World War II Database

• Home
• » Events
• » WW2 Timeline
• » 5 Oct 1941

• US and UK naval commanders met in Singapore. ww2dbase [CPC]
• Field Marshal Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist was named the commander of German 1.Panzerarmee. ww2dbase [Paul von Kleist | CPC]
• The German Second Panzer Group was reorganized as the Second Panzer Army; Heinz Guderian remained the unit's commanding officer. ww2dbase [Heinz Guderian | AC]
• A Blenheim bomber of No. 1404 Meteorological Flight of British RAF Coastal Command attacked German submarines U-563 and U-565 in the Bay of Biscay; a 250-lb bomb missed U-563 at about 1030 hours, and another 250-lb bomb hit the conning tower of U-565 at 1102 hours but it failed to explode. ww2dbase [CPC]

• Allied convoy SC-48 departed Sydney, Australia for the United States. ww2dbase [Sydney | CPC]

• Swordfish torpedo bombers of British No. 830 Squadron Fleet Air Arm based in Malta attacked an Italian convoy en route from Naples, Italy to Tripoli, Libya 67 miles north of Misrata, Libya, sinking tanker Rialto; the 145 survivors were rescued by Italian destroyer Gioberti. ww2dbase [Malta Campaign | CPC]

• The leading German formations reported that they were only about 100 kilometers from Moscow, Russia. On the same day, Moscow-based Soviet fighters discovered German vehicles as close as 50 kilometers from Moscow; when Moscow Military District's Air Force Fighter Command chief Nikolai Sbytov reported this to his supeiors, he was investigated by the NKVD for disseminating false rumors, but he was lucky that Joseph Stalin believed him. For precaution, Stalin ordered the Soviet Western Front to withdraw to Vyazma to form a new defensive line under a new commanding officer, Georgy Zhukov, replacing Ivan Konev. ww2dbase [Battle of Moscow | AC, CPC]

5 Oct 1941 Interactive Map