November 1942 Explained
The following events occurred in November 1942:
Four German sailors escaped from an internment camp at Fort Stanton, New Mexico.
- The Matanikau Offensive ended in American victory.
- German submarine U-132 was sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by the explosion of the British cargo ship Hatimura, which had just been torpedoed by U-442.
- German submarines U-169 and U-416 were commissioned.
- Fighting in and around Stalingrad forced the city's power plant to shut down.[9]
- German submarine U-408 was depth charged and sunk north of Iceland by an American Catalina.
- German submarines U-647, U-658 and U-712 were commissioned.
- Born: Pierangelo Bertoli, singer-songwriter and poet, in Sassuolo, Italy (d. 2002)
- Died: George M. Cohan, 64, American songwriter and entertainer
- Joseph Stalin issued an Order of the Day on the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution promising that the enemy "will yet feel the weight of the Red Army's smashing blows."[10]
- The Australian 24th Brigade advanced to Leaney's Corner and flanked the Japanese defenders on the Kokoda Track.[11]
- French general Henri Giraud was secretly spirited out of Vichy France by the British submarine Seraph.[12]
- German submarine U-274 was commissioned.
- Born:
- German forces invaded Tunisia without opposition from nearby French troops.
- Canada, Cuba and Mexico broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- The American troopship Leedstown, immobilised in the Mediterranean Sea the previous day by an attack from the Luftwaffe, was finished off by a torpedo from German submarine U-331.
- Died:
- Admiral Darlan agreed to a ceasefire in French North Africa.[16]
- Oran, Algeria surrendered to the Allies.[17]
- The Battle of Port Lyautey ended when U.S. troops captured the city's fortress and local airfield.
- The incomplete French battleship Jean Bart was heavily damaged in harbour at Casablanca by U.S. aircraft.
- After Darlan agreed to the ceasefire in North Africa, German forces launched Case Anton, the occupation of Vichy France.
- Darlan declared that the German occupation of Vichy released him from affiliation with the Vichy government. He pledged total co-operation with the Allies with the only condition that he be appointed high commissioner for French North Africa. General Eisenhower agreed.
- Winston Churchill took to the podium at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon in London with news of the Allied victory at El Alamein.[18] "Now this is not the end," Churchill said. "It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."[19]
- Haiti broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- British destroyer HMS Martin was sunk off Algiers by German submarine U-431.
- Japanese submarine I-15 was sunk off San Cristóbal in the Solomons by the American destroyer minesweeper USS Southard.
- The Philip Barry play Without Love premiered at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. It would be adapted into a film in 1945.
- The comedy film Road to Morocco starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour was released.
- Born:
- The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal began.
- The Koli Point action ended in American victory.
- U.S. Congress approved the drafting of men 18 and 19 years old.
- Eddie Rickenbacker and five others were rescued in the Pacific Ocean after being lost adrift at sea for three weeks. The men had stayed alive on a diet of a few oranges retrieved from their plane when it went down, some fish they'd managed to catch and a seagull that Rickenbacker had grabbed with his bare hands.[25]
- Guatemala broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- German submarine U-272 sank off Hela after colliding with U-634.
- German submarine U-660 was depth charged and damaged north of Oran by British warships and had to be scuttled.
- German submarines U-360 and U-648 were commissioned.
- Died: Laura Hope Crews, 62, American actress
- Montgomery captured Tobruk, squeezing Rommel between two large advancing Allied forces.[26]
- The American light cruiser Juneau was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. 687 men were killed in action, including the five Sullivan brothers. The Americans also lost the cruiser Atlanta and the destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey and Monssen, while the Japanese lost the battleship Hiei and destroyers Akatsuki and Yūdachi.
- German submarine U-411 was depth charged and sunk west of Gibraltar by a Lockheed Hudson of No. 500 Squadron RAF.
- Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- Died:
- Daniel J. Callaghan, 52, United States Navy officer (killed in action during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal)
- Norman Scott, 53, United States Navy Rear Admiral (killed in action during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal)
- Japanese heavy cruiser Kinugasa was sunk by aircraft during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
- Italian cargo liner Scillin was sunk by the British submarine Sahib while transporting over 800 Allied prisoners of war from North Africa to Italy, killing almost all of them. Britain kept the cause of the sinking a secret until 1996.
- German submarines U-595 and U-605 were depth charged and sunk in the Mediterranean by British aircraft.
- German submarines U-231 and U-733 were commissioned.
- The British Eighth Army occupied Derna, Libya.[28]
- New Zealand broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- German submarine U-331 surrendered after being crippled by depth charges from a Lockheed Hudson of No. 500 Squadron RAF north of Algiers. A Fairey Albacore torpedoed and sank the submarine, unaware that the crew had surrendered.
- Born:
- Martin Scorsese, filmmaker, in Queens, New York
- Bob Gaudio, singer, musician and record producer, in the Bronx, New York;
- Kang Kek Iew, Khmer Rouge leader and convicted war criminal, in Kampong Cham, French Indochina (d. 2020);
- István Rosztóczy, microbiologist, in Budapest, Hungary (d. 1993);
A British airborne force landed using gliders in Norway with the intent of sabotaging a chemical plant in Telemark that the Germans could use for their atomic weapons programme. Neither of the two aircraft-glider forces were able to land near their objective and the operation ended in failure with 41 killed.
- Died: Bruno Schulz, 50, Polish writer, artist, literary critic and art teacher (shot by a Nazi)
- Operation Uranus ended in decisive Soviet victory with the German 6th Army completely encircled at Stalingrad.
- The Governor General of French West Africa agreed to accept the authority of François Darlan. This brought the strategically valuable port city of Dakar under Allied control.[34]
- German U-boat U-172 torpedoed and sank the British merchant ship off the coast of Brazil. Chinese second steward Poon Lim survived and would spend 133 days adrift on a raft in the South Atlantic.
- Died:
- Hernando Siles Reyes, 60, 37th President of Bolivia
- Tomitarō Horii, 52, Japanese general (drowned while attempting to canoe down the Kumusi River during the Battle of Buna–Gona);
- Case Blue ended in strategic Axis failure.
- The Japanese destroyer Hayashio was heavily damaged by American planes in the Huon Gulf. The destroyer Shiratsuyu rescued the survivors and then scuttled the ship with a torpedo.
- German submarine U-387 was commissioned.
- Born: Billy Connolly, comedian, actor and musician, in Anderston, Glasgow, Scotland
Two nights of rioting between U.S. military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians broke out in Brisbane, Australia.
- German submarine U-650 was commissioned.
- The romantic drama film Casablanca starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid premiered at the Hollywood Theatre in New York City.
- Born:
The French fleet in Toulon was scuttled to keep it out of the hands of German forces. 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 12 submarines and 13 torpedo boats were among the ships scuttled.
- Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
- Born:
Free French Naval Forces destroyer Léopard landed 74 troops on the island of Réunion near Madagascar. The island's pro-Vichy administration was overthrown and replaced with a Free French one.
- The British destroyer Ithuriel was bombed and damaged beyond repair at Bône, Algeria by the Luftwaffe.
- The Army–Navy Game was played in Annapolis, Maryland, with Navy defeating Army 14–0. Only 13,000 spectators saw the game because of a wartime travel restriction that only allowed residents within 10 miles of Annapolis to attend.[36]
- German submarines U-199, U-232 and U-341 were commissioned.
- Born: Paul Warfield, football player, in Warren, Ohio
- Died: Toni Jo Henry, 26, American criminal and the only woman ever executed in Louisiana by electric chair
- German forces in Tunisia clashed with the British and Americans at Tebourba and Djedeida.[37]
- The British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery stopped their westward advance at El Agheila after making some 1,000 km in 14 days.
- Churchill made a radio broadcast reviewing the state of the war and suggesting that the Italian people faced a choice between enduring "prolonged scientific and shattering air attack" from North Africa or overthrowing Mussolini.[38]
- The cargo liner Dunedin Star ran aground on the Skeleton Coast of South West Africa. Crew and passengers would spend the next 26 days trekking overland to Windhoek.
- A constitutional referendum was held in Uruguay. 77.17% of voters approved the new constitution.
- Coffee rationing began in the United States.
- Died:
- Franz Berger, 25, Austrian Wehrmacht officer (killed in the Battle of Stalingrad);
- Alexis Charles Doxat, 75, English recipient of the Victoria Cross
- William George BRAZELL Jr, 23, Corp - US Army
Notes and References
- Book: Williams, Mary H. . 1960 . Special Studies, Chronology, 1941–1945 . Washington, D.C. . U.S. Government Printing Office . 62 .
- Web site: Text of Soviet Invasion Decree . . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 1989 . Mercer . Derrik . Chronicle of the 20th Century . London . Chronicle Communications Ltd. . 575 . 978-0-582-03919-3 .
- Book: Salecker, Gene E. . 2001 . Fortress Against the Sun: the B-17 . Da Capo Press . 290 . 978-0-306-81715-1 .
- Book: 1977 . Day By Day: The Forties . New York . Facts On File, Inc. . 247 . 0-87196-375-2 .
- Web site: Chronomedia: 1942 . Terra Media . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Eldridge, John Jr. . . Modern Biographical Files in the Navy Department Library . 7 October 2021.
- Book: Davidson . Edward . Manning . Dale . 1999 . Chronology of World War Two . London . Cassell & Co. . 129 . 0-304-35309-4 .
- Book: Hellbeck, Jochen . 2015 . Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich . PublicAffairs . 90 . 978-1-61039-497-0 .
- Web site: Joseph Stalin, Premier of the U.S.S.R. Order of the Day . . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 7 November 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Polmar . Norman . Allen . Thomas B. . 2012 . World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945 . Dover Publications . 27–28 . 978-0-486-47962-0 .
- Book: Stewart, William . 2009 . Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present . Jefferson, NC and London . McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers . 91 . 978-0-7864-8288-7 .
- Web site: A Timeline of Diplomatic Ruptures, Unannounced Invasions, Declarations of War, Armistices and Surrenders . Doody . Richard . The World at War . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: German Propaganda Archive . Calvin College . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Axelrod, Alan . 2008 . The Real History of World War II: A New Look at the Past . New York and London . Sterling Publishing . 195 . 978-1-4027-4090-9 .
- Book: Tucker, Spencer . 2013 . Almanac of American Military History . ABC-CLIO, LLC . 1652 . 978-1-59884-530-3 .
- Book: Yenne, Bill . 2014 . The Imperial Japanese Army: The Invincible Years 1941–42 . Osprey Publishing . 304 . 978-1-78200-932-0 .
- Web site: The Brigtht Gleam of Victory . The Churchill Centre . February 1, 2016 .
- Web site: Occupation by Italy then Germany . Government of Monaco . 8 September 2020.
- Book: Guttstadt, Corry . Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust . Cambridge University Press. May 2013 . 73. 978-0521769914. "After preliminary propaganda, the Turkish Parliament passed Law No. 4305, which introduced the Varlık Vergisi, on November 11, 1942."
- Book: Ince, Basak . Citizenship and Identity in Turkey: From Atatürk's Republic to the Present Day . I. B. Tauris. April 2012 . 75. 978-1780760261. "However, the underlying reason was the elimination of minorities from the economy, and the replacement of the non-Muslim bourgeoisie by its Turkish counterpart."
- Book: Çetinoğlu, Sait . 154339814 . Mediterranean Quarterly . The Mechanisms for Terrorizing Minorities: The Capital Tax and Work Battalions in Turkey during the Second World War . 23 . 2 . DUKE University Press. 2012 . 14 . 10.1215/10474552-1587838. "The aim was to destroy the economic and cultural base of these minorities, loot their properties and means of livelihood, and, at the same time "turkify" the economy of Turkey."
- Book: Guttstadt, Corry . Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust . Cambridge University Press. May 2013 . 76. 978-0521769914. "... We will use it to eliminate the foreigners who control the market and hand the Turkish market over the Turks." "The foreigners to be eliminated" referred primarily to the non-Muslims citizens of Turkey."
- Web site: Eddie Rickenbacker and Six Other People Survive a B-17 Crash and Three Weeks Lost in the Pacific Ocean . June 12, 2006 . HistoryNet . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: 2007 . Kennedy . David . The Library of Congress World War II Companion . Simon & Schuster . 536 . 978-1-4165-5306-9 .
- Web site: Comics By the Date: August 1942 to December 1942 . Martin . Robert Stanley . June 7, 2015 . The Hooded Utilitarian . February 1, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20151012195245/http://www.hoodedutilitarian.com/2015/06/comics-by-the-date-august-1942-to-december-1942/ . October 12, 2015 . dead .
- Book: 1990 . Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945 . Research Publications . 154 . 978-0-88736-568-3 .
- Web site: Events occurring on Wednesday, November 18, 1942 . 2011 . WW2 Timelines . February 1, 2016 .
- News: November 18, 1942 . Order Youths 18 Since July to Register . . Brooklyn . 1 .
- Web site: War Diary for Saturday, 21 November 1942 . Stone & Stone Second World War Books . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Hamilton, Hope . 2011 . Sacrifice on the Steppe: The Italian Alpine Corps in the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942–1943 . Havertown, PA . Casemate . 72 . 978-1-61200-002-2 .
- Book: Mitcham, Samuel W. . 2009 . The Men of Barbarossa . Philadelphia . Casemate Publishers . 242 . 978-1-935149-66-8 .
- Book: Kimball, Warren F. . Warren F. Kimball . 1984 . Churchill & Roosevelt, The Complete Correspondence Volume II: Alliance forged, November 1942-February 1944 . Princeton University Press . 56 .
- Book: Tarrant, V.E. . 1992 . Stalingrad . registration . Leo Cooper . 145–146 . 978-0-85052-342-3 .
- Web site: The Army-Navy Game During World War II . Tallent . Aaron . December 10, 2015 . Athlon Sports & Life . February 1, 2016 .
- Book: Argyle, Christopher . 1980 . Chronology of World War II . Exeter Books . 115 . 978-0-89673-071-7 .
- Web site: Prime Minister Winston Churchill Broadcast . . February 1, 2016 .