Air Operations, CBI

• 9 10th Air Force B-25s and more than 20 10th Air Force P-47s attack targets of opportunity along the Irrawaddy River.
• 24 P-47s attack communication targets and stores around Kawlin.
• 16 P-47s support Allied ground forces around Indaw and Pinwe.
• 11 P-47s attack Pegon.
• 9 P-47s attack Japanese Army ground troops at Indaw and Man Hkong.
• 4 14th Air Force B-25s attack Man Pwe, and 4 attack Wanling.

• 13 14th Air Force P-40s attack targets around Changsha.
• Fighter-bombers attack Hengyang, Kweilin, Lingling, and targets of opportunity across southern China and northern French Indochina.

• 8 341st Medium Bomb Group B-25s attack three rail bridges near Thanh Hoa.

Air Operations, East Indies

FEAF B-24s and fighter-bombers attack the airfield at Djailolo, northeastern Celebes, and shipping off Halmahera.

Air Operations, Europe

• 30 Lancasters of Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons and a No. 463 Squadron Lancaster with cameramen on board fly from Lossiemouth to attack the German battleship Tirpitz (42,900t), which is still moored near Tromsö. The weather is clear. The Tirpitz ias hit by at least 2 Tallboys and then suffers a violent internal explosion. She capsizes to remain bottom upwards - a total loss. Approximately 1,000 of the 1,900 men on board are killed or injured. German fighters which are stationed near by to protect the Tirpitz fail to take off in time and only 1 Lancaster, of No. 9 Squadron, is severely damaged, by flak. It lands safely in Sweden with its crew unhurt.

• 2 Mosquitos are on Ranger patrols and there are 2 RCM sorties.
• Allied bombers attack the Brenner Pass railway.

Air Operations, Marshalls

In an unusual mission in the ongoing campaign against bypassed Japanese bases, 3 Marine Air Group 34 F4U squadrons attack Jabor on Jaluit with napalm in order to kill pigs and chickens, thus denying the beleaguered defenders important food sources.

Air Operations, Philippines

• FEAF B-24s attack the Alicante airfield on Negros.
• V Bomber Command B-25s attack the Daliao and Matina airfields on Mindanao.
• V Fighter Command fighter-bombers attack shipping in Ormoc Bay and barges along Leyte’s west coast.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 1 Ki-48 'Lily' bomber and 1 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighters near Dulag, Leyte at 0815 hours.
• A 347th Fighter Group P-38 downs an A6M Zero over the Alicante airfield on Negros at 1240 hours.
• 475th and 18th Fighter group P-38s down 3 A6M Zeros near Tacloban, Leyte between 1330 and 1345 hours.
• A 348th Fighter Group P-47 downs an A6M Zero over San Jose, Leyte at 1440 hours.
• 475th Fighter Group P-38s down 4 J2M 'Jack' fighters, 1 A6M Zero, and 1 Ki-43 'Oscar' fighter over northern Cebu between 1710 and 1740 hours.
• A 475th Fighter Group P-38 downs an A6M Zero over Dulag, Leyte at 1820 hours.

Air Operations, Volcano Islands

29 30th Heavy Bomb Group B-24s attack Iwo Jima. The bombers are escorted by VII Fighter Command P-38s.

Eastern Front

In Yugoslavia, troops of the Bulgarian 1st Army capture Kumanovo, on the railway between Skopje and Nish.

Italy

The Polish II Corps, working closely with the British V Corps of 8th Army, attacks on the line Castrocarc-Converselle-Santa Lucia, south of Faenza.

Norway

Offshore a German coastal convoy is attacked by Royal Navy cruisers and destroyers.

Pacific

Japanese submarine I-37 is sunk by the US destroyer Nicholas (DD-449) south of Yap Island in the Carolines.

Philippines

In the X Corps sector, the 21st Inf of the 24th Div captures the summit of Breakneck Ridge, but fails to push on further south along the road to Ormoc because of stubborn resistance by the enemy.

US carrier aircraft damage 1 light cruiser and 2 destroyers in air raids over Manila Bay. The destroyers are devastated in massive magazine explosions caused by accurate bomb and torpedo hits. Japanese transport No. 139 is sunk in the attacks.

Western Europe

The bridge at Malling, on the Moselle, is destroyed in the course of a counterattack by units of the German 1st Army. Engaged by the American 90th Div of the XX Corps, the Germans are driven back with heavy losses. The 358th Regt of the same division reaches a line Elzange-Valmestroff, taking those two villages. The building of a bridge over the Moselle is begun at Cattenom.

In the US XII Corps sector, German attempts to hold up the 80th Div in the triangle between the Nied River and a stream called the Rotte collapse when units of the US 6th Arm Div outflank the enemy to the south and the Rotte is crossed at three points.

The bitter fighting for the approaches to Antwerp ends as Allied forces clear the Dutch islands at the mouth of the Scheldt River.

Images from November 12, 1944

A parade of the newly founded Volkssturm marches through Berlin on 12 November 1944. Every man between 16 and 60 fit for military service could be drafted to the Volkssturm

Parade in Berlin

Recruiting office of the Waffen SS in Calais. 12 November 1944. The SS recruited across France and indeed the French SS were one of the last units to hold out in the battle for central Berlin.

Waffen SS Recruiting Office

US medics are seen as they treat wounded comrades at an portable surgical unit during the 36th Division's drive on Pinwe, Burma, 12 November 1944.

Treating the Wounded

The Volkssturm was a German national militia during the last months of World War II. It was founded on Adolf Hitler’s orders on 12 November 1944 and conscripted males between the ages of 16 (aka Hitler Youth) to 60 (aka men who had formally been banned from joining the army because of age or disability) years who were not already serving in some military unit as part of a German Home Guard. Later the age was lowered to 13.

The Volkssturm

KMS Tirpitz under attack, 12 November 1944. The battleship is visible to the left of the bomb splashes and is firing its main guns at the bombers.

Tirpitz Under Attack

Convoy of American military trucks on winding Italian road, 12 November 1944

US Convoy in Italy

US soldier sticking head out of underground tunnel and machine gun position, 12 November 1944

Machine Gun Position

Fortifications of the Gothic Line in the Apennines used against the Fifth Army on 12 November 1944

Fortifications of the Gothic Line

The wake of a fast moving motor boat as she hurries away from the battered TIRPITZ can be seen as a huge cloud rises from an early bomb hit on the German battleship. A Royal Navy photograph taken during an earlier attack

Attack on the Tirpitz

Low-level oblique photographic-reconnaissance aerial taken from De Havilland Mosquito PR Mark XVI, NS637, of No. 544 Squadron RAF, showing the capsized German battleship TIRPITZ, lying in in Tromso fjord, attended by salvage vessels. Dodd F L (Sqn Ldr), and Hill A (Plt Off): No. 544 Squadron RAF

The Capsized Tirpitz

The German battleship TIRPITZ, lying capsized in in Tromso fjord, attended by a salvage vessel. The already damaged ship was finally sunk in a combined daylight attack by Nos. 9 and 617 Squadrons RAF on 12 November 1944, (Operation CATECHISM). The hole in the hull by the starboard propeller shaft was cut by the Germans to allow access to salvage crews.

The Capsized Tirpitz and Salvage Vessel

Fueling a CNAC C-47 ar Suifu, China (photo dated 12 November 1944 , courtesy www.cnac.org ). The pilots carried the 55 gallons fuel drums with them over the Hump on the way out so to have enough fuel to make it back home again. The refueling was awkward, first poured in the square 5 gallons cans, carried up the ladder and poured into the wing tanks. Note the CNAC roundel on the C-47 in the backdrop. Those aircraft all belonged to the China National Aviation Corporation, co-owned by Pan American

Fueling a CNAC C-47