November 1942

November

• 01

  • Operation SuperchargeOn the night of 1/2 November 1942 the Eighth Army struck at Tel el Aqqaqir. The charge of the 9th Armoured Brigade and a tank battle broke the Afrika Korps.
  • The Matanikau offensive and Koli PointOn 1 November 1942 the Marines crossed the Matanikau and crushed the Japanese at Point Cruz. From 3 November they tried to trap Shōji's regiment at Koli Point.
• 03

  • Key eventRommel's retreat from El AlameinOn 3 November 1942 Hitler forbade Rommel to retreat from El Alamein. A day later the front broke and the Axis army fled west, abandoning the Italian infantry.
• 05

  • The Germans at OrdzhonikidzeIn early November 1942 the Germans took Alagir and stood outside Ordzhonikidze. A Soviet counter-attack at Gizel ended their drive on the oil of Grozny.
• 06

  • Carlson's Long PatrolOn 6 November 1942 Carlson's Raiders set out from Aola Bay on a patrol of almost a month into the interior of Guadalcanal, tracking Colonel Shōji's troops.
• 08

  • Key eventThe landings in North AfricaOn 8 November 1942 more than 70,000 American and British troops landed in Morocco and Algeria. The Vichy French resisted at Casablanca and Oran.
  • The Algiers putschOn the night of 7/8 November 1942 some 400 underground volunteers seized Algiers for several hours and detained General Juin and Admiral Darlan.
• 10

  • Operation AntonOn the evening of 10 November 1942 Hitler ordered the occupation of unoccupied France. On 11 November the Germans marched in, and the Italians from the east.
  • Darlan and the armistice in North AfricaOn 10 November 1942 Admiral Darlan, under pressure from General Clark, ordered the Vichy forces in North Africa to stop fighting. Oran surrendered the same day.
  • “The end of the beginning”On 10 November 1942 Churchill called El Alamein “the end of the beginning”. Montgomery was knighted and made a full general; on 15 November the bells rang.
• 11

  • Convoy StoneageOn 11 November 1942 the minelayer Manxman was bound for Malta. The real convoy from Alexandria, Operation Stoneage, arrived on 20 November and lifted the siege.
• 12

  • The last German assault in StalingradOn 11 November 1942 the 6th Army began its last assault in Stalingrad, reaching the Volga by Barrikady and cutting off Lyudnikov, but the 62nd Army held.
• 13

  • The Eighth Army retakes TobrukOn 13 November 1942 the Eighth Army entered Tobruk for the third time. Two days later the pursuit of Rommel took Derna and the Martuba airfields Malta needed.
  • The night battle off GuadalcanalOn the night of 12–13 November 1942 the Americans stopped Abe's battleships on their way to shell Henderson Field. Admirals Callaghan and Scott died; Hiei sank.
• 14

  • The battleship duel off GuadalcanalOn 14 November 1942 aircraft sank most of Tanaka's convoy, and that night Washington destroyed Kirishima. Japan had lost the fight for the sea off Guadalcanal.
• 15

  • The run for TunisIn mid-November 1942 the British First Army set off from Algeria to forestall the Germans in Tunisia. By late November it was 20–30 km from Tunis, and stuck.
• 17

  • The fighting for Buna and Gona beginsIn mid-November 1942 the Japanese reinforced their beachheads at Buna, Gona and Sanananda in New Guinea. The first American and Australian attacks stalled.
• 18

  • RAF raids in November 1942On the night of 18–19 November 1942 RAF bombers struck Turin. Berlin was not bombed in November; the targets were Turin, Genoa, Hamburg and Stuttgart.
• 19

  • Key eventOperation Uranus beginsOn 19 November 1942 the Red Army hit the Romanians on the 6th Army's flanks. In three days the front broke and the pincers were closing west of Stalingrad.
• 20

  • The capture of BenghaziOn 20 November 1942 the Eighth Army entered Benghazi for the third and last time. Rommel, against Hitler's and Mussolini's demands, fell back to El Agheila.
• 22

  • The encirclement of the Sixth Army at StalingradOn 22–23 November 1942 the Soviet pincers closed at Kalach. Hitler forbade Paulus's Sixth Army to break out – it was to hold “Fortress Stalingrad”.
• 25

  • The Gorgopotamos viaduct blown upDuring the night of 25–26 November 1942 British SOE sappers and ELAS and EDES partisans blew up the Gorgopotamos viaduct on the Salonika–Athens railway.
• 26

  • The Battle of BrisbaneOn 26 and 27 November 1942 Australian soldiers and civilians clashed with American military police in Brisbane. One Australian was killed and dozens were hurt.
• 27

  • The scuttling of the French fleet at ToulonOn 27 November 1942 the Germans burst into Toulon to seize the Vichy fleet. The French scuttled some 77 ships, including three battleships and seven cruisers.
• 30

  • The Battle of TassafarongaDuring the night of 30 November–1 December 1942 Tanaka's Japanese destroyers torpedoed and sank the cruiser Northampton and badly damaged three others.
  • The Free French on RéunionOn 28 November 1942 the destroyer Léopard landed Free French at Saint-Denis. On 30 November the Vichy governor surrendered Réunion without further fighting.