A formal statement from Adolf Hitler claimed that the United States "has attacked Germany" and that Roosevelt had been placed before the "tribunal" for world judgment. Germany disputed the American account of the sinking of the Reuben James and claimed that a German submarine only attacked after American destroyers attacked German submarines first.[1]
German troops occupied Simferopol on the Crimean peninsula.[2]
Jews in Slovakia were required to travel in separate train compartments and send and receive letters marked with the Star of David.[3]
Viscount Halifax was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by isolationist women demonstrators in Detroit as he was leaving City Hall. Halifax was afterwards quoted as saying, "How fortunate you Americans are, in Britain we get only one egg a week and we are glad of those." The quote was actually fabricated by someone in the British Press Service, but it was widely disseminated in the media and created a burst of sympathy and goodwill towards the British and Halifax in particular.[8][9]
Joseph Stalin made a radio address broadcast worldwide declaring that Hitler's "crazy plan" to draw Britain and the United States into a coalition to destroy the Soviet Union had failed. Stalin said that a coalition of the United States, Britain and the USSR was "now a reality" and expressed his hopes that a "second front" would be established "in the near future."[12]
Between 15,000 and 18,000 Jews were taken to the Sosenki forest outside of Rovno and massacred over the next two days.[13]
Frostbite began to appear among German troops on the Eastern Front.[5]
The Soviet hospital ship Armenia was sunk by German bombers while evacuating civilians and wounded soldiers from Crimea. As many as 7,000 people were killed in the sinking, making it one of the worst maritime disasters in history.
In an important symbolic event, Soviet troops marched in Red Square to commemorate the anniversary of the October Revolution as per the annual tradition. Soldiers taking part in the parade marched straight on to the front line.[14]
The cargo ship MV Nottingham was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by German submarine U-74.
Senior commanders of the Japanese Army and Navy were informed that the start of war against Britain and the United States was tentatively set for December 8 (Japanese time).[16]
Winston Churchill declared that although he would view "with keen sorrow" the opening of a conflict between Japan and the English-speaking world, "should the United States become involved in war with Japan the British declaration will follow within the hour."[20]
German submarine U-580 sank in the Baltic Sea after a collision with the target ship Angelburg.
President Roosevelt gave an Armistice Day address at Arlington National Cemetery. "Our observance of this Anniversary has a particular significance in the year 1941," the president said. "For we are able today as we were not always able in the past to measure our indebtedness to those who died ... Whatever we knew or thought we knew a few years or months ago, we know now that the danger of brutality and tyranny and slavery to freedom-loving peoples can be real and terrible. We know why these men fought to keep our freedom - and why the wars that save a people's liberties are wars worth fighting and worth winning - and at any price."[21]
King George VI opened a new session of British Parliament. "The developments of the past year have strengthened the resolution of my peoples and of my allies to prosecute this war against aggression until final victory," his speech from the throne began.[23]
The Germans renewed the drive on Moscow after a three-week lull. The Soviets were pushed back from the Volga Reservoir north of the capital but with temperatures dropping to -20 Celsius across the Eastern Front, the German advance was very slow.[5]
German submarine U-583 sank in the Baltic Sea with no survivors after a collision with U-153.
German submarines U-173 and U-459 were commissioned.
The German Afrika Korps gave battle over a broad area around Sidi Rezegh.[24]
Talks opened in Washington, D.C. between U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull, Japanese ambassador Kichisaburō Nomura and special Japanese envoy Saburō Kurusu. The Japanese demanded that the Americans withdraw from China, lift all sanctions directed against Japan and halt the U.S. naval buildup in the Pacific.[27]
The British cargo ship Empire Dorado collided with the Greek cargo ship Theomitor in the Atlantic Ocean. Empire Dorado was taken in tow by a Royal Navy ship but sank two days later.
General Alan Cunningham ordered the British 70th Division to break out of its encirclement at Tobruk, which it managed to do after a hard day's fighting.[28]
The 7th Indian Brigade repulsed an attack by the German 5th Panzer Regiment at Sidi Omar, Libya. Meanwhile, Australian and New Zealand troops linked up at El Duda.[5]
The Germans withdrew from Sidi Rezegh, allowing the British 7th Armoured Division to retake the town.[5]
Chūichi Nagumo's aircraft carrier strike force headed for Pearl Harbor with the understanding that should "negotiations with the United States reach a successful conclusion, the task force will immediately put about and return to the homeland."[30]
Cordell Hull offered a counter-proposal to the Japanese demands, requiring Japan to recognize Chiang Kai-shek, withdraw from both China and French Indochina and to agree to a multinational non-aggression pact. The Japanese asked for two weeks to study the proposals.[27][4]
Lebanon was proclaimed independent by Georges Catroux, the Chief of Free French forces in the Levant. Allied countries would recognize this independence, although in practice Lebanon was still governed under French authority.[31][32]
American Admiral Husband E. Kimmel and Lieutenant General Walter Short were sent warning messages advising that negotiations with Japan had reached a stalemate and that Japan might take hostile action at any moment. The Philippines, the Kra Peninsula and Borneo were listed as among the potential sites of a Japanese attack, but Hawaii was not.[33]
The Australian sloop Parramatta was torpedoed and sunk off Tobruk by German submarine U-559.
^ abDoenecke, Justus D. (1990). In Danger Undaunted: The Anti-Interventionist Movement of 1940–1941 as Revealed in the Papers of the America First Committee. Stanford University Press. p. 44. ISBN9780817988418.
^"Bette Davis First Actress to Head Academy Group". Brooklyn Eagle. Brooklyn. November 7, 1941. p. 3.
^ abcdefKirchubel, Robert (2013). Operation Barbarossa: The German Invasion of Soviet Russia. Botley, Oxfordshire: Osprey Publishing. p. 11. ISBN9781782004080.
^Record, Jeffrey (2011). A War It Was Always Going to Lose: Why Japan Attacked America in 1941. Potomac Books. p. 91. ISBN9781597975346.
^ abTucker, Spencer C. (2010). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. ABC-CLIO, LLC. p. 1937. ISBN9781851096725.
^ abFord, Ken (2010). Operation Crusader 1941: Rommel in Retreat. Osprey Publishing. p. 10. ISBN9781846035005.
^Tomasevich, Jozo (2001). War and Revolution in Yugoslavia: 1941-1945. Stanford University Press. p. 272. ISBN9780804779241.
