November 5th, 1942 (THURSDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Submarine HMS Truncheon laid down
GERMANY: In a camp in Bavaria British officer prisoners are rehearsing the production of The Mikado. They have an orchestra of 72 performers and the cast with chorus is a pretty big one. The camp has two tennis courts and a football pitch.
These details were given to me in a letter written considerably after the reprisals order was put into effect.
Commander Beattie failed to get away after the commando raid on St. Nazaire, and for his gallant conduct was awarded the V.C.
One morning a little later a special parade of all prisoners was ordered at which the camp commandant appeared in full dress uniform. Calling out Commander Beattie the commandant read out the official citation of the award and then saluted, joining in the cheers that broke out from the other British officers on parade.
A similar urge to honour gallantry which had cost the enemy dear was displayed only a few days later, this time at another prisoner-of-war camp. Here the commander ordered a special parade at which he read out the record of the award of the V.C. to Sergeant John Hinton, a New Zealander, who had fought in Greece, handed him the ribbon of the decoration and looked on sympathetically while the Sergeant was carried shoulder high around the camp.
Yorkshire Post
[From an article by Sir Herbert Russell.]
U.S.S.R.: The German
attacks begin to loose steam south of Terek in the Causasus, but
nevertheless continue already nearing Ordzhonikidze.
Polar
Fleet and White Sea Flotilla: Shipping loss.SKR-25
"Smena" (ex RT-57 "Smena") by surface ships, SW to Novaya
Zemla after 22 - DD "Sokrushitelnii" - at storm, in a central part of
Barentz Sea.
Baltic Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas: Submarine "Sch-305" is rammed and sunk off Gisslan in Gulf of Finland by Finnish submarine /Vetehinen/ (kapteeniluutnantti Antti Leino). Despite being damaged, /Vetehinen/ suffered no casualties and managed to return port. (Sergey Anisimov and Mikko Härmeinen)(69)
GIBRALTAR: Lieutenant General Dwight Eisenhower, Commander-in-Chief Allied Expeditionary Force (AEF) arrives in a B-17 piloted by Major Paul Tibbetts. His HQ includes Admiral Sir Andrew Cunningham, Naval Commander-in-Chief, AEF; Major General James H. Doolittle, Commanding General USAAF Twelfth Air Force; Air Marshal Sir William Welsh, Air Officer Commanding British Eastern Air Command. Lieutenant General Sir Kenneth Anderson will command the British 1st Army, the main ground formation.
A senior American general nearly drowned after a clandestine meeting with French leaders in Algeria, it was revealed today. Lieutenant-General Mark Clark, the deputy commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, was landed by canvas canoe from the British submarine HMS SERAPH (P 219) (under the temporary command of U.S. Navy Captain Jerauld Wright) on 22 October.
British commandos stood guard with Tommy guns as he held discussions with the French General Charles Mast, the deputy commander in North Africa. Mast was anxious for details of the coming invasion. Clark gave none, not even the fact that the fleet was on its way. With the local police suspicious, Clark and the Commandos prepared to shoot their way out. When they reached the beach, a heavy Atlantic swell was creating huge waves. It was then that a canoe capsized, throwing the general into the water. Clark claims someone shouted: "Never mind the general, get the paddles!"
EGYPT: General Bernard L Montgomery, General Officer Commanding British Eighth Army, announces that the British have won a complete and absolute victory in Egypt and General Erwin Rommel's armies are in full retreat. The Eighth Army regroups and continues pursuit of the Axis forces. X Corps, now consisting of the 1st and 7th Armoured Divisions and the New Zealand 2d Division, pushes rapidly west, overcoming rear guard resistance near Fuka. XXX Corps takes up positions between El Alamein and Matruh while XIII Corps is given the task of mopping up battle zone. While the Italian Infantry takes heavy losses, the main British pursuit is held up by a shortage of fuel and a minefield. The minefield is a dummy field laid out previously by the British themselves.
US Army, Middle East Air Force P-40s bomb targets on the Fuka road and patrol the Sidi Hanaish area while B-25 Mitchells also bomb motor transport.
MADAGASCAR: Troops of the British East African Command complete their occupation of the French colony island of Madagascar. Fearing that Vichy might hand over the island to the Japanese in case Ceylon fell, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered Operation IRONCLAD to proceed on 5 May when the naval base at Diego Suarez was secured. Hostilities against French Vichy forces on the island ceased at 1400 hours.
INDIA: A reconnaissance of the Ledo area, terminus of The Ledo Road to Myitkyina, Burma, and base from which operations in northern Burma, Operation RAVENOUS, are to start, is begun.
NEW GUINEA: Australian troops of the 16th Brigade, advancing on the Kokoda Trail today launched a strong attack on the retreating Japanese in a bid to capture the town of Oivi in the foothills of the Owen Stanley Mountains.
After the fall of Kokoda on 2 November, a brigade of Australians encountered strongly-manned Japanese defences some three miles long near Oivi. The Japanese have dug themselves in and are resisting fiercely. To try and break the impasse another Australian brigade is to move round the southern flank to cut Japanese communications in the rear.
If Oivi can be taken, the road will be open to Gona and Buna on the north coast, although more tough fighting is inevitable.
The Australian 25th Brigade moves against Gorari from Kokoda.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US Army's 164th
Infantry Regiment (less 1st Battalion) crosses the flooded Nalimbiu river, about
3,500 yards (3,200 metres) east of the Lunga
perimeter, on Guadalcanal. They drive north
along the east bank in an effort to outflank the Japanese opposite the 7th Marines.
The Japanese light cruiser HIJMS Tenryu and five Destroyers of the Otsu Detachment of the Tokyo Express lands part of the 228th Regiment at Cape Esperance. The Ko Detachment with ten Destroyers of the Tokyo Express lands Major General Ito, commander of the 38th Infantry Group, his headquarters and with the balance of the regiment is landed at Tassafaronga. Among those evacuated is Lieutenant General Kawaguchi Kiyotake, commander of the 35th Brigade,141 soldiers and 206 construction workers.
The US opposition tonight consists of PT-39 engaging destroyer Murasame. The other 3 US PT boats do not detect the Express.
PACIFIC OCEAN: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells unsuccessfully attack a schooner near Arawe on the western tip of New Britain Island, Bismarck Archipelago.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: The USAAF Eleventh Air Force flies weather reconnaissance over Japanese-held Kiska and Little Kiska Islands.
CANADA:
Minesweeper HMCS St Boniface launched Port Arthur, Ontario.
Trawler HMS Bowell renamed HMS Miscou at Montreal, Province of Quebec.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Jeffers commissioned.
ARCTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-408 is sunk about 121 nautical miles (223 kilometers) north of Akureyri, Iceland. The sub is caught on the surface by a USN PBY-5A Catalina of Patrol Squadron Eighty Four (VP-84) based at Fleet Air Base Reykjavik, Iceland; the aircraft dropped four depth charges which land aft of the conning tower while the sub is submerging. All 45 hands were lost.