Western part of Groningen, Netherlands hit by high explosive and incendiary bombs on Friday, 26 September 1941

Groningen, Netherlands Bombed

Battle of the Atlantic

• In attacks on Convoy HG-73 U-203 sinks the Norwegian steamer Varangberg (2842t), the British steamer Avoceta (3442t) and the British steamer Cortes (1374t) north of the Azores. The Varangberg loses 21 of her crew, 6 survivors are picked up by the British corvette Jasmine. 123 passengers and crew are lost on the Avoceta, 43 survivors are picked up by the Jasmine and the British steamer Cervantes. All 43 of the crew from the Cortes are lost.
• In more attacks on Convoy HG-73 U-124 sinks the British steamers Petrel (1354t), Lapwing (1348t) and Cervantes (1810t). 22 crewmen are lost on the Petrel, 9 survivors are picked up by a lifeboat from the Lapwing. The Lapwing loses 24 of her crew, 10 survive. 8 are lost from the Cervantes, 32 survivors are picked up by the British steamer Starling.
• The British steamer British Prince (4979t) is sunk by German bombing off Hornsea. The entire crew are rescued.
• U-66 sinks the Panamanian steamer I. C. White (7052t) in the South Atlantic with the loss of 3 crewmen. 34 survivors are picked up in 3 lifeboats over the next few days by the American steamers Delnorte and West Nilus.

Eastern Front

Hitler orders a halt in the offensive aimed at Moscow. He has refused his generals permission to concentrate their drive against the Russian capital preferring to take the Ukraine with all its resources. Hitler disparages their thinking by commenting, 'My generals know nothing about the economic aspects of war.'

The German drive east of Kiev is halted by seasonal rainstorms, the Rasputitsa.

Kulik abandons his attack at Sinyavino. For his failure and mismanagement, Kulik is recalled to Moscow and demoted, Khozin taking over control of the 54th Army.

The fighting in the Valdai Hills continues as the Soviets attempt to maintain the pressure on he 16th Army.

The Kiev pocket is destroyed, the last units of the 26th Army surrendering around Orzhitsa. Soviet losses are thought to exceed 665,000 captured and many thousands, possibly in excess of 100,000 killed, together with 400 tanks, 28,400 guns and mortars and 340 aircraft destroyed or captured. The Southwest Front alone reports 531,400 killed and missing and 54,000 wounded while the 6th and 12th Armies of the South Front record another 53,000 killed and missing plus 26,000 wounded.

The disaster at Kiev effectively destroys the Southwest Front, 5th, 21st, 37th and 26th Armies being annihilated and 40th and 38th severely mauled. The Southwest Front had been reduced to just 150,000 men. To the south, the LIV Corps manages to punch a hole through the Perekop isthmus defenses, capturing the town of Perekop. The fighting has been so severe the XLIX Mountain Corps is pulled back from the main front between the Dniepr and the Azov Sea to provide support to the exhausted LIV. This left the XXX Corps to hold the line from the Dniepr elbow to the Azov Sea, with only the Rumanian 3rd Army in support, a tenuous situation at best. To warn the Germans of the dubious fighting ability of the Rumanain divisions, an attack by the 9th and 18th Armies easily penetrate the front line, forcing Manstein to send part of the XLIX Moutain back to its originl positions.

Mediterranean

• Adm Iachino leads 2 battleships, 6 cruisers and 14 destroyers of the Italian Fleet out to intercept the ships in Operation Halberd. The remainder of the Italian Fleet stays in port, ostensibly because of fuel shortage.
• The British submarine Tetrarch sinks the Italian steamer Citta di Bastia (2499t) in the Aegean Sea. She was part of a convoy heading for Candia.

United States, Policy

The US naval command orders the protection of all ships sailing in US 'defensive' waters and the shadowing and, where possible, sinking of every Italian and German ship found in those waters.