November 1st, 1944 (WEDNESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: Frigate HMS Morecambe Bay launched.
The British Captain-class frigate HMS Whitaker (K 580, ex USN DE-571) is torpedoed by German submarine U-483 (Kapitanleutnant Hans-Joachim von Morstein) about 32 nautical miles (59 kilometers) north-northwest of Londonderry, County Derry, Northern Ireland, in position 55.30N, 07.39W. The propellant for the 24 Hedgehogs on the launcher in front of the bridge explodes, blows off her bows and wrecks her bridge structure. She is towed into Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, laid up but not repaired. (Alex Gordon & Dave Shirlaw)
Weather prevents USAAF Ninth Air Force bomber operations; fighters fly patrols, sweeps, armed reconnaissance over Belgium, eastern France, and large areas of western Germany and attack bridges, railroads, and various other targets.
NETHERLANDS: Landings by a brigade of the British 52nd Division and 3 commando groups today on Walchern Island. The planned air support is cancelled due to bad weather but the naval force of 181 vessels and landing craft include HMS Warspite and two monitors which bombard. The island, in the German-held Scheldt estuary is defended by the German 70th Division, and is the gateway to Antwerp. The British landed at Westkapelle and Flushing despite heavy fighting on land and at sea. They destroy field batteries on Walcheren Island, and Canadian troops land on the island, only to be repelled by the Germans.
In the Canadian First Army area, Operation INFATUATE commences with the II Corps beginning an all-out assault on Waicheren Island. Continuing to attack on the causeway from southern Beveland, the Canadian 2d Division gains a few hundred yards but is forced back. From Breskens, the Canadian 4th Regiment of the 4th Special Service Brigade, under 52d Division command, followed by the 155th Brigade of the 52d Division, crosses the estuary to the south coast near Flushing and begins clearing that town. From Ostend, the 4th Royal Marine Special Service Brigade consisting of Nos 41, 47 and 48 Commandos is carried in 180 landing craft to the west side of the island and land at a gap in the Westkapelle dyke, and seize Westkapelle; some elements turn northeast along the coast while others drive southeast toward Flushing, A reconnaissance force is sent to northern Beveland. The planned air support is cancelled due to bad weather but the British battleship HMS Warspite (03) and the monitors HMS Erebus (I 02) and Roberts (F 40) bombard the island. The island is heavily defended by the German 70th Division and largely flooded when the battle takes place. Many landing craft are lost in the assault. The British I Corps prepares for a co-ordinated attack across the Mark River.
In the British Second Army area, XII Corps finishes clearing its sector south of the Maas River except for a small region between the Afwaterins Canal and the river. In the VIII Corps area, the 53d Division goes into the line on the right flank of the corps along the Wessem Canal southeast of Nederweert and the Belgian 1st Brigade and British 4th Separate Armourd Brigade are attached to it. The U.S., 7th Armored Division prepares for a limited offensive to secure the northwest bank of the Canal du Nord.
During the night of 1/2 November, the USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 697: three B-17 Flying Fortresses and five B-24 Liberators drop leaflets over the country.
FRANCE: This afternoon the US 319th Infantry Regiment attacked enemy positions in the Adaucourt-Letricourt sector, on the Seille river near Nancy. Catching the Germans unawares, the Americans cleared both towns with an hour and a quarter, drove the enemy back across the river and took 162 PoWs.
In the U.S. Third Army area, Lieutenant General George S. Patton and his commanders draw up plans for the Third Army offensive. After First Army's attack on D-Day, XII Corps will attack on D+1, XX Corps on D+2, and III Corps will eventually be responsible for mopping up the Metz pocket. Regrouping is in progress. In the XX Corps area, the 5th Infantry Division the reoccupies Arnaville bridgehead south of Metz, relieving the 95th Infantry Division. The XII Corps, in preparation for the offensive, makes a limited attack with the 319th Infantry Regiment, 8oth Infantry Division, to clear the Seille River bend in the Létricourt-Abaucourt area and quickly takes both towns.
In the U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, the French 2d Armored Division, after completing the capture of Baccarat, driving to the Blette River at Herbéviller and Mignéville, and helping 117th Cavalry Reconnaissance Troop (VI Corps) take Bertrichamps, halts to await relief. In the VI Corps area, the 3d Infantry Division's 15th Infantry Regiment seizes La Bourgonce, in the valley northwest of St Die.
GERMANY: East Prussia: Red Army forces are closing in on East Prussia in a vast pincer movement. Pushing up from the south through Hungary and in from the west through Poland, they are now approaching the once free city of Danzig on a front along the Narew river. Waves of refugees are fleeing before the vengeful Russians.
The USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 696: 324 bombers and 321 fighters are dispatched to attack two synthetic oil plants near Gelsenkirchen and a bridge at Rudesheim; 1 P-51 is lost: 143 B-24 Liberators bomb the Buer synthetic oil refinery at Gelsenkirchen while 113 B-17 Flying Fortresses bomb the Nordstern synthetic oil refinery. Two marshalling yards (M/Ys) are also bombed, 73 B-17s hit the Mosel M/Y at Koblenz and 23 B-17s bomb the M/Y at Hamm while 13 B-17s attack a railroad bridge at Rudesheim.
During the day, 226 Lancasters and 16 Mosquitos of RAF Bomber Command are sent to attack the Meerbeck oil plant at Homberg; 167 bomb the target; one Lancaster is lost.
During the night of 1/2 November RAF Bomber Command dispatches 288 aircraft, 202 Halifaxes, 74 Lancasters and 12 Mosquitos to attack Oberhausen; 282 bomb the city with the loss of three Halifaxes and a Lancaster. The target area is cloud-covered and the bombing is not concentrated. Mosquitos area also active with 47 bombing Berlin, ten hit Cologne, four attack each to Karlsruhe, three hit Mülheim, and one each bomb Bochum and Essen.
U-2342 commissioned.
AUSTRIA: Over 320 USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators, with fighter escorts, attack targets in Austria. Graz is heavily hit: 103 aircraft bomb the Main marshalling yard, 32 bomb the city, 17 attack the industrial area, 12 bomb the Wetzeldorf Ordnance Depot, and three bomb targets of opportunity. Vienna's Schonbrunn ordnance depot is hit by 54 aircraft while 25 hit the Sauerwerke tank factory; and 35 aircraft hit targets of opportunity.
HUNGARY: Marshal Malinovsky's troops, advancing across Kecskemet Heath south-east of Budapest, are today within 37 miles of the Hungarian capital and advancing along a 75-mile front between the Danube and Tisza rivers. The town of Kecskemet, the key to the southern defences of the capital, has fallen after bitter house-to-house fighting. Moscow hopes that Malinovsky will celebrate the 27th anniversary of the Russian Revolution in a week's time with the capture of Budapest, but the Germans will not relinquish the capital without a struggle. Their position has been strengthened by the crushing of an uprising by Slovak nationalists.
Budapest: Now that the Nazis have installed a puppet government here, the reprieve for Hungary's Jews is over. Unlike Admiral Horthy (now under arrest) the regime of Ferenc Szalasi does not want to save them.
"Let no person of the Jewish race believe that ... he can circumvent the lawful measures of the Hungarian state," announced the interior minister on 18 October. Adolf Eichmann">Eichmann has returned to Budapest with a new plan to send the Jews to the death camps on foot, hoping that most will die on the way.
Szalasi's government will no longer recognize the passports issued to protect the Jews by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg.
Ten USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers hit four targets including the Kotoriba railroad bridge by five aircraft and the Kormeno marshalling yard by three aircraft.
FINLAND: The demobilization of the Finnish army to peacetime levels begins according to the terms of the interim peace agreement. This begins to hamper the Finnish actions against Germans.
ITALY: Units of the 10th Indian Division ( V Corps ) of the British Eighth Army advance to the Rabbi river at Collina, near Ravenna, building up its bridgehead across the Ronco river and taking the town of Meldola on the west bank. The 4th Division is halted outside Forli airfield.
The U.S. North African Theater of Operations (NATOUSA) is redesignated the Mediterranean Theater of Operations (MTOUSA).
USAAF Twelfth Air Force operations are again curtailed by bad weather; however, fighters and fighter-bombers successfully attack bridges, rail lines, roads, vehicles, and trains in the central Po Valley and hit scattered targets elsewhere in northern Italy.
During the night of 1/ 2 November, six RAF No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group aircraft hit a railroad bridge at Latisana.
GREECE: The Germans evacuate Florina. British forces take Salonika. Distribution of food in and around Athens begins. Famine relief is very necessary in this war torn country.
YUGOSLAVIA: Tito and the Prime Minister of the government-in-exile sign an agreements on a new constitution, in which King Peter II will continue to act as head of state.
Twenty one USAAF Fifteenth Air Force bombers hit the marshalling yard at Cakovec while eight aircraft bomb targets of opportunity.
Seventy one RAF No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group aircraft fly in supplies for the partisans.
MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Off Zara, Croatia, Yugoslavia, in the northern Adriatic, British escort destroyers HMS Avon Vale (L 06) and Wheatland (L 122) sink German torpedo boat TA-20 (and two corvettes, all ex-Italian vessels.
EUROPE: Daylight raids were made by the US Eighth Army Air Force against synthetic oil plants at Gelsenkirchen and railway targets in Hamm and Coblenz. All the bombers and all but one fighter returned. Last night RAF Halifaxes and Lancasters continued the offensive against the industrial centre of Cologne.
CHINA: About 70 USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighters again support Chinese ground forces in the Lungling area while 13 fighters strafe river, road, and rail traffic from Kunghsien to Loyang.
BURMA: Men of the British 36th Division, on the move again after a few days' rest at Mawpin, yesterday advanced two miles down the Myitkyina to Mandalay railway line, stopping one mile outside Mawlu. In the Chin hills troops of the 5th Indian Division wiped out a Japanese stronghold.
Over 70 USAAF Tenth Air Force fighter-bombers knock out the bridge at Panghkam, slightly damage bridges in the Wingkang and Kawnghka area, hit railroad targets of opportunity between Indaw and Naba, attack Japanese positions near Bhamo, Si-in, Hantet, and Shwegu, and bomb the towns of Loiwing and Lagaw; nine B-25 Mitchells damage bridge approaches at Hsenwi, Namhkai, and Kawnghka.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The Japanese land 2000 reinforcements at Ormoc, Leyte. The defenders are composed of the 35th Army commanded by General Suzuki. The original 16th Division has been reinforced by the 30th and 102nd Divisions. Units of the US 7th Division liberate Baybay. One US destroyer, USS ABNER READ, is sunk and three other destroyers badly damaged by kamikaze's, while two more were hit by a combination of suicide and conventional air strikes.
Japanese "Frances" twin-engine bomber crashed into destroyer USS Ammen resulting in 21 wounded and 5 dead. Four other destroyers hit in air attacks.
In the U.S. Sixth Army's X Corps area, the 34rh Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, executes a wide flanking movement through Tuba and continues along the Jaro-Carigara road and finds that the Japanese have withdrawn hastily; by the end of day, the regiment is within 1,000 yards (914 meters) of Sagkanan. As plans for a concerted assault on Carigara are being made, the Japanese begin an undetected withdrawal from the town toward the hills near Limon. In the XXIV Corps area, 96th Infantry Division completes mop up of entire Catmon Hill area.
Japanese Navy bombers fly two large predawn attacks, crater Tacloban Airfield and damage three cargo vessels.
USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators bomb airfields at Cebu City on Cebu Island and Alicante on Negros Island and supply dumps at Del Monte on Mindanao Island; fighter- bombers hit Bacolod, Alicante, and Carolina Airfields on Negros Island; P-47 Thunderbolts attack shipping and shore targets during a sweep over the Sulu Archipelago.
Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr. shoots down a “Tojo†fighter (Nakajima Ki-44, Type 2 Single-seat Fighter Shoki) over Tacloban, Leyte. This is his 25th victory.
JAPAN: Tokyo: The Japanese army opens a bombing campaign against the US mainland, launching the first of 9,000 explosive balloons designed to float across the Pacific on the prevailing westerly wind.
In the Kurile Islands, a USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-24 Liberator on an armed weather mission bombs Otomari Cape on Onnekotan Island.
The USAAF Twentieth Air Force's XXI Bomber Command dispatches a Boeing F-13A Superfortress (photo reconnaissance B-29) from Saipan to fly a reconnaissance mission over Tokyo at 32,000 feet (9 754 meters). This aircraft, named "Tokyo Rose," is the first U.S. aircraft to fly over Tokyo since the Doolittle raid of 18 April 1942. The crew takes over 700 photographs in 35 minutes (Jack McKllop)
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Far East Air Forces P-38 Lightnings and B-25 Mitchells pound Namlea Airfield on Buroe Island in the Moluccas Islands.
NEW GUINEA: USAAF Far East Air Forces A-20 Havocs and B-25 Mitchells hit Babo Airfield in Dutch New Guinea.
PACIFIC OCEAN:
2200: USS TRIGGER (SS-237) sinks two cargo ships at 29-12 N, 134-37 E.
2400: USS HADDOCK (SS-231) sinks a transport and cargo ship at 09-02 N, 150-43 E.
USN Submarine Operations in the PACIFIC:
0500: USS ATULE (SS-403) sinks an armed transport at 20-17 N, 117-08 E.
0800: USS BLACKFIN (SS-322) sinks an armed transport at 12-57 N, 120-12 E.
0900: USS RAY (SS-271) sinks two civilian tankers, one at 12-57 N, 120-12 E and one SW of Manila. (Skip Guidry)
In Leyte Gulf at about 1341 hours local, a “Val†kamikaze dive bomber (Aichi D3A, Navy Type 99 Carrier Bomber) sinks destroyer USS Abner Read (DD- 526) about 34 nautical miles (62 kilometers) south-southeast of Tacloban, Leyte, Philippine Islands in position 10.47N, 125.22E. A bomb from the raider drops down one of the destroyer's stacks and explodes in her after engine room. The plane, in the meantime, comes down diagonally across the main deck, setting fire to the entire after section. The ship loses water pressure and this makes fire fighting efforts impossible. At 1352 hours, a tremendous internal explosion occurs, causing her to list about 10 degrees to starboard and to sink by the stern. At 1415 hours Abner Read rolls over on her starboard side and sinks stern first. Destroyers quickly came to the aid of survivors and rescued all but 22 members of the ship’s crew.
Japanese kamikazes and horizontal bombers damage five destroyers in Leyte Gulf, USS Anderson (DD-411), Claxton (DD-571), Ammen (DD-527), Bush (DD- 529) and Killen (DD-593).
Allied submarines sink five Japanese ships:
- At 0500 hours in the South China Sea, USS Atule (SS-403) attacks Japanese convoy, and sinks a transport about 233 nautical miles (431 kilometers) east-southeast of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong, in position 20.09N, 117.38E.
- At 0800 hours in the Mindoro Strait, South China Sea, USS Blackfin (SS-322) attacks a Japanese convoy, and sinks an auxiliary vessel and a transport about 58 nautical miles (108 kilometers) west-northwest of San Jose, Mindoro, Philippine Islands, in position 12.54N, 120.10E.
- At 0900 hours in the Mindoro Strait, South China Sea, USS Ray (SS-271) sinks a merchant tanker about 58 nautical miles (108 kilometers) west-northwest of San Jose, Mindoro, Philippine Islands, in position 12.57N, 120.12E. The sub later lands men and supplies on west coast of Mindoro.
- In the Banda Sea, HMS/M Storm (P 233) sinks a schooner about 94 nautical miles (175 kilometers) east of Makassar, Celebes Island, Netherlands East Indies, in position 04.56S, 120.59E. (Skip Guidry)
BONIN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: Eight USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam, Mariana Islands, attack shipping northeast of Iwo Jima, Volcano Islands. Twelve B-24 Liberators escorting a US Navy photographic aircraft over Iwo Jima and Haha Jima and Chichi Jima in the Bonin Islands, bomb airfields, a warehouse, and shipping. During the night of ½ Nov a B-24 on a snooper mission from Saipan Island bombs Iwo Jima.
U.S.A.: The play, Harvey, about a large white rabbit that appears to a drunk, opens on Broadway at the 48th Street Theatre. It was written by Mary Chase to bring laughter to a widowed Denver neighbour, whose son was killed in the Pacific. The play will run for 1,775 performances finally closing on 15 January 1949. One of the stars is Josephine Hull who appears in the 1950 movie of the same title with James Stewart.
Destroyer USS John A Bole launched.
Destroyer escort USS Charles E Brannon commissioned.
Submarine USS Lionfish commissioned.
Minesweeper USS Superior commissioned.
ATLANTIC OCEAN: Frigate HMS Whittaker is torpedoed by U-483 (Kapitanleutnant Hans-Joachim von Morstein). The propellant for the 24 Hedgehogs on the launcher in front of the bridge exploded and blew off her bows and wrecked her bridge structure. She was towed into Belfast and laid up. She was not repaired. (Alex Gordon)(108)