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November 7th, 1944 (TUESDAY)

WESTERN EUROPE: There are no USAAF Ninth Air Force bomber operations because of unfavorable weather. Fighters fly patrols and armed reconnaissance, attacking railroads, gun positions and other targets.

NETHERLANDS: The Canadian First Army takes direct control of the final mopping up operations on Waicheren Island. The British I Corps sector is now largely clear, although the Germans continue to hold out in Moerdijk. Elements of 414th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 104th Infantry Division, upon relief by the British in the Moerdijk area, rejoin parent division which is on its way to Aachen, Germany.

     In the British Second Army's VIII Corps area, the final assault on Meijel is delayed to await XII Corps' drive from the southwest.

FRANCE: Nishimoto, Joe M., Pfc., 442nd Regimental Combat Team, will be awarded the MOH for actions today, at La Houssiere. (Posthumous).

Brigadier General Charles De Gaulle, Prime Minister of Provisional Government, summons the French Consultative National Assembly for its first session. The Assembly schedules municipal and departmental elections for the 89 departments in February 1945. The legislature extends the franchise to all citizens, male and female, over the age of 21.

     In the U.S. Third Army area, Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Commanding General Third Army, orders an offensive to open tomorrow, although a heavy downpour of rain at this time gives little promise of air assistance.

     In the French First Army area, II Corps is beating off counterattacks southwest of Gerardmer. Noise of this action helps cover the movement of units southward in preparation for an attack by I Corps toward Belfort.

GERMANY:

In the U.S. First Army area, V Corps, after disastrous enemy counterattacks against the 28th Infantry Division, decides to withdraw the Kall River bridgehead. The 28th Infantry Division loses Kommerscheidt but holds along the northern woods line overlooking the village. A force of engineers and tanks clears the eastern part of Vossenack and turns defense of the village over to the 109th Infantry Regiment.

U.S.S.R.: Moscow: Stalin refuses to renew diplomatic relations with Switzerland because of its ban on the Communist Party and its continuing arms trade with Germany.

ALBANIA: Four RAF heavy bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group attacks a railroad bridge at Baldren.

YUGOSLAVIA: USAAF Fifteenth Air Force heavy bombers attack seven targets: 162 bomb the South marshalling yard at Maribor; 82 hit the Ali Pasin marshalling yard at Sarajevo; 28 each bomb tactical targets at Prijepolje and Mitrovica; 27 each bomb tactical targets at Sjenica and Novi Pazar and one hits a railroad. Three aircraft are lost.

     The USAAF attack is followed by 85 RAF heavy bombers of the No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group attacking the Ali Pasin marshalling yard at Sarajevo; one aircraft is lost.

ITALY: In the British Eighth Army area, V Corps opens an offensive toward Forli at 2250 hours after a heavy artillery preparation. While the 4th Division attacks Forli Airfield, the 46th Division, to the left, drives north from Grisignano toward St. Martino in Strada.

     The Adjutant General officially orders the de facto action of 19 October redesignating the USAAF Twelfth Air Force's HQ XII Fighter Command to HQ XXII Tactical Air Command. Medium bombers of the USAAF 42d Bombardment Wing (Medium) aid the RAF's Desert Air Force (DAF) in supporting the British Eighth Army's attack on Forli; the 57th Bombardment Wing continues an interdiction campaign against railway supply lines in northeastern Italy; fighter-bombers closely support U.S. Fifth Army forces astride the Idice River in the mountains south of Bologna and bomb communications north of the Apennines mountain range, scoring many hits on bridges between Piacenza and Bologna.

     USAAF Fifteenth Air Force heavy bombers attack ten transportation targets: 59 aircraft bomb a railroad bridge at Bressanone, 35 hit a railroad bridge at Mezza Corona, 33 attack a railroad bridge at Ora, 27 bomb the railroad in the Brenner Pass, 18 bomb the marshalling yard at Fortezza; hit a railroad viaduct at Aviso, 13 attack a railroad bridge at Pinzano, seven bomb the marshalling yard San Candido, six bomb a highway bridge at Dignano and five bomb the marshalling yard at Vipiteno.

CEYLON: RN Corsair a/c #JT358 from HMS Illustrious crashed RAF Koggala. Pilot killed.

CHINA: Six USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb the railroad yards at Yuncheng while two B-25s and 21 P-51 Mustangs, P-40s, and P-38 Lightnings hit targets of opportunity around Mangshih, Chefang, and Lungling.

BURMA: In the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) area, Shwegu falls to the Chinese 22d Division, which is ordered to garrison it with the 64th Regiment while attacking with the 65th and 66th Regiments toward Man-tha.

     Over 80 USAAF Tenth Air Force P-47 Thunderbolts hit gun positions, supply areas, and troops at Bhamo, Pintin, and in the vicinity of Myazedi, bomb airfields at Kawlin, Shwebo, and Onbauk, hit a fuel dump near Panghkam road junction, attack railroad targets of opportunity between Indaw and Shwebo, and targets of opportunity along the Irrawaddy River between Bhamo and Katha; 28 other P-47 Thunderbolts maintain overlapping patrols over the area south of Myitkyina.

     USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighter-bombers hit targets of opportunity around Wanling.

JAPAN: Tokyo: Richard Sorge, a half-Russian, half-German Soviet spy, who had used the cover of a German journalist to report on Germany and Japan for the Soviet Union, is hanged by his Japanese captors. After serving in the German Army in World War I, he joined Germany's Communist Party in 1919, traveling to the USSR in 1924. His first major assignment for Soviet intelligence was in the late 1920s, when he was sent to China to organize a spy ring. Returning to Germany, he joined the Nazi Party in 1933 to perfect his cover as a loyal German. He proceeded to develop a reputation as a respected journalist working for the Frankfurter Zeitung, finally convincing his editors to send him to Tokyo as a foreign correspondent in the mid-1930s. Once in Japan, Sorge proceeded once again to create a spy ring, which included an adviser to the Japanese cabinet and an American communist, who was also working for Soviet intelligence as Sorge's interpreter. Sorge had so successfully ingratiated himself with the German diplomatic community in Japan that he was allowed to work out of the German embassy, giving him access to confidential files. At the same time, he also befriended Japanese government officials, attempting to convince them not to go to war with the Soviet Union. In May 1941, Sorge reported back to Moscow that Hitler was planning an invasion of the Soviet Union, and that 170 divisions were preparing to invade on 20 June, but Stalin ignored the warning. Sorge was also able to report, in August 1941, that Japan had plans to attack targets in the South Pacific, not in the Soviet Union. This enabled Stalin to remove troops from the Manchurian border, freeing them up for when the Germans finally invaded, as there would be no "eastern front." But Sorge's brilliant spy career came to an end on 18 October 1941, when Japanese counterintelligence exposed his operation and he was arrested, along with 34 members of his ring. In 1964, he is officially declared a Hero of  the Soviet Union.

Submarine USS Albacore hit a mine close to the shore off northeastern Hokkaido, Japan. A Japanese patrol boat witnessed the explosion of a submerged submarine and saw a great deal of heavy oil, cork, bedding, and food supplies rise to the surface.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: The US 96th Division completes the capture of a ridge west of Dagami, Leyte, known here as "Bloody Ridge". On the north coast the US advance is held at Carigara.

Battle of Leyte Gulf ends with Navy carrier and USAAF aircraft attacks on the retreating Japanese ships. U.S. forces sink many Japanese ships including 4 carriers, 3 battleships, 10 cruisers, and 9 destroyers, for a total of 26 capital ships. Afterwards Japanese fleet ceases to exist as an organized fighting fleet. (Robert K. Wear)
Special Task Air Group One makes last attack in month long demonstration of TDR drone missile against Japanese shipping and islands in the Pacific. Of 46 missiles fired, 29 reached their target areas. (Robert K. Wear)

On Leyte, the X Corps begins a southward drive on Ormoc along Highway 2. The 21st Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, reinforced by the 3d Battalion of the 19th Infantry Regiment, attacks toward the spur of the ridge 400 yards (366 meters) to its front after massed fire on the Japanese positions but cannot take it; they establish a night perimeters at the edge of Breakneck Ridge. The 19th Infantry Regiment, advances toward Hill 1525, about 2,600 yards (2 377 meters) southeast of Limon, in support of the 21st Infantry Regiment's attack, but halts far east of objective. In the XXIV Corps area, the 382d Infantry Regiment of the 96th Infantry Division, with all 3 battalions in the assault, continues their attack on Bloody Ridge, overrunning Japanese positions and killing an estimated 474 Japanese.

     USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators and fighter-bombers hit Fabrica, Alicante (Escalente) and Bacalod (Bacolod) Airfields on Negros Island, and Opon Airfield on Cebu, Island; shipping at various central Philippine Islands locations, and communications and supply targets at Tambuco, Ormoc, and Palompon on Leyte Island, Valencia on Mindanao Island, and other areas. P-38 Lightnings and B-25 Mitchells hit Del Monte Airfield on Mindanao Island and targets of opportunity in Macajalar Bay on Mindanao Island.

EAST INDIES: USAAF Far East Air Forces P-38 Lightnings and B-25 Mitchells hit Mandai Airfield on Celebes Island, and Tanamon, Mapanget, and Langoan. On Halmahera Island, B-25 Mitchells and fighter-bombers hit Galela, Miti, and Kaoe Airfields. In sweeps over Boeroe (Buroe) Island west of Ceram and Ceram Island, small groups of B-25s and P-38s hit runways and small shipping. B-24 Liberators bomb Raba Estate in the Sunda Islands.

MARIANAS ISLANDS, SAIPAN: Two air-raids each by five aircraft are launched by the Japanese against American airfields. Three Japanese aircraft are shot down. Little damage is caused.

MARCUS ISLAND: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam bomb antiaircraft positions on Marcus Island. The island is located in the North Pacific about 768 nautical miles (1 422 kilometers) west-northwest of Wake Island and is used as a refueling point for Japanese aircraft en route to the Central Pacific.

VOLCANO ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam strike Iwo Jima Island.

PACIFIC OCEAN: After 1700 hours, the USN submarine USS Greenling (SS-213) sinks a civilian tanker and an armed transport about 44 nautical miles (81 kilometers) east of Hamamatsu, Honshu, Japan, in position 34.34N, 138.35E. (Skip Guidry)

     USN submarine USS Albacore (SS-218) is sunk by a mine about 20 nautical miles (37 kilometers) east of Hakodate, Hokkaido, Japan, in position 41.49N, 141.11E.

CANADA: Tugs HMCS Merrickville and Neville assigned to Lunenburg and St John's respectively.

U.S.A.:

Presidential and Congressional elections are held in the country today:

  - In the Presidential race, the Democratic Party candidates, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman, defeat the Republican contenders, Thomas E Dewey and John W Bricker. Dewey carries 12 states; Roosevelt carries the other 36. Roosevelt wins 53.4 percent of the popular vote and 81.4 percent of the Electoral College vote (432 versus 99).

  - In the Senate contests, the Democrats retain their 57 seats, the Republicans retain their 38 seats and independents retain their one seat. The Democrats control the Senate with 57 of 96 seats.

  - In the House of Representatives contests, the Democrats gain 21 seats, the Republicans lose 19 and the independents lose two. The Democrats control the House with 243 of 435 seats.

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