November 16th, 1942 (MONDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Light fleet carrier HMS Vengeance laid down.
Destroyer HMS Raider commissioned.
In London, Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle, Commander-in-Chief Free French Forces, meets with Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Foreign Minister Anthony Eden to protest the continuation of the regime of Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan, High Commissioner of France for North and West Africa. Churchill assures him that he understands his concerns and that the measure is only a temporary expedient aimed at facilitating the ouster of the Axis forces from North Africa.
FRANCE: During the night of 16/17 November, RAF Bomber Command aircraft lay mines off five ports: eight aircraft mine the Gironde Estuary; three each lay mines of Bayonne and Lorient; and two each lay mines off St Jean de Luz and St. Nazaire; two aircraft are lost. Four other aircraft drop leaflets over the country.
GERMANY: U-721, U-857, U-993 laid down.
U-169, U-192, U-668 commissioned.
During the day, six RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb marshalling yard in three small towns: two each bomb Emmerich and Julich and one bombs Lingen.
During the night of 16/17 November, RAF Bomb Command aircraft lay mines off port cities: four lay mines in the Heligoland Bight south and east of the island of Helgoland with the loss of one aircraft; three mine the Elbe River Estuary; and one lays mines off Swinemunde.
BALTIC SEA: U-418 collided with the fishing boat Stralsund off Danzig during exercises.
U.S.S.R.: (Sergey Anisimov)(69)Baltic
Fleet, Ladoga and Onega Flotillas: Shipping loss. GB
"Krasnoe Znamya" - by Finnish torpedo-cutters at the bay of Lavensari
Is. (later raised, went into service in 1944)
Mikko Härmeinen adds: This raid (which my sources place
on 18 Nov 1942) was led by kapteeniluutnantti (equivalent of USN Lieutenant Sr.
grade) Jouko Pirhonen, who after the war became vara-amiraali (Vice-Admiral) and
the Chief of the Navy. Kapteeniluutnantti Pirhonen received the Mannerheim
Cross, 2nd class mainly because of this success.
The story goes that after the war Jouko Pirhonen attended a formal reception where there also were Soviet naval officers present. Pirhonen was sitting on a table where a dignified-looking Russian admiral was also seated. The Russian admiral noticed Pirhonen's Mannerheim Cross and asked him for what he had received it. Pirhonen answered that he had led the raid that sunk the "Krasnoje Znamja" at Lavansaari harbour. The Russian admiral looked at him for a long moment, and then said: "I was in that ship". A long, uneasy silence followed. Then the admiral continued: "It was a very close call, the water rising up to my neck."
Then he raised his glass and proposed a toast to Pirhonen for what he had done. One professional talking to another.
TUNISIA: The British First Army, 36th Brigade, continues their movement into Tunisia taking Djebel Abiod. The 1st Parachute Battalion lands at Souk el Arba, 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Tabarka. By nightfall they are approaching Beja. Several thousand Germans form a bridgehead in the Bizerte-Tunis area. The French XIX Corps reports contact with a German patrol on the Bédja-Djebel Abiod highway. French forces at Oued Zarga and Mateur drive off Axis patrols.
USAAF Twelfth Air Force C-47 Skytrains drop British paratroops at Souk el Arba. Six B-17 Flying Fortresses, of the 97th Bombardment Group (Heavy) based at Maison Blanche, Algeria, raid Sidi Ahmed Airfield at Bizerte; thus the 97th which flew the first USAAF heavy bomber mission from the U.K., on 17 August, becomes the first Twelfth Air Force bombardment group to fly a combat mission in Africa.
LIBYA: USAAF Ninth Air Force P-40s patrol over the Germiston area.
ALGERIA: General de Gaulle announces that the Free French will not accept Darlan's authority. To the US the arrangement is useful, while the British share the French apprehensions.
News Chronicle:
Four British officers who escaped from a Moroccan prison camp have now joined up with the U.S. troops in French Morocco.
They were in a British transport which was torpedoed on September 12. They are Wing-Commander J. Blackburn, Major Creedon, King's On Royal Regiment, Flight-Lieut. Oliver, and Mr. Sims, an engineer of the Merchant Navy. The tansport was torpedoed 700 miles south-west of Freetown, West Africa, while repatriating about 1,000 troops and 1,800 Italian prisoners. The rescued men, who included about 400 Italians, spent five days adrift in lifeboats, and were fed by Axis submarines - six German and one Italian - which kept them together by cruising on the surface.
The submarines supplied the survivors with hot food every day. "To our surprise they treated us very well," said Wing-Commander Blackburn. "They took about 50 women and children aboard the submarines and treated them with the greatest consideration."
On the sixth day a French cruiser and two destroyers, summoned by the submarines, appeared and brought the survivors to Casablanca, where they were interned. Two officers were kept as "token" prisoners.
Altogether about 600 British from the transport survived.
NEW GUINEA: In Papua New Guinea, the U.S. 32d Infantry and Australian 7th Divisions move forward to eliminate the Buna-Gona beachhead, the 32d toward Buna and 7th toward Gona and Sanananda. The Japanese, expected to be few and dispirited, are prepared for a determined stand and have organized a series of strong positions favored by terrain for defense. Colonel YOKOYAMA Yosuke commands all forces west of the Girua River and Captain YASUDA Yoshitatsu those east of river. In the Australian 7th Division sector on the west, the 25th Brigade moves toward Gona and Sanananda and the 16th Brigade completes crossing the Kumusi River and moves forward to Popondetta, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southwest of Buna. To the east, the U.S. 32d Infantry Division’s 126th Infantry Regiment heads for Buna along the axis Inonda-Horanda-Dobodura, and the Warren Force (based on 128th Infantry Regiment) moves the along coast toward Cape Endaiadere. Although by evening the Australian artillery is
employed to support coastal advance, Warren Force suffers severe blow when small craft bringing urgently needed supplies are destroyed by Japanese planes; among personnel embarked on these is Major General Edwin F. Harding, Commanding General U.S. 32d Infantry Division, who swims to shore.
In the air over Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-26 Marauders, B-25 Mitchells, and A-20 Havocs attack the areas around Buna, Gona, Soputa, Sanananda, and Giruwa, hitting antiaircraft positions, buildings, barges, and troop concentrations.
BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, the Japanese establish the 8th Army Area at Rabaul under command of Lieutenant General IMAMURA Hitoshi. This command comprises two armies: the 17th, charged with operations in the Solomon Islands, and the 18th, to operate in New Guinea.
NEW CALEDONIA: Admiral William F. Halsey, commander of the South Pacific Area and commander of the South Pacific Force, moves the responsibility for handling cargo discharge and loading at Noumea to the Army. Brigadier General Raymond E.S. Williamson applies skill and leadership to this task, successfully!
AUSTRALIA: Minesweeper HMAS Glenelg commissioned.
TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: A USAAF Eleventh Air Force weather reconnaissance flight is flown over Japanese-held Kiska and Attu Islands. On Attu Island, demolition charges are dropped on Holtz Bay, antiaircraft guns, and on a village; results are not observed.
CANADA: HMC ML 097 commissioned.
U.S.A.: Marine Night Fighting Squadron Five Hundred Thirty One [VMF(N)-531] is commissioned at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. The first aircraft received were two North American SNJ-4 Texan trainers, q.v., later supplemented with Brewster SB2A-4 Buccaneers, q.v. The squadron will be assigned two PV-1s equipped with Identification, Friend or Foe (IFF) equipment, Very High Frequency (VHF) radio sets and British Airborne Intercept (A.I.) Radar Mk. IV. Unlike the USN’s PV-1s,the crew of the Marine aircraft consisted of three men, the pilot, radar operator and dorsal turret gunner.
Minesweeper USS Capable launched.
Minesweeper USS Steady commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: SS Clan MacTaggart sunk by U-92 36.08N 07.23W, 100 miles west of Gibraltar while sailing independently.
U-173 sunk at Casablanca in position 33.40N, 07.35W by depth charges from the US destroyers USS Woolsey, USS Swanson and USS Quick. 57 dead (all hands lost).
First ASW mission by an American B-24 over the Bay of Biscay.
U-552 took on an ill crewmember from U-462 in the mid-Atlantic.
U-608 sank SS Irish Pine.