27 Monday
ATLANTIC. TU 4.1.6 (Commander George W. Johnson) screens convoy ON 28. During the day, destroyers DuPont (DD 152) and Sampson (DD 394) each carry out two depth charge attacks against suspected U-boat contacts.
Destroyer Hilary P. Jones (DD 427) is damaged by heavy seas while screening convoy HX 156.
29 Wednesday
ATLANTIC. TU 4.1.3 (Commander Richard E. Webb) escorts convoy HX 156; destroyer Hilary P. Jones (DD 427) carries out depth charge attack on suspicious contact.
TU 4.1.6 (Commander George W. Johnson) screens convoy ON 28. During the day, destroyers Lea (DD 118), DuPont (DD 152), MacLeish (DD 220), and Sampson (DD 394) depth charge suspected U-boat contacts.
30 Thursday
ATLANTIC. Oiler Salinas (AO 19), in convoy ON 28, is torpedoed by German submarine U 106 about 700 miles east of Newfoundland. Only one of Salinas’s crew is injured. TU 4.1.6 (Commander George W. Johnson), screening ON 28, attacks sound contacts; destroyer Bernadou (DD 153) carries out five depth charge attacks and fires at what was most likely German submarine U 67, forcing her to submerge; Du Pont (DD 152) carries out three depth charge attacks; MacLeish (DD 220) and Sampson (DD 394) one apiece. Lea (DD 118) escorts Salinas, which will reach port under her own power; they will be joined en route by Coast Guard cutter Campbell and tug Cherokee (AT 66).
TU 4.1.1 (Captain Marion Y. Cohen) contacts MOMP-bound convoy HX 157 at 45°43′N, 55°37′W. The convoy will not be attacked by U-boats (see 1 November).
31 Friday
ATLANTIC. Destroyer Reuben James (DD 245), while escorting 42-ship convoy HX 156, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U 552 off western Iceland, 51°59′N, 27°05′W; 115 men are killed. No merchantmen in HX 156 are attacked. Despite the heavy oil slick in the vicinity and the need to investigate sound contacts, destroyer Niblack (DD 424) rescues 36 men (one of whom dies of wounds on 2 November); Hilary P. Jones (DD 427) picks up 10. The loss of Reuben James, the first U.S. naval vessel to be lost to enemy action in World War II, proves a temporary detriment to Navy recruiting efforts.
TU 4.1.6 (Commander George W. Johnson), screening ON 28, carries out vigorous attacks on sound contacts. Destroyer Babbitt (DD 128) carries out two, while Buck (DD 420), DuPont (DD 152) (which is attacked by U-boat but missed), Leary (DD 158), and Sampson (DD 394) carry out one attack apiece.
NOVEMBER
1 Saturday
UNITED STATES. Executive order places Coast Guard under jurisdiction of Department of the Navy for duration of national emergency.
PACIFIC. Pacific Escort Force is formed at Pearl Harbor to protect transports and certain merchant vessels carrying troops and valuable military cargoes between Hawaii and the Far East.
ATLANTIC. PBYs (VP 73) provide air coverage for convoy ON 30.
Destroyers Dallas (DD 199), Ellis (DD 154), and Eberle (DD 430), screening convoy HX 157, carry out depth charge attacks on sound contacts off St. John’s, Newfoundland.
2 Sunday
ATLANTIC. TF 14 (Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt) (see 25 October for composition) reaches MOMP and exchanges convoy “Cargo” for CT 5, eight British transports carrying 20,000 British troops earmarked for the Middle East. Convoy CT 5’s first destination is Halifax, Nova Scotia.
PBMs (VP 74) provide air coverage for convoy ON 30.
3 Monday
UNITED STATES. Secretary of State Cordell Hull releases to the press the correspondence of June and September detailing the German refusal to pay reparations for sinking U.S. freighter Robin Moor on 21 May.
ATLANTIC. PBYs (VP 73) provide air coverage for convoy ON 31.
Destroyer Upshur (DD 144), escorting convoy HX 157, depth charges sound contact (later determined to be most likely a whale or blackfish) at 56°56′N, 49°21′W.
4 Tuesday
ATLANTIC. PBYs (VP 73) provide air coverage for convoy ON 31.
British RFA oiler Olwen reports German surface raider attack at 03°04′N, 22°42′W. Commander in Chief South Atlantic (Vice Admiral Algernon U. Willis, RN) orders heavy cruiser HMS Dorsetshire (accompanied by armed merchant cruiser HMS Canton) to investigate. Light cruiser HMS Dunedin and special service vessels HMS Queen Emma and Princess Beatrix are ordered to depart Freetown, Sierra Leone, to join in the search. Dorsetshire and Canton part company, with the former heading southeast and the latter steaming toward a position to the northwest, to be supported by TG 3.6, light cruiser Omaha (CL 4) and destroyer Somers (DD 381), which are at that time well to the northwest of the reported enemy position. Light cruiser Memphis (CL 13) and destroyers Davis (DD 395) and Jouett (DD 396), near to Olwen’s position, search the area without result; Omaha and Somers search unsuccessfully for survivors (see 5 and 6 November).
5 Wednesday
ATLANTIC. Oiler Laramie (AO 16) is rammed by Panamanian freighter Montrose, Tunugdliark Fjord, Narsarssuak, Greenland, but suffers no damage in the accidental encounter caused by stormy weather.
Search for German raider reported by British RFA oiler Olwen the previous day continues; Commander in Chief South Atlantic (Vice Admiral Algernon U. Willis, RN) informs British ships of the unsuccessful efforts by the five U.S. ships (two light cruisers and three destroyers) involved in the search the previous day (see 6 November).
Sailors from light cruiser Omaha (CL 4) prepare to board the suspicious ship in the distance that is masquerading as U.S. freighter Willmoto but which is, in fact, German blockade runner Odenwald, 6 November 1941. Some of Omaha’s bluejackets are armed with Thompson submachine guns—.45-caliber weapons known to have excellent stopping power at short range. (NHC, NH 49938)
PACIFIC. Rear Admiral Francis W. Rockwell relieves Captain Herbert J. Ray as Commandant Sixteenth Naval District and Commander Philippine Naval Coastal Frontier. Ray had been acting in that capacity due to the illness of Rear Admiral Harold M. Bemis.
6 Thursday
ATLANTIC. Unsuccessful search for German raider reported by British RFA oiler Olwen on 4 November is not entirely fruitless. TG 3.6, light cruiser Omaha (CL 4) (Captain Theodore E. Chandler) and destroyer Somers (DD 381), en route to Recife, Brazil, returning from the 3,023-mile patrol, captures German blockade runner Odenwald, disguised as U.S. freighter Willmoto, in Atlantic equatorial waters, 00°40′N, 28°04′W. Boarding party from Omaha (Lieutenant George K. Carmichael) reaches Odenwald as Germans explode charges to scuttle the ship. Omaha’s sailors, however, joined by a diesel engine specialist from Somers, prevent Odenwald’s loss while the cruiser’s SOCs and her accompanying destroyer screen the operation. The three ships then proceed to Trinidad because of possible complications with the Brazilian government. In view of the precarious fuel state in the American ships, Somers’s crew ingeniously rigs a sail that cuts fuel consumption and allows her to reach her destination with fuel to spare. British RFA oiler Olwen subsequently reports that she had made the “raider” signal when what was probably a surfaced submarine had fired upon her at dawn on 4 November. Ten U.S. and British warships had searched for two days for a phantom enemy.
Destroyer Madison (DD 425), on the flank of convoy ON 39, carries out depth charge attack at 45°50′N, 40°40′W; investigation later proves their quarry to have been a whale.
7