Timeline of World War II (1941) - November 1941

November 1941

• 1: President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces that the U.S. Coast Guard will now be under the direction of the U.S. Navy, a transition of authority usually reserved only for wartime.
• 2: Political conflict in Yugoslavia as leftists under Tito (Josip Broz) are in competition with the more conservative Serbs under Draža Mihailović.
• 3: Germans take Kursk.
• 6: Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule (the first time was earlier that year on July 2). He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a gross exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near.
• 7: Heavy RAF night bombings of Berlin, the Ruhr, and Cologne, but with heavy losses.
• 9: Force K the light cruisers HMS Penelope and HMS Aurora and destroyers HMS Lively and HMS Lance sank 7 merchant ships, a tanker, and 1 destroyer during the Battle of the Duisburg Convoy.
• 12: Battle of Moscow - Temperatures around Moscow drop to minus 12 °C and the Soviet Union launches ski troops for the first time against the freezing German forces near the city.
  : The HMS Ark Royal delivers a squadron of Hurricane fighter planes to Malta.
• 13: Germans start a new offensive against Moscow as the muddy ground freezes again.
  : The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal is torpedoed by the German submarine U-81 and sinks the following day.
• 15: The Germans drive on Moscow.
• 17: Joseph Grew, the United States ambassador to Japan, cables the State Department that Japan had plans to launch an attack against Pearl Harbor, Hawaii (his cable was ignored).
  : Ernst Udet, head of the Luftwaffe's Production and Development, commits suicide over his perceived inability to properly perform his mission.
• 18: Operation Crusader: British troops cross into Libya and at least temporarily relieve the Siege of Tobruk.
• 19: Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney and the German auxiliary cruiser Kormoran sink each other off the coast of Western Australia. All 648 crewmen are lost on HMAS Sydney.
• 22: Rostov-on-Don, an important hub on the southern front, is taken by the Germans.
  : Britain issues an ultimatum to Finland to end war with Soviet Union or face war with the Allies.
  : Rommel starts a counteroffensive, retaking Sidi Rezegh (south of Tobruk) which the British had taken a few days earlier. British tank losses are heavy.
• 23: Rommel's attack continues around Sidi Rezegh; British losses continue to rise.
  : America reaches an agreement with the Dutch government in exile whereby the Americans occupy Suriname to protect the bauxite mines there.
• 24: The United States grants Lend-Lease to the Free French.
  : Rommel begins a surprising 15-mile foray into Egypt; he meets no opposition.
• 25: U-331 sinks British battleship HMS Barham while covering Mediterranean convoys.
• 26: A Japanese attack fleet of 33 warships and auxiliary craft, including six aircraft carriers, sails from northern Japan for the Hawaiian Islands.
  : The Hull note ultimatum is delivered to Japan by the United States.
  : After his brief dash into Egypt, Rommel retreats to Bardia for refuelling; it is during this brief withdrawal that Tobruk is temporarily relieved when the British 8th Army meets with the besieged.
• 27: Battle of Moscow - German Panzers are on the outskirts of Moscow.
  : In Italian East Africa, the last Italian armed forces in East Africa surrender at Gondar.