Saturday, October 29, 2011

Day 791 October 30, 1941

Operation Typhoon. At 5.30 AM, Kampfgruppe Eberbach advances into Tula but is beaten back by Soviet anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns. They repeat the exercise at 10 AM, 1 PM and 4 PM with the same result. Tula’s Soviet defenders (Workers Militia and NKVD 156th Regiment) suffer severe losses, mainly to German artillery, but just manage to hold their ground. Overnight, Soviet 32nd tank brigade arrives (later reinforced with 3 rifle divisions) and Tula is safe. While fighting will continue at Tula and elsewhere on the Mozhaysk line for the next few weeks, the German advance on Moscow grinds to a halt until the Russian mud freezes over.

At 9 AM 700 miles east of Newfoundland, U-106 torpedoes US fleet oiler USS Salinas but USS Salinas is able to reach Argentia, Newfoundland, for repairs. U-106 is then hunted for 9 hours by escorts and seriously damaged.

On the Crimean peninsula, German 132nd Infantry Division (part of 11th Army) is stopped by the outer defenses at Sevastopol. Overnight, Soviet cruiser Krasnyi Kavkaz ferries 8th Naval Infantry brigade from Novorossiysk (Caucasian port on the Black Sea coast) to beef up the defenses at Sevastopol. Black Sea Fleet moves WWI-era battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna, cruiser Molotov and smaller warships out of Sevastopol to safety in Caucasian ports while 3 cruisers and 3 destroyers are left to aid in the defense of the city as floating gun batteries.

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