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• German 2nd Panzer Division was halted by British-built Matilda tanks of the Soviet 146th Tank Brigade at Peshki, 35 miles northwest of Moscow. 30 miles west of Moscow, German 10th Panzer Division and SS Reich Division attacked Istra, which was being defended by Soviet 78th Rifle Division. Finally, German XXIV Panzer Corps launched a new attack 100 miles south of Moscow, cutting the rail line to Moscow near Tula. ww2dbase [Battle of Moscow | TH]
• Adolf Hitler met with Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, agreeing on the need for the elimination of the "Jewish element". ww2dbase [Adolf Hitler | TH]
• American submarines Triton and Tambor arrived at Wake Island on "simulated" war patrols. ww2dbase [Triton | CPC]
• Indian 7th Brigade repulsed an attack by the German 5th Panzer Regiment at Sidi Omar, Libya. Australian troops from Tobruk linked up with advancing New Zealand forces at Ed Duda, Libya. After dark, Erwin Rommel conducted an inspection of the front, got lost, and was forced to wait until daybreak to find his way back. ww2dbase [Operation Crusader | CPC]
• German submarine U-331 torpedoed British battleship HMS Barham in the Mediterranean Sea, which went down after a magazine ignited. Fewer than 400 of her crew of 1,258 survived. ww2dbase [AC]
• Captain James Jackson was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for organising defences at Tobruk, Libya, where he was killed by a mortar splinter. ww2dbase [AC]
• Soviet patrol vessel CKP-25 rammed German submarine U-578 in the Arctic Sea, causing light damage. ww2dbase [CPC]
• The Jager Report (issued on 1 Dec 1941) noted that 9 adult male, 46 adult female, and 8 children, all Jews, were killed in Vilnius, Lithuania for a total of 63 people. Additionally, 1 Polish national was also executed for possession of arms. ww2dbase [Discovery of Concentration Camps and the Holocaust | CPC]
• Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder, the British RAF Commander-in-Chief, Middle East, informed Oliver Lyttelton, Winston Churchill's Minister of State for the Middle East, that General Alan Cunningham was not confident in winning the battle in Libya. The following day Cunningham was relieved as Eighth Army commander. Neil Ritchie would take his place on the following day. ww2dbase [AC]

• Comandante Cappellini sighted Portuguese freighter Santa Princeza in the Atlantic Ocean at 0315 hours; no actions were taken. ww2dbase [Comandante Cappellini | CPC]

• The first execution of Soviet prisoners of war at the Dachau Concentration Camp took place at the Hebertshausen shooting range. ww2dbase [Dachau Concentration Camp | Dachau, München-Oberbayern | CPC]

• The first Italian Macchi C.202 Folgore fighters reached Libya. These Folgores (the most successful Italian fighter to see extensive wartime service) belonging to the 1° Stormo Caccia Terrestre, rapidly established, over the Western Desert, an ascendancy over the opposing RAF Hawker Hurricane and Curtis P-40 fighters. ww2dbase [C.202 Folgore | AC]

• Japanese troops transports en route to Malaya were detected off Taiwan. ww2dbase [Invasion of Malaya and Singapore | CPC]

• Henry Stimson noted in his diary that, during a cabinet meeting, Franklin Roosevelt thought Japan was likely to attack the United States in as soon as one week, and it would provide Roosevelt the reason to take the United States into the war. ww2dbase [Franklin Roosevelt | Washington | CPC]
• USS New Mexico arrived at Boston, Massachusetts, United States. ww2dbase [New Mexico | Boston, Massachusetts | CPC]

25 Nov 1941 Interactive Map