http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/oct41/f11oct41.htm
Soviets evacuate women and children
Saturday, October 11, 1941 www.onwar.com
In the Soviet Union... The mass evacuation of women and children from Moscow begins. Thousands of workers and students are employed in digging anti-tank ditches on the outskirts of the city.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/11.htm
October 11th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Albrighton launched. (Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY: Berlin: Don’t listen to foreign broadcasts the German people are warned today by Goebbels. He is reported by Berlin Radio to have said: “It is not a question of being afraid to here what they say. It is simply a preventative measure. Germs are treacherous enemies, even of a healthy people.” One result, he adds, is too much grumbling.
U-470, U-668 laid down.
U-439 launched.
U-209 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: Kaluga falls to the Germans in their advance on Moscow. Bryansk is evacuated by the Russians as the German pincers contract.
Archangel: PQ-1, the first convoy bringing much-needed supplies to help the Russian war effort here, arrived today. It sailed from Hvalfjord in Iceland on 28 September escorted by the cruiser HMS Suffolk, two destroyers and an anti-submarine group. Depending on the ice conditions, convoys using this route may have to travel up to 2,000 miles, frequently on stormy seas and in freezing temperatures.
Convoys on this route have to take an oil tanker along with them to fuel the escorts. This means working to a complicated schedule so that the tankers can return safely with the westbound convoys which will be designated QP. Efforts were made to establish a refuelling base for the route on the Norwegian island of Spitzbergen.
Rear-Admiral Philip Vian took two cruisers and two destroyers there on 27 July, but he found it too exposed to German air attack to be safe as a port of call.
The second PQ convoy is due to leave next week. By the time it arrives here the winter freeze will have begun. The Russians are hoping to keep the port open throughout the winter, but the Allies are nervous of risking valuable ships sailing hazardously through the narrow channels in the ice. They may have to divert to Murmansk.
Soviet submarine SC-322 reported missing. All hands lost. (Dave Shirlaw)
CANADA: Corvettes HMS Nanaimo and Lethbridge departed as close escort for the Sydney, Nova Scotia to Liverpool 31-ship convoy SC-49 as far as Iceland. Both ships were Flower-class corvettes. SC-49 arrived safely in Liverpool, on 27 Oct 41. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: Les Brown and his Orchestra’s record of “Joltin’ Joe DiMaggio” with vocal by Betty Bonney makes it to the Billboard Pop Singles chart. This is the first of his records to make the charts and it stays there for 3 weeks and rises to Number 16. (Jack McKillop)