this week,
German units can actually see the spires of Moscow’s Kremlin. I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two. Last week, the Germans renewed their drive
on Moscow, and made advances despite strong Soviet resistance and worsening winter weather. The Allies launched an offensive of their
own last week- Operation Crusader in North Africa. Which continues with heavy fighting all this
week. The 4th and 22nd Allied armored brigades,
pursuing Erwin Rommel’s panzers, do not reach Sidi Rezegh until the 22nd, by which
time the enemy has reduced the 7th armored brigade to just 10 tanks and they have withdrawn
southward. The new arrivals are themselves battered badly
by German anti-tank guns. However, British Commander Alan Cunningham
gets reports that Rommel is in full retreat mode, so Cunningham orders the whole of 30th
Corps to join the pursuit, leaving just the 4th Indian Division to hold the border. He is unaware that 30th Corps now has just
44 cruiser tanks, and the 4th and 22nd armored brigades just 54 between them. In fact, Cairo even broadcasts to the world
that Rommel is in full retreat and American newspapers will report that half the German
tanks have been destroyed. The fighting that day and the 23rd around
Sidi Rezegh and the airfield there is intense, bloody, and confusing, and does bring the
Axis to under 100 tanks. Africa Corps will call the 23rd “Totensonntag”,
Sunday of the Dead, because of the heavy losses. However, “The testing of men in war is cruel
and searching- and one quality that separates the great general from the merely good one-
is a relentless probing for an opposing commander’s weakness.” Rommel will soon tell a captured British officer,
“What difference does it make if you have two tanks to my one when you spread them out
and let me smash them in detail? You presented me with three brigades in succession!” At 1000, November 24th, Rommel sends all of
his armor- 90 tanks-away from the battlefield and racing eastward to the Egyptian border. The idea is to wreck the 8th army supply lines
and overrun the infantry. The night before, with 300 of his cruiser
tanks knocked out, Cunningham thinks he’s lost the tank battle that is the key to winning
Operation Crusader, and he thinks withdrawal to his starting positions is his only option
and he even issues preliminary orders to that effect. His chief staff officer, however, thinking
the battle can still be won, contacts HQ, and asks Theater Commander Claude Auchinlek
to intervene. Auchinlek arrives that night and realizes
that Rommel can afford his losses way less than the British can, and a disengagement
would just surrender the initiative, so he refuses to withdraw what’s left of the British
armor and in the morning sends an order to Cunningham, “You will… continue to attack
the enemy relentlessly, using all your resources even to the last tank.” “The danger inherent in committing his last
reserves to an unfinished battle which had gone well for the enemy were great… but
Auchinlek ordered the offensive to continue… as it turned out, Auchinlek’s decision to
fight on saved not only the battle but much else. It was one of the great strategic decisions
not only of the desert campaigns but of the war as a whole.” This decision is as bold as Rommel’s sudden
raid on Egypt. Rommel is successful in hitting the 8th army
in the rear, and come close to finding the two supply dumps the Allied army depends on,
but his forces are first outfought by the Allied gunners at Sidi Omar and then they
run out of fuel. So on the 26th, Rommel retreats to Bardia. But Bernard Freyberg and the New Zealanders
are still steadily advancing on Tobruk, as per Auchinlek’s orders, and Rommel has to
then head back there to maintain his siege. He orders the 21st panzers west at dawn the
27th, the 15th will clear up and then follow. Also on the 26th, before I forget, Major-General
Neil Ritchie replaces Cunningham as Army Commander, relieved by Auchinlek. So on the 27th, the NZ infantry links up with
70th infantry who have broken out of Tobruk at Ed Duda, and takes Sidi Rezegh and Belhamed,
thus compromising Axis Supply lines like I mentioned last week. The next day, the Germans try to sever the
link between NZ and Tobruk units and retake the triangle, but the week ends before that
can happen. But there’s been a lot of action in the
Mediterranean in general this week that is directly connected to Rommel in North Africa. Two German ships, Maritza and Procida, are
sent to Benghazi with fuel that is of crucial importance to the Luftwaffe. News of their journey is sent by top secret
Enigma signal, which is decrypted at Bletchely and within a day, both ships are sunk. But Hitler has ordered submarines to try and
stop British success in sabotaging Rommel’s supply. On the 25th, one sinks the British battleship
Barham, and on the 27th one sinks the Australian sloop Parramatta. But if the give and take is a bit confusing
in North Africa and the Mediterranean, it is perhaps more so- and perhaps more critical-
on the Moscow Front. Adolf Strauss’ German 9th army is playing
defense after securing bridgeheads north of the Volga, north of Moscow, so that Georg-Hans
Reinhardt’s 3rd panzers can advance eastward toward Klin. Erich Hoepner’s 4th panzers made slow progress
most of last week until near the end of it when they advanced around 20 km by hitting
the Soviets right between the 30th and 16th armies. On the 24th, Klin falls to Reinhardt and Solnechnogorsk
falls to Hoepner, and Red Army Commander Georgy Zhukov’s right flank is in great danger. Advance German units soon cross the Volga-Moscow
Canal at Dimitrov and Yakhroma. When the village of Peshki, falls and the
Soviets pull back to Kryukovo, General Konstantin Rokossovsky gets the order, “Kryukovo is
the final point of withdrawal. There can be no further falling back. There is nowhere to fall back to.” The canal is now the last big obstacle before
Moscow is surrounded from the north. On the morning of the 28th at the end of the
week, Reinhardt’s panzers are not more than 35 km from the Kremlin and the officers can
see its spires in their field glasses. As for Heinz Guderian’s advance around Moscow
from the south. On the 25th, the Soviets are pushed back to
Pianitsa, a few miles from the River Oka bridge at Kashira. Venev falls, and should Kashira fall, the
road to Moscow is open. Major-General Pavel Belov’s cavalry corps
heads for Kashira and his orders received at the post office where he sets up his HQ,
orders from Zhukov over the phone, are, “Restore the situation at any cost.” Until 1500 the 26th he thinks the Germans
can beat them, but they have halted at Pianitsa. Belov is in direct contact with both Zhukov
and Stalin. He plans a counter attack for 0900 the 27th. By then he’s been reinforced with a Katyusha
regiment, a tank brigade and two tank battalions, a rifle division, and even some militia. When his counter attack begins, the Germans
are pushed back, relieving the pressure on Tula as the week ends. And even further to the south, things are
not going so well for the Germans this week either. They are holding off the Soviet 37th army,
but the 56th and the 9th now crash right into them from east and south. The southern flank of the Germans is the River
Don, but the Soviets attack right across it over a km of ice. The 24th, the Germans begin to evacuate Rostov
because of Soviet counterattacks. This was AG South Commander Gerd von Rundstedt’s
initiative, but has actually been expressly forbidden by Hitler. On the 28th, the Red Army reoccupies Rostov. This is the first major setback the Germans
have had on the eastern Front, 161 days after the opening of hostilities. As the week ends, the Red Army is clearing
the city. There’s also a bit of “brighter” news
for the USSR up in the north. Leningrad has been under siege since September
and starvation has become a major issue, with several hundred people dying each day. But starting the 22nd, they receive at least
a bit of relief. That day 60 trucks leave Kobona and following
tracks laid down by sledges, cross the frozen waters of Lake Ladoga with 33 tons of flour. One truck- and its driver- goes through the
ice. Six crossings are made over the course of
the week, bringing a total of 800 tons of flour. However, 40 more trucks are lost through the
ice, and the Germans are shelling the road to the lake. Also, 350 trucks are abandoned in snow drifts,
but there are around 2,500 trucks working this week, giving the city a tiny lifeline. Most of the world was super surprised when
Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and there are now people trying to make sure they don’t
get hit by any other military surprises. On the 24th, the US War Department warns all
US commanders in the Pacific of the possibility of surprise aggressive movement by the Japanese
in any direction, including against American possessions the Philippines and Guam. The next day, American Chief of Naval Operations
Harold Stark tells Husband Kimmel, Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, that FDR and SoS
Cordell Hull would not be surprised if the Japanese launch a surprise attack somewhere,
and in fact Japanese troop transports are spotted off Formosa this day making for British
Malaya. Stark thinks if they attack the Philippines
it would be embarrassing, but he thinks they’ll likely try to take the Burma Road, the main
supply route for Chiang Kai-shek and the Chinese Nationalist Army, which would help Japan’s
ongoing war against China. Kimmel has been talking to Walter Short, in
charge of the defenses on Hawaii, about reinforcing Wake and Midway Islands, timing the operation
with the next one of the reinforcement flights of B-17s to the Philippines in early December
so they can have some fighter protection and so it doesn’t look so much like they're
just heavily reinforcing the Philippines. Which they very much are. The US has cracked a Japanese diplomatic code,
as we’ve seen, though none of the naval codes, so they know that the Japanese have
a deadline of the 29th… for something after which “things will automatically begin to
happen. But what things? To break off relations with someone? To commit to war? Against whom? And where? That day, Hawaiian time, the Kido Butai, the
world’s largest carrier fleet, and 27 other ships, sails from Northern Japan making its
way to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. It is already November 26th in Japan. On the 26th in Washington, Hull gives Japanese
Ambassador Nomura what will be known as the “Hull Note”. This says a lot of things, which you should
look up and read, and is a response to the two Japanese proposals received this month. It unequivocally says that Japan must withdraw
all military forces from China and Indochina if they wanted the embargo against them lifted
and Japanese assets in the US un-frozen. There are those who call this al ultimatum,
but it isn’t- it has no timetable for when anything should happen, and absolutely doesn’t
have any “or else” anywhere. Let’s also be clear, it does not say anything
that Hull has not already said a half dozen times the past few months. In September, he told former Japanese PM Fumimaro
Konoe that pulling out of Indochina was a pre-condition for any negotiations. As we saw, Konoe tried to persuade Army Minister
Hideki Tojo to go along with this, but Tojo was adamant that they were headed for war. Tojo is now PM, so that hasn’t changed. On the 27th, the War Department writes to
General Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines, “Hostile action possible at any moment. If hostilities cannot be avoided, the United
States desires that Japan commits the first overt act.” That day Stark issues to all commanders in
the US Asian and Pacific Fleets a warning of a state of war. And here are some notes to end the week. On the 22nd in the South Atlantic, the German
commerce raider Atlantis is sunk by the British cruiser Devonshire. Atlantis has been Germany’s most successful
commerce raider of the war, sinking over 140,000 tons of Allied shipping. On the 25th comes the 5th anniversary of the
anti-Comintern Pact and it is now extended. The previous signatories sign it again- Germany,
Japan, Italy, Hungary, Spain, and the Japanese puppet regime in Manchukuo. Wang Jingwei’s Nanjing Chinese government
joins already the 22nd, and Bulgaria, Denmark, Croatia, Romania, Slovakia, and Finland sign
on on the 25th. And at the end of the week on the 28th- although
for all intents and purposes the East Africa campaign ended many months ago, General Guglielmo
Nasi and his 22,000 Italians surrender at Gondar to the Allies and Mussolini’s East
African Empire has ceased to exist. And this week is now also finito. The Germans are drawing ever nearer to Moscow,
but it’s getting harder and harder. Do they have the strength to finish the job? The Allies and Axis in North Africa have both
made bold strokes this week, but victory is uncertain for either side. And uncertainty is what everyone feels about
Japan. They haven’t been able to keep troop movements
around the South China Sea secret, so writing is kinda on the wall that they’re going
to attack someone. But are they going for oil? Or are they going for tin and rubber? Those would be different targets. Or the Burma Road? Really tough one to try to guess. I mean, Japan’s war in China is well over
four years old now and is pretty much a stalemate so maybe they’ll move against the Dutch
East Indies to get oil. That would bring them into a war with Britain,
of course, but British hands are pretty full warwise these days so that might work out. But that would mean sailing all those troops
right past the Philippines and all those B-17 bombers the Americans have there. The US is neutral, sure, but would you risk
it? But I mean, Japan doesn’t want to be at
war with China, Britain, and the US at the same time. That would just be crazy… yeah, crazy. The Hull Note was the US finally having enough
of negotiations that went nowhere. If you’d like to learn more about Cordell
Hull, the face of American diplomacy during these months, check out our WW2 Biography
special on him right here. Our Timeghost Army member of the week is Przemek
DyĹ›. It is thanks to members like Przemek DyĹ›
that we can document the world at war the way we do. So head over to TG.tv or patreon.com to join
the war effort. Don’t forget to subscribe and ring that
bell; see you next time.
(add-on to Indy's)
November 22 - In North Africa, Panzer Regiment 8 moving north to join up the 21st Panzer division at Sidi Rezegh bumps into the 8th Hussars and in three hours destroys its tanks (M3 Stuarts), and most of the rest of it as well. In further action, the Germans attack on the 5th South African Brigade is repulsed with heavy German tank losses.
24th - Japanese General Okamoto of the foreign armies section asks Germany's Ambassador to Japan Ott to ask Ott if he thought that if the Germans would go to war with the US if Japan and the US went to war. Ott sent the question to Ribbentrop, but there's no record of a reply (see November 28th.)
The "War Warning" is sent to US Pacific commands today is the second such a message in the last six weeks.
25th - With no agreement with the US, the six-carrier IJN task force commanded by Admiral Nagumo sails from its forward base at Hitokappu Bay, in the Kurile Islands. The attack is given the designation "Operation Z." A weather system with low clouds allows the Japanese to be satisfied that they cannot be spotted by any patrolling US aircraft while in transit nearly to their launch point, and while stopped for refueling.
Also departing, from Kure, are five fleet submarines, each carrying a Type A midget submarine. These are intended to sneak into Pearl Harbor and sink whatever they can.
Hitler expresses himself concerned about the weather in Russia. "We started a month too late," he says. "The ideal solution would be the the fall of Leningrad, capture of the southern area, and then, in that event, a pincer attack on Moscow from south and north together with a frontal assault." Pretty odd words from a man who oversaw pretty much everything *but* what he now says he wanted.
Goebbels is called by Fuhrer HQ and told to go easy on propaganda about winter clothing for the upcoming winter in the East.
Five trains leave from the German cities of Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Breslau - their passengers are all Jews. Their destination is Kowno in Lithuania, after their original destination, Riga, had not completed the camps intended for them.
26th - The US Shanghai Consulate reports to Washington that Japanese transports continue to be loaded, including with bridging equipment, and landing craft. Clearly, some sort of amphibious action is in the cards.
27th - USN Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor is ordered to deliver aircraft to Midway and Wake Islands. This turns out to be very fortuitous, as the Enterprise (Wake Island aircraft mission) and Lexington (Midway aircraft mission) will each be out of port delivering aircraft on December 7th. (Saratoga, the other Pacific carrier, is in San Diego taking on aircraft after an overhaul on the West Coast. CV's Ranger, Wasp, and Yorktown, plus Long Island are all in the Atlantic Fleet, USS Hornet, though in commission, has yet to take her "shakedown cruise."
A "War Warning" is sent to US Pacific Commands. This is the third in six weeks, and the second in three days.
28th - Japanese Ambassador to Germany Oshima asks Ribbentrop point-blank if the Germans would help Japan if Japan and the US went to war. Ribbentrop assures him of Germany's support, but asks Hitler for instructions before making any binding promises. Hitler is in the East inspecting; he will not return before December 4th.
USS CV Enterprise leaves Pearl Harbor to deliver aircraft to Wake Island.
Hitler orders a withdrawal from Rostov (which has already been going on) far enough to allow the Luftwaffe to bomb the city to ashes. He expresses the wish to never have to capture a major city, because of the problem of feeding the women and children. He says he doesn't need to take Moscow at all, and indeed most of the Russian industry for war has already been captured, so they are no danger in the long term. He seems unaware of the massive (and successful) Soviet program to move most of the critical industries to and beyond the Urals.