Operation Torch concluded with an Allied victory, which included the French in North Africa switching sides.
On the same day, the Kokoda Track campaign ended in an Allied victory. The Battle of Buna-Gona in New Guinea, commenced. That was noted by Sarah Sundin on her blog, who also noted:
Today in World War II History—November 16, 1942: British troops coming from Algeria first encounter German troops in Tunisia. In Papua New Guinea, US and Australians launch drive to clear the Buna-Gona area.
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal completely stopped, with that also being an Allied victory.
The Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ended as an American victory. On this day, the USS Washington, a battleship, sank the Japanese battleship Kriishima.
USS Washington in 1942.
Church bells were rung in the United Kingdom in celebration of the victory at El Alamein. They had been silenced since 1940.
Women entered USAAF flight training for the first time. The training was at the Houston Municipal Airpor and the unit was designated as the 319th Army Air Force Flying Training Detachment.
The Japanese battleship Hiei went down in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal.
The Hiei was detected by the USS Helena at 01:24 on November 13, but she was not able to effectively engage because her main guns were loaded with anti-aircraft munitions in anticpation of shelling Henderson Field. She was accordingly damaged by fire from the USS San Francisco. She became damaged herself and was attacked by B-17s and later by dive bombers and torpedo bombers, sinking in the early morning hours of this day.
The Hiei under attack from B-17s.
The Italian Scilin was sunk by the Royal Navy submarine Sahib, taking 800 Allied prisoners of war down with her. The British did not reveal the cause of this loss until 1966.
In North Africa, the British 8th Army captured Tobruk, a major British victory and a major Afrika Korps defeat.
Off of the Solomon's, the Japanese sank the U.S. Navy light cruiser Juneau, which took 687 men with it, including five brothers of the Irish Catholic Sullivan family of Iowa.
The Sullivans.
It's commonly asserted that after this the U.S. military would not allow siblings to serve together, but in fact many siblings were already serving together in combat in North Africa as members of Federalized National Guard units. Entire towns would end up loosing huge numbers of their male citizens in the combat actions to come. There was a policy change, which relieved a sole survivor from military service, but it did not come until 1943, and was partially due to the deaths of the Borgstrom brothers of Utah as well. Indeed, the Navy already had a policy precluding siblings from serving on the same vessel, but they did not actively enforce it.
A sister of the Sullivan brothers remained in Navy service. Indeed, their enlistment in the Navy, or in once case a reenlistment, was to avenge the death of her boyfriend, who died at Peal Harbor.
The Sullivan family was not informed of the death of their sons until 1943, at which time their father was informed of all of their deaths at one time. The Navy would commission a ship in their honor during the war, and oddly enough, one of the sons of the one of the men lost would later serve as a post-war officer aboard it. That ship has been decommissioned, but a second The Sullivans was commissioned to take its place.
The current The Sullivans.
The tragic story was also made into a patriotic movie during the war itself, which was released in 1944.
The Sullivan story was the inspiration for the film Saving Private Ryan, although it's obviously in a much different setting.
It should be noted that at least over 100 men survived the sinking of the Juneau, and were spotted by an USAAC B-17, but radio silence precluded its rapid reporting.
On the same day the cruiser Atlanta and the destroyers Barton, Cushing, Laffey, Monssen and Preston went down while the Japanese suffered the loss of the cruiser Kinugasa and destroyers Akatsuki and YĆ«dachi.
Brazil, El Salvador, Honduras and Panama broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
The Japanese attacked US Task Force 67 headed towards Guadalcanal, commencing four days of hard fought naval engagements. The Task Force was bringing reinforcements to the island.
One thing this serves to remind us of is how, already, the wars in the Pacific and Europe were remarkably different. In Europe, or rather North Africa, the U.S. Navy and Royal Navy had just pulled off a massive seaborne invasion of North Africa. Here, however, a pitched battle between the Axis, in the form of the Imperial Japanese Navy, and the Allies, in the form of the U.S. Navy, was just beginning.
Congress lowered the age of conscription to 18.
This was no small matter. At the time, much like when I was in high school, senior classes had a wide range of teen ages ranging from 17 to nearly 19. I was 17 when I graduated, as was my father, but I've known men who were nearly 19 at the time. This meant that the government was reaching down, basically, into high school and in fact, while a deferment was possible, there were men who simply reported right out of school for the draft.
Eddie Rickenbacker and five other men rescued after having been adrift in the Pacific for three weeks.
Guatemala broke off diplomatic relations with Vichy France.
Silent screen actress Laura Hope Crews died at age 62.
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