http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/nov41/f03nov41.htm
Germans 100 miles east of Leningrad
Monday, November 3, 1941 www.onwar.com
Germans troops battling along a railway lineOn the Eastern Front... In the Leningrad area, German forces of Army Group North continue to attempt to isolate the city by taking Tikhvin a railway center 100 miles east of the city. Fighting is fierce and the Soviet counterattacks are ineffective. Further south, Kursk falls to German units at the junction of Army Group Center and Army Group South .
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/03.htm
November 3rd, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: Destroyer HMS Meteor launched.
Destroyers HMS Wheatland and Beaufor commissioned.
Escort carrier HMS Tracker laid down.
(Dave Shirlaw)
GERMANY:
U-755 commissioned.
U-200, U-229, U-669 laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.S.R.: German attacks continue in the Leningrad sector. Their goal is Tikhvin, 100 miles east of Leningrad. The Soviet counterattacks will be aimed at some of the strongest German positions.
Kursk falls to the Germans.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: British planes stage a series of attacks on Sicily.
JAPAN: Tokyo: Japan has one good reason for expansion in the Far East: oil. The country has been starved of oil since the USA decided in July, following the Japanese occupation of French Indochina, to extend the licensing of exports to Japan. It was not intended to ban oil exports to Japan, but US officials refused all applications to export oil and gas.
Roosevelt felt that to reverse the refusals would be a sign of weakness; since then the USA has operated a de facto embargo. With virtually no oil supplies of its own, Japan’s eyes are now firmly set on the oil-rich Dutch East Indies.
CANADA: Minesweeper HMCS Quatsino commissioned.
/Lt Latham Brereton ‘Yogi’ Jenson, RCN, was appointed to HMCS Ottawa, a River-class destroyer. ‘Yogi’ lived a charmed life during the Second World War: three times leaving ships, including the battlecruiser HMS Hood, just before their loss. He had many other harrowing combat experiences as well. His writing and drawings about life in the RCN during the inter-war and wartime eras are excellent descriptive works. His most recent work, Tin Hats, Oilskins, and Seaboots, was published in the summer of 2001. (Dave Shirlaw)
U.S.A.: A Joint Board meeting is held in Washington. Marshall states that there would only be sufficient B-17’s in the Philippines to “have a deterrent effect on Japanese operations.” The Joint Board concurred in opposing the State Department’s hard line towards Japan and advocated the US making minor concessions to buy time. (Marc Small)
Destroyers USS Mervine and Quick laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
WEST INDIES: HMS Indomitable is accidentally damaged while training. This carrier was scheduled to join HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse as the British Far East Fleet.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Convoy SC-52 was attacked by several U-boats.
U-202 sank SS Flynderborg and Gretavale in Convoy SC-52.
U-203 sank SS Gemsbuck and Everoja in Convoy SC-52.
(Dave Shirlaw)