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Post by emron on Nov 26, 2017 15:32:00 GMT 12
Does anyone know when the Sunderland tail fin etc will be put back on ? Andrew, a little birdie has sprouted it's tail feathers again. The Wednesday team have done a great job to raise the fin and rudder and both stabilizers and secure them all safely to the Sunderland. The elevators will be attached soon. Also during the week the scaffolders have made good progress on erecting the shelter for the Solent and it's now more than half finished.
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Post by emron on Nov 25, 2017 13:56:33 GMT 12
25 November 1940 The prototype De Havilland D.H.98 Mosquito, RAF s/n E0234, msn 98001, made its first flight at Hatfield, Hertfordshire, piloted by Geoffrey de Havilland. The 247-ton coastal steamer SS Holmwood, en route from the Chatham Islands to the mainland was intercepted by the German raiders HK Komet and Orion and the supply ship Kulmerland at 0720 hours. The Holmwood was carrying 17 crew and 12 passengers, including four women and four children, 1,370 sheep, two dogs and a horse. All of the crew and passengers were removed to Komet and the sheep were distributed among the three ships and then SS Holmwood was sunk by gunfire. No radio message was transmitted by the Holmwood before she was captured, and consequently no warning of the presence of enemy raiders to the east of New Zealand was received until 2 days later when RMS Rangitane became their next victim. The Martin Model 179, USAAF B-26-MA Marauder, s/n 40-1361, msn 1226, made its first flight at the Martin Airport in Middle River, Maryland, piloted by William K. Ebel, the chief engineer of the Glenn L. Martin Company.
25 November 1941 The battleship HMS Barham while sailing with the 1st Battle Squadron's HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Valiant and an escort of eight destroyers in the central Mediterranean, was attacked by German submarine U-331, commanded by Oberleutnant zur See Hans-Diedrich von Tiesenhausen. The U-boat captain ordered all four bow torpedo tubes fired at a range of 410yds at 16:25. There was no time for evasive action, and three of the four torpedoes struck Barham amidships so closely together as to throw up a single huge water column. She quickly capsized to port and was lying on her side when a massive magazine explosion occurred that sank her, just four minutes after she was torpedoed. Due to the speed at which she sank, 862 officers and ratings were killed, including two who died of their wounds after being rescued. The destroyer Hotspur rescued some 337 survivors, including Vice-Admiral Henry Pridham-Wippell and the pair who later died of their wounds, while the Australian destroyer Nizam reportedly rescued a further 150 men. The sinking was captured on film by a cameraman from Pathé News, aboard Valiant. After discharging the torpedoes, the U-boat's conning tower broached the surface and was fruitlessly engaged by one of the battleship's "pom-pom"s at a range of about 30 yards. The boat then dived out of control reaching an indicated depth of 869ft, well below her design rating of 490ft, before she stabilised without any damage. U-331 was not attacked by the escorting destroyers and reached port on 3 December. Von Tiesenhausen was not certain of the results of his attack and radioed that he had hit a Queen Elizabeth-class battleship with one torpedo. In an effort to conceal the sinking from the Germans and to protect British morale, the Board of Admiralty censored all news of Barham's loss. After a delay of several weeks the War Office notified the next of kin, but they added a special request for secrecy. Following repeated claims by German radio, the Admiralty officially announced the loss on 27 January 1942. 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. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, Commander-in-Chief, Combined Fleet, issued Operations Order No. 5: "The Carrier Striking Task Force will immediately complete taking on supplies and depart with utmost secrecy from Hitokappu Bay (Etorofu Island, Kurile Islands) on 26 November and advance to the standby point by the evening of 3 December." The standby point was about 1,380 nautical miles north-northwest of Pearl Harbour and 728 nautical miles south-southwest of Dutch Harbour, Unalaska, Aleutian Islands. Japanese troop transports en route to Malaya were sighted off Formosa.
25 November 1942 Over the course of the past 3 days, aircraft of the Royal New Zealand Air Force 3 (GR) Squadron, US Navy Patrol Squadron 12, US Army 12th, 68th, and 70th Fighter Squadrons, and US Army 69th Bombardment Squadron arrived at Guadalcanal. A British Special Operations Executive (SOE) team used 400 pounds of plastic explosives to blow up the Gorgopotamos Railway Bridge in central Greece. The bridge, located on the Salonika-Athens rail line about 130 miles from Athens, carried up to 50 trains a day of supplies bound for the port of Piraeus, in support of the Axis forces in North Africa. In reprisal, 14 Greek hostages were executed by the Italian occupation forces. In Tunisia the British First Army attacked toward Tunis. On the north, the 36th Brigade of the 78th Division advanced from Djebel Abiod toward Mateur. In the center, Blade Force (British 17/21 Lancers Regimental Group) penetrated Axis positions between Mateur and Tebourba; attached elements of Combat Command B, U.S. 1st Armored Division, raided Djedeida Airfield, 5 miles east of Tebourba, destroying 30 planes. The 11th Brigade of the 78th Division recaptured Medjez el Bab. The decision was taken today to take over a 50,000-acre site at Los Alamos, in the Jemez mountains in New Mexico, to house a secret laboratory for research into the atomic bomb. The site was chosen by the director, Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer. 25 November 1943 The Battle of Cape St. George was fought during the early hours as the five ships of USN Destroyer Squadron 23 intercepted five Japanese destroyers off Cape St. George on the southern tip of New Ireland. USS Charles Ausburne (DD-570), Claxton (DD-571), and Dyson (DD-572) sank HIJMS Onami with torpedoes and HIJMS Yugiri with gunfire; the same three U.S. ships, joined by USS Spence (DD-512) and Converse (DD-509), sank HIJMS Makinami with torpedoes and gunfire and damaged HIJMS Uzuki. The USN destroyers suffered no damage. This was the last of the night sea battles of the Solomons Campaign. A company of the Australian 2/48th Battalion entered Sattelberg, Northeast New Guinea, and raised the Australian flag at 1000 hours local. Just after sunset, 13 Japanese 'Betty" bombers from the Marshall Islands attacked USN ships off Makin Atoll with torpedoes; no hits were scored. In a second attack, USN F6F Hellcat pilots guided by a radar-equipped TBM Avenger, shot down three "Bettys" at sea between 1725 and 1928 hours local. However, the commanding officer of VF-6, Lieutenant Commander Edward "Butch" O'Hare was lost. O'Hare was a Medal of Honor recipient for action on 20 February 1942 when he shot down five Japanese bombers who were attempting to bomb a USN aircraft carrier. Forty-Two Japanese aircraft were destroyed on the ground at Shinchiku airfield, Formosa as the US 14th Air Force mounted its first attack on the island.
25 November 1944 Colossus, the world's first programmable, electronic, digital computer was tested at the Post Office factory in Birmingham, England. It was created by Post Office engineer Tommy Flowers to help in the cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher as used by German teleprinter traffic. The huge machine would be able to process data five times faster than the earlier slower Robinson machine and process as many as fifteen signals a day. A German V-2 rocket hit near the intersection of High Holborn and Chancery Lane, Holborn, London at 1115 hours, killing 6 and injuring 292. At 1225 hours, another V-2 rocket hit across the street from the Woolworths store in Deptford, London, destroying the store and many nearby buildings, killing 160 and injuring 199 (77 seriously) the most devastating V2 rocket attack so far. Seven US carriers of TG 38.2 and TG 38.3 again struck Luzon, Philippines. The Japanese cruisers Kumano and Yasoshima were sunk. Four of the carriers sustained damage from Kamikaze attacks.
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Post by emron on Nov 24, 2017 22:56:58 GMT 12
24 November 1939 Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd merged to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). BOAC was the exclusive British state airline until 1946. The Japanese claimed today to have occupied the strategically important city of Nanning, despite fierce resistance by 100,000 Chinese Nationalist troops. Chiang Kai-shek ordered his remaining reservists into Kweichow and Yunnan to reinforce security on the Yunnan-Hanoi railway - now China's only link with Indochina. The Japanese High Command, however, was now intent on continuing its advance, aiming to sever China's connection not only with Indochina but also with Burma. This would leave Soviet Russia as the only source from which the Chinese could obtain war materials.
24 November 1940 German heavy cruiser Admiral Scheer stopped British ship SS Port Hobart near the Azores, while sailing from Liverpool to New Zealand. The crew were imprisoned and Port Hobart scuttled. Operation Collar: Allied convoy ME4, with 3 merchant ships and a powerful escort fleet, passed the Strait of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean Sea, sailing for Malta.
24 November 1941 Light cruiser HMS Dunedin had been part of a task unit sent to counter a German operation involving four U-boats, an armed merchant raider (Atlantis) and a supply ship (Python) against shipping near Cape Town. The British heavy cruisers Devonshire and Dorsetshire plus Dunedin were ordered to search independently and track down the surface raider. On 22nd November Devonshire came upon Atlantis, which scuttled herself to avoid capture. U-124, which had been engaged in re-supplying from Atlantis at the time, sent an uncoded radio signal that there were survivors in the water. On 24th November, Python came to help U-126, who was towing lifeboats from Atlantis. At the same time, U-124, which was on her way to rendezvous with Python, sighted Dunedin NE of St. Pauls Rocks, 900 miles west of Freetown, just south of the Equator. It fired three torpedoes at extreme range, even though Dunedin was steaming away at 17 knots and altering course. Two torpedoes hit, an extraordinary accomplishment, the first striking amidships and the second further aft. Dunedin capsized and sank in approximately 17 minutes. About 150 men abandoned the sinking vessel but had to spend the next seventy-eight hours on Carley Floats. Seventy-two men were rescued in the late afternoon of 27th November by the US Lykes Lines freighter Nishmaha, which was enroute to Philadelphia. Five more survivors subsequently died before the ship reached Trinidad. Only four officers and 63 men had survived out of Dunedin's complement of 486. The United States occupied Dutch Guyana [Surinam] in agreement with The Netherlands and Brazil to protect bauxite mines because, "The bauxite mines furnish upwards of 60% of the requirements of the U.S. aluminium industry, which is vital to the defense of the U.S., the western hemisphere and the nations actively resisting aggression" Elements of German LVI Panzer Corps captured Rogachevo, Russia, north of Moscow. To the south of the Soviet capital, XXIV Panzer Corps captured the road junction at Venyov 30 miles east of Tula Admiral Harold R. Stark, the USN Chief of Naval Operations, sent the following message to Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Commander-in-Chief Asiatic Fleet in the Philippine Islands: THE CHIEF OF STAFF IS IN AGREEMENT WITH THE ESTIMATE PRESENTED HEREWITH AND REQUESTS THAT YOU INFORM THE SENIOR ARMY OFFICER IN YOUR AREA COLON CHANCES OF FAVORABLE OUTCOME OF UNITED STATES DASH JAPANESE NEGOTIATIONS ARE VERY DOUBTFUL PERIOD THIS SITUATION TOGETHER WITH STATEMENTS OF JAPANESE GOVERNMENT AND MOVEMENT OF THEIR MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE INTIMATE IN OUR OPINION THAT SURPRISE AGGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN ANY DIRECTION INCLUDING ATTACK ON PHILIPPINES OR GUAM IS A POSSIBILITY STOP THIS INFORMATION MUST BE TREATED WITH UTMOST SECRECY IN ORDER NOT TO COMPLICATE A TENSE SITUATION OR PRECIPITATE ACTION END STARK)
24 November 1942 Rommel halted his westward flight from El Alamein 100 miles south of Benghazi, at El Agheila. For more than two weeks his battered Afrika Korps had kept one step ahead of the pursuit force formed by the 7th Armoured and New Zealand Divisions of the Eighth Army. Rommel would like to withdraw to Europe, but Hitler and Mussolini have vetoed this proposal. In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs, B-25 Mitchells, B-26 Marauders, B-17 Flying Fortresses, P-40s, and P-39 + P-400 Airacobras, hit Sanananda Point, the Buna area, the Sanananda-Soputa trail south of Sanananda, and the area between Cape Killerton and Sanananda Point as Allied forces launched a ground assault on The Triangle; the attack was repelled by fierce resistance.
24 November 1943 At 0510 hours local, the escort carrier USS Liscome Bay (CVE-56) wass struck abaft the after engine room by a torpedo fired by the Japanese submarine HIJMS I-175 about 21 nautical miles west-southwest of Butaritari Island, Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands. The aircraft bomb magazine detonated a few moments later and the entire interior burst into flames. At 0533 hours Liscome Bay listed to starboard and sank carrying Rear Admiral Henry M. Mullinix, commander of Task Group 52.3, Liscome Bay's skipper Captain I.D. Wiltsie, 53 other officers, and 591 enlisted men down with her; 272 of her crew are rescued. One of the enlisted men killed was Ship's Cook Third Class Doris "Dorie" Miller who was awarded the Navy Cross at Pearl Harbour for moving his mortally wounded captain to a place of greater safety and then manning a .50 calibre machine gun on the deck of the USS West Virginia (BB-40) until he ran out of ammunition and was ordered to abandon ship. On Bougainville, the 3rd Marine Division made substantial progress, gaining commanding ground in the Piva Forks area. A Marine SBD Dauntless made a successful forced landing on the Torokina fighter strip, although the strip has not yet been completed.
24 November 1944 The 6th Army Group penetrated the German line along the Vosges River, France. Germany: Units from Patton's US 3rd Army crossed the Saar 25 miles north of Saarbrucken. Italy: In the British Eighth Army area, the Polish II Corps pressed toward the Marzeno River on a broad front against disorganized resistance. In the V Corps area, the 4th Division drove toward the Lamone River in the region just north of Highway 9. The 46th Division crossed the Marzeno River on the southern flank of corps. The USAAF raided Tokyo in daylight today for the first time with Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command, but Mission 7 was a dismal failure. Of the 111 B-29s which took off on the 3,000-mile round trip from the Mariana Islands, 17 aborted due to engine failure and only 24 managed to drop their bombs in approximately the right area. The main target, the Nakashima Aircraft Company's Musashi engine factory, was hardly touched.
24 November 1945 Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz relinquished command as CINCPAC-CINCPOA to Admiral Raymond Spruance at Pearl Harbour.
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Post by emron on Nov 24, 2017 20:56:59 GMT 12
23 November 1939 Major General Bernard Freyberg is appointed to command 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force. Armed merchant cruiser HMS Rawalpindi on blockade duty in the Northern Patrol was sunk by gunfire from the battlecruiser Scharnhorst as she and sister ship Gneisenau tried to break out into the Atlantic. The AMC armed with only four 6-inch guns against the BC nine 11-inch guns could not adequately defend herself. Every gun was put out of action and the ship was ablaze from end to end before she sank. Three boats carrying 37 survivors were able to get away: one with 11 survivors was found by AMC Chitral, whilst the other two were picked up by Scharnhorst. There were 270 casualties. After the action, which took place to the southwest of Iceland, the battlecruisers turned back and return to Germany, having avoided searching ships of the Home Fleet.
23 November 1940 The Romanian Premier, Ion Antonescu, agreed to join the Tripartite Pact, paving the way for German intervention in Greece.
23 November 1941 Destroyer Yuzuki departed Sakaide, Shikoku, Japan, escorting a troop convoy. Japanese carriers made a rendezvous at Hitokappu Bay, Kurile Islands, Japan in preparation for the Pearl Harbour attack. 60 trucks brought in 33 tons of flour and 2.5 tons of sugars and fats into besieged Leningrad, driving across the frozen Lake Ladoga; this was the first of many over-ice truck runs that would ramp up to bring in 100 tons of supplies each day. German forces captured Solnechnogorsk, Russia advanced to within 35 miles of Moscow. Axis troops outflanked British forces south of Sidi Rezegh, Libya, inflicting heavy casualties and forcing the British 7th Armoured Division to withdraw 20 miles. In the south the New Zealand Division attacked and captured the headquarters of the Afrika Korps and much of German General Erwin Rommel's communications equipment.
23 November 1942 Admiral Darlan announced that the French colony of Senegal in west Africa now accepted his authority and joined the Allies. This includes the important port of Dakar. Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) is moved from Gibraltar to Algiers. Axis forces evacuated Agedabia, Libya. In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs and B-26 Marauders bombed Sanananda Point as Australian forces began their assault on Gona and U.S. forces approached Sanananda. Major General Tomitaro Horii, his chief of staff, and another staff officer died when the canoe on which they travelled aboard capsized in the Kumusi River in Australian Papua. Soviet forces captured the bridge over the Don River at Kalach, in a surprise attack. Linking up with the tank forces of the Soviet 51st Army the encirclement of Stalingrad began. In the Arabian Sea, the passenger/cargo liner SS Tilawa was torpedoed and sunk by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-29 about 809 nautical miles north-northeast of the Seychelles Islands. The ship was carrying 222 crewmen, four gunners and 732 passengers. Of the 958 people on board, 252 passengers and 28 crew were lost. The British light cruiser HMS Birmingham rescued 678 survivors. U-172 torpedoed and sank British freighter SS Benlomond about 254 nautical miles north of Fortaleza, Ceara, Brazil, The only survivor of the 47-man crew was Poon Lim, the 49-year-old chief steward, who climbed into an empty raft and spent the next 133 days floating in the Atlantic. He was eventually rescued by a Brazilian fishing boat which took him to Belim Para, Brazil, 595 nautical miles west of where the ship sank. Poon Lim now held the world's record for the longest survival adrift in a lifeboat.
23 November 1943 US troops seized control of the Gilbert Islands, after three days of fighting and appalling casualties on both sides. The fighting was heaviest at the island air base of Betio, on Tarawa, where 1,009 US Marines died and 2,101 were wounded. Of Betio's 4,836-strong Japanese and Korean garrison only 146 survived (all but 17 of them Korean labourers)The US has also taken Japan's two other Gilbert Island bases. On Makin only one of the 800-strong Japanese garrison survived; US losses were 66 dead. At Apamama the garrison of 22 committed suicide rather than surrender. Task Force 39, consisting of four light cruisers and eight destroyers, bombards the Buka Island-Bonis area of northern Bougainville. 23 November 1944 The first French troops entered Strasbourg, France today after a two pronged drive by LeClerc's 2nd Armoured Division and de Tassigny's First French Army. In the British Eighth Army area, the Polish II Corps secured Mt. Ricci, Italy. The V Corps consolidated the bridgeheads across the Cosina River. The Germans began a withdrawal toward the next water barrier, the Lamonc River. Soviet troops entered Czechoslovakia. Australian troops of the 9th Battalion, 7th Brigade, 3rd Division, relieve the U.S. 2nd Battalion, 132nd Infantry Regiment, Americal Division, at Cape Torokina, Bougainville. The Australian arrival opened the campaign on Bougainville that cost over 500 Australian lives by the war's end. Destroyer Yuzuki departed Kure, Japan, escorting carrier Junyo.
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Post by emron on Nov 22, 2017 22:49:37 GMT 12
22 November 1890 Charles de Gaulle was born in Lille, France.
22 November 1935 Pan American Airways commenced the first trans-Pacific airmail service, flying the Martin M.130 "China Clipper" from Alameda, California, to Manila, Philippine Islands, via Honolulu; Midway Island; Wake Island; and Guam.
22 November 1939 The USN's auxiliary USS Bear (AG-29) departed Boston, Massachusetts, as part of the U.S. Antarctic Service to investigate and survey the land and sea areas of Antarctica. Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, USN (Retired) commanded this expedition.
22 November 1940 An RAF Wellington Mk. IC of No. 214 Squadron based at RAF Stradishall, Suffolk, ran out of fuel because of a navigational error and landed in Sicily instead of Malta. Aboard was Air Marshal Owen Tudor Boyd, Deputy Air Officer Commanding, HQ RAF Middle East (designate) and three lower ranking officers. All were taken prisoner and Boyd was held in the Castle of Vincigliata near Florence. Italian planes bombed Keffalonia, Corfu and Samos.
22 November 1941 The German merchant raider, Atlantis, was scuttled by her crew in the South Atlantic after receiving a salvo from the 8-inch guns of the British cruiser Devonshire. Captain Bernhard Rogge and his crew took to the boats and survived the war. The position given to Atlantis to make a refuelling rendezvous with the submarine U-126 in the South Atlantic had been revealed through an Enigma intercept by the Bletchley Park codebreakers. One of Germany's leading air aces, Oberst (Colonel) Werner Mölders, was killed when the plane, an HE-111 bomber in which he is a passenger, hit a factory chimney in fog and rain near Breslau, while on his way to the state funeral of General Ernst Udet. The first column of trucks started on the ice of Lake Ladoga to get flour for the inhabitants of besieged Leningrad. The road across the lake was called "The Road of Life". It was the main artery connecting the encircled city with Big Land. US Navy issued Task Force Ultrasecret Operation Order 1: warships were to proceed to Hawaiian waters in secrecy, with mission to conduct pre-emptive strikes on any potential threats against Hawaii. Italian cruiser Cardona arrived at Benghazi, Libya with fuel badly needed by Axis vehicles on the front line; the journey was made without any escorts due to the pressing need. On land, New Zealand and Italian troops engaged in fighting near Sollum, Egypt while the Indian 7th Brigade captured Sidi Omar, Libya.British and South African forces setting out from Sidi Rezegh for Tobruk were savagely hit from the south and east by two panzer divisions. At midday the 21st Panzer Division struck at the western flank of the British position, over-running the airfield and leaving devastation and confusion by nightfall.
22 November 1942 A Soviet counter-offensive against the German armies paid off as the Red Army trapped about a quarter-million German soldiers south of Kalach, on the Don River, within Stalingrad. As the Soviets' circle tightened, German General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the Sixth Army, requested permission from Berlin to withdraw. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler would not allow a withdrawal and it was then only a matter of time before the Germans would be forced to surrender.
22 November 1943 Sextant Conference: Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Chiang Kaishek met at Cairo. In the evening, Anglo-American leaders including Churchill, Roosevelt, Harry Hopkins, Louis Mountbatten, Joseph Stilwell and Claire Chennault dined together. Over Bougainville, USAAF Thirteenth Air Force P-40s in a battle with 30-40 fighters over Empress Augusta Bay, claimed five fighters shot down; P-38 Lightnings strafed barges and shore targets at Chabai on northern Bougainville. Over 20 B-25 Mitchells, along with five RNZAF Venturas, eight P-38 Lightnings and eight USN F4U Corsairs, attacked the airfield on Buka Island north of Bougainville scoring hits on the airstrip and taxiways. The German occupation of the Dodecanese Islands was completed.
22 November 1944 In France, Mulhouse fell to French forces on the Western front; The US 3rd Army completed the capture of Metz. In Italy, in the British Eighth Army area, the Polish II Corps continued northward along the ridge toward Mt. Ricci. V Corps established bridgeheads across the Cosina River in the zones of the 4th and 46th Divisions, during the night.
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Post by emron on Nov 22, 2017 20:41:35 GMT 12
21 November 1939 New cruiser HMS Belfast (35) was badly damaged in the Firth of Forth about 24 nautical miles east-northeast of Edinburgh, by a magnetic mine laid by U-21 on November 4th. With her back broken she was out of action for three years.
21 November 1940 German warships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, Köln, and Leipzig departed for a sweep against Allied shipping between Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Greek troops defeated the Italian IX Army and captured Koritza, Albania. The Greeks took 2,000 prisoners and captured 135 field guns and 600 machine guns. The surviving elements of the Italian IX Army was able to escape without being harassed as the Greeks lacked motorized units and could not give chase. A German aircraft bombed the British Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, damaging the diplomatic section, the telephone exchange, and the typists room. There were no casualties. The attack was almost certainly accidental, as the Germans did not know of the importance of this site. The British No. 2 Commando Battalion was redesignated 11th Special Air Service Battalion for training as paratroopers.
21 November 1941 The horse-drawn sleigh team returned to Leningrad from Kobona, bringing back flour, sugar, and fat across the frozen Lake Ladoga for the first time since the city was surrounded. Joseph Rochefort's US Navy cryptanalytic team in Pearl Harbour detected the arrival of a Japanese submarine squadron in the Marshall Islands. The Allied garrison at Tobruk, Libya attempted a breakout to link up with the main attack force coming from Egypt, which engaged with German 15th Panzer Division in a large-scale tank battle that would last for the next three days near Sidi Rezegh. Pressed for fuel, Erwin Rommel dispatched Italian cruiser Cardona from Brindisi, unescorted, to bring fuel to Benghazi.
21 November 1942 Along the coast from Buna, New Guinea the 1st Battalion of the 128th Infantry Regiment and Colonel Carrier's detachment of the 1st Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, attacked abreast, gaining a few yards and destroying some machine gun nests. The situation improved somewhat as additional guns were brought forward and the airstrip at Dobodura became operational.
21 November 1943 Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kaishek for the first time in Cairo, Egypt. In the evening, he dined with Alan Brooke, Charles Portal, John Dill, Sholto Douglas, and Louis Mountbatten.
21 November 1944 The submarine USS Sealion (SS-315) was on patrol north of Formosa. At 0220 hours, radar contact was made with two Japanese battleships, HIJMS Kongo and Haruna, two cruisers and three destroyers. By 0257 hours, the submarine fired six torpedoes at Haruna. They all missed this target but three hit the destroyer HIJMS Urakaze instead. After a series of explosions, Urakaze blew apart and in less than two minutes, the vessel sank, taking her entire crew of 14 officers and 293 men with her. At 0259 hours, Sealion fired three additional torpedoes and one struck the battleship HIJMS Kongo which had already been badly damaged by air attacks on 25 October during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The torpedo hit caused Kongo to list 20 degrees. While heading for the nearest port on northern Formosa, the list increased to 45 degrees and the order was given to abandon ship. The list accelerated past 60 degrees and her forward 14-inch magazine exploded. The Kongo rolled over and slipped beneath the waves about 67 nautical miles north of Taipei, Formosa. Some 1,250 officers and men were lost. Two of her escorts, the destroyers HIJMS Hamakaze and Isokaze rescued 347 survivors.
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Post by emron on Nov 21, 2017 22:02:49 GMT 12
20 November 1940 No. 261 Squadron transferred operations to airfield RAF Station Takali, Malta. Middle East Command under General Archibald Wavell were in the planning and preparation phase of Operation Compass, the first large Allied military operation of the Western Desert Campaign, North Africa.
20 November 1941 HMAS Sydney sank some time after midnight from the damage sustained in the engagement with German raider Kormoran. Despite an extensive search during the following week no trace of the ship or crew was found. Their location remained unknown until the wreck of Sydney was found on 17 March 2008 by an expedition searching with a deep-water, towed side-scan sonar. In Libya the British 7th Armoured Brigade repulsed a counter attack launched by the German 90th Light Infantry Division and the Italian Bologna Division. In the afternoon, the British 4th Armoured Brigade engaged with heavier tanks of the German 15th Panzer Division, losing several American-built M3 tanks. After dark, British cruisers HMS Ajax and HMS Neptune and Australian cruiser HMAS Hobart bombarded Bardia.
20 November 1942 British troops entered the city of Benghazi, Libya, and found port and facilities destroyed by the Germans before their withdrawal. The second half of the Soviet offensive designed to encircle the German 6th Army at Stalingrad is launched, this time striking the Romanian 4th Army, holding positions south and east of the city. The future of Malta was finally assured when the four British and American merchant ships arrived safely in convoy MW-13 from Egypt and began unloading their 38,600 tons of supplies at the quayside in Grand Harbour, Valetta. While approacihing Malta, one escort, the cruiser HMS Arethusa was hit by an aerial torpedo. Burning fiercely, she was towed stern-first into port by the destroyer HMS Petard. 153 men were lost.
20 November 1943 US Marines invaded Makin and Tarawa atolls in the Gilbert Islands. British Eighth Army crossed the Sangro River in Italy. The FIDO (Fog Investigation and Dispersal Operation) scheme was first implemented to effect the safe landing of RAF bombers. On Samos Island, Greece, nearly 5,000 British were taken prisoner by the Germans during the evacuation in this failed campaign. The Red Army achieved a breakthrough near Kremenchug in the Ukraine, and advanced toward Kirovograd. US Marine Corps Major General Ralph Mitchell was named Commander Air Solomons and was placed in charge of all US naval and Marine aviation units in the Solomon Islands region.
20 November 1944 With the Red Army fast approaching Rastenburg, Hitler left his Wolfsschanze Headquarters for the last time and returned to Berlin. London: Five years of darkness ended as street lights were switched on in Piccadilly, the Strand and Fleet Street. In the British Second Army area, XII Corps continued toward the Maas River, the Netherlands. In France units of the US 3rd Army captured Dieuze in the Metz area; the French Army were fighting in Belfort and some of their advance units reached the Rhine at Mulhouse. In the British Second Army's XXX Corps area, the 334th Infantry Regiment of the U.S. 84th Infantry Division eliminated resistance in environs of Prummern, Germany, with help of British flame-throwing tanks, but enemy retained heights to the NE. Strong opposition was slowing other elements of corps; units of the US XIX Corps are on the offensive near Julich, east of Aachen. The USS Mississinewa (AO-59) a Cimarron class US Navy Oiler was the first ship sunk by a Japanese "Kaiten" (manned suicide torpedo) while in the lagoon at Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands. Her cargo 440,000 U.S. gallons of aviation fuel exploded and erupted in a blazing inferno at 0547 hours local. At about 0900 hours the ship slowly turned over and disappeared. Casualties were three officers and 47 enlisted men killed, 11 officers and 81 enlisted wounded from the ships complement of 298.
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Post by emron on Nov 19, 2017 21:30:57 GMT 12
19 November 1940 Italian troops were driven across the Kalamas River in northwestern Greece by Greek troops. A Bristol Beaufighter Mk I of 604 Squadron, based at Middle Wallop, Hants, claimed the first enemy aircraft shot down at night using AI Mk IV radar, a Ju88. Over the Atlantic a Sunderland flying boat used air-to-surface-vessel (ASV) radio-location gear for the first time to detect a U-boat nearing a convoy. RAF No. 80 Squadron, equipped with Gladiator Mk. II biplane fighters, arrived at Trikkala from Egypt. This was the third RAF squadron to arrive in Greece. Chancellor Adolf Hitler told Spanish Foreign Minister Serano Suner to make good on an agreement for Spain to attack Gibraltar. This would seal off the Mediterranean and trap British troops in North Africa. But the Spanish dictator, General Francisco Franco, did not want to commit his country to the war, even as he allowed German subs to refuel in Spanish ports and German spies to keep tabs on British naval forces in Gibraltar, he had instructed Suner to stall for time.
19 November 1941 Modified Leander class light cruiser HMAS Sydney (D 48) and German raider, the auxiliary cruiser, HK Kormoran exchanged gunfire, about 409 nautical miles northwest of Perth, Western Australia. Kormoran was sailing in disguise as Dutch freighter SS Straat Malakka and when challenged by Sydney, hoisted the German ensign and opened fire from approximately 4,300ft away around 17:30. The Sydney was hit first, her bridge and gunnery director tower badly damaged, reducing her firepower to half. Later in the battle Sydney was also struck by a torpedo that caused massive hull damage. Both ships became crippled and on fire. Sydney steamed slowly away from Kormoran south-southeast, still ablaze, and disappeared out of their sight; all 645 crewmen were lost. German survivors later said that they saw a glow on the southern horizon followed by a bright flash around 2400 hours; this could possibly have been caused by the cruiser's magazines exploding. HK Kormoran drifted for approximately five hours before being scuttled by her crew with explosive charges; 85 crewmen were lost but 315 made it to Australia where they were held as POWs. News of the battle broke when the first raft of German survivors was recovered by a British tanker on 24 November and the search for Sydney began. No trace of the ship or crew was found, Her loss was officially announced on 30 November. The Japanese embassy in Washington DC, was instructed that, should war be decided with the United States, Japanese public radio broadcast would signal with a code phrase. IJN carrier Shokaku departed the Inland Sea with carrier Zuikaku for Hittokappu Bay in the Kurile Islands to join the ships massing for the Hawaii Operation. Italian Ariete Division halted the advance of British 22nd Armoured Brigade at Bir el Gubi, Libya; 40 British Crusader tanks were destroyed or disabled. Elsewhere, British 7th Armoured Brigade continued its advance toward Tobruk, capturing Sidi Rezegh airfield in the process. To the north, tanks of the British 4th Armoured Brigade engaged German tanks of the 21st Panzer Division.
19 November 1942 At 7.30am 3,500 Russian guns thundered out the opening of a massive attack by the Red Army on the German salient before Stalingrad, the heaviest artillery barrage yet seen in the war in any theatre. The attack, codenamed URANUS, was planned in strict secrecy by General Zhukov and was aimed initially at the weakest links in the Axis positions - the Romanian forces north and south of the city. Operation Freshman, a British-Norwegian sabotage mission to the Vemork heavy water plant at Telemark, Norway, the first British operation using gliders, ended in failure. Both of the Horsa gliders and one of the Halifax MK III tow planes crashed before reaching the target. All of the survivors were captured and executed under Adolf Hitler's Commando Order. The British Eighth Army recaptured the key Libyan port of Benghazi as Rommel's Afrika Korps continued to retreat westwards. Elsewhere their armies were meeting tough resistance, the Germans had forced them back to Djebel Abiod; the French garrison withdrew from Medjez el Bab to Oued Zarga after repulsing German attacks utilizing tanks and infantry under General Nehring,
19 November 1943 In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Indian 8th Division sector, the Germans completed a withdrawal across the Sangro River, Italy. USS Yorktown (Essex-class) arrived at the launch point near Jaluit and Mili in the Marshall Islands early in the morning and launched the first of a series of raids to suppress enemy air-power during the amphibious assaults on Tarawa, Abemama, and Makin in the Gilbert Islands.
19 November 1944 The British XII and VII Corps advanced near Venlo, the Netherlands. In Germany Allied troops entered the Rhineland, and US tanks reached the Saar river. French Army attacks, in the south, reached Belfort and crossed into Switzerland north of Basel. In Burma, British troops launched Operation Extended Capital, aiming to sweep towards Rangoon and Meiktila on a wide front. In the British Fourteenth Army's IV Corps area, the Indian 19th Division began crossing the Chindwin River at Sittaung.
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Post by emron on Nov 18, 2017 21:16:10 GMT 12
18 November 1940 British cruiser HMS York departed Port Said, Egypt with a battalion of troops for Suda Bay, Crete and anti-aircraft guns for Piraeus, Greece. Chancellor Adolf Hitler met with Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano over Premier Benito Mussolini's disastrous invasion of Greece. At their meeting in Obersalzberg, Hitler berated Ciano for opening an opportunity for the British to enter Greece and establish an airbase in Athens, putting the British within striking distance of valuable oil reserves in Romania, which Hitler relied upon for his war machine. Mussolini's view was that he had to invade Greece because it had given the Allies use of important air and sea bases. In reality, Ioannis Metaxas's government in Greece had refused to allow the British to threaten the Romanian oilfields as they sought to avoid provoking the Germans. Hitler meanwhile, had already issued Directive 18 ordering the independent German invasion of Greece, planned for the following January. Overnight, RAF bombers raided Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr region of Germany, bombing the Scholven/Buer hydrogenation plant, which made aviation fuel and Gelsenberg-Benzin-AG plant, which converted bituminous coal to synthetic oil.
18 November 1941 Operation Crusader began: British, New Zealand and Indian troops of XXX Corps crossed into Libya from Egypt, with 450 cruiser tanks and 132 infantry models and more in the Tobruk Garrison. The Afrika Korps had 180 Mk III and IV tanks with 220 Italian and other German models. This British attack disrupted Rommel's plan to attack Tobruk on the 21st. After sundown, British cruisers HMS Naiad and HMS Euryalus and destroyers HMS Kipling and HMS Jackal bombarded German positions at Halfaya Pass. The Japanese Imperial Diet (legislature) secretly approved a "resolution of hostility" against the United States. Five mother submarines, HIJMS I-16, I-18, I-20, I-22 and I-24, each with a midget sub lashed to the deck, departed Kure Naval Base for Pearl Harbour. The submarines would arrive off Oahu, Hawaiian Islands, on 6 December. Nine submarines from Kwajalein would also sail for their stations. General John Dill, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff, was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. German 4th Panzer Army launched a 400-tank attack 70 miles west of Moscow, Russia, supported by 3 infantry divisions; Soviet 30th Army fell back northward to Klin, while Soviet 16th Army was pushed south to Istra. 120 miles south of Moscow, German 3rd Panzer Army was held up at Tula, with its latest attempt to surround the Soviet garrison there foiled by the newly-arrived Soviet 413th Rifle Division.
18 November 1942 Corvette HNoMS Montbretia (K208; Royal Norwegian Navy; Lt.Cdr. Halvor Søiland) was escorting Convoy ONS-144 in the Atlantic and while investigating a radar contact, she was hit in the starboard bow by one of three torpedoes fired from U-262. The torpedo explosion opened a large hole in the bow, the forecastle deck twisted upwards and caused the ammunition of the 4in gun to explode, sending debris of the gun platform over the after deck killing three men. The roof of the Asdic deck came down, the bridge distorted and the bulkheads in the wheelhouse stowed in, killing the helmsman. A second torpedo from U-262 struck on the port side in the boiler room, breaking the ship in two and caused her to sink rapidly. The HNoMS Potentilla picked up 20 survivors. 40 Norwegians and 8 British of the crew died, 8 of the survivors were wounded. The British Brigade at Djebel Abiod, Tunisia successfully defended against a German attack. Simultaneously French troops at Medjez el Bab also repelled an attack. General Louis Barre, the C-in-C of the French 19h Corps, rejected a German ultimatum to evacuate, signalling a switch from Vichy to the Allies. Light cruiser HMS Arethusa escorting Convoy MW-13 (Operation STONEAGE) from Alexandria, Egypt to Malta was hit by a aerial torpedo dropped by a low-flying aircraft. She was heavily damaged and suffered the loss of 156 crewmen. Towed back to Alexandria she later underwent total repair in the U.S. Naval Shipyard, Charleston, South Carolina. In Papua New Guinea, the Australian 16th Brigade, Maroubra Force, reached Popondetta, where airfield construction was immediately begun, and continued toward Soputa without making contact with the Japanese. In the Gona area, the Australian 2/33rd Battalion, 25th Brigade, took Jumbota and continued on towards Gona. On Guadalcanal, the 2nd Btn 182nd Infantry crossed the Matinakau River with cover provided by the 8th Marines. They reached the top of Hill 66 around noon against only minor resistance.
18 November 1943 RAF Bomber Command launched a concerted series of attacks on Berlin, the "Battle of Berlin". During the first attack, more than 700 tons of bombs were dropped. Over a five-month period Berlin was attacked 32 times and hit by 25,000 tons of bombs, killing more than 6,000 and leaving 1.5 million homeless; RAF lost 1,047 aircraft during this campaign. Soviet troops force the Dnieper River near Cherkassy, southeast of Kiev, and took Ovruch, northwest of Kiev, but continued to fall back under German pressure in the Zhitomir area. The German XXXXVIII Pz. K. recaptured Zhitomir overnight, then turn their attack to the north-east. To the north, German forces in Gomel are imperilled by rapid expansion of the Rechitsa salient.
18 November 1944 In Paris, De Gaulle set up a high court of five magistrates and 24 jurors to try Vichy leaders and collaborators. Allied forces, now joined by a third US army, Lieutenant-General William H. Simpson's Ninth, were poised for a three pronged drive into Germany. The US First and Ninth Armies stood before the Aachen Gap, a 20-mile stretch of open country between Stolberg and Heinsberg. Here, the Roer river had almost certainly been incorporated into the Siegfried Line defences. Montgomery's 21st Army Group stood to the north. To the south, Patton's Third Army still had to capture Metz and Thionville in order to secure a passage through Lorraine to the Saar. The French First Army drove seven miles through the Belfort Gap. All over Burma, along an 800-mile front, the Japanese army was on the defensive. Chinese and US troops in the north, reinforced by the 36th Indian Division, were pushing down the "railway corridor" towards Indaw, while further south in central Burma the Anglo-Indian Fourteenth Army was preparing to cross the Chindwin and the Irrawaddy. In the Philippine Sea, destroyer escort USS Lawrence C. Taylor and a TBM Avenger of the escort aircraft carrier USS Anzio sank Japanese submarine HIJMS I-41 about 345 nautical miles east-northeast of Tacloban, Leyte, Philippine Islands. This was the second submarine sunk by these units in two days.
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Post by emron on Nov 17, 2017 23:01:14 GMT 12
17 November 1887 Bernard Montgomery was born in Kennington, London, England.
17 November 1924 The aircraft carrier USS Langley (CV-1) reported for duty with the Battle Fleet, thereby ending over two years in experimental status and becoming the first operational aircraft carrier in the U.S. Navy.
17 November 1940 British Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding was removed as the head of RAF Fighter Command and Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park from command of 11 Group, after losing a political struggle with Sholto Douglas and other Big Wing proponents. Greek 3rd Army Corps engaged in heavy fighting with Italian 9th Army near Korcë, Albania. Operation White: Aircraft carrier HMS Argus launched 12 Hurricane and 2 Skua aircraft to reinforce Malta, but 6 Hurricane aircraft were ditched at sea and 1 Skua aircraft crash landed on Sicily, Italy after becoming lost.
17 November 1941 Congress amended Neutrality Act to allow US merchant ships to be armed. Navy's Bureau of Navigation directed Navy personnel with Armed Guard training to be assigned for further training before going to Armed Guard Centres for assignment to merchant ships. The United States delivered escort carrier Archer to the United Kingdom, the first of 38 escort carriers that would be delivered during the war under Lend-Lease. German troops near Moscow fought Central Asian troops for the first time (Soviet 44th Cavalry Division) at Musino, 70 miles west of the capital. German artillery blunted the cavalry charges, with the Germans claiming 2,000 killed. Following twelve months of illness, depression and strain at the Luftwaffe's increasing losses on the Eastern Front, Generaloberst Ernst Udet, the German Director General of Air Armament, committed suicide. British Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Keyes led the daring Operation Flipper commando raid to either kill or capture Rommel at his Afrika Korps Headquarters at Sidi-Rafa. Keyes was mortally wounded and the other commandos were forced to withdraw. Only two men made it back, the rest being either killed or captured. Keyes would be awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross even though the raid was doomed from the start - Rommel was not even at Sidi-Rafa. German submarine U-331 landed eight commandos on the Egyptian coast to mine the railway line near Daba, 60 miles west of Alexandria. They would soon be captured before they completed their mission.
17 November 1942 American troops captured Gafsa, Tunisia and British 36th Brigade engaged German forces at Djebel Abiod, Tunisia. German General Walter Nehring arrived in Tunis, Tunisia to lead a counterattack against the Allies. The Italians formally absorbed the French Protectorate of Tunisia into the borders of Italian North Africa. A convoy passed Gibraltar bound for Malta. They would reach Malta on the 20th. None of the four transports will be sunk. This was Operation Stonehenge. Convoy MW-13 (Egypt to Malta) consisting of four merchant vessels escorted by the light cruisers HMS Euryalus, Dido and Arethusa with ten destroyers, departed Alexandria to also deliver badly needed supplies to Malta. This was known as Operation Stoneage. 1,000 fresh Japanese troops are landed by sea at Buna, Gona and Sanananda, New Guinea. The strong fortifications built since September now have a full complement of defenders. USAAF Fifth Air Force B-26 Marauders hit Gona Mission as the US 32nd Infantry and Australian 7th Divisions continue to move toward the Buna-Gona beachhead. B-25 Mitchells bomb airfields at Lae, Northeast New Guinea.
17 November 1943 Some Red Army units in the Kiev sector overrun Korosten, endangering the German's supply system, but others are threatened with encirclement in Zhitomir as the German counteroffensive for Zhitomir gains ground. To the north, Soviet forces overrun Rechitsa and close in on Gomel. In the Solomons Sea Japanese "Judy" bombers (Kugisho D4Y1, Carrier Bombers Suisei) attacked a convoy carrying Marine reinforcements to Bougainville. High-speed transport USS McKean (APD-5) was struck by a torpedo and the after magazine, containing the depth charges, exploded and ruptured the fuel tanks. Minutes later the forward magazine blew up and the ship began to sink by the stern. The ship was carrying 185 Marines; 64 of her crew and 52 Marines were lost. The ship sank about 21 nautical miles south-southwest of Torokina, Bougainville, Australian 9th Division launched an offensive to take Sattelberg, New Guinea.The 20th, 24th and 26th Brigades, assisted by tanks, aircraft, and artillery, participated in the battle.
17 November 1944 The French offensive near Belfort reached Montbeliad. Both the US 3rd and 7th Armies advanced in the wake of German withdrawals. The US 1st and 9th Armies gained ground near Aachen, Germany. In the British Second Army area, XII Corps got forward elements to the Maas River across from Roermond and took Wessem, the Netherlands. In the British Eighth Army's Polish II Corps area, hard fighting developed on Mt. Fortino, north of Converselle, Italy, which the Germans lost and then regained in a counterattack. In Burma, thirty three USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts hit troop and vehicle concentrations and supply areas at Manlu, Loi-Lum, Nawngmoloi, and Kyaukme; ten P-47s supported ground forces in the northern Burma railroad corridor near Meza; 16 others swept the rail line from Hsipaw to Sedaw hitting rolling stock, gun positions and other targets of opportunity while three bombed the Meza railroad station; and 16 others strafed airfields at Nawnghkio, Anisakan, and Onbauk. Nine B-25 Mitchells bombed bridges at Lashio, knocking out a bypass bridge and damaging others; several machinegun positions were silenced in the bridge area.
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Post by emron on Nov 17, 2017 20:41:39 GMT 12
16 November 1940 Coventry: The Home Secretary, Herbert Morrison, escorted King George VI through the ruins of the city The Greeks, with little mechanized equipment and an obsolete air force, turn back the Italian invaders and penetrate into Albania. Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, expecting a speedy and overwhelming victory, is embarrassed by the failure of the poorly planned invasion. RAF No. 84 Squadron arrived at Menidi Airfield with Blenheim Mk. I light bombers and is assigned to HQ British Air Forces in Greece. This is the second RAF squadron to arrive in Greece from Egypt.
16 November 1941 German forces continued their almost unimpeded advance through the Crimea. Kerch had fallen and Sevastopol was besieged with the Soviet resistance being very stubborn. Their advance on Moscow continued very slowly. Two newly arrived battalions consisting of 96 officers and 1,877 Canadian troops, The Royal Rifles of Canada and The Winnipeg Grenadiers will boost the garrison at Hong Kong. The 212 vehicles assigned to the force are aboard the freighter SS Don Jose but these vehicles will never reach Hong Kong.
16 November 1942 In Papua New Guinea, the U.S. 32nd Infantry and Australian 7th Divisions moved forward to eliminate the Buna-Gona beachhead. In the Australian 7th Division sector on the west, the 25th Brigade moved toward Gona and Sanananda and the 16th Brigade completed crossing the Kumusi River and moved forward to Popondetta, about 15 miles southwest of Buna. To the east, the U.S. 32nd Infantry Division’s 126th Infantry Regiment headed for Buna along the axis Inonda-Horanda-Dobodura, and the Warren Force (based on 128th Infantry Regiment) moved the along coast toward Cape Endaiadere. Although by evening the Australian artillery was employed to support coastal advance, Warren Force suffered a severe blow when small craft bringing urgently needed supplies were destroyed by Japanese planes; among personnel embarked on these was Major General Edwin F. Harding, Commanding General U.S. 32d Infantry Division, who swam to shore.
16 November 1943 British Admiral Louis Mountbatten was appointed Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia Command (SEAC). Greek Dodecanese: Germany captured Leros, and the Allies decide to evacuate all the islands except Castelrosso. Germans carried out severe reprisals against the Italians who cooperated with British forces. Submarine USS Corvina (SS-226) was sunk by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-176, about 173 nautical miles south-southeast of Truk Atoll, Caroline Islands. All 82 crewmen were lost. Corvina was the only USN submarine sunk by a Japanese submarine in World War II. Allied bombers attacked the Vemork heavy water plant in Norway, which was in the process of being rebuilt by the Germans.
16 November 1944 In Germany the U.S. Ninth and First Armies opened a co-ordinated offensive to clear the Roer Plain between the Wurm and the Roer Rivers. The combined air-ground effort was called Operation QUEEN. The air phase of QUEEN marked the greatest close support effort yet made by Allied air forces, British and U.S. strategic and tactical air forces joining in the assault on relatively small zone of attack and dropping more than 9,400 tons of high-explosive bombs. RAF Bomber Command was asked to bomb three towns near the German lines in the area between Aachen and the Rhine in support of Operation QUEEN. The RAF dispatched 1,188 aircraft to attack Duren, Jülich and Heinsburg in order to cut communications behind the German lines. Duren was attacked by 485 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitos, Jülich by 413 Halifaxes, 78 Lancasters and 17 Mosquitos and Heinsberg by 182 Lancasters. Three Lancasters were lost on the Duren raid and a Lancaster on the Heinsberg raid. Twelve USAAF Seventh Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts and three P-38 Lightnings hit the airfield on Pagan Island in the first combat strike by P-38s on the Mariana Islands.
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Post by emron on Nov 15, 2017 23:25:28 GMT 12
15 November 1891 Erwin Rommel was born in Heidenheim an der Brenz near Ulm in the Duchy of Swabia in the Kingdom of Wüttemberg, southwestern Germany.
15 November 1939 The British tanker MV Africa Shell is stopped and sunk in the Indian Ocean by the Admiral Graf Spee. Prime Minister Robert Menzies announces that Australia will participate in the Empire Air Training Scheme and provide help and train 10,000 aircrew per year for the RAF.
15 November 1940 A convoy of 5 transports, escorted by British warships, departed from Alexandra, Egypt for Pireaus, Greece, carrying 4,230 troops, 700 trucks, gasoline, and other supplies. U.S. naval air operations began from Bermuda, one of the bases involved in the destroyers-for-bases pact with the U.K. First to operate are the PBY-2 Catalinas of Patrol Squadron Fifty Four (VP-54) based on the seaplane tender (destroyer) USS George E. Badger (AVD-3).
15 November 1941 The converted passenger liner HMT Awatea arrived at Hong Kong this evening, carrying 2,000 Canadian troops under Brigadier J Lawson. German Panzergruppen 1, 2, and 3, with 2, 4, and 9.Armeen, resumed the attack on Moscow. Soviet 30th Army was pushed back from the Volga Reservoir and Moscow Sea Reservoir areas 75 miles north of Moscow. Across the Eastern Front, the temperature fell to -20 degrees Celsius, freezing both men and machines; the German offensive was generally slowed to a yard-by-yard advance from this date on. US Army dispatched troops to Dutch Guiana to protect bauxite mines; this was agreed upon by the Dutch government-in-exile.
15 November 1942 Second Naval Battle of Guadalcanal: Battleship USS Washington passed through the area still occupied by the damaged and sinking U.S. destroyers and fired on destroyer Ayanami with her secondary batteries, setting her afire. Meanwhile USS South Dakota suffered a series of electrical failures, making her radar, radios, and most of her gun batteries inoperable. Almost blind and unable to effectively fire her main and secondary armament, South Dakota took 26 hits —some of which did not explode— that completely knocked out her communications and remaining gunfire control operations, set portions of her upper decks on fire, and forced her to try to steer away from the engagement. All of the Japanese torpedoes missed From close range. Washington opened fire and quickly hit battleship Kirishima with at least nine (and possibly up to 20) main battery shells and at least seventeen secondary ones, disabling all of Kirishima's main gun turrets, causing major flooding, and setting her aflame. Kirishima was hit below the waterline and suffered a jammed rudder, causing her to circle uncontrollably to port. Most of the Japanese warships broke contact and retired from the area by 01:30. Ayanami was scuttled by Uranami at 2:00, while Kirishima capsized and sank by 03:25. The engagement was one of only two battleship-against-battleship surface battles in the entire Pacific campaign of World War II. Allied forces captured Derna, Libya, along with the nearby Martuba airfield, which immediately became the new forward base for conducting air operations. British troops captured Tebarka, Tunisia and American paratroopers captured Youks-les-Bains, Algeria. Algeria: French Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan assumes the position of High Commissioner of France for North and West Africa, appointing General Henri-Honeré Giraud as commander in chief of French armed forces in North Africa. At 0305, escort carrier HMS Avenger was torpedoed by U-155 47 nautical miles south of Faro, Portugal. The ship had participated in the Operation TORCH landings of North Africa and departed Gibraltar with convoy MKF-1 (Mediterranean to U.K.) yesterday. U-155 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the convoy and one of them hit Avenger on the port side amidships, which in turn ignited her bomb room, blowing out the centre section of the ship. Her bow and stern sections rose in the air and sank within two minutes, leaving only 12 survivors of the 526 crewmen aboard.
15 November 1943 The British attempt to retake Leros, Greece failed The Allied Expeditionary Air Force was formed in preparation for the eventual invasion of northern Europe US Fifth Army's offensive was halted in southern Italy in order to reorganize in preparation for another assault on the Winter Line.
15 November 1944 The US 3rd Army again attacked near Metz. They cut the rail line south of there, which goes to Sarrebourg. From there south into the US 7th Army sector the advance gained ground consistently along the front.
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Post by emron on Nov 15, 2017 20:34:45 GMT 12
14 November 1940 As Greek troops began to cross into Albanian borders, the Axis suffered its first land defeat of the war. The first contingent of aircrew (observers) to graduate from advanced training in Canada embarked for Britain. A massive night time raid on Coventry, England by 437 German He 111 bombers, dubbed Operation Moonlight Sonata, killed 568, injured 863, and destroyed 60,000 buildings (including the city's 14th Century cathedral). Only one German bomber was shot down by anti-aircraft fire.
14 November 1941 Despite intensive heroic salvage efforts, carrier HMS Ark Royal sank off Gibraltar at 0619 hours from the damage sustained in the previous day's German submarine attack. Ark Royal's complement 1,487 officers and crew had all made it to safety before she capsized, broke in two and sank. The sole fatality was Able Seaman Edward Mitchell killed by the initial torpedo blast. With HMS Illustrious and HMS Formidable both under repair in the USA, the Mediterranean Fleet was left without a carrier. Ark Royal's Captain Maund was court-martialled in February 1942 for negligence. He was found guilty of failing to ensure that properly constituted damage control parties remained on board after the initial general evacuation. Operation Flipper: After dark, submarines HMS Torbay and HMS Talisman delivered 36 British commandos of No. 11 (Scottish) Group behind enemy lines in Libya.
14 November 1942 Second Naval Battle of Guadalacanal: After sustaining more damage from air attacks, IJN battleship Hiei sank northwest of Savo Island, perhaps after being scuttled by her remaining crew, in the late evening of the previous day. The 8th Fleet cruiser force, under the command of Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa, included the heavy cruisers Chōkai, Kinugasa, Maya, and Suzuya, the light cruisers Isuzu and Tenryū, and six destroyers arrived from Rabaul overnight. Mikawa's force was able to slip into the Guadalcanal area uncontested, Suzuya and Maya bombarded Henderson Field while the rest of Mikawa's force cruised around Savo Island, guarding against any U.S. surface attack. The 35-minute bombardment caused some damage to various aircraft and facilities on the airfield but did not put it out of operation. The cruiser force ended the bombardment around 02:30 cleared the area to head towards Rabaul on a course south of the New Georgia island group. At daybreak, aircraft from Henderson Field, Espiritu Santo, and Enterprise —stationed 200nmi south of Guadalcanal— began their attacks, first on Mikawa's force heading away from Guadalcanal, and then on the transport force heading towards the island. The attacks on Mikawa's force sank Kinugasa, killing 511 of her crew, and damaged Maya, forcing her to return to Japan for repairs. Repeated air attacks on the transport force overwhelmed the escorting Japanese fighter aircraft, sank six of the transports, and forced one more to turn back with heavy damage (it later sank). A third Japanese Force under command of Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondō, including battleship Kirishima, heavy cruisers Atago and Takao, light cruisers Nagara and Sendai, and nine destroyers approached Guadalcanal around midnight. New US battleships Washington and South Dakota, of Enterprise's support group were detached together with four destroyers, as TF64 under Admiral Willis A. Lee, to defend Guadalcanal and Henderson Field. A battle commenced at 23:22, destroyers Walke and Preston were hit and sunk within 10 minutes with heavy loss of life. The destroyer Benham had part of her bow blown off by a torpedo and had to retreat (she sank the next day), and destroyer Gwin was hit in her engine room and put out of the fight. The battleships continued the engagement past midnight. At 1947 hours, the Italian cargo/passenger ship SS Scillin was torpedoed and sunk by the British submarine HMS/M Sahib in the Tyrrhenian Sea 10 nautical miles north of Cape Milazzo, northern Sicily. The ship was carrying about 815 Commonwealth POWs from Tunisia to Sicily. Sahib rescued 27 POWs from the water (26 British and one South African) plus the Scillin's captain and 45 Italian crew members. Only then, when Sahib's captain heard the survivors speaking English, did he realize that he had sunk a ship carrying Allied POWs and some Italian soldiers and had drowned 783 men. The Ministry of Defence kept this incident a closely guarded secret for 54-years, it was not until 1996 that the truth came out. The 20,107 ton British troop transport SS Warwick Castle in convoy MKF-1X (Mediterranean to U.K.) had landed troops for the North Africa landings and was empty on her return voyage. The ship was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-413 about 203 nautical miles west of Lisbon. Of the 428 men aboard, 314 survived; this was one of the largest ships sunk by U-boats in World War II.
14 November 1943 Battleship USS Iowa (BB-61) and her escorts were east of Bermuda. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was aboard en route from the U.S. to Casablanca. During battle drills destroyer USS William D. Porter (DD-579) inadvertently fired a live torpedo at Iowa. Signalled an urgent warning, the battleship took evasive action, the torpedo exploded some 3,000 yards astern.
14 November 1944 Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and his wife Doris died today when the Avro York transport carrying them to Ceylon crashed during atrocious weather in the French Alps. Sir Trafford was on his way to take up his new appointment as commander of the Allied air forces in South-east Asia (SEAC). Buried in snow, the wreck was not found until June, 1945. British troops attacked Andelse Maas, the Netherlands. General De Lattres's Free French troops launched a snow-bound attack against Belfort, France. To the north, US 95th Division started capturing forts around Metz, France. Italy: In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, the 4th Division reached the Montone River in the region north of Highway 9. Advancing along the highway, the 167th Brigade of the 56th Division crossed the Montone River. South of Highway 9, the 6th Division continued toward the Samoggia River.
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Post by emron on Nov 14, 2017 8:05:17 GMT 12
13 November 1939 German destroyers Karl Galster, Wilhelm Heidkamp, Hermann Kunne and Hans Ludemann laid a minefield in the South and Edinburgh channels of the Thames Estuary. The Minelaying Cruiser HMS Adventure soon after ran into a mine. She was temporarily disabled, the injured of her crew were transferred to the destroyer HMS Basilisk. As the force made its way towards safety HMS Blanche detonated a magnetic mine and settled by the stern. The tug Fabia went to the destroyer’s assistance but as she was towed the destroyer capsized and sank. HMS Blanche the first destroyer lost by the Royal Navy in WW2, she lost two crew killed and twelve injured. German bombers dropped bombs on British soil for the first time today at the Shetland Islands. Damage was confined to a deserted crofter's cottage and a rabbit. The bombers missed naval vessels and anchored flying boats. The Germans claimed hits on a cruiser and two aircraft. "This is only the beginning," said their spokesman. This led to the famous Flannigan and Allen song 'Run Rabbit Run', popular with the BEF.
13 November 1940 Willys-Overland delivered two prototype “Quads” to the Army Vehicle Test Centre at Camp Holabird, Maryland for evaluation, one with four-wheel steering. These would evolve into Willys' later contract winning model MB, to become commonly known as the Jeep. By the end of the day, Greek troops had pushed most Italian troops in northern Greece back to the Albanian border.
13 November 1941 Returning to Gibraltar in Force H, carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed by U-81. By the time she was brought to a stop the ship had taken on water and begun to list to starboard. Fearing imminent capsize, Captain Maund immediately ordered abandon ship and ensured the crew was evacuated to destroyer HMS Legion standing alongside. Only then was damage control initiated and the salvage teams fought to keep her afloat overnight. The Germans today resumed their attack on Moscow. Taking advantage of the frost-hardened ground, they launched one of their customary pincer movements in a final attempt to capture the city before the winter struck the exposed German army with all its severity.
13 November 1942 (Friday) USS Helena detected Japanese warships with her radar off Guadalcanal at 0124 hours. The First Naval Battle of Guadalcanal was joined after the two sides sighted each other. Light cruiser USS Atlanta, irreparably damaged by Japanese naval gunfire and torpedo as well as by friendly fire from heavy cruiser USS San Francisco, was scuttled by demolition charges off Lunga Point. Also sunk were destroyers USS Cushing and Monssen to gunfire, USS Laffey to gunfire and torpedo, and USS Barton to two torpedoes. Heavy cruiser USS Portland suffered torpedo damage; USS San Francisco, light cruiser USS Helena and destroyer USS Aaron Ward were damaged by gunfire; and friendly fire damaged destroyer USS O'Bannon. Rear Admiral Norman Scott was killed aboard Atlanta. Task Force commander Rear Admiral Daniel Callaghan was killed on the bridge of San Francisco along with her Captain, Commander Cassin Young. Captain Gilbert Hoover, commanding officer of USS Helena and the senior surviving US officer, gave the order for all Americans to disengage from battle after 40 minutes of fighting. Battleship HIJMS Hiei, damaged by gunfire from heavy cruisers USS Portland and San Francisco and destroyers USS Cushing, Laffey, and O'Bannon, was sunk by TBF Avengers. Destroyer HIJMS Akatsuki was sunk by San Francisco and Atlanta gunfire near Savo Island. Destroyer HIJMS Yudachi, damaged by gunfire, was sunk by USS Portland southeast of Savo Island. Japanese destroyers HIJMS Murasame, Ikazuchi, and Amatsukaze were damaged by gunfire; destroyer HIJMS Yukikaze was damaged by aircraft, off Guadalcanal. The light cruiser USS Juneau damaged by gunfire and steaming south from last night's action [early morning of the 13th] with San Francisco, Helena and two destroyers, was torpedoed by Japanese submarine HIJMS I-26 about 121 nautical miles southeast of Henderson Field. A massive explosion occurred and the Juneau disappeared. With her go 683 sailors, only ten survivors were rescued over the next seven days.
13 November 1943 The British escort destroyer HMS Dulverton (L 63) was sunk by a Henschel Hs 293A glider bomb from a German Do.217 aircraft, off Kos Island in the Dodecanese Islands. The glider bomb struck abreast the bridge, inflicting serious damage and starting extensive fires. The destroyer sustained heavy casualties, but her escorts took off six officers and 114 ratings before she was scuttled two hours later, by destroyer HMS Belvoir (L 32). Three officers, including Captain of the 5th Destroyer Flotilla, and 75 ratings were lost. Eighteen USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators, staging through Funafuti and Nanumea airfields in the Ellice Islands, attacked Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll. One B-24 was lost to anti-aircraft fire. Fires were started that could be seen up to 60 nautical miles away. This was the first attack in preparation for the upcoming invasion. The Japanese submarine HIJMS I-34 was on a "Yanagi" mission to German-occupied France. Radio traffic between Tokyo and Berlin concerning the I-34's mission was transmitted in diplomatic code but intercepted and deciphered by Allied code-breakers. Alerted by an "Ultra" special intelligence signal, the British submarine HMS/M Taurus (P 339) sighted I-34 running on the surface. Six torpedoes were fired at the Japanese sub and one hit the starboard side just below her conning tower. She sank at 100 feet about 16 nautical miles west-southwest of Penang, Malaya. Twenty crewmen in an after section survived the attack and managed to escape through a deck hatch. Of these, 13 were picked up by a native junk and arrived at Penang that evening, but 84 crewmembers were lost. The I-34 was the first Japanese submarine sunk by a British submarine.
13 November 1944 In France the US 3rd Army has crossed the Moselle River north of Thionville. To the south they advanced toward Falquemont and Morhange. German units withdrew from St. Dies in the face of pressure from the US 7th Army. In Italy, in the U.S. Fifth Army's British XIII Corps area, the Indian 8th Division renewed their assault on Mt. TS. Bartolo and took it in hard fighting. The Anglo-Greek agreement of 9 March 1942 was amended in order to place Greek armed forces under the British high command. All of Greece has now been liberated.
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Post by emron on Nov 12, 2017 22:31:23 GMT 12
12 November 1940 The 19 surviving Swordfish aircraft of the 21 sent to attack Taranto, Italy at 2300 hours on the previous day returned to the British carrier HMS Illustrious. Italian battleships Vittorio Veneto, Andrea Doria, and Giulio Cesare, having survived the attack, departed the harbour with cruisers in escort for Naples, to avoid being caught by a second attack by the British, which was planned but failed to launch due to bad weather. Vichy French forces in Gabon, French Equitorial Africa surrendered to Free French forces at Port Gentil 70 miles south of Libreville. Having successfully negotiated the surrender, Governor Georges Pierre Masson committed suicide shortly after the agreement was reached. Adolf Hitler issued a directive to the German army to be prepared in invade Greece so that the Luftwaffe could attack airfields from which the RAF might attack the oilfields of Romania. Adolf Hitler issued Directive 18; one part of the directive was identified as Operation FELIX, the code name for the capture of Gibraltar, the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands. It was never put into effect.
12 November 1941 General Huntziger, the Vichy war minister, was killed in a plane accident, 50 miles north of Nimes, France. He was returning from a mission to North Africa, to consult General Weygand on a possible German bid to use French North Africa. Germans sank cruiser Chervona Ukraina, the only one lost by Soviets in World War Two. She was hit three times by bombs from Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers while in the South Bay of Sevastopol. The British aircraft carriers HMS Argus and Ark Royal fly off 37 Hurricanes to Malta. The two carriers are escorted by Force H, formed by battleship HMS Malaya, light cruiser HMS Hermione and seven destroyers.
12 November 1942 German submarine U-130 hit troopships USS Tasker H. Bliss, USS Hugh L. Scott, and USS Edward Rutledge with torpedoes while anchored in Fedhala Roads, Morocco, unloading cargo. All three were set on fire and later sank killing 74. Eleven Japanese transports carrying 13,500 troops and supported by a force of cruisers and two battleships, HIJMS Kirishima and Hiei, leave the Shortland Island area and head for Guadalcanal. Six U.S. transports of USN Task Force 67 unloaded about 6,000 troops, including Regimental Combat Team 182 of the Armybs Americal Division, in Lunga Roads, Guadalcanal, under the protection of air and surface forces. They were ordered to depart by early evening to avoid Japanese naval attack. The remaining force under the command of Rear-Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan consisted of two heavy cruisers; USS San Francisco and Portland, three light cruisers; USS Helena, Juneau, and Atlanta, and eight destroyers.
12 November 1943 A combined German sea and airborne attack began on the British-held Greek island of Leros. The Russians captured Korostyshev and enter Zhitomir, west of Kiev. This is an important rail centre on the last rail line available to the Germans east of the Pripet marshes. In Italy the Allied advance was at the Germans Reinhard Line. The British 56th Division is forced to withdraw from some positions on Monte Camino. The Japanese withdraw the remaining 52 aircraft of their aircraft carrier groups that have been flying off land bases at Rabaul. Of 173 aircraft that arrived on 20 October, 121 have been lost, most with their pilots. In the Treasury Islands, the 8th Brigade Group, New Zealand 3rd Division, completed the elimination of a small Japanese garrison on Mono Island, the large island north of Stirling Island. For 205 Japanese dead counted, 40 New Zealanders and 12 Americans lost their lives. Japanese submarine HIJMS I-21 torpedoed the U.S. troopship SS Cape San Juan about 242 nautical miles south of Suva, Fiji. The ship was en route from San Francisco to Townsville, Australia, with 49 crewmen, 41 USN Armed Guards and 1,348 Army troops. Sixteen men are killed when the torpedo hit the ship and a further 114 drowned while abandoning ship. The survivors were picked up by a merchant vessel, a USN destroyer and a Pan American Airways flying boat. Attempts were made to tow Cape San Juan to port, but she sank the next day. President Roosevelt embarked on battleship USS Iowa to sail to Casablanca from where he would continue on to the Allied conferences at Teheran and Cairo.
12 November 1944 Operation Catechism: 31 RAF Lancaster bombers attacked German battleship Tirpitz, at anchor in Tromsofiord, Norway, with Tallboy bombs, scoring three hits and several near misses. Tirpitz capsized, killing 971 out of the estimated 1,700 aboard. In France US troops ford the Moselle river at Cattenom.
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Post by emron on Nov 11, 2017 19:59:02 GMT 12
11 November 1918 At 0500 hours local, an Armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiegne, France to be effective at the 11th hour, on the 11th day of the 11th month. Thus, World War I ended.
11 November 1939 In a radio broadcast message from Buckingham Palace, Queen Elizabeth called on women of the Empire to participate in the war effort. "War has at all times called for the fortitude of women," she said, "but now we, no less than men, have real and vital work to do. To us also is given the proud privilege of serving our country in her hour of need."
11 November 1940 At 2300 hours, 21 Swordfish aircraft of British carrier HMS Illustrious flew over Taranto Italy, where the Italian fleet was anchored. 11 aircraft attacked with torpedoes, sinking battleships Conte di Cavour, Littorio and Caio Duilio. 10 aircraft attacked the inner harbour, causing minor damage on shore facilities. 2 aircraft were shot down (2 killed, 2 captured). German armed merchant cruiser Atlantis stopped British ship Automedon with gunfire in the Bay of Bengal, killing 7 crew and 1 gunner. The crew of Atlantis boarded Automedon, capturing 87 survivors, cargo of food and cigarettes, and top secret Royal Navy documents detailing military deployment in Asia and code schemes. Seven Lockheed Hudson Mk. IIIs arrived at RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland, for Coastal Command, having flown direct from Gander, Newfoundland, in 10.5 hours. This marked the beginning of Hudson deliveries by air.
11 November 1941 Ten Japanese submarines departed from Yokosuka Naval Base in Japan for Kwajalein of the Marshall Islands, where they would proceed for US Territory of Hawaii.
11 November 1942 Germany withdrew 25 submarines from the North Atlantic to attack the Allied shipping off North Africa; on the same day, submarine U-173 damaged destroyer USS Hambleton, oiler USS Winooski and troopship USS Joseph Hewes near Casablanca, French Morocco, sinking Joseph Hewes and killing 100. U-407 torpedoed and sank the 19,627 ton British merchant freighter SS Viceroy of India about 47 nautical miles north-northeast of Oran, Algeria. Troopship HMT Awatea was attacked by Axis aircraft at Bougie, Algeria, after disembarking troops and cargo. She was bombed and set afire, the crew abandoned her and she sank in the night. All resistance by French forces in Morocco ceased by 0700 hours local. The U.S. Western Task Force cancelled it's attack on Casablanca because of the armistice and the 3rd Infantry Division entered the city at 0730 hours. X Corps, British Eighth Army, drove the last of the Axis forces from Egypt and entered Libya via Halfaya Pass, taking Bardia without opposition. The 1st and 7th Armoured Divisions continued the pursuit of Axis while the New Zealand 2nd Division paused at the frontier to reorganize. German troops marched into unoccupied France today, allegedly to save Vichy from Allied invasion. Italian troops landed on Corsica and moved into mainland France. Two Japanese armed merchant cruisers, Hokoku Maru and Aikoku Maru, attacked the Indian minesweeper HMIS Bengal (J 243) escorting the empty armed Dutch tanker SS Ondina about 1,444 nautical miles west-northwest of Perth, Australia. Both Bengal and Ondina returned fire, one shell hit the torpedo tubes on Hokoku Maru causing the torpedoes to explode and turning the ship into a flaming wreck and she sank. HMIS Bengal fired at Aikoku Maru until she ran out of ammunition and steamed away leaving SS Ondina. When the crew of Ondina fired their last shell the captain ordered "Abandon Ship." Aikoku Maru approached the tanker and fired two torpedoes which struck the ship and exploded but did not sink her despite a 30-35 degree list. The Japanese then opened fire on the three lifeboats and two rafts, fired another torpedo at the tanker which missed, picked up survivors from the Hokoku Maru and then departed the area. The tanker was still afloat and the crew reboarded her and set sail for Fremantle, Western Australia. HMIS Bengal arrived at Diego Garcia Island on 17 November while SS Ondina arrived at Fremantle on 18 November. After the failure of this engagement, the Japanese discontinued their armed merchant cruiser program. The Japanese force at Gavaga Creek, Guadalcanal, under a combined US Marine and US Army attack since 9 Nov, began to fall back toward the Metapona River to avoid envelopment. Meanwhile, the US Army 182nd Infantry Regiment (less the 3rd Batallion) arrived at Guadalcanal.
11 November 1943 276 US Navy carrier aircraft (78 from USS Saratoga, 29 from USS Princeton, 69 from USS Bunker Hill, 75 from USS Essex, and 25 from USS Independence), 23 land-based US Navy F4U-1 fighters, 1 squadron of land-based US Navy F6F fighters, and 23 US Army Air Forces B-24 bombers attacked Rabaul. Battleship USS Alabama departed Fiji in support of the Gilbert Islands operation.
11 November 1944 US Third Army established 3 bridgeheads across the Moselle River in northern France. In response, German First Armee moved its headquarters out of Metz. In the British Eighth Army's Corps area, the 4th Division broke through just beyond Forli and advanced toward the Montone River, Italy. USN Task Group 30.2 (Rear Admiral Allan E. Smith) consisting of three heavy cruisers and five destroyers, bombarded airfields and other Japanese shore installations on Iwo Jima; the shelling commenced shortly before midnight and continued into 12 November. PB4Y Liberators screen the group's approach, spot gunfire, and cover the retirement.
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Post by emron on Nov 11, 2017 13:24:09 GMT 12
75 years ago today.
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Post by emron on Nov 11, 2017 10:34:44 GMT 12
10 November 1941 A troop convoy designated WS-124 sailed from Halifax. Consisting mainly of U.S. Transports it had a U.S. Escort as far as South Africa, formed around the aircraft carrier USS Ranger (CV-4). Among the transports were the three premier liners of the American merchant marine (America, Manhattan and Washington), now in Navy service as USS West Point, Wakefield and Mount Vernon, respectively, transporting more than 20,000 British soldiers. The convoy was initially destined for Basra. The Operation Perpetual convoy, escorted by battleship HMS Malaya, cruiser HMS Hermione, and seven destroyers, departed from Gibraltar. At the center of the convoy, British carriers HMS Ark Royal and HMS Argus were tasked with delivering 37 Hurricane fighters for Malta. Churchill announces in a speech: "... should the United States become involved in a war with Japan, a British declaration of war will follow within the hour."
10 November 1942 At Algiers, French Admiral Francois Darlan, commander of the Vichy French military, acting on the advice of General Alphonse Pierre Juin, Commander-in-Chief French Morocco, orders a general cease fire of Vichy troops throughout French North Africa. In Algeria, Oran falls to US forces and by early evening, General Juin had surrendered Algiers. In Morocco French resistance in the Port Lyautey area ends and U.S. forces from Fedala closed in on Casablanca. In Libya, the British Eighth Army takes Sidi Barrani recently evacuated by Panzerarmee Afrika. In Egypt Lieutenant-General Bernard Law Montgomery is knighted and promoted to General. The British Eighth Army clears the Halfaya Pass. Churchill told a Mansion House dinner tonight: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps the end of the beginning" for the Allies. The 25th Australian Brigade takes Gorari. This cuts off General Horii and the Japanese forces at Oivi, New Guinea. The US 2nd Marine Regiment, US 8th Marine Regiment, and the US Army 164th Regiment attacked westward from Point Cruz toward Kokumbona on Guadalcanal.
10 November 1943 In Italy in the U.S. Fifth Army's VI Corps area, elements of the 45th Infantry Division take the hills between Pozzilli and Filignano without opposition. Soviet troops broke through German lines near Gomel, Byelorussia. USS Yorktown (Essex-class) departed Pearl Harbour, in company with the Fast Carrier Forces to participate in her first major assault operation, the occupation of certain of the Gilbert Islands.
10 November 1944 Ammunition ship USS Mount Hood (AE-11) while at anchor in Seeadler Harbour at Manus Island, dispensing ammunition and explosives to ships preparing for the Philippine offensive, was destroyed by explosion of the estimated 3,800 tons of ordnance on board. The concussion and metal fragments hurled from the ship caused casualties and damage to ships and small craft within 2,000 yards. In Italy in the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, the 4th Division ran into intense opposition as it attempted to advance from Forli. In the U.S. Fifth Army's British XIII Corps area, the Indian 8th Division found Mt. Ponpegno clear and pushed on to Mt. Bassana.
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Post by emron on Nov 9, 2017 21:57:11 GMT 12
9 November 1940 Former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, passed away of cancer, aged 71. Free French forces entered Libreville, Gabon, French Equatorial Africa, engaging in street fighting with Vichy French forces. Off Libreville, Free French sloop Savorgnan de Brazza sunk Vichy sloop Bougainville by gunfire (the two were sister ships of the same class), while Free French sloop Commandant Domine prevented Vichy armed merchant cruiser Cap Des Palmes' crew from scuttling the ship and captured her.
9 November 1941 At 0100 hours, British cruisers HMS Aurora and Penelope with destroyers HMS Lance and Lively, which had sailed from Malta late on the previous day, intercepted their target, an Axis convoy that was bound for Libya. All five freighters (German; Duisburg and San Marco; Italian: Maria, Sagitta, and Rina Corrado; and Italian tankers Conte di Misurata and Minatitlan) and Italian destroyer Fulmine were sunk with radar gunnery, while damaging destroyers Grecale and Maestrale. At 0640 hours, British submarine HMS Upholder attacked Italian destroyer Libeccio, which was busy rescuing survivors of the night time battle; an attempt was made to tow her back to port for repairs, but Libeccio would sink en route. Sebastiano Visconti Prasca was relieved as commander of Italian operations in Greece for the failures to breakthrough Greek defence lines in northern Greece. He was replaced by General Ubaldo Soddu. The 20,000-strong Soviet Independent Coastal Army, with 10 T-26 tanks and 152 guns, arrived in Sevastopol, Russia from Odessa, Ukraine, significantly bolstering the city's defenses. 40 kilometers east of Sevastopol, German troops captured Yalta.
9 November 1942 Operation TORCH: American troops continued to attack the French fort of Kasbah, French Morocco. Meanwhile, in French Algeria, the French garrison at Oran surrendered in the face of overwhelming British naval power and American airborne attack from the rear. As soon as the Allies discovered that Admiral François Darlan, the commander of all French forces, was in Algiers on a private visit, Eisenhower began to negotiate with him, as Darlan had the authority to take command and order all French forces in North Africa to cease resistance. Germany began the transfer of combat aircraft to Tunisia from Sicily, Italy. The Tunis airfields were found to be in good condition with concrete runways and revetments. Once a ground organisation had been created, relays of Ju 52/3m aircraft commenced the movement of ground troops into the region, unopposed by the Vichy French forces. Hitler initiated preparations for Operation Anton, the occupation of Vichy France. In Egypt, the British Eighth Army resumed the pursuit of Axis forces as the weather improved. The New Zealand 2nd Division reduced opposition at Sidi Barrani and continued west.
9 November 1943 In Italy the British 8th Indian Division captured Castiglione. Major General Roy Geiger, who became the commanding general of I Amphibious Corps following the death of Major General Charles Barrett in the previous month, arrived on Bougainville by air. The US bridgehead on Bougainville is extended. The US 37th Division land.
9 November 1944 German troops on Walcheren Island, the Netherlands surrendered. Nearby, German troops withdrew from the Moerdijk bridgehead in the Netherlands across the Meuse River. Near Metz, units of the US 3rd Army cross the Moselle River, France. Allied troops crossed the Montone River in Italy.
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Post by emron on Nov 8, 2017 22:28:25 GMT 12
8 November 1939 An assassination attempt on Hitler by German carpenter Georg Elser failed at the annual commemoration of the Beer Hall Putsch in München, Germany. Hitler and other top Nazi leaders escaped death because he ended his speech early and left the building 13 minutes before the bomb planted by Elser detonated.
8 November 1940 The 5,588 ton freighter SS City of Rayville was sunk in Bass Strait, 6 miles south of Cape Otway, Victoria, Australia, the first U.S. merchant ship to be lost in the war. She fell victim to a mine laid by German auxiliary cruiser Pinquin. One of the seamen drowned while trying to recover personal items from the sinking vessel but the 37 other crew survived.
8 November 1941 Based on intelligence gained through Ultra from encrypted Italian naval code, British cruisers HMS Aurora and Penelope with destroyers HMS Lance and Lively were dispatched from Malta to intercept an Axis convoy.
8 November 1942 Operation TORCH the invasion of North Africa began: Western Area; sailing from the United States, 35,000 troops of the US 2nd Armoured, 4th Infantry and part of the 9th Infantry Divisions land on three beaches around Casablanca, Morocco. General George Patton is in command. Centre Area; General Gredendall commands 39,000 troops of the US 1st Infantry and 1st Armoured Divisions who land at Oran, Algeria. Eastern Area; Major General Charles W. Ryder commands 33,000 troops of the US 34th Infantry and parts of the US 9th Infantry and US 1st Armoured Divisions with the British 78 Division land at Algiers, Algeria. The powerful 600 kilowatt medium wave transmitter, given the codename ASPIDISTRA, which was purchased from the U.S. for use in broadcasting propaganda on the German controlled wavelengths, became operational at Crowborough, Essex, England. Admiral Bill Halsey inspected Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. Staying overnight, he personally experienced a Japanese naval bombardment.
8 November 1943 In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, Italy, the 78th Division gains the heights overlooking the Sangro River from its mouth to Paglieta.
8 November 1944 Canadian and British commandos, joined by Dutch and French units, overran the last enemy defences on Walcheren Island and opened the Scheldt Estuary to Allied shipping sailing up to the port of Antwerp.
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