World war II timeline - August 1941

4 August 1941	A large pocket of about 100,000 Soviet forces surrender in Uman.
7 August 1941	Soviet President Josef Stalin becomes Supreme Commander of Soviet Armed Forces.
8 August 1941	Three or more Soviet I1-4 bombers make Russia's first air raids on Berlin.
9 August 1941	The Japanese high command formally endorses the "Go South" strategy, to strike south into the weakly defended islands with valuable natural resources. (If Japan had struck north, a likely outcome is that Russia would have been defeated, the United States would not have been attacked, and Britain would have been defeated.) At Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt meet on cruiser Augusta over four days. (Their meeting is called the Atlantic Conference.)
12 August 1941	54 British Blenheim bombers attack power stations near Cologne. Due to their success, power output is reduced by 10 percent for nine days. Nine planes are shot down. Wilhelm Keitel issues a supplement to Directive No. 34. Forces in the south-east are to press ahead against forces west of the Dnieper river, and to occupy the Crimean peninsula, Donets area, and Kharkov industrial area. Central forces are to hold position but assist on north and south flanks.
14 August 1941	US President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill create the Atlantic Charter, the basis for their wartime alliance. They pledge that they seek to gain no territory, they desire no territory changes outside of the choices of people, they respect the right of people to choose their own form of government, and that sovereign rights are to be restored and self-government given to those forcibly deprived of it. D.M. Butt, of the British War Cabinet Secretariat, completes an analysis of 630 photos taken on bomber night operations. Overall, of aircraft recorded as hitting their targets, only one third had actually struck within five miles. Canada's Prime Minister William King and America's President Franklin Roosevelt negotiate a mutual defence pact.
17 August 1941	Russian army abandons Black Sea ports.
20 August 1941	The Spanish Blue Division (Wehrmacht 250th Infantry Division) is sent from Germany to Poland.
21 August 1941	Adolf Hitler decides against concentrating attacks on Moscow, and orders central forces south to help capture Kiev.
23 August 1941	Japanese Kwantung Army officials and senior Japanese Army officials decide to not fight the USSR.
25 August 1941	Allied forces land on Spitsbergen, Norway. Canadian and Norwegian forces destroy the Spitsbergen coal mines, denying 500,000 tons of coal to Germany. The local Russian and Norwegian population is evacuated. British and Soviet forces occupy Persia.
26 August 1941	Six British Blenheim bombers set out for Heligoland, as a diversion while others attack German shipping. Four planes are shot down. In Canada, a Privy Council order calls for the establishment of an experimental offensive chemical warfare station in Suffield, Alberta, and for the Chemical Warfare Laboratories in Ottawa to work on defence.   Dusko Popov, former spy of Germany, now double-agent for Britain, meets with US FBI Bureau Chief J. Edgar Hoover in Washington. Popov shows a German spy questionnaire, with a section asking detailed questions about Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, intended for Japanese intelligence use. Hoover ignores the information.
28 August 1941	Eighteen British Blenheim bombers attack Rotterdam port, hitting at least two ships, but eight planes crash.
30 August 1941	Convoy SC-42 of 62 merchant ships leaves Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada, headed for England. Five more ships join the convoy near St. John's, Newfoundland. The slow-moving convoy is escorted initially by only four Canadian warships: destroyer Skeena, and corvettes Orillia, Alberni, and Kenogami. (Before reaching England, fifteen ships of 70,000 tons will be sunk, one of the worst convoy losses of the war.)
31 August 1941	British Prime Minister Winston Churchill informs Australia of the intention to build a Far East fleet of capital ships by the end of the year, based within the triangle Aden - Singapore - Simonstown.