Axis Diplomacy

Italy, which feels Japan is not carrying it weight in the Tripartite Pact, calls on the Japanese to go to war with Britain. Rome feels that it is unnecessary for Japan to attack Russia and that the US would not come to Britain's aid. They say, '... if Japan fails to fight now, no matter which side wins the loss to be sustained by Japan will be great.'

Eastern Front

The Germans occupy Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. 7 Soviet divisions are surrounded. In the Moscow sector the Vyazma and Bryansk battles continue. The Germans capture Orel, southwest of Moscow. In these engagements about 600,000 Soviet troops will be taken, along with massive quantities of equipment. The main German efforts are now in northeasterly attacks toward Tula and Kaluga in the south and Rzhev and Kalinin in the north. Heavy rain begins to fall along the front. The big German mobile formations begin to be slowed down by the rain and mud.

The Germans begin new attacks in the Valdai Hills, pushing east from Demyansk.

Around Bryansk, infantry and armor of the 2nd Panzer and 2nd Armies pound the 50th and 3rd Armies, which are ordered to break out to the east. Eremenko orders all his units to pull back by night to escape from the pockets. The 3rd and 50th Armies push 30 miles to the east. Fighting will continue for another two weeks, at the end of which the Bryansk Front will have been almost annihilated.

Advance party of a German Panzer division. Left a medium APC SdKfz 251, on the right a light SdKfz 250

Advance Unit of a German Panzer Division

Zhukov goes out to the West Front to establish just what is happening to the Soviet armies. He finds Koniev easily enough and is given details of the encirclement of the Russian armies at Vyazma and the envelopment of Eremenko to the south. Of Budenny's front, nothing is known. He tries to find the Reserve Front headquarters but when he does, Budenny is nowhere to be found.

The South Front is crushed on the Azov coast as the 1st Panzer Army launches concentris attacks upon the 18th ane 9th kArmies. Mariupol falls after bitter fighting, but despite the overwhelming German fire, small units of Soviet soldiers managed to slip through the pocket and escape to the east to fight another day. The weather, which has broken in the Ukraine on October 6, becomes worse and begins to affect the rate of Rundstedt's advance.

Mediterranean

• German bombing sinks the British steamer Rosalie Moller (3963t) in anchorage in the Suez Canal with the loss of 2 of her crew. The Australian sloop Parramatta rescues the survivors.
• The Italian steamer Paolo Z. Podesta (863t) is sunk by an attack from British 830 Squadron southwest of Favignana. She was part of a convoy heading for Tripoli.

Occupied Soviet Union

The liquidation of the Vitebsk Ghetto begins, the Germans using the pretext that epidemics have allegedly emantated from the place. Over the next three days 16,000 Jews will be taken to the Vitbe River, where they will be shot and their bodies thrown into the water.