Thursday 11 September 1941

Lindbergh America First speech, 11 September 1941 worldwartwo.filminspector.com

Charles Lindbergh gives a speech for the America First Committee in Des Moines, Iowa, 11 September 1941.

Eastern Front: In a curt, don't-bother-me-again reply to General Kirponos' 10 September 1941 request to withdraw from Kyiv, Joseph Stalin personally responds:

Do not abandon Kiev and do not blow up the bridges without Stavka permission.

The Soviet troops stay put even as the German panzers continue driving toward each other to the east to close an encirclement.

Battle of the Atlantic: On 11 September 1941, Kriegsmarine Wolfpack Markgraf, composed of 14 U-boats in a picket line, confronts Convoy SC-42 in the North Atlantic 100 miles southeast of Greenland. The convoy departed from Nova Scotia on 30 August 1941 bound for Liverpool.

It is a wild affair, with ships sinking all around, some on fire, and men in the water and in lifeboats. The action is confusing and so are the historical records, with different sources identify different ships sunk on different days. However, it is confirmed across all sources that September 10 and September 11, 1941, are horrendous days for Convoy SC-42.

U-82 (Kptlt. Siegfried Rollmann), on its first patrol out of Trondheim, is in the thick of it. It sank 7,465-ton British freighter Empire Hudson on the 10th, and today sinks three ships and seriously damages a fourth in quick succession just after midnight:

7519-ton British freighter Bulysses
3915-ton British freighter Gypsum Queen
1999-ton Swiss freighter Scania (damaged)
5463-ton British freighter Empire Crossbill

However, that is not the only punishment that the Wolfpack inflicts today.

Swedish freighter SS Garm, sunk on 11 September 1941 by U-432 worldwartwo.filminspector.com

Swedish freighter SS Garm, sunk on 11 September 1941 by U-432. There are six deaths from a crew of 20.

Three other U-boats get in on the action:

U-432 (Kptlt. Heinz-Otto Schultze) sinks 1231-ton Swedish freighter Garm
U-207 (Oberleutnant zur See Fritz Meyer.) sinks British freighters 4924-ton Berury and 4803-ton Stonepool

U-207's crew does not have very long to celebrate its two kills. Convoy escorts HMS Leamington and Veteran launch depth charges and sinks U-207. There are no survivors among the 41-man crew.

To add to the devastation, U-105 (Kapitänleutnant Georg Schewe) finds a convoy straggler 1549-ton Panamanian-flagged freighter Montana (a Panamanian flag generally indicates that it is a United States ship).

To date, Convoy SC-42 has lost 15 of its 65 ships. It still has a long way to Liverpool, too. However, as reinforcements, the Admiralty sends naval trawler Buttermere and Flower-class corvettes HMCS Wetaskiwin, HMCS Mimosa, and HMS Gladiolus from convoy HX 147 and the 2nd Escort Group consisting of the Admiralty type flotilla leader HMS Douglas (Commander WE Banks senior officer), the Town-class destroyer HMS Leamington, the V and W-class destroyer HMS Veteran and S-class destroyers HMS Skate and HMS Saladin. This armada guards Convoy SC-42 the rest of the way but SC-42 will lose yet another ship on the way to its destination.

A barrage balloon station in England, 11 September 1941 worldwartwo.filminspector.com

A barrage balloon station in England garrisoned by the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (AP Photo).

POWs: The commandant of Stalag 318 (later Stalag VIII-F and known as the "Russian Camp"), Colonel Falkenberg, notes on September 11, 1941:

These cursed Untermenschen [sub-humans] have been observed eating grass, flowers and raw potatoes. Once they can’t find anything edible in the camp they turn to cannibalism.

Hermann Goering hears of this comment and retells it, with some embellishments, often at parties.

Japanese Military: Emperor Hirohito takes personal command of the Japanese Imperial Army. This is merely a ceremonial command, but some analysts in the United States wrongly interpret this as a peaceful gesture.

Admiral Yamamoto and his staff continue planning the attack on Pearl Harbor as he begins ten days of meetings with the Imperial Japanese Navy's General Staff. The Japanese Combined Fleet conducts a training exercise in the North Pacific.

US Military: The ground-breaking ceremonies for the Pentagon building take place in Arlington, Virginia on a patch of farmland. It will take two years to build at a cost of $83 million. The Pentagon is planned to consolidate 17 War Department buildings into one complex. It has been ordered by Brig. General Brehon B. Somervell.

FDR giving a radio speech, 11 September 1941 worldwartwo.filminspector.com

President Roosevelt with Microphones, September 11, 1941 (NARA).

American Homefront: President Roosevelt gives a Fireside Chat on the sinking by a U-boat of USS Greer, a US Navy destroyer sunk near Greenland on 4 September 1941. The Germans claim that the Greer shot first and the U-boat reacted in self-defense. Roosevelt calls the incident an "outrageous" incident of "piracy" and recites a list of other grievances at sea against the Germans. FDR gives the U.S. convoy escorts the right to fire at submarines on sight. He cautions, however, against overreacting to these "acts of international lawlessness."

We have sought no shooting war with Hitler, we do not seek it now.

Roosevelt vows to keep open the seas "no matter what it costs" and likens U-boats to rattlesnakes.

At an American First Committee rally in Des Moines, Iowa, Charles Lindbergh accuses President Roosevelt and his administration of engaging "subterfuge" and using "dictatorial powers" to push his "war party" toward war. His most controversial remark, however, follows: