The Embassy of the Soviet Union posted a bulletin announcing that the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet had formed a committee for the investigation of war crimes committed by the Germans and their associates to the people and property of the USSR.[2]
Strikes broke out in Haute-Savoie in protest of the Vichy government's forced recruitment of labour for Germany.[3]
The British passenger ship City of Cairo was torpedoed and sunk south of Saint Helena by German submarine U-68 with the loss of 104 of the 311 people on board.
The Church of England abolished its rule requiring women to wear hats in church.[3]
Joseph Stalin issued an Order of the Day on the 25th anniversary of the October Revolution promising that the enemy "will yet feel the weight of the Red Army's smashing blows."[10]
The Australian 24th Brigade advanced to Leaney's Corner and flanked the Japanese defenders on the Kokoda Track.[11]
François Darlan was in Algiers visiting his ill son when the Allied invasion began. He convinced the local Vichy authorities not to oppose the landings.[13]
Operation Brushwood was executed as part of Torch. Forces captured Fedhala and then marched to nearby Casablanca.
Vichy France broke off diplomatic relations with the United States.[14]
Hitler made his annual speech in Munich on the 19th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch. Hitler claimed that Stalingrad was in German hands with only "a few small pockets" of resistance left.[15]
The American troopship Leedstown, immobilised in the Mediterranean Sea the previous day by an attack from the Luftwaffe, was finished off by a torpedo from German submarine U-331.
The Battle of Port Lyautey ended when U.S. troops captured the city's fortress and local airfield.
The incomplete French battleship Jean Bart was heavily damaged in harbour at Casablanca by U.S. aircraft.
After Darlan agreed to the ceasefire in North Africa, German forces launched Case Anton, the occupation of Vichy France.
Darlan declared that the German occupation of Vichy released him from affiliation with the Vichy government. He pledged total co-operation with the Allies with the only condition that he be appointed high commissioner for French North Africa. General Eisenhower agreed.[16]
Winston Churchill took to the podium at the Lord Mayor's Luncheon in London with news of the Allied victory at El Alamein.[18] "Now this is not the end," Churchill said. "It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."[19]
Haiti broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.[14]
The Italian Army invades and occupies Monaco, forming the fascist puppet state "State of Monaco" with Louis II remaining as the Prince of Monaco due to the support of his old army colleague, Marshal Philippe Pétain.[20]
The Turkish parliament passes the Varlık Vergisi,[21] a capital tax mostly levied on non-Muslim citizens with the unofficial aim to inflict financial ruin on them and end their prominence in the country's economy.[22][23][24]
U.S. Congress approved the drafting of men 18 and 19 years old.[12]
Eddie Rickenbacker and five others were rescued in the Pacific Ocean after being lost adrift at sea for three weeks. The men had stayed alive on a diet of a few oranges retrieved from their plane when it went down, some fish they'd managed to catch and a seagull that Rickenbacker had grabbed with his bare hands.[25]
Guatemala broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.[14]
German submarine U-272 sank off Hela after colliding with U-634.
German submarine U-660 was depth charged and damaged north of Oran by British warships and had to be scuttled.
German submarines U-360 and U-648 were commissioned.
Montgomery captured Tobruk, squeezing Rommel between two large advancing Allied forces.[26]
The American light cruiser Juneau was sunk at the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. 687 men were killed in action, including the five Sullivan brothers. The Americans also lost the cruiser Atlanta and the destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey and Monssen, while the Japanese lost the battleship Hiei and destroyers Akatsuki and Yūdachi.
Japanese heavy cruiser Kinugasa was sunk by aircraft during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
Italian cargo liner Scillin was sunk by the British submarine Sahib while transporting over 800 Allied prisoners of war from North Africa to Italy, killing almost all of them. Britain kept the cause of the sinking a secret until 1996.
German submarines U-595 and U-605 were depth charged and sunk in the Mediterranean by British aircraft.
German submarines U-231 and U-733 were commissioned.
Church bells were rung throughout England in celebration of the Allied victory at El Alamein. It was the first time that church bells had sounded since 1940 when they were silenced during the threat of German invasion.[3]
German submarine U-98 was depth charged and sunk southwest of Cape St. Vincent, Portugal by the British destroyer Wrestler.
New Zealand broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.[14]
German submarine U-331 surrendered after being crippled by depth charges from a Lockheed Hudson of No. 500 Squadron RAF north of Algiers. A Fairey Albacore torpedoed and sank the submarine, unaware that the crew had surrendered.
President Roosevelt ordered registration for Selective Service of all youths who had turned 18 since July 1. This made about 500,000 more Americans eligible for service.[30]
Operation Freshman: A British airborne force landed using gliders in Norway with the intent of sabotaging a chemical plant in Telemark that the Germans could use for their atomic weapons programme. Neither of the two aircraft-glider forces were able to land near their objective and the operation ended in failure with 41 killed.
Died:Bruno Schulz, 50, Polish writer, artist, literary critic and art teacher (shot by a Nazi)
Operation Uranus ended in decisive Soviet victory with the German 6th Army completely encircled at Stalingrad.
The Governor General of French West Africa agreed to accept the authority of François Darlan. This brought the strategically valuable port city of Dakar under Allied control.[34]
German U-boat U-172 torpedoed and sank the British merchant ship SS Benlomond off the coast of Brazil. Chinese second steward Poon Lim survived and would spend 133 days adrift on a raft in the South Atlantic.
The Japanese destroyer Hayashio was heavily damaged by American planes in the Huon Gulf. The destroyer Shiratsuyu rescued the survivors and then scuttled the ship with a torpedo.
Soviet forces launched Operation Mars, an offensive around the Rzhev salient near Moscow.
The Germans began airlifting supplies to the 6th Army trapped in Stalingrad. Only 47 Ju 52 transport planes were on hand for the first day, a small fraction of what was needed. Hermann Göring ordered as many Ju 52s as possible to be requisitioned from around occupied Europe to join in the operation.[35]
Scuttling of the French fleet in Toulon: The French fleet in Toulon was scuttled to keep it out of the hands of German forces. 3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 15 destroyers, 12 submarines and 13 torpedo boats were among the ships scuttled.
Venezuela broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.[14]
The British troopship Nova Scotia was torpedoed and sunk in the Indian Ocean by German submarine U-177 with the loss of 858 out of 1,052 people aboard.
The British destroyer Ithuriel was bombed and damaged beyond repair at Bône, Algeria by the Luftwaffe.
The Army–Navy Game was played in Annapolis, Maryland, with Navy defeating Army 14–0. Only 13,000 spectators saw the game because of a wartime travel restriction that only allowed residents within 10 miles of Annapolis to attend.[36]
German forces in Tunisia clashed with the British and Americans at Tebourba and Djedeida.[37]
The British Eighth Army under General Bernard Montgomery stopped their westward advance at El Agheila after making some 1,000 km in 14 days.
Churchill made a radio broadcast reviewing the state of the war and suggesting that the Italian people faced a choice between enduring "prolonged scientific and shattering air attack" from North Africa or overthrowing Mussolini.[38]
^ abcdePolmar, Norman; Allen, Thomas B. (2012). World War II: the Encyclopedia of the War Years, 1941–1945. Dover Publications. pp. 27–28. ISBN978-0-486-47962-0.
^Stewart, William (2009). Admirals of the World: A Biographical Dictionary, 1500 to the Present. Jefferson, NC and London: McFarland & Company Inc., Publishers. p. 91. ISBN978-0-7864-8288-7.
^Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 73. ISBN978-0521769914."After preliminary propaganda, the Turkish Parliament passed Law No. 4305, which introduced the Varlık Vergisi, on November 11, 1942."
^Çetinoğlu, Sait (2012). "The Mechanisms for Terrorizing Minorities: The Capital Tax and Work Battalions in Turkey during the Second World War". Mediterranean Quarterly. Vol. 23. DUKE University Press. p. 14. doi:10.1215/10474552-1587838. S2CID154339814."The aim was to destroy the economic and cultural base of these minorities, loot their properties and means of livelihood, and, at the same time "turkify" the economy of Turkey."
^Guttstadt, Corry (May 2013). Turkey, the Jews, and the Holocaust. Cambridge University Press. p. 76. ISBN978-0521769914."... We will use it to eliminate the foreigners who control the market and hand the Turkish market over the Turks." "The foreigners to be eliminated" referred primarily to the non-Muslims citizens of Turkey."
^Hamilton, Hope (2011). Sacrifice on the Steppe: The Italian Alpine Corps in the Stalingrad Campaign, 1942–1943. Havertown, PA: Casemate. p. 72. ISBN978-1-61200-002-2.
^Mitcham, Samuel W. (2009). The Men of Barbarossa. Philadelphia: Casemate Publishers. p. 242. ISBN978-1-935149-66-8.
^Kimball, Warren F. (1984). Churchill & Roosevelt, The Complete Correspondence Volume II: Alliance forged, November 1942-February 1944. Princeton University Press. p. 56.