Battle of the Atlantic

The German supply ship Klar (7277t) is intercepted and sunk by the British light cruiser Kenya north of the Azores. 119 survivors in 4 lifeboats are picked up by U-129.

Eastern Front

In the northern sector the Germans take the defenses of Tsarskoe Selo (now Pushkin), near Leningrad.

In he central sector, the Soviet front at Bryansk, defended by the 43rd, 3rd, 50th and 13th Armies under the command of Timoshenko, begins to crumble. Two big pockets are formed north and south of Bryansk, while further north a third pocket is forming near Vyazma.

In the southern sector the German bridgehead at Dnepropetrovsk is strengthened.

A view of the destruction in Riga, the capital of Latvia, on October 3, 1941, after the wave of war had passed over it, the Russians had withdrawn and it was in Nazi hands.

Destruction in Riga

It is becoming apparent that the Red Army is having difficulty containing the impetus of TYPHOON as the 3rd Panzer Group and 9th Army reach the Dnieper River and the XXIV Panzer Corps rumbles into Orel. A counterattack by the Soviet 30th Army fails, as does an attack against the XLVII Panzer Corps at Seredina Buda. Eremenko requests permission to withdraw but is refused.[MORE]

Trainload of Men

This trainload of men was described by German sources as Soviet prisoners en route to Germany, on October 3, 1941. Several million Soviet soldiers were eventually sent to German prison camps, the majority of whom never returned alive.

Russian Weather Becomes an Issue

German soldiers struggle to free their vehicle from the mud during the German attack on the Soviet Union in 1941. Despite the early successes of Operation Barbarossa, the Germans were unprepared for the rigors of the Russian climate. They would be defeated in Russia as much by the weather as by the Soviet Armed Forces.

Germany, Home Front

In a speech at the Sportspalast Hitler announces that Russia 'has already been broken and will never rise again'. He tells the German people of the start, the previous day, of a great offensive on the Eastern Front. Goebbels announces that 1,500,000 children and 150,000 mothers have been evacuated from cities to safer areas.

Mediterranean

• The German steamer Yalova (3750t) which had been previously damaged by the British submarine Tetrarch on 28 September is sunk by the British submarine Talisman south of Piraeus.
• The Dutch submarine O-21 sinks the Vichy French steamer Oued Yquem (1369t) off Sardinia.

Occupied Czechoslovakia

Mayor Klapka of Prague is executed for alleged anti-Nazi activities.