Air Operations, Algeria

For the second consecutive night, Luftwaffe bombers based in Sardinia attack the Algiers/Maison Blanche Airport, this time destoying 1 B-17 and damaging 16 other Allied aircraft on the ground. These attacks lead to an immediate upgrading of night-fighter and night anti-aircraft defenses.

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Air Operations, Europe

• 30 aircraft are sent to the Biscay ports to lay mines from Lorient to Bayonne. There are no losses.

Air Operations, Far East

RAF bombers hit the fuel dump on Mingaladon airfield, Burma.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• In support of a US Army ground attack, V Bomber Command A-20s attack Sanananda and the airdrome, bridge, and antiaircraft emplacements at Buna with parachute-fragmentation bombs from no higher than 60 feet. B-25s mount follow-up attacks of the same targets from 6,000 feet. The results of the low-level attack are limited due to the lack of air-ground coordination.
• A rough advance airstrip is completed by US Army engineers and infantrymen at Dobodura, 15 miles from Buna. This site will grow to become a leading air base in Papua New Guinea, but for the moment it will be used for landing supplies and equipment and the evacuation of wounded.

Air Operations, North Africa

B-17s and P-38s raid the Tunis Airport.

Air Operations, Tunisia

• Making use for the first time of the staging facilities at Gambut Main, near Tobruk, Libya, 9 of 15 98th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s sent from their bases in Egypt complete their attacks on the harbor at Tripoli.
• Later in the day, 8 376th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack the harbor at Tripoli, also after staging through Gambut Main.
• The 14th Fighter Group's 48th Fighter Squadron, in P-38s, mounts a strafing attack against German Army units moving on the US Army garrison at Gafsa.
• 6 P-38s are lost as they attempt night landings at Youks-les-Bains Airdrome in Algeria.

Battle of the Atlantic

• At 1100 an Albacore aircraft from HMS Victorious, on passage from Gibraltar to Greenock, sees U-517 diving and attacks immediately with depth charges. The U-boat is blown to the surface with extensive damage to the bridge and conning tower. The destroyer Opportune is notified and sent to the scene, but U-517 had been scuttled.

U-517

Class	Type IXC
CO	Kapitänleutnant Paul Hartwig
Location	Atlantic, WNW of Cape Finisterre
Cause	Air attack
Casualties	1
Survivors	51

• The US destroyer Somers (DD-381) intercepts the German blockade runner Anneliese Essberger in the South Atlantic. The German ship is scuttled by her crew.

Eastern Front

Northwest of Kletskaya the Rumanian 3rd Army is in a desperate condition being pressed hard by the Russian 5th Tank Army. The Soviets have 34 divs in the advance and have broken through on a 50-mile front. Tank units from Rokossovsky's Don Front, which opened the Serafimovich offensive, are advancing rapidly toward Kalach and Golubaya. The 64th Army carries out a turning movement and threatens to cut off the Germans in Stalingrad. The German command is disorganized. 6th Army's staff is being forced to move because of the Soviet advance and Gen von Manstein, who has been ordered to take command of a new Army Group Don, is making a long train journey to take up his post. Von Paulus proposes a retreat to the Don which Hitler rejects.

November 21, 1942 the SS Police Division's battle groups cross the Neva River with landing boats. An unexpected attack results in the Russians having to suffer great losses.

SS Troops Ready to Attack

The Soviet attack around Stalingrad was nearly postponed because of thick fog, and took place in freezing conditions.

Soviet Attack around Stalingrad in Freezing Conditions

Elements of the 5th Tank Army encounter the 24th Panzer Division near the Don bridges behind the 6th Army. Fighting at Businovka results in serious German casualties and a hasty withdrawal. Paulus' plans to shore up his left wing fall apart.

Heavy fighting continues at Raspopinskaya as Group Lascar fights off repeated Soviet attacks. The Soviet IV Tank Corps takes Golubinskaya as its advance into the German rear continues. Paulus and his headquarters staff have only just left town for Nizhne Chirskaya and evade capture by a matter of hours. By evening Vasilevsky is able to report to Stalin that the IV and XXVI Tank and III Guards Cavalry Corps are all heading for Kalach.

The drive from the south accelerates as the IV Mechanized Corps reaches Zety. Inexplicably, Volskii orders a hald so he can regroup but is promptly ordered to resume the advance. Elements of Shapkin's IV Cavalry Corps, supporting Volskii, capture Abganerovo and cut the railway line to Kotelnikovo.

The collapse of his flanks prompt Paulus to request permission to abandon the Volga and pull back to the Don-Chir line. Army Group B agree with this proposal and issue orders for its implementation, pending approval by Hitler. This early chance to save the 6th Army is lost when Hitler orders the Volga line be held.

Guadalcanal

The 1st Battalion, 182nd Infantry, attacks west from the Point Cruz area but meets heavy artillery and mortar fire as well as small arms fire from Japanese entrenched on Point Cruz. This battalion reduces Point Cruz, but does not advance westward. The battalions of the 164th also attack to the west from the Hill 80-81 ridge line. A series of steep ridges (Hills 83 and 82) lies to the west, but to gain the ridge 50 yards of open ground would have to be crossed. The Japanese, whose defenses are skillfully organized in depth and mutually supporting, have dug in well to cover that area and the 164th Infantry is quickly halted after gaining an average of less than 40 yards.

The Amercans are moving but slowly because of the terrain and stubborn Japanese resistance. Finding a large group of Japanese is a problem. They learn from the islanders there are about 3,000 troops at Rekata Bay on the northwest coast of Santa Isabal Island. They may be headed for Guadalcanal, but no one knows for sure. The marines suspect a new effort at supply of the Japanese on a piecemeal basis. The Japanese command is distressed that there are 10,000 troops on the island and no way to supply them. Several methods are tried: destroyers dropping off oil drums filled with medical supplies and rice and tied together; submarines surfacing at night to deliver to landing boats. These methods are just not enough for what is needed. By the end of the month all the rice and other staples will be gone. Foraging and eating wild plants is next with the sick list growing longer every day.

Indian Ocean

The US freighter Alcoa Pathfinder (7200t) is torpedoed ans sunk by U-181 about 6 miles off the coast of Portuguese East Africa with the loss of 5 of her crew. The survivors row to shore.

New Guinea

The Australian 16th Bde, reinforced by the American 126th Inf Regt, makes slight and very costly progress towards Sanananda. Units of the American 32nd Div move from Dobodura towards Buna, but are held up by the Japanese, whose positions in the area called 'The Triangle' are well fortified, and whose defense is helped by the marshy nature of the ground.

North Africa

British and American aircraft carry out a heavy raid on the harbor at Tripoli.

Elements of Hart Force succeed in rejoining the 36th Brigade, 78th Div, British 1st Army. The Germans withdraw to the east bank of the river at Medjez, but the 78th Div is too weak to follow up and is ordered to await reinforcements. The 2nd Battalion, 509th Parachute Infantry, withdraws from Gafsa to Fériana, about 40 miles north.