World war II timeline - October 1941

1 October 1941	The U.S. Secretary of War requests that the U.S. National Academy of Sciences begin research on biological warfare.
2 October 1941	British Prime Minister Winston Churchill orders the planning of a British invasion of Norway.
3 October 1941	Adolf Hitler confidently tells the German people that the Soviet Union is virtually defeated.
5 October 1941	Soviet Premier Josef Stalin receives a radio message from spy Richard Sorge in Tokyo, Japan, that Japan would go to war with the United States soon. Stalin orders twelve divisions (1700 tanks, 1500 planes, 2,500,000 men) from eastern Siberia and Outer Mongolia to come to the defense of Moscow.
6 October 1941	A large pocket of about 100,000 Soviet forces surrender near Kharkov and the Donets river.
7 October 1941	Soviet forces in Vyazma and Bryansk pockets surrender. The first snow falls on the German/Russian front, but soon melts, followed by heavy rains.
8 October 1941	American orders are issued to US warships in the Atlantic, to destroy German and Italian sea or air forces encountered.
10 October 1941	Adolf Hitler issues Directive No. 37. The Army is to go on the defensive in Finland, and prepare to capture Murmansk next year. Winston Churchill appoints Captain Lord Louis Mountbatten as Director of Combined Operations, and instructs him to prepare for the invasion of Europe. Josef Stalin calls Georgi Zhukov back from Leningrad to direct the defense of Moscow.
11 October 1941	The Spanish Blue Division (Wehrmacht 250th Infantry Division) joins Army Group North, along the west bank of the Volkhov River in Novgorod.
15 October 1941	Submarine U-558 torpedoes and sinks Canadian merchant ship Vancouver Island in the North Atlantic. 65 crew members, eight gunners, and 32 passengers die. Atlantic Convoy SC-52 encounters a group of 20 submarines and turns back due to heavy losses.
16 October 1941	German Field Marshal Wilhelm Ritter von Leeb of Army Group North launches an offensive toward Kalinin and Tikhvin. In Japan, Prince Fumimaro Konoye resigns his cabinet. War minister General Hideki Tojo becomes new prime minister. Singapore Prime Minister Brooke-Popham reports to the Australian Advisory War Council that the aircraft at Singapore are superior to those of Japan, and that Japan is preoccupied with launching an attack on Russia, and hence would not be able to launch a large-scale attack to the south for the next three months. US Admiral Harold Stark, Chief of Naval Operations, sends a message to Pacific commands, warning of "grave situation" created by the fall of the Konoye Cabinet in Japan, that Japan might attack US and British territories.
17 October 1941	In the Soviet Union, German forces capture Odessa. A German submarine torpedoes destroyer USS Kearny, which was escorting a convoy. Eleven American sailors are killed. The ship limps to an American port. At a meeting of the British Defence Committee, Prime Minister Winston Churchill instructs Admiral Pound to plan to dispatch one modern battleship and an aircraft carrier to join the Repulse in the Indian Ocean. Anthony Eden informs the British War Cabinet that Britain should expect trouble from Japan in about three weeks.
18 October 1941	In Japan, the Tokko police arrest Richard Sorge, head of a Soviet spy ring in Tokyo.
19 October 1941	A state of siege is declared in Moscow.
20 October 1941	In Russia, German forces take Mozhaisk, forty miles from Moscow. Canada's prime minister William King and war ministers commit two battalions to the defence of Hong Kong. Soviet resistance surrounded in Bryansk ceases. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners are taken.
21 October 1941	Quote by Adolf Hitler: "when Russia collapses and England makes peace it would be only a nuisance to have Japan involved", regarding Japanese reluctance to join the war versus Russia.
24 October 1941	German forces capture Kharkov.
27 October 1941	The Winnipeg Grenadiers and Royal Rifles of Canada sail from Vancouver, British Columbia, heading to Hong Kong, on the military transport Awatea and destroyer HMCS Prince Robert. Russian convoys begin in the Pacific Ocean.
30 October 1941	A German submarine torpedoes American fleet oiler Salinas off the American east coast. The ship is able to limp to a port.
31 October 1941	German submarine U-562 torpedoes American destroyer USS Reuben James while escorting a British convoy west of Ireland. 115 Americans die.