Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-17s and B-25s attack the harbor and town area of Salamaua.
• 22nd Medium Bomb Group B-26s attack Aileu.
• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s provide direct support for Australian ground forces at Oivi.

Air Operations, North Africa

Allied bombers and fighter-bombers wreak havoc among hordes of German and Italian vehicles and infantry retreating westwards from Alamein. After a single abortive Stuka raid, the Axis air forces remain inactive on their bomb-cratered airstrips.

Battle of the Atlantic

The first meeting of the Cabinet Anti-U-boat Warfare Committee takes place in London. Churchill himself takes the chair and the other members include the service chiefs, other government ministers and several important scientists in the fields of radar and operational research. The combination of the highest-level political, military and scientific personnel in one decision-making body is symbolic of the sort of coordination which the British and Americans are able to bring to their war efforts. None of the Axis powers achieves a system in any way comparable.

Battle of El Alamein

The British X Corps finally reaches open ground. There is considerable fighting in which Ariete, 90th Light and even German headquarters units all suffer heavily before breaking off to retreat. In the desperate defense by the Italians the Littorio Div and the Trieste are virtually wiped out. Gen von Thoma is captured while leading an attack. Despite Hitler's message, Rommel once more gives the order to withdraw. During the night, when the remnants of Rommel's forces are retreating to Fuka, the 8th Army fails to advance at all despite Montgomery's orders to do so. The battle so far has been an almost unqualified success for the British, whatever shortcomings there may develop in the pursuit. 8th Army has taken 30,000 prisoners, at least 1,000 guns and the remains of 450 tanks. The German divisions can barely muster a regiment each and the Italian formations are ruined. The British and Commonwealth troops have about 13,500 casualties, with 150 tanks destroyed and 300 damaged.

General von Thoma, commander of the Afrika Korps (now an elite minority in the larger German-Italian force in North Africa) introduced to Montgomery after capture, November 4.

General von Thoma and Montgomery

Eastern Front

While desperate fighting continues at Stalingrad, the Russians launch attacks in all other sectors of the front to discover the weak points in the Germans' winter line.

The re-formed 1st Guards Army becomes operational.

With preparations for Operation URANUS well advanced, the Stavka also begins to lay plans for the destruction of the Italian 8th Army by the Southwest and Voronezh Fronts. This operation, designated SATURN, plans to smash the German southern wing and take the Red Army across the Dniepr, threatening the forces of Army Groups A and B with encirclement against the Black and Azov Sea coasts. 6th Army and 1st Guards Army will lead the attack.

Guadalcanal

The Lunga perimeter command is reorganized and the garrison is reinforced. 2 sectors are established. The commander of each is responsible to division headquarters. Brig-Gen William H. Rupertus, the Asst CG of the 1st Marine Division, is assigned the sector east of the Lunga River and Brig-Gen Edmund B. Sebree, the Asst CG of the Americal Division, the western sector. The 8th Marines, reinforced, 2nd Marine Division, debarks from a naval task force in the Lunga-Kukum area and is attached to the 1st Marine Division. The 1st Marine Division halts its westward offensive short of Kokumbona because of an enemy threat east of the perimeter. The 2nd Marines, less the 3rd Battalion, is reinforced by the 1st Battalion, 164th Infantry, after driving 2,000 yards west of Point Cruz. They break off their attack and dig in at Point Cruz. The 5th Marines and the Whaling Group return to positions east of the Matanikau. East of the perimeter Gen Rupertus, his headquarters, and the 1st Battalion, 7th Marines, arrive in the Koli Point area to assist the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines. The 164th Infantry, less the 1st Battalion, and B Company, 8th Marines, march to the west bank of the Nalimbiu in a region south of the 7th Marines and elements start north along the river. Meanwhile, the naval task force transporting the 8th Marines lands forces at Aola Bay to establish an airfield. The Aola Force, the 1st Battalion, 147th Infantry, elements of the 2nd Raider Battalion, the 5th Defense Battalion detachment, Battery K, 246th FA Battalion, Americal Division, and 500 naval construction troops, establishes a beachhead a little east of the Aola River without opposition. Work is begun on the airfield at once, but the site is later found to be unsuitable. The 2nd Raider Battalion is ordered to Koli Point.

The Americans unload troops and supplies during the day, and have the transports retreat to the safety of Tulagi for the night. During the night an American force of 4 cruisers and 6 destroyer lie in wait in Indispensable Strait, but air searches do not locate the Japanese.[MORE]

Two alert US Marines stand beside their small tank on Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during World War II. November 4, 1942.

Marines On Guard

Madagascar

The French Governor-General again asks the British for armistice terms and now accepts the same conditions that he rejected on September 17th.

Mediterranean

The Germans have noticed the increased shipping activity off Gibraltar and fully 40 U-boats and Italian submarines are deployed to the western Mediterranean.

New Guinea

The Australian 16th Bde attacks Japanese positions near Oivi but are held off.

Operation TORCH

A group of 19 German and 21 Italian submarines begins to take up patrol positions in the western Mediterranean because of the shipping concentrations which have been sighted off Gibraltar. During the next two weeks they achieve some successes but lose six of their number.

Secret War

British Merchant Seaman Duncan Scott-Ford, who admitted taking £18 from a Nazi agent in Lisbon, Portugal, is hanged at Wandsworth Prison, London, after a secret Old Bailey trial under the 1940 Treachery Act.

Soviet Union, Strategy

The Stavka prepares Operation SATURN, the destruction of the Italian 8th Army by the Southwestern and Voronezh Fronts, leading to the Red Army reaching the Dnieper River and cutting off Army Groups A and B. It will be spearheaded by the 1st Guards and 6th Armies.