366 Days

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November

News Headlines

1

RUDOLF HOESS HEADS UP AUSCHWITZ CONCENTRATION CAMP

Auschwitz (Oświęcim), German-Occupied Poland • November 1, 1940 On this date in 1940 SS Hauptsturmfuehrer (Captain) Rudolf Hoess (also Höß or Hoeß; pro­nounced “hearse”) (1901–1947) reported for duty as comman­dant of Auschwitz con­cen­tra­tion camp in the newly annexed province of Upper Silesia in former Poland. During Hoess’s tenure at Auschwitz, the 20,000‑acre/­8,094‑hectare com­plex of 3 separ­ate camps […]

2

FIRST U.S. ARMY STUMBLES AT BATTLE OF SCHMIDT

Schmidt, Huertgen Forest, Germany • November 2, 1944 On September 19, 1944, elements of Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges’ First U.S. Army entered the 10‑mile/16‑km-wide, 20‑mile/­32‑km-long Huert­gen Forest (German, Hürtgen­wald) south­east of the ancient city Aachen, the first major and western­most city in Nazi Germany to have fallen to the Anglo-American-Cana­dian armies. Before the out­break of World […]

3

JAPANESE BALLOON BOMBS STRIKE U.S. WEST COAST

Seattle, Washington • November 3, 1944 On this date in 1944 Japan began an explosive balloon cam­paign against the U.S. and Canada. The date was chosen to com­memo­rate the birth­day of former Emperor Meiji (1852–1912). Over the next 5 months the Special Bal­loon Regi­ment of the Japa­nese Army launched some 6,000 to 9,300 (sources vary) hydro­gen-filled […]

4

POLISH GHETTO BLUEPRINT FOR HOLLAND

Warsaw, Occupied Poland • November 4, 1939 On this date in 1939 in Nazi-occupied Poland, newly appointed Governor-Gen­er­al Hans Frank estab­lished the War­saw ghetto and began forcing the city’s Jews into a single area. Ten days later Frank and his deputy Arthur Seyss-Inquart ordered Jews in Poland to wear a white brace­let bearing a hexa­gonal […]

5

HIROHITO SANCTIONS WAR WITH U.S.

Tokyo, Japan • November 5, 1941 On September 6, 1941, Japanese officials, in a decision endorsed by Shōwa Emperor Hiro­hito, gave their diplo­mats until mid-Octo­ber to reverse the policy of the West­ern powers—prin­ci­pally the U.S., Great Britain, and the Nether­lands—of restricting Japan’s access to vital South­east Asian resources, among them oil, rubber, tin, bauxite, timber, […]

6

BRITISH RETRIEVE GERMAN SECRET WEAPON FROM WRECK

London, England • November 6, 1940 On this date in 1940 a 2-engine German Heinkel He 111 bomber was shot down and sank in the shal­lows off South­ern England. A water­logged X‑Geraet (“X‑device”) was recovered. The X‑Geraet played a role in the Battle of the Beams, a period early in the war when German bombers were […]

7

ROOSEVELT TOLD WEST COAST JAPANESE POSE NO SECURITY RISK

Washington, D.C. • November 7, 1941 Relations between the U.S. and Japan grew chilly in mid-1941 after Presi­dent Frank­lin D. Roose­velt froze Japa­nese assets in the U.S. and embar­goed oil and gasoline exports to Japan in retal­i­a­tion for that coun­try’s occu­pa­tion of Indo­chinese air­fields in what is today Viet­nam. The year before Roose­velt had banned […]

8

GERMANS SINK FIRST U.S. SHIP IN WORLD WAR II

Melbourne, Australia • November 8, 1940 The war between the Allies and the German Kriegs­marine (Navy) is well known. Indeed, the Battle of the Atlantic (1939–1945) was the longest-fought battle of World War II. It primarily involved Allied and neutral merchant­men, typically under armed escort, carrying food, oil pro­ducts, iron ore, steel, wea­pons, and other war­time […]

9

U.N. RELIEF AND REHABILITATION ADMINISTRATION CREATED

Washington, D.C. • November 9, 1943 On this date in 1943 in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Frank­lin D. Roose­velt added his sig­na­ture to an agree­ment by repre­sen­ta­tives of 44 nations to estab­lish the United Nations Relief and Reha­bil­i­ta­tion Admin­is­tra­tion. UNRRA (pro­nounced un-ruh) was the first U.N. orga­ni­za­tion to be created, estab­lished 1½ years before the United Nations […]

10

GERMANS, ITALIANS HUDDLE AFTER TORCH LANDINGS

Munich, Germany • November 10, 1942 On this date in 1942, just 2 days after Allied landings in Vichy French-held Morocco and Algeria (Opera­tion Torch), Itali­an dicta­tor Benito Musso­lini sent his son-in-law, foreign minis­ter Gale­azzo Ciano, to Munich in his stead to speak with Adolf Hitler. Musso­lini had wanted to meet the Fuehrer in Salz­burg, in […]

11

JAPAN’S PATH TO WAR WITH U.S. PASSES THROUGH ITALY’S TARANTO

Tokyo, Japan • November 11, 1940 Seventh child to a Japanese schoolmaster and his second wife and named “Iso­ruku” to memo­ri­alize his father’s age (56), the future com­man­der of the Impe­rial Japa­nese Navy’s Com­bined Fleet (Rengō Kantai) for much of World War II would seem to have been born under what West­erners call “a lucky star.” […]

12

RAF ENDS GERMAN BATTLESHIP TIRPITZ’S CAREER

Tromsø Fjord, Occupied Norway • November 12, 1944 On this date in Norway’s Tromsø Fjord the British Royal Air Force dropped 3 “Tallboy” 13,000‑lb/­5,897‑kg bombs to cap­size the German battle­ship Tirpitz, the Kriegs­marine’s ill-starred wan­nabe sur­face raider. Ever since Septem­ber 22, 1943, when a pair of Royal Navy mid­get sub­marines engineered a hair-raising day­light attack on this […]

13

RED BALL EXPRESS TO CEASE CONVOY OPERATIONS

Utah Beach, Liberated France • November 13, 1944 On this date in 1944 Utah Beach ceased operations as an off­loading site for men and supplies intended for Allied armies chasing east­ward-fleeing Germans across France. Utah Beach was 1 of 5 Normandy inva­sion beaches where Allied men at arms and mili­tary equip­ment came ashore to liber­ate German-occupied […]

14

NAZIS BACK VLASOV’S RUSSIAN LIBERATION ARMY AND COMMITTEE

Prague, Occupied Czechoslovakia • November 14, 1944 On this date in German-occupied Czechoslovakia Lt. Gen. Andrei (Andrey) Andreie­vich Vlasov read aloud the Prague Mani­festo to members of the newly created Com­mit­tee for the Lib­er­a­tion of the Peoples of Russia. Among its 14 prin­ci­ples, the Prague Mani­festo guaran­teed free­dom of speech, press, religion, and assem­bly, as well […]

15

GERMANS PREPARE SURPRISE OFFENSIVE IN ARDENNES FOREST

Cologne, Germany • November 15, 1944 As the Allied offensive ground on west of the Rhine River, dozens of German tank and infan­try divi­sions gathered in assem­bly areas north­west of the city of Cologne and in the thick forest cover of the Eiffel moun­tains on this date in 1944. Con­ceived by Adolf Hitler, the multi-stage […]

16

U.S. ARMY BOGS DOWN IN HUERTGEN FOREST

Huertgen, Germany • November 16, 1944 On September 19, 1944, elements of Lt. Gen. Courtney Hodges’ First U.S. Army entered the 10‑mile/16‑km-wide, 20‑mile/32‑km-long Huert­gen Forest (Hürtgen­wald) south­east of Aachen. The ancient capital of Holy Roman emperor Charle­magne and a northern node on Germany’s “dragons’ teeth” defen­sive West­wall (known to the Allies as the 390‑mile/628‑km-long Sieg­fried […]

17

ITALY EMBARKS ON ANTI-SEMITIC CAMPAIGN

Rome, Italy • November 17, 1938 On July 14, 1938, Italy’s Manifesto of Racial Scientists (Mani­festo Degli Scien­ziati Raz­zisti) laid out a scien­ti­fic expla­na­tion for the poli­tics of bio­logical racism. Signed by 42 emi­nent Italians, the mani­festo, published in Il Giornale d’Italia, a news­paper strongly supporting Benito Mus­so­lini’s Fascist regime, declared that Ital­ians belonged to […]

18

OPERATION CRUSADER TO LIFT AXIS SIEGE OF TOBRUK

Tobruk, Cyrenaica, Eastern Libya • November 18, 1941 On this date in 1941 the British Eighth Army, an assort­ment of British, Com­mon­wealth, Indian, and other Allied service­men com­manded by Lt. Gen. Alan Cunning­ham (from Novem­ber 26 by Lt. Gen. Neil Ritchie), launched a sur­prise mili­tary oper­a­tion from Egyp­tian ter­ritory against Axis forces in Eastern Libya […]

19

SOVIETS MOVE TO TRAP GERMAN SIXTH ARMY

Stalingrad, Soviet Union • November 19, 1942 On this date in 1942 the Soviets kicked off Operation Uranus, Phase I of the Red Army’s en­circle­ment of Gen. Fried­rich Paulus’ Sixth Army (the single-largest German troop for­ma­tion), as well as the German Fourth Panzer Army and the Third and Fourth Roma­nian armies at Stalin­grad (today’s Volgo­grad). […]

20

JAPAN’S KAITEN—HUMAN-PILOTED TORPEDOES—CLAIM FIRST U.S. VICTIM

Ulithi Atoll, Caroline Islands, Western Pacific • November 20, 1944 On this date in Novem­ber 1944, an hour before daybreak, 3 Japa­nese Kai­tens—human-piloted tor­pe­does—wake­lessly and silently motored east­ward through an opening in the coral reef that sur­rounded the 212‑sq. mile/­596‑sq. km Ulithi lagoon in the Caro­line Islands. Up until early 1945 Ulithi Atoll was the U.S. […]

21

WAR CRIMES TRIAL BEGINS FOR HITLER’S HENCHMEN

Nuremberg, Germany • November 21, 1945 On this date in 1945 in Germany the International Mili­tary Tri­bu­nal (Nurem­berg Trials) of Nazi leaders got down to busi­ness in the Bava­rian city where Adolf Hitler had staged his 1930s showy Nazi Party rallies. The legal basis for the trials was estab­lished by the London Char­ter, issued by […]

22

FOREIGN NATIONALS CREATE NANKING SAFETY ZONE

Nanking, China • November 22, 1937 On this date in 1937 in Nanking (today’s Nanjing), China’s capi­tal at the time, 15 foreign busi­ness­men, mission­aries, and jour­nalists under the leader­ship of German national and Nazi Party mem­ber John Rabe organ­ized the Inter­na­tional Com­mit­tee for the Nan­king Safety Zone. The mission of the com­mittee was to shel­ter Chi­nese […]

23

U.S. MARINES SCORE VICTORY AT TARAWA

Tarawa, Gilbert Islands • November 23, 1943 On this date in 1943 the first U.S. offensive in the Central Pacific region was declared won after 76 hours of fierce fighting. The 4,800 Japa­nese defenders (sol­diers, marines, and Jap­anese and Korean con­struc­tion workers) on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands were well-supplied and well-prepared, and they […]

24

ALLIES ADOPT WAR PLANS FOR 1944 AGAINST AXIS

Cairo, Egypt • November 24, 1943 On this date in 1943 in Egypt, U.S. President Franklin D. Roose­velt, British Prime Minis­ter Winston Chur­chill, and Chi­nese leader Gener­al­is­simo Chiang Kai-shek (leader of a some­times forgotten ally) con­tinued their series of talks during their Cairo Con­fer­ence (Novem­ber 23–27, 1943). Churchill and his party had hoped to estab­lish a […]

25

CAPTURING MAKIN ATOLL: NO WALK IN THE PARK

Makin Atoll, Gilbert Islands, West-Central Pacific Ocean • November 25, 1943 Makin Atoll (or Makin Island) is one of 16 coral atolls in the Pacific’s Gil­bert Islands chain and lies on the Equator half­way between Hawaii and Aus­tra­lia. The cap­ture of the atoll with its excel­lent sea­plane base, air base, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions cen­ter by 6,470 heavily armored […]

26

JAPANESE CARRIERS SET OUT FOR PEARL HARBOR

Hitokappu Bay, Kurile Islands, Northern Japan • November 26, 1941 For several months the airmen of Japan’s First Naval Air Fleet had trained for an attack on the main base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on the Hawai­ian is­land of Oahu. Squa­drons of naval planes flew low over the city of Kago­shima on […]

27

PELELIU SECURED IN COSTLY AMPHIBIOUS OPERATION

Peleliu, Palau Islands, Western Pacific Ocean • November 27, 1944 On this date in 1944, after 74 grueling days Pele­liu was declared secure, although iso­lated poc­kets of Japa­nese resis­tance took many more days to exter­mi­nate. The battle for the island, ironically code­named Oper­a­tion Stale­mate II, turned out to be the costli­est amphib­ious oper­a­tion in U.S. history: […]

28

FREE FRENCH FIGHTER PILOTS TO FLY WITH SOVIETS

Moscow, Soviet Union • November 28, 1942 On this date in 1942, while the Battle of Stalin­grad was still being fought, 12 Free French fighter pilots and their ground crews, flying from newly lib­er­ated Syria in the East­ern Med­i­ter­ra­nean, landed at their Iva­novo training cen­ter, 125 miles/­201 km north­east of the Soviet capital, Moscow. Earlier in the year, […]

29

HITLER: GERMAN NAVY TO BRING ENGLAND TO HEEL

Berlin, Germany • November 29, 1939 On this date in 1939, nearly 3 months after the Wehr­macht (German armed forces) over­ran neigh­boring Poland, launching World War II in Europe, German dicta­tor Adolf Hitler issued Fuehrer Direc­tive Num­ber 9, the first of 2 direc­tives on mea­sures his coun­try would have to take to ren­der the British econ­omy and infra­struc­ture […]

30

NAZI MASSACRE IN RUMBULA FOREST

Riga, German-Occupied Latvia • November 30, 1941 On November 25 and 29, 1941, Einsatz­gruppe 3 (Special Task Group 3), one of many SS (short for Schutz­staffel) mobile death squads oper­ating behind German front lines, mur­dered 5,000 “Reich Jews,” that is, German- and Austrian-born Jews. These men, women, and chil­dren had arrived in the Baltic ghetto at Kaunas, Lithuania’s […]

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