Australia, Politics

Prime Minister Menzies resigns. Arthur Fadden takes over.

Baltic Sea

Several Soviet ships are lost due to German mining operations. The Soviet destroyers Kalinin and Artem both sink on mines off Cape Juminda. The Soviet destroyers Skory and Volodarski both sink on mines off Seiskaari. The destroyers Leningrad and Minsk are both damaged by mines off Tallinn.

Battle of the Atlantic

• British forces capture U-571 which later becomes the HMS Graph.
• U-558 sinks the British steamer Otaio (10,298t) from Convoy OS-4 330 miles northwest of Fastnet Rock with the loss of 13 of her crew. 58 survivors are picked up by the British destroyer Vanoc.

Eastern Front

In the northern sector, the Germans complete their mopping-up operations in Estonia and continue their pressure on Leningrad.

The Soviets evacuate their garrison, X Rifle Corps, from Tallinn by sea. Several convoys attempt to get through to Kronstadt but losses to mines and air attacks are very severe on both days. Almost all the transports are sunk, along with many of the escorting vessels from the Baltic Fleet. The next day the Finnish forces farther north take Viipuri. The Finns are preparing to halt their advance when they reach their frontier positions. This decision will contribute much to the Soviet ability to defend Leningrad.

The Soviets announce that the great dam over the Dniepr at Zaporozhye has been destroyed to keep the Germans from using it to their benefit.

Gerasimov is ordered to pull 23rd Army units close to Viipurii back to the Mannerheim Line.

Bitter battles rage inside Tallinn as the Germans press closer to the port, destroying isolated Soviet units as they advance. During the day the Soviets move their ships out of the harbor, beginning the hazardous journey east to Leningrad. By dusk the last elements that can escape have boarded their ships.

Reinhardt's XLI Panzer Corps takes Ishora, only a few miles short of the suburbs of Leningrad.

The 16th, 19th and 20th Armies launch attacks along the line from Dukhovschina to Yartsevo.

The right wing of the Southwest Front launches a strong counterattack against the XXIV Panzer Corps on the Desna.

After a prolonged fight, the 12th Army falls back from Zaporozhe. As the Soviets withdraw, engineers destroy the hydroelectric dam and disable the generators, denying them to the Germans and flooding large areas to the south of the town.

With the battle for the Dniepr line under way, Rundstedt orders the 1st Panzer Group to gain as many crossings over the river as possible, 6th and 17th Armies being tasked to do the same.

Japan, Policy

Japan delivers a note to the US 'to give broad assurances of its peaceful intent, including a comprehensive assurance that the Japanese government has no intention of using without provocation military force against any neighboring nation.'

Training in the Jungles of Malaya

A demonstration of British troops' preparedness for jungle warfare in Malaya. Men of the Manchester Regiment with a Vickers water cooled machine gun.The reliable Vickers gun dated from the First World War but was used until after 1945. In military circles the probability of the Japanese extending their aggression in the Far East was well understood. In Thailand British officers were posing as tourists to reconnoiter the region – and were staying in the same hotels as Japanese officers doing exactly the same thing. At least some of the British army in Malaya were becoming familiar with the terrain.

Mediterranean

The British submarine Rorqual sinks the Italians steamer Cilicia (2747t) south of Pantelleria.