November 1943

November 1, 1943 (Monday)

• In California, thousands of Japanese-American internees at the Tule Lake Segregation Center surrounded the administration building during a visit to the internment camp by War Location Director Dillon S. Myer. Leaders of the Daihyo Sha Kai, a group of inmates who spoke for their fellow prisoners, had spread the word during lunchtime that Myer had arrived at 11:00 a.m., and called upon families to assemble for a peaceful protest. By 1:30 p.m., there were between 5,000 and 10,000 men, women and children standing outside the camp headquarters. "Completely surrounded by thousands of evacuees and virtually imprisoned in the administration building, Dillon Myer consented to see the Negotiating Committee", while young men were stationed outside the building exits "to see that no Caucasian left". Myer and the Center Director then conferred with spokesman George Kuratomi about the internees' grievances and pledged to make improvements, and the protesters returned to their barracks.
• In Operation Goodtime, a contingent of 14,000 United States Marines landed on Bougainville Island in the Solomon Islands, coming ashore at Empress Augusta Bay.
• U.S. forces made the first Landings at Cape Torokina.
• The American destroyer USS Borie and German submarine U-405 engaged in a fierce battle in the Atlantic Ocean. The Borie took severe battle damage after depth charging and ramming U-405; both ships had to be scuttled after the battle.
• Born: Jacques Attali, French economist, first president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; in Algiers, French Algeria

  November 2, 1943 (Tuesday)

• The Battle of Empress Augusta Bay took place as the Imperial Japanese Navy responded to the surprise invasion of Bougainville Island by sending the heavy cruisers Myōkō and Haguro, the light cruisers Agano and Sendai, and six destroyers. Task Force 39 of the U.S. Navy had four light cruisers and eight destroyers to defend the U.S. Marine beachhead, and the naval battle began at 2:50 am. An author notes that "The key advantage that the Americans had was radar, and ... radar was a battle winner," as the Japanese fleet had to maneuver around the 25 torpedoes fired at them, and some of their ships collided. While the U.S. suffered only light damage in comparison, the two Japanese heavy cruisers were severely damaged, and the Sendai and the destroyer Hatsukaze were sunk.
• The Allied Bombing of Rabaul began.
• The U.S. Fifth Army in Italy reached the Garigliano River.
• The German submarine U-340 was damaged by British warships and aircraft off Punta Almina, Morocco and scuttled.

  November 3, 1943 (Wednesday)

• The Second Battle of Kiev began on the Eastern Front.
• More than 18,000 Jewish prisoners were shot to death in a single day at the Majdanek concentration camp in Poland, in the Aktion Erntefest. The Erntefest was the traditional German "Harvest Festival", and dance music was played over loudspeakers "to drown out the sounds of the killing and the dying". The extermination of the estimated 18,400 members of the camp was carried out by order of the new camp commandant, German Lt. Colonel Martin Weiss, as part of Operation Reinhard. A further 6,000 were murdered at Trawniki concentration camp.
• Adolf Hitler issued Führer Directive Number 51, anticipating an invasion of Nazi-occupied France by the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, in what Hitler described as "an Anglo-Saxon landing". Troops and reinforcements were transferred to Western Europe, and the "Anglo-Saxon landing" would eventually take place on June 6, 1944.
• The Raid on Choiseul ended indecisively.
• Born: Bert Jansch, Scottish folk musician; in Glasgow

  November 4, 1943 (Thursday)

• After the executions of over 1,000 Jewish prisoners in the Szebnie concentration camp in Poland, an uprising broke out among the remaining group. It was quickly suppressed by the German SS guards; the camp was closed the next day and the 3,000 prisoners were shipped to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
• The U.S. War Department concluded a top secret analysis of American strategy in the war in the Pacific, and concluded that it would be impractical to attack Japan from mainland China. Instead, it was recommended that troops and equipment be shifted to the ongoing effort to capture islands within striking distance of the Japanese Home Islands.
• The British Eighth Army in Italy captured Isernia and San Salvo Ridge as the Germans withdrew to the Sangro.

  November 5, 1943 (Friday)

• Despite its neutral status in World War II, Vatican City had four bombs dropped upon it from an unidentified airplane at 8:10 pm. Windows and glass were broken at St. Peter's Basilica and at the Palace of the Governorate, and there was damage to the Vatican aqueduct, but nobody was injured. A British Royal Air Force bomber near Rome had been given clearance to unload its bombs after developing engine trouble, and released them "without quite knowing where it was" but no Allied bombing raids had been scheduled for Rome that day.
• The German submarine U-848 was depth charged and sunk in the South Atlantic off Ascension Island by American aircraft.
• The war film Guadalcanal Diary starring Preston Foster, Lloyd Nolan and William Bendix was released.
• The horror film Son of Dracula starring Lon Chaney Jr. was released.
• Born:
• *Sam Shepard, American film actor and playwright who won both an Academy Award and a Pulitzer Prize ; in Fort Sheridan, Illinois
• *Chef Tell, German-American chef and television personality; in Stuttgart
• Died: Bernhard Lichtenberg, 67, German Roman Catholic priest and martyr who would be beatified in 1943, died while being transported in a cattle car to the Dachau concentration camp. His funeral in Berlin would be attended by more than 4,000 mourners, despite his open opposition to the Nazi government.

  November 6, 1943 (Saturday)

• The Soviet Red Army liberated Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, from Nazi Germany.
• The Greater East Asia Conference concluded in Tokyo as Japan and its puppet states finished a two-day conference and issued a formal declaration of principles for the Japanese-occupied Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Japan's Prime Minister Hideki Tōjō chaired the meeting, along with Greater East Asia Minister Kazuo Aoki and Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu. Representing the other five Sphere members were: Zhang Jinghui, Prime Minister of Manchukuo; Wang Jingwei, President of the "Reorganized National Government of China" governed from Nanjing; Prince Wan Waithayakon, envoy from Japan's ally, the Kingdom of Thailand; Ba Maw, the Prime Minister of the State of Burma; and José P. Laurel, President of the Second Philippine Republic.
• American destroyer USS Beatty was torpedoed and sunk off the coast of Algeria by Junkers Ju 88 aircraft.
• The German submarines U-226 and U-842 were both sunk in the Atlantic Ocean by British warships.
• "Paper Doll" by the Mills Brothers" hit #1 on the Billboard singles chart.
• Born: Ken Patera, U.S. Olympic weightlifter, professional wrestler and strongman; in Portland, Oregon

  November 7, 1943 (Sunday)

• The Soviet 1st Tank Army captured Fastiv near Kiev.
• The last NFL game to end in a scoreless tie was played. A crowd of 16,992 watched the action, as the Detroit Lions and the visiting New York Giants were unable to make much progress during the rain on a muddy field. Neither team got within 15 yards of the other's end zone. Augie Lio of the Lions missed field goal attempts from 32, 50 and 25 yards out, and the Giants missed one.
• Born:
• *Joni Mitchell, Canadian rock and folk singer and songwriter, 8-time Grammy Award winner, and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee; as Roberta Joan Anderson in Fort Macleod, Alberta
• *Stephen Greenblatt, Pulitzer Prize winning author; in Cambridge, Massachusetts
• *Michael Spence, American economist and 2001 Nobel Prize winner; in Montclair, New Jersey.
• Died:
• *Dwight Frye, 44, American character actor in horror films; in Salina, Kansas
• *U.S. Marine Sergeant Herbert J. Thomas, 25, was killed in combat during the Battle of Koromokina Lagoon on Bougainville Island. While leading a charge against Japanese machine gun positions, Sgt. Thomas threw his body on top of a live hand grenade in order to protect his men from the explosion. He would posthumously be awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism.

  November 8, 1943 (Monday)

• The middle eastern nation of Lebanon had been operated for more than 20 years under the "French Mandate" set up by the League of Nations, with an elected legislature and a president whose roles were to advise the French High Commissioner. When the new Commissioner, Jean Helleu, refused to agree to a revision of his role, the legislators unanimously passed a bill to end the Mandate. The vote was 48–0, and President Bechara El Khoury signed it immediately, leading to a retaliation by the French.
• Radio Moscow broadcast news from the newly liberated capital of Ukraine, and reported that only one Jew had been left alive in Kiev. Before the German invasion, the city's Jewish population had been 140,000.
• The Battle for Piva Trail began between American and Japanese forces on Bougainville Island.

  November 9, 1943 (Tuesday)

• The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration was created by an agreement signed by representatives of 44 Allied nations, in Atlantic City, New Jersey. While the founding of the United Nations would not happen until 1945, the UNRRA was the first agency to become a component of the UN, with the initial goal of providing relief to refugees and homeless persons "in the still to be liberated states of Europe and Asia".
• U.S. Senate Resolution 203 was introduced, calling for the first time for a federal plan "to save the surviving Jewish people of Europe from extinction at the hands of Nazi Germany." Resolution 203 was a bipartisan measure penned by Senators Guy Gillette of Iowa, Elbert D. Thomas of Utah, and Edwin C. Johnson of Colorado, all supporters of the "Bergson Group". On the same day, U.S. House of Representatives Resolutions 350 and 352 were introduced, calling for a new agency to resettle the surviving Jewish refugees in neutral nations.
• The two-day Battle for Piva Trail ended in Allied victory.
• The German submarine U-707 was depth charged and sunk east of the Azores by a B-17 of No. 220 Squadron RAF.
• Died: Josef Szombathy, 90, Austro-Hungarian archaeologist