November 27th, 1943 (SATURDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM:
Corvette HMS Amberly Castle launched.
Minesweepers HMS Liberty, Jewel and Hare laid down.
Aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure (ex-HMS Powerful) laid down Belfast.
Frigates HMS Narborough and Torrington launched.
GERMANY: Berlin: RAF"> RAF Lancaster bombers supported by Mosquitoes made their fourth big raid within a week against the city of Berlin last night. First German estimates are putting the number of dead from the raids at over 4,000, with 400,000 homeless.
Sir Arthur Harris, the chief of Bomber Command, says that the RAF will bomb the city until the heart of Nazi Germany stops beating. The capital is probably the most intensively bombed city anywhere, hit this year by 12,000 tons of explosive, of which 5,000 have been dropped in the past few days.
Much of administrative Berlin has been hit, including the Air Ministry, Admiralty, Hitler's Chancellery and his train. The Führer was not in town, but dispatched fire engines to his capital from Brandenburg and Potsdam. Despite this, and the efforts of the army to create fire-breaks by blowing up buildings, fires spread rapidly.
Among several armaments factories hit was the Allkett tank factory. The greatest loss of life occurred when a bomber crashed onto a building, killing 92 people in the air-raid shelter. A Swede told journalists: "The Berlin we know has ceased to exist." The toll on the RAF"> RAF is high, however, with 42 aircraft lost from the 450 planes involved in the raid, including 14 which crashed in Britain.
U-321 launched.
ITALY: A British tank brigade crosses the Sangro River to offer further support to British forces north of the river.
In the British Eighth Army area, V Corps prepares to attack in the Adriatic coastal sector, weather conditions at last permitting close air support. Tanks of the 4th Armoured Brigade and transport are brought across the Sangro River.
During the day and night, USAAF Twelfth Air Force fighters, light and medium bombers and aircraft of the associated RAF units of the Northwest African Tactical Air Force attack enemy positions, gun emplacements, roads, vehicles, railroad facilities, and targets of opportunity in the Lanciano-Fossacesia-Castelfrentano-Casoli area. B-25 Mitchells also bomb Porto Civitanova.
USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses, with P-38 Lightning escort, bomb three targets: 51 bomb the marshalling yard at Rimini with the loss of two aircraft; 39 bomb the marshalling yard at Grizzano; and 16 bomb a railroad bridge over the Reno River 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Bologna.
YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Twelfth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Sibenik.
EGYPT: At a meeting of the South East Asia Command (SEAC) delegation to the Cairo Conference, U.S. Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell, Commander in Chief, U.S. China-Burma-India Theater of Operations (CBI); Chief of Staff to Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek; Commander in Chief Northern Area Combat Command (NCAC); and Deputy Commander in Chief SEAC, reveals that Chiang Kai-Shek is unwilling to fulfill his commitments agreed to at Cairo and wants Stilwell to hold out for an airborne assault on Mandalay, Burma, (Operation TOREADOR) and 10,000 tons (9 072 metric tonnes) a month over the Hump.
BURMA: USAAF Tenth Air Force B-24 Liberators, with P-38 Lightning escort, and B-25 Mitchells, covered by P-51 Mustangs, strike the locomotive repair shops at Insein; Japanese interceptors attack fiercely, shooting down six fighters and the B-24s; U.S. airplanes claim 19 Japanese fighters downed.
During the night of 27/28 November, seven RAF"> RAF (B-24) Liberators bomb the port area t Rangoon.
CHINA: Four USAAF"> USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells on sea sweeps attack docks and warehouses at the port of Swatow and hit a convoy of nine vessels heading south toward Amoy sinking a transport and damaging a torpedo boat.
NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force medium bombers bomb the airfield at Boram Aerodrome and the town and harbor at Wewak, claiming 15 airplanes and 12 barges destroyed. Medium bombers also bomb the town of Finschhafen.
SOLOMON ISLANDS: On Bougainville, five USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells, with fighter escort, bomb Queen Carola Harbor and 19 B-24 Liberators bomb Bonis Airfield on the northern tip of the island. A few B-25s and RNZAF (PV-1) Venturas attack the areas at the mouth of the Mobiai River and Mutupina Point while 20+ B-24s, with fighter support, attack the airfield on Buka Island north of Bougainville.
GILBERT ISLANDS: On Tarawa Atoll, the 2d Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment, clears the Japanese from Buariki Island. The small islet of Naa, at the northern tip, remains to be explored.
MARSHALL ISLANDS: Eight USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from the Phoenix and Ellice Islands bomb Mili Atoll.
PACIFIC OCEAN: From Glen Boren's diary:
Our four planes returned this A.M. It rained most of the afternoon and we landed our last 8 planes in the rain. Just after landing out last aircraft, a betty flew over and dropped a flare, but it was raining too much for him to see us. The fleet fired at him by radar but who knows? Torpedo defence sounded as a flight of 40 bombers were reported by Radar, 90 miles away. They never came closer than Tarawa, 74 miles away.
CANADA:
Frigates HMCS Stormont and Outremont commissioned.
U.S.A.:
The USN places an order for two prototype Grumman (Model G-58) XF8F-1 Bearcats.
The one and only Martin (Model 170) XPB2M-1R Mars flying boat transport is delivered to the USN's Transport Squadron Eight (VR-8) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. On 30 November, this aircraft carries a 13,000 pound (5 897 kilogram) cargo load on a 4,375 mile (7 041 kilometer) nonstop flight from NAS Patuxent River to Natal, Brazil.
Destroyer USS Callaghan commissioned.
Escort carrier USS Kalinin Bay (CVE-68) commissioned at Astoria, Oregon.
The USN now has 32 escort aircraft carriers in commission.
Destroyer escort USS Eugene E Elmore laid down.
Destroyer escorts USS Chaffee, Holder and William T Powell launched.
Frigate USS Grand Forks launched.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: U-238 rescued two pilots from a Wellington aircraft (172 Sqn RAF), which was shot down by U-764.