109 - Free from the Nazi Occupation - but for how long can it last? WW2 - September 26, 1941

by Panzer
They want to what?
To divide it up into sections and list all the warships in each section?
Do I think that sounds fishy?
Nah, what could possibly be suspicious about that?
Alright, bye!
In the last two years, Adolf Hitler has sent
his armies racing across Europe, taking ever more territory as nation after nation falls.
But this week something new happens; this week a new nation emerges.
I’m Indy Neidell; this is World War Two.
Last week Kiev, the third largest city in the Soviet Union, fell to the Germans.
Leningrad, the second largest, had been surrounded and is also in danger of falling, and the
Japanese launched a new offensive to take Changsha.
This week on the 26th, they make moves to encircle the city and drop paratroops for
the first time this eastern war.
Those aren’t the only moves the Japanese are making this week, though.
On the 24th, the Japanese consul in Hawaii is instructed to divide Pearl Harbor into
five zones and to report back the exact number of warships in each zone.
American intelligence intercepts this message, but they don’t have any decryption facilities,
so they send it by plane to Washington.
But the once a week flight the 26th is cancelled by weather, so it’s sent by sea, and jumping
into the future, it doesn’t reach DC until October 6th, and when its finally decrypted
a few days later, will not be considered more than a routine espionage assignment.
There are, in fact, similar requests being made about other places in the South Pacific
and SE Asia.
Most of the world’s focus, however, is still on the Soviet Union, where the German invasion continues.
Last week in the north, the Germans captured Pulkovo and Alexandrovska, less than a dozen
km from Leningrad’s city center, but on the southern slopes of Pulkovo Heights they
are now stopped.
As we saw last week, Georgy Zhukov had arrived in Leningrad to take control of the city defenses.
He immediately issued orders “to smother the enemy with artillery and mortar fire and
air support, permitting no penetration of the defenses.”
By now, this has had an effect.
Erich Hoeppner’s panzers have not breached the Leningrad defenses, the Finns to the north
of the city have stopped putting on pressure from that side, and despite the German attacks
killing or wounding some 4,000 people in the city a day and starting fire after fire, Leningrad
will hold for now since most of the panzers are to be diverted for Operation Typhoon,
the coming drive on Moscow.
Sporadic fighting will continue into next week, but the Soviet defense here has convinced
AG North Commander Wilhelm von Leeb he can go no further.