Portraits of Stalin and Churchill hung in Brisbane, Australia in an event concerning Australian troops at Tobruk, 31 October 1941.
Battle of the Atlantic: U-552 (Kptlt. Erich Topp), on its sixth patrol out of St. Nazaire, is operating with Wolfpack Stosstrupp on 31 October 1941 and shadowing Convoy HX-156 southwest of Iceland and west of Eire. At 08:34, Kptlt. Topp fires two torpedoes at a warship guarding the convoy. At least one of the torpedoes hits the ship in the forward area and explodes. It is the USS Reuben James (DD-245, LtCdr Heywood Lane Edwards, USN), part of US Escort Group 4.1.3.
USS Reuben James sinks, 31 October 1941 (US National Archives).
The explosion, assisted by a magazine exploding within the Reuben James, breaks the ship's back. Both sections sink within five minutes, the forward section virtually immediately. As the stern section sinks, depth charges break loose and explode, killing men in the water. Seven officers - all aboard - and 90 enlisted men perish in the sinking (some sources say an even 100 are killed), and one of the 46 survivors (some say 45) succumbs to his wounds on 2 November. This is the first United States Navy ship lost in World War II and the sinking is quickly memorialized by Woody Guthrie in a popular song.
A Luftwaffe aerial reconnaissance map of the port of Sevastopol in the Crimea taken on 31 October 1941. General von Manstein's 11th Army nears the city on 31 October and effectively puts it under a state of siege. Many Red Army soldiers who escaped from Odesa are in Sevastopol. They are numerous but poorly armed following their seaborne escape (Federal Archives Bild 168-278-010).
Soviet Government: The Wehrmacht is within 200 km of the center of Moscow on three main axes of their attack on 31 October 1941 - from the northwest, west, and south - and Joseph Stalin faces a crisis. It is not the first crisis, and it will not be his last crisis, but if there is one thing that Stalin knows how to handle, it is a crisis. One word sums up Stalin's attitude to a crisis: ruthlessness. He has been ordering executions of top lieutenants, such as the elimination of his "Hero of the Soviet Union" former air force commanders on 28 October, but those were just the tip of the iceberg. A secret report today within the highest reaches of the Soviet government reveals just how ruthless Stalin can be.
USS Reuben James in Chinese waters before World War II. It was one of the "flush deck," "4-stack," "four-pipe" destroyers which started entering the US Navy during World War I. You can tell this is a pre-war photo, look how spotless the ship is (US Navy photo).
Major General Solomon Rafailovich Milshtein, chief of the Investigative Unit of the NKVD (Soviet state security apparatus, akin to the Gestapo and forerunner of the KGB), delivers the report to his superior, Lavrentiy Beria. Milshtein is one of Beria's closest associates, one who can be entrusted with the most sensitive reports. A Vilnius of humble means and Jewish descent, Milshtein met Beria when both joined the Transcaucasian Cheka during the early days of the Bolshevik Revolution. Beria had Milshtein control the railways and use them for such secret activities as the Katyn Forest massacre and other liquidations. The topic of Milshtein's report reflects one of Stalin's favorite paranoias: sedition and treason.
The report states that, from the start of the Russo-German war through 10 Oct 1941, 657,364 troops were arrested for falling back without authorization, 249,969 of whom by agents of the Special Department Directorate in the NKVD (UOO NKVD USSR, a predecessor of SMERSH) and 407,395 by other agents of NKVD. The majority of those arrested were returned to the front, but 10,201 were executed. To set an example, 3,321 of those executed were done so in front of their units.
As the NKVD man in charge of the railways, Milshtein would have supervised industrial evacuation trains such as this one from Leningrad in 1941.
Beria's and Milshtein's influence grows throughout 1941 and 1942. Stalin is convinced during these years that his Red Army soldiers are disloyal, from the very bottom ranks to the very highest. For instance, he questions why so many tanks break down, something he attributes to sabotage rather than inferior Soviet manufacturing processes. While the NKVD is active at all times in the Soviet state, it gains particular supremacy in those areas designated as in a state of emergency. That covers broad swathes of the country in late October 1941, including Leningrad, Moscow, and the entire Crimea. In essence, Beria and Milshtein are running a ruthless police state at Stalin's orders and do it competently and without any recourse whatsoever for the victims.
U-83 during its second wartime patrol out of Brest. This patrol lasted from 28 September 1941 to 31 October 1941 under the command of Oblt. Hans-Werner Kraus. During this patrol, U-83 sank one Portuguese ship of 2044 tons, Corte Real, and damaged one ship of 6746 tons, Royal Navy fighter catapult ship HMS Ariguani (F-105). The Ariguani, wich U-83 torpedoed on 26 October, was protecting Convoy HG-75. While badly damaged and abandoned, the Ariguani refused to sink and ultimately was towed to Gibraltar. The Ariguani was decommissioned but later repaired and returned to service as a freighter in January 1944. U-83 was sunk on 4 March 1943. Incidentally, the photographer of this shot obviously was a brave man, many men were swept off the decks of U-boats in rough weather like this.
Japanese Military: Admiral Yamamoto has been having his subordinates draft a plan for an attack on Pearl Harbor since early September. Today, the Japanese High Command approves the plan. Negotiations with the United States continue, but Prime Minister Tojo is preparing for war with Emperor Hirohito's lukewarm approval.
Mount Rushmore is completed on 31 October 1941. This appears to be a photo of Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln.
American Homefront: Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota is dedicated on 31 October 1941 - Halloween. Conceived by Doane Robinson, the project was begun in 1927 and realized by Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln Borglum. Gutzon passed away in March 1941, and Lincoln put the finishing touches on it before operations halted for the winter. Due to a lack of funding and other issues, the project was terminated with some portions left uncompleted. However, the important parts - the Presidents' 60-foot tall faces - were what really mattered and they were completed to become an iconic image. The visitor's center which offers a view of the monument is named after Lincoln, who remained the memorial's first superintend until 31 May 1944 and who passed away on 27 January 1986. Incidentally, work continues sporadically on Mount Rushmore, with the Hall of Records being completed in 1998.
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