30 November 1942

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Rene Duchez, a French house-painter, kept his eyes open when he was set to work redecorating the office of a German officer in the Todt military construction organization in Caen, Normandy. On the desk he spotted a large map. Later he handed it to a friend in the Resistance. When the map eventually reached London, it was found to be a detailed plan of Germany's coastal defences, setting out every strong point, arms dump, booby trap and look-out point.

Duchez is just one of the many thousands of ordinary folk who work for the resistance movements of occupied Europe while carrying on with their regular jobs.

Resistance began almost as soon as the conquering Germans appeared. In the first stunned days and weeks after defeat, it might be no more than a gesture; in Amsterdam, a bar would empty of Dutch customers if a German entered. But then people took to playing tricks, putting sugar in the petrol tank of a German car or throwing tacks on the road. In Belgium, Andree de Jongh, ahed 24, the daughter of a school-master organized an escape route through occupied France and into Spain for crashed aircrew and escaped PoWs.

In July 1940, in Britain, Chamberlain set up SOE, the Special Operations Executive, with the task of training saboteurs and sending them into Europe to organize and strengthen the resistance. Burglary, safe-breaking, hand to hand combat and silent killing were skills needed. Savile Row made suits in continental styles and the Science Museum forged papers.

Despite blunders and betrayals - the whole Dutch section of SOE in the Netherlands has been penetrated by the Nazis - the resistance movement continues to flourish in occupied Europe.

Destroyer HMS Camperdown laid down.

Corvette HMCS Budleia laid down, Aberdeen, Scotland.

Frigate HMS Jed commissioned.

Destroyer HMS Relentless commissioned.

In a meeting between RAF and USAAF officers at the Air Ministry, a joint decision is made on the allocation of responsibility, with the RAF to provide aerial defense of sectors in which U.S. airfields are located while the USAAF Eighth Air Force’s VIII Fighter Command operates principally as escort for bomber strikes against the Continent.

EUROPE: Deportations of Polish Jews approach completion. Since the camps opened, 600,000 Jews have been murdered at Belzec, 360,000 at Chelmno, 250,000 at Sobibor and 840,000 at Treblinka.

FRANCE: During the night of 30 November/1 December, six RAF Bomber Command Wellingtons lay mines off La Pallice without loss.

TUNISIA: As the 11th Brigade, British 78th Division, continues a losing battle at Djedeida, the British First Army prepares for an attack on Tunis by Blade Force and Combat Command B of the U.S. 1st Armored Division on 2 December. Combat Command B is concentrated in the Medjez el Bab area and Blade Force in the vicinity of Chouigui. By this time, Axis forces have about 15,500 fighting troops in Tunisia.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the northern quay at Bizerte; nine B-26 Marauders hit the airfield and railroad at Gabes; DB-7 Bostons attack a bridge and railway station at Djedeida; P-38 Lightnings escort all three missions while other P-38s strafe Gabes Airfield, fly reconnaissance, and shoot down a Luftwaffe Bf 109 in an aerial battle near Tunis.

BURMA: The British 123rd Brigade's advance reaches Bawli Bazar in the Arakan Valley. The weather, which would normally clear during November, has not cooperated thus making the advance extremely difficult.

ANDAMAN ISLANDS: B-24 Liberators of the USAAF Tenth Air Force’s India Air Task Force attack shipping at Port Blair, claiming damage to one vessel by near misses; this strike begins a series of raids on this water approach to Burma. The Andaman Islands are located in the eastern part of the Bay of Bengal; Port Blair is located about 472 nautical miles (874 kilometers) west-southwest of Bangkok, Thailand.

JAPAN: The German tanker SS Uckermark, the former supply ship SS ALTMARK that had replenished the German armored ship Admiral Graf Spee, is at anchor at Yokohama when a huge explosions rips the vessel apart while the crew is having lunch. The cause of the explosion is thought to be a spark from tools used by a repair gang working near the fuel tanks. Forty-three crewmen from the Uckermark die. Anchored nearby and also sunk by the explosion is the Australian freighter SS Nankin and the German auxiliary cruiser HK Thor (Ship 10 also known as Raider E by the British) which had captured the Nankin on 5 October while she en route from Fremantle, Western Australia, Australia, to Colombo, Ceylon. During her two cruises, HK Thor had sunk or captured 20 ships totaling 152,125 tons. (85)(Alex Gordon)

Angered by slow progress in the final stages of the Papuan campaign, General MacArthur has told Lt-Gen Robert Eichelberger, the commanding general of US 1 Corps, to take charge of a force no larger than a division at Buna. "I want you to take Buna, or not come back alive," said MacArthur. He offered inducements as well. He said that if Eichelberger captured Buna he would give him a Distinguished Service Cross and "recommend him for a British decoration." Buna was believed to be "easy pickings", but the Japanese survivors of Kokoda are putting up a fanatical last-ditch stand.

U.S. Lieutenant General Eichelberger, Commanding General I Corps, flies from Australia to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The Australian 21st Brigade, Maroubra Force, having rested and reorganized after action in the Owen Stanley Range, takes over the attack on the Gona front, relieving the Australian 25th Brigade. In the Sanananda sector, the left flank elements of the 126th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 32d Infantry Division, establish a block behind the Japanese on the Soputa-Sanananda trail, but a frontal attacks along the trail in the center and flanking attacks on the right make little headway. The Urbana and Warren Forces each make concerted attacks but gain little ground. The Urbana Force fails in three attempts to take Buna Village; elements protecting the flank and rear seize a crossing over Siwori Creek and the outpost region between there and Buna Creek, but are unable to clear Coconut Grove or advance beyond the Triangle. Warren Force, attacking toward Cape

Endaiadere on the right and the northeastern edge of New Strip on the left, encounters the Japanese main line of resistance in Duropa Plantation and is unable to breach it. Bren gun carriers that are to have spearheaded assault in this sector fail to arrive.

In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and B-26 Marauders attack the airfield, AA positions, and defenses in the Buna area.

PORTUGESE TIMOR: At about 9am and 120 miles from their objective, the three ships of the flotilla to remove the 2/2nd Company AIF from Timor are attacked by a single Japanese bomber. More follow. Captain Sullivan of HMAS Castlemaine signals Darwin requesting fighter cover. The Allied fighters arrive and manage to drive off most of the Japanese attackers, however, the corvettes will not make Timor tonight for the planned pick up. Kuru becomes detached during the night but arrives at Bentano Bay safely some hours ahead of time and embarks 77 Portugese and one AIF stretcher case: with no sign of the corvettes Kuru sails at 1am tomorrow. (William L. Howard)(188, 189, 190, 191)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: At 9:40 pm the Japanese steam past Savo Island headed for their supply drop on Guadalcanal. These 8 destroyers are loaded with supplies in drums lashed to their decks their torpedo reloads are left behind. At the same time US naval TF 67 enters the eastern end of Lengo Channel. At 2308 the US radar shows 7 - 8 ships. The Japanese spot the US ships, without radar, at 2312. The US destroyers fire torpedos at 2320 and their cruisers open fire at 2321. Japanese torpedos are fired at 2323. At 2327 the Japanese torpedos begin to strike. The losses in this battle are one Japanese destroyer, Takanami. US losses are severe damage to 3 cruisers, and the loss of the USS Northampton.

Japanese Admiral Tanaka received much of the credit for the Japanese success in the Battle of Tassafaronga. It should be noted that Captain Sato Torojiro was in command of the Japanese destroyer division that many credit with launching the successful torpedos. Capt Sato finds himself mentioned in 1990's US fiction (Tom Clancy, A Debt of Honor, Chapter 13).

As a final note to the Battle of Tassafaronga, the last of the 13 US "treaty cruisers" has been sunk or damaged around Guadalcanal. These ships will not participate in any further night battles in the Solomon Islands.

During the night of 30 November/1 December, the BATTLE OF TASSAFARONGA is fought. In an attempt to resupply the Japanese troops on Guadalcanal, the Japanese Navy has devised a scheme of loading gasoline and oil drums with food, medicine and whatever else would be needed, chaining the drums together and dump them overboard. The chain would be brought ashore by ships boat and the drums would be dragged ashore by the Army. Today, eight destroyers under Rear Admiral TANAKA Raizo, six of them carrying 440 drums, set sail from the Shortland Islands. The eight destroyers are HIJMS Kagero, Kawakaze, Kuroshio, Makinami, Naganami, Oyashio, Suzukaze and Takanami. The USN has been warned by an Australian coastwatcher on Bougainville and sends Task Group 67.2 under Rear Admiral Carleton H. Wright to intercept and sink the Japanese force. TG 67.2 consists of the heavy cruisers USS Minneapolis (CA-36), New Orleans (CA-32), Northampton (CA-26) and Pensacola (CA-24); the light cruiser USS Honolulu (CL-48); and the destroyers USS Drayton (DD-366), Flethcer (DD-445), Lamson (DD-367), Lardner (DD-487), Maury (DD-401) and Perkins (DD-377). The USN ships surprise the Japanese off Tassafaronga Point, Guadalcanal. The Japanese press on to jettison the drums to sustain the troops while Long Lance torpedoes launched from destroyers HIJMS Kagero, Kawakaze, Kuroshio, Naganami and Oyashio wreak havoc on the USN's heavy cruisers: USS Minneapolis is hit by two torpedoes, one on the port bow, the other in her number two fireroom, causing loss of power and severe damage: her bow is gone back to the chain pipes, her port side badly ruptured, and two firerooms open to the sea; USS New Orleans next astern of USS Minneapolis, is forced to sheer away to avoid collision, and runs into the track of a torpedo which rips off her bow. Bumping down the ship's port side, the severed bow punches several holes in the hull. A fifth of her length gone, the ship slows to 2 knot

s; the next ship in line, USS PENSACOLA, turns left to prevent collision with the two damaged ships ahead of her and silhouetted by the burning American cruisers, she came in the Japanese line of fire. A torpedo hits her below the mainmast on the portside. Her engine room floods, three gun turrets go out of commission, and her oil tanks rupture to make a soaked torch of her mast. The next ship in line is USS Honolulu but she escapes the trap but the last ship in the column, USS Northampton, takes two torpedoes that tore a huge hole in her port side, ripping away decks and bulkheads. Flaming diesel oil sprays over the ship, she takes on water rapidly and begins to list and the abandon ship order is given three hours later and the ship sinks about 35 nautical miles (66 kilometers) north-northwest of Henderson Field, Guadalcanal. With the sinking of Northampton, the USN has only 13 heavy cruisers in commission. The only Japanese casualty is the destroyer HIJMS Takanami which is sunk by gunfire about 28 nautical miles (51 kilometers) north-northwest of Henderson Field. There are only 33 survivors of the 212 men aboard the ship.

PACIFIC OCEAN: In the Arafura Sea between Australia and New Guinea, Australian Beaufighters drive off 14 Japanese aircraft that were attack the Australian minesweepers HMAS Armidale (J 240) and Castlemaine (J 244).

Minesweeper HMCS Quinte damaged after running aground entrance to St. Peter's Canal, Cape Breton. Quinte had just completed a 6-week refit before she went aground and was beached to prevent outright sinking. Salvage operations were conducted over the winter of '43 but her repairs were not completed until Jun 44, after which she was assigned to training duties at Cornwallis , Nova Scotia.. Qunite's loss came at a critical time in the war, when every escort was desperately needed. The extremely rapid expansion of the RCN contributed significantly to several such incidents. A total of 48 Bangor-class ships were built for the RCN and a further 6, that were built for the RN in Vancouver, British Columbia. were transferred to the RCN. Canadian Bangors were used mainly as escorts but they performed poorly in this capacity. They were wet ships due to their bluff bows making them even more unpleasant ships to sail in than the corvettes, which were horrible. The Bangor's had an endurance of 2,800 miles at 10 knots on 160 tons of fuel.

Like corvettes, the Bangor's were small enough to be built in Great Lakes shipyards and they did provide a capability that the Flower's did not. Bangors built in Canada were fitted with gyros, whereas Flower-class corvettes were not -- one of the worth instances of bureaucratic bungling in wartime naval construction. Mines were only laid in Canadian waters once during the War, in 1943. 16 Canadian Bangors were present at D-Day and played a major part in mine clearance operations prior to the landings.

Destroyer HMCS Iroquois commissioned.

Frigate HMCS Valleyfield laid down Quebec City, Province of Quebec.

Corvette HMCS Midland arrived Liverpool , Nova Scotia. for refit.

U.S.A.: The New York Times runs one of the first articles on the unfolding story of the Holocaust. That article, under the headline: "1,000,000 Jews Slain by the Nazis, Report Says" is only six paragraphs long and buried on page 7. An exhibition of the clipping in June 1996 at the New York Public Library included a caption noting that The Times was criticized for having "grossly underplayed" coverage of the Holocaust, and deemed such criticism as valid. (NY Times, June 26, 1996)

An agreement signed between the U.S. and Canada regarding postwar economic settlements. The agreement is signed "to provide appropriate national and international measures to expand production, employment, and the exchange and consumption of goods . . . ; to eliminate all forms of discriminatory treatment in international commerce; to reduce tariffs and other trade barriers; and generally, to attain the economic objectives of the Atlantic Charter."