November 1943

November

• 01

  • The landing on BougainvilleOn 1 November 1943 the US 3rd Marine Division landed at Cape Torokina on Bougainville. Fighting on the island went on until the end of the war.
• 02

  • The Battle of Empress Augusta BayOn the night of 1–2 November 1943 Admiral Merrill's cruisers drove back a Japanese force bound for the Bougainville beachhead. The Japanese lost two ships.
• 03

  • Key eventOperation Harvest FestivalOn 3–4 November 1943 the SS and police shot about 42,000 Jews at Majdanek, Trawniki and Poniatowa – the last forced labourers of the Lublin region.
• 05

  • Bombs on the VaticanOn 5 November 1943 a lone aircraft bombed the Vatican, wrecking the mosaic workshop. The culprit is unknown; RSI Fascists are most often blamed.
• 06

  • Key eventThe liberation of KievOn the morning of 6 November 1943 General Vatutin's 1st Ukrainian Front took the ruined city of Kiev – on the eve of the anniversary of the October Revolution.
• 09

  • The attack on the Winter LineIn early November 1943 the Allies reached the Garigliano and attacked the Bernhardt Line, but on 15 November the exhausted Fifth Army had to halt.
  • De Gaulle becomes sole President of the CFLNOn 9 November 1943 de Gaulle reshaped the Committee of National Liberation. Giraud left it, remaining only Commander-in-Chief of the French army.
  • The fake Le SoirOn 9 November 1943 the Belgian underground distributed in Brussels a fake issue of the collaborationist Le Soir, mocking German defeats in the east.
• 11

  • Carriers over RabaulOn 5 and 11 November 1943 US carrier aircraft struck Rabaul. The Japanese fleet left the base, and Admiral Koga's carrier air groups were crushed.
• 12

  • The Battle of LerosOn 12 November 1943 the Germans landed on Leros and dropped paratroops. After five days of fighting, the British and Italians surrendered on 16 November.
• 15

  • The Allied Expeditionary Air ForceOn 15 November 1943 the tactical air command for the invasion of France was set up under Leigh-Mallory. SHAEF followed in February 1944.
  • Himmler's order on the RomaOn 15 November 1943 a circular for the occupied USSR equated “itinerant” Roma with Jews and sent them to camps. The Auschwitz decree dated from December 1942.
• 16

  • The attacks in MilanIn mid-November 1943 attacks by communist GAP groups on Germans and Salò Fascists mounted in Milan and other cities of northern Italy.
  • The raid on VemorkOn 16 November 1943 American bombers attacked the Vemork power station and heavy water plant and the works at Rjukan. More than 20 Norwegians were killed.
  • The sinking of USS CorvinaOn the night of 16–17 November 1943 the Japanese submarine I-176 sank the surfaced American submarine USS Corvina south of Truk. 82 men were lost.
• 18

  • Key eventThe air Battle of Berlin beginsOn the night of 18–19 November 1943, 444 RAF aircraft attacked Berlin. Cloud scattered the bombs; about 130–150 died. So began the Battle of Berlin.
• 19

  • The Janowska camp uprisingOn 19 November 1943 the Germans murdered the Jewish prisoners of the Janowska camp in Lwów. That evening the “Death Brigade” of Sonderkommando 1005 revolted.
• 20

  • Key eventThe landing on TarawaOn 20 November 1943 Marines landed on Betio in Tarawa atoll and Army infantry on Makin. The reef, low tide and bunkers turned the first day into a slaughter.
  • The Eighth Army on the SangroOn 20 November 1943 the British 78th Division seized a bridgehead over the Sangro, but downpours and floods again halted Montgomery's Eighth Army.
• 22

  • The Cairo ConferenceOn 22–26 November 1943 Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang Kai-shek met in Cairo to discuss the war with Japan and agreed to return Manchuria and Taiwan to China.
• 25

  • The Battle of Cape St. GeorgeOn the night of 25 November 1943 Captain Arleigh Burke's destroyers sank three of five Japanese destroyers returning from Buka, without loss to themselves.
  • The raid on RangoonOn 25 November 1943 the Americans and the RAF opened a joint air offensive against Rangoon. On day one cloud stopped the Liberators; only B-25s hit a target.
• 26

  • The liberation of GomelOn 26 November 1943 Rokossovsky's Belorussian Front took the ruined city of Gomel, the first Belarusian regional centre recaptured from the Germans.
• 27

  • Raids on Berlin in November 1943Three great RAF night raids on 22–27 November 1943 devastated Berlin. The Memorial Church and the opera burned and several thousand people were killed.
• 28

  • Key eventThe Tehran ConferenceOn 28 November 1943 Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Tehran. They decided to invade France in May 1944 and discussed Poland without its government.
• 29

  • The second session of AVNOJ at JajceOn 29 November 1943 at Jajce in Bosnia the partisan council AVNOJ declared itself Yugoslavia's supreme authority, set up Tito's government and barred the king.
• 30

  • Japanese food policy in MalayaIn late November 1943 the Japanese governor of Penang ordered families to grow their own food. Malaya, cut off from rice imports, was growing ever hungrier.