GERMANY: SS-Hauptsturmführer Adolf Eichmann (Captain), head of Section IV B4 of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), which is charged with assembling Europe's Jews under German control, begins deporting Jews from Austria and Czechoslovakia into Poland. (Perry Stewart)
POLAND: Krakow: Hitler appoints the Nazi Lawyer Hans Frank to head the new administration for German-occupied Poland, now renamed the "General Government".
U.S.S.R.:
Moscow: Russia presents its official
demands for an exchange of territory.
They are proposing that Finland should give over territory in the Karelian
Isthmus, the islands at the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and lease a
base at Hanko peninsula in Finland's southern coast. The Soviets are ready
to give in exchange a swathe of territory in northern Karelia. Finns
resisted because the territory in the Isthmus would include the southern
part of the main defensive line (that would later be known as the 'Mannerheim
Line'), because the Hanko base would be uncomfortably near Helsinki, and
because the territory in Karelia the Soviets are offering is strategically
and economically worthless undeveloped land. But the most important
reason is that the Finns are afraid that the Soviet proposals are just the
first step in an attempt to annex Finland. The Finnish negotiators have the
powers to discuss giving over the islands in the Gulf of Finland and
considerably smaller concessions in the Isthmus, but absolutely no base at
Hanko. The popular opinion in Finland firmly opposes any concessions. All
this happens while Estonia and other Baltic states have already submitted
under Soviet pressure and Soviet units are arriving at the agreed bases in
Estonia. (Mikko Härmeinen)
CANADA: Tug HMCS Murray Stewart commissioned as examination vessel Saint John, New Brunswick. Built by Port Arthur Shipbuilding, Port Arthur, Ontario, 109x26x16ft, single screw, steam triple-expansion 156 NHP, 10kts, Purchased 1922 by Dept, of Transport, to RCN 1939-46, Post WW.II, sold 1946, renamed David Richard in 1951, at Port Arthur, renamed 1979 Georgian Queen. Pendant (Z19)(A)>(J19). (Dave Shirlaw)
ATLANTIC OCEAN: RN warships operating on the Northern Patrol continue to stop neutral merchantman; between this date and 26 October, 112 vessels are stopped, of which 23 are detained at Kirkwall for the inspection of their cargoes. (Jack McKillop)
U-37 sank SS Aris.
U-48 sank SS Emile Miguet in Convoy KJ-2. (Dave Shirlaw)