Air Operations, Bismarcks

• Before dawn, 23 V Bomber Command B-24s brave bad weather to attack the Lakunai airfield at Rabaul, but follow-up strikes are recalled in the face of continuing heavy weather. This concludes the 5th Air Force offensive against Rabaul.
• During the morning, while VMF-212 and VMF-221 F4Us bolster the combat air patrol over the carriers, 239 US Navy carrier bombers and fighters attacking in two waves mount extremely strong attacks against Rabaul. In the air battle over Rabaul, Navy F6Fs (and several SBD crews) down 38 A6M Zeros between 0900 and 0930 hours. This mission marks the combat debut of the new SB2C dive bomber (from Fleet Carrier Air Group 17).
• 42 XIII Bomber Command B-24s attack Rabaul from high level just as the last of the carrier aircraft depart the area. Cloud cover obscures the results as two B-24 squadrons drop their bombs from 16,000 to 20,000 feet. The 5th Heavy Bomb Group’s 23rd Heavy Bomb Squadron attacks a light cruiser from 8,500 feet.
• Several Rabaul-based G4M 'Betty' bombers, 14 B5N 'Kate' dive bombers, 27 D3A 'Val' dive bombers, and 67 fighters open a counterattack against the US Navy carrier force at 1315 hours, but US Navy fighters—including a land-based F4U squadron (VF-17) and a land-based F6F squadron (VF-33) operating from the carrier decks—repel the Japanese attack and exact a very high toll of Japanese aircraft downed at sea and over the carriers between 1315 and 1415 hours. (The Navy pilots claim 111 victories, but it is estimated that 2 'Bettys', 14 'Kates', 17 'Vals', and 8 fighters are actually downed.) 3 A6M Zeros are also downed at sea during the evening by VF-18 patrolling F6Fs. 11 Navy fighters are lost and the USS Essex is slightly damaged by a near miss.
• In the evening, Task Force 38 and Task Group 50.3 are dissolved and all 5 US Navy aircraft carriers are ordered from the area to take part with the US 5th Fleet in the upcoming Operation GALVANIC, the Gilbert Islands invasion.

Air Operations, CBI

• 6 308th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Burma Road targets. 8 14th Air Force P-40s attack river targets while 6 P-40s attack a gun battery, barracks, and a radio station near Yoyang.

Air Operations, Europe

• 124 Halifaxes and 10 Lancasters of Nos. 4, 6 and 8 Groups are sent to hit the marshalling yards at Cannes and railway installations on the main coastal line to Italy.
• The night is clear and Pathfinders mark the target from 5,000 feet, but there are no hits on the railway yards and the railway workshops only suffer some bomb blast damage.
• 4 Halifaxes are lost.
• No. 617 Squadron resumes operations after its period of high-level training with the new 'Stabilizing Automatic Bomb Sight'. 10 Lancasters each drop 1 12,000-lb bomb on the railway viaduct at Anthéor, but no hits are recorded.

• 29 Mosquitos are sent to Berlin, Hannover and the Ruhr, 45 aircraft lay mines from Brest to the Frisian Islands and there are 6 OTU sorties.
• 1 Halifax and 1 Wellington from the mine-laying force are lost.

Air Operations, New Guinea

• V Bomber Command B-25s attack targets around Madang, and V Fighter Command P-39s strafe Bogadjim.
• A 35th Fighter Group P-39 downs a D3A 'Val' dive bomber near Alexishafen at 0737 hours.

Air Operations, Solomons

Several 42nd Medium Bomb Group B-25s and AirSols F4Us strafe shore targets and barges in Matchin Bay.

Diplomatic Relations

Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia issue vigorous protests against French actions in Lebanon.

Eastern Front

The Soviet forces driving west of Kiev strengthen their postions taking a small bridgehead on the Teterev River and capture Radomyshl and other towns on the approach to Zhitomir. In the Fastov area, however, the Germans have again seized the initiative, the Soviets are under heavy pressure. The Russian Central Front, west of Gomel, advances northward.

Radomyshl falls as Soviet troops cross the Teterev river off the march. To the south the 56th Army captures Kerch.

Italy

Montgomery's 8th Indian Div of the British V Corps occupies Casalanguida as they push forward to the next German defense line on the Sangro.

Lebanon

French troops forcibly arrest Lebanese government leaders including the president and premier. They and other officials are interned in the mountain fortress of Rechayya. Martial law is declared on November 12. There is bloody rioting in Beirut and a strike is called by the Lebanese in support of the 'national government'.

Mediterranean

An Allied convoy east of Oran is attacked by about 50 German aircraft and loses 3 transports and 1 tanker.

New Britain

Two separate carrier task forces including the carriers Saratoga (CV-3) and Princeton (CVL-23) under Read Adm Sherman and Essex (CV-9), Bunker Hill (CV-17) and Independence (CVL-22) under Rear-Adm Alfred E. Montgomery attack the Japanese base at Rabaul. The 5 carriers involved send in 185 aircraft to attack. The Japanese lose 68 of the defending Zero fighters to the American planes and 1 light cruiser, Agano, and 2 destroyers, Suzunami and Naganami, in the harbor are put out of action. The Japanese send 120 aircraft to attack the carriers but achieve no hits. They lose 41 aircraft against 11 lost by the Americans.

Solomons

On Bougainville the battle between the marines and the 23rd Regt ends in defeat for the Japanese infantry, which is pushed back. About 550 Japanese have been killed in the last 3 days of fighting. The Americans move forward in all directions to widen their perimeter and find a place where they can construct an airfield.

Scenes from November 11, 1943

A contingent of Senegalese units of the Free French Forces parading through the streets of Algiers, 11 November 1943.

Free French Senegalese in Algiers

Ranger riflemen concealed behind brush protect the advance of their assault section moving across the field in Italy, 11 November 1943.

Rangers Protecting Assault Team

Japanese bombs dropped by aircraft from Rabaul narrowly miss their target, the aircraft carrier USS Bunker Hill, November 11, 1943.

Near Miss on a Carrier

Workshop of a German Panzer division with Panther tanks behind the frontline in Russia.

German Tank Workshop in Russia