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WWII On This Day: November 11

What happened on November 11 during World War II? This date brings together 3 events from 1942 and 1943, with period photographs and links to the full operations documented across WW2 Theatres.

1942
Ruins of a captured factory sector in Stalingrad, photographed 16 November 1942.
Ruins of a captured factory sector in Stalingrad, photographed 16 November 1942. Bundesarchiv Bild 183-B22703 / Herber · CC BY-SA 3.0 DE Source
Battle of Stalingrad

Sixth Army makes its last major assault in the city

Four hours before daylight on 11 November, LI Corps opened another concentrated attack east of the Barrikady gun factory. Five combat-engineer battalions reinforced infantry formations that had been worn down by two months of urban fighting. The immediate objective was to eliminate the remaining Soviet bridgeheads along the Volga bank. German assault groups reached the river in another narrow sector and took additional buildings, but Sixth Army described the result as only a partial success. Soviet troops remained in separated pockets, supported by artillery across the river and by crossings…

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American infantry aboard a landing craft approaching Oran, Algeria, in November 1942 during Operation Torch.
Lt F. A. Hudson / Royal Navy / Imperial War Museums A 12661 · UK Government public domain
Operation Torch and the Tunisian Campaign

The Germans occupy Vichy’s remaining zone in France

Germany occupied the previously unoccupied zone of metropolitan France on 11 November in response to the Allied landings in French North Africa. Italian forces also extended their occupation. The move ended the territorial arrangement established by the 1940 armistice and further complicated the position of French naval and colonial commanders. Axis reinforcement of Tunisia continued as Allied forces prepared to move east.

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1943
Children affected by the Bengal famine on a Calcutta street in a photograph published by The Statesman on 22 August 1943.
The Statesman, Calcutta, 22 August 1943 · public domain in India
The Bengal Famine

Army relief parties support food distribution in Bengal

Army advance parties entered relief work in November 1943, followed by larger formations later in the month. Military transport, organisation and personnel were used to help move supplies and support relief operations in distressed districts. Wavell’s correspondence and the Famine Inquiry Commission both treated the army role as an important change in the distribution effort. The intervention coincided with larger grain arrivals and the approach of the new rice harvest. Relief improved access to food after months of crisis. Disease mortality remained severe because malnutrition, displacement and epidemic conditions had…

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