November 1944

[November 1], 1944 (Wednesday)

• Action of 1 November 1944: A naval battle was fought in the Kvarner Gulf off Croatia between a Royal Navy destroyer flotilla and a Kriegsmarine force of two corvettes and a destroyer. The result was a British victory as all three German ships were sunk.
• 1 November 1944 reconnaissance sortie over Japan: An American F-13 Superfortress conducted the first flight by Allied aircraft over Japan since the Doolittle Raid of April 1942.
• During the Battle of the Scheldt, British and Canadian forces began Operation Infatuate with the goal of opening the port of Antwerp to shipping.
• Canadian Defence Minister James Ralston resigned his post after Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King rejected Ralston's plea for imposition of the draft for overseas service. The schism within King's cabinet brought about the Conscription Crisis of 1944 which threatened to topple King's government.
• The American destroyer Abner Read was sunk in Leyte Gulf by a Japanese kamikaze attack.
• The British frigate Whitaker was torpedoed and damaged off Malin Head, Ireland by German submarine U-483 and rendered a constructive total loss.
• The play Harvey by Mary Chase premiered on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre.
• Born:
• *Kinky Friedman, American country singer and satirist, in Chicago
• *Rafic Hariri, business tycoon and Prime Minister of Lebanon, in Sidon, Lebanon ;
• *Bobby Heenan, professional wrestler, manager and commentator, in Chicago, Illinois ;
• *Oscar Temaru, President of French Polynesia, in Faaa, Tahiti

  [November 2], 1944 (Thursday)

• The U.S. Seventh Army took Nompatelize unopposed.
• 50,000 of Budapest's Jews were sent on a forced march to Austria. 10,000 would die over the six-day march.
• Josip Broz Tito became 23rd Prime Minister of Yugoslavia.
• The American tanker Fort Lee was torpedoed and sunk in the Indian Ocean by German submarine U-181.
• Died: Thomas Midgley Jr., 55, American mechanical engineer and chemist

  [November 3], 1944 (Friday)

• The Japanese began the Fu-Go campaign against the continental United States.
• Turkey ended blackout restrictions.
• Japanese destroyer Akikaze was torpedoed and sunk west of Cape Bolinao, Philippines by the American submarine Pintado when she intercepted torpedoes intended for the aircraft carrier Jun'yō.

  [November 4], 1944 (Saturday)

• Australian forces made the Landing at Jacquinot Bay in New Britain.
• RAF Bomber Command sent 749 aircraft to conduct the last major raid on Bochum. Over 4,000 buildings were destroyed and nearly 1,000 people were killed.
• Born: Linda Gary, film and television actress, in Los Angeles, California
• Died: John Dill, 62, British field marshal

  [November 5], 1944 (Sunday)

• British troops in Italy captured Ravenna, cutting the railway line to Bologna.
• The Japanese cruiser Nachi was sunk in Manila Bay by U.S. aircraft.
• Died: Alexis Carrel, 71, French surgeon, biologist and Nobel laureate

  [November 6], 1944 (Monday)

• The German garrison at Middelburg surrendered to the Allies.
• The Italian government announced the formation of a private army about six divisions strong, to enter into the war on the Allied side.
• The provisional government of France struck down all of the country's anti-Semitic laws. Implementation of this measure was difficult when it came to returning Jews to their former occupations and giving them back their homes and confiscated property.
• In Liverpool, the largest penicillin factory in the world began production.
• Born: Wild Man Fischer, songwriter, in Los Angeles, California
• Died: Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne, 64, Anglo-Irish politician and businessman

  [November 7], 1944 (Tuesday)

• The 1944 United States presidential election was held. Incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to an unprecedented fourth term, defeating Thomas E. Dewey 432 electoral votes to 99 and carrying 36 out of 48 states.
• The Battle of Knin began between Yugoslav Partisans and Axis forces around the city of Knin in North Dalmatia.
• The Air battle over Niš occurred over Niš, Serbia between the Air Forces of the United States and the Soviet Union. For an unknown reason, American P-38s attacked Soviet ground troops and then came under attack themselves from Yak fighters of the Soviet Air Force. It is unclear exactly what happened or why, since documents related to the incident apparently remain classified in both countries.
• The American submarine Albacore struck a mine and sank off Hokkaido.
• 16 people were killed and 50 injured in a train derailment in Puerto Rico.
• Born: Joe Niekro, baseball player, in Martins Ferry, Ohio
• Died: Hannah Szenes, 23, Hungarian-Jewish SOE paratrooper

  [November 8], 1944 (Wednesday)

• Joseph Goebbels announced the V-2 rocket campaign for the first time. Winston Churchill followed suit and finally announced that England had been under rocket attack, providing the people of London with an explanation for all the mysterious explosions of recent weeks.
• The Battle of the Scheldt and Operation Infatuate ended in Allied victory.
• The American submarine Growler was sunk west of the Philippines by Japanese warships.

  [November 9], 1944 (Thursday)

• German troops on Walcharen Island surrendered to the Allies.
• Allied troops in Italy crossed the Montone River.

  [November 10], 1944 (Friday)

• Nazi occupation forces in the Netherlands began a two-day roundup of 50,000 men in Rotterdam to be sent to Germany for forced labour.
• Allied forces launched Operation Clipper, an offensive to reduce the Geilenkirchen salient.
• The Allies recognized the government of Albanian partisan leader Enver Hoxha.
• The American ammunition ship Mount Hood exploded and sank at Seeadler Harbor, Manus, Admiralty Islands with the loss of all 350 crew.
• German submarine U-537 was torpedoed and sunk in the Java Sea by the American submarine Flounder.
• Born: Askar Akayev, 1st President of Kyrgyzstan, in Kyzyl-Bayrak, Kirghiz SSR, Soviet Union; Silvestre Reyes, politician, in Canutillo, Texas; Tim Rice, lyricist, in Shardeloes
• Died: Wang Jingwei, 61, head of Chinese collaborationists with Japan during the Second Sino-Japanese War

  [November 11], 1944 (Saturday)

• The Battle of Batina began in the Croatian village of Batina.
• The series of air-sea engagements collectively referred to as the Battle of Ormoc Bay began in the Camotes Sea in the Philippines. The Japanese destroyers Hamanami, Naganami, Shimakaze and Wakatsuki were bombed and sunk in Ormoc Bay by U.S. Navy aircraft.
• Iwo Jima was bombarded by the U.S. Navy.
• The last remaining German troops in Greece withdrew from the country.
• German submarine U-771 was torpedoed and sunk in Andfjord by British submarine Venturer.
• German submarine U-1200 was depth charged and sunk south of Ireland by British warships.
• The 1942–44 musicians' strike ends in the United States when RCA Victor and Columbia Records capitulate to the union's demands.
• Born: Kemal Sunal, actor, in Istanbul, Turkey

  [November 12], 1944 (Sunday)

• Over 10,000 Uyghurs, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, Uzbeks, Tatars, and some White Russians rally in Ghulja and declare independence as the Second East Turkistan Republic.
• RAF Bomber Command carried out Operation Catechism and, after trying unsuccessfully for months, finally sank the German battleship Tirpitz near Tromsø.
• 80,000 leftists demonstrated in Rome in celebration of the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution and denounced the monarchy.
• Forever Amber by Kathleen Winsor hit #1 on the New York Times Fiction Best Sellers list.
• Born: Booker T. Jones, musician, record producer and frontman of Booker T. & the M.G.'s, in Memphis, Tennessee; Al Michaels, sportscaster, in Brooklyn, New York
• Died: George F. Houston, 48, American film actor

  [November 13], 1944 (Monday)

• The Bulgarian 1st Army captured Skopje.
• The Japanese destroyers Akebono, Akishimo, Hatsuharu and Kiso were all bombed and sunk by U.S. Navy aircraft in and around the Cavite Naval Yard in Manila, while destroyer Okinami was sunk 8 nautical miles west of the city.
• Japanese submarine I-12 was hedgehogged and sunk east of Hawaii by American warships.
• Civil air service returned to London for the first time since September 1939.
• Born: Ron Harris - England association football player' in London Metropolitan Borough of Hackney.

  [November 14], 1944 (Tuesday)

• Albanian partisans liberated Durrës.
• With the sponsorship of Nazi Germany, the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia was founded in Prague by anticommunists from territories of the Soviet Union.
• torpedoed Japanese aircraft carrier Akitsu Maru; 2,246 drown.
• Nazi resistance members Walter Cramer, Bernhard Letterhaus and Ferdinand von Lüninck were hanged at Plötzensee Prison in Berlin.
• Died: Trafford Leigh-Mallory, 52, British RAF commander

  [November 15], 1944 (Wednesday)

• The U.S. Fifth Army in Italy captured Modigliana.
• Japanese landing craft depot ship Akitsu Maru was torpedoed and sunk in the Korea Strait by the submarine USS Queenfish, killing over 2,000.
• The war film Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo starring Van Johnson and Robert Walker was released.

  [November 16], 1944 (Thursday)

• The U.S. First and Ninth Armies began Operation Queen, an offensive at the German Siegfried Line.
• The first Jussi Awards ceremony, recognizing excellence in Finnish film making, were held in Helsinki.
• Born: Colin Harvey, footballer, in Liverpool, England