http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
September 3rd, 1941
GERMANY: U-225 is laid down. U-593 and U-594 are launched. U-702 is commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
NORWAY: SPITZBERGEN: An Allied task force has robbed the Nazis of their most northerly asset: the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen, 500 miles from the North Pole. The civilian population of 700 has been evacuated and valuable coal mines wrecked.
It was a piquant operation. No Germans were present as an invasion force of Norwegians, Canadians and British landed to take over the radio station. When it was clear that the soldiers were welcome the force commander, from Saskatchewan, made a formal landing from a small commando craft and soon afterwards, at a community centre, was greeted by the commissar (Norway allows the USSR to mine on the island) and handed gifts of Russian cigarettes.
At the Norwegian settlement of Svalbard nearby, a Norwegian major read a proclamation from the exiled King Haakon. For several days the invaders billeted cheerfully with the locals. Before the final evacuation of Norwegians and Russian miners, parties took place and a dance at which Norwegian girls danced with the soldiers.
POLAND: The first experimental mass killings with gas in Auschwitz. (Mikko Härmeinen)
Since the autumn of 1939 the Germans have used carbon monoxide to kill their incurable mental patients and other “undesirables.” Today Rudolf Hoess, the commandant here, tried out a new method.
He chose 600 Russian prisoners of war and 250 Jews from the infirmary to be his guinea pigs. Crammed into a cellar, they noticed that the windows had been blocked up. Suddenly the door opened and guards threw in a powder. Cyanide fumes filled the room and soon they were dead. The experiment was later judged a success.
The powder, Zyklon B, is crystalline prussic acid, supplied by a Hamburg firm under licence from the chemical giant IG Farben. It is usually used for killing rats.
U.S.S.R.: Moscow: All Russian men aged 18 or over are called up for military service.
CHINA: Chinese forces recapture Foochow from Japan.
U.S.A.: Heavy cruiser USS Canberra (ex Pittsburgh) is laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-567 sinks the Fort Richepanse. U-109 sinks SS Ocean Might in Convoy OS-37. U-107 sinks SS Hollinside and SS Penrose. (Dave Shirlaw)
“On September 3, 1941, around 600 Soviet prisoners of war and 250 sick Polish prisoners were gassed with Zyklon B at Auschwitz camp I; this was the first experiment with the gas at Auschwitz. The experiments lasted more than 20 hours.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B