November 14th, 1944 (TUESDAY)
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory and his wife Doris died today when the Avro York transport carrying them to Ceylon crashed in atrocious weather on the Cheminee du Diable in the French Alps.
Sir Trafford was on his way to take up his new appointment as commander of the Allied air forces in South-east Asia (SEAC). It would have been the culmination of a brilliant, if sometimes controversial, career.
He opposed Lord Dowding over his tactics in the Battle of Britain. Dowding won the battle, but lost the quarrel, and was bypassed while Leigh-Mallory went on to command the Allied Expeditionary Air Force for the invasion of Europe. Buried in snow, the wreck is not found until June, 1945. Air Marshal Sir Guy Garrod, Deputy Allied Air Commander in Chief, Air Command - South East Asia Command, is later appointed to this position.
Corvette HMCS Morden departed Londonderry.
Minesweeper HMS Wave commissioned.
NETHERLANDS: In the British Second Army area, XII Corps opens an offensive to reduce the German bridgehead west of the Maas River around Nederweert in the Roermond-Venlo area, attacking across Nord and Wesscm Canals with the 53d and 51st Divisions while the 7th Armoured Division takes the locks at Panheel.
FRANCE: Free French troops launch Operation Independence, to close the Belfort Gap.
In the U.S. Third Army's XX Corps area, Oudrenne falls to the 359th Infantry Regiment, 90th Infantry Division; the 358th cuts the Inglange-Distroff road and clears Distroff. The 90th Reconnaissance Troop links the bridgeheads of the 90oth and 95th Infantry Divisions, providing the 10th Armored Division a protected route of advance. A Bailey bridge is completed at Thionville during morning, and Combat Command B of the 10th Armored Division starts across it in afternoon. Combat Command A of the 10th Armored Division and the 3d Cavalry Group (Mechanized) cross at Mailing, latter to screen in the Sarre-Moselle triangle. The 95th Infantry Division, which has been engaged largely in containing the German bridgehead west of Metz, begins attacks west of the river with the 379th Infantry Regiment after artillery preparation: while the 2d Battalion works around to the rear of Fort Jeanne d'Arc and holds off counterattacks, the 1st Battalion begins the reduction of fortifications known as the Seven Dwarfs, taking the three northern works and attempting in vain to gain the next, Fort Bois Ia Dame. The regiment is isolated in these advanced positions, though, and must be supplied by air. East of the Moselle River, the 2d Battalion of the 378th Infantry Regiment, 95th Infantry Division, takes Haute Yutz and opens an assault on Fort d'IlLange; the 1st Battalion, 377th Infantry Regiment, is heavily engaged at Bertrange and Imeldange. The 10th and 11th Infantry Regiments, 5th Infantry Division, drive northward abreast toward Metz while the 3d Battalion, 2d Infantry Regiment, moves to the Sorbey area; the 11th clears the woods southwest of Fort Verdun and takes Prayelle Farm; the 10th cleans out the southern half of Bois de l´pital. In the XII Corps area, Lieutenant General Manton Eddy, Commanding General XII Corps, limits the 80th Infantry Division'™s mission to clearing the high ground south of Faulquemont. Combat Command A of the 6th Armored Division attacks toward Côte de Suisse, a ridge extending from Landroff to Thicourt, taking Brulange, Suisse, and Landroff. The Germans begin a series of determined attempts to recover Landroff at dusk, pushing into the village. Combat Command B, 4th Armored Division, and the 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, close in on Morhange, seizing Destry and Baronville in bitter fighting. The 134th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, moves forward to the right. Combat Command A, 4th Armored Division, sweeps through Bois de Kerperche, extending northeast from Koecking ridge, and gets elements to Guebling. The 328th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division, continues to clear Koecking forest, from which the Germans begin withdrawing, during the night of 14/15 November.
In the U.S. Seventh Army's XV Corps area, the 44th Infantry Division continues to battle the Germans near Leintrey. The 79th Infantry Division overcomes opposition at Ste Pole and Ancerviller.
In the French First Army area, I Corps opens an offensive toward the Belfort Gap, attacking astride the Doubs River at noon with the 2d Moroccan Division assisted by the 5th Armored Division on the left and the 9th Colonial Division on the right. Tactical surprise is achieved and gains are made all along front.
GERMANY:
U-3034,
U-4706 laid down.
NORWAY: The Norwegian government-in-exile announces that Norwegian troops
under Colonel Arne Dahi have landed in Norway to operate with the Soviet
Karelian forces against the Germans on the Arctic front.
CZECHOSLOVAKIA: Prague: General Andrei Vlasov, a Russian officer captured by the Germans in 1942, defects. Vlasov argues that Germany should set up a Russian provisional government and recruit a Russian army of liberation under his command. Vlasov writes an anti-Bolshevik leaflet which aircraft drop by the millions on Soviet forces, and as a direct consequence thousands of Soviets desert. German Chancellor Adolf Hitler authorizes him to set up the Russian Liberation Committee and the Russian Liberation Army, known as ROA (from Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya), to fight the Soviets.
ITALY: In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, the 4th Division reaches the Montone River in the region north of Highway 9. Advancing along the highway, the 167th Brigade of the 56th Division crosses the Montone River. South of Highway 9, the 6th Division continues toward the Samoggia River.
Bad weather restricts USAAF Twelfth Air Force operations to fighter-bomber attacks by 17 P-47 Thunderbolts on rail lines and a road north of the battleline.
YUGOSLAVIA: The Yugoslavs announce the fall of Skoplje, which has been a main staging point for the Germans withdrawing from Greece.
BURMA: In the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) area, the Chinese 22d Division, upon taking Man-tha with ease and blocking the road from Bhamo, is ordered to continue the drive to Si-u. The Chinese 38th Division's 114th and 113th Regiments are converging on Bhamo: the 114th, pressing west toward the town, is bitterly opposed by the Japanese in the Mornauk area, 8 miles (13 kilometers) east of Bhamo; the 113th, upon crossing the Taping River at Myothit, moves west along the south bank of the river toward Bhamo.
Twelve USAAF Tenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb a supply area near Lashio; 56 fighter-bombers hit supply areas, enemy concentrations, town areas, and general targets of opportunity at Kutkai, Sandaya, Palaung, Kawlin, the Shwebo-Kyaukmyaung area and Tingka, China. Twelve fighter-bombers support ground forces in the Pinwe area, four bomb Sindaw River bridges and over 30 others maintain patrols south of Myitkyina. Transport fly over 300 sorties to forward areas.
In eastern Burma and in the China-Burma boundary areas eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Wanling and Hsenwi while 15 P-38 Lightnings and P-40s on armed reconnaissance hit targets of opportunity around Wanling and Mangshih, China.
BONIN ISLANDS: Project MIKE continues as USAAF B-24s (42d Bomb Squadron) lay six mines in effective locations off Ani Jima and Haha Jima.
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: In the U.S. Sixth Army's X Corps area, Lieutenant General Walter Krueger, Commanding General Sixth Army, orders Major General Franklin Sibert, Commanding General X Corps, to commit the 32d Infantry Division, originally intended to operate on southern Samar, in the zone of the 24th Infantry Division in order to relieve elements of that division. Breakneck Ridge is now largely clear, but the Japanese still retain several adjacent spurs. The 1st Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, patrols actively on Kilay Ridge; supplies for the battalion are hand carried by Filipinos from Consuegra. In the XXIV Corps area, the 32d Infantry Regiment of 7th Infantry Division is ordered to start north to the Damulaan-Caridad area and upon order to advance upon Ormoc.
USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators, with P-38 Lightning and P-47 Thunderbolt cover, bomb Bacalod (Bacolod) Airfield on Negros Island while fighter-bombers hit trucks and buildings in the Valencia, Mindanao Island area. On Leyte Island, fighter-bombers attack targets near Linao and hit shipping south of Ormoc. On Cebu Island, B-25 Mitchells and fighter-bombers attack Lahug and Opon Airfields.
USN Task Force 38 (Rear Admiral Frederick C. Sherman) air strikes against Japanese shipping in Philippines continue. At Manila, Navy carrier-based planes sink a transport, a merchant tanker, two merchant cargo ships, and damage a transport and an army cargo ship; a cargo ship is sunk just outside Manila Bay. Off Mindoro, F6F Hellcats from the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown (CV-10) attack Japanese convoy SIMA-04, sinking a merchant tanker; and damaging an army cargo ship as well as four escorting submarine chasers. (Jack McKillop & Dave Shirlaw)
EAST INDIES: In the Netherlands East Indies, USAAF Far East Air Forces B-24 Liberators strike Langoan Airfield on the northeastern tip of Celebes Island.
NEW GUINEA: In Dutch New Guinea, USAAF Far East Air Forces B-25 Mitchells bomb Pegun Island in preparation for allied amphibious landings early tomorrow morning.
CAROLINE ISLANDS: Twenty two USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators bomb Woleai Atoll hitting the airfield and adjacent installations and firing an oil dump.
PACIFIC OCEAN: During the night of 14/15 November a USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberator on a snooper mission attacks shipping southwest of the Bonin Islands.
A paper Japanese Fu-Go balloon, including the envelope, rigging and some apparatus, is recovered from the sea about 4.3 nautical miles (8,0 kilometers) west of Kailua, Hawaii, Territory of Hawaii, at 1000 hours local by the USCG. This is the first paper balloon recovered. Kailua is located about 10 miles (16 kilometers) northeast of Honolulu.
CANADA: Tug HMCS Glenfield commissioned.
U.S.A.: Destroyer USS Drexler commissioned.