November 1944

November

• 01

  • The British in SalonikaOn 30 October ELAS and a small British unit entered Salonika. By 2 November Army Group E had left mainland Greece; island garrisons held out until 1945.
  • Operation InfatuateOn 1 November 1944 British commandos landed on Walcheren at Vlissingen and Westkapelle. South of the Scheldt the Canadians took Knokke and Zeebrugge.
• 04

  • The death of John DillOn 4 November 1944 Field Marshal John Dill, head of the British military mission in the USA, died in Washington; he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
• 05

  • The raid on SingaporeOn 5 November 1944 B-29s from India bombed the Singapore naval base, disabling its great dry dock for three months – the first of a series of raids.
  • Kamikaze attack the carriersOn 5 November 1944 a kamikaze hit Lexington off Luzon. On 25 November suicide aircraft struck Intrepid, Essex, Cabot and Hancock.
• 07

  • Key eventRoosevelt's fourth termOn 7 November 1944 Roosevelt defeated Thomas Dewey, the only US president ever to win a fourth term. He died less than three months after his inauguration.
• 09

  • Patton's offensive on the MoselleOn 9 November 1944 XX Corps of the Third Army crossed the flooded Moselle north of Metz. Patton's November offensive in Lorraine had begun the day before.
• 10

  • V-2s over EnglandOn 10 November 1944 Churchill admitted in the Commons that German rockets had been falling on England for weeks. The blasts had been blamed on faulty gas mains.
• 12

  • Key eventThe sinking of the TirpitzOn 12 November 1944 RAF Lancasters with Tallboy bombs sank the battleship Tirpitz off Tromsø. Between about 950 and over 1,200 sailors were killed.
• 17

  • The liberation of TiranaOn 17 November 1944, after nearly three weeks of fighting, the last German units left Tirana, which was taken over by Enver Hoxha's communist partisans.
• 20

  • Hitler leaves the Wolf's LairOn 20 November 1944 Hitler left his headquarters near Rastenburg for good. In Berlin he had throat surgery; he moved into the Führerbunker only in January 1945.
• 23

  • The capture of MetzOn 22 November 1944 organised German resistance ended in Metz, which the Third Army had entered on 18–19 November. Some forts held out until 13 December.
  • Key eventThe liberation of StrasbourgOn 23 November 1944 General Leclerc's French 2nd Armoured Division burst into Strasbourg. A flag flew over the cathedral – the Oath of Kufra was fulfilled.
• 24

  • Key eventB-29s over TokyoOn 24 November 1944 111 B-29s took off from Saipan for the first raid on Tokyo since 1942. Only a few bombs hit the Nakajima factory at Musashino.
• 25

  • Nanning and the threat to KunmingOn 24 November 1944 the Japanese took Nanning again. After Guilin and Liuzhou fell, their push into Guizhou threatened Guiyang and the road to Kunming.
  • The capture of SaaremaaOn the night of 23–24 November 1944 the Germans evacuated the Sõrve peninsula. All of Saaremaa, most of it taken on 5–8 October, was now in Soviet hands.
• 26

  • Stalemate in ItalyIn autumn 1944 the Allied drive on Bologna bogged down in the Apennines and the mud of Romagna. By late November the Italian front was settling into winter.
  • Key eventThe end of the gas chambers at BirkenauIn autumn 1944 the SS stopped gassing at Birkenau. On 26 November, by the accepted date, Himmler ordered the crematoria destroyed to hide the crime.
• 28

  • The port of Antwerp openedOn 28 November 1944, 85 days after Antwerp's liberation, the first Allied convoy entered the port. The supply crisis of the armies in the west began to ease.
• 30

  • XXII Corps in EuropeIn autumn 1944 the headquarters of US XXII Corps reached Europe. In 1945, under General Ernest Harmon, it fought with the Fifteenth Army, then occupied Bohemia.
  • The Thiaroye massacreOn 30 November 1944 General Dagnan massed troops near Dakar against ex-POWs demanding back pay. On the morning of 1 December they opened fire at Thiaroye.