29 November 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcasts to the Italian people. He says they must chose between a full-scale Allied attack and a revolt against Mussolini. He also warns the Italian government that RAF bombing of Italian cities will continue until Italy abandons the war.

Sloop HMS Peacock laid down.

Corvette HMS Nepeta launched.

Submarines HMS Tactician and Unsparing commissioned.

ENGLISH CHANNEL: Following a raid on the Fiat works at Turin, Flt-Sgt. Rawdon Hume Middleton (b.1916), RAAF, flew his aircraft back to England then ordered his crew out of his badly-shot-up Stirling, and died when he crashed into the sea to avoid civilian casualties. (Victoria Cross)

BELGIUM: During the night of 29/30 November, six RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos seek targets of opportunity. This is the first Mosquito night operation of the war. Railway yards at five places are bombed and the Mosquitos all returned safely.

GERMANY: Obergruppenfuhrer (General) Reinhard Heydrich, Protector of Bohemia and Moravia, sends out invitations to the Wannsee conference on the Jewish question. It is originally scheduled for 9 December but is postponed due to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The conference takes place on 20 January 1942 in the Wannsee Villa overlooking the Wannsee lake in southwestern Berlin and will result in additional governmental actions leading to the so-called "Final Solution of the Jewish Question". (Jack McKillop and Perry Stewart)

ITALY: Churchill broadcasts to the Italian people. He says they must choose between a full-scale Allied attack and a revolt against Mussolini.

Lancaster bombers demonstrated their unique lethality tonight by dropping a new 8,000-pound bomb on Italian soil for the first time. The bomber came into service early this year; the bomb was dropped for the first time in April. There have been 11 raids on Turin, the last eight days ago. As well as the new blockbuster, the RAF hit the city with 100,000 incendiaries and other high explosive. RAF Bomber Command dispatches 29 Stirlings and seven Lancasters and the Pathfinder Force to bomb the Fiat works at Turin; weather conditions are poor and only 18 aircraft, 14 Lancasters and four Stirlings, are known to have definitely crossed the Alps. Two Stirlings and a Wellington are missing. Turin reports that 16 people are killed and 15 injured.

BLACK SEA: U-24 was attacked by three rounds from Turkish shore-based guns. The boat dived. The commander stated that the boat was 7 or 8 nautical miles away from the Turkish coast.

TUNISIA: The British First Army, after taking Tebourba on 27 November, is stalled at Djedeida. In an effort to rejuvenate the drive on Tunis, elements of the British 1st Parachute Brigade are dropped at Depienne by USAAF Twelfth Air Force C-47 Skytrains, but the objective of capturing Oudna airfield and threatening Tunis, 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the north, fails because of the overwhelming German defense of the airfield. Over 300 casualties are suffered by the paratroops. Allied armoured "Blade Force" is beaten off when it tries to storm German hilltop strongholds.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force P-38 Lightnings and DB-7 Bostons attack Gabes Airfield while other U.S. fighters operate with the RAF out of Bone, Algeria, furnishing air cover for ground units in the battle area.

LIBYA: Twenty four USAAF Ninth Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Tripoli harbor at dusk, hitting docks, warehouses, two vessels, and silencing an antiaircraft battery.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: B-25 Mitchells of the USAAF Tenth Air Force’s China Air Task Force bomb Hongay and Campho on the coast.

INDIAN OCEAN: The German auxiliary cruiser HK Michel (Ship 28 also known as Raider "H") sinks the 5,880 ton U.S. freighter SS Sawokla by torpedo and gunfire about 436 nautical miles (807 kilometers) south of the French island of Reunion in the Mascarene Islands. This is the 13th ship sunk by Michel. Sawokla was en route from Colombo, Ceylon, to Cape Town, South Africa, with a cargo of jute and rough linen. Sixteen of the 41-man crew are killed in the attack, as are four of the 13 Armed Guard sailors. Michel rescues 25 crewmen, five Armed Guard sailors and the five passengers.

NEW GUINEA: Colonel YAZAWA Kiyomi and part of the Japanese force that has withdrawn along the west bank of the Kumusi River to positions north of Gona reach Giruwa from there by barge. Australian troops attack in the Gona area attack from the south and east but are halted by determined Japanese troops.

In New Papua Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, P-40s, and A-20 Havocs attack the Gona area while B-25 Mitchells and a single A-20 bomb the airfield at Lae.

NEW HEBRIDES ISLANDS: Following the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal, 12-15 November, all plans to recapture that island were abandoned by the Japanese, and all their efforts were directed instead toward making its final capture by the Americans as expensive as possible. For a period of approximately three weeks, only air raids and the appearance of minor naval vessels broke the lull for U.S. forces. However, towards the end of November, Japanese shipping in the Shortland Islands, Solomon Islands, area increases as supplies are loaded upon fast transports, and it becomes apparent that a Japanese move in force to supply their the Guadalcanal garrison is imminent. In order to deny the Japanese the much needed food, ammunition and technical personnel, the USN established Task Force 67 is formed on 27 November at Espirtu Santo Island to intercept the rejuvenated "Tokyo Express" before it could effect a landing. TF 67, under the command of Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright, is composed of the heavy cruisers USS Minneapolis (CA-36), New Orleans (CA-32, Northampton (CA-26) and Pensacola (CA-24), light cruiser USS Honolulu (CL-48), and destroyers USS Drayton (DD-366), Fletcher (DD-445), Lamson (DD-367), Larder (DD-487), Maury (DD-401) and Perkins (DD-377). At about 2300 hours, TF 67got underway to intercept the Japanese landing which was expected to take place at Tassafaronga. (See Solomon Islands below).

SOLOMON ISLANDS: US Admrial Wright adopts Kinkaid's plans and reviewed it with the captains of his TF. At midnight tonight TF 67, 5 cruisers and 6 destroyers, will leave Espiritu Santo for Guadalcanal.

At half past midnight, Japanese Destroyer Squadron Two, consisting of eight destroyers under the command of Rear Admiral TANAKA Raizo, departed Buin on the southern coast of Bougainville Island en route to Guadalcanal. The destroyers divided into two forces were: Strike Force consisted of HIJMS Naganami and Takanami; Transport Force consisted of HIJMS Kagero, Kawakaze, Kuroshio, Makinami, Oyahio and Suzukaze.

Aircraft from Henderson Field, Guadalcanal sink Japanese cargo ships SS Azusa Maru and Kiku Maru, in Wickham Anchorage, New Georgia Island.

On Guadalcanal, the 3d Battalion, 147th Infantry Regiment, elements of the 246th Field Artillery Battalion, part of the Marine 9th Defense Battalion, and additional Seabees are landed in the Koli Point area, where an airfield, Carney, is to be constructed; the Aola Bay area has been rejected as unsuitable for an airfield site.

There are on this date six New Zealand squadrons of the RNZAF in the AirSoPac theatre (one P-40 squadron, three Hudson squadrons, and one squadron each of Singapores and Vincents.)

PACIFIC OCEAN: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses intercept a force of four troop carrying destroyers proceeding through Vitiaz Strait between New Britain Island and New Guinea without air cover; the B-17 Flying Fortresses damage the Japanese destroyers HIJMS Shiratsuyu and Makigumo and cause the others to turn back, thus preventing reinforcement of Gona with fresh troops from Rabaul on New Britain Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: A USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberator over Holtz Bay, Attu Island, reports the vessel bombed and damaged on 26 November as still sinking; a B-26 Marauder flies an uneventful reconnaissance over the south shore of Kiska Island.

Coffee joins the list of items rationed. Despite record coffee production in Latin American countries, the growing demand for the bean from both military and civilian sources, and the demands placed on shipping, which is needed for other purposes, required the limiting of its availability.

In a major reorganization, all Bombardment Squadrons assigned to the USAAF Antisubmarine Command are redesignated Antisubmarine Squadrons.

Lieutenant Colonel Boyd D. "Buzz" Wagner, America's first WWII fighter ace, is killed in a P-40 accident 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Eglin Field, Valpariso, Florida. In December 1941, Lieutenant Wagner was assigned to the 17th Pursuit Squadron in the Philippines and shot down five Japanese aircraft in four days. He was evacuated to Australia in January 1942 and then went to New Guinea in April 1942 with two P-39 Airacobra squadrons. On 30 April, he was credited with three Japanese fighters bringing his total to eight. By late summer, he had returned to the U.S. in a combat-training assignment. He is on a routine flight from Eglin Field to Maxwell Field, Montgomery, Alabama when his aircraft crashes.