Air Operations, Bismarcks

38th Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack ships near Maklo Island.

Air Operations, Europe

BOMBER COMMAND
Daylight Ops:

• 6 Mosquitos of 105 Squadron carry out a successful low-level raid 5,000ton German ship Elsa Essberger in the mouth of the Gironde River. There is an armed naval vessel in escort and both ships are claimed hit by the planes. 1 Mosquito is lost.
• In other ops, 9 Bostons, 6 Venturas and 5 Wellingtons attempt to attack several targets in Germany, Belgium and Holland, but only attack minor targets of opportunity.
• 1 Boston and 1 Ventura are lost.

• 175 aircraft are sent to Genoa: 85 Lancaster, 45 Halifaxes, 39 Stirlings and 6 Wellingtons.
• The crews claim a concentrated and successful raid and this is confirmed by photographs
• 4 Halifaxes, 1 Lancaster and 1 Wellington are lost.

• 36 Wellingtons lay mines from St Nazaire to Denmark.
• 1 Wellington is lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• 3rd Light Bomb Group A-20s attack Japanese Army ground troops in the Owen Stanley Mountains.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack a Japanese Navy seaplane base at Lasonga Island.

Air Operations, Solomons

• Late in the afternoon, 7 VMSB-132 SBDs and 3 VT-8 TBFs, escorted by 12 67th Fighter Squadron P-39s, are dispatched against 11 Japanese Navy troop-carrying destroyers located by search planes 125 miles from Guadalcanal. While attacking 2 of the destroyers, the bombers are challenged by 10 A6M2-N 'Rufe' float fighers and F1M 'Pete' floatplanes, with the result that only near misses are scored. In running fights, 3 67th Fighter Squadron P-39s down 2 'Rufes' A6M2-Ns and 1 A6M Zero near Santa Isabel, and 3 67th Fighter Squadron P-39s down a 'Rufe' and 2 other floatplanes near Guadalcanal. As more Japanese Navy fighters join the battle, they are met by 21 Cactus Air Force F4Fs. In the widening melee, SBD gunners down 2 Zeros, and Marine Corps F4Fs claim 4 'Rufes' and 3 'Petes'. 1 F4F is downed and its pilot is lost, and 3 F4Fs ditch due to fuel depletion, but their pilots are rescued.
• A VT-8 TBF crew downs an Japanese Navy floatplane near Florida Island at 1730 hours.

Allied Planning

Gen Raymond A. Wheeler is allotted the task of studying the question of supplies for the offensive which the Chinese propose to launch in the spring of 1943.

Battle in the North Ossetian village of Giselle, district Vladikavkaz (at the time – Ordzhonikidze), where it halted the German offensive in the North Caucasus. November 7, 1942

Germans Halted in the North Caucasus

Battle of the Atlantic

• The US freighter La Salle (5462t) is torpedoed and sunk with all hands by U-159 350 miles southeast of the Cape of Good Hope.
• The US freighter West Humhaw (5527t), en route from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Takoradi, Gold Coast, is torpedoed and sunk by U-161. There are no casualties. The British MI-281 rescues the 39-man crew, the 16-man Armed Guard and 5 passengers.
• The US freighter Nathaniel Hawthorne (7176t), en route to New York in Convoy TAG-19, is torpedoed and sunk by U-508 with no survivors.

Guadalcanal

The main body of the Japanese 38th Div arrives at the Shortland base. 5 destroyers are sent to Guadalcanal carrying 600 troops and Lt-Gen Tadayoshi Sano. In midafternoon the ships are attacked by F4Fs, dive bombers and torpedo planes but are not hurt. Upon arrival at Guadalcanal at night they are attacked by 4 PT boats but drive them off.

Aircraft from Henderson Field attack and damage 2 Japanese destroyers off the island. The 164th Infantry completes its northward enveloping movement along the east bank of the Nalimbiu joining up with the 7th Marines. The combined force then moves east along the coast without opposition to within a mile of the Metapona River. The Americans in the vicinity of Koli Point dig in to defend the beach west of the Metapona expecting a Japanese landing during the night. There are Japanese landings after dark to the west of the American holdings. The troops brought in are the first from the 38th Inf Div.

US Marines rest in the field during the Guadalcanal campaign in November 1942

US Marines Rest in the Field

F4Fs find 4 Japanese destroyers heading north after delivering troops of the Japanese 38th Div. They strafe the ships, make a few 100-lb bomb hits, but do not stop the ships. A Japanese submarine torpedoes the supply ship Majaba which has just delivered ammunition supplies. The ship is beached at the mouth of the Tenaru River.

Mediterranean

Over the next week U-boats and Italian submarines attack the Allied Task Forces engaged in Operation TORCH. 7 transports are sunk and 3 are damaged. The destroyer Martin and the Dutch destroyer Isaac Sweers are sunk. 5 U-boats and 1 Italian submarine are lost.

The US transport Thomas Stone is torpedoed of the southeastern coast of Spain and disabled. The troops aboard are transferred to landing boats but do not reach Algiers until after its suffender.

North Africa

EGYPT

Heavy rains hold up the British pursuit in the Mersa Matruh area. Rommel takes advantage of this to extricate as many as possible of his divisions from possible encirclement. Rommel's divisions do slip away, albeit in total disorder.

A German 88mm gun abandoned near the coast road, west of El Alamein, 7 November 1942

German 88mm Gun

Operation TORCH

Gen Henry Giraud, who has been brought from southern France secretly in the British submarine Seraph, arrives in Gibraltar for talks with Gen Eisenhower. The Allies wish to involve a more prominent French figure than de Gaulle or any of the North Africans in their operation in the hope of minimizing resistance from forces loyal to Vichy. They have been told by local sympathizers that Giraud will be suitable but in fact he is not likely to command wide support. Giraud believes that he has been selected to take command of the whole operation but Eisenhower, of course, has to disillusion him. The Frenchman stalks out indignantly, but the next day he accepts the task of civil administration of the French North African territories when they are liberated.