9 November 1939

AUSTRIA: Representatives of the Rome Protocol States (Austria, Hungary, and Italy) meet in Vienna to discuss European tensions. The conference marks the gradual consolidation of Italian power in the Danube Basin.

CHINA: The Japanese Army captures Shanghai and Kaiyuan (Yang-ku) located about 260 miles (418 kilometers) south of Peking.

FRANCE: The French government recognizes the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in an effort to gain Italian support against German expansion.

GERMANY: During the night of 9/10 November, demonstrations against Jews and Jewish property are widespread throughout Germany on November 9/10, 1938. On 12 November, Obergruppenfuehrer Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA) which controlled the SD and Gestapo, reported to the Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, that 101 Jewish Synagogues are burned down and 76 others demolished. Over 815 shops and businesses are destroyed including the huge Margraf department store on Berlin's Unter-den-Linden which is totally ransacked. This orgy of anti-Jewish violence is the result of the assassination of a German Embassy official, Ernst von Rath, in Paris by a 17-year old Polish Jew in an act of protest against the deportation of his parents from Germany. As revenge for this shooting, Goebbels and Heydrich orders "spontaneous demonstrations" of protest against the Jewish citizens of Munich. The order, in the form of a teletyped message to all SS headquarters and

state police stations, lays out the blueprint for the destruction of Jewish homes and businesses. The local police are not to interfere with the rioting storm troopers, and as many Jews as possible are to be arrested with an eye toward deporting them to concentration camps.

Thirty six Jews are killed and around 20,000, in particular the more wealthy Jews, arrested and transported to concentration camps. The cost of shattered glass alone throughout the Reich is estimated at six million marks (US$2.4 million in 1939 dollars and US$33.72 million in 2005 dollars). The whole cost of Kristallnacht (night of glass) has to be paid by the Jews themselves, the Nazis confiscating their insurance money and imposing a collective fine of one billion marks (US$397.5 million in 1939 dollars and US$5.585 billion in 2005 dollars)!

A statement by David Buffum, the American Consul in Leipzig: "The shattering of shop windows, looting of stores and dwellings of Jews took place in the early hours of 10 November 1938, and was hailed in the Nazi press as a "spontaneous wave of righteous indignation throughout Germany, as a result of the cowardly Jewish murder of Third Secretary von Rath in the German Embassy in Paris." So far as a very high percentage of the German populace is concerned, a state of popular indignation that would spontaneously lead to such excesses can be considered non-existent. On the contrary, in viewing the ruins all of the local crowds observed were obviously benumbed over what had happened and aghast over the unprecedented fury of Nazi acts that had been or were taking place with bewildering rapidity." (John Nicholas)

PALESTINE: After analyzing a wide range of partition plans for Palestine, the British Woodhead Commission concludes that none of the plans are practical. As a result, the British government abandons its partition policy and moves to initiate a conference between Arabs and Jews for the future of the mandate. The British also invite Arab participants from other countries who demonstrated solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs.

NETHERLANDS: Venlo: Two British agents in Holland who believed that they were in contact with army officers plotting to overthrow Hitler were today kidnapped and carried off into Germany. For the past month Captain Sigismund Payne Best and Major Richard Stevens had been meeting a Major Schaemmle at Venlo, five miles from the German border.

To prove his bona fides Captain Best arranged for a special news item to be broadcast on the BBC German Service. Major Schaemmle then promised to produce the general who was leading the plotters. When Best and Stevens turned up at Venlo this afternoon, they were told the Germans were afraid of venturing too far inside Holland. The British agreed to rendezvous at a cafe a few yards from the German border. There they noticed that the German barrier had been lifted. The next moment their car was hit by machine-gun fire and they were seized by a posse of Germans.

"Major Schaemmle", it turned out, was in fact a RHSA officer, Walther Schellenberg. Immediately after the Munich bomb, Himmler had ordered Schellenberg to kidnap the Britons.

POLAND: In a letter to his parents back home in Köln, a young soldiers says: ""It's tough out here, and I hope you'll understand if I'm only able to write to you once every two to four days soon. Today I'm writing you mainly to ask for some Pervitin ...; Love, Hein." (Henrich Boell)

Pervitin is a stimulant commonly known as speed today. (Andreas Ulrich, Der Spiegel. May 6, 2005)(Henry Sirotin)

U.S.S.R.: The last round of negotiations between Finland and USSR ends and no agreement has been reached. Molotov's ominous parting words are "Because we civilians can't make any headway, its the turn of the soldiers to have their say." Despite this the general mood in Finland is that the Soviet bluff has been called and the worst is now over. Finns just had to stay firm and the Soviets would back down, and didn't they just do that? The Soviets would not attack because Finland is a neutral country that would resist any aggression, no matter from what direction it came. There's simply nothing the Soviet leaders could be afraid of. And even if Soviet Union attacks, it wouldn't happen until summer, because the weather isn't favourable to an attacker before that. So if the Russians attack, there's plenty of time to prepare. Minister of Foreign Affairs Eljas Erkko and others think that the field army should be demobilised to save money. Many people who had voluntarily evacuated the border municipalities are returning.

But not everybody shares this confident mood. Paasikivi is among them, as is the chairman of the defence council Field Marshal Baron Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim. Mannerheim has already in early 1930s been given a written promise by the President of the Republic that in event of war he would became the commander-in-chief. He is well aware that the army he would lead in war is lacking weapons. There's 337 000 men under arms in 9 infantry divisions and various independent battalions. For them there are

There's enough ammunition only for rifle-calibre weapons and coastal artillery. Not all men could even be given a full uniform. But the morale is high and men are well motivated. They know the country where they would fight. Also the quality of professional officers is high, but they are few. The great majority of junior officers are reservists. Mannerhem tries hard to point out the woeful material condition of the army and get more money to buy arms. He is considering tendering his resignation if the politicians won't listen to him.

REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA: An alleged Nazi plot by armed blackshirts to sabotage vital industries in Johannesburg and Pretoria is revealed.

U.S.A.: The motion picture "Ninotchka" premiers at the Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Directed by Ernst Lubitsch, this romantic comedy stars Greta Garbo, Melvyn Douglas and Bela Lugosi. The tagline for the film is "Garbo Laughs." The film is nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actress in a Leading Role (Garbo) but does not win any. The members of the American Film Institute have voted this film as Number 40 of the top 100 Greatest American Love Stories and Number 52 of the top 100 Greatest American Comedy films.

Mr. Chamberlain's distinguished early career as an austere and clear-minded administrator is inevitably forgotten now in the controversy over his policy of appeasement of the European dictators - and in particular for the 1938 "peace for our time" Munich agreement with Hitler. His friends insist that he bought precious time for rearmament and has been the most misunderstood statesman of the century. Mr Churchill said: "He acted in perfect sincerity according to his lights."

Despite gallant propaganda about plucky Land Girls and "Miss England" being "busier than ever", more British women are now out of work than before the war. Some women are finding work with the services, but even here their contribution to the war effort is less dramatic than the recruiting posters imply.

Women help to plot enemy aircraft movements in RDF stations and can also be found in anti-aircraft batteries and naval command centres. They are always in non-combatant roles; women may track the targets, but men fire the guns. Lack of direct involvement is by no means the only complaint amongst women who answered the patriotic call to duty - and who overcame parental fears about presumed moral dangers. Many of those who signed up have been dismayed by the menial tasks which they are asked to perform. Though women can be trained to do anything which does not make them into combatants, in practice cooking and cleaning are the commonest assignments.

Outside the services there are still vast numbers of women who were made redundant last autumn be non-essential industries who are still without jobs. Earlier this year a protest was made to parliament by the Federation of Business and Professional Women. More than half of the nearly 7,000 women registered with them were unemployed. The government has so far resisted any coordinated redirection of redundant women into war work. But pressure is growing for some form of intervention, possibly even compulsory female mobilisation.

Questions are asked in parliament about the penalties that have been imposed upon member of the Congress Party in India who have been carrying out a civil disobedience campaign. Reginald Sorensen (Labour), described the sentence of four years imprisonment on Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru as "harsh in the extreme."

FRANCE: The Germans start to expel 180,000 Frenchmen from Alsace-Lorraine, which they have annexed.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: Sloop FS Bouganville sunk off Libreville, Gabon by her Free French sistership Savorgnan de Brazza.

The Canadian Pacific Steamships Line passenger liner Empress of Japan (26,032 GRT) was heavily damaged in the North Atlantic in position 53.54N, 014.28W, when she was bombed by Luftwaffe aircraft.

UNITED KINGDOM: London: Stories in the British press this morning about sabotage at a food warehouse at Wealdstone will give the Abwehr, the German military intelligence, a great deal of satisfaction, for it believes that the fire bomb attack was carried out by two of its secret agents who landed in Scotland from Norway seven months ago.

In fact, the agents, both Norwegian, have been working for British Intelligence from the day they landed, and their sabotage exploit was carefully contrived to establish their credentials with the Germans.

Code-named "Jack" and "OK" by the Germans, but known to the British by the cartoon character names of "Mutt and Jeff", they are being run by the "Twenty Committee", so-called because of the Roman numerals of double-cross. The committee, chaired by an Oxford don, John Masterman, was set up last January. Its purpose is to feed information, a mixture of fact and fiction, to the Germans through their own agents.

Captured agents are given the choice: work for us or be executed as a spy. Two of the first Abwehr agents parachuted into England a year ago were given this choice. They both chose to live and now, code-named "Summer" and "Tate", are employed in sending disinformation to their former bosses.

Other agents, like "Snow", a Welshman, offer their services to the Germans with the intention of becoming double-agents.

Great care is taken to build up a disinformer's "legend". The committee has to decide what genuine information can be sent to the Germans and what actions can be allowed to go ahead in order to maintain the double-agent's credibility.

British Intelligence is also gaining valuable knowledge of the inner workings of the German secret service.

U.S.S.R.: Tikhvin is captured by the Germans. This cuts the railroad into Leningrad. In the South Yalta falls to the Germans.

The Leningrad Radio Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in a live concert broadcast to London. Near the end of the performance, air raid sirens can be heard over the music. Shortly thereafter, bombs can be heard detonating outside the concert hall along with the rapid fire of antiaircraft guns. The orchestra completes the performance without a break.

YUGOSLAVIA: Mihailovich's Chetnik partisans continue their attack on Tito's communist group, weakening organized resistance to the Nazis.

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Yesterday, the RAF reported an Italian convoy in the Ionian Sea, making for Libya. The British Navy’s Force K, the light cruisers HMS Aurora (12) and Penelope (97) and destroyers HMS Lance (G 87) and Lively (G 40), sails from Malta to intercept. The convoy consists of seven transports escorted by six destroyers, with a distant cruiser covering force. Early in the morning, Force K intercepts the convoy about 137 nautical miles (254 kilometers) east of Syracuse, Sicily, in position 37.10N, 18.10E. With the help of the radar, every one of the transports and the destroyer Fulmine are sunk and two Italian destroyers are damaged.. Later, while rescuing survivors, destroyer Libeccio is sunk by British submarine HMS/M Upholder (N 99).

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: MacArthur "> MacArthur met with Hart and advises him to “get a real Fleet”. Hart bitterly resented this jab. (Marc Small)

NEWFOUNDLAND: USN Task Unit 4.1.4 departs Argentia to screen the 31-ship convoy HX-159 (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada to the U.K.). It is the first escort task unit that includes in its composition a U.S. Coast Guard gunboat USCGC Campbell (CG 65). The convoy will not be attacked by U-boats although the presence of whales and blackfish result in attacks on sound contacts on five occasions.

UNITED KINGDOM: Lieutenant General Carl Spaatz, Commanding General USAAF Eighth Air Force, in a memo to Lieutenant General Dwight D Eisenhower, Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, agrees that any increase in air commitments to Northwest Africa must necessarily be made at the expense of U.S. forces in the U.K. as U.S. forces in other theaters are considered irreducible.

Sloop HMS Crane launched.

Frigates HMS Evenlode, Fal launched.

Destroyers HMS Tumult and Ulster launched.

Submarine HMS Vampire laid down.

Minesweeper HMS Bowen commissioned.

Corvette HMS Gardenia lost in collision with the Trawler Fluellen.

Minesweeping trawler HMS Ullswater torpedoed and sunk by a German motor torpedo boat in the English Channel.

FRANCE: In Vichy France, Prime Minister Pierre Laval agrees to allow the German use of airfields in Tunisia.

The USAAF Eighth Air Force's VIII Bomber Command flies Mission 18: 31 B-17 Flying Fortresses and 12 B-24 Liberators bomb the U-boat base at Saint Nazaire from reduced altitude; only one of the 12 B-24 Liberators bombing from 17,500 to 18,300 feet (5 334 to 5 578 meters) suffers antiaircraft damage, but 31 B-17 Flying Fortresses at 7,500 to 10,000 feet (2 286 to 3 048 meters) lose three of aircraft and have 22 damaged by antiaircraft. This ends the experiment with low-level attacks of heavy bombers, against submarine bases.

During the day, 12 RAF Bomber Command (A-20) Bostons bomb Le Havre and score a hit on the large German merchant ship which has been the objective of recent raids. The ship is put out of action for several months. No Bostons are lost.

During the night of 9/10 November, 15 RAF Bomber Command Stirlings drop leaflets over France without loss.

GERMANY: RAF Bomber Command dispatches 213 aircraft, 74 Wellingtons, 72 Lancasters, 48 Halifaxes and 19 Stirlings, to bomb Hamburg; 155 aircraft hit the target. Fifteen aircraft, five Lancasters, four Stirlings, four Wellingtons and two Halifaxes, are lost, 7.0 per cent of the force. The bombers encounter cloud and icing and winds which had not been forecast. No clear identification or marking of Hamburg is made. Hamburg reports thick cloud and heavy rain and says that many bombs fall in the Elbe River or in open country. There are 26 fires in Hamburg of which three are large ones. Casualties are three people killed and 16 injured. Four other aircraft bomb Bremen and one each attack Husum and Sylt Island.

DENMARK: Copenhagen: The Germans force King Christian to appoint the pro-Nazi Erik Scavenius as prime minister.

SWITZERLAND: Allen Dulles arrives in Bern on the last train from Vichy France, only hours before the Germans occupy southern France and cut the rail link. Ostensibly taking up a post as assistant to the American minister in Bern, Dulles's real job is to organize the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Mission in Switzerland. He soon begins setting up a professional intelligence outpost on Germany's southern border.

ARCTIC OCEAN: Soviet submarine "M-121" of the Polar fleet and White Sea Flotilla is sunk supposedly mined, at Varanger-fjord (Sergey Anisimov)(69)

MEDITERRANEAN SEA: Minesweeper HMS Cromer mined and sunk off Mersa Matruh in the eastern Mediterranean.

At 1404, U-331 fired a spread of four torpedoes at the USS Leedstown, heard three hits and sinking noises. In fact, the ship was hit by two torpedoes amidships and was abandoned after ten minutes. After an unsuccessful bombing attack, the vessel sank at 1615. The ship was anchored near Cape Matifou, about 12 miles from Algiers.

In the Tyrrhenian Sea, the British submarine HMS/M Saracen (P 247) sinks the Italian submarine R.Smg Granito about 63 nautical miles (117 kilometers) west-northwest of Palermo, Sicily in position 38.34N, 12.09E.

The British corvette HMS Gardenia (K 99) is sunk off Oran, Algeria, in a collision with the minesweeping trawler HMS Fluellen (T 157).

The British cruisers HMS AURORA and HMS JAMAICA sank Vichy ship EPERVIER and damaged TYPHON which retired to Oran harbour where she was scuttled. One French account states that it was the TYPHON that was damaged in yesterdays action action and that super-destroyer EPERVIER took part only today.

In both cases the French ships were attempting to sortie from Oran. (Peter Beeston)

ALGERIA: French General Henri Honeré Giraud arrives in Algiers. Since Admiral Jean-Francois Darlan, High Commissioner in Vichy French North Africa, is in Algiers, U.S. Major General Mark Clark, Deputy Commander Allied Expeditionary Force, is pressing him to declare for the Allies. Marshal Henri-Philippe Pétain, Head of the Vichy French Government, is secretly giving Darlan some encouragement to negotiate.

General K. A. N. Anderson takes command of the British First Army at Algiers and prepares to move light forces as rapidly as possible to Tunis and Bizerte, Tunisia, in order to forestall the German seizure of these important objectives.

A flanking attack on Oran continues to meet resistance as it reaches the outskirts of the city, but La Senia Airport, located 4.6 miles (7,4 kilometers) south of Oran, is captured and French resistance at St Cloud is bypassed and contained.

Major General James H Doolittle, Commanding General USAAF Twelfth Air Force, arrives in Algeria from Gibraltar by B-17 Flying Fortress, escorted by 12 Spitfires of the 52d Fighter Group.

USAAF Twelfth Air Force Spitfires of the 31st Fighter Group attack and halt an armored column moving north toward Tafaraoui, and also attack artillery and antiaircraft batteries southeast of Tafaraoui and along the coastal road at 1605 hours.

The USN transport Leedstown (AP-73), bombed and torpedoed by German planes yesterday, is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-173 about 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) off Algiers.

TUNISIA: Vichy French Admiral Platon arrives in Tunis with orders for the Resident General, Admiral Esteva and the Port Director of Bizerte, Admiral Derrien, to permit German troop landings. The Germans invade Tunisia without opposition from the French, initial elements landing on El Aouina airport in Tunis.

FRENCH MOROCCO: The Western Task Force establishes headquarters at Fedala, where Rear Admiral H. Kent Hewitt, USN, transfers to Major General George S. Patton, Jr., USA, command of troops ashore. The French continue to resist strongly at the approaches to Port Lyautey and the airport. The 3d Infantry Division delays their advance on Casablanca to await unloading of heavy equipment and artillery. Regimental Combat Team 47, 9th Infantry Division, organizes the Safi beachhead.

EGYPT: The British Eighth Army resumes the pursuit of Axis forces as the weather improves. The New Zealand 2d Division reduces opposition at Sidi Barrani and continues west.

In the Olivi-Gorari area of Papua New Guinea, Australian troops again attack Japanese troops but cannot budge them.

In Papua New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force A-20 Havocs hit Japanese troops at Oivi in support of an Australian offensive in the Owen Stanley Range and B-26 Marauders bomb Buna. Advance elements of the 2d Battalion, 126th Infantry Regiment, U.S. 32d Infantry Division, arrive at Natunga and the airlift of the 126th Infantry Regiment, less 2d Battalion, from Port Moresby to the forward area begins. Leading elements of 1st Battalion, are flown to Abel’s field, since Pongani Field is temporarily unserviceable, and start toward Pongani on foot. The rest of the 1st Battalion (Companies D and C, less two platoons) is flown to Pongani and starts march toward Natunga.

In Northeast New Guinea, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells attack a schooner off Salamaua.

AUSTRALIA: Melbourne: Conclusion to the "Brownout Strangler" killings of May, 1942.

Several other women now came forward to state that they had been attacked by an American serviceman, but had managed to escape. In one of these incidents the attacker had entered a women's flat. A person outside in the hallway distracted the attacker and the woman screamed. The attacker left in a hurry leaving behind a GI ringlet with the initials EJL on it. In another case the attacker had tried to force a woman into her house but was confronted by the woman's uncle who chased the attacker away.

The 15,000 servicemen at Camp Pell had been lined up by the Melbourne police so that witnesses could try to identify the murderer. 24 year old Edward Joseph Leonski of the 52nd Signal Battalion was eventually identified by the uncle of one of Leonski's victims who had managed to escape his attack. Leonski was then also identified by Private Seymour who had seen him covered in mud near Camp Pell on the night of the third murder. Leonski eventually confessed to the crimes.

Eddie Leonski was apparently a happy go lucky sort of fellow who would often be seen walking on his hands in a hotel bar after he had become intoxicated. This was apparently nearly every night. During his general court-martial he was cheerful, always grinning and joking during the proceedings. He was often seen taking notes during his trial.

Leonski was Court Marshalled by an American military court in a hall in Russell Street, Melbourne. He was sentenced to death by hanging. General Douglas MacArthur confirmed the sentence on 4 November 1942. Leonski was hung at Pentridge Prison today. (Denis Peck)

SOLOMON ISLANDS: Guadalcanal: On Guadalcanal, the 7th Marine Regiment, committing the 2d Battalion of the Army's 164th Infantry Regiment to its south, completes the encirclement of the Japanese along Gavaga Creek except for a small gap on the south at the creek line. They repel a spirited attempts by the Japanese to break out. During the night, most of the Japanese, under Colonel SHOJI, escape between the flanks of the two regiments. In preparation for renewing the attack on Kokumbona, the 164th Infantry Regiment units (Headquarters, Antitank Company and 3d Battalion) and Company B of the 8th Marine Regiment are withdrawn from Koli Point area to Lunga perimeter.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells score a hit on a merchant vessel off the southern tip of New Ireland Island.

TERRITORY OF ALASKA: ALEUTIAN ISLANDS: Two USAAF Eleventh Air Force B-26 Marauders and four P-38 Lightnings bomb a cargo ship in Gertrude Cove on Japanese-held Kiska Island but no hits are scored; two P-38s then strafe the harbor area. A B-17 Flying Fortress and four P-38s attack Holtz Bay on Japanese-held Attu Island and the airfield destroying eight "Rufe" seaplane fighters (Nakajima A6M2-N, Navy Type 2 Fighter Seaplanes). Meanwhile, a B-17 flies weather reconnaissance over Attu, Kiska, and the Segula Islands.

CANADA: Ottawa: Within 24 hours of the severance of relations between the United States and Vichy France, Canada has broken off diplomatic relations with the Vichy government. Justifying Canada's two years of diplomatic relations with Vichy France, the prime minister, Mr. Mackenzie King, said that they had provided the Allies with vital political information, kept alive the concept of freedom in unoccupied France and helped "pave the way and prepare the background for" the Allied landings in North Africa.

The first German agent, Werner Alfred von Janowski, a trained German saboteur, comes ashore from German submarine U-518 off the Gaspé town of New Carlisle, Quebec. (New Carlisle is located on the north coast of Chaleur Bay between the provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick.) His strong accent and out-of-place possessions lead to his capture within twelve hours. Once the counter-spy section of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) takes him into custody, they decide to "turn" him and so produce their first double agent, code-named “Watchdog.” (Dave Shirlaw & Jack McKillop)

Submarine USS Angler laid down.

Light cruiser USS Duluth laid down.

Destroyer escorts USS Otterstetter and Frederick C Davis laid down.

Destroyers USS Halligan and Haraden laid down.

Minesweepers USS Chickadee and Sustain commissioned.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: In the North Atlantic, U-704 fired four torpedoes at the troop transport Queen Elizabeth, but all missed.

GERMANY: During the night of 9/10 November, RAF Bomber Command Oboe Mosquitos bomb four targets: 12 hit blast furnaces at Bochum, three attack the Ruhrort steelworks at Duisburg and one each bomb Cloesfeld and Rechlinghausen.

The Northwest African Tactical Bomber Force bombs Formia and Itri as a diversion to the naval bombardment of Formia and Gaeta. USAAF Twelfth Air Force's XlI Air Support Command fighter-bombers attack roads and bridges in the Mignano-Ceprano area while other Northwest African Tactical Air Force fighter-bombers hit rail targets in the Rome-La Spezia area and vessels, radio stations, and gun emplacements off the coast of Albania.

Twenty two USAAF Fifteenth Air Force B-24 Liberators attack the Villarperosa ball-bearing works at Turin and 24 B-17 Flying Fortresses hit the marshalling yard at Genoa. P-38 Lightnings provide escort.

During the night of 9/10 November, RAF bombers of No. 205 (Heavy Bomber) Group hit four targets: ten bomb the railroad bridge at Pontessieve, seven hit targets of opportunity in the Arno Valley and two each attack targets of opportunity at Grossetto and Talmone. One aircraft drops leaflets over the battlefield.

ALBANIA: Northwest African Tactical Air Force fighter-bombers hit vessels, radio stations, and gun emplacements off the coast.

YUGOSLAVIA: Northwest African Tactical Air Force fighter-bombers hit shipping in the harbor at Split.

ALGERIA: Algiers: Charles de Gaulle has emerged as the president of the French Committee of National Liberation (CFLN) in the place of General Henri Giraud, who resigned yesterday, along with general Georges and three others.

General Giraud will continue to function as commander-in-chief of French forces, but de Gaulle has won the political battle between the two men which has continued since Giraud's sensational escape from a prisoner-of-war camp last year. De Gaulle is now the undisputed political leader of Free France, and he has broadened the membership of the CFLN to include men from the internal Resistance such as Emmanuel d'Astier de la Vigerie, the new home affairs commissioner, and former parliamentarians like Henri Queuille, one of three commissioners of state, and Andre le Trocquer, the commissioner for war and air. Foreign relations will be in the hands of the young but brilliant diplomat Rene Massigli, and finance goes to the advocate Pierre Mendes-France.

INDIA: A Curtiss Mohawk of No. 155 Squadron RAF scores what turns out to be the final air-to-air victory by this type against the Japanese. (22)

NEW GUINEA: In Northeast New Guinea, over 40 USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells and A-20 Havocs, escorted by P-38 Lightnings and P-47 Thunderbolts, attack Alexishafen Airfield north of Madang, destroying at least 12 enemy airplanes; USAAF fighters claim destruction of 10-15 interceptors in combat; other fighters claim 20+ aircraft shot down over Sek Harbor, the Markham River Valley, and Lae.

SOLOMON ISLANDS: The US bridgehead on Bougainville is extended. The US 37th Division lands.

USAAF Thirteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells hit the airfield on Buka Island located north of Bougainville. On Bougainville Island, B-25s bomb the town of Kieta on the west coast and 20+ B-24 Liberators hit Kara and Kahili Airfields in southern Bougainville near Buin. P-39 Airacobras join USN aircraft in strikes on Kara Airfield and the airfield on Ballale Airfield on Ballale Island south of Bougainville.

BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO: On New Britain Island, USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb a fuel dump and shipping in the Rein Bay area, and P-40s bomb dumps at Gasmata. B-24 Liberators on patrol claim sinking of a destroyer near Kavieng, New Ireland Island.

CANADA: Tugs HMCS Alberton and Birchton ordered from Montreal Drydocks Ltd Montreal, Province of Quebec.

U.S.A.: Atlantic City, New Jersey: Forty-four nations today signed into being the first United Nations organization - the Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, promising to bring immediate relief to the populations of liberated countries. The UNRAA may well become a model for future projects of the proposed "United Nations". Mr. Roosevelt, who presided over the signing, emphasized that where relief had previously been a concern of only Britain and the US, it was now shared by nations whose peoples constituted 80% if the human race.

In a speech which followed the ceremony of signing, President Roosevelt declared: "It is hard for us to grasp the magnitude of the needs in occupied countries. [They] have been robbed of their foodstuffs and raw materials, and even of the agricultural and industrial machinery ... It will be for the UNRAA first to assure a fair distribution of available supplies among all the liberated peoples, and second, to ward off death by starvation or exposure among these peoples. Tomorrow the UNRAA begins its first conference - and makes the first bold steps towards the practicable, workable realization of freedom from want. The forces of the United Nations march forward and the peoples of the United Nations march with them."

Corvette HMCS Bittersweet completed forecastle extension refit Baltimore, Maryland.

ATLANTIC OCEAN: German submarine U-707 is sunk about 332 nautical miles (615 kilometers) east-northeast of Lagens Field, Azores Islands, by depth charges from an RAF Fortress Mk. II, aircraft “J” of No. 220 Squadron based at Lagens Field; all 51 crewmen are lost.

WESTERN EUROPE: Seventy four USAAF Ninth Air Force aircraft of the 9th Bombardment Division attack road junctions, barracks, ordnance arsenals, artillery camps, military storage depot, and other targets in the Dieuze and Faulquemont, France, and Landau and Sankt Wendel, Germany, areas; the IX Tactical Air Command flies sweeps over western Germany and attacks marshalling yard at Duren, Germany, while the XXIX Tactical Air Command escort attacks Rahling, Germany, and an airfield and supports US Third Army elements (two infantry and two armored divisions) as an all-out assault on Metz, France is pushed.

During the night of 9/10 November, the USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 708: five B-17 Flying Fortresses and 12 B-24 Liberators drop leaflets in France, the Netherlands and Germany.

NETHERLANDS: In the Canadian First Army area, the British I Corps finishes clearing the region south of the Maas River. The British II Corps takes over the Nijmegen sector from XXX Corps and assumes command of the U.S. 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions, the Guards Armoured Division, 43d and 50th Divisions and of the 8th Separate Armoured Brigade.

Nancy: Patton has thrown his Third Army across the Moselle on a broad front from Luneville in the south to Thionville in the north. Speaheads striking out north of Thionville have advanced to within two and a half miles of the German frontier.

Despatches from Field Marshal von Rundstedt's HQ say that Patton has deployed 1,000 tanks and 500,000 men. The Germans believe that Patton is delivering the first blow of the Allies' winter offensive.

The fortress city of Metz, which has held Patton up for the past two months, is being enveloped by pincers closing in from north and south. Allied chiefs called up Thunderbolt fighter-bombers to attack Panzers which have been delaying the advance. Cheminot, south of Metz, was captured. On Patton's southern flank, tanks and infantry operating in co-operation with the Seventh Army captured Chateau-Salins, east of Nancy. In this area, Patton has driven seven miles in 72 hours, through rain and snow showers and over roads deep in mud and infested with mines.

The 1,500-foot Delme Ridge, commanding approaches to the Saar, and the last major obstacle before the German border, fell to Patton's men after a scary battle through vineyards and orchards sown with pepperpot mines hanging from tree branches. Guns and ammunition captured on the ridge were soon turned on their former owners, now in full retreat.

In the U.S. Third Army area, the XX Corps launches full-scale attack to encircle and reduce Metz and is assisted by powerful air attacks by USAAF Eighth and Ninth Air Forces on the Metz-Thionville region. At 0330 hours assault battalions of the 359th and 358th Infantry Regiments, 90th Infantry Division, start across the Moselle River at Malling and Cattenom, surprising the Germans and gaining a bridgehead. Since the swollen river and German fire prevent immediate construction of bridges, supporting weapons cannot be crossed. The 359th Infantry Regiment takes Malling, Hunting, Petite-Hettange, Métrich, and Kerling; to the south, the 358th clears Basse Ham and gains hold on the western part of Fort Koenigsmacker; the 357th, crossing later in the day, takes the town of Koenigsmacker without opposition. The 95th Infantry Division expands and strengthens its small Uckange bridgehead, bypassing Bertrange; elements of 377th Infantry Regiment west of the river take the woods north of Semécourt, the slag pile south of Maizires-lès-Metz, Chateau Brieux. The 5th Infantry Division begins an attack across the Seille River south of Metz by footbridge and assault craft: the 2d Infantry Regiment and two battalions of the 10th Infantry Regiment establish a bridgehead 6,000 yards (5 486 meters) deep and 5,000 yards (4 572 meters) wide, the 2d Infantry Regiment on the right taking Cheminot without opposition and the 10th clearing resistance at Hautonnerie Farm. In the XII Corps area, the 80th Infantry Division, assisted by aircraft and advance of friendly forces on its flanks, gains most of the Delme Ridge. The 6th Armored Division crosses the Seille River in the 80th Infantry Division sector in preparation for a drive on Faulquemont; advance party of Combat Command B advances to positions west of Alemont while armored infantry assists the 80th Infantry Division in mopping up the Nomeny area. In the 35th Infantry Division sector, Combat Command B of the 4th Armored Division is committed through the 137th Infantry Regiment, which then follows the armor, and drives forward in two columns, one reaching Hannocourt and the other halting short of Fonteny, where the Germans hold prepared positions. The 137th Infantry Regiment, 35th Infantry Division, takes Delme village in conjunction with an attack by the 80th Infantry Division on Delme Ridge; the 320th Infantry Regiment, after clearing the Fresnes area, concentrates on Bois d’Amélécourt and pushes into the forest, where the Germans are well entrenched; the 134th Infantry Regiment is committed to the right with the mission of clearing the eastern part of Fort de Château-Salins. The 104th Infantry Regiment, 26th Infantry Division, clears the Germans from Château-Salins; the attached Task Force takes Morville-lès-Vic and continues toward Hampont; the 101st Infantry Regiment is attempting to outflank Hill 310 and seizes Salival. Combat Command A, 4th Armored Infantry Division, is ordered to attack through the 104th Infantry Regiment tomorrow.

In the U.S. Seventh Army's VI Corps area, the 100th Infantry Division completes the relief of the 45th Infantry Division and takes over its mission of protecting the north flank of corps and clearing the Raon-l'Etape area west of the Meurthe River. The 103d Infantry Division enters the line in the 3d Infantry Division sector, relieving the 7th Infantry Regiment.

The USAAF Eighth Air Force flies Mission 707: 1,309 bombers and 738 fighters are dispatched to hit front line strongpoints and tactical targets in the Metz and Thionville, France areas; 4 bombers and 5 fighters are lost. Seven hundred fourteen B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators bomb in the Metz area, 37 hit the Thionville area and 16 hit targets of opportunity.

GERMANY: 1st Lt Donald J Gott and 2nd Lt William E Metzger Jr, pilot and co-pilot of the 452nd Bombardment Group, USAAF, will be posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for valour over Saarbrucken. (Anthony Staunton)

U-3018 launched.

U-3032, U-4704 laid down.

Three hundred sixty three of the USAAF Eighth Air Force B-17 Flying Fortresses and B-24 Liberators dispatched to hit targets in France bomb two targets in Saarbrucken: 329 hit the marshalling yard and 34 bomb the industrial area.

During the day, RAF Bomber Command dispatches 256 Lancasters and 21 Mosquitos to attack the Wanne-Eickel oil refinery; 248 bomb the target. Cloud over the target is found to reach 21,000 feet (6 401 meters) and the skymarkers dropped by the Oboe Mosquitos disappear as soon as they ignite so the Master Bomber orders the force to bomb any built-up area. The town of Wanne-Eickel reports only two buildings destroyed, with four civilians and six foreigners killed. It must be assumed that other towns in the Ruhr are hit but no details are available; two Lancasters are lost.

During the night of 9/10 November, RAF Bomber Command Mosquitos bomb seven targets: Six hit Pforzheim, five hit Gotha, three attack Kassel and one each attacks Cologne, Rheine, Schwelm and Solingen.

NORWAY: U-485 suffered some damage when it struck bottom off Horten.

In the U.S. Fifth Army area, the U.S. II Corps front is narrowed as the 1st Division of the British XIII Corps takes command of sector previously held by the U.S. 88th Infantry Division and elements of the 85th Infantry Division. In the British XIII Corps area, the Indian 8th Division, pushing northward as the Germans make limited withdrawals, takes Mt. Budriatto.

In the British Eighth Army's V Corps area, the 4th Division clears German stragglers from Forli. The 46th Division reaches the Montone River at S. Varano, where it is held up by the Germans from opposite bank; a platoon crosses later at Terra del Sole but is isolated and lost.

Bad weather hampers operations by USAAF Twelfth Air Force medium bombers in the Po Valley as seven or nine missions abort; in the two others, bridges in the Valley are hit; fighters and fighter-bombers fly less than 100 sorties, but successfully strike road and railroad bridges in the Bologna-Modena areas.

CHINA: Chinese Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, urged by Major General Albert Wedemeyer, commander of the U.S. Forces, China Theater and Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek, to order Y-Force troops to exploit the retreat of Japanese from Lung-ling to Mangshih, agrees to do so. After the order is issued, the Chinese XII Group Army (53d, 2d, and 71st Armies) starts toward Mangshih.

Eight USAAF Fourteenth Air Force B-25 Mitchells bomb Mangshih while ten P-38 Lightnings hit targets of opportunity in the Mangshih-Chefang area; six B-25s bomb Kaifeng while six others hit sampans, storage areas, and other targets of opportunity in the Yiyang area; 160 P-40s, P-38 Lightnings, and P-51 Mustangs on armed reconnaissance over wide expanses of southern China attack trucks, gun positions, river and coastal shipping, and other targets of opportunity at or near Pingnam, Kweihsien, Changsha, Yoyang, Siangtan, Lushan, Kioshan, Paoching, Hengyang, Liangshan, Liuchow, Suikai, and Weichow Island.

BURMA: In the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) area, the British 36th Division resumes their advance with the 72d and 29th Brigades. The 72d Brigade has moved forward during the lull in the Mawlu sector.

Over 70 USAAF Tenth Air Force aircraft bomb concentrations and supply areas at Kutkai, Shwebo, Mawtawng, and Kunhailong, bomb the airfield at Kawlin, knock out a bridge at Ho-hko, and support ground forces and hit targets of opportunity near Chyauhkawng, Namakyaing, Sepein, Tonlon, and at other points in the same general area while six B-25 Mitchells bomb rail yards at Kanbalu.

FRENCH INDOCHINA: USAAF Fourteenth Air Force fighter-bombers attack Gia Lam and Kien An.

BONIN AND VOLCANO ISLANDS: USAAF Seventh Air Force B-24 Liberators from Guam, fly shipping reconnaissance over the Bonins attacking vessels and antiaircraft positions at Haha Jima, shipping and town at Okimura and returning, strafe Iwo Jima. During the night of 9/10 November, a lone B-24 from Guam, on a snooper mission, bombs Iwo Jima.

NETHERLANDS EAST INDIES: U-537 sunk in the Java Sea east of Surabaya, in position 07.13S, 115.17E, by torpedoes from the US submarine USS Flounder. 58 dead (all hands lost).

USAAF Far East Air Forces B-25 Mitchells attack several airfields and villages in the northeastern peninsula of Celebes and Halmahera Islands while A-20 Havocs strike Piroe on Ceram Island.

COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Japanese TA Operation (fourth phase) convoy reaches Ormoc Bay, Leyte, and unloads 2,000 men and materiel brought from Manila. They are attacked by four USAAF Fifth Air Force B-25 Mitchells armed with 1,000 pound (454 kilogram) bombs and by P-38 Lightnings. Due to topside damage caused by the USAAF aircraft attacks, the transports withdraw before their equipment and supplies are completely unloaded.

In the U.S. X Corps area, the 24th Infantry Division is ordered to make a co-ordinated effort to clear Breakneck Ridge and the commanding ground south of Limon on 10 November. The 21st Infantry Regiment continues a bitter struggle for the ridge, gaining ground slowly in frontal attacks. To assist them, the 34th Infantry Regiment is ordered to move elements into position to harass the Japanese rear. The 19th Infantry Regiment, begins an attack to cut the Ormoc road south of Limon, but is recalled to help Company A beat off a counterattack against Hill 1525. The 1st Battalion is forced to fall back to the Pinamopoan area. In the XXIV Corps area, heavy rainfall prevents the 382d Infantry Regiment, 96th Infantry Division, from attacking the Japanese west of Patok.

USAAF Far East Air Forces fighter-bombers attack a convoy off the west coast of Leyte Island and hit barges and shipping near Ormoc while B-24 Liberators bomb Carolina Airfield in the northwest area of Negros Island.

The first of three prototype Boeing (Model 367-1-1) XC-97-BO Stratofreighters (USAAF s/n 43-27470) makes it first flight. All three are used for test work and none see service during the war. Another ten are ordered as YC-97-BO service test aircraft in July 1945 and these enter service with the Air Transport Command in October 1947.

The second rubberized Japanese Fu-Go balloon that landed in North America is recovered at Yerrington, Nevada; there is not idea when it landed. Yarrington is located about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Reno.

UNITED KINGDOM: Farnborough: Flt.Lt R.A.Marks dies flying a captured He-162 jet demonstrating the handling characteristics of the 'Salamander' during a low-level roll; the tailplane fin and rudder collapsed,and the aircraft went into a vertical head over heel tumble, giving the pilot no chance to eject before it crashed. (It had an ejection seat.) (Russ Folsom)

JAPAN: Ichiro Hatoyama and other former Seiyuki members form the Nihon Jiyu-to or the Japan Liberal Party. (Mike Lenox)

CANADA: Submarine HMS Una departed ASW training duties Digby, Nova Scotia for the UK.