NAZIS STRIKE BACK IN LIBYA; BOTH SIDES POUR IN INFANTRY; RUSSIANS GAIN NEAR ROSTOV (11/26/41)

Microfilm-New York Times archives, Monterey Public Library | 11/26/41 | Herbert L. Matthews, Daniel T. Brigham, C.L. Sulzberger, Charles Hurd, Bertram D. Hulen, more

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Advance on Moscow – Operations, 26 August-5 December 1941
North Africa, Auchinleck’s Offensive, 18 November-31 December 1941
The Mediterranean Basin
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – Major Japanese War Objectives and Planned Opening Attacks

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Due to the expanding amount of news I need to prepare for posting and the demands of my regular day job I am forced to curtail my excerpting from outside sources for the time being. I still plan to post from a new source that other readers might not have available, but any excerpts from “At Dawn We Slept,” “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich,” Churchill’s histories, and others will have to come from you all. I feel it is both educational and entertaining to have more complete and often more accurate later accounts of our continuing story presented to balance this “first draft of history,” as perceived by the New York Times.

And thanks to everyone for the enormous contributions you already make. This project wouldn't work without your participation.

Tank Fight Wanes – 2-3
Axis Sees British Blocked in Libya – 3
Libyan Offensive Viewed as Crucial – 3-4
The International Situation – 4
Donets Units Move – 4-6
The Day in Washington – 6
Stimson Charges Finns Hamper Aid – 6-7
Kurusu Parleys Reveal No Basis for Negotiations – 7
Bullitt is Named Near East Envoy – 7-8
British Make Sorties Into France; Keyes Says His Plan was Blocked – 8
Lewis for New NLRA (by Arthur Krock) – 9
Unemployment Study is Ordered by Lehman – 9
The Texts of the Day’s Communiques on the War – 10-11
Nazis Claim 4 Ships in a Speedboat Raid – 11
Japanese Flame Thrower vs. Chinese Walled Town (photo) – 11

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/nov41/f26nov41.htm

New Zealanders approaching Tobruk
Wednesday, November 26, 1941 www.onwar.com

In North Africa... The German panzer divisions engage in attacks on British position around Cauzzo and Sid Azeiz. British forces are regrouping in the Sidi Rezegh area and the New Zealand infantry is moving toward Tobruk. In response to this information, Rommel begins to move his tanks forces back in that direction.

From London... General Cunningham is relieved of command of the British 8th Army. General Ritchie will replace him, with the British Commander in Chief Auchlinleck overseeing tactical control.

From the Washington... President Roosevelt and Secretary Hull decide to present a 10 point note to the Japanese Government requiring their withdrawal from Indochina and China, and their recognition of the Chinese Nationalist Government. The tone of the note is uncompromising on these points, but promises to negotiate new trade and raw material agreements.

From Japan... The Japanese carrier force leaves its bases for Hawaii.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/26.htm

November 26th, 1941

UNITED KINGDOM: The British government presents Finland an ultimatum. Finland has to cease all offensive military operations by 3 December or His Majesty’s Government shall declare war. (Mikko Härmeinen)

Submarine HMS Pompon laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)
FRANCE: Paris: A attack is made with a revolver on a German sentry post.

GERMANY:
U-529 laid down.

U-174 commissioned.

Anti-Comintern Pact of Nov. 25, 1936, renewed for five years by Germany, Japan, Italy, Hungary, Spain, Manchukuo, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, Rumania, Slovakia, and Nanking regime in China.(Dave Shirlaw)

NORTH AFRICA: After two days of German attacks around Capuzzo and Sisi Aziz, Rommel recognizes the gathering of British Armour at Sidi Rezegh and the continued movement of the New Zealand Division toward Tobruk. He begins moving his forces back there.

General Cuningham is relieved of command of the British 8th Army. General Ritchie takes over.

JAPAN: Japanese military leaders confer on Formosa to complete plans for the invasion of the Philippines. (Marc Small)
The Japanese naval carrier forces bound for Pearl Harbor sail.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: 34th Pursuit moves from Nichols to Del Carmen. (Marc Small)

Brereton returns to Clark AAF from his tour of Australian sites. (Marc James Small)

CANADA:
Corvettes HMCS Halifax and Weyburn commissioned.

Minesweeper HMCS Miramichi commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)

U.S.A.: 11 pm (9:00 am Washington time) Stimson called Roosevelt to draw his attention to an intelligence report that the Japanese had sent five divisions by sea from Formosa to the south.

Marshall stated at a conference that war could be expected by March.

Navy Department advises Hart that war is impending.

Cordell Hull replies to Japanese proposal Plan B with an American counter-proposal.

Destroyer USS Killen laid down. (Dave Shirlaw)

[hinckley buzzard]

This time frame was a critical turning point in the war. If Hitler, instead of launching Barbarossa, had devoted his troops to throwing the allies out of North Africa completely, which he could have done, the war would have gone very differently.

The millions of troops he sent eastward to Russia would have easily destroyed the allies as a fighting force in Africa, probably knocking Britain out of the fighting. Churchill said as much to Roosevelt. That is how important the often underplayed African campaign was to the overall war effort.

Hitler's obsession with Russia, which cost him millions of troops and weaponry, was a fatal flaw which enabled the allies to prevail in Africa and defeat the Axis Powers' hopes of ultimate victory in Europe.

[dfwgator]

Hitler's obsession with Russia, which cost him millions of troops and weaponry, was a fatal flaw which enabled the allies to prevail in Africa and defeat the Axis Powers' hopes of ultimate victory in Europe.

Hitler didn't have much of a choice, he had to attack Russia before Russia became powerful enough to launch an offensive strike of their own, which would have probably happened by 1943. That's why Stalin tried not to provoke Hitler until then, even when he suspected the Nazis would strike in 1941.

[PAR35]

Units of the 36th division, en route to the far east, were two days out from Pearl on Nov. 26 when the ship went on blackout and radio silence and the troops were told to expect a Japanese attack at any time.

After departing Hawaii, the convoy was routed south to Australia instead of west, so that it would not run into the approaching Japanese fleet.

Given the posts you’ve supplied, I don’t understand how anyone could say with a straight face that the high command was not aware that an attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent.

[beebuster2000]

i dont know what you mean by “high command”, but no, the senior commanders at Pearl and Washington were not aware that a Pearl attack was imminent. They believed that IJN would attack somewhere, but they didnt know where and they seemed to have thought that Pearl was the least likely target because it was viewed as an impregnable fortress and the chance of an attack transiting undetected was nil. So they alerted everyone with “war warnings” which werent very useful since everyone got them.

I ll post some stuff from “at dawn we slept” as we get closer, but like 9-11, there were plenty of “dots” that could have, but were not, connected.

[CougarGA7]

• Hull, against army and naval advise to delay the commencement of war with Japan for at least three months, rejects Japan's latest peace proposal with a regid ten-point counter proposal that would almost certainly mean war.

• The Pearl Harbor task force leaves its anchorage on the southern coast of Etorofu in the Kurile Islands.

[fso301]

Due to the expanding amount of news I need to prepare for posting and the demands of my regular day job I am forced to curtail my excerpting from outside sources for the time being. I still plan to post from a new source that other readers might not have available

I hope this doesn't mean the NYT articles are coming to an end?

[Homer_J_Simpson]

I hope this doesn't mean the NYT articles are coming to an end?

Not if I can help it. I see posting Times articles as my primary task here. If I don't have time for anything else I want to ensure I can still do that.

[henkster]

Gator is correct. Hitler’s launching of Barbarossa was more or less a pre-emptive strike, or as I like to say, a strategy of “hit back first.”

If Germany was going to fight the USSR, there was never going to be a better time than the summer of 1941. The Wehrmacht was at the peak of its power, and the Red Army was at its nadir, but recovering quickly. And Stalin did indeed intend to start extorting concessions out of Hitler, but no sooner than 1942 when he figured his forces would be more prepared for war.

Hitler’s problem was logistics; the USSR was simply too big to be defeated and occupied in one campaign season. The Germans needed to plan for at least a two-year campaign, with a winter operational pause.

They didn’t, and now we are going to see how that worked out.

[BroJoeK]

PAR35: "Units of the 36th division, en route to the far east, were two days out from Pearl on Nov. 26 when the ship went on blackout and radio silence and the troops were told to expect a Japanese attack at any time..."

You are referring to the "Vacant Seas Order" which Stinnett discusses at some length, and for which I've not seen an adequate explanation.

Admiral Kimmel's major fleet training Exercise 191, beginning November 21, also included in it's operation order the warning that hostile warships might be discovered at any moment.
The code signal for such an encounter was:

"EASY CASE EASY"

Kimmel's exercise, planned to run from November 21 to 25, centered on exactly the point north of Oahu, the Prokofiev Seamount, from which the Japanese launched their attacks, two weeks later.

PAR35: "Given the posts you’ve supplied, I don’t understand how anyone could say with a straight face that the high command was not aware that an attack on Pearl Harbor was imminent."

There is no evidence Kimmel himself knew the attack was coming, just the opposite, he manifestly did not know.
Evidence suggesting that others in Hawaii and/or Washington knew or suspected is, ahem, er... disputed, not least by Free Republic's own CougarGA7, LS and henkster.

[PAR35]

There is no evidence Kimmel himself knew the attack was coming

Kimmel wasn't high enough up the food chain to be in on the secret. He (and Short) were convenient scapegoats.

In Roosevelt's defense, as a former Navy Secretary, he probably really thought that the Battleships could survive the attack. He knew the carriers couldn't, and he arranged for them to be out of the line of fire. The land based aircraft were a mix of old and new, and were probably considered expendable.

[CougarGA7]

Evidence suggesting that others in Hawaii and/or Washington knew or suspected is, ahem, er... disputed, not least by Free Republic's own CougarGA7, LS and henkster.

What are to trying to infer that I'm saying? I think I've been pretty clear throughout but with your propensity to misinterpret what I say or intentionally try to put words in my mouth I want to know specifically what you think I've been saying about this evidence.

[henkster]

I’ve already posted my responses.

[CougarGA7]

Honestly so have I. I just can’t help but wonder sometimes if we are dealing with someone suffering from aphasia or something because the lack of comprehension is stunning.

[BroJoeK]

BJK: "Evidence suggesting that others in Hawaii and/or Washington knew or suspected is, ahem, er... disputed, not least by Free Republic's own CougarGA7, LS and henkster."

CougarGA7: "What are to trying to infer that I'm saying?"

Answer: Evidence suggesting that others in Hawaii and/or Washington knew or suspected is, ahem, er... disputed, not least by Free Republic's own CougarGA7...

Seems to me that word "disputed" is a 100% accurate term, and certainly more neutral to you and others than such possible alternative words as "denied", or "explained away" or "brushed aside" or "attacked with ad hominems", etc., etc.

But, by all means, feel free to correct it -- if you dislike the word "disputed", or wish to cite some such evidence which is not disputed, then by all means do so.

CougarGA7: "I think I've been pretty clear throughout but with your propensity to misinterpret what I say or intentionally try to put words in my mouth I want to know specifically what you think I've been saying about this evidence."

I'd say any claims about such an alleged "propensity" are grossly exaggerated, and unnecessary when a simple explanation would serve the purpose, FRiend. ;-)

[CougarGA7]

Funny. You didn’t answer my question.