Poster of the US Civil Air Patrol, WWII
80 Years Ago—Dec. 1, 1941: US forms Civil Air Patrol for civilian pilots to aid in Civil Defense.
Japanese Navy changes its communications code, blinding the US to its movements.
Japanese Ambassador Adm. Kichisaburo Nomura and Special Envoy Saburo Kurusu leaving US State Department, Washington, DC, 7 Dec 1941 (US National Archives: 12009100)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 30, 1941: An RAF Whitley damages German U-boat U-71 in the Bay of Biscay in the first use of air-to-surface radar.
Japanese Emperor Hirohito gives Prime Minister Tojo permission to wage war on the US; Tojo rejects US peace proposal.
Football program for the 1941 US Military Academy vs. US Naval Academy football game. On page 180 of the program is a bow view of the USS Arizona with text that says, “It is significant that despite the claims of air enthusiast no battleship has yet been sunken by bombs.” (Smithsonian Institute)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 29, 1941: Italians counterattack near Sidi Rezegh, Libya, and almost destroy New Zealand battalion.
Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia; Navy wins 14-6.
US Army Air Forces recruiting poster, 1942 (US Government Printing Office)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 28, 1941: USS Enterprise departs Pearl Harbor to deliver Marine F4F Wildcats to Wake Island, saving the carrier from the coming attack.
All resistance ends in East Africa as 20,000 Italians surrender to the British at Gondar, Ethiopia.
US Army maneuvers in North and South Carolina conclude.
Movie premiere of Abbott and Costello’s Keep ’Em Flying to coincide with War Department’s Keep ’Em Flying Week.
US 30th Division in Army maneuvers, Cheraw, South Carolina, 19 Nov 1941 (US Army photo)
Joe DiMaggio kissing his bat, 15 Dec 1941 (Library of Congress)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 27, 1941: US commanders warn land and naval forces of possible Japanese attacks on Hawaii, the Philippines, Malaya, or Dutch East Indies.
New song in Top Ten: “Chattanooga Choo Choo.”
Joe DiMaggio (New York Yankees) with 56-game hitting streak is voted American League MVP over Ted Williams (Boston Red Sox) with .406 batting average.
Sailors of Japanese carrier Zuikaku winching up the anchor, Itrup, Kurile Islands, 26 Nov 1941; en route to attack Pearl Harbor (Japanese government photo, public domain)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 26, 1941: Japanese fleet departs the Kurile Islands for the attack on Pearl Harbor.
US Secretary of State Cordell Hull submits final proposal for peace to the Japanese, demanding removal of all troops from China and Indochina.
Explosion on HMS Barham, 25 Nov 1941 (Imperial War Museum: 5608-07 FLM 1984)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 25, 1941: British battleship HMS Barham is sunk by U-331 off Bardia, Libya (862 killed), the only undamaged Allied battleship in the Mediterranean.
US rejects Japanese proposal and insists that Japan withdraw from Indochina and China.
In Berlin, Hitler meets with the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, agreeing on elimination of Jews.
In Berlin, six Axis nations renew the Anti-Comintern Pact (opposed to Communist International), and nine other nations sign, including Denmark—in Copenhagen, thousands protest the signing of the pact in the first major protests in occupied Denmark.
Erwin Rommel with the German 15th Panzer Division in Libya, 24 Nov 1941 (US National Archives: 242-EAPC-6-M713a)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 24, 1941: Two German POWs in Britain escape by forging papers & stealing an RAF plane, but are recaptured when they run out of fuel.
German Gen. Erwin Rommel splits Allied forces in Libya, but fails to advance.
Pieter Gerbrandy, Prime Minister of Dutch government-in-exile, London, 23 Sept 1941 (Dutch National Archives: 935-1713)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 23, 1941: US Army occupies Surinam (Dutch Guiana), with cooperation of the Dutch government-in-exile, to secure bauxite mines (aluminum).
First Soviet truck convoy crosses frozen Lake Ladoga to supply besieged Leningrad.
Werner Mölders, Jun-Jul 1941 (German Federal Archives, Bild 183-B12003)
80 Years Ago—Nov. 22, 1941: German auxiliary cruiser Atlantis is sunk in the South Atlantic by heavy cruiser HMS Devonshire after having sunk 22 Allied merchant ships.
Luftwaffe ace Werner Mölders is killed in a landing accident while a passenger on a German He 111 bomber, the first pilot in the world to achieve over 100 victories.
